dmfconsult

looks fantastic! you should have created a video for that... speaking for myself, I might have been too scared to try that, but as JD points out, it doesn't look like you had much to lose here. Great work!

I have no idea if it's similar, but the front dash speaker on my 67 actually mounts directly to the bottom of the dash pad and comes out with it. I know there was a significant change of the dash for 68, but have you looked at the bottom of the dash pad for mounting locations?

That’s going to look fantastic when it’s done!

Are your sleeves physically broken or just faded? I’ve had good luck refinishing these plastic pieces with SEM paints.

I wish I could help, but the only thing I can say is that the side material appears to be the same color and texture of my old 1978 Wagon. I think you've posted this over on the various FB groups for these cars, but if you haven't I recommend you try the 1977-1979 Buick Electra, Park Avenue, Lesabre, Riviera and Estate Wagon group as they are pretty knowledgeable. My guess is that this fabric appears to have been very durable, so not many of these seats had to be recovered... but $140/yard for "close"?! Yikes!

Congrats on your retirement Brian!

It's too bad driving diagonally across the continental US takes so long! I would love to be at the shindig at Buick Gardens (and I'm pretty handy too). Hopefully I get the chance in the future to visit.

Surprised to find this 56 just a mile or so from my house. Looked good from far, but far from good. First clue was the window being down in the rain. 3-holer but with a century script on the side.

JD will be surprised, but I agree with him on this. For your car, either black walls or redline tires are the best. Save the white walls for the wheel covers, if you go back to them.

May be overly simple, but have you checked your vacuum lines going into the HVAC controls? On my 67, there is a hub of 4 vacuum lines that control various aspects of the system. Are any of those disconnected or split? On the 67, they can be accessed from the passenger side of the engine bay at the firewall. The heat on my 67 stopped working at one time, and the issue was simply that the vacuum line had become disconnected. Here's a page from the 67 Chassis Service Manual that you can zoom into. I would start with these connections.

I would definitely keep the steel wheels if you have room to store them. I'm not sure how hard it would be to find the correct steel wheels for your car, but I think it would be more difficult than finding the chrome wheels. You never know why or when you might want to go back to the steelies or use them for another temporary purpose, but if it were me, I would definitely hang on to both the steel wheels and the wheel covers. I do like the new wheels, it definitely changes the look of your car, much more sporty/aggressive now. As far as center caps go, do a search for Mitch Romanowski. He advertises in the Bugle and he has reproduction center caps that are very nice. Cheers,

The PEX might be cheaper and you don’t have to remove the striker to install. I’m not even sure that this will work on a 72, it worked on the wagons doors, but not the tailgate.

It’s soft enough to work but not too soft to disintegrate after a few uses. If you zoom into the photo you can see (covered in white lithium grease).

There is a cheap fix for this that I learned from the wagon guys. As I recall, I used 1/2" PEX water pipe, cut about a 3/4" inch long piece and sliced it open on one side so you can stretch it over the striker bolt, spray liberally with lithium grease and close the door gently. An 8-foot section of 1/2" PEX should be about $3 at your local Home Depot or Lowes or get a scrap 6-8” piece from a plumber friend. I used this on my 78 Estate Wagon and it was like magic! I can't say for sure it will work on the 72, but you could try it, if it doesn't work you're only out the cost of the pipe. (it took me 15min to do all 4 doors as I recall)

I don't have direct experience replacing the top, but I can say the biggest issue I have with my convertible top in the up position is noise. The car is far noisier running with the top up than with the top down. I do know that my top and seals aren't in the best shape, but I would say if you spend money on one thing, I would pick spending on making sure the top is installed correctly and properly sealed over putting sound deadening in the floor. With a well sealed top and running stock exhaust (mufflers and resonators) I would think the car would be decently quiet.

The 68 Aqua Mist looks very similar to the 67 Color Blue Mist. That was the original color of my Electra, but it was repainted in the 90's to Sapphire Blue (another 67 color). I think either color will look great with the white interior and white top (assuming you keep them white). Must be nice seeing colors go on the car after all your work!

I agree with JD on this one. the 70's green will look great I think, while the later green color looks somehow out of place.

Perhaps, but I’ve owned this car for 21 years and this problem is kind of out of the blue. There have been several electrical gremlins lately though, so I’ll just continue to chase them down.

I do have cornering lights but at some point in the cars history the signal light switch was replaced with a non cornering light switch. I have another but haven’t gotten to removing the steering wheel to replace it. I think the cornering lights work when the headlights are on and are independent of the tail lights, but that’s not something for another day. Good tip with the pin, I’ll do that a few inches behind the cut (switch side) and see if I have power. I guess all I’ve proved so far is the switch I took out was OK so hopefully the one I put in is OK too (the movement is more finite and less sloppy than the one I took out).

Here’s the exposed wire in the trunk.

You are correct the tail light wire is brown. OK here’s the report. Thanks to @JohnD1956 for the 9v battery trick, it ended up saving quite a bit of time and crawling around. As I had the switch and connector, I could simply go through all the wires and test in the comfort of A/C in the house. The trick is that the headlight switch gets power from two sources I believe, battery (red wire) and tail light fuse (brown wire with white stripe). The schematic shows the brown WS wire coming from fuse to switch and feeding the brown tail light wire. I’m not sure why it would have two power sources but that’s the way it appears based on the schematic. The bottom line is that the switch works as it should. I also tested the tail light fuse and I have 12v at either side with the lights on. The repaired wire at the back appears to have only the insulation cut but there is no power to the exposed wire there, so I don’t think that is the issue (although I may look at that again and triple check) I’ll pull the connector from the switch in the car next and see if I have power to the brown with white stripe wire, if not there is likely a cut in that wire between the fuse and the switch. Looking forward to contorting myself to trace the wire under the dash! Thanks for everyone’s help so far!

I just picked up a new multimeter (couldn’t fix the old one) so will check. I also pulled back some of the wire wrapping in the trunk and found a previous repair to the brown wire so will check that as well. Luckily my son is around tonight so I’ll get him to assist!

Thanks Barney, and yes I changed the correct fuse, twice in fact just to be sure! The instrument panel is also on a separate circuit for 67 and they do still work. The taillights and Licence plate light are the only things on a 20A fuse.

@Frank DuVal for 67 the parking lights come on initially with the taillights on the first position of the switch, but go off when the headlights are activated while the taillights stay on. The taillights are also on their own fuse. I think EmTee is right that it was 68 where they stayed on. The wiring harness runs along the floor under the carpet so a few things have to come out to check the length of it. That car hasn’t seen rain in years so I’m sure there is no water sitting in the floor, the only fluid would be from the top cylinder. The bulbs are fine and four of the six bulbs for the taillights activate for the brake lights and signals. I will test the switches I have once I replace the multimeter as that is the most likely issue, just random both switches failed in the same way. I like to start with the simple things first so that will be next!

Ground was my first thought but strangely the chassis service manual shows a ground for LeSabre and Wildcat but not for Electra. It may be ground at or near the Licence plate lamp but I couldn’t find one.