Edwin The Kid

Thanksgiving break starts this week so I'm taking some time to clean up my workspace. The Franklin needed to move so I could push it outside and sweep the floor. I pulled all the wheels off and removed the nasty wheel cylinders and adjusted the brakes so they weren't touching the wheels. This was just to get the wheels to spin freely, I will go through the brake system in the spring. I also cleaned the old grease from the front wheel bearings and repacked them. With all 4 wheels moving freely I was able to roll the car outside and give it a good wash, as well as sweep the floor so I have a nice clean floor for reinstalling the transmission. Friend came by in his Model A And his Marmon 68 Marmon made itself useful pulling the Franklin back inside after a good wash. The spots I missed in the first wash have been driving me nuts, so this felt great. Franklin sitting pretty on a clean floor.

Made some progress the last few days. Seat progress: Could be worse! The next seat will go better. Pulled the transmission to check the sticky clutch... Time for new clutch lining! Definitely not going to run the old stapled lining. One of my professors at the college had a stapled clutch lining fail on his car a few years ago and I'm not willing to take that chance. If anyone has a good lightly used or new clutch they would sell to me for a reasonable price I'd greatly appreciate it! Hoping to get the car moving under it's own power to work on the interior soon!

I'll make sure to meet you at the next trek! We can talk Franklins and Corvairs.

Yes! I'll make a post about the history of the car once I learn more about it. Hoping to make contact with the previous restorer of the car.

Thanks! I would love to have the car at the 2024 Trek! Not sure if it will happen yet, lots to get done first. Main thing holding me back is expense. I need to save up to redo the hydraulic brakes in the spring. Stretch goal is to drive to the Trek in 2024, if not then hopefully the car will make it to the 2025 Trek!

If any of you were interested in following my Franklin project, I just made a thread over in the Franklin forum area! Look what my Buick has become!

The front bumper came with the car but wasn't on it, and the rear bumper bracket was broken in two, but came with a replacement, so I reinstalled both bumpers. Also pulled the gas tank to get it sent out for cleaning. It doesn't show up in pictures but the actual color of the car is much more teal. I love it! I'm currently taking a trim class at McPherson, so I brought the front seats in to start rebuilding them. The interior of the car was totally stripped, but most of the pieces came with it. The seats are original but in very rough shape. New roll of cloth that came with the car. Seat stripped down to the bare frame, in excellent original condition. Hand stitching some of the corner details on. Padding and bottom frame installed. Burlap layer before hair and cotton Hair and cotton layer before trimming Boxing First attempt at the bottom cover. A little wrinkly, might go back and redo this at some point. I'm still new to trim work, especially pattern making, and I've learned a tremendous amount already from this project. Currently working on the top section. It can only get better from here!

My first goal was to get the car running. I pulled the plugs and rocker covers. After ensuring all the valves moved, I went to turn the engine over by hand. It spins nice and free! The engine was rebuilt when the car was restored in the 1980s and is in very nice condition. However, the car had not ran in at least 5 years, probably closer to 10. After making sure the engine turned, I pulled the oil pan to clean and inspect the bottom end. There was some sludge, so I'm glad I got that out of the engine. I decided to pull a rod cap to check the bearings. Insert bearing conversion! The bearing looks to be in great shape, so I checked the clearance with plastigage. Right on at .0015". I put the cap back on and sealed up the oil pan. After confirming the engine was in great shape I moved on to getting it running. The goal here is to get the car running and driving enough to drive the car into the school shop to work on the interior. I ordered points, condenser, cap, rotor, and plugs on rockauto. I'm glad its a delco ignition! I cleaned up the fuel pump, and took the carb apart and cleaned it. I cut new gaskets and installed the carb and fuel pump. Once the ignition parts arrived I put them in the distributor and put the distributor in the engine, setting the timing per the factory instructions. I hooked up a fuel line to the carb and prefilled it by gravity from the auxiliary tank in case the fuel pump didn't work. I threw a new battery in and hooked the coil wire to the battery and was pleasantly surprised when the engine fired to life after a few cranks! It even idled right away. After just a little tinkering with the mixture the car was running beautifully. I'll try to post a video sometime.

