1952 Special Deluxe Project

[Mudbone]

We've been working on the car a bit for the last few days. Got the oil changed and did some adjusting on all four wheels today. I adjusted them all out to give me a good two-handed drag. Didn't really help though. It gave me a miniscule amount of pedal. You still have to cram the pedal all the way to the floor to get it to stop. Well, almost all the way. It hovers around 3 to 4 inches from the floor. Just don't understand what's going on here.:mad::mad: Despite my crappy brakes, I have managed to get her out on the road a few times. I have to be careful and leave plenty of room to stop but nonetheless, I'm having a blast driving her! My Dad and I took it to town and ran some errands in it. I drove her to work last night. Then today, after adjusting the brakes we drove it down to a small gas station that just re-opened under a new name in town. They have ethanol free gas!! I was excited when I drove by the place a few days ago and saw the big sign by the road proclaiming "Ethanol Free Fuel Sold Here". Until now, the nearest station was about 15-20 miles away. You sure do pay extra for it though. I think I paid about 30 cents more per gallon versus the 10% ethanol stuff. I'm supposed to be going to a car show in the morning. I'm thinking about taking Lucy up there if the weather holds out. There's a 50% chance of rain and since my original fuel/vacuum pump is sitting in my garage, I currently have non-functioning wipers!!:eek: Either way, I'll get plenty of pictures and post them on here sometime this weekend. Have a good one guys!!

Robert, I have been following this thread and I went back and tried to read the whole thing about your brakes. From what I have read I understand you have a rebuilt master cylinder and new or rebuilt wheel cylinders. Is this correct? Do you have new brake shoes and re-cut drums? Did you replace the rubber brakes hoses? I may have missed this in your thread. Let me know, Mud

[JohnD1956]

3 to 4 inches between the floor and the brake pedal under load is actually quite a bit. Of course the manual brake will travel a lot further than todays power disc brakes. If the pedal is firm at 3 " off the floor, and not sinking to the floor then it sounds like the brakes are right to me.

The constant air bleeds are interesting however. I might suggest removing and temporary plugging the brake switch hole. Then try the brakes for a few days and see if you still get air in there.

[Guest shadetree77]

Mud, thanks for reading up on my brake problem. I really appreciate the insight. Yes, the master cylinder has been re-built 3 times with three different kits. It has also been re-sleeved. All wheel cylinders are new and have been verified as to being the correct bore size. The shoes are new as well but I did not get the drums turned. They didn't have any grooves or rough places in them so I didn't have them cut. All hoses are new as well.

John, that is some interesting information. So, if I'm understanding you right, 3 to 4 inches off the floor is considered OK? This is my first car with manual brakes, so I've never really known just how they are supposed to feel. I do realize they feel nothing like power brakes but it just seemed to me that they were traveling way too far down. Maybe I'm wrong? Also, I don't know if you caught it above but that shop I took it to fixed the constant air bleed problem. They said that the MC had metal shavings in it from being re-sleeved which was blocking the holes in it and causing it to suck air. They cleaned the MC and bled it so that problem at least was corrected.

OK!! Now on to some great news, some good news, and some not so good news. First, the great news. I did end up taking Lucy to that car show yesterday. The rain almost scared me out of it, but when it stopped for awhile, I carpe'ed the diem and we took off for the show! It was a 70 mile round trip and it was really fun having Lucy out on the open road!:D The old straight eight cruised along perfectly! It was a good turn-out and the weather did improve. No more rain all day long. Lucy was swarmed from the time I pulled in. She was generally well-received. We had a great time, got a little tan, met some nice folks, and saw some cool cars(pictures on Buick General section later). The great news is that I won a 2nd place trophy!:eek: I couldn't believe it! I didn't go for the competition part. I didn't even plan to have her judged. The good news part is that when I started her up to come home.....I HAD BRAKES!! I now have a good, solid half-pedal. The only thing I can figure is that the shoes finally got broken in to the shape of the drums. The shop owner actually told me that might happen after I drove it for awhile(and so did Keith in his post above). Now for the not so great. Lucy overheated on the way home. We had to pull over and let her cool down about half way home. I've known it was coming for a while as she's been running a little warm. Now it's official, the cooling system re-build is my next project.

