60FlatTop

As a Buick driver and owner since I was 17 that Enclave was not a Buick or a Buick wagon by any standard. Put 25,000 miles on one. They called it a crossover, but I think it was a wool over. One car, the Lucerne. Then the Enclave, Terraza, and the Rainer was all they offered. Tahoe with a V8, separate body and frame, and rear wheel drive for me if I ever wear out the Silverado. Bernie

Doing things like that last picture is a sure way to get your wife to pray out loud (POL?) in the car! I know. We had our '67 Electra on this access road by a reservoir in Vermont one time........ And then there was the time we lost traction going up the side of a mountain with the '71 Ford convertible...... She just pressed her hands together and kept saying "Please give him some common sense". I looked around, but there was on one with us. I remember my Mother sitting beside me in the passenger seat praying. as well. Bernie

The last comment shook some cobwebs. In the mid-1980's I cut the roof off a 1962 Electra 4 door hardtop. I grafted on an Oldsmobile convertible windshield frame and made a padded vinyl parade style boot. You really had to look close to know it was hacked and I took it to a few local car shows and rode around town a lot. A friend had just finished a painstaking restoration of an AAR Baracuda. So we are talking one day and he says "I am constantly worked up over my car. I park across parking lots and worry that someone will park next to my car. My stomach is in knots! And you drive around in that car with the roof cut off, having a great time. Something is REALLY wrong with this picture." He was the guy who made horizontal runs on his inner fender wells because the factory hung them that way. Cut the roof off, deduct 50 points! Still holding nothing sacred. Bernie

The tip in the first post doesn't seem logical when you consider how bands work with a planetary gear set. But, like the Hudson guy said when I told him he didn't need an engine rebuild "I don't care what you say, I'm not going to let you talk any sense into me!". Bernie

Imagine all the work to win a trophy and then not being able to see your beautiful carpet: http://buffalo.craigslist.org/atq/4336310192.html Bernie

I sure like those 49's and my wife even recognizes there is something special, well, super, or electrifying about just jumping in and making a 150 to 200 mile round trip. I see you got some responses with the old lady comment. I resisted, I figured you were trolling for them, you weren't trolling for old ladies were you? One of the drawbacks of my '60 is that it attracts a lot of mid-50's women, more than any car I've owned. Most need a full rotisserie job, not just paint! Luckily, their half bald, pony tailed, 60ish husbands with tattoos and earrings drag them away. Then again, maybe it is my geek glasses and Navy dress shoes and not the Buick...... Nah, its the Buick. When I was 17 it was the Buick, too. Bernie

Its a twin, for sure. I'll ask Tom if his car wandered here from Il. next time I see him. There haven't been a lot of those 4 doors popping up over the years. As side note, I stopped by his house one day while riding around in the '60. Sitting in his garage was this 1917 REO: This is the second "old" car I remember in my life. I saw it around 1961. It belonged to a friend of my Dad's named Webber, as I remember. He had two friends with old cars, the other was a Model T Ford touring that showed up in our driveway one Saturday for a visit. Remember, in 1961 these cars were less than 45 years old, nudging 100 today! Bernie

The capillary tube temperature gauges are a simple concept, but sometimes difficult to repair. Luckily there are a few things that are much more reliable. Those are coolant hoses less than 15 years old (that includes heater hoses), a proper sized, aligned, and tightened fan belt, a correct radiator cap, a clear, clean radiator, coolant less than 5 years old, a tight water pump shaft, and a cylinder head that is properly torqued. If all that stuff is checked and OK one could almost replace a cap tube gauge with a light bulb that came on to warn a soccer Mom who doesn't check those things. Bernie

I saw the sarcasm coming when I read "them there". Maybe its that there writing style. I know what i'd do if I had a dog that was that there ugly. Bernie

Maybe he cuddled up at a Packers game in that red blanket while sitting next to Bill De Blasio. Now , there's a "Deliverance" moment! Bernie

Actually, with those orange plates, that could be Tom Kuter's old car from Churchville, New York. It was a standard shift and he had it for sale around 1985 for $2500. My wife needed a car and I almost bought it. The car is probably still around. The person who did buy it subframed it and put in a 455. It was black and I remember purple ghost flames the last time I saw it. Bernie

[h=3]For 52 years I misunderstood that song! It was a '50 and a mounted cannon in the battery! The Music Man[/h] (1962) 00:38:18 Clarinets of every size And trumpeters who'd improvise Time - Phrase 00:38:10 There were 50 mounted cannon In the battery 00:38:14 Thundering, thundering Louder than before 00:38:18 Clarinets of every size And trumpeters who'd improvise 00:38:21 A full octave higher than the score 00:38:24 Whoo! Bernie

Latin for "Thus passes the glory of this world". Taken literally or illustratively? Bernie

The Buick Club is the largest single marque group on this AACA forum. And we are just the computer literate members! Imagine a club so active they get into these matches over parking at their National meet. Anyone seen the Kaiser Club have that problem? Buicks are just inherently good cars bought by people with very high expectations and the cars maintain their usefulness for about half a century. That's why so many of the come. Ever notice how certain vehicles attract a particular attitude of owner? A few years ago I told an engineer friend about Buick winning the Malcolm Baldrige award for customer satisfaction. He said, of course, have you ever know a Buick owner who would admit they made a mistake and were unhappy with their decision? Along that line, I had a friend who warned his kids to be careful driving around Chrysler products. The owner's had already demonstrated poor judgement. And then, when I complained about the defogger on the '90's Roadmaster not reaching the edges, the first friend said Buick drivers weren't expected to have peripheral vision. Stereotypes, why do people work so hard to live up to them. When we were laying out the 2005 Nationals show field there was a mobile home park at the far end. A couple of members were concerned about parking in that area. Considering it, I got this image stuck in my head of an octogenarian member dressed in his American Legion uniform, flags on his walker, and dragging a condom from the foot as he returned from sneaking off to the trailer park. Then I found out they were woried about vandalizing. We put the Modified Class there. I have belonged to a lot of clubs and each one has a feel to being a member. The Buick Club is the only one that has felt like a family and I have enjoyed it for over 30 years. I am pretty sure we will be the last generation to enjoy the car hobby in the manner we are accustomed to. We are lucky to have the activities. The intolerance and obsession really are a function of our ages. And at this age are we generally do not have the social network to find replacement friends. That's the worst part. Bernie

Saturday I took the '60 over to Sam's in Holley for lunch. Then we went the long way around through Clarendon and saw the waterfall over the Clarendon fault, headed south and skirted a corner of the muckland. That brought us into town from the south so we stopped at Tractor Supply and got a new leaf rake and home, about 40 miles. Yesterday we took a break from raking and took it up to Tim Horton's for coffee and a quick snack, 4 miles. In half an hour I have a meeting. I go 5 miles out of my way so I can drive about 10 miles along the Lake Ontario Parkway. Maybe I'll take the '60. Bernie

I was thinking about the mention of incidents where people have moved their car to another location during the show. I did that last year at a local meet when a very annoying 60ish couple in a street rodded pickup parked next to me at a local show. Believe me, if they thought I moved my car away because I didn't want to be next to a street rod, they really have the wrong idea! So if you are at a formal meet or a cruise in this year and your wife has just finished setting up something that looks like a Bedouin nomad camp or you have superseded the judging process by pointing out every conceivable flaw in the neighboring car; and the driver quietly gets into his car and moves away, don't, for a moment think they are being disrespectful. They are probably opening the spot so another car share your company. Bernie

When I was about 13 years old my Grandmother gave me a Buick buzz saw that they had left on the farm when they moved into town. I never knew the year for sure. I think the generator or starter tag had patent dates up to 1919. The driveshaft had been disconnected and run to a mechanism that turned about a 30" saw blade. They left the farm in 1940 and my Uncle worked it haying until the late '50's so the saw car probably sat for 15 years or more. And they talk about giving a kid a BB gun! My Mother and I learned a lot about really dark caked grease on that one. In fact, every time I drive by a Kentucky Fried Chicken I always remember how well a five pack of The Colonel's wings on Saturday would get the pores of your hands all clean for church of Sunday. Brain Fart! I just remembered that we used sugar and light machine oil in the Navy to clean our hands after boiler cleaning..............I wonder about that secret sauce. Bernie

Was that an intentional 2001 Space Odyssey drumstick toss at the end of Alles Neu or was I looking too close? I liked it.....lots. Bernie

Speaking of manure in the Hudson Valley, the Albany legislature is off this week. "It is that time of the year again to get out the honey wagon and spread the winter heap of piled manure around." They probably have newer equipment now. I have always wanted to write a well illustrated book about cars adapted to different uses; Doodlebugs, tractors, tow trucks, and the like. Bernie Bernie

John mentioned he was over 70. I am close to 66. And you aren't going to find a lot of Buick Club members a whole lot younger. We are at the ages where intolerance and obsession become the order of the day. Although I think it is due to natural aging of the brain, it sure is easy to get pissed off about things one cares about. My chapter put on the 1989 and 2005 Nationals in Batavia, New York. It was pretty much the same members I met at the first meeting I attended in 1979. That's a span of over 20 years and I was the "kid" in the bunch when I joined. Putting on the Nationals is at least 2 years of work for the host chapters. The second time we did it we lost long time members and stressed relations through the Chapter. I have been reading variations of this topic and critiques of events with very little recognition of how hard it is to put one of these events together and the internal stress for the chapter. On top of the work we made significant money and that almost wiped the chapter out arguing over its dispersion. Sometime later I was at a regional meet on the last day. Standing by the Niagara River, I asked one of the host members if they made any money. He said they did and I told him to throw it in the river and save problems. I haven't been to a National meet in a few years. The last two were in conflict with a stroke and heart attack. South Bend would have been nice but my left eye was bothering me and I was a little aprehensive about the affect of a long monotonous drive on the mixed up brain cells. If I had taken my '86 convertible I would have registered in the model year class. I wasn't looking for a trophy so a 50 point hit for the roof being cut off was mute. I like to go to friends places and hang out. I have three kinds of friends; friends with cars in the same condition as mine, friends with cars better than mine, and friends with cars needing more work than mine. I don't recall that ever being a topic when we get together. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. Bernie

Here is a 1953 Jaguar Mark VII wheel. It is a 5 stud, 5" bolt pattern, same as a Buick in a 16". My Jaguar came with two Buick wheels on it. To use the wheel on a Buick you may have to unscrew the locating pin. I'm not sure of the center hole diameter. Buicks have a really big hole in some models. You can always chuck a Jaguar wheel in a lathe and open the center a bit. Bernie

Lots of Buicks around water. Careful, people might think they are boats. Bernie

On the nailhead I have used the manifold bolt holes on opposite corners. I have two pairs of forged eye bolts and use two of the appropriate size. I attach to a length of chain with a slip pin clevis to make life easy. This set up works with just about anything. The nut is to adjust the eye bolt so it doesn't bottom. The forged bolts are stronger than a standard manifold bolt and add safety as well as prevent damage to the manifold bolt. Bernie

Gee, I thought the forum did a lot of speculating...... for fun. Bernie

I picked up a stack of 60 Way of the Zephyr from the 1970's through the '80's. There sure are a lot of hot start articles. The knowledge is out there and not many would have left the showroom floor if things had always been that bad. I have seen cars that didn't start hot because the gummy distributor plate didn't have all night to creep back to start position. A six voly won't tolerate too much advance, especially if a little extra fuel peculates into the manifold. A hot condenser coil can cause an erratic spark. Just methodically go through the systems testing and verifying. Some life, huh, sitting in a living room chair reading 40 years old magazines about 70 year old cars. If I take a break I usually choose between reruns of "F Troop" or the neurology textbook next to the magazines. Bernie Bernie