60FlatTop

Here in the wilds of western New York our temperatures annually range from -10 or -15 F. to 100 or 105 F. A 30 degree differential on a day is not uncommon. I keep my tanks full. That minimizes the amount of moisture bearing air in my tank. Droplets of water will form on the metal walls as condensation, then drip into the gasoline and rest on the bottom of the tank. They pit and perforate over time. Rear ends, transmissions, and engines do the same thing over time. I have had pure water flow from drain plug openings and I have had to braze rust holes in oil pans from cars that sat for long periods. The newer interest in car of the 1980's and 1990's brings in tank mounted electric fuel pumps. They need fuel volumes to cool their motors. Never run less than a quarter of a tank. Full is best. During the summer I like to top the cars off every Sunday evening. If I put at least two gallons in each that means I drove around 30 miles. The car had to start away from home once anyway, the cooling system had to work, the brakes needed to be used, the engine, transmission, and rear end came to operating temperature and drove off moisture, and I had ay least an hour of driving time to feel any developing anomalies. These are good reasons to keep the tank full. GM never learned how to make a decent fuel gauge anyway. And I think it helps to always maintain the highest value of my cars. Bernie

I saw that title and thought "Ozzie, ozzie, ozzie". Then I saw the thing about the guy with a Mazda and wondered if he really wanted a Roadmaster but no one knew where he could find a Loadmaster. Language is fun. I'm from New York and you'd never believe it listening to Hollywood language. Bernie

Interesting, that '82 is the same color as the awning and trim on the house across the street. Eyes! The car has gotta have eyes or you come home from cruise night with the side all polished from people backing up against it looking at the red and white '56 Merc next to you. Bernie

Well, yeah, the wind turbine generates 'lectric for the grinder. If you get the turbine propeller tips speed just slightly below the speed of sound it will scare rattle snakes away, too. Bernie

A basic black Buick has been a car of class in any neighborhood. Just keep shining and shining. The only tutone black '55 Buicks that come to mind make me think of Broderick Crawford. Bernie

Some of those bra jokes can be real knee slappers. Bernie

I had a '95 that I bought as a donor drivetrain for my '86 Park Ave convertible. I decided to stay stock with the convert and let my son take the '95. He had problems and my nephew has the Riviera now. I saw him last weekend and he says the car is a string of little problems. He is a mechanic and likes driving the car too. It is listed for sale on the Buffalo Craigslist. Although I enjoyed the later Riviera it is definitely not a car to keep for the long term. I bought a 1994 Impala SS for a late model keeper. If I was pinned down for a car to potentially keep for 20 years the '94 to '96 GM B-body would be my only choice. You can buy a 60,000 mile Roadmaster for $5,000, another $1,000 will get a decent Fleetwood. I paid $9,000 for the Impala. I am fussy and it is an exceptional car. I don't mind paying a little more for the iconic value. The 10-15 year cycle of very conservative new car buyers has been prevalent since the 1930's. You will find that those low miles one owner cars verging on collector status are generally cars you trip over at a car show. They are brown, medium green, light blue. That's what the conservative new car buyer wants, the equivalent of a Nash four door, stick six, with blackwalls. You will find a lot of pastel colored '80's cars in good shape. Red ones, black ones, cars with "eyes" get consumed. The new car buyer wants a head turner. After 2-3 years he wants another. Those sharp cars enter the used car market quickly with lower prices and less fussy drivers. If I wanted a black '85 Riviera with a red interior and low miles it is going to be hard to find, about has hard to find as an original red '56 Ford convertible. It is a fact of the buyer mentality. I'm not real happy with a light blue convertible. I wouldn't care for a red hearse either. I bought my ;'64 Riviera when it was 15 years old. It was a nice conservative brown. Two years later it was maroon (Claret Mist). Its been maroon longer than it was brown. . The other thing I don't like about my light blue convert; someone asked me if I was driving around in a Mercedes. It's '80's squarish and that silvery blue. Mercedes! Huuurrrumph! Perhaps they didn't know who they were talking to. Bottom line, let the car pick you. Shortly after you make a logical decision the illogical car will blow you away. Bernie

I've known about the high end cars in KC for a long time. Why they got rhinestones on the spokes! Here's where I heard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyyO9ZhVZdI Bernie

