Gene Brink

Thanks for posting, Brian. Brings back memories of my dad's '67 Wildcat (although with 4 doors) which was a great sleeper and surprised a fair number of "hot" kid cars that could not dust off the 430 equiped Buick. Flat out quick it was...

Congratulations, Michael!

Got mine in yesterday's mail, Matt. Enjoyed looking at Greg's car and reading your article before starting at the beginning. I'll finish reading tonight (alas, it is always a much too brief [but much enjoyed] read). Really enjoy your website and all the detail you are going into and will, I'm certain, enjoy the condensed version in the Bugle. Your articles will be a welcome addition to the magazine!

Congratulations, Micheal!

Bill, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Some beautiful rides there.

And here is part two. Nice looking 401. How to Build a Buick Part 2

John, A nice start. Although 3 out of 4 cars are Buicks Another Picture of Dick and Deb is in order (just kidding of course... or maybe not) with a proper backdrop. You seem to have settled in to West coast living just fine. After your first "winter" here how much to you miss the East coast? Gene

Stumbled across this and thought it might be worthwhile for others to look at. Don't know when article ran (or will run) or if Part 2 is on the web or not. Sidebar showing interchangeable parts, does and don'ts is interesting too. Link is: How to: Building a better Buick, Part 1 Enjoy!

Dave, <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No Such figure for heating oil was found, however it's likely very similar. I don't see a heck of a lot of reduced consumption. Fluctuations seen are mostly due to weather conditions. At the very best we're barely keeping even with the rate of urban sprawl by increasing our home heating efficiency. Really reducing energy consumption is so foreign to most of us that we cannot even conceive of it. </div></div> Everything I've read regarding building heating/cooling (both commercial and residential) indicates great strides in efficiencies which, unfortunately (?), have been offset by home sizes increasing greatly over the last 20 years. The "average" 1200 sq. ft. house I am living in is way short of today's "average" house (which the last time I read was around 2600 sq. ft.). Don't know if the same trend is in effect for commercial buildings but do know that new construction requires wider hallways, etc. so suspect that may well be the case. (Rather like cars [to include truck types], and/or engines in same, getting bigger/heavier overall. Hard to have increased efficiencies in operation net any positive results when vehicles get bigger/more powerful.) Hard to face but I am convinced that depleting oil supplied will spur technological advances that will ultimately be beneficial (not that we will save any money). As usual, Dave, good solid comments on most of what you have said. You are absolutely right - weather is the biggest factor affecting how much energy is needed to heat/cool a building. (There may be a corollary effect with how much traffic there is really affecting how much fuel is used in real world driving [especially here in Los Angeles - way too many cars!].) Enjoyed reading what you had to say.

Kathe, Here is another site that shows the color a bit better. Good luck with the car. Auto Color Library

Newbie, If you are hitting the Toluca Lake Bob's on cruise night you have to go to Pasadena for the San Gabriel Valley Buick Club show next Sunday in Pasadena. Right in front of city hall and easy to find (link is: Pasadena Show. Lot's of folks there that will be able to give you some good tips on reliable shops that can work on your car (as well as being fun - usually 80-100 cars there with a number of 60's). Happy cruising!

Matt, Hard to figure and I have no idea. Looks as though they would insert somehow (assuming inside the piston) but other than tension don't see how they would stay in place. I can not make out the patent number on the box but a quick look in a patent library file (must be one in Cleveland?) should explain how they are supposed to work. I am going to the Buick car show in Pasadena next Sunday and the the Pasadena library (a short block away for the show) is one of two local libraries with a patent library as well so I could look up for you if you can make out the numbers. Let me know.

Brian, I concur. Lots of them on the road here in California. (Lots of Olds and Pontiac's too.) They indeed are durable and not bad drivers (and in my opinion a whole lot better than the last of the rear-wheel drive down-sized "full size" early 80's cars). Won't win any speed or handling contests but still not all that bad. Even though I'm not looking for a car I still check classifieds in the paper, the Recycler on-line, etc. and am amazed how few LeSabres and Park Avenues are for sale. They either die and go straight to a bone yard or are kept and driven. By observation I'd say it is the latter.

Responded to NTX's comment about the Northstar V8 yesterday and it got me thinking - we have had best of/worst of/ugliest etc. threads but never one on the worst examples of engineering <span style="font-style: italic">that should have been avoided</span> that you have seen. Basically I mean fairly minor to "fix" but sold to you and I as is for no apparent good reason. I have a few and wonder what some of yours are. To start off I'll offer the following: 1. Upside down oil filters. Just great for making a mess when you change your oil. (Almost as irritating is when the oil filter is in such a position that you can not get a pan under it and as you loosen it oil drains all over something underneath it making a mess.) 2. Heater core location and mounting method on a '75 Skylark that resulted in a $400 labor charge estimate to remove & replace (involved taking the right fender off to gain access). Lucky enough to live in sunny So. Calif so opted to loop the hose and do without! 3. Chevy Monza V8 that required removing motor mounts to lower engine enough to replace two plugs (long enough ago that plugs needed replacement more often than today). 4. Those wonderful nylon toothed cam gears in years worth of GM engines that fall apart after "X" years. Bad enough that they fail at an inconvenient time (five different cars over the years - only one [a '68 LeSabre] went slowly enough that the car still ran [poorly] but got me home) as well as spreading nylon chips everywhere so one has to drop the pan, clean, clean, clean and put it all together. Nothing but steel ever went back in I can assure you. 5. I'll repeat the Northstar complaint again. Starter motor location (inside the camshaft valley) that requires tearing into the engine to replace. I've never changed one, and have changed starters that were a real bear to get to, but this has to take some sort of prize for lack of concern for the purchaser of one's product. There's a start. How about some of yours?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">With all due respect, the Northstar V-8 is pretty dang troublefree. </div></div> True but when a friend of a friend needed a starter motor replaced and paid over $1300 just because of where they place the starter (in the camshaft valley so one has to remove lots of stuff to get to it) I wrote off ever having one even though performance is great. I keep cars for a long time and have replaced/rebuilt starters on almost all of them at least once while owning them and am not about to get one that requires that much effort to replace and wonder what on earth the designers were thinking - certainly not the customer and his/her $$.

