60FlatTop

If the molding has a thin lip at the top and a row of small holes along the bottom it will attach like my '68 Riviera and a couple others I've had of that vintage. Mount a 2 to 3" disc or fender washer to the face of the rocker panel. You can make some. The upper edge of the circumference will receive the top molding lip. Then secure the lower edge with machine screws with a 1/4" hex head. Bernie

Hot Rods! There's gonna be some committee members whom will want to talk with you at Hershey. You know, some will stereotype hot rodders. Bernie

I just looked at an Ebay search notification. I wanted to see if I could find a few yards of my 1960 Buick Electra blue cloth. It was for an Native American Indian blanket. I had a boss who liked to accurately distinguish between ignorant and stupid. This fits both. Not only that, for the next three days it will show up as a new listing. Ebay will draw and quarter a seller for offending what they call "the user experience" while they disgust and alienate buyers, at least me, with these stupid displays of ignorance. John Donahoe, where do you display your feedback? Bernie

I like wiping them down with kerosene. The paint is already messed up and kerosene is not too aggressive. It makes a nice shine that you can wipe down every weekend. A body shop friend saw me doing that to a big Jaguar sedan once and almost left the same deposits as the birds! It was way counter to his culture. I told him I soaked a corn cob in the stuff to do the really bad ones. I learned it from an old whiskey transporter from up by Dannemora and Chateau Gay (ChateeGay) near the Canadian border. I was in my 20's then and always jumped for joy when I found a faded red car to sell. I think I still have some of the money I made from those cars. Bernie

Read that part out loud. B

It may have been one of the Riviera Fongula's built the upscale Italian market by Ghia. One is reported to have been imported back to the US by the Italian engineer, Count BiTuse who designed Cadillac's 4-6-8 engine in 1981. Documentation is hard to come by on that one. Bernie

I bubble balance and triangulate the weight placement on my old cars. I can't remember a bad one. Watch out for that technology that might outsmart the user. If you are working on an old car sometimes old technologies may be appropriate. Kind of reminds me of how I watched TV with and antenna for 50 years and never had the screen freeze or skip and jerk until I got the high definition cable. Bernie

I remember that now. I was happy with a knowledgeable conversation, even about a simple pair of visors. Bernie

My speed buzzer is set at 85, don't go no higher. Being a modern car with ball joints instead of king pins and tubular shocks can make a difference. The Interstates were designed for 100 MPH five years before my car was built. It's just that buzzing that is annoying, but I don't listen to it as long as some. When I was a kid in 1959, people would cut, quickly, in front of an old car to read the radiator badge. Well, if you can't figure out what I'm driving in your rear view mirror before I blow by that 1.8 litre, you'll have to learn about taillights, skinny tires, and tail pipes the size of your pistons. The key to driving old cars fast is to let them find their grove. Don't oversteer them, just gently guide them. And don't hesitate on lane changes, Decide when and do it like you mean it: It's just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right. With one hand on the wheel. You bring your knees in tight. But it's the pelvic thrust. They really drive you insane. Let's do the lane change again. Bernie

If you put the car in neutral and release the brake will it roll? Might need some brake work. Bernie

I like Simichrome polish. The big kids were using it on their 100 point RR cars and introduced it to me 20 years ago. I used to sell it and had a lot of happy customers. It is easy to get online now. At one point I was buying it from a lock guitar store. Good stuff and worth having a tube around. Bernie

I just can't see the buyer handing over $5,000 in 1965 money and listening to the salesman say the seats are hard, but they will get better. Would it be something that got 20% softer and stop, or would it continue at some rate to zero firmness? I wouldn't be "comfortable" with that story. Then, again, I've had to learn to live with my expectations being too high for quite a while now. Bernie

I took the link to the full docket of cars consigned to the auction and scrolled quickly through the thumbnail pictures of all the cars. Judging from the backgrounds of the photos, the six guys whom have consigned cars might not develop strong ties to their cars. The white board fence showed up so many times I thought, wait that building looks familiar, too; and that wooded grove; geez, same parking lot. Bernie

Mine was broken in about the center when I bought the car. We heliarched the potmetal piece and it's been fine for decades. Bernie

