Gene Brink
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Posts posted by Gene Brink
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That was fun! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
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Thanks, Roberta! The nine year old will most certainly enjoy (as well as the 12 year old, I think). The 16 year old is only interested in driving so unless you can actually send (any!) one of them...
Regards,
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If you are looking to buy one I just ran across this on NailHeadBuick. Don't have the money but clean, complete and the owner will deal on price. Check it out at: www.DeuceAndAQuarter.com
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FYI, everyone. Just ran across this on NailHeadBuick. Don't have the money but clean, complete and the owner will deal on price. Check it out at: www.DeuceAndAQuarter.com
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Woody,
I'm with the Old Guy. Block the back end up, have someone start it up, put it in gear and watch the back wheels as they rotate. Had this happen in my '68 LeSabre and tread separation on an otherwise fine tire was the cause. Did not show enough to see until I did this. New tire - smooth again!
Good luck.
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Bill,
This has come up before and there seemed to be a split between flat black and gloss (mostly black or dark grey as previously mentioned). My '50 Super had gloss dark grey upper with lighter grey/silver (again gloss) lower areas. Used to see '50 Buicks all the time when I was a kid but not in many years so do not know for certain but never saw a flat dash of any color unless it had not been maintained.
Looking forward to your next update on your website showing the painting.
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Chuck,
I had a '54 Super (322 - 2 barrel) and my uncle a '55 Special (264 - 2 barrel) and because of the improvement in transmissions the Special actually was faster than the Super (when selector left in drive). Neither was "fast" but certainly kept up with traffic and were both real reliable.
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Dave,
Don't want this to spin off in another direction but everyone should know that the number of people living in homeowner association controlled housing is a minority (by far). I do, however, have no doubt that most people do use dryers. Sad, even here in the Los Angeles area line dried clothes just plain smell nicer although ironing the wrinkles out is a lot more work <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />.
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Dave,
1. Total disagreement - certainly. Degree of disagreement - certainly not. There is a range of opinion as to severity of problem and possible consequences. There are people (including "environmental scientists") that have honestly arrived at significantly different conclusions than others and don't consider the evidence as "overwhelming" one way or the other. My real point here is that the probably "correct" finding is somewhere between the two polar opposite viewpoints.
2. Indeed if "uncontrollable mortality of whole populations" should occur there will be a cultural collapse. I don't think this will happen (although there are certainly cases in the world where this is happening on a small scale [hate to say "small" given it is hundreds of thousands of humans annually and totals in the millions] without apparently causing the "haves" to take action to curtail the cause(s). We (the collective world) have the ability to do better and while I am a pessimist I think we will do so.
3. What is natural? Given that humans are "natural" why isn't extinction caused by our actions as natural as extinction caused by say an ice age? Granted we have the ability to, by our actions, have a greater effect on the earth than does any other species but... I'll stick by my earlier statement that whatever we do it will not come close to what mother nature has dealt out (although that same force has maintained a wonderful place for us to abide in and she won't turn down any help we can give).
4. I've never understood backwards application of what one finds today by comparing readings of _______ (name the measured item) and extrapolating what the cause/effect is/will be, etc. I do know that the same type of process went into astronomical theories regarding the birth of the universe, etc. and there has been a real change in perspective in the last few years. Seems to me that the same thing might happen in other areas as well. Study and extrapolation from studies based on our knowledge is all we can do (and we should do it) but it seems to be that we can't really "know" for certain in some things.
5. I never said that people who study the environment have an incentive to find and overestimate trouble. Some certainly may since they are like any other group having vested interests in _________ (fill in the blank) protecting their livelihood, book sales, organization, etc. In fact having been around people for all of my life (55 years for a few more days) I'm certain this is the case. Not right for anyone on either side of the issue and most people honestly arrive at what they feel is "right" whether or not it is to preserve virgin territory, log virgin territory, farm virgin territory, etc. There has to be room for compromise of absolutes for humankind to effectively get the best out of what we have.
6. I have no doubt that <span style="font-style: italic">some</span> of it is.
This reminds me of discussing the merits of Fords vs Buicks with my best friend when we were kids (Fords really don't have any merits since they are much too big to use as doorstops) and wish we were face to face to discuss (never argue).
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Anybody think we will cease to exist because the oil runs out? I don't.
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
With all due respect, I'll take the opinion of the preponderance of PhD climatoligists over yours. They say we probably will dissapear long before the oil's gone if it's not treated differently, and soon.
But you know those egghead intellectuals, they've got an answer for everything </div></div>
Dave,
As always you are tenacious, articulate and passionate however (you knew this was coming) I don't think you are as open to other opinions on this subject as you are on others. The only other subject you've seemed to be quite so dogmatic about are the Consumer Reports diatribes when the annual auto issue comes out (nothing this year??). Consider:
1) Despite a majority of opinion regarding global warming, its cause, etc... there are a number of equally educated and informed people that do not agree with the majority opinion. Because it is a majority does not actually mean it is right. One only has to look at the shake up in astronomy with regard to what the universe is, is doing, will do, how it was formed, et al since the Hubble telescope has shown things that were not expected. What was accepted as "fact" is undergoing some fairly extensive modification. Computer models can only extrapolate from data input to arrive at a prediction of what will happen. I'm not as certain as you are that the information is infallible enough for the results to be correct.
