Gene Brink

Imagine a number of you have seen this but just found it on YouTube. Some cool toons too!

Thanks, Stuart. Very nice magazine and your '36 looks terrific.

Thanks, Denis. Car looks great! Poignant file as it reminded me of my dad who had Parkinsons's disease and really did not want to give up driving his last Buick ('98 LeSabre). Hope I can be as graceful as the gentleman in the video when the time comes.

Welcome, Daniel. I am in Sylmar so almost neighbors, but do not have any suggestions other than be careful when threading plugs, etc into the all aluminum engine as it isn't hard to strip threads. Great looking Skylark - I've always liked them. Enjoy.

Why would anyone think you know anything about '54's, Lamar? 😏

Might not pay you anything but perhaps would pick up & take it all away so you don't have to mess with the stuff - http://sonnysautopartstn.tripod.com/. Good luck!

If all else fails, and assuming you have the old gear [or enough of it] to take measurements you can have a duplicate made by any number of precision gear manufacturers. Here is one and if they can not help perhaps can refer you http://www.amgear.com/specialty-gears.html. Won't be cheap but... Good luck.

Looks like he measured the ring gap at 1mm which is equal to 0.03937007874 so is much wider than spec listed by Hugh so I think Joel is probably right in thinking something is amiss with the crankshaft - either rods or mains. Imagine the place to start is with Joel's suggestion to begin checking rod caps & mains to see if they are causing the binding and proceed from there. Good luck, Catrinus.

Not able to answer your question but if you do not get a response perhaps NCP can supply you with measurements and you can compare to your Special? Good luck...

Agree. Plenty of pictures of engine & transmission plants on the web so I have no doubt those components were made elsewhere and added to the cars final assembly. Guessing the same is true for seats and certainly there were literally hundreds of parts manufactured by various vendors (some GM owned - i.e. Delco) and used for final assembly.

James, One thing I've not seen mentioned is that what you presently have appears to be a very clean (other than the mentioned rust) and complete car which will make a restoration easier and cheaper. Sell if and then "down the road" buy a replacement it will be difficult to find one this nice. You did not mention how the engine was running - assume decent as you drove it for six months. If you do not need to rebuild that is worth $$. Good luck with your decision.😉

James, One thing I've not seen mentioned is that what you presently have appears to be a very clean (other than the mentioned rust) and complete car which will make a restoration easier and cheaper. Sell if and then "down the road" buy a replacement it will be difficult to find one this nice. You did not mention how the engine was running - assume decent as you drove it for six months. If you do not need to rebuild that is worth $$. Good luck with your decision.😉

Oh gosh! I've found that cars of zero interest to me when new and now quite appealing when one sees a well maintained (or restored) example. Funny how "old" makes a car much more appealing. To answer the question, when I returned from "an all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia" in March 1968 a replacement for the '54 Cadillac limousine I was driving before I was drafted was on my shortlist of what to do. Wound up with a '60 MGA 😢 and after a few months of paying more than a new car payment to keep it running decided I would be better off with a brand new Buick. Wanted a GS but did

Amen to that, Dave! I really enjoy being paid each month to NOT come to work! How sweet it is... Lamar, Looks like you worked with a great bunch of people.

And if you like jazz -