Rusty_OToole

By the way 3.55 is still pretty low. But it should do well over 60 with that rear end anyhow.

I'm surprised the truck won't do sixty. If they couldn't have built a truck that would go that fast in 1949 nobody would have bought them. This suggests either the rear axle has an optional, super low ratio. Or, there is something wrong with the engine. As you have addressed the axle ratio question that leaves the engine. Is the throttle opening all the way? Is the exhaust or intake restricted? Is the camshaft properly timed? Is the ignition working correctly? If everything is working right it should do 60 with no problem. If you mean the engine will go 60, but sounds like it is about to blow up, that is a gearing or revving question. A 5 speed overdrive trans could be the answer. There are lots of them in junkyards, look for one from a van or pickup rather than a car because the shift lever will be in the right place.

I have heard of the Abadal Buick, a picture of one as a kind of "barn find" appeared in Old Motor many years ago. It was a town car body of typical European appearance, built on a 1919 Buick chassis that had been stretched. The information you have in this post, and film, is more than I knew about Mr. Abadal before.

You will be amazed how well that radio works if it is in top shape. A friend had the same experience a few years ago, he had the Wonderbar radio in his 53 Buick rebuilt, the sound, the tone, and the stations it would bring in, blew him away. He had a new Chev pickup in the driveway and the radio sounded like a Dixie cup compared to the old Buick.

There should be a radio hobbyist or technician in your area who can fix your radio. Other than the vibrator they are much the same as a home radio. The tubes seldom give trouble and almost all of them are available for $5 or $10 apiece. Capacitors are cheap, 20 cents to $1 and there are 10 to 20 of them. I saw an ad a while ago for a radio repair shop that does the work by mail order. They charge $35 per tube plus parts so a 5 tube radio would cost $175. If you can take the radio out without breaking anything ask around and see if there are any antique radio clubs or repair men in your area.

They certainly do have names, chips and color cards for the interior of cars. Also for wheels, when they differ from the body color. And for painted grillework and other trim, when they were painted, as they were on cheap pickup trucks and Studebaker Scotsmen.

I don't know how you could plate it after it is made. Best idea would have been to make it out of galvanized sheet metal but of course, it is too late for that. Next best would be some kind of coating.

Given the number of BW T35 transmissions used, in a dozen makes of cars, over a period of 30 years, it wouldn't surprise me if all the parts were stocked by automatic transmission specialists. It is not as if you are looking for a part that was used only on a 1965 Rambler.

AMC used the popular Borg Warner T35 transmission for many years. Used by many cars in the US and overseas.Should not be difficult to get parts for or have rebuilt. Borg-Warner 35 transmission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The lifters get a ring of sludge or gum around the bottom, which can stop the lifter coming out unless it is cleaned off. A lot of old cars had mushroom lifters but you would see the wide foot at the bottom if it did. These must be taken out the bottom after the cam is removed.

I like the picture better than the one they produced but neither would be anywhere near the top of my hit parade.

The 2 are so similar that from a functional standpoint they are interchangeable. The Pontiac would get the nod from me because it is easier to get parts for and easier to work on. However, we are talking about 50 year old used cars here. So the overall condition and miles have a bearing, and would tip the scale to Buick if it was the better unit and needed less work. If everything else was equal, I prefer the looks of the Buick. But not enough to over ride all other considerations. So, I guess that is one more vote for the Pontiac although in a race this close, the Buick could pull ahead on condition. As for the Hydramatic vs Dynaflow, the Dynaflow is a dog of a transmision, inefficient and hard to work on because of the torque tube drive. But the Pontiac uses the new (at the time) Roto Hydramatic or Slim Jim transmission which is an even bigger dog, and harder to work on. So let's call that one a wash.

OEM tanks use "terne plate" metal. I don't think you can apply this at home. Galvanized steel is good, if you used galvanized steel you don't need any other coating. Otherwise, there are several good brands available. Epoxy is expensive but very hard. Other materials are more soft and rubbery. Bill Hirsh, Eastwood have good brands. There is POR15 rust coat but their products work best on rusty metal. If they have a coating that works on new metal it should be durable.

You should look into Gabriel Cousens diabetes cure. DR COUSENS' DIABETES RECOVERY PROGRAM Dave the Raw Food Trucker cured his diabetes in 4 days. Also cured cancer, kidney disease, blood pressure, and lost 230 pounds on a raw food (fruit, vegetable, juice, and salad) diet. Dave the Raw Food Trucker interview

One good thing, when you open the hood the engine sits there like a boiled egg in a salad bowl. 1 barrel carb, points distributor, no electronics, everything easy to get at. Brakes, steering, tires etc seem rather toy like compared to new cars but it weighs half what a comparable car does today. You can have some nice rides in a car like that. Put the top down on a sunny day, don't forget your Vuarnet sun glasses, beret, cigarette holder, silk shirt and ascot LOL.

Dave brings up another mystery. Seller calls it a 64 yet the pictures seem to show the earlier version with cooling air intake ahead of the rear wheels.

With dual headlight systems don't the low beams stay on?

Any automotive paint company should be able to come up with the correct colors. I worked in a BA station in 1969 when they were taken over by Gulf. The Gulf company paid to have our shop truck repainted Gulf colors and sent us new signs for the doors. The paint was mixed by the local auto parts store. I'm sure they had the colors on file for the thousands of Gulf oil delivery trucks and Gulf gas station trucks.

