JoelsBuicks

Pete, cash speaks loudly. Go tell your friend straight-up that you are deeply troubled when you see such fine, complete and original cars used for modification. Tell him that you'd like to buy the car and that you have a good chance at getting the car to someone who will make her like new - even if you end up in the red. Be prepared to go to your limit; if he can make some money, at least that excuse he'll no longer have. If he turns you down, make him put a price on it. If he prices it and it is not entirely out of reason then you'll know that he is not too emotionally tied to the car. Let him know that he can change his mind and that your offer will still be good at least for a while. There will be a lot of thinking that he'll go through in the face of such earnestness. One more thing you can consider is asking if you can thoroughly document and photograph the car as it is a fine original and rare specimen and that once it is gone, it will be lost forever to those that value the information. Maybe you have connections with a Chrysler publication whereby a story can be written. He may begin to realize that his plans do have a detrimental and irreversible consequence.

Very nice pictures, I hope the car is giving you some reliable miles. By the way, this also belongs in that "Girls on Buicks" thread. I would love to see some more pics It's certainly an inspiration for me to double down on my efforts to get my 31-67 on the road. How about that Frisco Meteor in the background - probably 10 years newer than your car and long time retired - now in Tulsa. Thanks for sharing, Joel

I'll be facing the same challenge in the not so distant future and I wonder if using rare earth magnets might be a possible solution? There's a lot of holding force packed into a small thin disk, maybe even too much but that could be managed by size or number. To make a hold point, you could carefully mark and drill a recess into the wood and then glue in one of the small circular magnets. Make the recess deep enough for either two magnets or whatever corresponding iron disk you'd glue onto the back of the panel. It would be a painfull process to get everything aligned just right but who knows, it might just work. Good luck and feel free to relegate this to the crazy idea pile! -Joel

I'm in the market for main bearings for a 1938 248 and what I have found is that for both '37 and '38, the bearings are priced much higher (nearly double) than the later years '39 - '47. What is different about them? Are any of the bearings the same or are all 5 different? My '38 crank main journals show almost no wear and I have somehow managed to lose half of the rear main bearing. Thank you, Joel

Not sure what's happening with my duplicate posts but boy am I feeling stupid right now. I took the temp control off of "Recirc" and guess what? Yep, the fan speed control worked! I don't like putting my ignorance on display but it's not the first and won't be the last. Thanks to you all, I learned how this switch speed control works and I learned mine works just fine. Thanks again, Joel

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John, I will try that and meant to do it after reading Willis' post. The car doesn't have automatic climate control. I'll also do a post-to-post continuity check on the resistors. The switch feels ok in that it has subtle stops at the different positions. Dad had eye surgery, nothing bad but Mom was unable to drive him. At 81, I feel lucky to have him around. Thanks!

I removed the resistor cluster and was expecting to see something obvious like a burn or separation that would cause open circuits. It actually looked good and I'll attempt to post a picture here with my iPhone. So I'm guessing the switch is next? Thanks again for your help, Joel

Wow, I had to depart from the site urgently to attend my Dad's surgery and when I returned, I found the answers I needed. Dad is doing great and I don't have to tear my car apart! Thank you all very much! Joel

My 74 Lesabre A/C is charged and cooling nicely but the fan motor is unresponsive to the switch. The fan seems to be running on high speed whenever the Heater and A/C control is switched on. The fan speed switch cannot turn down the fan. The only diagnostic that I have done is to check the fuses under the dash and they all look ok. I do not have a wiring diagram for this car. I was hoping someone could direct me to the highest probable cause or route me through a reasonable diagnostic sequence so that tearing into the dash comes at a last resort. This stuff is much more modern that what I'm used to. Thank you,

Not mine. https://littlerock.craigslist.org/cto/4963589465.html

Length of hood lets me guess it's a 40 Series 4-door sedan. I don't believe I've ever seen one with a sunroof. At about $1.50 per British Pound, it is already well north of cheap - even for a sidemounted car. Maybe resto labor and chroming is less expensive in the UK? It will make a very nice car - If it has little or no rust, it would be worth a few $K to not have to deal with that. Good Luck.

Well that will be much better than I thought. For some reason I recall I was not able to do this with my 31-67 and it may have had something to do with getting the ring compressor on when the crank was in but I thought it was a matter of clearing the crank with the piston. Thanks for the correction! Joel

I really hate to hear that this is what you get after investing a lot of time and money into a project that you're supposed to be enjoying. There's not too many things that could have caused this; I'll list the ones I know, in the order of my opinion of probability: 1. Crank was a few thousandths flat and the rod cap was fitted based on the flat side measurement. 2. Shims were inadvertently left out leaving things too tight. Bearing clearance should be around 1.5-2 thousandths. 3. Rod was installed backwards. I know the rods have a front and back but what I don't know is if it is physically possible for one to go in the wrong way. 4. Oil passage clogged. Pretty much all of these can come from careless workmanship. I have all my machining, head work and cam bearings done at Usave in Tulsa but I do the assembling myself. If I remember correctly, there may be a remote chance to repair this without removing the crankshaft. There are others far more knowledgeable about this and hopefully they'll speak up if I've got this wrong. Here are the steps: 1. Somehow, loosen the wrist pin bolt on the rod - a small handed contortionist would be handy. 2. Pull the head. 3. Push No.7 piston out as far as it will go, rod will not come through cylinder. 4. Remove the wrist pin and pull out rod from the bottom as crank is turned to make room (I hope someone here knows for sure if there is clearance for this) Lastly, fix this as soon as you can so that you have it behind you. Also, while it is always nice to know the cause, recognize that it is water under the bridge. Good Luck

