A 1941 Buick in Holland

[buick41]

As i allready started a thread on the restauration forum , my good friend Anderson suggested to start a thread on this forum ( Me and my Buick ) . Just to reach some more Buick members for help and advice and ofcourse to show some progress of the restoration and please feel free for any comment.

A short introduction of my Buick,

it is a 1941 Model 41 SSE, the dual carb version . Pepper already loves the Buick and jumped in for a "ride " (he didn't know its missing a few parts) so he have to wait for a little "while "..

These cars are very rare overhere, build in 1941, europe was in war so not one civilian car reached Europe those days .. Only some Military cars came over in 1944 (but thats another hobby of mine)

So restoring a Buick is a party of searching on Ebay. (and than waiting till parts finally come over from the US ...) . In the meantime i dismantle the Buick, clean all the parts, registrate them and store them. The frame needs to be removed and we have to check carefully al the weldings the last owner has done ( a lot... and there rusty again ) . I will do some postings during the progress and have some fun reading the threads on this forum.

regards

Paul

Edited January 26, 2014 by buick41 (see edit history)

[buick41]

Lights out in the garage .... "Christine" came to live

[buick41]

I spent some time to clean and testing the gauges .

The Odometer was not working and the wheels were oxidated . I found out that the 41 and 47 has some interchangeable parts that i couldt use to let my odometer work again .

sadly all the numbers felt off , but that is something i can reproduce it Takes some time and a steady hand to fixed it .. Left is the 41 on the right is the 47

Maybe nice to see the diferences of both meters , the housings won't fit into the dash because of its mountings and from the odometer itselve the daycount reset cable / mechanics is different ,

i wanted only to use the 1947 wheels . You have to do some minor changes to make it fit, than put some new grease on the parts and now its working smooth again. For now i used the 47 centre plate . Ofcourse i am looking for a new plate ,( also for the clock ..) i wil find them for sure during the restauration .. Paul

[41Roadmaster]

Welkom Paul! Glad to see Holland has at least one Buick-nut :cool:

There is alot of help floating around these threats and posts. All of the members I've encountered have been extremely helpful. I'm sure you'll get the advise you're looking for (and even some you're not!) 1941 was a great year for Buick.

Nice to see pictures of your car. We've traded email about it, but it's always better to see pictures (and the forum loves pictures!) Also, bravo on your odometer work. I know just how tedious that can be. So will you be making this Buick into a military car like your Plymouth and Dodge? If so, that would be a sweet treat to watch unfold.

Keep us updated, keep the pictures flowing, and welcome aboard,

Anderson

[buick41]

Anderson thanks!

We (me and my wive ) .. "without a wive : no happy Buick live " (did i wrote that ??)

I like the gray and silver two tone paint ...so thats what it is going to be.. If the parts car work out wel than this car maybe end up some time with green paint on it ... But green is green and i just want for now some nice and shiny chrome on a straight eight ! You ll know what i mean, drive it just for fun on a sunny sunday with your mother in law ... that is were you doing these things for .

Paul

[buick41]

Just for once .. a picture of my Plymouth (and yes there are windmills in Holland and no, we are not walking on wooden shoes ! )

Its a great car this 1940 P9, Paul

[Guest Rob McDonald]

I suggest you start a thread on Pepper. Nice dog.

[buick41]

Thanks Rob,

Yes she is a nice dog .

For now she is aloud to sit on the old buick seats , when they are renewed she have to move to the trunk .

Paul

[buick41]

This week i tested my cabin sander on some small parts of the Buick .

This is a really great machine Paint and rust gets of easy and it safes a lot of time, the dash parts and some window mouldings are also primed.

now we have time to clean all the chrome and stainless mouldings (or what is left of it ) .

to be continued

Paul

[buick41]

Does anyone know what is original into the chrome window moulding (the two white pieces) , the last owner did some creative cutting with paper i like to bring it back to original

And are there new chrome rings for sale for the odometer and the two gauges ?

thank you for your replies

Paul,

[41Roadmaster]

This week i tested my cabin sander on some small parts of the Buick .

