MCHinson

From your description, it is difficult to be sure what happened. When you try to start the car, what happens? Does the starter motor turn the engine over or not? If it does, please pull the air cleaner off of the engine and have someone pump the accelerator a couple of times while you look down into the carburetor throad. Do you see fuel squirting into the carburetor? If you have fuel and the starter turns the engine over, the problem is likely to be electrical. The number one suspect would probably be a failed condensor in the distributor. There are other possible sources of electical problems both inside the distributor and elsewhere. If no fuel is being squirted into the carburetor, the mostly likely suspects would be an empty fuel tank, a clogged fuel line, a plugged fuel filter, a failed fuel pump, or a problem with the carburetor. Do you have a factory shop manual? You should be able to follow the troubleshooting and repair instructions in the manual as soon as the problem is diagnosed. I would also suggest you consider joining the 36-38 Buick Club. https://3638buickclub.org/ The club has technical advisors who are happy to help club members with issues with their Straight 8 era Buicks. If you contact me via the contact the webmaster link on the club website, I will be happy to send you a free .pdf sample issue of the club newsletter.

Welcome to the AACA Discussion Forum. The two aftermarket parts suppliers for Straight 8 era Buicks that I regularly recommend are Bob's Automobila and Cars, Inc. This link is to a rebuild kit for your master cylinder from Bob's: https://bobsautomobilia.com/shop/brakes/master-cylinder-rebuild-kit-1-bore-mk-383/ If the cylinder is badly pitted, Apple Hydraulics can sleeve it for you. For parts from parts cars as well as New Old Stock parts, the best source is Dave Tacheny. Dave is old school and you reach him by calling 763-427-3460 between 4 and 7 pm Central Time. I would also suggest you check out and consider joining the 36-38 Buick Club. https://3638buickclub.org/ Various Club members routinely advertise parts for sale in the newsletter. If you contact me via the contact the webmaster link on the club website, I will be happy to send you a sample .pdf copy of a recent club newsletter.

I can't make it to Hershey this year but I have the perfect name for it. After essentially rising from the ashes, I would suggest "The Phoenix".

I would recommend that you remove the license plate for judging. I would also suggest you put the top up as early as you can and put the car out in the sun and try to get the wrinkles out as far before the show as you can. Perhaps a small handheld steamer might help get the wrinkles out. If the wrinkles are severe, it might be a deduction, but if minor, probably not. I would remove the exhaust deflector before the show if you can do so without too much trouble and the exhaust pipe still looks as original. If you can remove the incorrect mirror without leaving any sign of it being there, you might want to do so. Otherwise, it won't be a large deduction, even if noticed. If it is a fairly uncommon car, the judges are less likely to notice a small period correct accessory is not factory correct. The car will be judged against the standard of how the dealer would have prepared it for sale, allowing any factory authorized option or accessory.

If you have an alternator rather than the original generator, I would suggest you simply disconnect the original accelerator starting circuit and replace it with a push button starter switch. I would either switch everything back to how it was originally, or convert it to the starting system to a push button mounted on the bottom of the dash rail.

Yes, it has been for sale for a long time but it is difficult to get information from him. When I profiled the car back in the Torque Tube II in 2020, it was difficult to get information. Luckily, the late Earl Beauchamp had visited him and had shared some photos that he had taken of the car.

How is your generator? How about your voltage regulator? Any vacuum leak? Originally on Buicks of this era, system was designed so that the accelerator would engage the starter when the generator is not charging and the engine vacuum is not present, i.e., voltage from the generator when running prevents the starter from engaging and engine vacuum generated by a running engine prevents the starter from engaging. I would suggest you try the trouble shooting steps in the 1938 Buick Shop Manual to see what is wrong. Most likely there is a generator or voltage regulator or wiring problem causing this.

You are correct, but if I remember correctly, Wayne should have received both of them. I am fairly sure he showed a car and participated in at least one of the tours.

She will be missed. She was a nice lady and a dedicated volunteer for AACA.

Just curious, do you have the wrong information listed on the Buick, or do you possibly have the wrong photos. The Buick in the photos is a Roadmaster, not a Special.

I don't know if the forum rules need to be updated to specifically explain changes made in the forum settings but it is not a secret. A new member has to post 10 posts before they have the ability to send private message, as previously announced by the Forum Webmaster:

Except it isn't. I realize being in CA, it will likely sell for an amount that those of us who are very familar with these cars will think is crazy, but I don't think it will go for his asking price. I do think the "Bomb Life" sign in the back window is an interesting, California specific, touch.