Hello Franklin friends! After 2 Treks I have my own car now! I usually post on the Buick section of the AACA forum with my projects and I like to document my progress, so here's my Franklin thread. I bought the car, a 1929 series 135 Victoria Brougham on October 6th. Myself and two other friends drove a truck and trailer from McPherson Kansas(I am a current student at McPherson College) to the Boston area over fall break to pick up the car. We covered over 3,000 miles in about 4 days. Thank you to all involved! The car as it sat in Ed's garage for years. Moving the car outside with go-jacks Car loaded on the trailer and strapped down(used the uhual straps as well as straps on front and rear axles) Me with Ed Daly, the former owner. I'm dressed in the appropriate amount of franklin merchandise! The long drive back! Unloaded in my workspace in McPherson. Had to give it a quick wash and get it introduced to the rest of the air-cooled fleet!

I'll be making a thread in the general projects area at some point but here's my new car! It's a 1929 Franklin Victoria Brougham!

And thus ends the story of my 65 Buick Skylark. Off to a new home it goes. It was a fun car and a great project. I'm excited to move on to bigger and better things! I'm getting my Franklin tomorrow! I'm still a Buick guy at heart so one of these days I'm gonna get myself a nice prewar Buick

Definitely check the other axle shaft! My friends Marmon broke a shaft, and this is what the other side looked like.

Sounds like it might be a snapped axle shaft, or some other rear axle failure. Jacking the rear end and spinning the wheels to check the differential action would be easy.

I just ran across this thread and read through it. Super interesting! I've just learned about the coachbuilding era at school and running into this thread was a happy coincidence. Is there a source anywhere with a list of coachbuilders who used Buick and production numbers? I'd love to learn more about these coachbuilt Buicks. I saw Dave's short list of builders on the second page of this thread posted in 2010 and wondered if a more complete list existed. Love looking at the pictures of these custom Buicks!

Selling my 65 Skylark https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1428179528042562/?mibextid=dXMIcH For a better description just read through my thread in "me and my Buick" $6000 obo(better price for a forum member!) Located in McPherson Kansas Selling to fund my impending purchase of a 1929 Franklin! And also college is expensive!

Well, the end is near for the 65 Skylark story. Listed the car on marketplace today. Did a coolant flush and it ran clear right away, but she still runs pretty hot. I'm assuming the rad is plugged up with crud. Hoping it goes to a good home!

Took the steering wheel off and cleaned the turn signal switch, and confirmed it's function. Need to wire the rear lights and ground the fronts and hopefully I'll have signals and brake lights! However during this process I left the key on overnight, which lead to a 3 day wild goose chase to get my car to run again. Long story short, the coil was bad, but not bad enough to stop sparking. Anyways, I discovered and fixed burnt points and a failed vacuum advance as well. With the new coil and good distributor the car runs fantastic! This weekend I will finish prepping the car for sale. I will be getting the Franklin in October the truck is fixed too! Had to replace the wiped camshaft at a friends house and now it runs great.

My best guess would be to move both shifts rods back and forth, as well as rocking the car to try and find a spot where the gears aren't as bound and will move. It looks like both rods need to move rearward to be in neutral.

Does the 2-3 shifter slider move free? In the picture it looks to be in gear, is it possible 2 gears are engaged at once preventing spinning?

In Kansas for a couple days before I go fix my truck and drive it back. Turns out the Skylark battery is fine, the terminals just needed cleaned. There's an incoming freshman here with a 65 Skylark! It's got a 4spd swap and the stock 300, but he wants to put a 454 Chevy in it.

Late summer Buick update: nothing has changed except my used battery no longer holds a charge. Drove it around a bit in early July when I visited McPherson to see my girlfriend and drive my Corvair to St. Louis, where I've been working with Adam Martin all summer. However, the Skylark story will be coming to an end soon. In Jerome Idaho I bought a truck in what became a 760 mile Spokane after-adventure. Long story short the truck ended up in northeastern Colorado running on 7 cylinders. I will be back next week to fix it and get to McPherson Last week I was at the Franklin Trek for my 2nd time, and am in the process of purchasing a 1929 Franklin! More pics to come All that being said, I can't afford to keep the Buick. When I get back to McPherson I'll be finishing up a couple things on the car and listing it for sale. I'd appreciate thoughts on a fair price to start at, I was thinking starting a little high , maybe around $5,000? It'll be sad to see the Buick go, but I'm ready.

Had the opportunity to drive a 1906 Buick today! Was super cool!

Saw @EmTee at the Franklin Trek on Wednesday! Was great to meet you!

The GS crew made it back to Jerome safely this afternoon. The drive was beautiful, but the heat got pretty taxing. Happy to be relaxing in the beautiful Idaho scenery.

I will once again be at the trek this year in the first week of August! However, Cazenovia College recently closed, and the trek has been moved to Schenectady. If we can make some sort of meetup happen I'm still down!