1930 Buick - Top front corner, what goes here?

[michaelod]

I am trying to figure out how the top front corners of my 1930 Buick model 68 are supposed to be finished. Is there a piece of trim that I am missing here? A picture would be helpful if you happen to have one available. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[38Buick 80C]

Michael,

My father is going to email you some photos of my car (kept at his house). He is the expert on the '30 not me so you should have some help shortly.

[Guest mclbuick2002]

Michael

There is a U shaped trim piece of metal across top above windshield..There are also metal trim to cover slotted holes around roof insert.I may have some for a 40 series which will be shorter than your car. Do you have the trim for the roof insert?

Stan

[michaelod]

Brian,

Thanks for your reply. I look forward to hearing from your father.

Stan,

Unfortunately I do not have any of the trim from the top of the car. When I bought it a few years ago, it had a piece of black fabric tacked on around the slotted holes but there was no trim of any kind present. I was hoping that if I could get a picture of what was on there originally, then perhaps I could fabricate a good substitute. I am attaching a picture of the area the way it looked when I purchased the car.

Thanks,

[50jetback]

Michael,

On my Holden bodied 1930 Series 40 a piece of aluminium moulding is used. It is about 1" wide, screws into the top timber and covers the joint.

It also secures the top fabric at the front, which is probably why it was removed from your car to enable new fabric to be fitted. The aluminium strip is flat on the bottom and has a slightly curved top. Because they are nailed on this would have been destroyed during removal.

I used a new aluminium strip of similar profile, moulded it to shape and drilled and screwed it to the front timber. It can't be installed until the top fabric is on. If you slightly countersink the screw holes you can fill them before painting and it looks as original ( concealed nails ). The one piece extends from rain gutter to rain gutter

Bobs Automobilia sells CROWN MOULDING for fixing top fabric on 1929-31 Buick sedans which is self concealing aluminium strip and would give the original look.

This is good for the long straight runs I'm just not sure how it would go when you have to bend it to follow the roofline contour

If you still can't visualise this I will post a photo - you know what they say about a picture v's words!!

[michaelod]

Stuart,

Thanks for the description on that top installation process. It seems that Bob's Automobilia no longer stocks that aluminum trim anymore although it appears that restoration supply has half-oval aluminum strips, 8' in length by 1" wide by 1/4" listed in their catalog. In addition I see the following strips used in marine applications available. It is a little smaller at 12' by 3/4" by 3/16" but is predrilled and countersunk every 6":

3 4 x 3 16 Aluminum Rub Rail @ http://tacomarine.com

Perhaps that might work if the dimensions are enough to cover the area.

Update: Additional research shows that is available in 12' by 1" by 3/16" as well. Since it is predrilled I am thinking that might be the way to go.

Thanks,

Edited February 21, 2012 by michaelod (see edit history)

[Roland Harington]

Michael

Here are three pictures of my 31 57 they seem to be same as 30's and same as on my 31 90 , my car is 99.9 original ,have redone the canvas area and used the original beading.the centre of the beading folds up and then you remove the nails,with dificulty,the canvas get replaced ,once the canvas has been streched over the top,the coverpiece in the middle then gets knocked down with a mallet,Bob used to have a good sketch of it in his online catalog comes in 8 ft lengths.

You can also see original beading between sunvisor and body

Hope that helps

Cheers Roland

[michaelod]

Roland,

Thank you for the pictures of the area in question; this is very helpful. Bob's does not seem to stock the trim anymore although they do have the correct fabric. Looks like I think will will have to go with a substitute on the trim, but I think I can get pretty close to the original look. Good to finally know what my car is missing here.