special55

Hey Ken, I did mine a while back. I reused anything I couldn't get in one of the kits being offered. I will say that I was going to replace the master cylinder piston due to some very light pitting but found the replacement ones to be very inferior products and unusable. I ended up reusing my old one as the pitting was in a location not near the sealing surfaces so leak down was not a concern. If you have specific questions fire away but I found the process pretty strait forward when following the repair procedure. Given some of the other work you have done on your car you should have no problem with this. Good Luck, Rich

What year and where are you located?

Thanks Bud, Those shots are exactly what I was looking for. If you are planning on having that waterpump sitting in the tub on that one pic rebuilt you can do it through Rock auto parts. They don't list one for a 55 special but they list one for the century which is the same. Price wasn't bad and they did a very nice job. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. Rich

Hey Mike, Good to see you making progress. It's about time you put that bike away and started playing with something that has an engine I'll put my vote in now for yellow with white interior. Just don't see that many of them. Good luck, Rich

Hey Bud, Looks like you're making some good progress. I was wondering if you could post some pictures of the rotisserie mounting points? I will be putting mine on the spit here soon and could benefit from your experience. You have a good pic of the front but I am curious about the back. Thanks, Rich

I tried the clear over bare metal but it never came out with a nice uniform finishe. If you spray them with an automotive finish you can add a flatener to a single stage paint and get a good look and decent protection. The trick is finding the color you like. If you want to go with a rattle can chack out this evaluation of different greys. Silver Shootout - Paint Types I have been using the Seymour stainless and it looks pretty good. I have been spraying it over etch primer. Hope that helps Rich

Hey Bob, No offense taken. After reading your post I recalled reading one from someone else a while ago about how that individual thought that more damage than good was created when someone didn't have good knowledge of the subject. I thought my answer fit into that category. As for the forged thing it made perfect sense after reading your original response. I never gave it too much thought but after thinking about it cast would never hold up in those conditions. The cast iron grey still looks pretty on those arms though Rich

Hey Bob, I could have sworn they were cast. They have a line the full length that looks like a cast flange/seam. I had two 55s I disassembled to make the one good car I am working on. Neither appeared to have any finish on them at all. There was a couple shots of yellow paint that looked like someone at the factory would have used as a marker of some sort. Since that paint was there and no other paint was present around or under the yellow I made the assumption they were unpainted from the factory. I also asked here from several of the folks that have done 55 restorations and that was their opinion as well so I ran with it. I am certainly not an expert on this and this is my first Buick restoration not to mention my experience is limited to 1955 Buick Specials. This is why I started by saying I was hoping someone with a 58 would jump in. I guess maybe with my limited experience I might have been best off to leave it to those that have more knowledge of the model year in question. Sorry if I added more confusion to the mix than help. Rich

Hey Smartin, I was hoping someone with a 58 would jump in. I am doing a restoration on a 55 and I can tell you the control arms on that are bare cast iron. I painted them with cast grey to simulate the original look but wanted some protection over the bare metal. Not really sure this helps you any with your 58 but figured I would let you know what I had found. Rich

Hey Century, Congrats on your car. It looks great and that color combo is sharp. We'll have to get together next spring so I can see it in person. Dandy, Not too many beers so far. My dad has been helping me every step of the way and he isn't a drinker. I know I'll regret saying this later but there hasn't been too much that frustrated me to the point of needing a stiff drink. It's still early in the process though Rich

Wait a minute Those are the colors I was going to use on my car.

Hey Ken, I had two cars that I used to create one good one. Both cars had traces of gold cad on the backing plates. One set actually wasn't that bad but I wanted it to look new since everything else is being redone. If you have a guy willing to do a small batch for you I would work with him to see if you can add additional stuff at little or no charge. Most the time they have a minimum for small jobs but once they have you set up it really doesn't cost much to do a little or a lot. Rich

Hey Willie, Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure there wasn't any paint left on it and since it was cast I just figured I would paint it as if it were bare. I still have a few touch ups to make with the green so I will add that to the green list. Thanks, Rich

Well guys the drive train found it's way home. Here are a few pics. I might actually get to do some body work this winter. I still have a bunch of odds and ends to button up before we fire her but I hope to give it a go around Thanksgiving. I'll let you know how it goes. Rich