[ATTACH=CONFIG]163320[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]163321[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]163322[/ATTACH]

This is a really great machine Paint and rust gets of easy and it safes a lot of time, the dash parts and some window mouldings are also primed.

now we have time to clean all the chrome and stainless mouldings (or what is left of it ) .

to be continued

Paul

Wow nice facility Paul, it looks like serious business! Very clean. It makes all the difference having the right tools and a nice, organized place to work. I should know...I have neither

Keep up the good work! I'll be sending an email to you tomorrow.

[JohnD1956]

I need to get one of those sand blaster cabinets. I also need to get a real garage... Those parts look really good. Good luck with this fine car...

[buick41]

Hi John,

Thank you . On Saturday i sandblasted and primed a lot of small stuff , radiator parts and the horns, so that really saves a lot of time. I am nearly ready with the interior parts as mouldings etc. Only the zamac parts as emblems and trunkmouldings are difficult parts to clean. I tried to sandblast them but that is not giving a nice and smooths surface. When the chrome is blasted off than the pitting gets worser. so its better to do some mechanical grinding and than polishing the surface, it takes one evening to clean one doorhandle. But the results are fine and good enough for rechroming.

I would be happy when i can finally start on the mechanical and engine parts.

Paul

[buick41]

Lets say "happy Blasting " .

I also became good news ! A good friend of my offered me a beauty of a partscar for sale including some badly wanted parts. its sold now and i am very happy with that. Now we can complete for 90% the restauration. Buick's from the 40-ties are very rear overhere so oppertunities to get parts are scarce . Anderson and George thank you very much !

regards Paul

[Buicknutty]

Nice to see pictures of your car! I have a '41 Roadmaster coupe, that I restored over many years.

I have a few spare speedometer parts, and might have a nice "face", PM me if you're interested, and I'll look through my box of spares.

Keith

[buick41]

Back again after a busy week ,

I disambled the last dashboard parts, cleaned them, polish them sanded some parts (ashtrays were badly rusted) so i sprayed them after sanding with clear coat and they looked nice again , even the radio had to change some color.. unfortunatly the internal parts were so damaged by water that it can not be repared. I now want to build up only the " button part" of the radio just for the original look so i need some nice new Buttons with Buick on it ...... Who has some ??

[buick41]

I also started last weekend disambling the engine parts ,

Carburators off and the manifolds of. i sandend them and they really look nice... no cracks although the last owner glued the Heater riser valves on the manifoldhousing ..........

so there is no valve working now ........ probably they leaked exhaust gases thru....... I respond on Anderson pearson its thread "with the sticking heater riser valve" but he has one not working valve the other does . something inside me is saying let it the way it is ......... .Some advice is welcome .. Also some linkage of the carburetors were welded together...

its a waist of material but keeps thinking. some pics ..

Manifolds

paul

[buick41]

And some other work is been done sanding the air duct, removing al the old blu paint from the garnish and polisch them ...... the garnisch "clips" from the window moulings are very weak so when you remove them while bending they will break. If someone has two set's " ivory colored" pieces for the window Garnish (see picture) please send me a pm.

Paul

[buick41]

Merry Christmas to you all,

I had some really busy weeks till chrismass so now i am glad to spent some time together with my family and with the Buick offcourse ..

I disambeled the carburettors and found out that the automatic choke adjuster was gone and the engine start switch was also damaged .. and from the rear carb the float was leak. so i had to find another AAV16 carb, lucky as i am i found one by Ebay .. i ordered a overhaullset by Bobs so after a smooth sandblasting the carburetors

.

If anybody can explain to me how the damper valve is supposed to work , has this part to be manualy adjusted ?

Paul

[smithbrother]

How about posting a picture of the WHOLE car as it is RIGHT NOW?

Good thing you have lots of pictures, cause it looks like you have it in lots of parts, but you seem to be very organize, GOOD FOR YOU.....