A neat alternative in coming up on the east coast (really the coast, too). Its the Atlantic City auction in February. I went the first time in 1974 and a few times in between. The circus is there and I think there are some pretty good deals due to the time of year. I can't verify it but I think some of the museums move overstock through this auction to maintain some off season cash flow. There is a good swap meet held along with the auction. And I have always seen one really good deal that I shudda brought home. Just a nice winter diversion. Bernie

You could put a small wind turbine on your truck and drive it back and forth to generate electricity. If you put corn liqueur in the truck making the wind you can go to a special place when you are done. They give you a special jacket or sumthin. Its some kind of environmental institution. Bernie

How is this from the guy who squawks about keeping things stock. Well it's an ..... ummmmm.... equalizer pipe.

They don't bury cars with their owners in Texas? Bernie

Jee, I missed the TV versions of the auctions. Seems like I get tied up in the reality of professional wrestling and miss it. Bernie

Timely post. I decided to transfer custodianship of a bunch of things that would have been at the curb before I reached room temperature. I made an Ebay store and attached a url to it. The URL is in my signature along with my "Mr. Know It All" picture. I'm planning to clear a lot of the garage out. I am sure there will always be Buick stuff listed. I am following the rules and posting in the commercial sale area. What would the verdict be on mentioning a couple Riviera kits in the Riviera section. Actually I have never looked at the commercial sales. On one side I would miss a chance to see the Riv kits, on the other I wouldn't have seen them myself. What is the best approach? Bernie

I just came in from the garage. I will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to get some comparative stuff together. The reason I had the pictures was to put an article together for Phil. I have an article on fixing Rolls-Royce rear ends on hold, too. I need to quit working. By experienced do you mean someone with a lot of years watching the deterioration of products and services or the experience of standing by the road waiting for a flatbed to haul the car you just tuned up home because the new part failed? A side thought, when I was a kid Borg/Warner parts had the name of the founding families written right out on the box. Now its BWD, huh? If Grandma Borg or Warner was anything like my Grandma O'Brien she would have made the boys take the family name off the box as soon as she found out they took long boat rides across the Pacific. Bernie- update tomorrow.

You can still recharge a system with R-12 for under $100. It would be illogical (see Spock to your left) to convert on a collector car. An '86 to '92 Riviera would be the lowest value car in our group to service. Newer has 134a. A good example should be worth $6,000 minimum. With limited driving and an older compressor shaft seal a charge per year would be the average. Anything worse and you have a system ready for complete failure. Once we get into Rivieras from '76 back to '63 the value of the car goes up exponentially. What's $100 a year; the equivalent of a tank of gas? The correct stuff is the correct stuff. Superheat characteristics cool your compressor and protect it from premature failure, miscibility of oil assures proper lubrication and oil return, the latent heat of vaporization for R-12 is about 15% greater than substitutes. If you open a 1956 refrigeration text book from 1956 you will find most of today's "modern" replacements listed. They were not used because they were second, third or greater choice. They still are at least a second choice. It is your job to maintain a hermetic system, properly recover, and reclaim used refrigerants to keep them from escaping into the atmosphere, de minimis. The right stuff is great if you follow procedures. Bernie

Here is the active refriferant: Alkane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Don't swallow it. Bernie

That's an interesting power wind switch pad on the cheap interior job. The door panel is a similar design to my crank window '64 Riviera. It always looked kind of Skylarky to me.

I have been studying neurology and learning about mirrored brain functions. Right after I opened that Craigslist link my wife's brain thought "Oh God, please don't let my husband be stupid." I never used to know where those little messages came from. Bernie

Sometimes the owners, heirs, or speculators need that much time ....... or more to begin to grasp a realistic value of the car. I know of a rusty white Corvair in a garage near me that has been for sale for at least 15 years. The owner's dream is to take his family of four to Disneyland with the proceeds of the sale. It might be another year before a buyer comes along. Bernie And Donald Duck might start wearing pants, too!