These pics are out of order, working pics from my iPhone isn't too easy. I decided to take Adam's suggestion and took things apart far enough to get the pump out. I scraped out the corrosion material and took the second pic looking up from the inside. I dremeled out to get clean metal inside and out and the used JB Weld. I held the epoxy inside the housing with aluminum tape and then made an aluminum patch for the outside. Next weekend I'll get this back together. If it doesn't hold I'll tear it down further and have it welded or replaced. thanks for the help, Joel

Yes, it appears to be cast aluminum. I still have some of that Muggy Weld stuff I used on pot metal. Maybe it would work? Or maybe I can wittle a wooden plug!

Today I brought the car home on a trailer; it couldn't hold its water. This is the darnedest thing I've ever seen. It's a hole in the top of the housing where the water pump bolts on. It's an irregular shaped hole. The pump was replaced 8 years ago and probably has less than 100 miles on it. This car was owned for over twenty years by my friend's dad who passed suddenly earlier this year. The car is a burgundy Lesabre with a white ragtop and has only 40k miles. What on earth happened to this and is there a fix short of replacement? thanks, Joel

I need another set of keepers and retainer as shown in the pic. This is for a '37 248 motor. I believe many years and even the 320 is the same. Thanks, Joel

Still looking for another one of the covers as shown in the pic. It is a lubrication access cover for each side of the car, just above the running board. Thanks, Joel

Not mine, just posting a link. I would probably change the color. http://jbrauctions.com/auction/1957-chevrolet-auction-and-more/

John, as far as factory wood selection goes I am convinced that for the most part there was very little discrimination. I would say that 70% of the wood is Poplar and maybe 20% either White Oak or Red Oak. The other 10% is Maple, Cottonwood or Sweet gum and I've even seen what I think is Sycamore. The pieces that hold the latch and window regulators look like spruce to me. You might be surprised to know that most of the wood pieces were not made from blanks of whole wood. They are laminated together in thicknesses of about 1" and then milled to final size. They have good reasons for this - probably the most likely reason is that thick wood doesn't dry evenly or quickly. Also, laminated wood is stronger and more stable. Even more surprising is that it is common to see Poplar and Oak laminated together in the same piece. My only concern with the Cypress is that it may not tolerate much torquing of wood screws - like for the hinges or the supports for the center door post (both top and bottom). Interestingly, the factory also had this concern as they used one through-bolt for each hinge side in addition to two wood screws. They did this for the center post support as well. While I don't think Poplar is much better than Cypress at holding screws, I plan to do some experiments and may end up injecting an epoxy into the holes with the final tightening. As you referred to, this car will not see the kind of road conditions that it faced in the early 1930's. I'm counting on it living a life of luxury - frequently used but never abused. Thanks again for the kind words, Joel

Thanks for the help, it's exactly what I needed to know. Joel

John, I'll estimate about 60 hours so far into the woodworking. It's an interesting question because I really need to include things like old wood disassembly and just thinking about correct sequence and modified joinery, so it's probably a lot more time. The rewooding involves having to create some different joint methods since installation involves building the wood into metal skins instead of applying metal skins to wooden frames as they did in the factory. A good example of this are those mortise and tenon joints to accommodate the horizontal cross member that goes just behind the board that holds all of the latch and window regulator mechanisms. I still haven't figured out how that board will go in but one thing is for sure, it can't be screwed in from the outside like it originally was. Most of this is very enjoyable work but there is frustration when you're left guessing because there's no old wood left to help figure out the correct way. Thanks, Joel

I just purchased a 1974 Lesabre Luxus Convertible. I'm going to try and start it and drive it home on Friday. It does not have a battery but it is a very original car with only 40K miles. When I looked at the car, I remember it having battery cable ends that screw into threads on a battery and not post-type connections. I want to buy a battery that is supposed to fit the car but the car is 50 miles away and I can't remember whether ground is closer to the center of the car or if it is the hot cable or whether they are toward the front of the car or back. All I know is that this car is very original and garage kept. Can someone tell me a size or battery number appropriate for an original car? My Buicks are all older - I have no experience with this vintage. Also, I have to buy the battery and take it with me - there are no places that sell batteries near this car. Thank You!

I felt that pain recently during the rebuild of my 31-67. You think, "well, there's something I must be missing." And indeed there is a way. You pull the pan, you pull the oil pump along with all of those exposed oil lines that serve the main bearings (no small task since all of those bolts have those anti-loosening safety wires threaded through them, you pull the rear main bearing cap, then the flywheel bolts (as you rotate the crank) and then you beat on the flywheel a while. Just about the time the flywheel is ready to fall down on your ankles, you realize that you should have marked it so that you'll know how it goes back on. Yep, you've run out of blue words by then.