1938 Buick Century Model 61 - Four Door Touring Sedan - Trunk Back

[Spinneyhill]

Those are what we would call a club hammer and the Brits would call a lump hammer.  Great idea.

[Taylormade]

There are varying theories on this, ranging from absolute truth to total BS, but striking a hammer with another hammer is usually frowned upon.  They can apparently shatter and spray metal shards.  Just a friendly warning, and I may be all hot air.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

7 hours ago, Taylormade said:

There are varying theories on this, ranging from absolute truth to total BS, but striking a hammer with another hammer is usually frowned upon.  They can apparently shatter and spray metal shards.  Just a friendly warning, and I may be all hot air.

 

Been testing that for 70 years since I first heard it. No conclusion.

 

  Ben

[MCHinson]

8 hours ago, Taylormade said:

There are varying theories on this, ranging from absolute truth to total BS, but striking a hammer with another hammer is usually frowned upon.  They can apparently shatter and spray metal shards.  Just a friendly warning, and I may be all hot air.

 

I am aware of that but in my personal experience, it works just fine. I would guess that a very hard hammer blow to another hammer head in a situation in which it could not move, might shatter it, but I have never had a problem. As I stated previously, I am sure that a properly sized hinge pin removal tool would be the best way. With the tools that I have in the garage, that was the easiest way to remove the hinge pins. I tried a lot of different methods and that sure was much easier than any other method using the available tools at my disposal. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I took the two front doors outside and used an angle grinder on the door bottoms to see how bad they were. The passenger door has quite a few very small rust out spots that were revealed under the paint upon its removal. I need to decide if I want to weld up each individual hole or if I want to install a patch panel over the entire door bottom. The driver's door only had 3 very minor spots that needed attention. I took out my welder and welded up those spots and then reground them flat. My welding is still not great but my ratio of welding to grinding is getting better. 

 

The most interesting item that I discovered is a part number on the bottom of the door skins on both front doors. One is clearly "P19" The other one is a bit more difficult to read but I think it is also "P19".  I have no proof, but my suspicion is that the P19 indicates that it fits Fisher Body style number 4419 and 4619. This makes me really wonder if anybody has ever found any type of numbers on the bottom of other doors of other Fisher Body Styles of the era. I am really curious about what might be on Buick Model 81 and 91 doors, since their Fisher Body style numbers also end in 19.   

[Roger Zimmermann]

To me it's clear for the passenger door: a patch panel. The whole bottom is rusted, also between the holes. 

[kgreen]

I recommend this sanding disk on your grinder rather than the abrasive disk I see in your photo.  This pad is available in 36, 60 and 120 grit from HF.  It does a great job of removing paint, bondo and weld finishing.  That grinding wheel is way too aggressive.

Edited March 21, 2018 by kgreen (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

Thanks Keith,

 

The driver's door is the only one that is not going to be receiving a patch panel. I had the grinding wheel and was using because it was fast and easy as I really expected to be replacing about everything that I used that wheel on until I got to the driver's door. I think I was careful not to take too much material off of that door but will certainly need to pick up a sanding disk or two in the near future. 

[GARY F]

I like to use what KGREEN  said

[MCHinson]

Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from the radiator shop that my radiator and gas tank were ready. With plans to install those soon, I decided that I need to soon be able to install part of the wiring harness so I will be able to get the car running again. To be able to install the front part of the wiring harness, I will need to get the firewall painted. This morning, I sanded the firewall and applied primer to it.  

 

This afternoon, I picked up the radiator and gas tank. The shop repaired the radiator and painted it black. They checked the fuel tank and found it to be solid with no leaks and a clean interior. I will need to sand the exterior of the gas tank and treat it with galvanizing spray in the near future. I will have to take some photos of the radiator tomorrow. The radiator shop that I used only took one week and the work looks great. It was also much more reasonably priced than I expected. I am very happy with them. If anybody nearby is in need of a radiator shop, I would highly recommend Bobby's Alignment & Radiator Service in Wallace, NC. 

