ol' yeller

You'd probably get people more likely to look if you'd give the seller name. Your suggested search brings up 1500 items by many sellers.

Congratulations Chris! And I must say, you have excellent taste in cars. Welcome.

I pulled mine out of the garage so I could wash my wife's 2005 Escape prior to putting it up for sale. I then polished and waxed hers while my Reatta looked on. Don't worry, Marilyn's (my Reatta) turn is coming next week as I am taking her to the Troutdale All Buick Show in Oregon on Saturday. I am looking forward to a long BS session with my good buddy who will drive us both home from the show. It is a 200 mile round trip. I hope it isn't raining but even so the journey is the adventure. Oh and I pulled her back into the garage when I finished too!

Is this the trunk lid seal or the tonneau to trunk seal? Where did you find it?

My '90 is like riding in a vault especially when compared to my wife's 2005 Ford Escape. And it is obviously an enclosed vehicle.

Sorry I didn't mean to HiJack Pete's thread. To close the issue, This happened about 20 years ago so I am going on my faulty memory so please discount for that. There may have been other oiling issues that I didn't explore. I do remember that both the main bearings and the rod bearings were scored very badly and the pistons and rods were installed backwards. I just equated the 2 together. As a disclaimer, please see my signature, " I am not a mechanic although I do play one in my garage".

Pete, if original, the '64 300 used a phoenelic coated cam gear for the timing chain. Given time and miles this coating would break up and fall off the gear messing with the timing. If you find this type of gear, I'd definitely recommend changing it out as well as the smaller crank gear and chain. Buick used this coating on the timing chain gear to reduce noise but I never heard a marked increase in noise after changing to metal gears. As for the movement of the cam, I don't remember specifically ever noticing that. If you're pulling the timing cover, you may as well pull the camshaft and inspect the bearings and where it meets in front and back. Many years ago I bought a '64 Skylark convertible project. The best thing about the car was that the engine was rebuilt in the not too distant past. As I was doing a frame off restoration, I pulled the engine and put it on an engine stand to "pretty it up". I bought a complete gasket set as it was cheaper than piece-mealing together the gaskets that were installed incorrectly and leaking. As I reassembled the engine, I had the engine upside down on the stand and debated with myself whether or not to pull the crank and install a new rear crank seal. I decided to pull the crank and it was a good thing I did. All the main and connecting rods were trashed as was the crank surface. Evidently whoever "rebuilt" the engine installed all the pistons backwards which had the oil spurt holes oiling the inside of the block instead of the crankshaft. I had to completely rebuild the entire motor correctly this time.

Don, sad to see you leave us. Your car is a very pretty example of the Reatta convertibles. Did you sell it locally? Be sure to give the buyer the link to this website. While we never did get together, it was nice knowing you were just a couple of hours away if we had. Greg

A couple of nice options if they are in good shape are the remote side view mirror and the wheel opening stainless. No tilt wheel though. Does it come with correct hub caps?

I have owned several 65 Skylarks, 2 doors, 4 doors and even a convertible. The 310 engine designation shows the car has a 300 cubic inch V8 with a 2 barrel carb. Buick never put a one barrel on the 300. It is a very small 2 barrel carb. Things to look for are rot in the lower rear quarters, rot around the front or rear windshield and rust in the trunk floor. Rust also happens in the lower rear of the front fenders. Judging from appearances in the pics, that car probably has 100,000 more miles than you have been led to believe. There is virtually no market for these cars unless they are perfect, low mileage cars. Even then they may only bring the price the seller is asking. While these are great cars and well built, generally ones in this condition are sold as parts cars for their more collectable 2 doors and convertibles. If the lower rear quarters are in good shape you might get $500-$1,000 each for them. The car is most likely a $1,000-$1,500 car and the seller would be lucky to get that. Also that is not an original interior and the Switch Pitch Super Turbine 300 trans is a 2 speed trans with variable vanes in the torque converter. In 1965 Buick did not offer a 3 speed automatic in the A body cars.

Kevin, a BCM malfunction was my guess as well. That was a good suggestion to disconnect the battery and see if the issue goes away. I'll pass it along to my friend.

I don't know Padgett, I assumed it did. I'll ask him when I speak to him again. I had never heard of this happening with a Reatta before either.