Do you have a service manual for the car? I'm going off memory here but it has been a while since I've put a wrench to one of these. If you have 12v at the injector harness then the signal side is the issue. The PCM is what gives it it's signal via completing the circuit with a ground. That's why I mentioned checking the PCM grounds because if they are bad it cannot complete the circuit. The other thing I just thought of was once in a while one of the injectors would short out or have very low resistance. This would draw the ground circuit down and prevent the injectors from firing. Did you have all injectors disconnected when you checked for signal? If not you may want to give that a go. No cost involved with that other than your time. I can't remember the exact resistance of the injectors but they should all be within a couple ohms of one another. Let us know what you find, Rich

Thanks Guys I appreciate the kind words. Rich

Hey guys thanks again for all the help. I ended up spraying it with my HVLP gun and a 1.7 tip. I upped the pressure a hair to better attomize the paint. I decided to go the unthinned route and with the 1.7 tip it sprayed fine. Here is the results. Rich

Hey Jim, Chances are if you have spark your crank sensor is good. Look at the RPMs while cranking on your scan tool. The PCM receives it's signal from the crank sensor so if you are showing RPMs while cranking the sensor and wiring are good. I would more suspect a bad ground on the injector driver circiut, bad cam sensor(this is what sets your injector timing) or a faulty PCM itself. The injector driver can go bad inside the PCM and all else can look fine. You may even try giving the PCM a couple of taps on the case while powered up. If the car fires the PCM has a cracked circuit board and needs replaced. Good luck, Rich

Hey John, Thanks for the kind words Despite it's outwardly appearance the engine was very low mileage(36,000). There wasn't even a ridge at the top of the cylinders to speak of. After complete disassembly and cleaning I measured everything up. The crank miced perfectly to factory specs. Bores guaged out the same and not out of round at all. So I just decided to freshen it up. New rings, cam bearings, main bearings and rod bearings (all factory spec no oversize). Honed the cylinders for a nice cross hatch and slammed it back together. I did double check clearances with plastigauge and all was well. Since the intent is a nice running, driving car I did not do anything to increase the balance efficiency of the rotating mass. If I were going for something a little more high performance the crank, rods and pistons would have been sent out for balancing. In the end it had just under 50 ftlbs. of rotating resistance with no spark plugs installed. It should be a pretty free running engine. Rich

Hi Guys, Well it's been a couple months so I figured I better give an update so you all don't think I've been slacking off. Haven't had much that I could post pictures of but I finally have a couple. I have completely rebuilt the trans and it has a fresh coat of satin black on it. I also have completed the rebuild of the engine and painted it last Wednesday which may be the last 60 degree day we see around here for awhile. Waterpump was sent out for rebuild and I tackled the fuel/vacuum pump rebuild myself. Anyway here are a couple before and after shots. Rich

This isn't the best picture but the only one I could find on hand. It is kind of a triangular sheet metal braket that the bottom of the plate screws to. Hope this helps a little, Rich

I purchased my the gasket set for my 55 from them and was very satisfied. They were Best gaskets. All other parts like bearings, rings, etc. came from Egge. I will say that when ordering from Egge they were out of stock on the mains and ended up having them dropped shipped from their supplier on the East coast directly to my house. Bottom line is they may all be packaging materials from the same suppliers but at very different prices. Make sure you do your research. Hope that helps, Rich

When doing this repair take your time and follow the service manual. These converters have weights on them and you want to make sure you assemble it the way it came apart. If it is like my 55 you should only need to remove 3 or 4 bolts to seperate the converter from the engine flywheel. Don't make the mistake of removing them all before you have everything marked clearly. Good luck, Rich

Hey Gary, What did you do to **** Yoda off man???? If you left out the parking brake strut loosening the cable won't help. If these drums were turned that would rule out the rust ridge that builds up on the edge. Does the drum turn freely or is there considerable drag on the shoes. I have made the mistake of turning the adjuster the wrong way and actually tightening the shoes instead of loosening them. If it is turning free then it seams like the only thing left is the drum hanging ob the axle. Maybe just hit the edge of the drum next to the backing plate in the direction of the outside of the car. Just be careful not to hit the backing plate. It really doesn't make any sense that this thing is hanging up. Good Luck, Rich

Thanks again for everything Willie I'll be calling soon with more questions Rich