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Matt, what all did they do to the radiator?   Good deal on the tank. Sounds like you dodged a bullet there.

 

  Ben

[MCHinson]

The radiator held water and the car ran cool. The main problem with it was the bottom part of the frame that held the radiator together was rusted away from 20 + years of sitting with damp leaves and other residue around the bottom of the radiator during the car's hibernation outdoors up north. As far as I know they simply repaired the radiator frame, dipped it, tested it, and painted it. With a quick glance, it looks like new. 

 

I still don't understand how the inside of the gas tank was in such good shape except for the fact that it was full or nearly full of gas when parked and the fact that the gas was obviously non-ethanol, which is not much of a surprise since it was 25 years ago when it was parked. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I took some photos of the repaired radiator. It looks a lot  better than it did before they repaired it. Then I decided to work on the gas tank. I used a couple of abrasive pads to sand the surface rust off of the tank. I then sprayed a coat of galvanizing spray on the tank exterior. I also used my sandblaster to clean up the gas tank mounting hardware and straps. The straps appear to have been previously painted black. The tank straps on my 1937 Century appear to have been plain steel or perhaps have been treated with some sort of zinc galvanizing, or similar finish. Does anybody have any information on what finish the gas tank straps on a 1938 Buick should have had originally? Tomorrow I plan to finish cleaning them up and I need to figure out what finish to use on them. 

 

Tomorrow I also need to find and clean up the bolts used to mount the radiator so I can get it reinstalled soon. 

 

 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I finished cleaning up the gas tank mounting hardware and straps. I then quickly painted that hardware semi gloss black and then carefully carried the parts back inside the garage to dry, since it was a bit cool outside today.

 

I spent some time looking through my parts boxes to find the radiator mounting hardware that I will be needing soon and happened to run across the lighter assembly. Realizing that I really should install that in the dash, I wire wheeled the mounting bracket, and electrical connection hardware, buffed the chrome trim and ivory colored knob and installed it in the dash. 

[MCHinson]

This morning I decided to try repairing the gas tank pickup/gas gauge sending unit. The pickup tube was fine. The sending unit was generating erratic readings. I understand it should generate smooth readings between 0 and 30 ohms. I drilled out the three brass rivets that hold the unit together and gently separated the parts. The float unit turns an arm with an electical contact that moves across the wire rheostate. I simply used some electical contact cleaner on the wire of the rheostate assembly, cleaned up and gently bent the arm's contact to get a good firm contact with the rheostate. When reassembled, the assembly appears to work just fine. I don't know how accurate my meter is but it is quite close to showing a range of 0 to 30 ohms. 

 

The hardest part was riveting the assembly back together. I did not have the original style brass rivets but I was able to use standard 3/16" aluminum rivets and then drill out the center of them to allow the mounting screws to go through the rivets. I used a small air grinder to cut off the excess height of the rivets so that I shoud be able to easily apply some gasket material and reseal the unit on the gas tank. 

 

Although, I could have probably gotten away with treating the original cork float with some ethanol resistant sealer, I decided to replace the cork with some modern plastic float material. I lightly ground down the float rod so I could remove the cork floats. I have the plastic on order and will replace the float when the plastic comes in.  

 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I took some photos and measurements of the gas tank to document the 1938 Buick 40 and 60 series gas tanks since some recent questions have been asked about replacement tanks. The tank has an overall width of approximately 38 inches. The tank is approximately 21 inches from front to back. It is approximately 6 inches deep.  The fuel filler tube is approximately 15 inches long. It is 2 inches in diameter and is mounted approximately 4 inches, on center, from the rear edge of the tank. It is mounted with the top edge basically in line with the top of the tank. The filler tube angles up to a height of approximately 12 inches from the bottom. Hopefully the photos will be helpful. 

