MrEarl

nice haul.

Parts hunting and since your heading south.... there's day old chili on the stove....

What the title says. Posting opinions of forum members asking prices of THEIR vehicles unless asked can only lead to disgruntlement of the seller. Such posts will be edited or deleted. If your intent is to help the seller understand his price is out of line whether high or low, Private Message them, no need to do it in public. Posting opinions of non members asking prices, fine, no problem.

Bill, you really need this and you know it. I think that Escalade of yours needs her legs stretched, so let's be hittin the road!!

I'd be satisfied if the seller would go to the trouble of opening the hood and trunk. 55 owners, from what is visible, how correct is the newly done seat upholstery? The door panels look pretty nice considering their age. Very rare car and depending on just how solid could be fairly priced. Does anyone know the numbers on the 55 60 series w/conventional transmissions. I have a letter from Terry Dunham telling that his research shows nmt 525 '54 60's w/ct's were produced but couldn't break that down into 2 or 4 door. I only recall ever seeing 5 2dr ones with two of them being mine. I would think there would be even less 55's? Green is ok, but would love to see this dressed in Titian Red, the hot rod color of the 50's. But maybe Titian Red wasn't available in '55? Bill, go for this now as the penalty for snoozing would be to loose it. The penalty on paying late taxes couldn't be too bad.

Time for another song. Ol' Guy Clark, may he rest in peace, one of the greatest song writers of all time. Stuff That Works After cleaning up all the fencing and sheds it was time to start grading. Called on a retired grading contractor friend who still had his two main machines, a Cat 953 loader and a small Kumatsu dozer. He also has an old laser with a receiver mounted to his blade and could easily get grade to within a quarter to half inch. I had already shot a rough topo with my old World War ll Gurley transit I have had for over 40 years. There was about 4.5 ft difference in elevation from one end of the site to the other. So I knew that it was going to take roughly 450 cubic yards of fill ie about 40 tandem loads of good Georgia red clay. Had to move a couple pieces of old iron out of the way before grading began. THEN is was time to start with cutting off and saving the top soil and then the sloping of the top bank then the fill. My ol Gurley gun, the transit I learned surveying on... I became an instrument man within about 2 weeks of being hired and cuttin line. My boss said I was the fastest learner on the instrument he had ever had. I told him "Beats the hell out of cuttin briars" We had 3 trucks running and installed the fill in 6 inch lifts all the way up. After each lift the dozer operator would simply lower the grade rod another 6 inches and level off to that. The clay was beautiful and had just the right amount of moisture to get good compaction. Each layer was rolled by loaded tandems weighing about 40K. The fill went in great with never any pumping. The big old twin Post Oak will be off the back of the garage. The first day Rita and I went out to start the lay out, we used it to orient the whole building and grounds. Can't have an old garage without a shade tree out back. Care was taken through out the grading not to harm a root or limb of it. The building itself nor the back concrete pad is within the drip line of the tree but there will be some car traffic over the roots. To make the grade of the drive work with the elevation of the garage I had 3 tandem loads of #4 stone (3-4 inch) brought in and spread to about 24 inched deep within the drip line to allow "some" air and water to the roots and prevent compaction from being driven over. As I didn't want the clay fill to act as a dam below the stone, I laid some 8 inch drainage pipe and made an aggregate drainage line down the hill to help drain the stone. After all was said and done, it took 58 loads of fill plus some from a bank in a nearby pasture I decided to cut down some in order to save on cost of fill. The difference from the originally calculated 40 loads came in when I decided to run the building pad level on out to 8 ft vs the originally planned 4 and to make the slope 3/1 vs 2/1. I plan to relocate my orchard of apple, pear and plum trees on the slopes. (No peaches, too much spraying involved) The finished grade and top soil piles and views from the house. You can see my old friend Hawkeye, the red tail hawk, flying over checking to make sure we were on grade. And with that.. Break Time! Chili is on the stove. Hope y'all are enjoying the read.

