unimogjohn

Sandy, do you have the little wheel adjustment on the bottom of your carb? Otherwise I think that you have debris in one or both of you long tube nozzles. On the right of your carb pic I would run soft piano wire through all of them and blow them out. I had debris in mine and had a hard time of finding the problem. It does not take much. Make sure your bowl is spotless before assembly. I also would leave the air valve even with the adjustment arm. You should only have to move it three or four notches to get it to run right. With it even, I would run the car for a mile or two and then make a two notch adjustment if you feel it is not running right. Also, check the heat riser to make sure the ends are tight/sealed and there are no rust thru in the pipe. Hope that this gives you some ideas. But I think that you are having a debris problem like I did. Today's gas is terrible and only lasts a couple of months before it starts to gum up everything.

Ron, great find. She sure is a beauty. What does the interior and engine look like? More importantly, what are your plans for the car, restoration or just repair and drive? Will be fun to follow your progress. Post often.

Jon, they might have had a locking gas cap, but it was after market and not a Buick item. I have an original 28-29 standard, and has its original gas cap. It is aluminum. Here are the pics.

One more question, do you have to keep the choke pulled out about 3/4 of the way to keep her running?

Sandy, beautiful car. Can you post a couple of pics of the carb and assembly? It will be easier to describe what you might need to do. I especially want a close up of your air valve assembly and where you have it adjusted to. TX.

It is Friday, July 22nd. Did I say it was hot. It got up to 103.4 yesterday afternoon. Today it is suppose to be even hotter. Here is Greg's report from last night. "Perpetual Peerless. Trying to finish the oiler project. For those of you who don't know, lots of early cars used a sight glass drip oiler to monitor and adjust the flow of oil to bearings and such. Drips per minute. These get a white background card for visibility. They are done, now I'm copying the sample retainer clips. The clips will be fitted individually and then buffed. Took the Avanti out for a pleasant spin this evening. I like it!"

It is Thursday, July 21st. Did I say it was hot here. 99.5 degrees at 3:30 PM. A couple more hours of heating to go before it starts to cool off a bit. Will be about 84 degrees at midnight or so. And at four o'clock last night I went out to water down the llamas, turned on the hose and a trickle came out. Ran into the house, made sure all the water faucets were turned off, changed the whole house filter, waited an hour, and tried again. Got about ten minutes of water then it stopped. Power to the pump, OK; but the pump was not working. Called a recommended driller in the morning, and they were out in a flash. Couple of nice guys showed up, checked power (OK), and then they pulled the pump. About 170 feet of pipe was pulled up. 34 year old pump had given up, so it was replaced. Yea, we have water again. On a car note. I sent away for the Buick National's judging form for the 23. It received 386 points out of 400. The gold award cutoff was 385. All in all I judged the minus pointed to be deserved. However, I can do nothing about some of them so will have to take my lumps if the car is ever judged again. The two major things are the chrome plating and painting of the wheel spokes. The radiator, steering column, and lights got several hits for chrome versus nickle plating. The wheels should have been natural rather than painted. Other negative marks were for a dull radiator dog bone, dull paint on rear light and gas tank. And a few other dull paint items. Oh, and dry rotting tires. I think that with a little work and replacement of those tires, which I am going to do, would net me about five points. All in all, the judging was correct and professional. Cannot fault the judging at all. Here are a couple of pics of the well pump replacement. Heading to the pool. Ouch, the water is 84 degrees.

Still Wednesday, and here is a report from Greg. "Dropped what I was doing yesterday afternoon and clocked out of my day job. I'd spent the day looking out the window while I sanded Wright Bros cylinder water jackets. They get buffed and I've got a stack of them to do. We are finally in a spell of my kind of weather. Fold the top down, push out the windshield a couple notches (if you have one) and go kind of weather. In a matter of weeks we'll be checking antifreeze. The Stoddard was calling. I grabbed the parts I'd made for Rob and a modern car and off I went. The Dayton needs to be road tested with that fresh steering box. Pleasant hour and a half drive to Maryland and wouldn't you know it. Just as I arrived it started raining. RATS! So I decided to try one of the front wheels on his bubble balancer. With the wheel off I could see that it wouldn't fit on his machine, and the wheel almost too heavy for me to lift by myself, I put it back on the spindle and made my way home. Should've been satisfied with a spin around town in the old Dodge."

