Buicks Rule
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Karl,
The boot has ( had ) metal clips that were coated with some type of plastic paint that snapped around the stainless trip. I don't recall anyone selling the boot with the clips on it--usually they are sold separately. Then you rivet them into the hard plastic strip on the outside edge of the boot.
Some of the repop clips are bare metal--do a great job of scratching everything. I thought someone had coated clips available but can't remember who. They are special used only a couple of years and then GM went to the thinner plastic pieces that slip under the stainless moulding like on a 68/69. There are also a couple of dot snaps on straps that hang down to snap onto the back seat back inside the top well to assist the velcro on the back of the back seat to hold the boot on.
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John,
A friend that worked for a dealership at the time mid 60s indicated that the cast iron 300 with aluminum heads was not a happy engine after a few years/miles. If it were me, I would find the cast iron 4 bbl manifold from a 65 or 66 300 and use it. Then it's a direct bolt on to the 65 engine. With the 300 also being used in the LeSabre were more power accessories were common, it shouldn't take too much looking to come up with a 65 300 4 bbl manifold.
Buick had to have a reason to move away from the aluminum heads and it was probably more than cost.
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Norb,
Occasionally I see a dealer add on car out here with "Wildcat" emblems. Usually has a fake convert top and some other doo dads to make it look custom. The emblems look very close to what you have. About 2 to 3 inches or so in diameter, cast metal with paint inside. They are usually mounted on the C pillar and sometimes on front/rear fender.
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If you're thinking a temporary fix while you rebuild the original engine, I would either look for a running 401/425 from a 65/66 big car or just try to be as efficient time wise as you can while rebuilding the original engine. The amount of work/time to change and then change back is significant.
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Yay Fran. This just proves that all the cool people in the BCA belong to the BDE! Hi to John.
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Howard,
I have the same system, but we have a second unit next to the post boxes in our neighborhood that is two large holding bins. When something that is too large to put in the little box is delivered, it goes into one of the holding bins and the key is left in your mailbox. This is usually parcels but sometimes if something is in one of the cardboard priority mail envelopes it goes there too.
Having the locked mailboxes isn't a bad idea in this day of mail theft-leading to identity theft-credit card theft-etc. At least if someone unauthorised breaks into the locked box, you know about it.
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Also, remember that GM/Ford/Chrysler also in some hot water over the immense size AND more importantly WIDTH of their 59/60 offerings. Some were over 80 inches wide which was a big no no.
GM was the first to react with the smaller, lighter 61 cars which were significantly smaller both optically and in reality than their 60 counterparts. Chrysler went further on this downsizing kick and accidently created the intermediate sized car that GM reacted to with the 64 A bodies.
The 64 up Belvedere/Coronet is very highly related to the 62 'big' mopars.
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The sudden demise of DeSoto may have also left a rather larger gap in the product line than predicted, especially when coupled with the 'small' Dodge. Pretty much at the same time Chrysler was moving down market to fill the void left by DeSoto. But while Chrysler's cachet of an 'expensive' car might have attracted buyers away from DeSoto, the loyal DeSoto buyer may have chosen the DeSoto because it offered virtually every Chrysler virtue without the image of a 'rich man's' Chrysler. To that buyer, the 'regular' Dodge wasn't quite fancy enough so take the 61 big Dodge front end, apply it to a 62 Chrysler body and voila the 880. It was an amazingly good looking car given the rather odd assortment of parts that created it.
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Do the following.
Check the owner's manual for the correct tire size.
Go to Coker Tire--www.coker.com. Look up the actual dimensions of their repop size.
The "height" referred to above are actually over-all diameters. Split the number in half for tread to spindle center distance.
Once you have the dimensions you need, go to the website for your preferred brand of modern tire. Ex: www.goodyear.com.
At some point each will give you the actual dimensions of the modern tire size for each of their tire lines. You may have to play around a bit on each site to get the hang of the way they've organized their tire info. Needless to say, choose select tire by size. If you do it by vehicle you'll get either no information or possibly miss something you would prefer to buy.
There is actually some leeway in the P metric sizes, so each tire manufacturer might be slightly different in actual dimensions even for the same size tires.
You should be able to find something very close in over all diameter. Remember divide the difference by 2 to check difference in actual spindle to tread height. It may be possible to get a difference of around 1/10 of an inch--which isn't going to be visible.
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Derek,
Do you guys have designer gas in Canada? Down here the US EPA governs the various gasoline blends to try to keep pollution down. One of the oxygenators that is used is 10--20% alcohol. This can do a real job of cleaning out any crud in the tank and plugging up the fuel lines real fast. It also will turn older ( pre alcohol spec ) rubber fuel lines to goop really fast too. The rubber diaphrams in the NOS fuel pumps die quickly too once the alcohol hits them.
