Erndog
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Posts posted by Erndog
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Thanks. It is encouragement like yours that may keep me going. I, too, spent an enormous amount of time on the main body sills and am still not really done with them. The sills on mine both had pine and plywood sections scabbed onto the front ends under the cowl section. That greatly added to the mystery of the original dimensions. For right now, while I plod through the other parts of the wood, I am leaving them a little extra long in front. I am afraid to cut them wrong and screw everything up. When I feel the time is right I will probably put the radiator back on, the A frame (rods) over the engine, and connect them to the firewall and cowl. I think that should show me pretty close where the cowl should be sitting and thus the length and shape of the sills.
Attached are photos of what I had to work with.
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This is the condition of the seats when I got her. If I ever get the other big stuff done I will worry about this.
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Thanks! I will keep you in mind.
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I started 12 years ago right after I got it home. I started by very carefully dissecting the body down to a bare chassis. That took quite a while, since I had no previous experience. I have yet to do anything mechanical, other than obtaining another exhaust manifold to replace the broken one it came with and getting a replacement head from a different engine I have. The original head had several disturbing cracks around the valve springs.
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Oh, and I also have the 1931 Buick Fisher Body Manual.
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That book was one of the first things I obtained. It has been very helpful, yet frustrating in how dark some of the crucial photographs are.
I also have the
1930 Sales Brochure
1930 Specifications and Adjustments manual
1929 Buick Reference Book
1929 Buick Shop Manual
1918-1932 Buick Parts Book
16th Edition of the Hollander interchange book
16th Edition of Dykes Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia
1938 Edition of Chilton Flat Rate and Tune Up Manual
and various other jobber publications.
However, the wood stuff is very elusive and measurements are non-existent.
If ANYONE out there has ANY body measurement, i.e. widths, door pillar to pillar, actual wood parts measurements, etc., I would be eternally grateful!!
Though I thought I was saving as much data as humanly possible while dissecting, you never realize what you miss until it is too late.
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The first thing I did was try to document the existing condition of the car as best I could. I will be sharing a lot of that here for any of you sadists out there. You may think I should have seen what I was getting into before I bought it, but I had buyer's fog and no experience in how bad bad can be. I also spent several days getting there, due to blowing an oil pump en-route and didn't want the trip to be for naught. By the way, the pictures didn't show it, but the trunk came with it.
Here are some of the wood condition photos. They were also to document original wiring layouts, etc.
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Thanks!
One of the first things I noticed when I started messing with the wood, other than a lot of dry-rot, was a bug infestation. See photos. Essentially, the only wood that wasn't affected was a few plywood pieces that a previous owner had scabbed in. Therefore, it was decided for me, then and there, that I was going to have to replace virtually every piece of wood in the car. And that's a lot. That was not good, as I had NO woodworking experience. However, it was good, in that I had an excuse to acquire a lot of new toys (tools). I have been looking at this as a big do it yourself jigsaw puzzle. One thing I learned is that this is not your cookie-cutter Ford. Fisher bodies are pretty much one of a kinds. Though they had templates and jigs, there were a lot of individualisms in construction. For example, I have found that right and left like parts are rarely identical. Usually minor differences, but sometimes glaring and made up for elsewhere.
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When I was growing up we had an old buckrake on the ranch that had been fashioned out of a 1929 Buick. This was a fairly common practice in the old days because they were such a hardy vehicle. I fell in love with the honeycomb radiator and the unusual rear suspension, and ended up buying a basket case 29-46S. I soon was overwhelmed with the task, considering I had hung the body from some rafters (I was young and dumb) to facilitate removal from the chassis. It almost immediately fell to pieces. That was the end of that project.
Fast forward 30 years.
On July 9, 2003, I purchased a 1930 Model 30-61 four door sedan with dual sidemounts through eBay. It was in running condition, so all the better, though mechanical restoration is what I prefer. I drove from Virginia to Indiana and picked it up. I was told the wood was fairly sound, but could not readily verify that. When I got it home the ride verified quite the opposite for me. Thus began what so far is a 12 year re-wooding project. Bear in mind that that includes long periods of restoration depression, reworking, problem solving, and other things in my life.