Dale in Indy

[buick41]

Hi Dale ,

I understand your opinion, but something positive happend during this Thread, i became an offer for a nearly original Buick 40-B 4 door

from a member of this forum. That Buick is in a much better state to restore than the one i have now. The car is nearly rustfree . So we decided to take over that Buick .. but it wil go on transport to the NL on 27th december 2012. The point is that it missed some important parts so i use my "blue Buick now as a Parts car and decided to disamble it from the inside out and do a lot of forwork , So thats is why you only see some pictures of parts.. So i hope i can start at the end of januari with the other Buick .. that is why you not seeing any pic's of the car. I spend most of the time now disamble parts blast them and put them away . Remember that these Buicks in europe are not common so if i can make someone happy overhere with some parts than it was worth all the work too. At the other way i think its nice to see some detailed pictures on the forum. The most of us are no car mechanics, so i use the pictures together with the workshop manual for the build up. And i like to do it right.

Before i have some parts ordered in the USA recieved overhere it normally takes a month so now i had the oppurtunity to collect a lot of parts too , new rubbers and weatherstriping , new exhaust , all new brake parts, seals,engine overhaulkit. .

Feel free to give any comment , and ... merry X-mas

Paul

[buick41]

Hi ,

Here we are again, last week my 1941 Buick model 40B finally arrived from the USA including a lot of important parts. Many thanks to Anderson and George! its a great original car with all its original details. Never welded. A great project car ..

Now we can continue our restoration. So here some pic's. of the arrival .

Edited April 8, 2013 by buick41
now with pictures (see edit history)

[buick41]

We started to disamble the Trunk , gastank, rear window´s ,

Because of water leakage from the back window we noticed our first issue, just were the sparetire is fitted the scheetmetal was rusted through, also the edge of the trunk had some rustdamage. The rest of the trunk seems to be in a good shape, So nothing to worry about. I also noticed some damage of an old "car accident" at the rear bumper stud's.

[buick41]

We started to disamble the Trunk , gastank, rear window´s ,

Because of water leakage from the back window we noticed our first issue, just were the sparetire is fitted the scheetmetal was rusted through, also the edge of the trunk had some rustdamage. The rest of the trunk seems to be in a good shape, So nothing to worry about. I also noticed some damage of an old "car accident" at the rear bumper stud's.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]187033[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]187034[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]187035[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]187036[/ATTACH]

[buick41]

Finally we removed the left rear fender and the whole rear interior of the car, Afer a few drops of penetrating oil all the bolts came of easy, doors are in a great shape

the cars bottom sheetmetal is nice. I hope to continue next week because i want to get the body of its chassis and get it sandblasted.

Paul

[buick41]

Hi ,

So we are a week further and most of the interior parts are removed from the car,

and again not much troubles getting all the bolts loose.

Also got all the small window parts and door lock's sandblasted and protected against rust. And put them away.

Next step is removing the front fenders and getting the doors , hood , trunk and rear fenders all free from paint by giving them a special chemical "bath" at a company overhere. So rust and paint are off then. When the body is separated from the chassis i will let it sandblasted..

gr Paul

[buick41]

A few pictures of the headliner, the damping material that is glued to the roof is in a pretty good shape .

for, i noticed a color code on the screw mounted headliner bows

from front to rear: yellow, red, blue, green braun

[buick41]

Seems that the Buick had its service on 28, march 1966 ...... at 99093 miles . that is a long time ago.....

A look into the engine compartment

And i recieved finaly some parts from Bob's so i could't restore the numbers of the speedo meter, i tried copper paint to spray the backplate of the meter into the right color and that worked out very well. only the bezel has to be rechromed .

[buick41]

Hi, back again. We did a lot of work to remove all the parts and bolts from the body and with result. We had a "Lift off " today we separated the body from its chassis with a forklift and that went well. Only it started to rain badly while lifting off the body .. that was a minor issue. But finally we got the body on a temporary frame .

[buick41]

A few pic's of the disambling proces of the window's dashbord and the cleaning of the front wheel parts . :cool:

[smithbrother]

Since I have owned a 41 Limited since 1973, and have too had my body off, I can relate to what you are doing. Your car looks to be in much better condition, RUST FREE so to speak than mine. I had to replace the trunk pan, and a couple spots up front.

Yours is looking good, HAVE FUN, that's what it's all about.