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Jax,
AACA Board member John Myer has a 56 Caddy. You can probably find his email through the aaca.org page. He is located in Alabama. He and his wife have driven the car to many shows and tours across the country so he's probably familiar with what you're going through.
There is probably a fairly extensive discussion of the brake booster in the Caddy shop manual. They were changing things fairly rapidly in that era trying to get power brakes to be reliable. The Packard guys have had a lot of discussion about the Bendix Treadle Vac system that the 55-56 Packards used--check out the Packard General part of the DF. GM used the same Bendix booster--as well as a Delco-Moraine clone in some years.
Hope this helps.
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Alan,
GR--Alpha numeric radial. Try Coker. I don't think you'll have any luck. There was a thread on either the BCA or AACA DF a year or so ago on a similar tire for an early 70's Riv--again an alpha numeric radial. At that time it looked very unlikely that anyone would reproduce tires in those size designations but things change.
As NTX said, if you're willing to use a metric version of the same size many tire manufacturers will have something that will work. I'm partial to Goodyears myself. Kelly is a division of Goodyear and concentrates on replacement tires so you might find the size you're looking for there as well.
Good luck
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You have a shop manual for this year/model Buick--right? You'll need it for both disassembly and assembly and dimensions. Northwest Transmissions in Ohio has many seals and hard parts for Dynaflows.
Sometimes there were internal changes from year to year, but most VP dynaflows from 57-63 were pretty similar.
Good luck,
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Another bit of history--as I recall, the Reatta group already had a very active discussion forum prior to the BCA even having a web page. Original Reatta buyers tended to have fairly high incomes, often working in fields where email and the internet were a common part of daily life much earlier than for the traditional Buick buyer/hobbyiest. I can't remember whether the original Reatta forum migrated here or if it's still out there somewhere.
I really don't like the idea of splitting the forum into small year/era groups. Some slight rearrangement might be worthwhile, but we need to keep the Buick community together as much as possible.
After all, hearing about how much lighter a Buick 455 is than a Small Block Chevy is might cause a modified person to put a Buick 455 into their modified car. Or even rebuild the Nailhead in their early Riv rather than make it perform like a Chevy--a huge step backward.
Because all of us look at most of the posts, we have NOT had the problems with certain individuals that AACA, or CCCA, or PAC has with people dis-respecting others. It simply has NOT been tolerated here.
Like all families, members of the Buick family may disagree but we ALL do it with MUTUAL RESPECT for the other family members participation in the aspect of the BUICK hobby that they enjoy.
Tommy--register for a BDE event. That's where almost all the cool people in the BCA hang out. A dose of BDE cool might actually help you enjoy your 27 more.
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Tommy--A little history lesson.
The BCA began welcoming modified cars at its National meets around 1991. I could be off a few years.
Over the years, the subject of modified cars in the BCA has been brought up at the Annual General Membership Meeting, BCA Board meetings etc.
On more than one occasion, the Buick Club's founder, BCA #1 Greg Field raised his hand during the discussions, introduced himself and mentioned that he owned quite a few Buicks--including some MODIFIED Buicks. Just before he passed away, Greg had created a personal version of the Blackhawk. If it was good enough for BCA #1, guess it'll have to be good enough for Tommy.
BCA Editor Snowden always needs articles. If you don't like what's in this month's Bugle, or want more how to articles, or more straight-8 articles, more nailhead, more dynaflow, more chapter activities--WHATEVER--take some photos, write something and send it in. Snowden can't print what he does not have.
PS--Tommy--AACA receives significantly more revenue from the AACA affinity credit card ( like $50,000 per year ) than the BCA does from the BCA affinity credit card. AACA had theirs FIRST. If the BCA could get that kind of $$ from the program, maybe the Bugle could be a full color publication.
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For another reason to keep things as they are on the BCA Forum, we have only to look at the Kustom Car post put up by Tommy 27. Based on the responses, his opinion is NOT shared by many forum users, BCA members, or even some AACA members, for that matter. Since it was on the BCA General Forum, lots of people saw it, many responded. Most responses made it pretty clear that modified cars are welcome in the BCA, even though each of us has our own personal opinions about what cars should ( and should not ) be modified. If it were hidden away in a sub-forum that few read-one man's opinion might have appeared to be that of the entire BCA. That would be a BAD thing.