I asked the Moderator to move your posts to the Reatta General Section as I believe you will get more exposure there. Welcome to the forum. Per your username, are you located in the great Northwest? Greg

These are really hard to find in good condition. Unfortunately when the grilles got packed with snow and ice back when these were just used cars, and the headlights were turned they broke the plastic grille. I found a good one when I restored my '69. I hope you find yours too!

A buddy of mine just purchased a nice '90 Reatta that had a few issues. The big issue was that he had no taillights or parking lights. He found that fuse #10 was blown and would continue to blow if replaced. He brought the car over to my house as I suspected he had a bad headlight switch and I had a good used spare to try. We replaced the switch and the fuse blew again. We then pulled the taillight assembly and started checking the bulbs. We found 3 that the base had separated from the glass bulb so we replaced them with new bulbs but still the fuse blew. I then began to suspect the issue was in the headlamp circuit and not in the taillight circuit. He had replaced the relay and that didn't fix the issue. I pulled both headlights and Lo and Behold! the fuse didn't blow. Evidently the headlamp bulb had a dead short in it on the high beam. It lit up fine on low beam but when you hit the high beam switch, they didn't go on high beam. I replaced it with a known good used bulb I carried as a spare and the problem was solved. This was a really strange but true adventure as I played a mechanic in my garage today! One issue we didn't get to has to do with his trip odometer. He says that when he resets it, it goes to zero. The next time he restarts the car, it goes back to the mileage it had before. Any ideas on this one?

A couple days ago a buddy came over and helped me with my overheating issues. My car would go to hot (all bars) when running the AC on the freeway on a 90 degree day. I had to replace a couple of soft plugs a couple of years ago because my car was a garage queen when the former owner had it and never changed the coolant. It was a lovely rust color. I subsequently had the system drained, flushed and refilled annually for 2 years running to make sure it was cleaned out. Then a few weeks ago the temp gauge pegged with the AC on. So much for cleaning the system. We pulled and replaced the radiator which was an easy job. I also pulled and replaced the thermostat (not an easy job) and also replaced the upper and lower radiator hoses as the ones in there were original. They didn't look too bad but they were 25 years old and the inner springs were rusty. We also inspected the water pump as I had a replacement on hand but it appeared good with no weeping and no noises from the bearing so we left that one for another day. I bought all my parts on Amazon through the Reatta store at the ROJ. The thermostat was a booger but not for the usual reasons. After removing the bolt I inserted a 6" 1/2" drive extension into the opening and gave it a twisting and rocking motion and it popped right off. My issue came with the seals or gaskets if you want to call them that. Evidently I have a very rare 1990 Reatta that has a different mounting gasket than all others. I'm not talking about the O-Ring that goes in the groove in the neck but rather the gasket that seals the housing to the intake. Evidently most Reattas have a second, slightly smaller O-Ring that goes around the top of the thermostat. My rare setup has a stepped seal that goes into the base of the housing and seals it where it meets the manifold. I tried to fit the more common seal to mine but it appeared that it would sit too high and the instruction from Padgett on the ROJ said DO NOT use the bolt to pull the housing down. As no one had the correct replacement gasket/seal I looked mine over carefully and determined it to have no cracks or leaks and it seems still to be supple so I cleaned it carefully and then gave it a liberal treatment of silicone spray. After drying I simply reinstalled it. FYI I cleaned the housing well with a wire brush and then gooped it liberally with lithium grease and it slid home like a hall of famer. It just took a couple of taps on top with my big screwdriver. After firing it up and checking for leaks (none) I took it for a test drive. With temps in the low 80's with the AC on, my gauge never went above 12:00. It appears that we did fix the problem. Today I have a friend who recently purchased his '90 coupe coming over and we are going to try and figure out why his taillights aren't working as well as installing a couple of headlight kits.

And we are waiting for the question...

Thanks Barney. I wondered if they were running at full speed. This morning I started the car cold and only the rear fan was running. I switched on the AC and the front fan began running along with the rear fan. I didn't let it run too long. I guess I could let it run watching the gauge and see if they speed up when it shows hot. If they don't speed up, what should I look at, fans or something electrical like a thermo switch? I'll spend some quality time tomorrow with my FSM.