I have a question...,,,,,, when you remove the center metal strip of the windshield, the strip that holds the rear view mirror, IS THERE A METAL STRIP THAT IS ON THE OUTSIDE CENTER THAT REMAINS THERE ONCE THE INSIDE MIRROR STRIP HAS BEEN REMOVED? Thanks for your response.

I wish you well,

Dale in Indy

Edited May 26, 2013 by smithbrother (see edit history)

[buick41]

Hi Dale , actually there is , you can see it on the pictures. Its attached from the hood to cowl . And badly rusted as you can see on the pictures . Behind the stainless vertical window divider i have to find out how it was fixed to the metal strip. I am afraid some improvements are neccesary to prevent rusting again ..I will let you all know when i am that far . first step now is to let the body sandblasted .The doors and fenders are allready been stripped from paint by a company how put those into a chemical solution. The results were great nice shiny metal from 72 years old. :cool:. They ware sandblasting the rustspots and put them into the epoxyprimer, and than they are ready for further treatment. so far so good . Paul

[41Roadmaster]

Go Paul go! It looks like you and Rolanda are having a blast! I'm glad to see you are making extremely good progress. Thanks for letting us enjoy these moments with you. Anderson

[Buicknutty]

Thanks for posting those great pictures. Keep up the good work!

Keith

[buick41]

Just a couple of months ago we lift off the body and so after the summer i finally start up the disassembling of the Buick . Due work it was nearly impossible to continue with the job. But now i continued fighting the old juicy grease and metal parts of the Buick . There is no way back and the amount of parts and bolts is huge and grows every day . So my digital camera is my biggest friend during the restauration. It helps me getting the parts together again.

The first thing i did during Christmas is checking if the engine was running, if so it would give me an idea in wich state it was and if an overhaul would be necessary. and sure it was fun to start up that old engine, i renewed the oil an primed the oil pump to check if i had an oil pressure , connect a waterhose onto the waterpump and made a gasoline tank of a bottle . Than i checked for a spark .

I placed my repared ignition and we had a spark .. But soon the battery was empty so we had to use the car of my wive to get enough power to crank the engine . man o man ... those starter cables got hot :mad:during starting .. here a few pics of the frame including engine .

And here you find a link to a short Youtube movie we made of the Buick engine running again hope you like , http://youtu.be/Wcvn1iCCT-0

Paul

Edited January 26, 2014 by buick41 (see edit history)

[buick41]

So further in the proces i had all the fenders, hood and trunk carefully stripped off from paint into a caustic soda bath. Than the parts has been lokally sandblasted and painted into a groundlayer of 2k paint ,

the doors and fenders came out great only underneath the doors there are some holes , so we have to weld in some metal .... But we are on the right track .

Paul

[buick41]

In the meanwhile i tried to find out how to remove the driveshaft from the gearbox....... Well that was fun ... I was used to work on my Plymouth but to do the job on a the Buick is much

more complicated. To change a clutch in that time it took some garage hours. ;-) The whole engine has to be slide forward to release the drive shaft. You can also see how the transmission mount is affected by the leaking of the transmission oil it was all spongy. But it was intresting to see how that old Buick was build together. And because there was no way back anymore i removed the engine complete with its gearbox with a fork lift. again some parts removed ....

Paul

[buick41]

I wanted to remove the clutch housing and flywheel from the engine ......

Again i found some unexpected issues . You can not remove the housing without removing the flywheel ...... WOW . more fun and more disassembling was needed

first take of the gearbox than removing the oil pan so you can unbolt and remove the first mainbearing

and finally you can unbolt and remove the flywheel!

(time for a beer now )

Paul

[buick41]

Now its time to clean up the engine ..

So i removed the oil filter and you can see how it was blocked

i removed the metal filter by bending the sides of the filter out to get i all well cleaned and that helped!

the engine at its stand after cleaning

So i still have to check the head and the cilinders but that is for a later stadium.

[buick41]

To do some other work on the Buick i decided to overhaul the Buick starter and its solenoid ... renewing the brushes and see why the old solenoid relay was not working

much better ..

ready to go !