It is Wednesday, July 20th. Did I say it is hot. It is to be over 100 degrees for at least the next four or five days. And no rain in sight either. Going to be fun trying to keep everyone cool. Good thing that some of the llamas like to be hosed down. Otherwise they sit in the barn with the fans going full blast. Joe got his new 1955 Buick home just fine. He is taking it in to his local shop to be put on a lift to see what he has. He has a trusted mechanic and will get his assessment of what she needs. While on the lift will have all the fluids changed. Joe usually does all his mechanical work so this inspection will give him a good idea what has to be done. Joe's intention is to keep this car as his high speed driver. Here are some new pictures of the car at its new home in WA.

Ben, NOS Early Ignition will probably have the rotor/button as well as the cap. Contact information is C. Bouteiller, 427 Monterey Road, Gt. Barrington, Mass 1230 Telephone home: 413 243 4496 shop: 413 528 2815

It is Tuesday, July 19th. Getting ready for another hot one today. It got up to 95 yesterday with high humidity. They are saying that we will get to 104 degrees on Friday, with super high humidity. Needless to say, we are wilting. Joe and his wife, Kathy, from Ferndale, WA went with us to the Buick Nationals in Boston. While there he lamented to me that he would like to get a nice driver quality 1955 Buick Centrury hardtop. A car of his youth. Low and behold he found one in Seattle on Craigslist. After a couple of call, and much prodding from me, he headed to Seattle to look at the car. Well, he struck a deal with the owner, paid his money, and a friend of his drove it back to Ferndale (about a hundred miles) with no no problems. Hope to have pictures today. Looks like it was too hot for Greg too. He worked in the shop. Here is his short report and pics. "Spent the time last night to finish steering parts for the Rob Burchill's '28 Chrysler express. Like everything else, took too long, but now off the list."

Bill, my shut off valve in the 28 developed a leak too. Turns out it was a split in the brass threads. If I were you I would remove it from the tank and inspect it, and replace the packing while you are at it. That should fix it. You could have some debris between the needle and the seat. As for the leaking carb. Yes I would check that cork float to see if it is starting to get fuel logged and slowly sinking. If yes, let it dry out and then coat it with Super Glue. The glue is not effected by the reformulated gas. Some folks coat their float with gas tank sealer, that works also.

Running tubeless radials on my stock 63 Avanti wheels, not a problem. But, here is an interesting article on the subject. Stress on Tire Rims | Diamond Back Classic White Wall Tires - Vintage Tires - Redline & Redline Radial Tires for Antique and Classic Cars

John, thanks for the suggestion. I posted on the SDC site and provided a link back to the pictures here. Hope you are having a grand time living living in Hawaii.

OK, here is another set.

It is Saturday PM, July 16th. We were up at 5 AM and met up with Greg and Barbara at 7:30. They were waiting for us and were hot to trot. We headed out with the Avanti's to the Studebaker Zone Meet in Gettysburg, PA. We arrived at 9:45 AM. Neither car missed a beat going up; and it was very pleasant driving in the morning. After looking for some food at the meet and not really finding much of anything at the hotel we headed to the swap meet. A bit of a disappointment as there were only about half a dozen vendors there. Maybe we were there too early? Then we walked over to the show field, which was about a quarter of a mile away. Wow! It was filled with cars. And if you need to find an Avanti, there were about 50 or more there. I have never seen so many, at one place, at one time. Even some of the modern Avantis were there. A nice red 2002 was there with its original price tag of $82,400 plus $500 delivery cost. I love how the hood swings and pivots to the front of the car. Many more were represented. The 63/64 were all there, maybe 30 or so. Every color you might imagine. All were nicely presented. They are going to have difficulty choosing a champion as all were very good looking. In fact, all the cars in the show field looked great. I only saw one un-restored Avanti at the show with original paint; a red one on the trailer. A couple of under were featured as low mileage (one with 1,700 miles, the other with 10,000 miles), but it looked to me that both had a repaint. We did spot a nice light blue Avanti for sale that I say was a good number 2. Talked from the North Carolina owner, he stated that everything had been redone on the car, and that he had only put on 17 miles since he bought the car several years ago. Looked great. He stated that he wanted somewhere in the mid $30s for it. After about three hours of looking at cars we were ready to head for home. It was getting hot also. Headed home and arrived home without any difficulty. The car ran great. It was rock steady at 185 degrees, and only rose to about 205 sitting in traffic at very long backups. When we got home it was 89 degrees and we were a bit warm, but not unbearable, but the traffic for half way home was like rush hour. I am sure glad that we were able to keep up with traffic and move faster if we wanted to. Not much respect for old cars, most folks would like to push you out of the way if you were not doing at least 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Oh well. Back to the farm. I will post the pics I took. It will take a couple of posts.