[avgwarhawk]

Congratulations on the win! I thought you did everything right with the brakes and drive time was needed to get them settled in. It was a good day!

[buick5563]

Modern shoes do take a while to get broken in and since they are made of a harder material than asbestos, they may take a bit more leg. I agree with the consensus that 3-4" is good pedal. It is when you get to 1 1/2" that you need to really work on stuff.

I've never worked on straight eights so don't listen to any suggestions I have regarding cooling them. Start with the radiator. (I have one of those)

[Buicknutty]

Robert;

Glad to hear about your good news, and congrats!

I would second the radiator needing attention. I may just require a good cleaning out, and then will be fine. The down side to that, is that the cleaning could open up some holes in the core, and then you'll have a leaky rad, the best route then would be a recore. This would be kind of the worst case, cost wise, but would give you the best cooling, longer term.

You could first try one of the diy type of cleaners that you add to your system and then run for the prescribed time. I don't know what others may have to say about this, but in some of these old systems I've run the cleaner for quite a bit longer than the recommended time to more fully clean out the system, this can increase the risk of the cleaner opening up some holes in the rad, etc.

The other thing to consider is that there will be a considerable amount of crud in the block, there is (I think) a block drain around the distributor, near the bottom of the block, which will help you clean it out. The other way it to knock out the back frost plugs and flush it out. It's not a bad idea to change the frost plugs on an old engine, if they haven't been done, though it is a real "Pain in the ...", esp. those at the back, under the manifolds.

Pulling the rad and taking it to a good rad shop is another way to go, that way they will pressure test it to see if it is still sound, though the block should still receive a good cleaning.

A product I've never used but a few guys I know have, and said it helps is called "Water Wetter", it makes the water "wetter" ie., makes for less surface tension and therefore better contact with the internal surfaces for improved heat tranfer and helps the engine to run cooler. This would be more like a stop gap measure though, as the car should cool properly with the usual mix of water and antifreeze.

Anyway, that's some ideas as to where to start, let us know how it goes!

Keith

[jackofalltrades70]

Congrats Robert and glad you are finally getting her out on the road and have some brakes! Cool on your second place trophy and glad you had a great time. Car looks great. Keep up the good work! Matt

[JohnD1956]

Nice job on the 70 mile ride. And also on the Trophy. Thats a sweet looking car Robert.

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks guys. We really did have a great time. As I said, I never expected to be judged, let alone win anything. The whole competition aspect of a car show doesn't really do anything for me. I just like seeing all the cool cars and meeting interesting car guys/gals and if I happen to pick up a trophy every now and then, I guess that's OK too. I managed to get my hands dirty today. Nothing major. I made a new fuel line to go from the carburetor down to where the fuel pump goes. It really needed to be done. The previous owner chopped 98% of the original metal line off and replaced it with rubber. The best part of that is that the little piece of metal line met up with the rubber hose directly above the exhaust manifold! If that were ever to spring a leak...POOF!!:eek::eek: No more Lucy! I feel much safer having a solid metal line on there. This was my first time ever bending a piece of pipe. I had a good time figuring out the do's and don'ts but I have to say, it was mighty frustrating at times! Now that I have a little pipe bending experience under my belt, I'll most likely make another eventually. The one I made is functional and follows the original path but I think it could look better. I also re-built one of my wiper arms with parts scavenged off one of my junkyard finds. I had to take it apart and replace the broken spring and also one of the screws. Thanks to Dale and Keith for the helpful advice on removing the wiper arms. Now I just have to get some vacuum line so I can try Ben's suggestion on bypassing the vacuum pump. Some wipers would be better than none and I know it's going to be quite a while before I get that vacuum/fuel pump re-built.

