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Bernie Madoff and Bernie Sanders have both destroyed my online presence. One used to be able to type in Bernie Daily and come up with all my car stuff. Now those two are in the "Daily" news all the time and I am lost in the meta statements. I bought a T shirt from that "Robin Hood" Bernie but no one gets the joke about the names and I won't wear it in public. And, for sure, I'm the farthest you'll get from a Robin Hood complex. Tires! I have one local shop where I have purchased 44 WinterForce snow tires since Firestone dropped the Town & Country's. That's just snows; doesn't count the old cars. I like the story about a blow out on an inner dual and thinking the other three were all good. I'm going to get the tire guy to let me put in a lottery ticket machine. Bernie

Nice to see the previous owner made the effort to install a molded radiator hose. That is a good sign of attention to detail that will show up in other areas. Bernie

Rebuilding the original system with a $1300 budget should be very rewarding. I have done it on a few cars. One was so long ago I will probably do it again this year. Bernie

My MACS CFC-12 certification for refrigerant recycling and service is dated May 1, 1991. And I have two patents for refrigerant reclamation and recycling equipment. I wouldn't use a pump in stop leak. It is best to leak test and repair leaks. If you have a fitted joint that needs a better seal than you can get with an O-ring or standard joining methods, Leak Lock, http://www.highsidechem.com/pdfs/leaklock.pdf is the only product I have used and like. In the same vein, I still have a 30# jug of R-12 for my personal use and have no intention of converting any older systems to 134A. Of course, I drive on biased tires, too. So I might have no credibility. Bernie

Laws usually get passed based on the poor judgement of those whom came before. Make it a point to use your own best judgement and help friends do the same. Lawmakers are reactionaries. Don't give them a chance. Bernie

The '91 5.7 IS desirable because of the SBC. It departed from the 4-6-8, the 4100 HT, the Olds 307; and the upcoming Northstar. A sailor in Shanghai couldn't make that many mistakes, even after 4 months at sea. Last year Cadillac came out with the Dare Greatly ad campaign. Listen closely to the words of its background song: Three decades of blunders nearly destroyed our image, but we have no regrets. We fumbled around and now we have made alphabet soup. Bernie

I think the Studebaker Avanti set a record in recovering from the depreciation cycle to its original selling price. I don't think there are many others that come close. Today a 1991 car is eligible for all the benefits of an antique car. And it reflects in my online searches. I have a mushy spot between the ears for the V12 BMW coupes and it is a sweet spot for the Silver Spurs. A 1991 5.7 Fleetwood Brougham in the right color would be a great score and probably on a $6500 budget. Imagine the car you could get for 10K. That's is a little less than the equivalent value I paid for my Riviera in 1978. Even though my Impala SS is only 22 years old it is recognized as a desirable variation of the Caprice and has had collector insurance since it turned 20. Looking for a bigger building! Bernie

Summit Racing has Coker BF Goodrich Vintage, 7.10-15, Bias-Ply, 1.0 in. Whitewall, @ $197 each and not charge for shipping. That's what I have on my car and what they will be replaced with. Even the biased alphanumeric tires in the 1970 - 80's rubbed the inner fenders. A 7.60 was an option to consider, but after reading years worth of radial, modern, safety, diameter, aspect ratio, and a whole string of other writings it pretty much boils down to two basic observations: 1. If you replace a 25 year old set of biased tires with new radials the car seems to handle wonderful. 2. The wrong sized tire, no matter what, is still the wrong sized tire. Yeah, I slow down for the corners, but it's a straight run up to Albany and I can get there fast. Just so's John can point out my biased tires. Bernie

If yer askin' you probably know the answer. It's the difference between "I think that will be OK." and "I got every drop out." Don't risk saying "I thought" someday in the future. Bernie

I would have dropped in a Euro myself with a "apa fia szentlélek". Bernie

One thing I have learned from experience OEM replacement parts, especially trim pieces can be a much lower quality (seconds) that production line installed parts. Not as bad as that radiator cap, but pretty bad. When I painted my '64 Riviera in 1980 there were still boxed NOS parts available from Buick. I bought a horn bar, which was nice. I bought two NOS RIVIERA fender scripts and, boy, were they crap. They looked like they had been lightly sandblasted and plated. I ended up reusing the originals that were near 20 years old and much better finished. Over the years I have paid attention to boxed NOS stuff for sale and found lesser quality quite common. Quality control must have inspected and put grade A in a bin for production, lesser for replacement stock, and scrapped the junk. I live near Rochester, of carburetor and DELCO fame. There used to be stories of the three levels of door lock grading, A's for the driver door, stickies for the passenger door, and scarp. Who ever used a key to unlock a passenger door? Corporate thinking. BTW, both plants are closed. So, even though some old stuff wasn't as bad as the winged goat, I have seen some shoddy stuff tagged as new. Oh, I sold those disappointing scripts on Ebay a few years ago; NIB. They weren't nice enough to make a belt buckle. Bernie

