60FlatTop

This one is on my living room wall, not a Buick, and signed. Bernie

I just tried it myself. Well, in my area reruns of Wonder Woman are on TV in an hour. If the webmaster likes mid-fifties Buicks that makes two of us that aren't available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LWcmlIbNhs Go on, girl. Slam the door on that little Ford like it was a Roadmaster! Bernie

Try a clay bar on them. Use a detailer spray for a lubricant. You can check your progress by putting a plastic sandwich bag over you hand and rubbing your palm across the glass. It will get nice and smooth with the clay. Then clean the glass with a good glass cleaner. Advance auto Parts used to have the best. Now they have dropped the store brand. Use half sheets of newspaper to pick up the glass cleaner. Check again with the sandwich bag and keep doing it until you are happy. Still not happy? I got mine a nice new Pilkington windshield 50th birthday present. Use lots of RainEx and don't run the wipers on dry glass. Bernie

It is really hard to buy a car that doesn't meet your expectations and have it be a total loss. Sometimes it is harder to live with thoughts of the one that got away. My rule of thumb is that I am willing to risk an annual loss of $3,000 on hobby car stuff. That is all it has been for years, willingness. I never have. If I bought a car I didn't like I sold it. And usually made a little money. A very nice 5.0 Mustang from the late 1980's taught me a lot around 20 years ago. I was dickering for about $600 when someone else came along and bought it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I don't haggle price anymore either. If I want it I buy it. If the seller asks more than I have, they keep it. If I don't like it when it gets home I sell it. And now I have too many cars. Every car I own was purchased at the asking price except the Riviera. I was 30 and had to do the testosterone dance. Bernie

People tell me I want too much for my stuff. My son stood in front of me for the signature picture below. Just a thought. Bernie

The "60 didn't come up. '59 looks good; that would be bone white over blood red? Bernie

Now I find out a coulda had a Buick bathtub. I had to get a brand X. I thought I'd make a walk-in one like they show on the old people TV channel. It leaks. Bernie

If she had driven around to the other side the pump may have swung around and taken her and the door out. Bernie

I started selling cars to adults when I was 13. My Grandfather had a Used Tire and Used Car Business I am the seasoned mechanic in the black sweat shirt, about 3 years seniority there. We called them Lizards and if you go to a closed dealer auction the term still floats around. The barn find term is a media term. The best I can figure is that it is a disambiguation for "Where'd they drag that lizard from?" And answers by implying "Oh, that's a good thing." Unintended idle, long term storage has never been a good thing for a car. For me barn find reminds me of the media inspired telephone characterization where one points there thumb at their ear and their little finger at their mouth while curling the remaining three fingers. That's a phone! Well, they got a few million Bozos to think so and imitate them. If I die tonight my wife has instructions to scrape the registration stickers off my cars. She knows the license plates are on with wing nuts. And there are five full vacuum cleaner bags on the shelf. She'll have barn finds for sale by noon. Selling Cars, the best American Sport! Bernie

There are a couple of interesting keywords to search here: "Sale held in cooperation with RCG Automotive and Mark Patterson." Bernie

I use a local Mobil station and they can't figure out how to connect the hose and nozzle so it won't twist and bind or try to fight its way out of the filler pipe. A rotating pump island, the background music just wouldn't be the same around here. Bernie

I bought a truck load of parts last week and got some parts I can't ID. Here is a nice straight center hood hinge. It looks like it was painted originally, no traces of chrome. Thanks to Kieser31 for identifying it. $40 + $10 shipping to the continental US. Thanks, Bernie [ATTACH=CONFIG]282850[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]282851[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]282852[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]282853[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]282854[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]282855[/ATTACH]

