60FlatTop

That car is 48 years old. It would have to have averaged 3200 miles per year to rack up 154,000 miles! Bernie

On Tuesday mornings my wife and I go to a little town 8 miles away and have breakfast at a little tin restaurant at the corner of routes 19 and 33 in New York. Check that spot out if you have preconceived ideas about New York, concrete, and sky scrapers. I told her about this article and in particular this quote: "There's people who can look at the badge of a car and know exactly what they are and what time period they're from," said Jeremy Dimick, curator of collections at Sloan Longway's Alfred P. Sloan Museum and Buick Gallery in Flint." On Friday night a Buick Club friend and I were in a deep discussion about when Buick changed from block letters to script on the hub caps. There's one to give old Jeremy a case of the mumbles! Raise your hand if you would have expected a statement like that from a curator of Buick history. I tried to start an automotive museum in Rochester back in the 1990's. Our city is rich in automotive history, just say the name out loud. I found out that to be called a museum or collection and expect to run non-profit you must hire a archivist and related assistants to operate. Yon Saunders of Cadillac fame encountered a situation on a visit to the Cadillac collection. He found a group of young archivists around a large table filled with photographs from....the Cadillac archives. They were trying to figure out what the pictures showed Yon and his friends were able to pic up many pictures and describe exactly the time and situation, much to the amazement of the government required archivists. Now, GM couldn't hire Yon, or you, or me to help preserve this history, we are not qualified. Forum members, the BCA, and the BHA have the details of history. We are the wizards who can divine year, make, and model at a glance. Keep the candle burning. Bernie

Welcome, what a great choice! Bernie

I learned an expensive lesson. Anyone with a '40 Buick applicable to this pipe should buy it and store it because it is a "manufactured" pipe and not a pipe fabricated by some gemoke with a bender. I have a search going all the time for spare manufactured pipes for all my cars, NOS or NORS is fine. As a last resort I will take my car to a competent shop and have a pipe bent and fit to my car. I will never mail order a bent exhaust system again. Two NOS over the axle pipes for my Riviera are hanging on the wall. I bought them from John. A year and a half ago I bought a complete 1960 system from a Buick exhaust source for $550. Today my car is quiet and free of rattles. My total expense has been $1300. The only part of the original purchase on the car is the two tail pipes. Everything else is in my nephew's tin pile. Buy John's pipe if there is a remote possibility of ever needing it. Bernie

My wife had the ultimate comment on the value of our cars. I told her about what a good deal I was getting on one once and she said "What difference does that make, you won't sell it." I tried to teach her so much and she has been so selective about what she retains. Like one time I casually use the term "buying work". Does that have to keep resurfacing as "I thought you weren't going to buy any more work." She was so young when I met her. Where did I fail? Bernie

The Nash shows the angle of inclination of framed cars pretty well. An inclinometer on the front of the Nash and the rear of the Skylark would read about the same. Frame and unibody are concepts. Making the wheels roll is a detail. "The crumple is in the details." Bernie

You can thank the popularity of Linda Vaugh for the hearst (Hurst) thing. I remember it coming into redneck vocabulary. Not that I am not a redneck, I'm just one who reads and thinks about the words. Hearst is right up there with Hemi Motor News, you know, that old car advertisement magazine. Don't remember Linda Vaugh? Now you won't forget. Bernie

I love that website. That place is a modern version of my grandfather's used car lot and tire shop where I started working when I was 11. We sold a lot of rough trucks from the phone company and tons of wholesale trades from two local Chevy dealers. In 1967 I left for the Navy. We were still selling a lot of 55-60 Chevies. I think I remember at least one that was over $300. I worked for $1 an hour + 10% of the used tire sales. At around 13 I started selling the cars and 10% was a big dent in the profit on those $100 and $200 cars, my cut was dropped to 5% on cars real quick. Bernie

