Charles2

If the over-application is not too bad or too visable, I'd leave it as it is. The factories typically applied weatherstrip cement 1/8" to 1/4" beyond the edge of the weatherstrip when the cars were assembled so you would be authentic. On light-colored cars they used a yellow cement. On cars made around 1960, you get the impression that they used a paint roller to coat the entire edge of the door. Probably not but they sure were not real tidy about it.

You might also take a look at the needle and seat in the carburetor. You may have a problem with fuel pressure "unseating" the needle. The new Viton needles work much better than the old, all-metal units. Let us know what you find.

I think that the gasoline suppliers, both wholesalers and retailers, have shown more restraint than they are getting credit for. I suspect that at $4.00 per gallon, or even $5.00 per gallon, every gallon of gasoline produced in this country would be purchased, at least over the short term. The demand for gasoline in America is not very elastic. Would you sell your house for $200,000 knowing that you could get $250,000 or a car for $4,000 knowing you could get $5,000? Is your selling the house or car for the greater amount "price gouging" or just "good business"? Is someone selling gas for $3.20 per gallon when they could get $4.00 per gallon "gouging" or restraint? Letting price and demand come into balance without government interference is called a free market. A lot of people are in favor of free markets (untill they start being squeezed); this was a big item in the Republican platform and a lot of voters bought into it and is one of the reasons that Geo. W. Bush is now President. Now that the free market is causing a bit of pain does not mean that it is not working; it just means that it is not now working in your favor right now. To favor free markets untill the price of something you need goes up uncomfortably and then complaining is being human but not being consistent.

Yes. I sent the tank from my 1940 Buick to the one in Pennsylvania. Cost me a bundle in shipping but was worth it. The tank was in pretty rough shape with literally thousands of pinholes, a major dent and pounds of rust and scale inside. They cleaned it, removed the dent and sealed it so that it is probably better than when new. Only problem is that the outside of the tank is coated with a tough rubberized plastic that will cost you points on a show car but certainly doesn't matter on a driver. I recommend them!

Great! Your arms will be much stronger when you finish replacing the bushings.

There is a kit for replacing the greasless lower-inner bushings with threaded lube-type bushings. The replacement bushings are designed to cut threads in the A-frame and are difficult, but not impossible, to install. You will need a socket of the correct size and a long (50-60 cm) wrench. Bob's Automobilia should have the kit I'm describing; contact them and let them know what you need to do. If you have a copy of the original service manual, or a Motor's manual from those days, the replacement process is briefly mentioned. I would check with Bob's before you put too much reliance on advice from the folks at Cars; I have not found Cars to consistently knowledgeable or reliable.

I had the complete instrument cluster from my 1940 Special redone by a firm in Illinois (I can find the firm name if you are interested). The instruments needed both cosmetic and functional reconditioning; they were well weathered and totally non-functional when I bought the car. The cost was about $1800 with no conversions for 12 volt. The work was beautiful and the instruments work extremely well. Rebuilding old car instruments requires skills and hard-to-get parts as well as making parts that are not available. This kind of expertise and inventory does not come cheap. To me, looking at a factory-new instrument panel was worth the money. Barely.

I have had very good luck with Apple Hydraulics. They rebuilt the front shock absorbers on my 1940, 41 series. That, together with replacing all of the front end bushings, made the car ride like new. If you send your old shocks to Apple to be rebuilt, you can save the duty on your core charges. I sent my old shocks to them after marking them inconspicuously and requested that they rebuild the ones I sent. I got my originals back; it took less than two weeks. They run a very professional operation.

Dodge had the 4X4 Power Wagon in those days.

Each set of points only handles half of the coil switching. If you have a dual point/dual coil setup then each coil has more time to recover from the previous cycle than a single setup (better coil saturation) and thus a hotter spark. Also, the points will open faster than they would with twice the lobes on the cam; this also can "hot-up" the spark. Other advantages: better high rpm performance since point "bounce" is less likely and the points will last longer (usually) since they are opening and closing (and arcing) half as much as with the single setup. The disadvantage is that dual point setups are a bit harder to set accurately and you can have different spark timing with each set of points if the point mounting plate is not made accurately.

