Machine Gun

@BuicknuttyYour Electra is such a beautiful car. Nineteen sixty-nine is one of my favorite years for Buick. I wish I still had my father's '69 LeSabre. BTW, you were very wise not to touch the fungus. Remember "The Blob."

@rodneybeauchampMy timing is set to 2-1/2 degrees, at it should be. Back in October when I wrote that post I had misread the manual and set the timing at 5 degrees, which is the spec for the V6. I corrected my mistake shortly thereafter. Thank you for the reminder!

That would have made a great YouTube video.

"Mid-life crisis" is a pejorative term used by envious people who wish they had the courage to do what people like you do. I did something similar in 1995. It was scary for sure, but it was the best thing I could have done. Looking back on it, the truly scary part was enduring my prior professional life.

Your description of the car's ultimate disposition just reminded me of those criminal cases you hear about where someone is so hated that they're murdered, mutilated, and then unceremoniously buried in a dump with other trash. Hence my tongue-in-cheek post.

I put another 500 or so miles on the Skylark this weekend on a trip up to New Hampshire. That's the last road trip I plan to make in the car this year. All went well until on the drive home I began to hear what sounds like a rear axle bearing going south. Diagnosing the noise will be my car project for the week.

Wow! There must have been some very deep, dark hatred for that car. God only knows what it must have done to your family.

They're a BIG different.

I went through that exercise last year. I installed a heavy duty radiator and fan last year in preparation for installing A/C. After consulting with one of their authorized dealers/installers in south Jersey I gave up on the idea due to having to fabricate brackets, source pulleys, and the associated cost and headaches. My recent concerns with creeping coolant temperatures put the idea of installing A/C out of my head completely. Ruthann and I usually take only one or two road trips a year anyway, and now that we're retired we can choose when to go. Spring and Fall work for us. As for my personal riding season, the car gets more than its share of use during the Summer. I'm pretty heat-resistant.

My wife and I took the Skylark down to Oak Island, NC to visit our daughter, and then we continued south to Goose Creek, SC to visit a friend. We made a few side trips along the way before heading back to NJ after an additional 1,900 miles were added to the odometer. I have one more road trip planned so far, up to NH next weekend with a friend for a ham radio meet. Unfortunately that will be the last road trip until Fall, when the temps moderate to the point where my wife will be able to tolerate the heat. That car is such a pleasure to drive that I wouldn't mind using it as a daily driver. Unfortunately I'm not willing to "use it up."

The dashpot on the stock 2GC wasn't mounted on the carb, but instead was mounted on a bracket that was bolted to the intake manifold under the coil. I used the same mounting arrangement. It's all good now.

The new carb performs well, but differently as you might imagine. No more vomiting fuel out the bowl vent of course, but there are two things I'm not thrilled with. First, the car no longer starts from cold like it did with the 2GC. With the stock Rochester, one pump to set the choke was all it took for the car to fire up after cranking without having to touch the accelerator again. The Holley choke will set fully with one pump, but no amount of cranking seems to get the engine to fire up without hitting the accelerator once or twice afterward during cranking. Apart from that, it works fine from cold to hot. Am I picking a nit? For sure. Then there's the electric choke, which behaves differently from a conventional choke. I won't bore you with the details, but its behavior after the car has been sitting for a short time but hasn't cooled to the point where I need the choke again, doesn't thrill me. Apart from those two nits, I'm happy with the carb. I'm willing to put up with a lot as long as I no longer have to mop up fuel from the top of the engine. The hardest part of installing the Holley was matching up the dashpot. I had to fabricate a bracket to get the dashpot to hit the proper point on the carb. The throttle linkage and kickdown switch matched up pretty easily.

Here's an update to my rising coolant temperature at extended idle. I believe that @misterc9 and @JohnD1956 nailed it regarding the position of the fan with respect to the shroud. As I noted in earlier posts, the new thicker radiator set my fan flush with the shroud. Last week I took @EmTee's suggestion did the rag test with the fan in that position. I then removed the 3/4" spacer that allowed the fan only halfway into the shroud and redid the test. There was a significant increase in airflow with the spacer removed. While I was messing around with other things under the hood I noticed that the slow idle switch on the dashpot wasn't working so I replaced it. I don't know whether that would have any impact on cooling at idle, but it's now working properly with the transmission pitch as it should be. Results to date: I traveled to NC and encountered temperatures in the mid-80s and found myself in a couple of situations where I was stuck in traffic. The coolant temperature never rose beyond 215 degrees. It didn't seem to want to creep much higher, if at all. Compared to the 230 degree temperature I experienced last year under similar circumstances, I'm more than satisfied if it continues to behave itself. I'll be continuing south to SC before heading for home next week, so I'll have other opportunities to test things out. As always, I appreciate all the helpful comments I received.

My wife and I are in Oak Island right now with the Skylark. We're visiting our daughter and her husband. I wish we had the time to drive over there. Have a good time!

Cruise-ins, ice cream runs, and local shows get old in a hurry. Once you're satisfied that you've made the car as reliable as a 60+ year-old car can be, take it on vacation every so often, or disappear with it over a weekend once in awhile.

Agreed. Note that the OP made specific reference to the kits being offered "...from the factory," in which case a look at the parts manuals would likely have answered the question right off. Regardless, the morphed discussion on aftermarket and "factory authorized" kits is informative.

Wouldn't a simple check of factory parts and body manuals settle this pretty quickly? I wouldn't expect a vehicle manufacturer to offer an assembly from the factory and then keep it a secret, or otherwise make it next to impossible to order replacement parts.

Sorry to learn that you've been having some issues, but glad to learn that you're heading in the right direction. Here's to a healthy Spring and Summer!

I may have told this story in another thread. When I was 18 years old I drove a 1950 Buick Special that I bought for $85. One day while en route to my favorite hot dog stand I made a hard right turn and the engine quit as suddenly as if I had turned off the ignition. I rolled to the side and attempted a restart to no avail. Nothing seemed obviously wrong under the hood, but while I was checking the spark plug cables I noticed that the distributor cap was loose. I reattached the clips and the car started right up. It took me awhile to figure out what had happened. I didn't have a battery hold-down bracket, so the battery was just sitting there held in place (sort of) by the cables, which were longer than they needed to be. The long, narrow battery had tipped over during the hard turn, knocked into the distributor cap, and somehow righted itself when the car came out of the turn. When I got home I secured the battery with clothes line. That was the only trouble that car ever gave me.

Ditto.

You're not the least bit suspicious? Burying things years ago without witnesses? Won't allow you to dig it up? Any chance there might be some "passengers" in the Buick or the motor home? Some Italian guy from NJ is curious...

About 20 years ago I ran out of gas twice in the same month. I was on I-81 on my way to Harrisburg when my low fuel light came on. I got off the highway a few exits later, pulled into a McDonald's drive-in across from the gas station, got a cup of coffee, and got right back on the highway without stopping for gas. I was on the phone to AAA about 15 minutes later. I did exactly the same thing about three weeks later, the only differences being it was a Dunkin' Donuts on the Garden State Parkway. Lesson: coffee and driving don't mix.

If there are, I can't think of any. The only reason I'm able to say that I'm a recovering autoholic is because I don't have the physical room to accumulate any others. I satisfy my addictive tendencies with radio equipment...

That would have had me running as fast as I could in the other direction. I'm so glad that your instincts were right! Welcome, and I wish you many safe and pleasurable miles behind the wheel of that beautiful car.

I love the '50s, '60s and '70s MoPars (except for the hideous 1962 models). I hope you'll have your Coronet back in time for Summer.