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JohnD1956

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Everything posted by JohnD1956

  1. What a tease! The sites not up till July 29th. Meanwhile the last Time Magazine had a picture of 4 Buicks, the new LaCrosse, the Lucerne, the Enclave and the Regal concept car. The Regal was hidden but it sure looked nice. While I'm not happy to see Pontiac disected, I am at least hopeful that measn Buick will make this concept car in a two door version for the market.
  2. Wow, what a story. Not much worse than finding you need a repair 600+ miles away from home. But you wound up in a great place with guys who cared about you and your car. Thanks for providing the details. This would make a good story for the Bugle and those who will never see this on line version. I hope you submit one to Pete.
  3. Look on Craigslist. These cars come up regularly and in many cases they run, but can't be driven for other reasons.
  4. Have to agree Leif. Very imporessive collection and work to restore those cars.
  5. JohnD1956

    How come?

    Looks to me like old slow drivers have switched from Buicks to Hondas and Nissans. See a traffic jam? Chances are there is some past prime driver in a Honda tying things up. BTW, saw Portholes on a new Caddy two days ago, and that driver was NOT going slow!!!
  6. I like the electronic copy. Yet, it's possible that the number of members who are "on line" is so small, that savings would be negligible. Is there a target reduction number ( in printed material) that makes this a positive economic solution? If it is large, like a thousand or so less printed Bugles, it may be difficult to find that many people even on line. Still, I see benefits for those not recieving the Bugle timely due to circumstances outside the control of the Club.
  7. Watch out for Rod bearings. If the engine is good it will last well over 150K. If it is weak you will probably get to 130K. Also be prepared for an A/C compressor failure eventually. New ones are available and the way to go, but it won't be cheap.
  8. Gee Frank, sounds like an adventurous trip. Great to hear about Doug helping you out, and nice thinking on the generator repair. And congratulations on the long distance award. That's awesome.
  9. Nicely done! Thinking of my 56 however, I'm not certain the backing plates are gold cad though. I thought they were just ordinary satin black?
  10. I've had several of these era GM's and most were Fix and Repair Weekly cars. Some I hated and some I loved to hate, while a few were teriffic. But I believe that time has weeded out the production weaknesses in these cars. If you want one and find one that runs, and looks at least 80 % good, you must jump on it. Chances are it will hold together for the near future. It was like that with my 78 wagon. I recently took it to a show and one of my friends said he had called about it, but the seller told him someone else had just been offered first refusal an hour earlier. When I went to look at the car the seller told me someone had called right after me but I thought it was just a sellers ploy to push the sale. None the less I liked what I saw and put a deposit that day. It's been 9 months now, several unexpected but easily performed repairs, and driven 7.000 miles and I still love that thing when I drive it. It may even be going to Iowa next year.
  11. How cool. The Supers are great cars, often overlooked and mostly under appreciated. Good luck with this one. What's you choice for color combination?
  12. Hey 57 Special, Looks like you got a great car. I noticed the tow hitch on there. If you're thinking of taking that off be sure to post a note in the for sale section. Someone was looking for a 57 tow hitch, but I can't remember who. Meanwhile find your local NAPA store. I'm certain they can get those rear wheel cylinders still.
  13. Oh man, how long were you broken down? And what went wrong with the rear end? Sounds like you really found a great place but how did that happen. We'd love to hear the details of this adventure.
  14. Oh yeah! Love those big bodied Buicks. Roadies are a mountain of chrome and beautiful. The Super has the same body, just less chrome, although in 54 the Super also had less horsepower. Can't wait to hear some of the other stories. We can already see your Uncle sitting on the edge of the seat just to look out the window. Can you image someone doing that today? Hahahaha
  15. Welcome 57 Special, and Special 55 too. To Special 55, Sorry to hear that you haven't had follow up from the BCA. When did you send in your app? I 'd be glad to call the BCA office managers to see what they know, if you want to send me your name and address. If you don't want to post it here send a private message. Meanwhile 57 Special, I am astonished that U-haul let you rent a trailer for this car. Seems they are suddenly aware of weight limits and looks like in my area they replaced all the nice sized car trailers with some only fit for Smart Cars. But your car is awesome. The 57's are sweet. Had a convertible Special when I was in college. Showed 55K on the clock and I got it for the huge sum of $30.00. Sure wish I had it today. Good luck with this project and don't worry about asking any questions. Most times it's better to ask before you take something apart than after you take it apart.
  16. Hey Adam, thanks for that tip. How odd that problem. How did you figure that one out? Meanwhile, let me be clear that I am not saying the car is definately fixed. I learned that particular lesson. However I replaced the plugs today and the miss is gone. I hope it stays that way but I want to put a few hundred miles on it before I'll feel comfortable with sayings it's fixed. Meanwhile at the risk of embarassing myself I should mention that I made a mistake when I cleaned and regapped the old plugs. The #2 plug which is under the compressor was not tight. It appears I hit the bracket for the compressor with the ratchet and I must have thought the plug was fully seated. I'm lucky the thing did not blow out of the head. Anyway I made sure all the plugs are now fully tight, and put fresh grease on the boots and the engine feels good. Now I' just gotta see if it lasts.
