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The 2023 Judges Guidelines is available in PDF on the AACA Home Page under Publications now. 2023_Judging_Guidelines.pdf (aaca.org) The Judging Schools generally cover any significant changes from the previous year.

It's fairly difficult to determine if this is a 1947 or 1948 Buick, but it appears to be a Super. Here's what I see to identify the car year. It has the new for 1948 black, three spoke steering wheel. The horn ring for this steering wheel is in the box of parts. All 1947 Buicks used the ivory banjo steering wheel. The chrome piece that mounts on the center of the hood above the grill is for a 1947. The hood ornament in the parts box is the 1948 style, (1947 has no cross bar). All 1948 Buicks had the model script mounted on the rear of the front fenders. The script in the box would be correct for a 1948 but the locator holes in the fenders have had bondo repair in those area. 1946 and 1947 only had the model indicated on a disk mounted in the center of the bumper guard crossbar. 1947 was the last year that Buick used the firewall mounted coil with armored cable to the ignition switch on the inside. I can't tell if there is a hole in the firewall for the coil. Hope this helps you identify the year of the car.

Your problem may be that the gear shift leaver is not coming back far enough to get into the reverse / first gear section of the selector. I had that problem on a '50. There is an oillite bearing at the top of the shift column where the gear shift leaver attaches to the shift column. Use a light lubricant to oil that bearing and move it forward and backwards in the neutral position. This will free up the shaft. I would be surprised if you need to adjust the linkage under the car as it is shifting into second and third with no problem.

There were specialty constructed ships with rails that would dock in New Orleans where rail cars loaded with automobiles would roll on, sail to Havana and unload there to rail tracks. I've previewed the seminar and it will be very interesting shedding a new light on the cars of Cuba.

Your first step should be to determine what insurance coverage the Lions Club has on a national level. I would be very surprised if they do not have insurance to cover Lions Club events.

Tom Gibson will be presenting a seminar on how the cars arrived in Cuba from the 1920's-1950's including ship, planes and trains from the US. Also included are contemporary photos of the dealerships and the buildings in their current state.

I don't know anything about them, but if you go to their website and click on "Photo Albums" and then "Daily Shots" and then on "Photo Albums" it takes you to a Casino website.

The lucite lady was available on all models at extra cost, but was standard as part of the Fifth Avenue package. The OP's car appears to be a higher level Custom model from the name plate on the side of the hood.

AACA doesn't offer corporate memberships only individual memberships. As Steve said above it takes 15 individual members to apply to become a region. The AACA National Board then has to approve the application. When approved, the group of individuals becomes a Region. The event would need to be an official event of the new Region for insurance coverage. You have also said that you are not far from an existing AACA region. You may want to consider joining that Region and see if they are interested in making the event an official Region event. There are a lot of other technical issues with either of these suggestions, such as coverage for Lions Club members who are not members of AACA National, but working the event. Several AACA Regions host very large flea markets and car shows, so most of these questions have been answered. I would recommend a phone call to Steve Moskowitz, AACA National CEO, at the National Office to discuss these options and see if it would be a workable partnership.

There was at least one built. I saw it parked in downtown Atlanta around 1982. I wish I had a camera with me, but I didn't at the time. It appeared to have at least a 6" stretch.

Unless they have been changed in the past, the glove box key is the same as the trunk key. Pull the glove box lock and take it to a locksmith. This one is easy to open up and read the key code to make a new key. If you have several friends with GM cars, have them stop by with their key and try it in the Cadillac lock. GM only had about 40 key combinations in those years. Several years ago, the keys were locked in my '48 Cadillac. I pulled out all my GM keys and the key to my '41 Chevrolet fit and unlocked the door.

Look on the end of the pump. Fill to the bottom of the fill hole. Generally they are filled with the pistons retracted so that there is the highest fluid level in the reservoir. Otherwise you will over fill the pump and possibly blow out the seals. After filling the reservoir, cycle the system a few times to bleed out any air in the lines.

You have preserved the seat in a way that there would not be a deduction if shown in the HPOF Class at an AACA National. Great preservation work.

Nice find. it's a 1950.

Judges registration is now open online for Gettysburg.

To give a very basic answer, you are going to have to do some investigation. Somewhere on each of the original fasteners and parts there should be at least a small part of the original plating visible. As for AACA judging, it is the owner's responsibility to provide documentation for an area questioned by the judges. For many popular cars, marque clubs have published authentication manuals which have become their standard for judging.

If someone will loan me an original lens to make a mold from, I will put them in production in modern UV resistant urethane that looks like glass. danddautomobilia.com

Glad I ordered when I did. They arrived two days later.

You have the standard hubcap on your car. There was also a full hubcap offered as extra cost on the special. Your starting problem sounds like the choke not being adjusted correctly as well as the idle speed. Refer to the factory service manual for adjustments. Bias ply tires run fine on these cars as that is what they were designed for, but you could go with radials. If you do not have power steering, I would definitely choose the bias ply tires as radials will require more steering effort at slow speeds. The grey seat upholstery appears to be the factory seat covers.

They look great! Your comment about them being on sale and free shipping got me to go ahead and order the same tires for my '66 Cadillac. Hope to meet up with you at one of the Nationals in 2023.

I think you made the right decision for AACA judging. I think you will hear from Stan, but he has been traveling a lot for work out of the country since Hershey.

In the factory setup, there are two safety systems to prevent the starter from engaging while the engine is running. 1) The carburetor switch is vacuum controlled. When engine vacuum is present the switch will not operate and 2) the starter circuit grounds through the generator. As long as the generator is not putting out any voltage, the starter grounds. When the generator begins putting out current, the starter looses its ground.

I believe you have aftermarket seat covers that may have been installed when the car was new. You may find perfect original seat upholstery under these covers.

The engine mounts should be steel on the top and bottom with rubber vulcanized in between.

The steering effort and ride will be much better with correct size 7.60-15 bias ply tires. This should correct your major speedometer error as well.