52 Buick Engine compartment - colors-

[Guest lupocamino]

Hi friends,

right now I am (together with my mechanic) re-assembling my "new" engine (263 cui).

When I bought my 52 Super Convertible this spring, the engine compartment looked very "colorful", somehow like in a circus....

Now, when re-organizing the whole engine compartment, I would like to have all the details painted correctly like they were when then car left the factory. Does anybody of you have a description, or -even better- pictures as a documentation how for example, engine, intake manifold, air cleaner etc. were painted?

Very many thanks in advance for your infos, with best regards from Germany,

Wolfgang

[Pete Phillips]

Air cleaner is semi-gloss black; intake manifold and engine block are Buick Blue (available from CARS, Inc. or Bill Hirsch); generator is semi-gloss black. Inner fenders are semi-gloss black; firewall is body color, except for the access plates and vent/defroster housing which are semi-gloss black.

Pete Phillips, BCA #7338

Leonard, Texas

1948 model 56-S

1949 model 59

1949 model 51

1950 model 76-R

and others....

[Guest shadetree77]

Hope this helps.

[Guest lupocamino]

Hi Pete and Robert,

wow, wonderful !!!!

Very many thanks for your quick replies and your detailed informations and pictures. This helps me a lot.

With best regards from autumn-time in Germany,

Wolfgang

[Guest Straight eight]

Please bear in mind this paint scheme is for a Dyna Flow, if you have a stick shift the lettering is a light blue, I think.

[Guest lupocamino]

Fortunately I have a Dynaflow engine, so this scheme fits very well, many thanks for this special advice.

It's very interesting, through the lettering on the engine I can directly recognize if this car has an automatic or manual transmission. What was the idea behind these two different appearances? And in the fifties, was there a big difference in the reputation of the owner if he had an shifter or an automatic?

Today in Germany sportive people want to have shifters. For them a driver of an automatic vehicle seems to be like a senior citizen.....

[Guest Rob McDonald]

WOLFY, I wasn't there - or I was very little at the time - but it seems to me '50s Buick buyers who chose a manual transmission were either cheap or very conservative, not trusting a new-fangled contraption like a Dynaflow. In North America, self-shifting didn't become youth-oriented until the advent of muscle cars in the 1960s. People who drove stick-shift imported cars, like Minis, Beetles, and Dauphines weren't seen as youthful - just weird.

[Guest lupocamino]

Robby, I wasn't there either, I was born in 1960.

Here in Germany the cars for "normal" people in the early sixties didn't even have the option for an automatic transmission. The high-class cars however (like Mercedes S-class) could be equipped with it. But the price for this option was quite high. I remember one of my uncles had one and my Daddy was very happy when he had the chance to drive it.

Me, I got lazy already years ago. An automatic transmission is easy to handle and makes my driving much more comfortable....

[Guest Straight eight]

Dyna Flow was very popular from the beginning with 85% of Roadmaster owners paying the extra for Dyna Flow, which was optional in 1948. The other series also demanded the DynaFlow as it became available in years to come.

Now the red letters really signified hydraulic valve lifters which Buick installed on all Dyna Flows except for in 1948 when solid lifters were used. Because at 30 mph and during warm up those solid lifters tended to make their presence known Buick went to hydraulic lifters "for that quiet Buick ride".

Because the stick shift did not have the excessive lifter noise from the engine, Buick used solid lifters on the stick shift.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Straight eight
clairfiy the wording (see edit history)

[Guest lupocamino]

In the early Ninties I had a french Citroen Traction Avant from 1955.

It's incredible, how many features american cars had already in the late forties and early fifties. In my Citroen there was nothing, really nothing but a electrical wiper. Not even a correct heater. Only one tube coming from behind the front grill and passing by the hot engine for heating the air opened in the floor on drivers side. That was all the heat!!! In wintertime I did not only wear thick jackets but I also had a blanket wrapped around me....

How luxurious is my 52 Buick !!!