Hovannes

They could probably go for another 40 years easy. The flaw is that the weight bears on the pawl, which provides a minimal bearing surface for the ratchet teeth to bear upon. Any weakening of the pawl from corrosion, wear or out of spec forging and..... that's all she wrote. The new design fixes the problem.

The new Harbor Freight jack stands with the triangular bar that locks the ratchet teeth in place so all the weight isn't resting on the pawl looks like a solid design to me. At 80 bucks for two 6 tonners, I'll have to wait until they go on sale though. The blue ones look pretty snazzy!

I checked and sadly the serial numbers aren't in the range affected by the recall.

6 tons it is then, thanks!

My '26 Master's tires are shot and I'm also planning to drop the oil pan, so I brought my jack stands out of storage because I thought they'd eventually come in handy. They're Harbor Freight Orange 6 ton rated probably circa 1982. Looking at the new Harbor Feight jack stands I notice they now have a triangular shape insert that holds the column in place in addition to the pawl. A little searching on the web and I found out why---it was found to be hit or miss how much the pawl surface will engage the ratchets on the column, so it could fail, and tragically has failed on some of these jack stands, hence the design change. Not wanting to end up a pancake----this is supposed to be fun, right?---- I figure a set of new jack stands is in order so my question is, should I get 3 ton rated jack stands or 6 ton rated jack stands for my 26' Buick? It's a big heavy vehicle but does it require 6 ton jack stands? Which size jack stands do you use on your pre-warBuick?

Wow! That's a lot of information. Thank you!

Thank you all very much! I ordered a copy of the Buick Master Parts List 1916-1932 and I'll work on ordering what I need from the suppliers you've mentioned. My grandfather's first automobile was a 26 Buick (Master? Standard? I can't tell from the only photograph I have) so I feel very fortunate to have found one to restore and I hope to get it on the road to celebrate her 100th birthday!

I've got a '26 Master that needs reassembly. What's holding me up are missing fender bolts as well as the conduit and fittings that carry the wires to the headlamps. Does anyone here know of a source for this stuff? Or maybe authentic looking substitutes? I tried Bob's Automobilia website but couldn't find what I need listed. Where should I look? The fender bolts have particularly odd shaped heads. I was thinking of maybe heating the heads of stock bolts on a forge as seeing if they could be hammered and ground to the proximate shape. Has anyone done this? Any advice or suggestions would be mightily appreciated.

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

I apologize! I meant to say fender bolts. I was removing the fenders and the bolts were rusted on. Many of them broke off when I applied a ratchet to the nuts even after a good soak with WD-40. I'm wondering if elevator bolts might be modified to suffice? I'm afraid to try removing any more bolts should they break as well'. It was suggested to use WD-40 then apply a torch to heat the nut, but then I'd risk causing a fire, and that wouldn;t be good. Other challenges are replacing the conduit for wiring the headlights (those were rusted and broke off) and a bend in the sun shield caused when she was pushed into the garage. On the positive side of the ledger, that beautiful Packard-esque radiator shell came back from the platers with the badge intact. Once I get the front fenders off I can paint the engine block the correct (?) olive drab (I think Bob's Automobilia stocks it). She came to me with her block painted turquoise blue.

My current hold up for getting my '26 back together are a lack of bumper bolts. These are unique in that the head is flattened and contoured on one side to provide a bearing surface against the fender. Outside of firing up a forge and smashing bolt heads on an anvil, what are my options? Thanks for any help.

What a beautiful photo---congratulations! I notice that your radiator is painted---is that a distinction between the Standard and Master models?

Hello! I've got my dream car, a '26 Buick two door languishing away in my garage. My grandfather's first car was a similar '26 but that one was scrapped during a WW2 metal drive. My goal is to get it back on the road for it's 100th birthday so I thought I might get some leads on parts and advise here. Another family car project, a '24 Ford Fordor T, is nearly finished for it's 100th Birthday but that ol' Buick is a lot more complicated and the parts for it are far more elusive than Lizzie's so I'm looking forward to learning all that I can here.