Wmsteed

Shortly after I renewed my BCA membership following the purchase of the '38 Buick, I joined the '36-38 Buick Club. I recently received my first copy of the Torque Tube II magazine and a copy of the 2021 calendar. The calendar was a nice surprise, the free calendar showed showed class, just as the Buick's always have. Wm.

Jen, Thank you for the info on the wheel cylinder grease, have never heard of that before, I'll have to check around with the parts stores to see if such a thing is available here in the states. Wm.

A picture of the item you are looking for would be a big help. Wm.

Neil, Thank you for the info on the paint ID on the axle... Only time will tell if my '38 has 3.9 gearing in lieu of the 4.4. The man I bought the car from told me the car was a very good highway cruiser, 60/65 mph was maintained very easily.. One has to be very careful to not set themselves up as being judge and jury when it comes to making statements about old vehicles. I like a phrase that a man made on one of the old car forum's I frequent.. Avoid using the terminology 'Always and Never' either one of which can bite you in the back side. In 1951 I had a '38 Chevy Master, which was the standard model for the year, it had a solid I beam front axle in lieu of knee action and the only bright metal on the car was the grille. The car was very fast compared to my friends cars, when the engine blew up I replaced it with a GMC 270 which was the biggest engine GMC had at the time. I added a bigger carb, Mallory ignition and improved the exhaust... There was nothing in eastern Idaho that could catch that car, that is until a kid put an Olds Rocket engine in his '36 Ford. About ten years ago I discovered that the high speed rear ends were standard equipment in the '38-40 Master series Chevy's. Wm.

It would appear that while we are doing a brake job on my '38, we will have to check the axle ratio to establish exactly what the ratio is.. Wm.

I don't claim to be an expert on pre-war Buicks, all tho I have had a lot of experience with them. The technical info for '38 Buicks lists the gear ratio overall at 4.40.1-- Series 40, 3.90.1-- Ser 60, 4.18.1, Ser. 80, 4.56.1.. The Tec data for '37 does not list the 3.90 ratio in the series 40. it does list it for the Ser 60. Buick. Someplace I have an article that was written about an anomoly with the GM standard models for 1938. The article stated that Chevrolet and Buick felt that most of the Chevrolet Master Series and Buick Specials would be purchased by salesmen, and therefore better mileage and higher speed would be very important. The high speed axle ratio, 3.73.1 vs 4.22.1 was common in '37-40 Master Series, not the Delux Series Chevy's.

Thank you for the info Matt/39_buick.. I have 15 x 6.5 '51-52 Road Master wheels with P235/75R 15 tires on my my '40 Buick Super with no problems. According to the info in Coker' catalog the 650x16 tires are on the average of being 29.10, whereas the P235/75R15 is 28.9. I think the very small difference in tire size will not effect the overall axle ratio that much. The safety and roadability of the radial type tire will more than make up the difference. It is my intention to run black wall P235's for everyday tires. As i stated in my earlier posting to this topic, the current tires are 700x 15 which is a 29.29 tire, when comparing tire size the three tires do not have enough difference to warrant a switch in an attempt to improve gear ratio. The info I have states that the standard gear ratio for a '38 Special is 3.90, since the car is originally from Kansas City, which is basically flat land in lieu mountainous, I would think the 3.90 would be correct. Of course I will verify the ratio as times goes bye. I will also have to really check the wheels on the car for size, they could be correct '38 15" wheels.. My only concern is the use of tubeless tires, the 51-52 are made for tubeless tires, have a raised lip on the bead area to help retain the tubeless tire on the wheel. Wm.

Happy Holidays to all.. Hope the coming year is better than '20 has been. Not much going on with my '38.. I am going to buy the majority of the brake, etc parts that I need from Bob's Automobilia in Templeton, CA, he has everything I need, including the motor mounts on an exchange basis.. I normally drive through Templeton on a monthly basis so I can save some on shipping costs. Doing some TLC on the '38 I noted that the spare tire in the trunk is an original 16" wheel, gray in color with correct pin stripping. The tire on the wheel is a very old US Rubber 650x16. The tires/wheels on the car are 700 x 15 on 15" wheels, as the pix show the hub caps are '39 and later. The man I bought the car from told me that the second owner of the car had told him the wheels were changed to 15" Century wheels many years ago because 16" wide whites were to expensive and hard to get. The wheels are black, no pin stripping. I have a set of Roadmaster 15" wheels which are as I recall 6.5". I am going to have the RM wheels powder coated red, which would be correct for a 38.. Wm.

The survey of my '38 is complete. The car needs a complete brake job and it needs new engine/trans mounts.. I have found a source for all of the parts, however, there is a core charge/or exchange required for most of the brake parts. I have been a little reluctant to take the car apart, then wait for the new parts to arrive so that the re-assembly can move forward. My problem was solved on Thursday: I am in the process of relocating my Hobby Shop into a larger location, in the process I came upon a large crate of '40 Buick parts that I forgot I had. The parts came from a '40 Buick coupe that I acquired several years ago. We sold the car to a man in New Zealand, He only wanted the body, no mechanicle's. We sectioned the body into four pieces, palletized the body and sent it to New Zealand. I cut up the chassis, putting all of the pieces into a large packing crate. Low and behold I have all of the brake cores on hand, drums, shoes, etc. I know that there can be some difference between the '38/40 brake parts. if the coupe was a Century in lieu of being a Special, maybe I'll be lucky. Bill

Niel, Can't say I ever saw your '41 Super around town. Several years ago there was a maroon '41 Sedanet that an owner of a body shop had. I came close to buying a Maroon 41 Century Sedanet in Idaho several years ago. Two things stopped me, it did not have the compound carbs and the twin spotlights were dummies.. At the time I had a complete compound carb setup for the Special, Super 248 engine. I wish I had kept the carp setup, it would have looked pretty neat on my '38.. I came close to buying a '38 Century coupe in Idaho over ten years ago that had the compound carbs on the 320 engine. Bill

Thank you Mark & Niel for the suggestions and product info. I am a little reluctant to cut the terminals off of the wire, might cause a problem loosing a half inch of wire. At this point I think I will try to salvage the original terminals, put heat shrink on the wire and re-attach the terminal. I'll make sure I have a hand full of replacement offset terminals just in case the original ones are not re-useble. I like the heat shrink better than liquid because it would impart an original look to the wire. The one previous repair using friction tape is pretty lame looking. I had the previous owner send me pictures of the cloth covered wiring and looms. All of the pictures showed the wiring covering's/looms to be in very good shape, of course a picture was not taken of the wiring to the voltage regulator.. An oversight, Hmmmm I recently looked at a '40 Buick Super that is for sale locally, nice new two tone green paint, chrome in pretty good condition. Asking price $20.K... The interior was pretty bad, car could not be started because the wiring through out the car was a mess, needing a complete new harness. Of course the seller claimed that a little tape here and there would solve the problem.. Definately a case of putting a little lip stick on the old girl and putting her out on the curb.

I have found new wheel cylinders available locally and sleeved master cylinders on an exchange basis. The vendor even has rebuilt motor mounts on the shelf on an exchange basis... The availability of parts locally will speed up the repair process. In the back of my mind I still recall the principle of doing things right the first time, that was preached to us by the instructors, when I went through mechanics school in the early '50's. Through the course of reviewing the the '38 I noted that some of the wiring in the engine compartment, mainly on the voltage regulator, has some problems with the insulation near the connectors to the terminals. One of them has old friction tape wrapped around the wire. The wiring loom looks very good with no apparent problems with the cloth covering. So far I have thought that if I could get the terminal off of the wire, I could put heat shrink over the exposed wire, extending over the cloth insulation, re-install the terminal to the wire and slide the heat shrink over the terminal/wire collar. Another thought was to cut the wire an inch or so from the terminal, slide heat shrink tube over the wire, reconnect the wire with a small butt connector, then slide the heat shrink over the wire, butt connector and terminal. Now that I think about the solution to the problem, I kinda like the butt connector/heat shrink, in lieu of disturbing the original terminal connection to the wire... Appears to be crimped and soldiered. Bill

I have spent the past four days since the car arrived doing an extensive survey of the car. This car is not my first rodeo, been messing with cars since I was fourteen, most Chevy's and Fords with a '39 Plym and a '40 Buick Super thrown into the mix for because they became available. As I have stated earlier, it has been claimed that the car was owned by the first owner for forty years, the second for forty years and the last for a little over two. I can find nothing to dispute the claim (s) that the paint, upholstery, chrome, etc., is original. All of the glass has the Guide bug in the lower corners as it should be if it's original glass, a couple of pieces, both vent windows and the two rear windows are showing signs of clouding from age. Except for the door window sills which show signs of a lot of arm resting there-on, the rest of the wood-graining is in excellent condition. The tab for the rear window blind is over the rear window, however the rollup blind is gone. Checking the under-carriage of the car I noted a couple of wheels with signs of brake fluid leaking, running down the tire. The former owner mentioned this condition to me. I also noted that the motor mounts are in the process of failing from age, the rubber has separated from the mount. I saw no signs of rust-out, some road grime, but all in all nothing of any importance that a good cleaning would take care of. I did note, the the rear shocks have been changed to a pair of Monroe's. Having had experience with low mileage old cars, I am going to pull all of the wheels/drums to do a complete brake job and service all of the wheel bearing/seals. I am not to sure if I should try to buy new wheel cylinders, or should I attempt to rebuild the ones on the car... Any suggestions ? Bill