[smithbrother]

I have for years used RAIN-X and found it works well. I put it on my headlights too, helps to keep bugs from STICKING. hehehe. Really.

I love reading your posts,

Dale in Indy

[avgwarhawk]

Robert,

I had similar issue with my wipers. They would move about an inch and stop. My pump had some vacuum but very little. I mentioned the issue to a local club member. I said I was going to pull the vacuum motor for the wipers and clean up the insides. He suggested before doing that I put some oil inside the port on the vacuum motor. Once done work the wiper arm back and forth to work the oil in. Also put some oil in the vaccum line itself. This weekend I used WD40 because it has the tube that bends and reaches the port on the vacuum motor. I put a few squirts in the vacuum line that worked its way to the vacuum pump. Eventually the vacuum became stronger and my wipers started to work with regularity. I drove in the rain without issue! Search the net for vacuum wiper motor rebuild. There is a page with pictures showing how to clean up the motor insides and adding fresh grease.

[Buicknutty]

I have heard of a similar strategy being used with transmission oil(ATF). An early Ford V8 buddy of mine swears by doing that, though I've never tried it myself.

Keith

Edited April 26, 2012 by Buicknutty
grammar (see edit history)

[Guest shadetree77]

Dale, I've used Rain-X for some time now as well. As a matter of fact, there are two coats of it on my windshield right now! I've never put it on headlights. I'll have to give that a try.

Thanks for the suggestions Chris. I'm going to have to try that. I hooked up the vacuum line today and tried the wiper switch. The wipers came up the windshield about a 1/4 turn and then stopped. They don't seem to have enough vacuum to make it the rest of the way. Who knows what kind of shape my wiper motor is in? It's never been touched to my knowledge. Unfortunately, on the '52 Special, they came up with the idea of putting the wiper motor waaaaay up under the dash on the inside of the car. According to my service manual, you have to remove a bunch of under-dash stuff to even get to it.:mad: I'll try the WD40 tomorrow. So, if I'm reading your post correctly, I just squirt some in the vacuum line that goes into the wiper motor? Or did you mean to squirt some in the vacuum pump? My car currently has the vacuum pump removed so I wanted to make sure which one you meant.

Keith, I have read many times about using ATF in place of WD40, PB Blaster, etc. A lot of people swear it works better than those products. Some people mix it with acetone, put it in a spray bottle, and use it as a penetrating oil. I've been meaning to try that, I've just never gotten around to it.

Edited April 26, 2012 by shadetree77 (see edit history)

[avgwarhawk]

Robert, I used WD40 in both. The wiper motor got a blast. I worked the arms gently back and forth. The vacuum pump also got a blast down its tube. My wipers were working like yours. Came up a inch and quit. Now they work OK. Its worth a shot. I thought so because I was going to rebuild the wiper motor anyway so I attempted the oil trick and it worked OK.

[avgwarhawk]

Robert,

This is about the best write up I can find on cleaning up and repairing the vacuum wiper motor. You will see in the pictures old lube that gums up the works. Generally all the vacuum wiper motors use the same theory and are designed the same. Take pictures as you go along as reference for later if needed.

Mite Wiper Motor Repairs

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks for the link Chris. That should prove very valuable at some point as I think a re-build of the wiper motor is inevitable. I tried the WD40 today and it seemed to help a little but the wipers still won't go very far. I wasn't able to access the motor directly, so I sprayed some in the line that goes through the firewall. I don't know if any of it got in there or not. I crawled under the dash with a flashlight and checked it out to see what I'm in for. It doesn't look that hard to access the motor once I take out one of the heating ducts. I'm thinking I may be able to remove a duct so I can get up there and spray some WD directly into the motor. We'll see what happens after that. Probably a re-build, but I'll hope for the best. Thanks again for the link! I drove her to work tonight. I work third shift so I get to park wherever I want as I'm the only one here. Here's a shot of the new company Buick. Hmmmm...maybe I can get the company I work for to sponsor my re-build. How would some synthetic turf look for carpeting???:eek:

Edited April 27, 2012 by shadetree77 (see edit history)

[avgwarhawk]

The fresh oil/spray might cure your ills or help make it through for you until you can rebuild or replace the vacuum motor. Mine are ok with using this trick but I will still take it apart eventually for a good cleaning.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

The wiper motor is probably like the cooling system. Anything short of rebuilding is temporary.