The issue is not length of membership on the forum, but number of posts. A new form member is unable to send private messages until they have a specific number of posts. That is a security precaution to prevent new people from registering and then immediately sending a large number of private messages to members in an attempt to scam them out of money. That was an issue before that setting was instituted. As of today, you have 791 posts on the form. The original poster of this, as of today, has only 11 posts on the forum. When he posted his complaint he had fewer than 10 posts on the forum. By requiring a number of posts before private messaging is possible, most potential scammers will become obvious as a problem before they get access to private messaging and can be removed from the forum before they are able to scam anyone.

Sorry for the continued diversion of the topic, but Bloo, in my experience the new production bulbs that I bought were all cheaply made in China. In about a dozen, I found a few with filaments that appeared to be correct and the rest were crooked enough that they really did not work as well as they should. I found that you can easily find NOS original production bulbs in quantity on Ebay cheaper than buying the new cheap junk ones. I have several dozen NOS ones on the shelf and so far, the first two that I installed in the car are still working fine. I am fairly sure I have a lifetime supply for my cars. Try Ebay for some NOS ones and I think you will be happier with them in your car.

I agree with Ed, Drive it. I would think that your water pump rebuilder should be able to easily replace the nut with one that is the correct size to make maintenance easier in the future.

Not at all in my area of expertise, but am I guessing correctly that the nut seized on the shaft and backed out? If so I would think that the shaft/nut clearance needs to be a little bit larger, which will require disassembly and a bit of polishing perhaps? While it might be irritating, compared to everything else you have done with the car, that should be a fairly minor irritant and a relatively small job.

I drove the 1937 Model 80C to Cars and Coffee this morning. There was a huge crowd there. Included in the crowd were a couple of 1938 Buick Special Coupes that belong to some local fellow AACA members who are also fellow members of the 36-38 Buick Club.

That grille badge is round, not oval. That appears to be a Driver Participation Award, so it may have been awarded in the car's current condition.

Since I can't upload a .pdf to the Discussion Forum, I will post a link to that issue via Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sY0ZmWBYyJcesVQ-3AgKh7ZGTQQOXlQP&authuser=matthew.c.hinson%40gmail.com&usp=drive_fs

I don't remember, maybe they provided them separately and you just did not put yours on the plate? Maybe you might find them somewhere close by.

Wayne, I still have mine. Yours is not quite as fancy as mine. They had 2 raised "diamonds" that were applied to the plate, one marked "show" and one marked "tour" that were applied over the two printed diamonds on the plate. It is a thick brass plate and is certainly the nicest memorabilia that I think I have received from an AACA event.

I have had a nice phone discussion with him this evening. He has had a couple of shops that have done a bit of work on the car, but it does not seem that they were too well versed on this era of Buicks. He is going to pull the bypass valve assembly and check to make sure the spring has been replaced with the typical modification to resolve that potential issue. He is going to put the original fan back on the car, as it sounds like one of the shops talked him into an "upgrade" that was probably not a good idea. Next, will be a timing check, as I suspect there is likely a timing issue on the car, based on a discussion of some of the other work done by one of the shops. In a few days, hopefully we will have an update.

Isabel is a new forum user and posted about this issue in another discussion recently and apparently could not find the original discussion so he posted this separate post. I had previously offered to send him an old Torque Tube II issue with a comprehensive article on dealing with overheating in this era Buicks. He replied to my private message last night, so he now has that article. Hopefully, we will have a bit more information on the exact nature of the overheating problem as well as what work has been done on the car soon. With that additional information, hopefully we can help with a correct diagnosis and repair of the car, rather than randomly suggesting potential overheating causes and fixes.

The 2023 Summer Rummage Box is now online: https://aaca.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023_Summer_Rummage_Box.pdf

But, you can turn the engine over if you jack it up and put the rear on jack stands. That will allow you to work on getting the engine running and then deal with the clutch. Otherwise, you can spend many hours removing and repairing the clutch and transmission, and then, you have to try to get the engine running. I would get it running using the jack stands and then deal with the clutch problem. If you are lucky like I was, the clutch issue will be resolved immediately and need no disassembly.