 

I then took the tank outside and gave it second coat of the spray galvanized coating and left it out in the sun to dry. I also decided to give the tank mounting hardware a second coat of semi gloss black paint and left them out in the sun to dry as well. I then went to my local NAPA and purchased a 25 foot coil of 5/16 gas line and the fittings necessary to replicate the original 12 foot long gas line. This afternoon, I applied one flare fitting and using the dirty rusty original gas line as a template to form the new line.  Some of the bends were made with a tubing bender and some were simply bent by hand. I duct taped the new line to the old line and should be able to finish the second end tomorrow, since I want to install it on the chassis before making the final cut and final flare since the rear section will be slightly modified to allow a supplemental Airtex  E8902 6 Volt electric inline fuel pump to be mounted on the frame near the gas tank.    

[MCHinson]

This morning, I finished the assembly of the main fuel line and mounting of the electric fuel pump. I reused the original short section of fuel line from the frame rail to the fuel pump inlet. I cleaned it up with a wire wheel and sprayed a clear protective coating on it to prevent rust. The flared fitting that I installed on the main fuel line yesterday attaches to that line with a brass junction near the frame rail. The new main line runs down the right frame rail with a couple of odd looking bends but that is what was on the car when new. It snaps into a few clips on the frame rail. It then runs under the frame rail near the right rear shock and then runs up the inside of the frame rail. and crosses over to the front of the fuel tank. Luckily, the hole for one of the fuel line clips on the cross member was just the right size for the self tapping bolt for the fuel pump mounting bracket for the airtex pump. I am still waiting for the new float for the fuel gauge sending unit, so I can't install the gas tank yet. I will form the short line from the electric pump to the tank after I have the float in the tank and the tank installed. 

 

For those who are ever in this situation, take my advice. Bend and Install the fuel line before installing the body. I knew that I should do that but the logistics of getting the fuel line, fuel pump and gas tank parts ready whiel the body was off of the car just did not work out for me. The fuel line and fuel pump can be installed with the body on the frame, but it sure would have been easier with the body off of the frame.

[MCHinson]

Last night, I applied a coat of gloss black paint to the firewall in preparation for being able to install the wiring harness through the firewall grommet in the near future. This morning I spent a little bit of time looking through boxes of parts to find the 4 pin plug that holds the two sections of the wiring harness together. After finding it, I was ready to install the plug on the new reproduction wiring harness. While I guess I understand why some people opt to send the plug in and pay to have the company supplying their wiring harness install it on the wiring harness, it really was not difficult to install. In all honesty, you could use four cheap modern bullet connectors to connect the four wires together behind the dash, but I like knowing that the original GM plug will always be sitting in the original mounting bracket behind the dash just like it has been for the past 80 years. The plug was really well built. The design of the plug is such that the wires should not be able to short out each other in any case but it also has some cardboard like insulating materials that further isolate the wires. These materials were still usable, so even though the new wiring harness has plastic covering underneath the cloth covering, I still installed all of the original insulating materials in the plug.

 

I simply pried the small metal tabs up to separate the plug assemblies. I then applied heat from a soldering gun to melt the solder and gently tug on the old wires to remove them from the plug. I then cleaned up the plug with a wire wheel, a small wire brush,  and some fine sand paper. I then carefully checked the wiring harness instructions and installed the two halves of the plug onto the two main sections of the wiring harness in the original configuration. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I installed the body and tailight section of the wiring harness. The 4 pin connector clips into the mounting bracket behind the dash on the driver's side and the harness runs up the "A" pillar on the driver's side of the car. There are  metal clips that clip onto the frame running towards the rear of the car. The dome light supply wire feeds across one of the top bows in a series of metal clips across to the passenger side of the car. The dome light switch wires feed from the passenger side "B" pillar up to the dome light in the center of the roof, also secured by the metal roof bow clips. The harness continues into the trunk to feed the taillights, license plate light and gas gauge. I also had extra wiring added to the harness to supply power to the auxiliary electric fuel pump near the gas tank.  Feeding the wiring harness through the car is not that difficult, but it is a bit time consuming. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I fed the wiring harness through the firewall and installed the firewall wiring grommet. The reproduction firewall grommet comes as one molded piece but you have to cut it like the original grommet to be able to install it. There is no way to slide it on the wiring harness as a solid piece. I then installed the split metal ring the secures the grommet in the firewall. I fed the harness to the horns, the starter, the voltage regulator, the horn relay, the carburetor mounted starter switch, the generator, the distributor, and the coil. I removed the horns from the firewall for painting. I connected the rest of the engine harness to the other components and clipped the harness to all of the original wire clips. Since I still have portions of the harness loose inside the body near the dash area, I removed the positive battery cable for safety until the rest of the harness is hooked up.  