Thanks, It seemed short. That's a big crank hole! Maybe a 1932 Pontiac. Bernie

I agree with your thoughts, Paul. That car should be known in the Buick community and this is a good place to ask. Give it a day or two. In the meantime you can take Bleach's link and think about exotic places like Avtsraliya and where to put the comma in $20,000. Strongly recommend hiring an appraiser. Looks like the family won't be enjoying this Chevy either http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-Bel-Air-150-210-Modified-1953-chevy-chevrolet-2-door-resto-mod-custom-touring-rat-hot-rod-/331393423475?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4d28965873&item=331393423475&pt=US_Cars_Trucks Bernie

I bought a truck load of parts last week and got some parts I can't ID. Here is a nice straight center hood hinge. It looks like it was painted originally, no traces of chrome. $40 + $10 shipping to the continental US. Thanks, Bernie

I have used ValSpar satin black polyurethane over epoxy primer and been very happy with the color sheen and durability. I am not even inclined to experiment with other options. Bernie

Speculating on Matt's block, it may have been a defective original engine that was replaced under warranty. Many companies had a "factory man" with a sledge hammer to make that sort of thing un-usable after determination. Moving into the war years a block like that could have been repairable due to shortages and ended up out of the dealer's junk pile and into another car repaired. That makes a plausible story and it is only a four hour drive for me to run down there and swear to it. Bernie

Last weekend we used an end mill while putting a new hinge pin in my Packard door. Maybe I get too fussy about how to do stuff. For future reference on the carb work, I have a 4 ounce ball peen hammer that keeps me out of a lot of trouble. Like the ultrasonic cleaner, I use it to lightly tap small parts or dissimilar metal parts to create a "ringing" vibration on screw head or hex head fasteners. A tight fit is important. Sometimes carburetor jets require a slightly thicker tool than a screw driver. I hold the hammer loosely in my hand and use a wrist action to keep tapping, and taping, and taping, sometimes until I am ready to give up. Then I tap some more. In most instances the fastener will loosen, take penetrating oil and successfully work out. I learned this technique working on heating radiator steam traps in the early 1970's. The hex heads on the traps would be all scarred and torn up from 36" pipe wrenches when I got there. I would just sit on the floor with my little hammer tapping the perimeter of the body and eventually unscrew the cap with my fingers. It has worked very well on everything except Buick water pump bolts. I use magic for that. So, on the next job, get a good fit (if it is an expensive carb tool use an expendable short extension to tap on) and tap like you are ringing a bell for as long as it takes; been working for me. Bernie

All four shocks have fill plugs in them. Be sure they are topped off. Use hydraulic jack oil with a oil squirt pistol to fill while lightly moving the car up and down to work any air out. You will feel the resistance increase if they were low. In the rear, I like to lie on a creeper and pull down on the frame rail with each squirt. This method doesn't take long and you know fluids levels are correct. Clean the shaft entry points and watch for leakage over the next week or pull the plugs a week later and double check. Bernie

Tools, gotta have tools. Bernie

Kind of like the 2" termination I mentioned in post #36 and #47. Worked for me. Bernie

I conflated Pack and Rat. The past tense is conflatulence. I smell a rat. Bernie

Where's the verse where the guys sings "I'm too sexy for my car called a Julietta?" Bernie

Yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted and ended up with. My other cars are all very quiet. Bernie

My car is fairly quiet in normal driving and does not drone at constant speeds. The Hushpower's are from Flowmaster. They use a laminated steel plate baffle system that copies the tone of 1950's steel packs. It has the exact Chris Craft idle I was looking for and sounds good upon acceleration. If I wasn't happy with it all the parts would be in my nephew's tin pile with the Waldron's "quiet" system I bought for the '60 Electra. I had a Flowmaster 3" American Thunder system on a Z-28 a few years ago. They sure picked the right name for that one! I think the 2" tailpipes are benefiting me. The bigger stuff echoes. I've had enough cars with tachometers so I have a good idea what RPM range I am running in and I have to trigger a whole bunch of yahoo neurons to go over 3500 rpm. What in the world are you guys doing to need these high flow, low restriction systems? These are Rivieras. Bernie