  17. Thanks guys, for those good ideas. Last night I checked for arcing wires after dark. While at idle I didn't observe any leaks. I raised the idle while in park to almost 1700 or so RPM and no arcing. Then I had my son put it in drive and raise the idle just enough that it started to miss. At that point I could see the arcing on cylinders one and three just around the edge of the plug boot. I'm back to the plugs being the root cause of these problems however, if this does not fully fix it I'm going for a new coil next. Then it's off to a competent mechanic for further testing. I got new plugs today but the rain stopped me from putting them in. Couple of things I just wanted to mention. I rechecked all the connections yesterday when I reinstalled the spark control module after having it tested. There is no evidence any of the connections have failed or overheated. And the pickup coil can only be installed one way. There is a pin hole for the vacuum advance hook up and if you don't put the coil in the right way this won't align. I think this negates the theory about the dwell being misinterpreted. However I do think the theory about the weak spark is correct, and the possibility of a failing coil is right up there. It ran pretty good when I got it six months ago but it is 31 years old. Eventually we'll get this figured out. I put the ball peen hammer back in it's place.
  18. I never met Domineck, but he sounds like one hell of a Buick guy, which means we all lost a brother. My condolences to his family and acquaintences.
  19. Glad to see you and Mike made it backl. Your cars certainly deserved all the awards they got. They looked great! I only hope I can make it to Ames and see you all again.
  20. Welcome stealthbob. If it's a 54 you want then you want to talk to Mr. Earl. But I can answer one thing, there is a world of difference between the years. While 50-52 look much the same 53 is a cornerstone year. Thats when some Buicks came with v8's and some maintained the straight eight from the prior years. By 54 there was new sheet metal which is similar through 1956 and no more straight eights. Do you have that picture of Dad that you can post on here? Besides loving to see it, we may be able to further identify which model he had and that could impact your search.
  21. Update, This car is gonna get killed. That's right, I'm gonna beat it to death with a ball peen hammer. Today when I started it, it had a awful miss, and it is still missing. I went over all the vacuum hoses, all the distributor things, all the wires, and added dry gas just in case that was the problem. I even sprayed all the distributor internal parts with WD 40 and nothing has stopped that miss. It does not miss at idle, but even a little bit of a load has it "poop poopingh ". It feels like the pick up coil miss but that's just two weeks old. I took the spark control module to NAPA where they ran a diagnostic test and it passed with flying green colors. But it's still missing. I haven't picked up the spark plugs yet and now it's supposed to rain the next few days anyway. Sheesh, this is frustrating!
  22. Thanks for that idea Dave. First thing this AM I checked the vacuum line to the transmission. As I suspected I did not have it seated properly. That cleared up a lot of the concerns I have. Today I took the car out for a long ride. Up to 45 MPH the car is so smooth it's scary. 46-55 MPH I had an intermitent miss. Now this could be plugs. The day before I got into this mess with the PCV valve, I had to change the pick-up coil in the distributor. Before confirming that diagnosis I pulled all the plugs and determined that they could be cleaned and regapped but two of them ( at least ) had rounded edges on the electrode. So before I tear anything else apart again, I plan to put in new plugs early next week and see if that eliminates the greater than 46 MPH miss. Other than that the first three times I drove the car I smelled anitfreeze occasionally. Three trips and smelling antifreeze at least once per tells me I still have an issue. The problem is I don't see any physical leakage from anywhere, and it is not a consistent smell. I just replaced the radiator cap last week, and the radiator itself was replaced back in December . So somewhere along the way I'll need to do a pressure test to see if it was just coincidence or if I have another issue to fix.
  23. Gotta agree with Stevo. Tons of 55,6 7 and 58's. What a show! Great job!
  24. Thanks for all the replies everyone. Today I pulled the intake, and the drivers side valve cover. I discovered that the broken piece of the old grommet had passed the valley pan gasket and was resting just over the top of the camshaft. The one new grommet that punched inside had also come to rest between the valley pan gasket and the rear of the block. Probably would have never been a problem to leave them but I feel better that I got them out. While I had the intake out I installed one of the new grommets and then ran one of my 3/8th extensions around inside the hole just to make sure the grommet was fully seated. Then I followed D Yaros' advice and coated the new PCV valve and gromet with STP. That worked great. The pcv slipped in and maintained a very tight fit. Unfortunately reinstalling the intake I managed to pinch the bracket for a metal vacuum line between the intake and the head. I did not even notice it till the intake was torqued. Then I had to release the entire manifold to pull the offending bracket out. Not having another intake gasket I retorqued the intake again and figured I had nothing to lose by trying. And it seems I may have gotten lucky after all. The car ran good with a slight roughness which I am sure is now a matter of changing the vacuum hoses and spark plugs. I don't see any antifreeze leaks but I will keep an eye on it for a week or so. If it drops at all I'll redo the intake gasket again and chalk it up to experience. I just hope I don't have to re do it, that intake manifold is heavy... Anyway, thanks again for all your replies and assistance.
  25. Glad you got out to the show Dan. Looks like a great time. Glad to see the electra there. That's still one awesome car!
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