Be sure to check the felt channels that the glass slides up and down in. Very often, the cause of glass breakage in cars of that vintage is worn channels.

Not sure what engine you are talking about but the usual reason for leaking valve covers with new gaskets is bent metal flanges where the cover bolts to the head. Now if your cover bolts to the head with studs that protrude through the center of the valve cover, ignore this. Otherwise, remove your valve cover and put a straight edge along the bolting flange. Chances are that the metal is bent down into the gasket at each bolt hole. You need to hammer that dimple out of the bolting flange. I use as large a socket as will fit around the hole mounted on a long extension and clamp this in a vise. I then use a ball pein hammer and actually reverse the dimple using the socket as an anvil. Then, I use gasket sealer on the cylinder head side of the gasket and install the valve cover torquing to factory specifications. This effectively glues the gasket to the cylinder head. A lot of mechanics will use sealer on the valve cover side; personal preference I guess though I've had fewer leaks with the sealer on the head side. Don't use sealer on both surfaces if you plan to reuse the gasket in the future. Done this way, you shouldn't have any leaks.

A common cause of lost coolant for a lot of the pre-40's cars is the overflow tube. Several manufacturers installed a baffle in the top tank to keep water away from the overflow tube since it would either surge forward and out the tube when stopping or pile up in the top tank and flow out the tube when the engine is revving. Pressurized cooling systems did away with much of this problem. If this is your problem there should be an equilibrium coolant level for your car. Check to see whether the coolant keeps disappearing or if it drops to a certain level and then stays there. If the latter applies and your car does not overheat then let it be.

Depends on the rear axle ratio. The standard ratio for most of the 1940, 40 and 50 series cars was 4.40:1. This had the engine turning about 3300 rpm at 60 mph with standard tires, fairly high rpm for a long stroke straight eight although the engine was smooth and fairly quiet at that speed. Although these cars would go faster than 60 mph, the engines were noticably spinning at higher speeds. The optional 3.90:1 "high-speed" rear axle had the engine turning a bit under 3000 rpm at 60 mph. The 3.90:1 rear end was pretty popular in the western US.

It could also be bad motor mounts, a real possibility on a car of that age. When I first got my 40 Buick, you could lift the engine an inch or so without loosening any bolts. It acted as though the clutch was bad but it was the engine shaking around on the mounts. Worth a look before you tear into the clutch.

Steele Rubber would be worth checking, they make a lot of other similar parts.

The oil filter inlet should be fed by the line running from the oil gallery below the pushrod cover; this is the line that is under direct pressure from the oil pump. The outlet should go from the filter body to the fitting on the side of the head. This, then feeds filtered oil directly to the rocker arms and valves. From your description, your oil filter is "wired" backwards. I suspect that you are getting some oil filtration but certainly not the way it was intended. I would re-route the oil plumbing but would first re-check to be sure of which is the inlet and which is the outlet on your filter. As I recall, the inlet goes to the outside of the canister and oil is pushed through the filter medium to the center of the unit where the outlet is located.

There really isn't any "easy" way to replace the seal but the job is pretty straightforward. I would recommend pulling the rear axle back using the standard approach. Using a Come-along could do damage to expensive parts and wouldn't save much work. I also would remove the transmission although you don't need to to replace the seal; I just think you can do a better job of fitting the seal and the shim gaskets if you have the transmission on the bench. If you use a Come-along, the only thing you won't need to unhook on the rear axle would be the left-threaded spring retainer bolts. You would still need to unhook the emergency brake cable, the brake hose, the shock links and the panhard rod and remove the transmission cover on the floorboards. Once you have gone this far, pulling the spring bolts is not much more work and, it isn't that much more work to remove the transmission. Moreover, with the transmission out, you could disassemble it and inspect it for damage. The problem with leaky ball seals is that they can quickly pump the oil out of a transmission. So, there is a possibility that your gearbox has been run dry sometime in the past. Be a good idea to check it out. .

