Bill Stoneberg

Hey now, I resemble that remark 🙂

That explains why my 1980 Coupe de Ville has a generator light.

Sit right down folks and let me tell you the tale of the rear axle. After pulling the rear wheels and drums, one brake shoe was soaked in grease. Rob thought the axle seal was leaking and that he was going to have to pull the axle and bearings. After much investigation, he discovered our friend and nemesis RTV. Yes, a prior repair repair person strikes again with his tube of RTV. Bernie, you wondered what else was stuck on, we found something. The fool used Sooo much RTV he literally blocked the oil drain back hole for the bearing and retainer. See oil passes through the bearings and then drains to that little pocket chamber in the retaining plate and down through the hold into the lower part of the axle tube. He blocked it off with 4 tons of RTV So it just built up into a greasy like congealed crud from heat and then oozed out all over the brakes. So a new axle gaskets and seals and we should be able to stop the leak without RTV.

Had a fun time today… no working on the car, at least the Electra. Friends had a car show at their restaurant today and both Rob and I drove over to it. He took his 64 Riviera and I drove my 80 Coupe De Ville. Show was nice, no early cars. We had lunch and then headed for my house which is about 90 miles or so through the hill country of Texas. Best part was that we traded cars. I know his Riviera very well as I was the previous owner. But he has made changes that made it feel like a different car. One, he we was able to get the seat moved back so I was comfortable in the car. Amazing what a difference that made. It wasn’t bad before and didn’t stop me from driving the car, but it’s much more comfortable for this fat boy now. Two he has done engine and accessory work. A different cam that breathes better and gives more torque. EFI and a better exhaust makes the car sound better and run better. Anyway, it was a fun drive for both of us as he enjoyed the trade too.

EFI. about 60 PSI.... We are putting a Holley Sniper in.

I have ordered a new tank (a 63 Riviera tank with modifications to the neck) and sender for the very reason we are putting new Holley in-tank pump in. Help keeps the pump cooler and no vapor lock. Rob has an external pump, and he wants one too. He has had issues in the summer with vapor lock with the Riviera.

I was lucky, with a little bit of modification to the filler neck, a 1963-64 Riviera gas tank is the same tank and its available with a new sender. it is ordered and its on the way. I have to say, Dee is getting sick of all these car parts arriving. She has started to retaliate with clothes for her. At least clothes dont weigh 75 pounds like a package I got yesterday.

Got news from Rob, Gas tank has been pulled and it is nasty. The sender is not something I want to use. No sock and who knows what else. This explains how I would get trash in my carb. Somebody used RTV, not all the bolts, to hold the sender to the top of the tank. I wondered why I smelled gas somedays. Now, the inside of the tank isn’t rusty but the last gallon i got out had a lot of “sand” in it. Like literally sounds like sand when you slosh it too. The bottom picture what came out with one gallon. I’m going to take it and soak it w degreaser and power wash the inside at the Carwash.

The alignment system is the Quick Trip Alignment system. https://quicktrickalignment.com it does register on the rim. it works well and you can get wheel pads so you can do toe in/out and caster camber adjustment too.

Those are Diamondback Radials build in 2016 on the Toyo Tire carcass. They don’t make them anymore so I am watching what others have bought recently.

Another Saturday spent in Austin. Thats about 2 hours away from me. My joy is beating the time that GPS tells me it takes to get there AND not getting a ticket. Anyway, we spent the day on the front suspension again. We got new Tbars for the Viking shocks that were the correct length and mounted the shocks. Once again, we replaced the wheel studs on the rotors so now the wheels and tires go on. We finished connecting the drag link and took a SWAG at the toe in / toe out specs. As I was leaving to head home Rob was under the car tearing out the Brake lines for replacements. Who ever worked on them before, their only wrench had to be a pair of Vice Grips. .

It’s fairly quiet but hot.. trying to keep the load on the A C down.

We have a big thumping cam and a blower to take care of the lack of acceleration..😂

Its a sound and heat deadining material that you can spray on. Easier then Dynamat. Kinda looks like a bed liner in a truck. We are thinking about putting in on the floors, firewall and other interior surfaces before putting the carpeting in. https://lizardskin.com

Here’s a photo from 1924 and shows a newfangled type of car wash that stood at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and South Michigan Avenue. There was at least one other auto wash bowl in Chicago–the concept actually originated in St. Paul, Minn. It was patented in 1921 by inventor C.P. Bohland, who opened two locations in St. Paul. He devised the bowl as an easy way to clean mud off of the underside of cars. Back in this early age of motoring, roads were often unpaved and muddy, and that mud would get caked on the underside of the car and the wheels–but a spin in the nifty Auto Wash Bowl took care of that.

Another weekend of work. Basically front end work. Suspension and brakes. No pictures on this. More ordering parts to finish filling up the spare room where we are storing them. Has anyone used Lizard Skin on their cars ?

I bought a carb from a vendor on Ebay. I tracked it to my house and when they delivered it the package was torn and the box was empty. I refused to accept it and the seller went looking of fit. Never found it so got my money back. Somewhere, someplace there is a Carter AFB for a 1960 Buick Electra.

Willis, following instructions that came with the shock, we set the compression to 2 (out of 19) and rebound to 6 (out of 19). This was for a soft street ride. I hope so......

Then we found this radiator overflow tank while looking at the Summit catalog. And getting ready for some pipe bending and flairing..... And finally, we were removing the wipers to pain the cowl. Some PO had decided it needed to be glued on the shaft. It too a special tool from Amazon to get the damn thing off. Normally they are held on with a spring clamp not glue or RTV. The tool is the final picture. It provided enough push that we were able to break the glue and wiggle it off.

Its been a few weeks since we did much on this car. Between a new job for Rob and me getting shingles, we have been slowed down. BTW, if you have not gotten a shingles shot and are old and had Chicken Pox when you were young, you probably get the vaccine. I know vaccine is a contentius term at the moment, but you dont want Shingles. But anyway, I got to Rob's this past weekend and we were able to get some things done. Main object was to see what we needed to do to get the shocks in. After cutting a notch in the lower control arm where the shock goes (because of the adjustment knobs) we discovered that the bar you bolt the shock to the control arm was not quite long enough. Tomorrow I will talk to Viking and see if they have a longer one, or if we are going to have to do some work. Rob got a new blasting cabinet that I put to use on a variety of parts. Throttle linkage, covers, and other items. I am glad I was able to sit and blast. This is the chunk we had to cut from the shock pocket. This was so we could push the spring up through the control arm. These are the bars we had a choice of, both too short by maybe 1/4 ".

Buick’s in their Straight Eight engines (I am familiar with 1947 - 53) had special marked chain links that got lined up with the marks on the sprockets. They were about 20 teeth apart. If you lined up the marks like in a Chevy, the car ran very poorly if at all.p

Along with the sport bikes that travel down the road on one wheel…

I have bought cars from them. Best one was a 1988 Buick 3 seat station wagon. Valve guide seals to stop it from smoking and I drove it 40,000 miles before selling it.

Not to mention if your alternator will handle the load. If, for example, you have the halogen lights on and your AC and radio. The alternators were not that big back then.

check out this, good info about restoring mirrors. https://www.chevelles.com/threads/restoring-a-rear-view-mirror.340348/