60FlatTop

There is no safety issue with it and the rubber is not crushed anywhere near what the next mount forward is. Take a look at the mount at the top of the kick up, That is the one that carries the weight. I would leave it like that on my car. I just like the idea of having the self appointed knit picker doing gyrations over some obvious surface imperfection and me knowing there is a big hole the clown doesn't even see. "Hey, you think that's bad, look way up under here." Mine didn't have a rusted cup but the caged nut started turning and I had to go in from the top with a 1" hole saw. That was around 1995. One of these days I am going to pick up a conduit plug to pop in there. If I was going to sell it I would mix up a handful of fiberglass, smack it in the hole and spray some undercoating on it. I'm sure there is other stuff of higher priority. Bernie

\ Old cars have running boards Edit. That aren't an appearance group option. Oh, I guess old cars don't have appearance groups at all. End edit. I thought everyone knew that. Bernie

A 90 degree 5000 RPM one would be the choice since you would be most interested in shift points. You have a narrow band and you can just glance over to see the needle a little right of vertical to make that bang shift. The Buick doesn't lend itself lend itself to road courses where a 270 degree range, 5000 tach would give you a better display over the full RPM range. Bernie

I remember when the first of the 1960's were beginning to get restored in the early 1990's. The old guys were bemoaning the complexity and expense. A white '60 Cadillac convertible showed up at one meet and a guy whispered "He has $115,000 in that car." There is a topic in digital dashes in the Riviera section, I've seen some pretty "shade tree", maybe even back woods mechanics have detailed discussions on ECM's and code readers. Maybe it is not so much the new technology as it is the old guy's unwillingness to change that clouds these progressions. There is a good chance that the United States is heading for a third world economy over the next ten or fifteen years, but the kids will fix that and be better for it. I am looking forward to seeing how they do it. I'll be the anachronistic old guy with the 75 year old car watching, helping where I can. Computers? They have been a part of my everyday work since 1974. All that takes is exposure. It's all perspective; you know trains don't have to stop because it looks like the tracks come together. Bernie

So this guy, let's call him William, jumps on a car he wants, dashes off a check, and then admits to Mrs. William, just call her H, what he did. She has a fit, but later that night she says "William, if you turn off the light and get under these covers you can have the car." Oh, no,I 'm gonna lie; and he makes up the story about the restoration shop. Well, he doesn't have the same abysmal feeling in his stomach as the guy who called me in the morning and found out the car was sold. Life is not always easy among the over 60 car guys. Bernie

I understand that, legally, a deposit is refundable if it goes to court. All my incremental receipts are written as "partial payment". B

My Grandfather had a used car lot and tire shop where my Dad worked part time a couple of evenings and Saturdays. When I turned 11 my Father bought me down on Saturdays to mow the lawn for my Grandmother. It didn't take long before I was filling in the rest of the day painting the tread on regrooved tires, trimming run flats, sorting casings, and dabbling in the cars. At 13 I was working for $1.00 per hour plus 10% of my sales. Then the deal changed. Margins on the cars were tight and I was reduced to 5% on the car sales. At 13 I was selling cars to adults and was pretty good at recognizing the six basic personalities of mankind. Selling cars is a sport to some. I still look at as such. I never cared for football, baseball, any of that stuff, but I like grooming a sale. I watched the guys at the dealer auctions during my early teens and some the over serious ones and the sporting ones. I remember buying an auction car at around 16. A friend came up and said he didn't bid because he knew I liked those cars. I told him if he needed it give me $2 for my lunch and pay the auctioneer. I have sold cars for over 10 times what I paid. And I have given away more cars than some people have owned. But it has always been a fun sport an I feel good about the deals. My Grandfather had a firm policy of never taking a man's last dollar. I agree. He was always quite liberal about policy on all the dollars leading up to that last one. Me too. When I'm out with the big kids I use terms I can't write here about the "sport". I have a favorite movie that was made in the 1990's. I love it and laugh every time I see it. You can Google it and find clips. It is called Suckers. An old HS friend says the sales manager reminds him of me. I'll know who you are from 30 feet. And treat you accordingly. Probably better. Bernie

I wouldn't expect a problem as long as the bolts didn't go in too deep or some space was used to compensate. As long as it's apart use a caliper to check the depth of the bolt threads. It would be a good idea to leave it on in case you wanted to change back to a quiet original pump. Bernie

I think Haggerty has a reputation for catering to the frequent collector car driver that it hasn't earned. I thought I would try one car with them a few years ago and they were quite specific with "No". The flames and the wheels wouldn't fit my Archie Bunker look with the white shirt, dress pants, and cop looking shoes. I even meet my barber for lunch on Monday, his day off and have some clothes made in the tailor shop next door. Maybe a close up of a custom license frame the says "My other car is a Jag, peasant." A clean cut Gentleman, before the heart attack. Bernie

I mentioned the Sprite. 200 $100 jobs comes out to $20,000 in my neighborhood. That's a guy just "fixing up" his own car. Bernie

Buying 40 hours of invoiced and itemized work at a time is a pretty good way to go. I kind of work with my accountant that way. Working with an automotive shop on a long term project it is hard to pay them every week, I can have the money ready but the invoice lags behind. Give me an itemized bill for 40 hours a week at $85/hr and I'll have the 3400 for you. Well, um, gee we didn't, and the list goes on. I have found it really hard to pay when I used a shop. But if it could work that way, three weeks into the job and you are unsatisfied, home we go. My personal rule of thumb is 50% labor, 50% materials. Four full days on a panel? There are ten major panels- 40 full days labor for the car + $27,200 + materials @ $27,200. $54,400. That's the guide. Put it on a spreadsheet and normalize it to the job and you will have a fairly predictable outcome. I'd shoot that figure to you up front. I just sold an Austin-Healey Sprite early this week, a full project. The guy started guessing prices. I told him "You are looking at 200 $100 jobs. I usually say 300 jobs, but this is a small one." Cars, buildings, power plants. The math always works out. Bernie

Lucas, the Prince of Darkness never bothered me much on the Brit cars. Last I heard of him the Japanese and the British trapped him in a Rover called a Sterling and smoked him out. But it is all just maintenance. The really bad distributor is the Marelli that seizes up. (Minga where'd they get that!) The fires are usually from O2 sensors that can be monitored separately. And the dropped valve seats are surely avoidable. When dealing with the devil I like to think of myself as the boy in the last scene of the movie "Crossroads". Fixing cars is a lot like those guys play guitar. It's easy to see where you want to be. Bernie

The buyer is in complete control of the deal until the moment of delivery. Just move on and sell it to the next person. I have refunded deposits and even taken cars back with a full refund. I knew another buyer was being born at the time we made the deal, P. T. told me. Your real problem is the money/woman mix. Women are ruthless about money deals where a man will let things go. Anyone with a business knows you put a woman in charge of accounts receivable. They are vicious and will slap a lean at the drop of a hat. AND they don't wear rose colored glasses (do they make black and white glasses?). I sold a major project car last week. The first guy said he was going to bring his wife. I told him to stay home and recommended a little restaurant close to where he lived. Don't come here, take here there and have fun. They came. They left. 45 minutes later a guy came and bought it. The first guy called the next morning. I can only imagine what he did for permission. There you have it. Buyers need to be screened just like sellers and sale items. Just like seeing "my mechanic" on the forum, "My restorer" is another red flag. Of course there's lots of crazy money in New York. Who'd have thought? Bernie

Isn't selling price based on mark up of the purchase price. Base + 30% associated costs + 10% profit. If you don't follow that rule they will bring tents and start occupying again. Bernie

I always remember a good friend and customer I had back in the 1990's. He thought my estimate for replacing the door rubbers on his 1941 Cadillac 62 was high so I told him he could help and I would deduct $20 per hour for his efforts on the job. He started with me about 8 AM removing the old from the right side. I took the left. About 9 AM he came to me soaked with sweat and asked if I would give him a ride home. Well it's just a wave of the hand isn't it? Don't forget, any legal business has a 40% partner in the tax man plus his buddy the code man. At the end of the week your money buys one bag of groceries for the body guy and a second one for the likes of those jokers who have been hogging TV time until November. Old cars for toys is a hobby of the rich. Bernie

If the 0.030 under has enough meat to compensate for a 0.030 crank grind you should be able to open them up for a 10 under crank. I expect honing all 5 plus the purchase would come to about $400. Bernie