[MCHinson]

Yesterday afternoon, I removed the horn covers and sandblasted the old paint off of them. I wire wheeled and sanded the horns to remove old paint. I then primed them and later in the evening, I painted the horns. This morning, I installed the horns. My replacement fuel gauge sending unit floats arrived this morning and I installed them on the fuel sending unit and used my welder to put a small spot weld on the end of the float arm to prevent the floats from being able to slide off of the arm. I then installed the sending unit in the tank and then installed the fuel tank. After that, I cut, bent, and installed fittings on a small section of gas line to connect the electric fuel pump to the fuel tank outlet line. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, used a wire wheel to clean up the oil pressure line and temperature line of the gauge cluster. I repainted the two gauge lines with a metallic paint to replicate the appearance of new unpainted metal lines as best as I could. I disassembled the gauge cluster by carefully prying the front metal panel off of the assembly. I repainted the red on the speedometer needle. I carefully cleaned the front of the glass. I was careful not to damage the painted back side of the glass. I did clean up the unpainted areas of the back side of the glass but was careful not to touch the paint on the glass, since I am aware that it would most likely be destroyed by the slightest touch.

 

I used a buffing wheel to restore the chrome on the outside edge of the front panel of the gauge cluster. This chromed piece is easily bent if you are not careful with the buffing wheel. Fortunately, it is also fairly easy to bend back into its original shape.

 

I wire wheeled, cleaned, primed and painted the back metal of the gauge cluster. After lunch, I made a trip to my local hardware store and picked up the closest matching paint for the front metal panel. I masked off the chrome outside edge of the front of that panel and then primed it.  After allowing the primer to dry, I then painted the front panel. After it drys, I will reassemble the gauge cluster.

[MCHinson]

This evening, I was able to reassemble the gauge cluster. It looks much better than before. 

[Roger Zimmermann]

As I have few experience with cars from that age, I just can say those vehicles were well constructed, by looking how the wiring is attached to the body as well as other details. Good job on the instruments!

[MCHinson]

This morning, I connected the wiring harness to the gauge cluster and installed it in the car. I also connected the temperature gauge sending unit on the engine.I then cleaned up all of the light switch wire terminals and screws with a wire wheel. I then connected all of the wires to the light switch.  Everything went well on the 1938 project this morning.  

 

I have had a little bit of gas seepage on the fuel pump for a while on my 1937 Century. I never did get around to rebuilding the fuel pump. Since I would like to have a spare fuel pump, I had decided to order a fuel pump from a vendor who sells them. It arrived recently. The 1937 Century is registered for the AACA Spring Meet at the Charlotte Autofair for Saturday's show. Since I would prefer to have a nice clean engine compartment for the show, I made the mistake of deciding to install the new fuel pump this afternoon. The installation took longer than expected because the vacuum portion of the pump was lined up slightly differently on the replacement pump, requiring me to do some bending of the vacuum lines. The installation was not fun.  After finishing the installation and upon pressurizing the fuel lines, I discovered that the new fuel pump top cover has two invisible pin hoes. If you look closely in the photo, you will see two streams of gas coming out of the holes.

 

After discovering the defective fuel pump, I cleaned up and installed a rebuild kit in the original fuel pump. I was not really in the mood to rebend the vacuum lines this afternoon and install the rebuilt pump. While I feel bad about not making it to Charlotte with my 1937 Buick, I will still be headed that way in a modern Buick in the morning. I ended up having a good excuse not to install the rebuilt pump this afternoon, since I had a customer who needed a fairly large rush engraving order this afternoon. I finished it this evening and will drop it off on my way out of town to Charlotte early tomorrow morning.  