There is a discussion in the Riviera section about a '64 Riviera at a recent televised Mechum auction. It seems to be a nice car bid to a fair price and unsold because it did not reach the seller's expectations. I have never bought a collector car at an auction, although I have seen some cars that looked like deals in Atlantic City. That auction is off season and I think some of the museums and large collections move some excess through it to get some cash flow. I have also found myself rolling in the aisle at Hershey, laughing at the misinformation and fractured automotive history while bidders were invited to join the "sip & bid club". I am curious about the "Me and My Buick" members who are successful bidders and how their overall experience has been. It could be an interesting topic. Bernie

If you were a writer and needed a bag of groceries you would have a complete understanding of the Top 10, Top 100, Top XXX article drivers. I think one of the top 10 Star Trek quotes was "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a writer!" Bernie

I just noticed this string. As I read through my thoughts were going in the same direction as Dandy Dave's. Just raise each suspension point and get a freely rotating wheel at each corner. Raise the front at the lower shock mount on each side. Raise the rear ay the outboard end of the axle on each side. THOROUGHLY CLEAN AND CHASE THE THREADS FOR AT LEAST 3 WHEEL BOLTS PER WHEEL. Be sure the wheel bolts thread with your fingers. That is the only thing you can screw up if you make the car roll freely. Don't open any doors while the car id jacked up. The small amount of effort to roll the car will not be enough to distort a fender or body panel unless the car is really bad. When I was 13 I used a piece of pipe on a four-way lug wrench to put a wheel on a '39 Buick similar to your situation. When I was 14 I knew better and could explain why. At 64 I remember and can pass it on. It would be a shame to lose 50 years of stored knowledge. Bernie Oh, check the angle on this:

I think this is the car: 1964 Buick Riviera Hardtop for sale by Mecum Auction I am going through my cars to make sure my wife can sell them easily if I drop dead. She also knows two prices. One if I am alive and one if she doesn't have me around and needs a quick sale. Taking an example from this car the quick sales price should go smoothly because I will: Leave her with the original wheels and wheel covers. my inner fender wells were not "used car dealer flat black detailed" the wires around my electrical distribution box are still factory colors. I will leave her original trunk cardboard and matting. The new seats, once installed, will be squeaky clean and free of puckers. I am planning to stick around for another 30 years or so without retiring. Last week my doctor told me to make it 36 just to plan on an even 100. I might have to bump that quick sale price if I go that long. 20 grand for that auction car? I would have taken it, budgeted $6,000 for the nicest black '96 Roadmaster I could find and put the $14G in a tin can in the garage. Bernie

In 1964, six years before we put a man on the moon, indicating a relatively high level of technology, dealers were able to get a customer to pay over $4,000 for a Riviera. How bad could these cars handle when $2400 would get you a new Chevy or Ford? They couldn't squeeze that kind of money out of a pitching, wallowing, bouncing boat. It is more likely that some deterioration of the rubber parts of the suspension, the rag joint of the steering column, and the effectiveness of the body to frame mounts may have occurred. Or comparison to the engineering of cars 50 years newer may have taken perception out of context. All the rubber bushings are pinched to serrated inner sleeves and held stationary with outer collars. If, during the 50 years a lower A-frame or rear suspension arm has been separated and twisted beyond its normal rotation the rubber can be torn or damaged. Changing a spring or ball joint can do it. This didn't come to me in a vision during the night. About 25 years ago I put new springs in the rear of my '64. SOP- unbolt the springs, disconnect the shocks, pull the axle down, and R&R the springs. You should have heard the track bar arm bang when I pulled out of the driveway! Since then I loosen all the serrated joints when I service suspension. And I figure 50 years is pretty good service for rubber under my car. So fix the old rotted and damaged stuff first. My car rides on 7.10 X 15 biased tires, none of the the bushings are over 15 years old, and the springs and shocks are fairly new. While driving, if I ask myself "Would this car get $4,000 of 1964 money from a buyer discriminating enough to have $4,000 1964 dollars?" I have to say "Yes, the technology and condition reflect the design intent." Any changes might make it a pig's ear. Bernie