Interesting, I have a '64 Riviera and I have had two of the V12 XJS'. I liked both and will probably buy another XJS at some point. My next XJS will have a small block Chevy LS of some sort. The Buick will feel a lot stronger when you put your foot into it. You will notice the absence of rack and pinion right away. The Buick will feel very light to steer. You will notice a lack of elbow room in the Riviera. It is tighter inside. Be careful getting into the Riviera with the window rolled down. You might bump your lip or cheek on the upper point of the vent window frame. It is a little taller than the XJS and right at face level. Being used to a non-overdrive car you will like the light throttle response. I drop my modern OD cars into 3rd about 3 miles from town to get that feeling. Idiot lights are fine. I am, personally, not a big gauge guy. My '60 Electra has a set from the PO. I removed them. They look tacky in a Riviera or Electra.We changed the oil in my Electra about 300 miles ago. I take it to a garage and two pairs of eyes look over everything while it is on the lift, more than the gauges monitor. Check the belts, hoses, CLAMPS, oil drips and fix what is obviously wrong. If you can drive the car 15 miles without overheating and shutting it off with a successful restart it is doing all the functions it needs to go 1500 miles. The only real caution is the rear end lube. That's a heavy mass and vented. Temperature changes build up a surprising amount water during storage. A lot of people don't give these 50 year old cars a good flush and risk axle bearing failure. If a car overheats you will hear it ping and on light throttle. Don't worry about a gauge you'll know. Even with a gauge more engines are lost by the guy who says "I can make it to the next exit." Stop before you break it. Don't sell the Jag. Next year at this time you may find you drive the Riviera when you want to go out and impress others, but the Jag when you want to impress yourself. Bernie

Oh, no! You just duct tape the boxes within 3 feet of the part. B

I had to scroll to the top to see if this was really the Buick section. I don't take nuthin, I was kidding about the dime. My '60 failed to proceed about 6 years ago, right after a tune up. The wire came out on the new condenser. Flatbeded home. And put the old condenser back in. I wouldn't have changed it on the road. Ever notice some guys have 50 year old car and stacks of new parts on the shelf while they drive with original parts still on the car? Tip: If you have a new part on a shelf and you are driving around on the 50 year old part can you explain the rationale? Put the new parts on the car. Bernie

A real barn find might be stored where the owner didn't know where it was. I'm practicing with hand tools, but it shouldn't be long before I get to losing the cars. Bernie

Dodge and Ram are words relating to too much violence for use by the federal government. Hudson is politically sensitive because of possible pollution of Albany by export oil shipped along its banks (Ooops! Export oil from foreign oil dependent USA!!!) and Studebaker has more than 9 letters. I'll get a set, Bernie

I recognize the name, but I never had any hero's as a kid never did capture the concept. I think I saw only the show where they brought a big sign home on a flatbed. There was enough oo-ing and ahh-ing on that to get me back to reruns of Wonder Woman. I do know that a Stutz Bearcat is not a car that sits "unknown" for decades. Or any other interesting old car. People know about these cars, whether they are car club friends. I know of a few that might be sensationalized that way. I am just waiting until I have an extra 10K to put under the owner's nose and make the offer. Until that point I'm not even going to mention the cars to their owners. That's the lost part of the :find". Yesterday I was clearing out a storage building of mine, full of barn find automobilia, I guess. I ran across a 1958 paperback; "How To Buy a Classic Car". John Utz, former editor of the Flying Lady gave it to me. I thumbed through for a few minutes remembering John. There were certainly no barn find Rolls-Royce or Bentley cars while John was alive. He knew every one by chassis number and its provenance. If a barn find is defined as a car that has been out of hobby circulation for a period of time and "found" by someone ignorant of it's existence I could see that. But it is never presented based on the ignorance of the "finder". I'm having a tough time right now. My wife has one of those new vacuum cleaners with the plastic cup dirt collector. I need about five of the old style dirt bags. I want my wife to shake them over my cars if I should die before I wake, make them barn finds, you know. Well, gotta go, two people are coming over to look at a Sprite for sale that has been sitting since 1965, owner always aware and never lost it. Bernie

Seeing all those parts reminded me of this trip: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/cc-vintage-the-adventure-south-to-the-tip-of-south-america-in-a-1941-plymouth/ The book was available from my local library and is a pretty good read. I'm the guy who makes sure I have a dime in my pocket in case I need a screwdriver. Bernie

Having the '64 Riviera and the LT1 Impala is more fun, just switch keys. Bernie

Was it too subtle to mention the wife and the kids? Bernie