Philip, Welcome aboard and congratulations on your new car. Everything is just fine and as it should be. Dynaflows are durable when treated well (read as leaving in drive) and as you noticed there isn't any shifting normally as they are a direct drive unit (when in drive). Torque multiplication is acomplished by the converter and sluggish operation is normal although a bit frustrating. Starting in low is certainly much more satisfying but if you do be careful, shift out of low to drive at no higher than 35 mph or so and do NOT shift while under power. Even following these cautions will not forstall the day, indefinately, when you will need a rebuild if you choose to do the shifting. Leave it in drive and you could still be driving your Super years later with no transmission problems. Enjoy!

Jaybird and Joe are absolutely correct. The rear-end will indeed slam forward with enough force to severely damage a finger or hand if one is in the way should whatever method you use slip. Joe is right, Buick garages (and transmission shops at the time I'd wager) had great set-ups that bolted in place and really anchored things safely to work on them when the rear-end was pushed back. I'm the one who suggested a come-along as I learned (luckily without damaging any body parts) it is not a good idea to use something like the bumper jack since it can slip. I would agree that one should definitely unhook the shock link (knee action on a '49 I believe) to avoid breaking the link when you move it backwards - there isn't any give to speak or here. My experience with a '54 Super was that there was plenty of give in the brake lines to move backwards the five or six inches necessary (only after loosening the park brake cable of course). This is not a tough job technically - just a fair amount of grunt work. Be careful and have fun.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> It was fun though and there were a lot of FAST Buicks who raced for real. I may not be the fastest on the track but I have the most style.. </div></div> Good looking and with a sound like no others I'll wager, Bill. Thanks for the smile you brought to my face. I needed it today!

Brian, Thanks for the pictures. Makes it much easier to see what you are talking about and I'll bet you have it right. Gene

Certainly could be, Brian. Drawing a complete blank on what the bright-work on the '61 Caddy looked like (but can see the '59, '60 and 63-65 very clearly in my mind's eye. Never liked the '61 that much so that is probably why... Wish we had the actual card to look at as I'll bet it is just a bit clearer and we could see if there are any fins on the car.

Don't know that I'd want to go back but those were the days, Brian. Looks to be a black '64 Electra under cover below the multiple signs (behind the green Rambler) and although it looks like a '62 in the showroom it could be a '64. Don't think the roofline that it appears to be was any earlier than '64.

Cracked distributor cap (could not even see the crack at first inspection it was so small) on the inside caused a similar problem with a 283 Chevy pick-up truck my dad used to have. Unfortunately he did not find and had the entire motor rebuilt only to find the problem was still there. Cleaned the cap completely and then replaced it to finally find a smooth running engine. Expensive lesson. Might be the same for you. Good luck

Mike & Nancy, Makes perfect sense and is actually what I assumed since it did not make sense that the Bugle along cost that much by itself. Thanks for all both of you do.

Before I go any further, I am just joking and want all of you who own/revere (as I do for the original body series) Riveria's to know that. Just firing things up in the office and turned my TV on (MSNBC) just in time to catch a Viagra commercial in which a bunch of men (all a bit older [read distinguished, thank you] say 55-65) jumping gleefully about for some reason (TV on mute so had no audio and can only wonder...). One of them was washing his Riveria (which is how this relates) and it made me wonder if Riveria owners and Viagra go together??? Seriously, with multiple previous discussions about Buick's image it is too bad the car is so identifiable (hopefully only to a Buick fan?).

Well, I'm going to chime in with my two-cents. Have to say I am somewhere in the middle. Appreciate both the new members and advisors lists although can certainly see why some would not like or use them so they both should be candidates for possible reform (perhaps bi-monthly or quarterly would be a good compromise?). Would definitely like to see more technical articles and really am discouraged to read Matt's comment that he has never been contacted regarding his offer to write (monthly no less!) given the excellence of his website documenting his Century restoration. (Not trying to give you a big head or anything Matt but it is excellent and I was thinking you should do a book when you have completed the car.) I would think such an offer would result in some dialog in say minute or two after looking at his website and would have to question why he has not been contacted. Some of you have had several things to say about printing, paper, etc. some time ago regarding the Bugle and while I do not know if a change in the paper would result in a $$ savings that could be applied to additional pages I wonder if anyone taking Auto Restorer thinks that a change from the heavy glossy paper to a bright white non-gloss paper might not do the trick. Print quality for AR is good although a change like that would result in no color printing so there is a trade-off. There should be a compromise solution that everyone can live with.