Holley is still typical of small town America. Big event there yesterday, though. My wife drove the convertible over for lunch. Maybe, just maybe, she can take the '60 one of these days. Bernie

I noticed a thread here about using a D cell battery powered timing light. Here is my trick. I have used an inductive timing light on a lot of '30's and '40's cars by pulling a modern car along side and powering the timing light from the newer car. Then you just clamp the inductive sensor on your #1 plug wire. You can use a spare 12V battery, too, if you like. This setup works a lot better than those old spring adapter ones. Bernie

Be careful basing your choice on rarity. You could end up with a 1957 Studebaker Scotsman 2 Dr wagon, radio delete. Bernie

So I found this poster online: And wondered what THAT meant. Bernie

Resonator? Don't see one here:

Isn't a Riviera the logical choice? Bernie

I am imagining how bad I would feel if someone had one of my dad's cars and didn't contact me to share their fun of ownership. Bernie

Robert, The area of research I have always wanted to write about is The History of the Hobby. James Melton drove an antique car in the 1937 NYC Easter Parade and that kind of signaled the first recognition of the hobby. Post WWII many ex-GI's chipped in together to participate in high dollar hobbies; cars, air planes, and the like. A less discriminate collector base in the 1970's and the relatively wealthy Baby Boomers exploded the hobby. It is a colorful story with people and machines, success and disappointment, a story someone could put some polish on. I'm stealing time from a 3.5 million square foot building audit at the moment and plan to work another 30 years so I probably won't get to it It is some research worthy of an Old Car PHD (really piled higher and deeper). Bernie

John, Out here in the wilds of western New York I get the same reaction picking up my Christmas tree in my 8 foot truck box. A friend of mine who thinks all truck should have 6 foot boxes asked me if they made a military truck with a 6 foot box. I told him I doubted it. How could you fight a war if you couldn't even carry an 8 foot ladder? Bernie

Seeing that Mercury two door wagon converted to a truck reminds me of one my grandfather bought when I was 15 or 16. It was very clean and white. I think it came from Montana or one of the Dakotas. We got it with a bad engine. We had a good running '57 Ford 312 complete and rusty car so we plunged right in. While lifting the engine out the Merc shift cable was still attached. It was push button in the steering wheel. My grandfather braced the cable against the frame and whacked it with a hammer until it broke loose. Once the 312 was sitting in place of the 368 we found the driveshafts were different. He cut both in half with a torch and found a piece of tube to slide inside and adjust the length. Then he told me the secret. You blow bolt holes with the torch at 90 degree angles to keep the balance. The a "real" mechanic came down and put the Ford steering column in so we could hook up a shifter. The nice white car with a clean interior was looking pretty nasty by this time, both inside and out. My Dad worked there part time and was pretty good about coaching me away from the error of his step father's ways. Years later I did modify a driveshaft- in a lathe and using a welder. It is fun to get those memory jogs. Bernie

I had the same thoughts as the other guys. I remember polishing a '72 Cadillac grille a few years back and joking about it being made of surgical steel. My fingers proved it. And it wasn't spinning as 1800 rpm. Last night I was telling my wife about people being tagged as negative or pessimists when they talk about the dangers of building on a hundred year flood plain when there hasn't been a flood in 90 years, or the poor condition and disrepair of a major metropolitan city's storm sewer system or building a city below sea level. They are never praised because of their foresight and willingness to forewarn. Get someone else to do that job. Bernie

Back in the 1980's I had a friend who always wanted my old issues of Hemmings Motor News. I told him he should subscribe. He said no. He figured the owners would have a more realistic value of there items if he called a few months after the ad came out and the item had not sold yet. Honestly, ten years is not a long time in this hobby. A friend of mine finished a restoration on an early '50's Bentley that had been in the same shop for something like 28 years. And I have actually followed up on ads from 1980's Swap Sheets. When I was buying '50's Jaguar stuff it was fascinating to read the papers re-chromed and refinished parts were wrapped in. Bob Steubenrauch said it best in the title of his 1967 book The Fun of Old Cars. No truer words have ever been put in a string. Bernie