These are easy on the hands when you are cutting a hundred or so hog rings: http://www.tooltopia.com/sunex-tools-3710.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paid_search_google_pla&scid=scplp6829889&gclid=Cj0KEQjwvdSvBRDahavi3KPGrvUBEiQATZ9v0J3S6FEez3Bn21CfahUQBOCsnRJhlEOcLIx_AZ-4FfYaAio18P8HAQ If you dismantled the upholstery and preped the seats you can make those cushions just the way you want them. If you screw up a panel Clark's will make another and you'll still be ahead. On the latex idea, I like that. My Packard had a rubber layer across the front seat for extra comfort. I may try that on my Riviera when I get around to that part. Not to sound completely cynical, I was on the phone with Lewis Jenkins last week asking him to do the sunvisors on my Park Ave Convert. They look hard and he was the first person I thought of. I just need to stop driving the car to get them off; 52 this morning, but back into the 70's this week and the sun is setting lower. Him, I trust. Bernie

Check that the manifold bolts are tight. Then check to see if someone has installed manifold gaskets. If they have one might be blown. Remove them, I don't use exhaust manifold gaskets on Buick nailheads, they tend to leak. Check the heat tube for the choke as well. They can rot out. Bernie

Anyone remember Gus and the Model Garage? There was a story there a long time ago about a customer who wondered why his dashboard glowed red when he started it. http://www.gus-stories.org/ Turned out the mounts isolated the engine, including the starter, from the ground. All the starting current was returning through the temperature gauge copper tube that was attached with a clamp to the back side of the dash board. I never did get through the High School assignment to read Homer or Dickens, but Gus; well, that was useful stuff. I still get chastised by my wife, the librarian. "You never read any novels." she says while I read a shop manual I picked up at a yard sale... for a car I don't even own. This evening I'll be reading about real world applications of quadratic equations. Bernie

You have nice new upholstery now, with strong seams. Forget the upholsterer exists. Take them apart and do it over yourself. I have a new driver's seat back from Clark's that I haven't installed yet. It is soft and supple. I have a nice pair of long handled side cutters for hog rings. Each time I squeeze the handles and cut a hog ring I think of another lame excuse a trimmer would give for a poor job. Thanks, I'll do it myself. Is you trimmer British? The leather over there may have misled him: Bernie

Where is this naivety when I need it! Bernie

Sometimes you wake up at 3 AM and feel the Ebay algorithm shift. It has no loyalties. Bernie

Henry's Grandson asked what people wanted and they described an Edsel. Shortly after the Edsel died the people begged for, without being asked, a sports car. Lee Iacocca dolled up a Falcon and told them it was a sports car. Don't ask, tell them. It works better. Bernie

I have a bunch of stuff that could sell on Ebay. I also have a business that gets a little time stolen for car related things (like this 9:40 "break"). After keeping close track of final in-the -pocket money from Ebay, I have decided that for every $1,000 above average income from the S corp, I am going to throw away $200 worth of the Ebay clutter. The numbers work out well, even after taxes. Sorry about the loss of the parts and memorabilia, but Ebay told me it was "for the buyer experience". Bernie

I recognized Marc Fisher's name right away. That reminded me of telling my children the most important motivator of a news story is the writer's need for a bag of groceries. And that was immediate thought as a scrolled down through too much baloney. Remember the days when "a good manager can manage anything" and "a good writer can write about anything". Maybe old Marc could write an article on that myth, as well. Living things undergo change and evolution. Change is how we recognize life; no change, it must be dead. Since I officially entered the hobby in the summer of 1959 I have seen and participated in how adaptable the hobby is. Over dramatization, as in the article's pictures, discredits the writer with the knowledgeable, but brings in the grocery bags from the ignorant the same way clouds of water vapor in the morning sun symbolize gross pollution to another group of sensationalists. (Maybe that is where I saw his writing). Well, he got his grocery check from the Post and a moment of fame on the AACA Forum. And I wasn't born cynical and opinionated. It was years of paying attention and professional writers that trained me. Bernie

I used to have a big bag of sooty AC44's in a cabinet. They were generally the recommended plug for my collector Buicks over the years. I started using AC45's and that range stayed looking good for 8 or 9 years. About 5 or 6 years ago I started tossing my AC45 on the parts counter and asking for an NGK that looked like a similar heat range. That has been working fine for me. I think the 44's were a bit cool for collector car use. Bernie

Looks like a boot jack.