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

Bummer!

 

  Ben

[MCHinson]

I had a good time at the Charlotte Autofair, but it would have been better without the rain on Saturday during the AACA Meet. I found a good deal in the swap meet on a chevrolet heater that has a defroster motor that should work for my 1938 Buick heater. This afternoon, I removed the defective fuel pump on my 1937 Century and re-installed the original one that I rebuilt on Thursday.

 

The rebuilt fuel pump seems to be working just fine without any fuel leaking and the vacuum wipers are back to working like they should. The wipers had recently stopped working that well.     

[MCHinson]

This morning, I installed the turn signal switch. I purchased the switch from Rhode Island Wiring, the company that supplied my wiring harness. The switch comes with the correct cloth covered wiring harness that connects to identically colored cloth covered wires of the wiring harness. I stripped the ends of the wires and soldered the connections together and wrapped them securely with electrical tape that will not be seen behind the dash. 

 

I then disassembled the Chevrolet heater that I purchased at the Charlotte Autofair, removed and disassembled the defroster motor. I was able to use the internal components of the defroster motor inside the slightly different looking Buick defroster heater motor case. I the reassembled the motor, assembled the defroster to the fan and tested the assembly. Both the heater and defroster motors work wonderfully. 

 

I have painted the exhaust system components a silver metallic high temperature paint. They should be ready to install tomorrow.  

[MCHinson]

This morning, I cleaned up the firewall pad, let it dry and then installed it. That job is a lot more work than it sounds like. It is difficult to hold the pad in position, insert all of the bolts and then put lockwashers and nuts on the other side of the firewall and get the nuts started. Reaching in through the doorway allowed me to hold the bolts on the inside and get most of the nuts tightened on the outside. I dropped one of the nuts and could not seem to find it. I picked up another (and a few spares) at my local hardware store today, so I will finish that last firewall pad bolt tomorrow. After getting the firewall pad installed, I then installed the heater. Since this body did not have a correct heater before and having previously punched out the heater core holes in the firewall, I just had to punch holes in the firewall pad for the bolts to be able to install the heater.     

[MCHinson]

For the past two days, I have been looking for the bolts and nuts to connect the exhaust system to the exhaust manifold valve body. I finally gave up on finding them and pulled the ones off of my body donor's chassis. I installed the front section of the exhaust system. I sandblasted the exhaust system hangers and clamps and painted them semi-gloss black.  Tomorrow, I will see if I can get the rest of the exhaust system installed. 

 

I tested the interior light switch with my VOM. I noticed that the interior light switch did not seem to be working reliably. I opened it up and cleaned up all of the contacts and reassembled it. It now works reliably. 

[MCHinson]

This morning, I welded up the holes in the radiator support. I then used my angle grinder to clean up my welds. I then primed the repaired sections of the radiator support 

I have been looking for the radiator mounting bolts and washers for a day or so. I finally figure out that I did not label  them as well as I should have. The Radiator Support is often referred to as the "Nose" of the car. The Radiator Support is of course, what the radiator bolts to. I had labeled the bag with the radiator bolts as "Nose hardware". After I finally figured that out this morning, I wire wheeled the hardware and then decided that I was ready to install the radiator. I soon figured out that I had to cut both of the radiator hoses a bit to make them fit. While I would have preferred if the hoses were a perfect fit, it actually turned out to be a good thing. Yesterday, I was wondering where I was going to find a 1 1/2 X 4 inch piece of rubber to replace the broken rubber section of the rear most tail pipe hanger. When I cut the hoses, I realized that I had a piece of hose that was exactly the thickness and could easily be cut down to the size that I needed. After lunch, I stopped by my local NAPA and picked up 7 1/2 feet of  5/8 inch heater hose. I installed the heater hoses and filled the radiator. I picked up some ethanol free gas and put it in the tank. The electric fuel pump did not seem to want to pick up the fuel so I looked a bit closer and sure enough, somehow, I had installed it backwards. After a quick removal, rotation, and reinstallation of the electric fuel pump, the gas quickly made it to the fuel pump. Shortly after that, I figured out that one of the fuel line fittings from NAPA near the carburetor was not the correct flare type and was leaking. I removed that, stopped by my friend's carburetor shop, picked up the correct fitting and the leak is solved. 