Ben

[55 SURVIVOR]

Robert; I like follwing your thread,nice ride,I know all about the pipe bending thing,{was a pipe fitter building G.E. choo choos}I like doing as much to my 55 as I can but sometimes have to give it up.I sent my wiper motor to FICKEN WIPER SERVICE west Babylon NY.Quick turn around,3yr warranty.Mine was dirty and all dried out,works good as new now.Was $107 includes a ship back.I replaced all my vacum lines they were dry and cracked,most anything rubber can not stand that length of time.

[1957buickjim]

I agree with 55 survivor. Ficken Wiper Service is one of the best. Bob does a great job on rebuild of the motor. Had mine done 15 years ago and still works like a champ!

[1953mack]

".....your mechanic mentioned that the brake shoes appeared to be off-center with the brake drums....."

This comment got me thinking. I've been following your ordeal with your brakes and refreshed my memory about an article that appears in the 1953 BUICK PRODUCT SERVICE BULLETINS and is also talked about in the 1953 BUICK SHOP MANUAL. This may or may not be related to your problem but I thought it would be worth mentioning since options appear to be running out.

A few questions are in order first:

1. Do you know for sure if the front backing plates are the original 1952 Buick backing plates that came with the car, or do you think there was some possibility that the backing plates were replaced at some time?

2. Have you checked to see if all the brake shoes are identical at the tops (adjacent to the anchor pin) and at the bottoms (adjacent to the adjusting screw, lock, and nut)?

3. Do you know if the brake shoes are the original ones that came with the car and were relined or were they replaced with "some other universal style brake shoe" with different tops and bottoms than original? I've seen replacement brake shoes that are "similar" in design but vary slightly in details.

The published article that I am referring to addresses the new 12" x 2 1/2" front brake shoe design that was changed, starting on September 12, 1952, on 1952 Buick Roadmasters. I realize that you have a 1952 Buick Special, supposedly with 2 1/4" front brake shoes, but just for some reason, is there a possibility that your front backing plates are of the "new geometry dimensions" with the old brake shoe design?

".....This change consisted of raising the adjusting screws 23/64" toward center of brakes and lowering the anchor pin 3/16" toward center, thereby increasing the self energizing action of the brake shoes and reducing effort required at brake pedal....."

Prior to the newer front backing plates, the quick fix was the design of a special service offset anchor pin, Group #5.055, Part #1161604.

If in fact something's off-center, I'm suspecting the backing plate or the brake shoe. Just my $.02. Good luck and keep us posted.

Please note that in the second thumbnail pic, the brake shoes are shown upside down from what you would see when you pulled a brake drum off the wheel.

Al Mack

"500 Miles West of Flint"

Edited April 30, 2012 by 1953mack (see edit history)

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks for the recommendation guys. If I decide to have it done rather than do it myself, I'll definitely give them a call. Al, that is some interesting info. I love learning about all the little changes Buick made between '52 and '53. I've never heard of this one. As for the backing plates being original, I'm not really sure. I know the car is an all-original car that spent the majority of it's life in a barn. I guess it's a possiblity that the original owner might have had the plates changed, but I find it doubtful. So far, everything I've gotten into on this car has been an untouched time capsule sort of thing. It's been a while since I put those new shoes on, so I don't remember if there were any differences between the old shoes and the new ones. I do remember comparing them and having to send one set back so I'm sure I would have noticed any major differences. I don't know if the old shoes I took off were originals. They were worn pretty low and I remember I found a Raybestos stamp on one. I don't know what brand GM used back then. If they aren't originals, I would guess that they are at least from the early 60's as this was the last decade the car was driven on a regular basis. On a side note, my brakes are working better and better all the time now. I was told by several sources that the newer, harder shoes I installed might need drive time to "break in" to the shapes of the drums. This appears to have been correct. After doing a little adjusting and putting around 100 miles on the car, my pedal is now good and solid. Next time I have the drums off, I'll look at that anchor pin to see if it looks like that offset one in your picture. Thanks again for the help and for adding to my knowledge bank.