This thread is to chronicle my woes and solicit input/advice/help, etc. and show what progress, if any, I make. I should have started it years ago, but better late than never.
I probably have many hundreds of photos, so if anyone needs some info, let me know.
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Is this what you are looking for?
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May be a '30, but modified for some reason.
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You're a lucky man. I have a '30 block with two cracks, one over 20". I looked for years for a new block with no luck.
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I agree with 40 Olds.
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Good to know. I live in Williamsburg. Never thought about that resource.
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I checked it and it is crap. Has nothing to do with AACA. I reported it.
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True, Restorer32. That is the one thing that keeps me concerned. Unfortunately, I won't know how well I am doing until I get it mostly done and test-fit the doors.
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That's pretty much the impression I got. It made my life a lot easier when I realized it didn't have to be up to NASA standards, so to speak.
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Thanks, Mark. The main sills were one of the biggest challenges I had. The front two feet or so of both had rotted away and been replaced crudely. I spent a couple of years agonizing over how to handle that. The worst piece by far had to be the rockers that curve up in front of the rear wheels. They curve in two different axis. Very difficult to make!
Had I realized the condition of the wood I never would have bought the vehicle. I never did any woodworking prior to this vehicle, so to say it has been a learning experience is an understatement. It has gotten a little easier as I go along, but not easy. Fortunately, nearly every piece that had rotted away completely usually had a surviving mate on the other side of the car. The most interesting thing I have discovered is that every piece is somewhat unique. Where I have surviving matching components, they do not always match in size. It appears that they had a definite set of templates to make the pieces from, but modified them on the fly to make them work.
Would I do a whole car again? I doubt it, but I no longer have any fear of doing some of one. If nothing else, I had to get lots of new toys to fabricate the wood with.
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Never heard of that one! I will leave that for someone else.
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Thanks, guys! These answers are exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get. Please keep your thoughts and opinions on this coming. The more the merrier! Everyone will probably have a little piece of information to add that helps, possibly without even realizing it. It is looking good for the glue team. Any takers for the other side of the discussion?
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Not sure if this is the best place for this question, but here it is. I have been in the process of doing a total re-wood of a 1930 Buick four door sedan, the big one, for many (too many) years. As I near the end of the process, a nagging question comes back to me. Should a person "screw and glue" the connections and joints throughout the body, or just screw them together and leave it at that?? The Fisher Body Service manual says that joints are "screwed and glued" throughout the book, almost every time a joint is described. However, my local restoration shop and others never glue their joints and say not to. The pros for "screwing and gluing" are maximum strength and less chance of squeaks. The pros of screwing without gluing are ease and the ability to readily replace bad or damaged pieces of wood in the future.
What is the current school of thought on this? Also, what is the best treatment for the wood when done, other than the asphalt-based coating Fisher Body used?
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I am pretty sure the divider plate is the answer here.
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:confused: Does anyone out there have a gas tank for a 1940 Olds four door sedan? It is made with a depression on the top to accommodate the spare in the trunk.
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Does the 1940 Olds have a decent original gas tank with the spare tire indent?
1930 Buick Model 30-61 Never-ending Restoration
in Our Cars & Restoration Projects
Posted · Edited by Erndog (see edit history)
That is a great collection of pieces you have there and I feel the pain of every one of them! I have made them all, I think. My collection is mostly assembled right now, though it will be coming all apart again for about the fifth time for further fit-ups and eventually final modifications. Hopefully, I won't have to completely remake any pieces.
Yes, I would greatly appreciate any instructions/advice/photos you may have. I will send you my email address in a PM.
As far as making new pieces goes, by far the most difficult pieces were the lower curved sections of the rear body hinge pillers. I think I finally got them fairly right, but it took me several years of trial and error and pondering. Another item of concern is the center body lock piller. How does one get the new wood back into the metal wrap?? Getting the old wood out of one of them was easy because the glue had disintegrated and the three pieces fell apart. But the other piller still has the wood in it and I haven't attempted removal yet. As I am sure you know, there are some other very tricky situations I will probably be asking about.