38Buick 80C

Small bit of work today but a big milestone. The replacement wheel bearing arrive yesterday and I bought some full synthetic grease yesterday as well. Today I packed the bearings and installed them in the drums. After that I installed the brake shoes etc. And then packed the other bearings and put the drums on the hub. I cleaned and painted the lug bolts And then used high pressure lube to install and reinstalled the wheels. And the milestone is she's back on her own front wheels.

Looking forward to following along with your progress, John. Be Safe and see you in Spokane.

I agree the pan will help. I think you are going to want to roll some beads in the pan to give it some more structural rigidity, but for now lets see how she does.

This wheel bearing was not long for this world...

There is a non-member registration fee and the car cannot be judged, but can be display only. There is no day of show registration regardless of member or non-member.

Bearing races good to go in front drums.

She's a bit toe'd in

And one backing plate on PS: powder coating has been a bit of a pain on some of these tight fit bolts or pins...

The correct sizes dust caps arrived today for the king pins I do love stainless steel...

Front WCs installed in backing plates.

I had a NORS in my parts collection I used. But RP does sell them. Yes I had those honed/reamed to spec.

Brake wheel cylinders, cleaned up and rebuilt.

Today was front suspension assembly day. I finally had time to work and I got stainless duct covers and everything I should have needed to put completely put it back together (more on the "should" later) here is the start of the day First thing I figured out was the powder coating was about aggressive and I had to hone it out of several locations to allow the pins to fit. First up was lower outer pins. And stainless dust covers from McMastercar. So I wanted to make sure the spindle mount would line up at the upper pin. It didn't. So I undid the inner mount on the lower A-arm so I could adjust it. Then put the upper pin in. This allowed me to adjust the inner mount and set up against the bolts. Here it is still needing adjustment. Same with the passenger side While they were set like this I installed the kingpins in the spindles. Missed the photo of that. But then installed new zirk fittings. Next is my least favorite part of this job... Assembling it all with the springs. I got my spring compressor out and compressed the springs. I know from experience I need to leave a good bit of coil out of the compressor on one side so that it goes into the chassis pocket and can still come out later. Then I put the insulator on the top and put the upper pin in for real this time. And not show, but the removal of the spring compressor is really annoying. The passenger side went a bit smoother and end result for today. So back to "should" have everything. You can see I installed dust cover on the upper pins also stainless. I thought I bought the right size cover for the king pins, but no I needed a different size, now ordered. I didn't want to install the backing plates until these covers are installed.I have steel ones but would prefer the stainless, so I will wait. The interesting thing on the pins I got from RareParts. The lower pins came with copper washers that don't fit the lower pin but fit the uppers perfect. So I reused the old washed for the lower. The upper pins come with rubber o-rings that are supposed to go between the pin and the washer at the zirk fitting, but they are neither for the upper or the lower pins in terms of size so will need to get the correct sizes. Tomorrow I am going to finish reassembly on the brake wheel cylinders and maybe start modifying some brake lines with the new flaring tool I bought When I get the dust covers later this week then I can reinstall backing plates and brake drums etc to set the car down on the front suspension.

I vote Eleanor... "The one car no matter how many times...something always goes wrong"... 😕

fog lights are now perfect... don't change a thing...

Same for me... in fact our first date (to go out for her birthday) had to be scheduled around my Hershey visit, so yeah...

Matt, I know that car has fought you tooth and nail and probably still has a few surprises for you, but you should be proud of your efforts. She looks great and I'm sure you will get lots of enjoyment from driving her. All the best my friend, B

downhill a bit...

The dies were sold to Glenn at CARS https://oldbuickparts.com/product/hubcap-1938/

Thank you for the kind words. Took the '58 to the upholstery shop for a quick check of top kit I bought. He has be on the calendar for early Sept. to put the top on.

I do not... its a 39.... ROADMASTER... '38-'40 80 series Buicks are virtually identical from the cowl back

if you do I want some minor but hard to find parts off it (you wouldn't know they were missing when parked on the lawn out front of Buick Gardens I promise)... let's discuss...

Got the shocks back along with the front suspension. Only had time for a small bit of work tonight

Made some miscellaneous progress today First up was fuel lines and brake lines. I ordered from a vendor. The fuel line was for a 1940 81C per the website. The brake line kit was labeled for a 1940 Limited (didn't say 90 series or 80) Fuel line for perfectly Brake lines must be for a 90 series... Fronts are gonna work. Right front line is perfect. Left front is too long Connector to the rear x-brace also way to long. Going to invest in a new flaring tool... An expensive automatic one, cause I really hate the manual ones. Will modify the couple that are close and make new ones entirely for the ones on the rear axle. Overall not dissatisfied with my purchase as I knew I was taking a risk. I put the exhaust kinda in place, but not secure. Just getting it out of the way mostly. On to the rear shocks. As alluded to earlier not the easiest task. First I cleaned up the original hardware with the grooved washer and the C clip. The problem with these is the new rubber bushings are thick and hard to compress. I ended up taking it off the car and doing what I did on the 80C. I goeund down the rubber bushings on the bench grinder. Ah, burning rubber... Then I had to hammer the C clip on and use the channel locks to push them back together. I noticed when I cleaned up the gas tank straps had cloth on them to create insulation so I bought something to emulate it and pop riveted to the powder coated straps. Those were installed I also put the panhard bar in place And the sway bar connectors

@suchan is correct