Walter, I have had the brass fittings from the oil filter line crack with age. You might want to check. They are hairline so you really have to clean and then inspect as suggested. The blocks usually do not split, or I have never heard of one doing that. How is your valve cover gasket?

Will be exciting when you get to the bottom of the pit. Cannot wait until you are able to flip it over. Bound to be pretty fragile, so take your time. What a great find!

It is Thursday, July 14th. Just a note. Usually I don't find any 1923 Buick parts anywhere but Ebay. But at the Buick National Meet I scored with one vendor as he has several 22 and 23 parts and parts cars. To what extent I really do not know as I was not able to talk to him much. So I was able to purchase a correct coil with resistor, complete speedo cable, and a firewall mounted period oil can with holes. He also advertised that he has two 1922 engines, 1923 transmission, two intake and exhaust manifolds for a 6 cyl engine, and NOS left front fenders for a 1922 Master and Standard. John Henry is the vendor and he is the president of the local chapter in Boston. Give him a shout if you need something. And here is Greg's report. "Day job kindof busy, in fact worked last night. Comes with the suit. Avanti: More seat belts arrived yesterday. Right color, matching lengths, tonight I installed them in the back. Now someone (or two) can ride along. I also covered the kick panel vent holes. The moveable doors (parts book calls them valves) are out for restoration. Covered the openings with foil covered insulation for now. It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference in cabin heat. Stoddard: The steering box arrived today from overhaul at Rempco. I also had them install a seal at the bottom of the worm shaft. It had been drooling grease. I also had been missing a retention screw (a screw loose) and took a few minutes to make a replacement. Now to find time to visit Rob's auto emporium and get it back in the car. All I can think of for now."

Well, I guess my first suggestion would be obvious, but I would put it up on stands, remove the tires/wheels, and then clean, clean, clean. You need to see what you have and doing a deep cleaning inside and out will do that. With the wheels off and the car up in the air a bit you can crawl all over it and inspect everything. Once everything is clean and you see what you have I would do the following. Drain the gas tank, change the oil, change all the filters, put in a new battery and she if she will start. I you get her running then you can see if she will go into gear. I would then pull all the brake drums and inspect and/or replace the wheel cylinders and check all the lines. I would then put back on the wheels and see if she will get down the road. Enjoy the journey. Keep us posted.

Jim, my tank on the 23 was like yours, the sealant had failed. I took it to Gas Tank Renu and they had to rebuild the entire tank and reseal. The problem is that it costs lots for the service. I paid almost $700. Ouch! On my Avanti I took it down to the local old time radiator shop and they cut it open, sand blasted all the rust out, did repairs, and sealed it for $140. You should consider sending it out as there is no way knowing that you got all the gunk out. It could leave to stranded with plugged strainers or lines.

Bob, your Avanti looks great. Glad that you have it moving again. Hope that your transmission woes are behind you. I did see one thing incorrect in your engine bay. Your throttle rod is hooked up incorrectly. Should be under the rear plate rather than over it. Also the gap must be adjusted. I have attached a couple of pics. One is my engine with the correct position of the rod and then the page out of the repair manual that shows how to measure the gap. There is a screw for the adjustment. Let me know if you need anything else from the manual.

It is Tuesday, June 12th. Joe and I are going to adjust a couple of brake rods on the 23 this morning. One side locks up before the other so we have to see if we can balance them out a bit. It is critical that they work together as there are only rear brakes on the car. Kinda scary at times. Here is Greg's report. There are so many little things to take care of when you do a full restoration. Almost endless. "An Avanti night. Looking over the list of yet to do, decided to tackle the windshield post weather seals and associated door seals. Got them on, they don't really fit the way I'd like them to, and I do have another set if I choose a rematch, but they are a check mark on the list. I'll let them ride for now. Oh yeah, and I've still got that rear axle near Atlanta that needs a way home.....found out that it just missed a ride. Not only was their destination near Rob's garage in MD, but I'm sure they passed through Warrenton. Timing is everything."

Old Car Fan, you got me! Just contacted Greg for our next adventure. Looks like we are going to take the Avantis to the Studebaker Zone meet in Gettysburg, MD. It is about 100 miles from us. The meet is four days, but we will only go on Saturday for the show. The Avanti is ready to go, took it out for a test drive today and she runs great. So no reason not to attempt it.

Joe, had a great time also. Nice putting faces to names. Enjoyed meeting Mark Shaw, also on the forum. He even took a ride in my 1923 McLaughlin Buick. In five minutes told me everything that was wrong with it Great guy, enjoyed talking with him.