Thanks Kerry. It was bad rust in the tank. I am leaning towards a radiator replacement and getting a good flush too. I can do the radiator replacement but i don't have the facilities to do a good flush. As for the bars, Normal was always at the top of the arc for the bars or about half. Now when the AC is on it goes to within one bar of the HOT reading which I am sure is too hot. I didn't want to overheat so I then turned off the AC and it cooled down to where normal was.

The outside of the radiator looks clean as 2 years ago I had the AC converted to R134A and replaced the condenser. The AC tech had removed the radiator and cleaned it at that point. I'm thinking I may have something internal going on. Thanks for your suggestion though. Greg

Here in the Great Northwet we are experiencing a heat wave. We have had a couple of weeks of temps in the mid 90's. Thankfully yesterday and today it has dropped into the 70's. I had a long drive, 40 miles in the heat, all on the freeway a few days ago when the outside temps were in the low 90's. I had the classic convertible owner's debate, top up or down. I decided to put the top up and ride in air conditioned comfort. After about 20 minutes of stop and go freeway traffic, I noticed that the temp gauge was creeping up slowly. When it got to within 2 bars of the Hot reading I shut the AC off and watched the temp go back to the more normal range of mid gauge. If I turned the AC back on, it would begin to creep back up. I left the AC off for the return trip and it stayed at the normal middle reading. Here's a little background on the car. When I first got it 3 years ago it had been sitting a lot and it appeared that the coolant hadn't been changed in a long time. It was a nasty rusty orange color. I took it to my mechanic who drained and flushed the system and discovered I had a couple of leaky soft plugs which he replaced. Fortunately they were the easy ones to replace. Fast forward a year later and I again had him drain and flush the coolant to make sure there wasn't any problem. The temp gauge always goes to the reading at the top of the arc and stays there until recently. The coolant level has remained fine since my mechanic replaced the soft plugs. The car now has 103K miles on it. I know that there are 2 fan motors and sometimes one will quit which will affect cooling especially when the AC is on but both of my fans are spinning. Does one or both spin faster when needed and how can I test that? I suspect that I have a clogged radiator from the original problem of dirty coolant. I guess I will take it to my mechanic and have him flow test the system and replace the radiator. Hopefully it would stop there but I guess it could also use a water pump (it is not leaking) and maybe even a heater core. Am I overlooking something? I never tried the old hot rodder's trick of running the heater to see if it would cool it down some. Thanks in advance.

It has been over 40 years since I had to clean out the passages so I don't remember if they were in front or in back. I seem to remember that they were in back but logic says that as the oil pump is in front, they would be in front. What I can contribute to is that the heads are the same, left to right. The FSM says they are interchangeable but it is good practice to keep them on the side they were originally installed. The '64 heads were made of aluminum and they did have sealing issues and now with time and mileage they have been also know to corrode. I know you said it doesn't appear to be valve cover or intake leaks but an oil leak at the junction where the head meets the intake is very common, especially if the motor has been taken apart and not reinstalled correctly.

Just to add to what has been said, I see you are a newbie here. Don't let yourself get intimidated with the tech language here. It is very easy to use the on board diagnostics found on the Reatta. Just follow the instructions Ronnie shared above. Then come back and tell us what you found. Folks here would be happy to help you understand what is being reported. It is almost impossible to mess up anything if you are just checking for codes as you follow Ronnies instructions. I am on my 3rd Reatta now, all 90's and really like the diagnostics built into that year. It's funny but I think there was better trouble shooting diagnostic in the earlier years with the CRT. Your efforts would be immensely helped if you could get a Factory Service Manual (FSM) for your year car. Be sure to get the complete FSM and not the New Product Information version which looks very similar. The New Product Information version only tells you about what was changed from 1989 to 1990. The regular FSM is a pretty complete bumper to bumper manual.

I use Raggtopp on my vert and have found it wonderful on my white vinyl top. It is a 2 step process. The first step cleans the vinyl. The longer you leave it on, the more it cleans. The second is a treatment for the vinyl to keep it looking fresh. If that doesn't work and the top is a white one, I'd try a diluted bleach mixture to see if it is actually mildew. I'd test somewhere where it isn't obvious and stay away from the stitching as the bleach may rot the thread. I use diluted bleach all the time on my RV awning which is made of vinyl and it cleans up beautifully. Greg

Thanks guys, this is very helpful. I just noticed the other day that one was out so I really hadn't done anything other than think about replacing it.