At some point in the late 1960's I read an article that said never to lie a hydraulic clutch fan horizontally. I actually had a 1970 Chevy clutch fan in my possession for over 30 years and it always stood vertically (talk about being anal). When my Riviera was apart for about a year and a half in the 1990's the original clutch fan never tilted. It would be nice to think the fluid would settle and redistribute. I bet it doesn't. Just a thought jogged by Tony's issues and something to think about if you get one shipped. My car had the temperature sensor fail a few years ago. It lit up hot before the engine warmed. I put a gauge on to test it and opened the hood after running or driving to diagnose it. It is still there, tie wrapped to the A/C line. I have the hood open frequently and look at it. I like it. So the smart ass response is "Do you open the hood when you are driving? What if......" Checking the gauge frequently, having belts and hoses less than ten years old (because they are rubber), and a water pump with less than 50,000 miles and not dripping, I am pretty sure a well maintained cooling system if more reliable than the sensor that failed. Bottom line- Keep the clutch fan vertical when its off and think about how old your belts and hoses are. Bernie

Confirm that the points are Echlin brand. They are available at NAPA auto parts stores. If that is what CARS sells you should be fine. Standard and other over the counter brands pale in comparison. Here are some pictures I took after I did a nine year tune-up on a perfectly fine running car just because it had been so long: The reason I had to redo the job was because one week after the tune-up the car came home on a flat bed. The wire came out of the new condenser. Note: don't change the condenser if the points are not arched or pitted. The nine year old one is back in the car, ten years old now. Notice the stamped in "wiggly" point post. Also check out the stamped steel adjusting "nut"- cheap, inaccurate, and hard the turn in fine increments. The point contacts were better made on the Echlin ones, as well. As I remember, they had to order the Echilin points at NAPA and they cost something like $28.00. I have picked up a few sets of genuine early Delco since. I run solid core wires I made for my older cars. Just install a resistance wire on the coil only to absorb the noise. Bernie

I'm from the wilds of western New York. My '64 was missing the A/C compressor when I bought it in 1978. I was 30 at the time with two primary thoughts. 1.) That car was made to be driven with the windows down. 2.) Was A/C really needed for the three hot days? Lucky to be me. If I decided to make the A/C operational so my wife could squeeze a few more bucks out of it at the estate sale I would put on the old GM axial 6 compressor I saved off one of the Caddies around 20 years ago. I would replace the filter/drier that has been exposed to atmosphere. You used to be able to flush with some cheap R-12 or 22. Since that is expensive and irresponsible now I wouldn't worry about much more than a spider body in the rest of the system and the expansion valve screen will pick that up. I would get a set of used original hoses. Used ones with a refrigerant oil coating inside are fine for 134A, NOS will leak molecularly, and triple wall wouldn't look right. The conversion to 134A would de-rate it by about 15% but, even with global warming, its still New York. Should be fine. Bernie

When I buy a Buick I expect the engine to run silently. New car buyers spending money in the Buick range would not expect less. Right now I am dealing with what appears to be valve train noise in my 3.8 PA engine. It is on one cylinder, rear bank, right hand side of the car. It is not an immediate priority and will probably make the "to do" list in the spring. Everything is sleeping now, although we did take the Impala over to Podunk when it was lunch time today. Noise as described in this discussion is from incorrect clearance under some condition. You listen, disassemble the parts in the location, and fix it. There are a lot of tests I haven't seen mentioned here. Measuring with micrometers, dial indicators, calipers, spring compressors, inch/pound gauges are a few. Ever put a timing light on valve train parts to get a strobe effect? There is an operational indicator. I could get out my soap box and whine about disappointment after disappointment from dealing with so-called professionals. The more professional a service is hyped up to be the more disappointing the experience. If you just went through a 100 step process and there is a chance step 2 got screwed up you have to be willing to backtrack and repeat. So diagnose, disassemble, and repair as many times as it takes. Sometimes its hard. I do remember a '68 LeSabre I had that ticked annoyingly at a rate matching engine speed. You could hear it driving, under the hood, and it was really elusive. Finally, a little grease from my fingertip applied to the distributor cam lobe just instantly silenced it; amazing how those points bang around! I had breakfast yesterday with a long time friend who once said "The level of perfection you can achieve is directly proportional to the number times you are willing to do something over." I had a heart attack but it wasn't because I had to buy two gasket sets for one engine rebuild. Bernie

Something looks a little different there: