60FlatTop

I kept getting a subliminal message "Maytag". Bernie

Ahhhh! Always look in the last place someone worked. It's the most direct troubleshooting method out there. My test would have been to remove the bulbs and test the voltage with no loads first. Bernie

Do you think he has to sell the car because it doesn't have enough leg room? The guys in the Riviera section are discussing that. And be careful, that picture is from 2014. It might have deteriorated. Bernie

The more you drive it the better it will run. The better it runs the faster it likes to go. Between 60 and 65 is where you reach the limits of the top tie downs. THAT can be a real surprise! Bernie

Last fall I upgraded from dangerous to lethal. Post #581, see the guy push the snow into the hedge? That's why I bought the tractor. They kept breaking the bottom branches of my blue spruce. And it didn't snow until last week. Then I found out the 12 volt battery the previous owner had been using to start, it's a Fairbanks-Morse mag ignition, had pretty much porked the starter drive. So tomorrow I pick up the rebuilt starter and put things back to 6 volt. And there are Daffy Dills sprouting under the tractor and snow drops coming up across the yard. I ain't gonna scoop nuthin with it this year. I take full credit for the mild winter and on the way back from the city tomorrow maybe I'll stock up on something for a hot summer. Bernie

I'm with Ben. Most road draft tubes have steel wool stuffing and a directional passage. Bernie

Did you put the oil sending unit on? It's not hard to overlook. Bernie

So two people are working on the car; one crawling under with a wrench and the other taking pictures. At least you didn't do something like take a picture of her carrying groceries to the car. Isn't it great to be there to bring a little joy into their lives. Bernie

I grew up in a tire shop and always put 35 PSI in mine. We had a couple of vulcanizers and three recapping machines. My Grandfather said "We put them together with heat and pressure. They come apart with heat and pressure." At 35# a small object in the road is more likely to spit out from under the tire than be absorbed into the tread. Bernie

Everything on that engine wore at about the same rate. The valve seats leak by some, the guides leak by some, the rings blow by some, the bearings are worn some. And apparently "ran alright and didn't smoke". Tighten that top end up and you will probably be known by your puffs of blue smoke coming out of the road draft pipe when you pull into an event. Watch for one at an event near you. I have two cars with completely rebuilt engines because the needed everything. The others have only had what was broken fixed. Actually one car has one repaired valve. When it came back from the machine shop that replaced the valve because in another life a piece of piston got wedged in and scratched it, I hand lapped the fresh machining to help duplicate the wear on the other 15 valves. My policy is just to fix what is broken or the balance of all the worn parts is disrupted. BTW, I'd have the head blocked up in a surface grinder if I had to skim it. One with a big magnetic table. Reminding me of my days as a millwright with old John the railroad yard holstler and mechanic. He'd grab his hammer and throw his tongue over his shoulder and run off to fit anything. Bernie

I heard Hannibal crossed the Alps without disc brakes. Bernie

The Russian shuttle was over in the next county to the west of me. Crossing that county line is like going into another world. Anyway, the guy had a yard sale going on and he was leaning back in a lawn chair sipping a can of beer. I was looking at a pair of steer horns that I thought would look good on the '69 Fleetwood I was driving at the time. He saw me looking and stretched out some while he said "Yep, I shot that deer myself." I still have them. I like the shuttles, well just about any space vehicle, American and Russian. Not many people were around the day they brought this one in. I'll see if I can find my picture of the Russian version. Bernie

I just got back from dropping my 1938 Allis-Chamlers B starter off for a rebuild. The main thing it needed was a new drive. The old one had failed clutches and gnawed up teeth from being slammed in with a 12 volt battery that was a previous owner's "upgrade". Interesting timing. Once it is fixed I will have a new 6 volt battery and it should start like the new ones did on the winter plains of 1930's Minnesota. My main point, and sometimes it seems the point of my existence, is to say that many times a misdiagnosis of a problem leads to modifications. Sometimes it just leads to disassembly of the whole car (and it would be interesting to survey if more cars are permanently disassembled for modification than for restoration). It's all an interlocking group of systems. Old Tank's point about the Bendix Fazoola can get better. The brake lines on the '56 are 1/4" tubing. Would 3/16" on a dual master cylinder be OK? Should all be reduced in size or made larger? Would the displacement of a four piston caliper need a larger line. Would there be a coefficient of friction through a long length of line during a panic stop that could reduce pressure? It is a lot to think about if you sit down with a clean sheet of paper; how about mixing a bunch of parts designed for other systems? So the first quest would be "Is the original system in excellent condition and fully functional? If the answer is a confident yes. If it is I would then ask how the cost of a hotel compares to everything involved in the conversion and the decreased gas mileage. Please don't take the comment personally. If it was an old Ford or a Plymouth it would warrant consideration, but you own a Buick. One thing is for sure. I won't be scooping snow out of the driveway with the old Alley Cat tonight. Bernie