And here is a graph paper sketch of my planned build. That’s all the designing or plans I will work from. The same way I have built the other two barns. I did do a full rendering of the house though as Rita didn't trust that I could get it all right by sketching on a paper bag. I would like to see it drawn up with some of the fancy on line design programs but gave a couple a shot and saw right quick that by the time I figured out how to use them I could have the building built. I will probably sketch up some interior renderings for layout of a couple of walls and work- stations but nothing fancy. I’ll share those as I do them. The sketch is roughly 1in/5ft. I made a change to the height from what is shown there. I decided after drawing to go with a 5/12 pitch roof so I could have a decent amount of vaulted ceiling in the garage part. The wall height is 12 ft but the front 12 ft of the inside will be office area with a flat ceiling. This sketch is drawn to a 4/12 pitch so the height of the building will be increased about 20 inches. I don't think that will upset the width to height ratio/scale of the looks of the building that much. Scale is one of the most important factors in building and landscaping. I'll just adjust each step accordingly. The front will have what I call a brow of 5 ft supported by L shaped brackets And here is the site before start of clearing and grading. You can see the small orchard, a chicken coupe and a lot of the old emu/goat/Buick parts sheds that will get demolished to make way for the build. I've drawn in the footprint of the new 40X40. (nts) My dream is to have the field out in front of it covered in Buick's some day, not necessarily mine mind ya, but maybe a big BCA Forum Party. And then the site after grading with silt fence and temporary grassing started. Let me go ahead and get this out of the way. The county does not require inspections for agricultural buildings such as pole barns etc. The only inspection that will be required will be an electrical prior to service being installed. So that is why I am able to begin the build and plan/design as I go. I designed and drew up the house and the barns. We had the house framed up, wired, plumbed and the masonry chimney built but my wife and I did the porches, most of the siding and interior (except sheet rock, I DONT DO SHEETROCK!!!). There is a lot of salvaged heart pine, architectural pieces etc inside the house that I spent years pulling out of old houses. I singlehandedly built the other two barns and other farm buildings, but all that was when we were a few years younger. I will be 68 soon and have slowed down just a bit, but I think I still have what it takes to do this one. Have found that balance is one of the first things to go so may not be skipping along rafters and floor joists like I use to. Here is the view from the back porch. And some pictures of some fencing, sheds and outbuildings that had to come down. I really hated to see the ol chicken coop go but got kinda tired of black snakes eating the eggs and raccoon and foxes helping themselves to the hens. These sheds started life as emu sheds then when they flew south were used for breeder South African Boer and New Zealand Kiko meat goats. Goats were fairly profitable, the emu, not so much. Best way I could figure to get the shed roofs on the trailer was to sacrifice the posts by incorporating hinges in them so they could be lowered gingerly down on the trailer. Well maybe not so gingerly after all. I was so shook up after it hit the trailer like a ton of bricks I forgot to take a picture of it on the trailer as proof that it did work. The OSHA Safety inspector was on hand to insure no one got maimed or killed. After the fencing and sheds were down, we piled the rest of the posts and debris into a big pile and had a celebratory bonfire. Celebrating all the past work that had gone into the farming of emu, goats and chickens and the future work of building the BS&S Garage. Out with the old, in with the new... hopefully the next bonfire will be the scraps left over from the new build. And what a hot fire it was... All that was left of all the years of work were ashes. The pins and string line were a foot below grade of the planned building elevation. Calculated it would take about 35 tandem loads of fill. We will see...

FINALLY getting around to sharing the build of a long time dream with y'all, my Buick Sales and Service Garage. The build started about two years after I retired and I had completed about half of the honeydew list that just seemed to keep getting longer. I have always had a thing for old Buick dealerships, especially those of the 50's but more especially the very early one's of the 20's and 30's. Many early car dealers came from the ranks of men involved in the horse related trades such as carriage sales, livery stable operators and blacksmiths. These merchants and tradesmen often engaged in automobile sales and services as sidelines and eventually turned their operations into full scale auto sales and service businesses. Many of the early dealerships also served as a gas station and garage. The materials used on the fronts of the early buildings were usually wood lap, vertical board and batten or metal siding. Later buildings were more of a masonry type construction. My build is basically a 40X40X12 ft pole barn with a lap siding stepped false front that was typical on 1920-30's era car dealership/service garages. There will also be a 12 x 20 metal clad interior wall welding shed on the back. The building will be used to house and work on my collection of '54's, the '38 and the '79 wagon. I initially considered building a 40-50's art deco style building but since my wife and I have spent the last 30 years building our Victorian farm house style home, barns and gardens, we decided to stay with that general theme. Here's our home, the old Buick Barn and the cobblestone well house. Before jumping into telling about and showing the actual work that has been going on over the last few couple years, let me try and set the mood for the build with some old photos of buildings of the period. Here is what I first considered, but totally not in the style of the rest of our buildings. These represent more the spirit or feel of what we like. And here is a video that I think might help capture and set the mood. I'll be sharing a few of my favorite tunes through out this build so if you want, click on it then come back here and read on ...... or ignore it. And my most liked and the one I used as a basis for the front false facade of my build.

cords, sorry I am just now checking back on this thread, time flies. Thanks for your kind words mate. I hear them white ants are worse down there than here in the US. A lot of the barn was built out of fir lumber from out west and it is one of the hardest "softwoods" I know of. Had a short piece lay on the ground for several months next to a short piece of yellow pine and the yp got eat up while the fir didn't get touched. I understand y'all have some pretty hard wood down there also though.

Just like he's gonna be crying next week.

Thank you Doug, thank you very much ? It’s This one is for you Stuart, BUILD THAT RACE CAR!!!

Thanks Joel, Not to mention it was cold as a witches you know what, you can see some snow still on the ground in one picture. It was hard keeping the little paint room up to temperature too, without blowing fuses. I forget exactly how many hours I put into it but I expect it was around 30-40. It was just something I wanted to do. The color in the pictures is off a bit as I used CARS Buick Green and it looks better in person. Thanks so much for the compliment.

I've never seen it in person but I contributed, so as maybe I can...someday...

Amazing!!!

Great to see this thread resurface! I’d be interested in purchasing a pre war changer in any condition mainly for display. All I have now is this little bead popper.

I understand that sales were so good, the dealers couldn’t keep the ‘59’s on the showroom floor, but seriously?!

I can see that 3.3

An old Mac tool box I restored a few years back. In incorrect Buick Engine Green color obviously.

at the Marriott South Park or ?

Pictures would be nice, and condition, such as how much meat is left on them and if any fins are broke.

Sorry for the loss of your friend John. 61 years old, that's too young. Please give his wife our condolences.

Now there's a 54 man Now there's a man .

Well that ought to handle it!!! G'luck Had kept putting off the gofundme donation and just got to it. small pittance but hope it helps keep us informed and hope ol Santa is good to you and the FP this year.

Pretty fitting paint color for that '54 parked in front of The Sands. Who can tell why come on Jake, give somebody else a shot

yep Bill, a '54 2 door cdan, you know, the year that had the built in fender skirts you like so much.