The screws are on the rear of the steering wheel on the 1940's; they are not real obvious. They are sunk below the surface of the reverse side of the steering wheel so you have to look carefully. As I recall, the screws are Phillips-head and are about 5mm below the surface. Try using a mirror to look for them. Good luck!

This is a common procedure for people working on the Model A Ford. Check the Model A forum "Ahooga" or "FordBarn" and post a request for references. There are several articles available covering the procedure in detail. Wear a dust mask when you are working with any dusty parts of your old brake system - there is asbestos in the dust.

Yes, the turn indicators on the 1940 Buicks were self-cancelling. To access the mechanism, you need to remove the steering wheel. Steering wheel removal depends on whether you have a banjo-type with a horn ring or the three plastic spoke type with a center button. To remove the wheel, you need to use a puller after exposing and removing the nut retaining the wheel. On the horn ring type, there are three screws on the reverse side of the wheel hub. On the three-spoke type, the center horn button will pry out exposing the nut. When you use the puller, be sure you don't damage the horn wire button that fits into the hollow steering shaft; use a small socket to protect it from the puller center-piece. Once you have the turn indicator mechanism exposed, removal is simple. As I recall, there are a few screws that need to be removed and then the assembly is removed by prying out the ball retainers. Work carefully and slowly, take good notes, and the job should be fairly easy. Also, the switch assembly comes apart easily for cleaning once you have it out of the car. This would also be a good time to replace the horn wire that goes down the center of the steering shaft. The insulation on many of these older cars is bad and if the wire grounds to the steering shaft, your horn will blow with no effort on your part. Simple job of soldering on both ends of the wire. Good luck.

Your Buick has a mechanical gage. There is a fine tube that goes from the oil gallery on the right side of the engine (forward of the distributor) to the back of the oil pressure gage. The tube could be partially blocked with sludge and thus only transmitting the higher pressures. Or, it could be the gage itself is either failing or sludged up or possibly it could be a failing pressure relief spring in the oil pump. The only way to trouble-shoot the problem is to temporarily install a pressure gage of known accuracy. You can buy one for about $50 or perhaps you can borrow a pressure gage of the required range. Until you know whether it is in the engine or the gage system, all you can do is guess.

Are you talking about the bare block or the entire engine assembly? The bare block weighs somewhere between 150# and 200#, two people can easily move it; I can horse them around my shop alone but not easily. The entire engine without flywheel housing would go somewhat less than 250#, again, not too much of a challenge for two people to move. I shipped one to a babbit specialist complete with cam, rods, crank and block and together with the crate the weight was less than 250# as I recall. I'm sure that someone on the Ahooga forum could give you the weights to the nearest ounce. Just type ahooga into google, click on the first listing and then follow the "directions".

Mine was a 1939 Cadillac V-16, seven passenger touring sedan. When I bought it in 1963, it was in unrestored but good condition with about 65,000 miles on the odometer. It still had the lube stickers from a Florida dealer dated 1942 and East Coast "W" radio station letters on the radio. That car had the longest hood I have ever looked down. It idled so smoothly that I had to check the oil pressure gage to be sure it was running. When I started school at the University of Washington, I sold it to a guy who really wanted it. I wish I'd kept it. I don't know what happened to it.

If you replace the upper shaft and bushings, the replacement parts usually come with an eccentric shaft that allows you to set both caster and camber. The 1940 Buick shop manual shows how to adjust the caster and check camber using a precision bubble protractor. Any Motor's Manual from about 1947 on will show how to set both caster and camber. In the U.S., Starrett makes a good precision bubble protractor; they cost about $80 when I bought mine. They also come with a good center gage and a try-square. I used it to set the caster and camber on my '40 and it worked pretty well. The original alignment specifications allow you about plus or minus 1/2 degree from the stated angle. Camber is set by measuring the wheel inclination from the front hub outer face. It helps to have the wheel bearings tight when you make this measurement. There are a couple of flat spots on the rear of the spindle support that the caster readings are taken from. It is sort of a pain to crawl under the car and make the reading; you can't use a jack because it would change the angle. If you have access to more accurate equipment, I'd use it but the bubble protractor does work, they are not too expensive and you can do it yourself.