Doing dumb stuff really has a double edged sword. Ten or so years ago I started fulfilling my life long Jaguar passion. I got some that were not good choices like a '53 Mark VII needing lots of work, a couple V12 XJS', a '76 XJ6 with a bad tranny, and a '61 XKE that would have been an overwhelming project. I sold them all and probably made a few bucks. But I kind of wish I had been dumb enough to keep one. Bernie

That's interesting. The modification to disc brake would still leave all the braking force to the bake surfaces and not increase engine braking capability. It would reduce the braking surface and eliminate the self energizing features of the original drum brakes. It would be hard to convince me to do the mod based on anecdotal experience with two cars. My own perception and experience lead me to wonder how old the brake linings are on the 1956. Not when they were installed, but how old the lining material is. It could be NOS that sat on a shelf for decades. Our cars generally have a longer life for consumable parts that would wear out sooner on a daily driver and age related issues may occur that are not common. I have replaced brake shoes on cars that looked nearly new, but were 30 or 40 years old. Even without a load behind them them the cars stopped poorly. The braking material should not be rock hard. It needs to be flexible to mold with mechanical cohesion to the drum surface. Over time I think the solvents that maintain flexibility in the material may out gas and leave them less flexible or inflexible. And braking power is lost. In your situation I would replace the brake lining with known new material before doing the modification. I pay about $60 per axle for linings, kind of cheap compared to the disc swap. My vendor, http://www.rochesterclutch.com/, has three grades of non-asbestos material with varied levels of stopping power. I use the standard. I drop off the shoes and drums and each wheel set is ground to an exact fit. It makes a difference and we have demonstrated it on some expensive British cars with a reputation for not stopping. A durometer test on some lightly worn 30 to 40, even 20, year old brake friction material would be interesting. I only have my observations. I've relined old thick brakes and had the owners swear I did something else when the cars stopped amazingly well. Bernie

I brought up George Carlin's original seven words and ass wasn't one of them so it's probably not that offensive. I've always liked the play of dual meaning words and this is a good one. It contains no ambiguity whatsoever. And it's one you can say with a smile. Not like my most frequent saying "the eternal search for the uninformed buyer" which is kind of exploitative and a little mean, but all "nice" words by their own right. Oh, it was kind of fun plugging those seven original words in. I smiled when I did it. Bernie

Confused girl. The rat nest hair would have gone a lot better with the '51 Plymouth she has in the other auction. That Buick looks like a good buy. In adjusted dollars is is about 80% of what I paid for my '64 Riviera in 1978. We talk about young people entering the hobby. Imagine a 30 year old buying that car and how happy he'd be with it 37 years from now. Oh, in '78 my girlfriend had the long straight blonde hair, went nice with the classy Buick. Bernie

When my Daughter started driving I gave her my wife's 1965 Electra to drive to school. For practice I took her to and empty parking lot with painted spaces. She had to stop the car with the front bumper parallel with end stripe of the spot. After a lot of very evil looks in my direction (she's a redhead) she was all smiles with her new skill. Then I told her "OK, now the back bumper." Phew! Evil looks again. And she had to be centered in the space. Once , when we were talking alone, she confided in me that she made her friends shriek with fear driving fast into parking spots. She just told them, with attitude, that she knew how big her car was. She's Tommy when she drives- becomes part of the machine. Bernie..... and she's a girl.

Did you consider putting brakes on the trailer? In the mid-1950's there were large clubs of Airstream campers that traveled all over the country. I remember feature articles in magazines like National Geographic on those clubs. It's better to brake with the rearmost axle, too. Bernie

Just a guess, but I'd say you'd have to go back to somewhere around 1936, maybe even '34 to find a manual choke. Bernie

Some old car salesman I used to know that taught me a lot about lying used to say "There is a butt for every seat" Boy, making that one inoffensive takes away a lot.

Ooops! That one is deleted. I bet someone got their hands slapped. If the panel discussion didn't have a script it probably can't qualify to anything related to "reality". Better luck on transparency next time. Bernie

I think that space shuttle picture is the Photoshopped version. Here's the actual Russian one; The knock off Packard's were pretty good tough. well, except the carburetor. I heard they had a hard time keeping it from stalin. Ask the bourgeois who owns one. Bernie

Probably got a note that says "To Ho, From Russia with love". At least I didn't wonder if there was a Thai Ho in the collection. All Castro got was a 4 cylinder diesel to put in his old Chevy. Bernie

I think that picture was about 13 years old. The baggy pants and short white socks make it look like he's heading for the 2003 Nationals. Bernie