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You can check with the Martins at Centerville Auto. They sell used parts, but you'll probably have to call to see what they have on hand. https://www.nailheadbuick.com/starters

I looked at the horn a little closer. There seems to be something missing in the wheel itself. Some sort of spring contract? Aside from that, I'm missing the rubber bumpers on the horn ring tabs, and the insulating donut. I'm not sure quite how that fits with everything else. I also need to figure out what threads the column has, as the nuts are missing.

Finally got the hood ornament installed! The exterior is now complete (as in, not missing anything), aside from wiper arms. The lighting is pretty bad. I'll have to give her a wash and take better photos in the daylight sometime.

So when you say 496, are you talking about stroking out your own 454? Or just getting an 8.1 where all the hard work is done already? You also say no LS motors since you want old Detroit muscle, but I think the 8.1 kinda sits in the gray area there. Many would argue the top end of an 8.1 is basically LS1 derived. If that doesn't float your boat, you might be able to fit some more old-fashioned aftermarket parts onto the 496 block--I couldn't say for sure. I've got an 8.1 in an 8,000 lb truck that has faithfully put in 320k miles with no signs of wanting to stop. It's very heavy, very thirsty, and they tend to consume a bit of oil through the flawed PCV system. But, it's pretty long lasting and very torquey, and they're easy to find. I do dig a nice 383, but a nice one is pricey to build.

We agree; we really love it. I just want to knock the "chalk" off so hand prints don't show up so easy, and maybe a little shine to help shed the elements. I hated to see it exposed to any elements last year with it's back end hanging out. So, I decided to make room where there was no room before. A friend suggested combining two of the bays in the barn and turning the car sideways. I had to tear down a lot of boards, wire fencing, rip posts out of the ground, level dirt, move a ton of junk, etc. But the before and after was worth it. As an added benefit, the car is actually pointed right at the shop door now. It's so much easier to access, maybe I'll even work on it!

I found another reference car. This one had good pics of the gas tank, transmission, crossmember, linkages and whatnot. No good pics of the radiator. The seats were probably an OK example. https://buy.motorious.com/vehicles/279672/1948-pontiac-silverstreak

Is it dry yet?

Thank you, Charles. I'll have to take another look at what I have, but I definitely don't think I've got that many pieces! I hope whatever I'm missing won't be too hard to find or fabricate/substitute.

There's just no room. I didn't have any bays that were deep enough, except for the shop itself. The shop is one single bay, where I had to put the lift. The shop will have many cars coming and going on a regular basis, and can't be plugged up long term with dead project cars. But, improvements are on the way (we're not up to that point in time yet).

The locked-up engine sat with MMO in the cylinders for many weeks while the new-to-me shop was worked on. It now has a floor, the floor is cured, and we put in a lift! Guess what the first car on the lift was? The crankshaft bolt didn't offer enough leverage, but a little prying on the flex plate and.... She broke loose! It was fairly stuck, but it finally relented. It turned easily by hand after that, so I'm not super worried at this point. I think we'll be able to get her running. I was finally able to better assess things underneath. NO RUST! It's amazing how solid this car is, since it's sat for over 45 years. There's no crossmember holding up the trans, just a chain instead. There's also a lot of dangling linkages that I'll have to sort out. No starter, but I think there might be one in the parts box. I got the hood working a little better, but there's still an alignment issue so care must be taken while opening/closing. For now, she only gets to drive it when it's time to push it around with the tractor. My to-do list is a mile long after buying the new house/property, so the Pontiac had to go on the back burner for a while. The wet season was coming, so I rearranged some things in the barn in hopes of keeping the car mostly dry. That was as far as we could fit it. Better than nothing, I suppose. Factoring the eaves of the barn, it at least keeps all four doors dry, so that goes a long way toward preserving the interior.

I ended up finding a parts car on Facebook, and worked out a deal with the guy. I got the speaker grill, the nose piece at the front of the waterfall trim (old one was busted on one end), a horn ring and some headlight bezels. It looks like I still need a trim plate for the radio--I hadn't realized that was separate from the speaker grill. I'm amazed how much better it looks with the headlight bezels! The horn ring and button are just set into place. I'm missing some pieces for mounting--there doesn't seem to be a spring/contact arrangement.

The interior needs a little work here and there, but most things are in good condition. The headliner, carpet, sill plates, seats, etc are all usable. The steering wheel is the big exception. It needs redone in a bad way. The horn ring was missing, which is fine, but the rim is breaking up all around and definitely isn't usable. I'll have to figure something out. I may redo it out of walnut since I have a bunch of it. The radio speaker is also missing its cover. I'll be needing one that has the "8" on it, so that cuts my options down a bit. Can these old door panels be steam cleaned? I've been thinking about getting a steam cleaner for sprucing up cars. I don't want to hurt the cloth. Aggressive scrubbing with stiff nylon brushes seems risky to me.

Were those an option rather than standard? I've never seen another '48 Pontiac in real life. The wildlife got used to the Pontiac sitting next to the barn. I wanted to keep it better protected, but would first need to clear out one of the bays. There was a ton of stuff just thrown in there after our move to this new property. Checking things over. I've never had this many spark plugs in a straight line before... No radiator and no shroud, so those will be on the to-do list. I'm not even sure what they're supposed to look like. The motor was locked up tight. The PO said it spun nice and free a year ago, but who knows. It certainly wouldn't spin for me. The new-to-me shop needed a floor and a lift, so that was the project at hand. That's also the longest car battery I've ever had. I'm not sure if it'll take a charge, but it doesn't look terribly old. I'll have to check out the electrolyte at some point and see what it'll do. For the most part, the engine bay is fairly complete, tidy, and simple for sure.

Kinda what I was thinking. The upholstery style/method seems right, but the checkered fabric itself seems like something you'd see in a conversion van 30 years ago. I'm thinking that Mecum car is a little more legit.

I found this pic from a Mecum car. Wow, was it gorgeous. I see the fewest obviously adulterated things in this car, and the pics are very good, so I'm saving it here as an example: https://www.orlandoclassiccars.net/vehicles/667/1948-pontiac-silver-streak-streamliner