[Guest shadetree77]

Haven't had time to do much lately. My brother is moving to Montana soon and I've been working on his truck for him. Tuning it up and getting it ready for the 2000 mile journey. I told him that I look for old cars on the internet all the time and find a good bit of them for sale in and around Montana. He said if I'd send him the money, he'd drag them to his place for me! Woo-hooo!:D Anyway, I did manage to pull the trunk handle off the trunk and re-paint the emblem again. If you remember, I painted it once before and the paint promptly peeled off within a week. I decided to do it again with the same paint(a choice decided for me by lack of funds)but changed my painting method this time. I used the adhesion promoter and Testors paint just as before, cleaning up the paint job with the cork method. Last time, I clear coated it with a lacquer spray paint and did one thick coat just as it intructs you to do on the can. However, at the time I didn't know that lacquer and enamel don't get along very well so it resulted in the enamel paint bubbling a bit and eventually peeling off. This time, I did a little more internet research and learned that you CAN cover enamel with lacquer clear coat, you just have to do it slowly with a series of light coats letting each coat dry for 10-15 minutes. I think I did around 4-5 light coats like this and it came out great! No bubbling this time so I don't think it will peel. I did my fin emblems like this months ago, and they have been out in the weather(well, under a car port)ever since with no peeling.

[avgwarhawk]

Looks great!

[Buicknutty]

Great looking work, Robert!

Keith

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Well, my Brother is officially a Montanian. They pulled into Missoula about 5:30 today. This is the first time he's been away from home. Good luck and happy trails Bro!! Now back to business. I did a little work over the weekend. Nothing major. I did get to use my new welder though so that was fun! I cleaned up the "Special" script emblems on the rear fenders. They shined up pretty good. I also re-painted the insides of the letters with some flat black Testors paint using the cork to clean it up. After that, I worked on my horn ring. A while back, I bought one on EBAY. My original one has almost no chrome on the ring part so I wanted a shiny replacement. The ring has been sitting around in my shop for a few months now. I didn't take it apart until today. I got a little surprise when I did. Two of the ring arms were broken off of the center plate!:eek: You couldn't see this when the whole thing was together. Somebody must have honked the CRAP out of that horn!!:mad: I couldn't see scrapping the whole thing so I decided to try and tack weld it back together. It didn't work out so good as I think it's made of pot metal. I put the welder on the lowest setting and just lightly tacked it. It burned it pretty good but it did stick back together. You can't see the burns when you assemble the whole thing. After the welds cooled, I put a good coat of JB Weld on there just for extra strength. I put it all back together and it works just fine and none of the repair work is visible. One more piece of shiny chrome added to the collection! I got my freshly re-painted trunk emblem put back on and mounted the handle on the trunk lid. Hopefully, it won't peel this time. I finally got around to putting my BCA sticker on too. Really wishing I had the money to re-build my cooling system. It's looking doubtful that I'll be able to come up with it in time to get it done for the National Meet.

