60FlatTop

I'm hoping someone has a rough and rusty old Continental coupe, a convertible should be the same, to salvage a right side pillar post from. I don't need the aluminum brace but would take one if it comes along. Rust at the base is no problem and I will take as much of the quarter panel skin as is available, even if it is only a few inches of the body curve below the window. If anyone has a badly rotted door I can also use the upper 6" or so for patching material. PM, email bernie@berniedaily.com or call 585-797-7421. If you picked one apart for spares and have a bunch of stuff stashed I can probably make good use of it. Thank you, Bernie

Yesterday I was followed home by a Continental Coupe that the previous owner thought was a Packard. The VIN tag reads 876H-57136. Bernie

Holey Toledo! B

The Coker 8.20 X 15's on my '60 Electra are one step oversize and the whitewalls are wider than original. They are the second set. The first set of the same were replaced after 10 years and about 12,000 miles of driving; about $90 per year year when you figure the cost. My '64 Riviera got a new set of Coker 7.10 X 15's in narrow white way longer ago than I want to admit. I have hardly driven the car. They look great and perform well. I will probably replace them with the same. My '48 Packard came with a two year old set of Coker H78 X 15 biased. They look good and the car drives very well on them. Somewhere in the early 2020's I will probably replace them with Coker Firestones. I think it is a 7.60 X 15 car. Summitt Racing has the best pricing. The cost is lower and they provide free shipping on the orders over $100. On the old cars the aspect ratio and the shoulder design mean the most to me. If they don't look right I notice every single time I walk up to the car. The cars I have were expensive new. The dealer had to ply $2500 out of someone's tight fist to sell that Packard. The biased tires performed just fine back then. Even on today's roads, as our national infrastructure sinks into third world status due to strict laws defining capital and maintenance funding, biased tires do just fine for me. Now, can you guess who spent 5 hours on the New York State Thruway yesterday? Bernie

When I was learning to Buy/Sell from 1961 on, my Grandfather showed me, by example, to never take a man's last dollar. People buying used tires at the time had pretty thin wallets and you knew when the last one was rolling out. He would always hand it back. He told me that their was a lot a man could do with that dollar; buy a loaf of bread, a few slices of cold cuts, make a phone call. That last dollar had more value than all the dollars that came before. That concept is still my guide in many ways. I have learned that there are identifiable groups of people whom HAVE to reduce a price. I have personal thoughts about the related genetics or social upbringing, but there are people whom are driven to denigrate whatever you have for sale. It is imperative that your price be reduced as a demonstration that you were unworthy of your asking price- even if the price was a bargain! That comes from over 50 years of observation. At this point I know the body language, accents, and voice intonations. Once, some years ago, I had a car for sale and the phone in the kitchen rang during supper. I told the caller the car was sold. My wife said " I didn't know you sold that car." I said "I didn't" Then turned to my quite young son and gave him some selling pointers that she said I shouldn't tell a child. Hell, I learned the hard way. One policy I do have is to never reduce the price without taking something in return. If the battery is new I will lower the price and put in a good older one. If the front tires are new I will keep them and put on good used ones. I will reduce a price and I usually tell a buyer "if you start plunking down hundred dollar bills on the hood it won't take all of them and we will both be smiling." For the outright chiselers that cry and grovel for a nickel in their favor I usually tell them they may be too destitute to be in the hobby, I am not into charitable donations. Of course, I always do smile when I remember my Grandfather's classic: "Well, I heard it's a piss poor man who won't go half way. I'll split the difference with you." Tell me that and I'll do it for sport. Hey, I'm thinking about selling a car. Give me a call. Test the first screening. Bernie

A few years ago my wife's QX4 and my Silverado were unlocked in the driveway as always. Someone went through them and we found CD's thrown all over, glove boxes and compartments opened, and nothing stolen. You know, some people would have felt violated. We felt rejected. I mean, there were the soundtracks from The Music Man and House of 1,000 Corpses lying right there in the morning. Kids, must have been kids. Bernie

I think bottom feeders are now called flippers and pickers. It has something to do with the bus and camera crew. True bottom feeders need a lot more water. You'll know when the old style show up. Bernie