Made in Toledo, that could give you the Willys. Bernie

That's probably environmentally unfriendly. So they gave a bunch of it to their southern friends. Bernie

I had a Y block rebuilt and balanced for a customer back in the 1990's. It was a '55 T-Bird that I did the R&R and tune on. For a shakedown I took it to a cruise night 50 miles away. It was all stock and while it sat there idling I set one of those flat bottomed ice cream cones on the air cleaner. That was a crowd pleaser for the guys whom knew. Didn't help my modesty a bit. Bernie

Sometimes I regret selling my '53 Mark 7. Just sitting on my little blue stool and doing nothing is fun with an old Jaguar. Bernie

If the car doesn't meet your expectations you can always sell it. I don't remember any that were a total loss, but I remember a few I didn't like and made a little money on. Bernie

In 1946 the post WWII world got the exotic Cannes Film Festival and there was quite a bright spot in style, fashion, and entertainment on the French Riviera. A style leader a couple of years later couldn't have a better name than Riviera. The river was the Rhone, but Riviera is the experience. Bernie

Hell, I know how to muddy it up more. Buick used the name Riviera the way Oldsmobile used "Holiday". Bernie

If you are not a deeply involved Packard enthusiast, condition and drivability are most important. You will constantly get people everywhere telling you it's the cheap one that killed Packard. It's usually old men, but a little old lady in a grocery store parking lot might tell you as well. I have a junior '48 Packard that I have made a commitment to put 1,000 miles on this year. It's an 8 and the equivalent of a Buick Super or Cadillac Model 61. You can feel the quality of the car when driving. It is smooth, handles easily, and has adequate power. Just make sure that every time you walk up to the car you smile and think :That's the one I wanted." and you are good. That shenanigans with the models has been going on a long time and continues still. Wait until 40 years from now and someone shows up in a nice Buick Lucerne. Someone will say "That's just a Cadillac DTS with a 6 cylinder." The only thing to be careful about is your personal height. If you are less than 5' 5" tall you could become know as that short Packard guy. Bernie

Great! With 20 PSI and no obvious red flags; you should be good. Most old cars that get put away for decades don't end up that way intentionally so and oil changes prior to storage probably didn't happen. The acids commonly found in engine oil can slightly etch the bearing surfaces over time. The first running of the engine can wipe a half a thousandths to one thousandth of bearing surface off the journal face. You might want to do the test again after running. If you watch closely you can take up any looseness before it causes damage. Removing shims or draw filing the cap works. Just be aware and ready to drop the pan to inspect a second time. You can also "sound out" the rods by tapping them. I have used a 1/2" socket extension and a light hammer against the rod cap. The loose ones make an obvious thud. Bernie

Is there a nephew, niece, grandchild, or neighbor who always drooled over the car? Give it to them and don't hold any hard feelings if it goes down hill from there. They will love it. My Grandmother gave me two old cars when I was a kid and an Aunt gave me another. I took them apart and never got them back together, but it was all part of my life's experience. As an adult, I have probably given away more cars than many people have owned. I never felt like I lost anything. Don't overlook an existing dreamer as the new owner. Bernie

I was thinking both the transmission and motor mounts need to be checked. Buicks aren't as bad as a Cadillac, though. With an open driveshaft like a Caddy you can get the imprint of the fan in the radiator on a hard stop. On that internal reverse strut, it was a common $90 repair in the mid 1960's. The flat rate guys would disconnect the shocks and jack the axle back with a Port-A-Power to access the tailshaft housing and strut; just kinda sproing it back. Bernie

If it wasn't for extremes I wouldn't be able to get away with a lot of stuff. Not just cars. Bernie

I probably wouldn't be trying that. If there is a tight suction line and the clearance tolerances in the pump are OK it should be fine. The tightness of all the components in the distribution system and lubrication points would be my concern. If I was really driven to verify the system I would connect and oil supply to a main oil gallery through a plug or the like and pressurize the system while watching for excessive flows in all areas. If oil was gushing from a bearing or internal galley I would double check the assembly or clearance. A side stream oil filter can and compressed air through a PRV would work fine. We used to hand crank a Rolls-Royce PII to prelube after winter storage. Three guys would take turns for half and hour to 45 minutes. All we wanted to see was a slight movement of the oil pressure gauge. And that is all we ever saw. Bernie

I know two old car collectors who got a few pennies and stretched them enough to rewire a car. Bernie