buick5563

Yep, the driveable 55. I should arrive Wednesday afternoon. Don't show mercy on the vendors, I know I'm not going to. We can arm wrestle for duplicates. I'm at the Holiday Inn, where are you gonna stay?

Oh, C'mon. That's possible from the Jersey guys!

Thanks Brian, You just saved me a phone call. I noticed a UK in the respond email address.

Hey Jim, welcome aboard. Check eBay and Antique Old Buick Parts CARS, Inc.

Cool. Look me up, I'll buy ya a beer to pay you back for inspiration.

You got it

Nice garage, Mike! The car looks good too.

I believe the reason the carb base had green paint on it is because the engine was painted with the carb installed. That is why the base of your distributor has green paint on it also. It is overspray from the factory not a thought out coating.

For people wanting to know why we have suggested Ford green instead of Buick green... This was the original question! Yes, as Jerry states later in this thread, Buick green IS available......by mail.

An old-timey glass shop that can install gasket type winshields (call them first) has a special sealer that comes in an oil can looking gun. Let them do it. Silicone doesn't work as well. Basically, they peel the gasket back and fill any voids between gasket and glass. I imagine they would do it for twenty bucks, front and back.

+1

Sure is a nice shirt to wear to an engine installation!

Here ya go. Bhigdog can explain better. The Cratex sticks that I bought are 1/4" X 6". They look like a black stick. The thing that I have read on other websites about them is that the only dressing you have to do, is to occasionally scrape the outer edge as it is turning as it tends to flare out. I just did this with a screwdriver tip while I was testing. I remeasured yesterday: I cut the dowel to about 1 1/2" and have roughly 1/2" sticking out below the drill chuck. Like I said yesterday, I was merely testing the pressure necessary to consistently swirl the aluminum. In answer to Derek's question, you are making new cuts in the aluminum, not cleaning. I tried to clean my old inserts with progressively harsher soap type products and they were too far gone. Dirt and oxidation were not my friends... There is a guy (again, google engine turned aluminum) named Eamonn Keough who does really nice work on predone work, as well as our Buick friend Doug Seybold. I have said this before, perhaps not on the forum: I do not begrudge people trying to make a living. True craftsmen deserve what they charge. Eamonn says on his website that he paid his way through college doing engine turning. The number I have heard thrown around is $750. I have not contacted either one of these gentlemen, but even close to that is more than I care to spend without giving it a shot first, myself. Bob has said in other posts that he has a milling machine and that it would be much easier now than when he did it the first time on a drill press. He has also said he doesn't want to do it for profit, so I didn't ask .

Scott, My apologies, I just went to the acc site and they didn't actually list Buick for 1950. In that case, yeah, go with Cars. I never knew...

Cars does get it from www.accmats.com. If they sell it, ACC made it. So does Kanter. Go with the cheaper person, unless you want something other than loop carpet.

FYI, I just got one of the tanks from eBay. It looks really good and for $275 +/- I feel it was worth it. It looks very close to the original stamping-wise, but it does ship in two pieces. I'm not sure of the feasability of resoldering the old tube, however. They sent a hose to connect the two, but I may try welding the two pieces together for more security and looks. One disadvantage to sealing the tank with the Renu process (which I did on my other 55) is that they seal the outside black. I tried the DIY sealer before the Renu process and it literally peeled off in sheets. That admitedly could have been operator error, but I wasn't going to attempt it again cuz frankly, it really PO'ed me. I will let you know later what I decided.

You can google Cratex, the place I bought mine was a supply company on the interwebz. I'll bring a chunk with me to Ames. I would not necessarily advise trying to do it in place since you have to chuck it to about 3/4-1" so it doesn't move around. Bob said he did his with a pencil eraser with valve lapping compound which may be the way to go in your case since the pencil could be chucked out farther. Without a jig, however, it will not look as good, but for a patch...Maybe?

Got the frame to the powdercoater yesterday. He is gonna call me to check it out after blasting, before priming so I can OK my own work. This morning, I was trying the Cratex rubberized abrasive dowels on the old piece of dash trim I have. I needed to see how my set up in the drill press was going to work: i.e. pressure necessary, length of rod showing since it is a rubber product. I figured out that it needs good consistent medium heavy pressure to thoroughly swirl. The advantage, is there is no valve compound needed as there is grit embedded in the rod itself. Bob is walking me through some of the finer points and nitty gritty (no pun intended) to making it look great. I do believe that I will be starting from scratch as the curved pieces would be a real beeyotch to do well. This is a photo of my first attempt (freehand for pressure purposes, don't judge!) Sorry, it's fuzzy all blown up. Stupid iPhone (Sorry baby, it's a fine product )

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I would NEVER have met any of you without the BCA. The friendships I have made through this club are the reason that I stay in it. When I see death notices of BCA folks, or peoples moms, or dogs...whatever, it pains me because these are FRIENDS. The Bugle is great, the club spends money I have no clue about. I don't really care. True, I don't work two jobs, I feel for those of you who do, truly, but everything costs. As far as the driving versus trailering, with all due respect, so what. The Nationals are what you make of them. The awards ceremony/ dinner is what I hate. Guess what? I don't go. I would rather be doing what Joe said, kibitzing with my Buick loving brothers and sisters. So I do. I go hang out with other folks who bailed on the Pomp(ous) and Circumstance. I know, I know, "But Mike, you have a Senior car, what about you?" I drive it. I drove it to the Nationals where I got that award. Will I drive the convertible when I finish it? Dunno, ask me in two years when it's close to finishing. I restore these cars, not to win prizes or accolades, I restore them to factory original because THAT is what I thought the Buick club was about. It won a prize because it looked good and I did a good job researching what it was SUPPOSED to look like when new. My hat is off to Bill and Rick for doing what needed to be done to pull off a National so I could see my friends again. See y'all in Iowa

Just as I suspected. I spent some time unveiling inspection marks and the frame number from beneath the undercoating. I will duplicate the stencil for the frame number, and am considering doing the chalk marks at all of the body mount locations, I assume they were shim marks. There were one, two, or three chalk marks at each location. Kinda cool! BTW, I did straighten most of the frame really well. I had to do a bunch of grinding on the rear crossmember to make the welded flat plate look stock. Like I said before, it is above the frame member in the C channel and I couldn't "unweld" it. The extra metal can't hurt, but I wanted to make sure John D couldn't see it when he was crawling around looking for it.

I'm fortunate that my car has no rust pits. If they don't have a suggestion for filling any nastiness, I may just have them blast and prime, then I'll just paint it. I just got the remaining front suspension parts off. I need to remove the rear rubber bumpers then it'll be a bare naked frame. I said bare naked...

Ahhh, true.

I sent you a PM, Bob.

Today, I had to cut off the angle iron that a trailer hitch was mounted to. It was welded to the top side of the rear bumper portion of the frame. I had to grind it to make it flush with the frame rail. I checked my other 55, and you won't be able to see the part that I couldn't cut off. Here's a question...How far do you go when restoring a frame. Mine is close but since it is going to be powdercoated, I can't use bondo. What would y'all do? I got the rear end pulled away from the body and rolled (muscled) down the trailer ramps. I rolled it off to the side then dropped the back of the frame on to the trailer. I then got most of the driver's side front suspension disassembled. The only part I couldn't remove were the two bolts holding the upper a-arm assembly. I have them soaking tonight with my buddy PB blaster. I am still thinking that I can get the frame to the powdercoater this week.

Here is a pic of the WIN stamp