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1958 Limited Four Door Riviera


Smartin

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The first startup on my 71 when I rebuilt the top end was interesting...found out the distributor was 180* out after 20 minutes of fiddling. Of course all the neighbors were there watching.

I bolted some stuff on the engine yesterday...have to get a new vac advance can for the distributor. I sold my NOS one on ebay a month ago (oops), thought I had another one in the basement. I searched for it for an hour. Tomorrow, I'm going to pick one off a buddy's parts car, and hope it holds vacuum.

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Looking good Adam. Never fails. Just when you think you have the part..you realize that you don't and you passed it up on ebay. Figures. Hope your friends vac advance works. Keep those pictures coming..the engine looks great!

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Adam, I need the vacuum connector that screws into the front top of the intake manifold.

did you buy a replacement and if so, where can I get one? Napa doesn't have it...and I couldn't find it on CARS website.

Also, I also need a fuel inlet for the Carter carb that will accept a rubber fuel line instead of the metal line. (same deal...thought I kept the metal line, but can't find it, so was planning on just running rubber)

Thanks!

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Brian, no luck on the vacuum tee or the fuel inlet fitting. I am fairly sure you can get a barbed hose adapter with 1/4" pipe thread from Home Depot in their little brass fitting wall.

More engine photogzzzz! Exhaust manifolds, fuel filter, distributor, plug wires, and choke tube installed...

Engine oil filled and primed. Great pressure, even when I forget to install the gauge and it shoots clean oil all over the garage floor :D

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Guest Rob McDonald

Spewing oil on the garage floor is an old UK custom, to keep the reinforcing steel from rusting. Anyone who's owned an English car or motorcycle will attest to how effective this is.

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I tore the carburetor apart on Wednesday night...what a weird setup. There is more linkage on that thing than a 4 speed transmission. I guess the same goes for the throttle linkage.

It's all back together and bolted to the engine, now. I hope to get the transmission cleaned up this weekend.

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I've been trying to figure out additional storage for the "C," but no luck. And the cruising season is so close, I don't want to send it off to someone's garage forever. I like having it at my disposal whenever I want to drive it. I have a feeling I'll be doing some tune up work on it this Spring, due to starting and stopping without much warm up or run time. It doesn't like when I do that.

Tried to sell it, you know how that ended up:rolleyes:

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Big day today...the engine and transmission are back in their home!

I had a heck of a time fitting the splines of the driveshaft back into the tailshaft of the transmission until I read the manual, and saw that there are blind splines that need to be lined up to go in. After I lined them up, it only took some wiggling of the driveshaft, and it popped right in. That only killed an hour of the day.

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Really looks good Adam! Especially when the engine is mounted in the frame..one more step in the long road to restoration. Keep up the good work and keep posting more pic's :)

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With the help of a couple neighbors, I rolled the chassis into the other garage spot today, in anticipation of cleaning up the underside of the car body. Instead of working on that today, I decided to throw some parts at the engine. This is my favorite part!!

The poor body ready for more surgery...

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AC compressor, generator, and power steering pump made their way onto the engine today. I have some major dust buildup on the frame...ugh. I'm not happy with the finish of the air cleaner, either. I will need to repaint the lid.

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I thought this would be interesting to compare the before and after shots...

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Wery nice work, I can see that you are using the air poise compressor but you have not done the air pipes yet, they are easy to put back on no before you do the caross back on the frame.

I guess that you will not be driving on air but you have so many of the hard to get air parts that i hope you will put them back on the car so that it one day will be possible to use the original Air Poise system that all 1958 Buick Limited`s had.

From what I can see you are missing the domes with the bellows, the bellows are under reproduktion here in Norway no, maybe some of the readers of this restauration knows of any dome`s??

Kip on working, Finn.

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Nearly the only thing left from the air poise is the compressor. The air tank and flex hoses were gone. All of the steel air lines were rusted beyond use. I sold the remaining air parts...and most of them went to Europe:D

I don't plan on ever trying to get the air poise suspension going again.

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Adam, man that is looking good. What a great feeling, especially when you start to bolt all those little details back on the baby! Love the before and after pics..nice show and tell:)

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Hei again Martin!

Funny thing, I bouth your overide vent!!!!!!!!!! sorry i didn`t conect it, if you heare abouth more air pars pleace lt me know.

Don`t know if you heard it before ore care, but the differentsial in the rear axel is supose to be paintet brown, same as the underside of the body.

Keep on, Finn

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Guest Rob McDonald

JEEZ, I thought these beauties were hard enough to work on with the A/C compressor cluttering up the engine room. That Air Poise compressor really eats up a lot of knuckle space. I don't think I've ever before seen one installed. (Well, the compressor's installed, it's just the car that's missing.) We thank you for displaying this relic of one of GM's dimmer moments.

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JEEZ, I thought these beauties were hard enough to work on with the A/C compressor cluttering up the engine room. That Air Poise compressor really eats up a lot of knuckle space. I don't think I've ever before seen one installed. (Well, the compressor's installed, it's just the car that's missing.) We thank you for displaying this relic of one of GM's dimmer moments.

Yeah, but it is so cool looking.

I like fins. :D

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Thanks guys...the ball is rolling again!

I began the process of de-munging the underside of the body this evening. It was funny watching the color of the water roll off me in the shower!

I might even try to get the underside completed this weekend. I have several spots I need to touch up, and a few others that need to be patched...mostly on the inner rockers. I will need to tear open 3 caged body mount nuts to replace them, since I can't get the old bolts out that broke off when I tried to remove them. One of the nuts just spins in its "cage", so I had to cut the head off before the body came off.

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The bad caged nutzzz have been uncaged, drilled out, and retapped. I need to weld them back up and take care of all the patching I couldn't reach with the body on the frame. Lots of cleaning up of welds on the inner rockers...yikes. For the last 2 evenings, I've been bathing in rust and undercoat flickings. This is some of the messiest work I've done on this car. Sitting on the floor working with my hands over my head...I can't wait until I get this part done!

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No pictures yet. I just finished getting ready hose some black paint on the belly. All welds are cleaned up and final areas are seam sealed and ready to go. There might be several pounds of crud that came off the bottom of this car. I swept most of it into a pile at the front of the car, but there is still a bunch that fell from tonight's garage therapy session. I LOVE my new welder! It still sucks to weld over my head. I have several burns all over my arms....feels good.

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