2) The only people that I've heard express ideas like the oil lasting longer than humans are those doomsayers at the extreme. There are many people that indeed believe global warming, etc. are major problems but do not think human extinction is apt to happen.
3) By far the greatest environmental disasters have been caused by nature. Man certainly has a great effect on the planet but we are getting better in almost all-measurable parameters and will continue to improve across the board. There really isn't any reason to think otherwise.
4) Do you know of a single Ph.D. climatoligist who had an inkling that the ozone hole was going to diminish in size and close from one single hole into two small ones? I only remember predictions that it would continue to grow. There clearly is at least one variable that they don't have down pat - I suspect there are many others. (For example Lake Erie is about 80 years ahead of the recovery rate that was predicted for a "dead lake.")
5) Indeed those egghead intellectuals do have an answer for everything. Unfortunately they, like everyone else, can and do bring their individual biases to the plate, which results in wrong conclusions and beliefs on occasion.
6) Finally - .....Don't believe the hype. Isn't that applicable here?
Always fun...
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Crin & Teresa,
Congratulations to both of you! Great birthday - your son shares the day with my 31 one year old daughter. Nice togs.
God bless,
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Dear All,
Such passions!
Just a few random thoughts...
1. What are we saving oil for? Why not use it?
2. Anybody think we will cease to exist because the oil runs out? I don't.
3. Anybody think technology will come up with something to replace oil used to heat, propel cars (trucks, planes, etc.....)? I do.
4. Anybody think that if technology does not keep pace so that we transition to the use of other consumables that we don't adapt to the "turning back the clock" lifestyle just fine?
5. I am skeptical of most things but do have faith that when the cost of oil becomes high enough business will find something to replace it with. My main concern will then be how to drive whatever old car/truck I have without gasoline.
6. We should (indeed) be environmentally responsible enough to continue to improve our environment. I have no doubt that we will do so overall.
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Pete,
Congratulations! Been a l-o-n-g time since I had my '50 Buick but when hot it was sometimes hard to start. I found the best way to handle was two full pumps to the floor, wait 5-10 seconds, turn ignition on and push pedal down half way or so. If it did not start I'd do the same thing a second time. Once I got used to the car I could tell if I needed to pump while cranking or not (taking care to NOT let off completely so it would keep cranking) to shoot additional gas into the manifold. The problem is the long intake runs to the end cylinders and it is compounded by the heat transfer from the exhaust manifold. Never failed to start though - just a bit hard sometimes.
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Adam,
Not certain if your car has one but a bad EGR valve can cause a variety of problems including overheating and as it is so easy to replace might be worth checking before getting into the cooling system itself. Given a fairly new radiator and a water pump that isn't leaking (so it would be working) it may be the problem.
Good luck,
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Thank you, Dave Moon. As usual entertaining when you so intend. Lots of things already mentioned that I agree with but none of these (unless I missed something): Battery terminal cleaning and removing tools, small funnels, wooden clothes pins (numbered so you can attach to spark plug wires, etc. for identification), various plastic containers (personal favorites are film splicing tape boxes, Tucks jars and moistened wipes) that can be used to hold various small items (nuts, bolts, washers, etc) that one needs to carry in a tool box (as opposed to the multi-drawer chest like things for the workshop), various sized ACCO clips (you've probably seen them in offices - pretty stout things that do come in handy as mini-vises),old business cards (free, the company buys 'em for me and I never give all of them away - they are great for writing on and putting into the plastic bags one should have in their toolkit with small parts), a Sharpie (or other permanent marker), a muffin tin (great to keep small parts together) and a turkey baster.
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John,
I have good news for you - your Electra will be exempt from any smog inspections. California's law requires cars younger than 30 to be smog checked every two years. You are going to enjoy winter this year... no snow (or salt on the road) and you can drive your car all year long.
Sounds like you are still not yet here but anyway, welcome to California!
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Thanks, Matt. Got some reading to do this afternoon (and thanks for the word about Tom's website, I had not seen it before).
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This thread has strayed a bit (although the Centurion and LeSabre stuff is okay by me). Roberta and Philippe have it correct - the 400 badge indicates the ST400 transmission and indeed it did come with the 4 barrel 340 (I talked my parents into this on a new '66 they ordered in early '66 by reminding them how often I was putting dynaflows into my '54 Super and saying they might want a tougher transmission so my brothers and I would not crunch one in their new "baby."). A bullet proof engine/transmission combination that performed pretty well in a boat of a car.