 

I would like to say that I started it up today, but I need to double check my wiring and possibly do some troubleshooting to get it firing. It turns over, it is looking good, but unfortunately, it would not start this afternoon. Hopefully I will resolve that tomorrow. 

 

I like the look of wide whitewall tires on my 1937 side mounted Century. For this non-sidemounted 1938 Century, I have been debating if I should buy whitewalls or blackwall tires. I decided that I would go with blackwall tires for this car. This afternoon, I ordered a set of 5 blackwall bias ply tires. I found several different online retailers who sell the correct size 7 x 15 blackwall bias ply tires.  The tires that I ordered are Eldorado Power King Super Highway II 7.00/--15. They were slightly less than $84 each with free shipping.  

 

[Gary W]

I  have a question about the electric fuel pump.  Does it turn on to simply prime the carburetor, then it's not used?  And does it pump through the Buick fuel pump or is there a parallel line that bypasses the Buick fuel pump?

[MCHinson]

Gary, 

 

The electric fuel pump is used to prime the carburetor, or it can be run to supplement the mechanical fuel pump to combat vapor lock in the rare times when that is a problem. It is installed in the single fuel line and it pumps through the mechanical pump, and when it is off, the mechanical pump can pull fuel through the electric pump without any problem. That is the way it is installed on my 1937 Century, so I installed one on the 1938 Century in the same manner.

[MCHinson]

This morning, I was unable to work on Buick due to other commitments. After lunch, I discovered that the shipping estimate on my tires was correct. I guess FedEx dropped them off in front of my garage door while I was at lunch. Five Blackwall bias ply tires in the correct size delivered in two days for less than $84 each is certainly impressive to me. 

[Spinneyhill]

I can only dream of tire prices like that! We have the long shipping distance and small market to thank for outrageous tire prices.

[MCHinson]

The usual source of wide white wall bia ply tires here in the US price would have cost $227 each. I was surprised to find a source for blackwalls at just under $84 each. 

[Roger Zimmermann]

Everybody is cooking with water. I'm wondering what causes such a huge price difference between $227 and $ 84? OK, those at $ 227 have a white wall, but that does not make a tire $ 143 more expensive. I hope for you that you will not have quality problem with the tires!

I'm not sure about that but the designation and load range indicate that the tires are for light duty trucks.

[MCHinson]

The "normal" supplier for the wide white wall tires is a relatively small specialty company that produces reproduction tires specifically for the antique car community. Their prices tend to be higher than other sources of tires. The tires that I chose come from a company with excellent credentials. They are apparently a much larger company, supplying tires to a much larger segment of the tire market.  They don't have wide white wall tires but the blackwall light truck bias ply tires should be fine for my purposes. The most common bias ply tires found in 7.00 x 15 are trailer tires. Here is the company website http://www.powerkingtires.com/Home.

[Roger Zimmermann]

OK, Matthew, your explanation about price structure is making sense.

[MCHinson]

I have been busy with other things but this evening, I finally got a chance to at least briefly start up the engine. I turned the engine to get cylinder number 1 to TDC on the compression stroke. I removed the distributor and slightly repositioned the rotor before reinstalling the distributor. I think that when I first installed it, I forgot which direction the distributor turned and I simply positioned it off just enough that it was not firing at the right time. It was nice to hear it run again. I notice that the generator does not seem to be charging. I suspect the problem is the original voltage regulator, since it was not charging when I got it but the generator rebuilder indicated that they only had to replace the bearings in the generator. I swapped in another voltage regulator. I will see if that solves the charging problem tomorrow. I also installed some original Delco yellow battery caps that arrived in yesterday's mail from an ebay seller.