[Guest shadetree77]

Still no luck in coming up with the dough for my cooling system. I haven't had much to do lately due to lack of funds so I've been doing little things here and there. I got a new rear view mirror a while back and I got it cleaned up and installed. I upgraded to the day/night mirror. It's nice and shiny compared to my old one. I found out something interesting though. I actually bought two of the day/night mirrors over the last year or so. The first one I bought is pretty wide. I never installed it because the mirror glass was bad and I was going to get a piece cut at a glass shop. Well, a few weeks ago I ran across another mirror on EBAY for a good price and it was in better condition than the one I had laying in my shop so I bought it. When I got it, I realized that it was much smaller than the one I had bought before. I can only surmise that the bigger one is for the bigger models(Super and Roadmaster)and the smaller one is for Specials. I'm glad I ran across this one because I would never have known the difference. Just an interesting little restoration detail for you. I also put on a "new" turn signal switch. It's a vintage Signal Stat Sigflare 900 model. I got two of these non-working(one from EBAY and one pulled off of a '53 Chevy in the junkyard)for really cheap and rebuilt one of them. It looks like it belongs in there. I left the patina on it. That cheapo shiny one I had in there just didn't look right and it didn't work well. Also, while I've had all this time on my hands I finally got around to making a display piece for Lucy. I got the idea a few months ago that I wanted to have a vintage cigarette pack and matchbook lying on the dash at car shows. I bought an old matchbook that has Buick advertising on it and I wanted an old pack of Lucky Strikes to go with it. After looking at the prices of old Lucky Strike packs on EBAY, I quickly decided to make my own. I won't bore you with the details but I made one and it came out pretty good and it even has cellophane on it. Here's a picture of my "prototype" pack. I'll make a better one soon with the tax stamp on it. Heck, I might even start selling these on EBAY. There are repro's on there now selling for good money!

Edited May 18, 2012 by shadetree77 (see edit history)

[avgwarhawk]

The new old turn signal switch looks great. The repo cigarette pack looks real. Nice work!

[Buicknutty]

I agree that the old turn signal switch looks great, better than the new looking one. The mirror looks just about the same as the one I have on my '41, which is also day/night.

Cool repro cig pack too!

Keith

[jackofalltrades70]

Robert,

As always, you are doing a great job! Looking better and better all the time. Diligence pays off! Matt

[MrEarl]

Robert, weren't you needing one of these

Buick 1953 V8 engine center hubcap for spoke wheel fair condition | eBay

[Guest shadetree77]

Sure did Lamar. Thanks. I've still got that one lying in my shop. I hung the other one up. I wonder how deep those scratches go? Looks pretty bad in the picture but it's hard to tell.....On a side note, I didn't notice when I bought those, but after inspecting them further they are both missing a LOT of spokes. Eventually I might be able to pull them apart and make one good one. Until then they're wall art. Thanks again!

[Guest Rob McDonald]

ROBERT, I like the way you fill your time between lottery wins with low cost detail projects like that beautiful little trunk emblem. And you're right, the well-aged signal light switch looks right at home in your "conserved" interior.

Montana is just south of me and I can tell you, it's chockfull of great old cars. Idaho's even better old iron hunting grounds. Your brother would be wise to invest in a big old car carrier and start hauling dry western project cars out east.

[Guest shadetree77]

Thanks Rob. Those "lottery wins" are few and far between these days. Be that as it may, I've got to do something when I get the itch! Usually that involves some kind of little detail work using materials I already have lying around. I find that a bunch of small tasks usually salves the soul. I think I'm about to run out of little stuff to do though. Wish Lady Luck would come back around and provide me with another lottery win so I can get to work on this cooling system!