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Hmmm. Dave you have something but I do think that there probably is an inherent safety component in play here as well. Certainly typical driver and appeal of a given car affects the insurance rate, as do injury claims which I suspect mirror how well a given vehicle protects its occupants in addition to how they drive. Given that injury claims, I believe, would be a significant cost factor for the underwriter I can not imagine there not being some positive relationship to objective measurements like crash testing. Also, I've never seen an insurance table that did not charge higher premiums after drivers reach a certain age threshold (which, alas, the Buick profile fits) which would seem to offset the fact that older drivers generally drive slower, etc... I don't have any idea where these balance out statistically
I would not class some of the others as big and tank-like. The Montero is a mid-sized SUV, the 5 series BMW and LS430 certainly are not bigger than several on the cheapest list and the 4 Runner isn't very large either. I think this list is more likely to be expensive to insure because of high initial cost (for some), how often they are stolen with a fairly significant "how they were being driven" when an accident happened leading to injuries component.
It would be nice to fine a single source to compare vehicle performance (acceleration, cornering, stopping, etc) and cost to insure so one could ferret out the "sleepers" that must be there. Might surprise a few folks...
Gene
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Seems unlikely, Dave. Especially since Buick was the marque founders name. The link you provided seems pretty clear the Buick was used for a post office name because of the owners German name Beuck possibly not being a popular choice after WWI.
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Don't know how you can actually measure to determine but if it were me and I could see that the original camshaft timing gear was still on the car (aluminin with plastic coated teeth) combined with apparent "looseness" I'd change everything to all steel. It isn't fun being left along side the road because the teeth are stripped of their plastic coating (although having said that my brother [original owner] has a '72 GS Stage 1 with over 130,000 miles on it and his two sons occasionally run it at a local drag stip despite it having the original timing gears and chain in place so they do last a long time).
Gene
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Slow day at work and I thought it might be interesting to see how different cars compared to each other with regard to insurance cost. Three Buicks made the list below.
One of the prime reasons given for buying SUV's are that they are bigger and safer and as these ratings are based in part on injuries and cost of repair (I'm assuming that a bigger vehicle would not sustain as much damage as a smaller one and should cost less to repair) kind of thought there might be more SUV's on the list. Information was taken from http://www.insure.com/auto/leastexpensive.html if anyone wants to look for themselves.
Generally there is a mix of size/weight of the listed cars and I suspect the average age of drivers prone to buying the listed cars certainly makes a difference but I was surprised by the results anyway. Anyone have thoughts on why some SUV's in the same price range as the cars did not show up at the top of the list? (I trust it isn't solely because the cars are so undesirable that nobody ever steals one. Even new Buicks are desirable in my book!)
The top 10 are:
If saving money on car insurance is important to you, think about driving a more conservative car.
Find out the most expensive cars to insure
See crash results for more than 2,900 vehicles in the Car Crash Performance Tool
This advice might deflate your dreams of that little red sports car, but the 2002 Buick LeSabre tops the list of least expensive 2002 cars to insure according to the top three auto insurers in the country (State Farm, Allstate, and Farmers). The LeSabre is No. 1 based on its lowest claim record for injury, theft, and collision.
These 2002 cars can save you money on your auto insurance policy:
1. Buick LeSabre
2. Oldsmobile Silhouette
3. Honda Odyssey
4. Buick Park Avenue
5. Pontiac Montana
6. Mercury Grand Marquis
7. Buick Century
8. Chevrolet Venture
9. GMC Safari
10.Oldsmobile Bravada
While none of these cars may make your heart race, they do a better job of protecting you in an accident, and they aren't likely to get stolen from the parking lot. In fact, they have the lowest reported claims rates of injury, theft, and collision among 2002 cars on the market, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).
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Well this is fairly interesting in that both publications use basically the same data to arrive at figures that are substantially different.
CPI says they arrive at their figures from data such as Auctions, Dealer Sales, Public Sales and editors conferring with Car Clubs to track trends, etc. as well as verifying the condition of each vehicle. Check http://www.cpivalueguide.com for additional details.
Old Cars Price Guide says that their figures are the result of analysis of Collector Car Auctions, Verified reports of private sales and Input from experts. Check http://www.collect.com/interest/periodical.asp?Pub=PG for additional details.
Prices cited are generally higher in Old Cars Price Guide but don't know why that is. Both have been around for quite some time. One associated with Krause the other with Hemmings so it isn't like some publication from a company that does not know anything about cars.
Maybe the middle ground is closer to correct?
Food for thought, Gene
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Patrick,
No personal experience but Car Collector magazine did a report on lifts that might be worthwhile to check out. The article was in the May 1998 issue so isn't too old. Try http://www.carcollector.com/
Regards, Gene
100 Years of Buick in "Car Collector" Magazine
in Buick - General
Posted
Brian,
I'll check the month tonight. It was at least one month ago and probably two. Enjoyed the article very much and it would be worthwhile for any Buick lover to get the magazine even though a "real lover" will have heard most of it already.
Regards,