I just received a '38 Buick Spl, 2dr sdn, the car had two owners over a 80 year span, the last owner had the car for a little over two years. The car was sold to me as being an unmolested, well maintained survivor, which the condition of the car supports. A review of the trunk area revealed an original spare tire and wheel, along with what appears to be a complete set of factory tools. I noted a brown jute like material bound with a brown material on the edges that covered the left and right side of the truck. The material fits the body very well... See attached pix.

After a wait of over three weeks my incredible 38 Buick showed up on Thursday. Buying this car was a very big leap or faith in human nature. I found the car in an ad in Hemmings, it was located in the Denver area. I called the man that listed the car, had a very nice conversation with him about the car. The seller answered all of my questions with straight forward answers, then followed up with pictures of any areas of the car that I asked about. Common sense told me to go to Denver and look at the car, however, with the Covid thing getting out of hand, I decided to jump on the car. A deal was made, I sent a cashiers check for payment and contacted Intercity Lines to have the car transported to Ventura, CA. Rather than writing up a lengthy description of the car, I'll attach some pix of several area of the car, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Gary W.. Thank you for for the link to the restoration of your '37. I am hoping that the '38 I bought will only need some TLC, the car is well documented with only 47K showing on the odometer. Entries in the Owners Manual show that the car was not registered from 1941 to 1945. An indication that the car was out of service during the war years. The original owner, a woman, bought the car new in Kansas City, kept it until 1970, then sold it to the next owner who kept the car until 2017. The second owner did not make any entries into the Owners Manual. The third owner had the car in the Denver area for a little over two years. Due to the Covid thing I was not able to go to Denver to inspect the car prior to the purchase. I had to rely on pictures, documention supplied by the owner. During my review of the documentation/pictures I did note that the car did not have '38 style hubcaps and that it has 700 x 15 WSW tires which is the size wheel and tire for a '38 Century. I have found conflicting information regarding the correct tire/wheel size. The Owners manual for the car lists 650x16 for the Specials, 700 x 15 for the Centuries and 16" for all of the other models for '38. The Standard Catalog of American Cars lists 650 x 16 tires for the Specials, Century's 700 x 15. I know I am going to keep the 15" tires/wheels. I have '51-52 Roadmaster 15" wheels on my '40 Buick Super, which are the safety bead style for tubeless tires. I have an extra set of the 15 x 6.5 Roadmaster wheels so they will go on the '38 with 235/75R15 black wall tires. Wm.

Hi Ken, I recall doing work on a '39-41 GM rear end in the mid 50's, can't remember exactly why but I do recall that it was not an easy job. Getting the axles out of the housing required removing a block between the axle ends, once this block was removed the axle (s) could be pushed in which allowed the removal of a C clip, then the axle could be removed. The re-assembly required a dial indicator set up on the axle housing to get the proper alignment, back lash, of the gears, etc. Wm.

I was a member of the BCA in the early 2000's and from time to time made contributions to the pre-war and or modified forums regarding a '40 Buick Super 4dr I have. I recently rejoined the BCA and I joined the 36-38 Buick Club. During the time of my earlier membership in the BCA I also had a '39 Plym conv cpe that I was restoring, the '39 Plym overtook my interests at the time so the Buick went to the back burner. The Plym has been done for several years, with some progress on the '40 Buick. My original intent with the '40 Buick was to upgrade the mechanical components to a Buick 401 V8 w/ST400 trans and a '65 Riv rear end. After I got the Plym done I decided to keep the '40 near stock, picked up a nice running '41 engine for the '40. Moving to the present, I was reading Hemmings last month and came upon an ad for a '38 Buick Special, a series 40 model 48 2dr sdn. I have always had a soft spot for the '38 Buicks, have a friend that has a 40 Century coupe. One of the things that caught my eye with the 38 in Hemmings was the ad claimed the car was an original, unmolested car with 47k on the odometer. Talking to the owner of the car, looking at the pictures, I was hooked, I bought the car, it is scheduled to arrive in Ventura next Thursday/Friday. It is my intent to keep the '38 stock, doing some mechanical repairs and fixing a couple issues with the upholstery. Might have to do some touch up on the original paint on the fenders, it is amazing that the 82 year old paint is in the condition it is... The original owner of the car, a woman, owned it for 45 years. Bill