Posting at 02:46 AM and ending in grrrrr is not good. Hopefully your T-Bird is running and reliable for this summer. It is really time to bring the car home, buy a little garage equipment and dig in. You will be extremely happy with the results. From the messages, you can write sentences, punctuate, capitalize; with those skills you can read and interpret the manuals pretty well. And you will be likely to follow the instructions to the letter. I don't remember the moment I became a mechanic, but I know I never stood next to a couple of rats that were turned into coachmen, it ain't magic. Line up a helper at $15 per hour, a good one. Then you will have to make the commitment to be there providing work. That gets the job done. Buy a quality 3 1/2 ton, two speed jack and two set of Hein Werner jack stands and any other tools to supplement your existing equipment. Don't delegate a big portion of the fun. I had a good friend who was my cardiologist. He loved old cars and kept trying to get into an adult Ed program for mechanics. The quota was never met. At the time I was teaching an HVAC apprenticeship program and he asked if I would teach a private class for him once a week (sit on a bucket, point and grunt while he worked). He loved it. Once he was working under his truck while I sat to the side. Sweat was pouring off him and he said "Geez, for years I have been telling patients that work was not a cardiac workout. By, did I get that wrong!" He wore gloves but always worried about cleaning his hands for surgery. Great hobby memories. And I know he was asleep at a quarter to three those mornings. Due to my advancing age I farmed out some work a couple of years age. Things weren't right until I disassembled everything and painstakingly reassembled it all. About the only thing I trust to go out now is a tire change or alternator rebuild. And I am very satisfied with the policy, thank you. Bernie BTW- does anyone have a good Coats tire machine within 100 miles of Rochester, NY. Bernie

just got back from having coffee with car guys in a town 8 miles away. I took the convertible, top down. I have put about 175 miles on it in the last two weeks. I had to put new nylon window rollers in the right quarter window last year (look at pics of '86 Park ave 2 doors and think about that one). I found a quarter and a nickle under the rear seat. They were sitting on the front floor hump with the top down. I'm waiting to see someone reach in there and make it a nickel error car. Bernie

I had a corotid artery ultrasound a couple of months ago and noticed the display now shows blood in red. I told the technician that was kind of like the cash register telling the cashier how to give change. Another fart in church moment. Bernie

The level of perfection one can achieve is directly proportional to the number of times they are willing to do it over. "Willing" is the key. That brings Murphy's Law into play. If you are truly willing to do it over you won't have to. Bernie

Parking it on Main Street in Waccabuc, New York might be a safe option. Then the thief has to find Waccabuc. It's not like parking across from the Brockport Diner. Bernie

The best way to get you car into good hands is to always drive it a minimum of 15 miles a week. Get far enough away from home so the battery charges, the brakes have to work, it cools without overheating, and will restart at the corner store 10 miles away. If it can do all that it will maintain its maximum value. You can sell it for a price dear enough to the next owner to be sure they have made more than a fleeting commitment to it. If it can't do those things it will not command a high price and the bargains go to the bottom feeders. Look at all the white or no hair heads at the next old car meet and ask yourself which one of these old-timers is going to buy your car. A lot are still carrying those snap coin purses and leaving quarter tips. Bernie

The low pressure switch will prevent the compressor from pulling the low side of the refrigeration system into a partial vacuum and sucking air into what is supposed to be a hermetic system.Automotive systems have more tolerance than precise systems, but added air will still screw up the pressure/temperature relationship. Jumping the compressor ain't good. I think a conversion from R12 to R134A is $300 to $500 in a shop. It's 86 right now on the tundra of New York State. Better get her done. Bernie

Well, sometimes IRL in not fun if you bring it into the computer. I have coffee with a friend who follows a Volvo forum. The flavor is the same. All of this is a symptom of a greater problem, worldwide. It is access to facts without a foundation of knowledge. 45 years ago I learned why one multiplies the temperature difference of air by 1.08 or, if one prefers, 1.1 in some cases, to calculate BTUH, it's a plug in app now. Why is 500 a K factor? Multiply 8.334 by 60 and see. Educators around the world are worried about the affect of readily available facts without knowledge or method. When I wrote that I had not seen the compression readings it was a HINT. Four days ago and I bet step 1 hasn't been taken. It's in the book. Buy and read manuals, learn details, buy tools. All the stuff in my garage hits the road and goes. Reading these forums over the years there have been many times when I read a string of comments and told myself "This guy should collect watches." Knowing I won't be able to service my cars right up to the last day, I took my own advice. I have a nice collection of special watches. Well, more tools than watches. Bernie

Well it is the whonly one around. Somehow I can relate. Bernie

Ah, lunch time, warmed up spaghetti, close the database, and open the forum. Interesting, I don't mind a mid-'50's T-Bird, but the mid '60's use bolts big enough for howitzers. And that plate steel girdle that spans the transmission makes me worry the bolt holes might not match when I put it back. Kind of makes a Buick look easy. Diagnosing a car is as risky as going to a doctor and saying "My arm hurts." It is a hell of a lot better to walk in with the bone sticking out through the skin and say "Fix that." Took out the old clutch, put in a new clutch, still does the same thing. I bet its not the clutch. How'd it do with a jack under the rear end and the wheels just raised off the ground? Is there a little tape residue on the windshield from driving with a vacuum gauge taped to it? Maybe a dwell meter and volt meter taped next to it. When the topic started and the salesman was mentioned I remembered looking at a red Firebird convertible a few years back. It shook so bad I was afraid to drive it back, but I did. I asked the salesman why it was on the lot like that. He said he wouldn't know. They never let him drive the expensive cars. "Good enough" is a fun one. I hired a body guy to do some alignments of panels on a Caddy I was working on. The passenger door shot like a catapult when the button was pushed. The driver's door was smooth and worked fine. I told him to make the passenger door just like the driver's. He farted around until it only popped a little and said that looked good enough. I asked him if he missed Sesame Street the day they did "just like". He seemed offended, but happy when it was right. Take it home and fix it. You'll get it back with a little piece of cardboard folded under the dash trim. That will have to stay there until you finally fix the source of all the vibration. Now I'm smiling and ready to dump the cold spaghetti and take my convertible up to the China Buffet. Bernie

This is the one I read about. Bernie

Try a few sharp raps with two hammers on opposite sides. That should knock the taped joint apart. B

I wanna see a four speed in a torque tube drive Buick. The open driveshaft cars are fairly common. Bernie

Once Buick went to and open driveshaft you see the four speeds pop up once in a while. Ordered new, one could probably trace the car back to towing an Airstream trailer. They were quite popular from the mid '50's into the '60's. To have enough money to play in that league they would have to have been my Father's age and he didn't buy an automatic car until 1966. He surely would have bought a standard, and maybe a four speed, if he had an Airstream. A four speed in a '60 Buick, even a base model would be a stretch. One would have to build a tailshaft with a torque ball or open the driveshaft. And the three speeds were single lever selective shifts. Pretty unlikely, I was there and very attentive. As far as being fast, my '60 Invicta, that I bought in 1966, would run 85 MPH between the two white lines that marked the last quarter mile of my road. When the Road Runners came out they were doing mid-90's. And on the straight stretches between towns pegging the speedometer was common. Usually the speedo was bouncing around 100 after just passing three cars. I do remember one night when the 401 got its doors blown off by a 4 speed wedge Plymouth. It ended well. The cops just shot past me putting along in the Buick and got that racer. Back to the stories about four speeds and the like, I was about 15 when I figured out how to sort the stories. If a guy carried his folding money with a 20 on the outside and the ones in the middle, he may have been stretching the truth a bit. Don't tell your Uncle I wrote that; but you might ask him to change a $5. Oh, here's a dated picture. Bernie

Stick a fist full of hundred dollar bills under the wiper and send it my way. If the mechanic is younger than the car OR can't take and find an iron clad clad leave to himself from a three-rail billiard shot, you've got trouble in Franklin. I didn't write nuthin 'till the 59th post, now that's restraint. Bernie

Yep, my next truck plan is for a new Cop Tahoe. The first coil overs I remember coming into this country were on the XKE's. They made a nice compact rear sub-assembly for a unit body or monocoque. Always be cautious about technology from countries that equip most of their cars with a set of tools. The best thing to do with a '53 Buick is to get a quart or two of hydraulic jack oil and a squirt oil gun. Pull the shock fluid plugs and top them off. On the rear I like to disconnect the link and pump the arm by hand while filling it. Once topped off take it out and drive it 100 miles or so. If there is leakage around a seal wrap some cotton string around the shaft as close as you can. If it stops the leak, fine. (Ask a fitter how to seal a drip in a wet sprinkler line.) If not take the shock apart, clean it, and put new seals in. Buicks live pretty easy lives. Most issues are from sitting around and being dry. Bernie

There is always the guy who has to overdo it and wire brush his housing. Bernie

http://soundbible.com/480-Kids-Cheering.html Cheers, you did good. Bernie