The BCA forum has been amazingly free of the rancor and disrespecting of other car enthusiasts that has appeared from time to time on other forums. I think part of this has to do with the fact that all the BCA regulars drop in every few days to see what's up. If someone crosses the line, then there's usually quite a few folks gently pointing that out.
Subdividing could also lead to certain forums being treated like the personal playground of one or even a few members. Another bad thing.
Buick is a little unique in that in every era Buicks were some of the finest, most roadable, most enjoyable cars to drive, of that time period. So, Buicks from every era are pretty popular with owners of cars from that era.
Thanks to Dan B, an AACA member from Cheyenne, my oldest Buick ride was in a 1914 Touring car through Rocky Mountain National Park up to the Stanley Hotel. What a ride! At a spry 88 years of age, the old girl ran up the mountain road like she was having fun--but then she probably was. Buicks WERE made to be driven!
Part of what makes the Buick hobby strong is that we ALL respect each other's love for their era of Buick and we ALL learn from each other.
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George,
Books are right on this one. No GS 350 Convertible. However, the high performance GS 350 engine was available in the Skylark Custom making in essence a GS 350 Convertible. But, the badging and serial number would still show up as Skylark Custom. The hood and other stuff bolts on so it was probably changed over the years. There was a convertible that had been restored this way in Canada a few years ago. Any chance it's the same car.
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Why put a wimpy mouse motor in a car that deserves a Nailhead? By the time you pay for the modifications to make everything fit, you'll spend way more than rebuilding a 401/425.
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My sister and ex-brother-in-law had a 65 Starfire 2 door hardtop as a new car. Black, red interior--4 speed car. They traded it in on a new 66 Mercury Cyclone. I never saw the car again after they got rid of it. It was sold in North East Ohio so could still be around there if someone saved it.
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Brian,
It was good that you raised the question. It made all of us think about what we would like to see.
Take care,
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Sounds like 96 Roadmaster is going for some pretty aggressive performance. Given that, it might be a better idea to give up the whitewall for a performance rated mainline manufacturer blackwall tire. Both Coker and Diamondback classics offer wide white radial tires. I have a set of Diamondbacks on one car but it is not a car that would push the performance envelope with.
Between So Cal heat, freeway speeds and an intention to maximize performance, I think I would play it safe with the strongest/best performance tire I could find/afford. Those who want to play and are clueless enough to be fooled by whitewall tires will probably still be fooled by blackwalls. Those who pay attention will spot the difference in size/tread regardless of whitewall or lack thereof.
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I too like the simplicity of the Buick General forum. By keeping almost all Buick stuff in one place, it gives all of us the opportunity to learn about other eras of Buicks. Like many, if a topic looks interesting, I'll read about it even if it's an era that I don't own. I usually end up learning something too. But, while I might open a thread on this forum about say a 26 Buick I probably wouldn't go into a special area for pre-straight 8 Buicks very often to see what's up.
Wouldn't it be nice if that person looking for service info on their 96 Roadmaster read one of the posts about an earlier era Buick that looked cool, got involved and bought one?
I've gone on the V8 Buick forum occasionally but find the multiple forum listings a huge pain and often end up checking 5 or six different areas because the info I'm seeking "could" fit in more than one place.
When in doubt use the KISS rule. Keep in simple stupid. By keeping everything in one place, we all have the opportunity to be intrigued by a thread title and learn something new. If we have to go searching through 5 or 6 different areas, many of us will just check the era we're currently interested in. I think we would all lose.
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Adam,
The ones you posted are from something other than a 66-67 Riv. The lip/edge profile is different. Is there a chance that the ebay seller is wrong and that the ebay covers actually fit a 15 inch wheel. My guess is that they are 66-67 Riv optional wheel covers with a tri-shield center for use on a LeSabre/Wildcat/Electra.
If the seller would post a back side photo, it might help as we could then see what style clips were used to hold them on.
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RV
Saw 2 this weekend at dealership. Stickered at around $33K. Interiors looked nice and way more interesting that Regal/Century but priced a LOT higher than Century. These were loaded cars but were stickering about like a fully loaded LeSabre Celebration.
Agree--the butt is BUTT UGLY. Now we know where the AZTEK designer moved to--from Pontiac noses to Buick Butt's. Looks just like a cross between a Ford Taurus and a Dodge Neon from the rear.
Sooooo--make it a coupe, or better yet a convertible. If I'm a gonna drive a 4 door, I'm agonna drive a Marauder!
Emissions Test for the over 30 crowd??
in Oldsmobile - General
Posted
Yep--for Arizona, at least Phoenix and Tucson. Find a good mechanic that you trust and have him pre-check the car. He/she should be able to set it up to pass the standards. At least then you'll only wait in line once at the state facility.