Until just a few months ago I had a complete compound carb setup for the 248 CID engine.. I sold the setup to a fellow in Portland. Other than the fuel line distribution plumbing, the rest of the assembly appeared to be stock. The carbs were Stomberg Aero's. I have attached a couple of pix that might be of some value to you...Bill

You did not say in your listing what series of Buick parts you are looking for... From your avatar I would assume that you are looking for Special/Century parts.??? I have a lot of '40 Buick parts for a 50 series, Super, 4dr sdn. I also have several sets of front fender parking lights... All series of '40 Buicks used the same light....Bill

I restored a '63 Chevy Nova SS conv many years ago... The bucket seats had been replaced with seats from a Pinto..Yuck Original bucket seats for the '62-64 Nova's are very hard to come by... Doing some checking I found that GM used the same bucket seats regardless what marque, big or small chassis. I found a Buick Wildcat that had a perfect set of black seats, the pair cost me $50.00. I changed the mounting tracts from Buick to Chevy Nova and bolted the seats into the car.. Later on I found out that the only difference between the Buick and Nova seats was a chrome band around the back cushion.... Bill

I have been gathering parts and working on this car for nine years. I am having to down size my work area which means some cars are going to be sold. The 40 Buick is an arrow straight unmolested car that has only been repainted once. There were a few rust out issues, in the trunk area and the right hand rocker.. All of this has been repaired with original GM parts by a master craftsman. All of the stainless trim is in near perfect condition. I have a NOS stock chrome grille, NOS trnk handle assy, tail light assy/lens and very nice fender marker lights. Plus many other parts I have gathered up. The chassis is currently stock, engine is stuck. I have a completely rebuilt/blue printed 401 CID nail head, bored +.60 w/improved cam and many refinements. I also have a '66 ST400 trans, completely rebuilt. It was my intention to convert the chassis to tube shocks using 55-56 frnt control arms, 51-52 Roadmaster frnt brakes, '65 Riv rear end geared to 3.25, using 63-73 Chevy pickup trailing arms..... All of which I have. I have over $14,000. invested in the car with all the parts I have purchased... The only way I will part it out is by selling the car complete, with extra fenders/ doors, etc. I will sell the engine/trans/diff, etc., separate, as a complete package... The car has a clear Calif title, is registered and on non-op. Email me for more info, pix... Bill

Hi, I am looking for a rear end for a '64/65 Riviera.. I actually only need all of the parts except the housing, however, it would probably be easier to just buy the whole thing. A mech was working on my differential, he left town with all of my parts. Let me know what you have and the price... email wmsteed@ix.netcom.com

I did not realize that I had joined this forum in 2005 until I made my "introduce yourself" a few minutes ago... Hmmm... My how time does go by when your having fun.. Bill

I have fostered an on going interest in Buick's since I was a kid. My father usually drove Chevy's so I migrated to Chevrolet for my first four cars, never really had a good reliable Chevy until I stuck a 270 GMC into a '38 2dr in 1951.. That thing would out run anything in Eastern Idaho until a kid in Pocatello put an Olds Rocket in his '36 Ford. In 1951 several of us guys from Eastern Idaho took a '40 Buick Century coupe to Bonneville Speed Week... The guys from So Cal laughed at us, six carbs on a 320 straight 8 engine and "World Famous Potatoes" on the license plates. We became the spud busters. They sang a different tune when the car set a record.... We were untouchable when Hot Rod Magazine did a feature article about the car in the Nov, 51 issue. In later years I purchased several new Buick's starting in 1976. In 2000 the old Buick bug bite me, I purchased a very nice '40 Buick Super 4dr sdn. The car was unmolested, however, the engine was stuck... I decided to upgrade the power train with components from a '65/66 Rivera. We could not find a good 425 so we bored a 401 out to 413. The trans is a ST400, 65 Riv rear end, 51 Roadmaster front brakes, 55-56 Buick upper control arms and '51-52, 605 GM steering gear box, tilt column and Roadmaster wheels. The consul from the '65 Riv fit in the car like it was made for the car. If I ever get the car done it should be a nice ride... Bill