Looking at the pictures I don't see a speck of rust on it. Must be the dry Colorado climate. If you can keep it like that you will have one of the few good, original ones left. Maybe the paint will even polish up. I'm thinking some paint or oil spray underneath and spray some waxoyl or undercoating inside the rocker panels and other enclosed places. Auto parts stores sell a Ziebart or Rusty Jones type undercoating for this purpose, it is kind of a waxy or resinous material. Too bad about the seats. No idea where you could find new ones. Did the last owner say where he threw them? Engine is a conventional inline 4 cyl, pushrod OHV with iron block and iron or aluminum head. The R5 had aluminum head, but I think yours will have the iron head. Only unusual feature is removable cylinder sleeves like a tractor. If you ever take the head off leave one bolt in the middle, finger tight, and turn or push the head sideways to break the seal before you take it off. If you lift the head straight off and the cylinder sleeves stick, you can pull out the cylinder breaking the seal at the bottom of the sleeve. If this happens you have to drop the pan, take out the rods, pistons, and cylinders and replace the O rings at the bottom of the cylinders. On the other hand, if you need to rebuild the engine, you can replace the cylinders, pistons, bearings, everything without even taking the engine out of the car. Fifties Renaults had 3 speed transmissions but I think yours should be a 4 speed. I'm trying to rack my brain and remember if they had a hydraulic clutch, or anything else unusual. I know they had coil spring suspension all around. I did work on a few and they seemed flimsy compared to VW. But I know people who drove them for years before the bodies rusted to bits. So they can't have been too bad. The parent R8 and R10 sold in the millions so parts should still be available, up to a point. I don't know where to find them this side of France but stuff does turn up if you look for it.

Friend of mine bought one about 20 years ago. Very cute car, I remember when they were selling them as an alternative to the Karmann Ghia VW. The bodies are not well made. They are very prone to rusting. The convertible body was so limp, they had a gadget in the tool kit to prevent the doors popping open when you jacked it up. I suppose they were made for French fashion models swanning around the Riviera and were never meant to last, or to be driven hard. The basic Renault power train was used in millions of R8 and R10 sedans. Rear engine, 4 cyl water cooled, removable cylinder sleeves. Same basic engine was used in the Le Car or R5 model they sold in the late 70s - early 80s. The transaxle may have been the same too, relocated to the front with front wheel drive. A weird feature was wheels with NO hole in the center. This made tire changing interesting as the wheel will not fit on a conventional tire machine, they had to be changed by hand. I believe the new tire machines grip the wheel by the rim and you don't have this problem anymore. Wheels held on with 3 bolts plus a bolt in the middle for the hub cap. Weird. We had a Renault dealer around here, who sold a lot of R8 and R10 sedans in the sixties and early seventies and even a few Caravelles. So I remember a little bit about them. They seem kind of light and flimsy but will stand up if you do not abuse them. Be sure to rust proof the body. See if you can get the original service manuals and owner's manual, maintain it by the book and it will last as long as you want it to. I had an 84 Le Car or R5. It had the same engine, enlarged to 1400 cc. I drove the H*ll out of it, never broke it, and got 45 MPG. You can have a lot of fun with a car like that and 45MPG is not hard to take. The rear engine design is not a problem if you keep to a normal speed. The combination of rear engine, swing axles, flimsy body, 50 years of metal fatigue and the nearest parts source being 7500 miles away should be enough incentive to slow down and smell the roses. Like I said, the power train is near indestructible so if you don't flip it into the ditch you should be able to drive it to your heart's content.

Have you done a compression test on the engine? It is possible it is down on power due to age and wear. Old Chrysler built flathead engines are foolers. They will continue to run without protest even when well worn. The only symptom is lack of power and eventually, hard starting. If the engine is in good nick and properly tuned up it should have enough power for all practical purposes. It won't win any races but won't embarrass you in traffic either.

My memory does not go back to 1920 but I remember the waterproof canvas tarps, tents etc. They had a funny smell, that must have been the linseed oil. When I was a kid my Boy Scout troop used to go camping in WW2 surplus bell tents made of smelly canvas. The leaders waterproofed them with paraffin wax melted over a Coleman stove and applied with a big paint brush.

Dodge KCL a slight correction. US Plymouth and Dodge used the 23" long engine. DeSoto, Chrysler, and some Dodge trucks used the 25" long engine. Canada did not get their own engine foundry until 1938. At that time, they standardized on the 25" block for everything. They juggled the bore X stroke to get engines the same displacement and HP as their US counterparts. Basically there was a choice of 3 3/8 bore for PD and 3 7/16 for DeS and C and some trucks. There were some variations but that is the gist of it. Then, they had different stroke crankshafts from 4 1/16 to 4 3/4 for different displacements. All engines of the same bore used the same pistons. You can swap crankshafts if you use the connecting rods that came with it. They are different lengths. All blocks can be bored to take the 3 7/16 pistons. So, any Canadian Plymouth or Dodge can be repaired with parts meant for a DeSoto or Chrysler if not with Plymouth and Dodge parts (some are the same). Australia sourced their Chrysler products from Canada, they have lots of the Canadian style engines. As the questioner is from Virginia I doubt he has a Canadian made car although they do turn up in New England from time to time.

Everything seems consistent with a late 30s early 40s date. The newest cars I spotted were 1941 models. Different films taken in different seasons suggest this could cover a period of several years. If you can identify the wedding couple you could look up the exact date they were married. It should also be possible to identify the country club, the town sign, and possibly the addresses if you know who the people were and what town they lived in. Can you identify the children? Do the same ones appear, at different ages? Do you know anything about the film or the people at all? Someone who is familiar with fashions could probably date the clothes within a few years or to the year in the case of the womens' clothes.

He's been pushing the envelope for a long time. I believe he quit worrying about what the squares thought of his cars around 1942.