[Guest shadetree77]

OK, OK....so I shouldn't have dipped into my cooling system savings fund. But after a year of searching the internet almost every day, I've finally got my hands on the two most elusive pieces of chrome on a '52. My mustache/upper grill bar extensions arrived via FedEx today!:D Over the last year I've only seen these for sale 3 or 4 times. Most of the time, the listing is for only one. I have only seen a set listed twice. These things always bring a lot of money on EBAY. Always too rich for my blood. I guess it's due to the rarity of original pieces in decent shape that drives up the price. I lucked out on this find. I was searching EBAY for '52 parts as I do almost every day, and I ran across a listing for a "1951 Buick Park Light Bulb". In the description, the seller stated that the auction was for the bulb only but if interested in any other parts from the car to contact him. Sellers often do this to bypass EBAY fees on the sale of parts from parts cars. I contacted him and inquired about the extensions. He sent me some pictures and I asked him if he had a price in mind. He replied that he would take $25 a piece on them!!:eek::eek: The last set in similar condition I saw on EBAY went for just over $200! Sorry folks, I just had to share my excitement. This was a great end to my year long hunt for these parts and I guess I'm kind of excited. Finding elusive parts and getting them for a good price is one of the things I like about working on old cars. For a car nut, it's kind of comparable to finding a Picasso at a yard sale and buying it for 5 bux. The extensions aren't perfect and they do have some pitting, but they will fit in just fine on my car. I polished them up at work and will be putting them on the car soon. I'm not looking forward to getting the mustache bar off and on again though. I was really sweating it when I put it on the first time. Those things are really fragile!

Edited May 23, 2012 by shadetree77 (see edit history)

[jackofalltrades70]

Kewl!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats on the purchase! Matt

[Guest Peter Bird]

Robert, you are right about those mustache bars being fragile. I've had mine on and off a couple of times now. Mine has broken in the centre like just about everyone else's I have seen so far. I've put some rubber grommets in mine to add some flexibility to the thing. But I am going to be trying some aluminium brazing style rods to see if I can get the pieces back together again. I really enjoy reading about your progress. Peter

[Buicknutty]

Great find Robert! Luck like that doesn't happen very often, glad you were there at the right time!

Keith

[Guest shadetree77]

That's a good idea with the rubber grommets Pete. I've also been told on here to barely snug the bolts on the 'stache so it has some flex room. Good luck with the aluminum rods. Let me know how it turns out.

Now onto some good news. It looks like I've finally managed to convince my wife of the importance of a re-built cooling system! I ordered all the parts from Bob's today. My plans are to replace the water pump, thermostat, and all related gaskets/hardware. I also spoke to my radiator shop again and they said they would rod my radiator and boil it out for a grand total of $70. While I've got the water pump off, I'm going to open the block drain and run some water through the block. Hopefully, this will clean out at least some of the crap built up in there. I won't be removing my freeze plugs or the cylinder head so a simple flush will have to do for now. I'm excited to delve back into some engine work. All of the little detail work I've done lately has been good enough to keep me satisfied, but there's nothing like getting your hands dirty on some good ol' engine work! I should be able to remove the radiator some time this weekend. I'm supposed to attend a car show on Saturday. I don't think I'll take Lucy. It's supposed to be around 95 degrees here that day and I don't want to overheat again. Either way, I'll have some pictures to post later on I'm sure. Have a good weekend my fellow Buick people!

[Guest shadetree77]

My Dad and I had a pretty productive Saturday. I only planned on removing the radiator. However, that went pretty quick so then I took off a radiator hose......and on, and on, and on(you know how that goes). Next thing we knew, the entire front of the motor was bare and we had a pile of dirty parts. We took our time and were extra careful so everything came off with no problems and no broken bolts. I took a few pictures along the way. Look at all that crud that was behind my water pump!! The thermostat housing was crusted over too. I've got a lot of cleaning to do. Surprisingly, the insides of the thermostat housing and related pipes were extremely clean. They were a clean cast iron gray color as seen in the picture I took of the inlet pipe. I took a picture of the markings on my radiator. It appears to be a "Harrison" brand radiator. Does anyone know if this is the original factory rad. or is this a replacement? I'll be taking the radiator to the shop to be rodded on Tuesday and my parts should arrive Wednesday. In the next few days I'll be cleaning parts and doing a little flushing on my block. I just hope everything goes back on as smoothly as it came off! After all this, we cleaned up and headed out to a local car show. I took a few pictures which I'll post on the General section at some point.