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

[Roger Zimmermann]

6 hours ago, MCHinson said:

 I sent my steering wheel, horn button, and horn ring to J.B. Donaldson for restoration. When they finished recasting the wheel they sent it back to me. It looked great. Unfortunately, they lost the horn button and horn ring. It took a bit of time for them to try to find the parts,  they did the right thing. When they gave up on finding it after looking everywhere in their building, they bought me replacements for the lost parts. Today, the replacement parts arrived. The replacement horn button is actually in better condition than the one that they lost. 

 

 

This company recast the steering wheel from my '56 Biarritz. They did a good job, but I had to rework the unit for the horn ring.

By the way, I don't understand why you sent the horn ring with your steering wheel as the recast is not affected by the horn ring.

[MCHinson]

Their advertisements indicated that they "restore" steering wheels, not just "recast" steering wheels. The service that I expected was a complete restoration of the steering wheel assembly. From speaking with them, their service is apparently limited to buffing the bright parts and recasting the plastic. I sent the complete steering wheel assembly. After they got it, they reported that the bright parts all buffed out well and looked good, but somehow they later lost those parts. When I was speaking with another company prior to choosing to use them, I learned that the other company defined restoration as including rechroming or renickeling the bright parts, not just buffing them. I guess that is why their price was higher. I am happy with the final result.    

[MCHinson]

Back on July 22nd, I posted that I had some medical issues with my right hand that was going to delay my work on the car a few weeks. It turns out, that it ended up being exactly a month before the doctor had an opening in his surgical schedule. Today, I had my hand surgery. I am under doctor's orders not to lift anything that weighs over 2 lbs with my right hand for the next two weeks. Hopefully I will be able to resume working on the 1938 Buick project in a few more weeks. 

[keiser31]

Get better quick!

[dalef62]

Take care and get better soon!

[Gary W]

Speedy Recovery my friend!

[chistech]

I think I'd go crazy for those two weeks. Good luck my friend.

[MCHinson]

18 minutes ago, chistech said:

I think I'd go crazy for those two weeks. Good luck my friend.

 

Well, it had already been a month that I had been waiting for the surgery, so I have already gotten a bit used to not really being able to do much physical work. I did manage to get the Summer issue of The Rummage Box and the September/October issue of The Torque Tube II completed before the surgery so I did not have to do a lot of typing just after the surgery. It is now 4 days post surgery and I have most of the range of motion back in my right hand. I hope to be back to being able to turn some wrenches soon, but I am sure it will not be as quick as I would like.

[chistech]

When I started reading your above post and read summer, Sept/Oct. issue I immediately thought something else!!!!!!! LOL Sorry, couldn't help it!

[MCHinson]

The Rummage Box is published online, so I had to get the Summer Issue out before the end of August so I made sure I got it done before the Surgery. The Sept/Oct Issue of The Torque Tube II, needed to be at the printer by approximately the middle of August to be printed and mailed to arrive by the first of September, so it also had to be finished before the surgery on August 22nd. That gives me a few months before the next issue of The Rummage Box is due and about two months to recover before another issue of The Torque Tube II is due. The surgery was successful and the recovery is going well enough that I should have no problem at all producing either by the deadlines.

[MCHinson]

Thursday-Sunday I was out of town attending my son's wedding in NJ. 

 

I have had a 1938 Model 67 and most of a 1938 Model 41 disassembled and stored outside of my garage. I had made arrangements to sell all of that to Dave Tachney. He moved up his scheduled date to pick it up before the storm arrived. This morning, I finally had a chance to meet Dave in person. The only bad thing is we did not have as much time to visit as I hoped to have due to him needing to beat the traffic crunch of all of the people evacuating the islands.  We loaded it all up which took care of the majority of my outside storm preparation. I have a small number of other outdoor items to store in the garage tomorrow morning and then I am ready for the storm. There is one 1938 248 engine still outside the garage but I don't think I have to worry about it blowing away.  I think the photos explain it better than I can. 

[Spinneyhill]

Well I wouldn't bother cleaning up the leaves on the drive. They'll be blown away! And you get your drive back and the house looks nice from the front again. Xclnt.

[MCHinson]

I actually raked up the leaves and added them to the compost pile in the back yard. The main reason I raked them up was so I could find any dropped bolts, nuts, etc. from the pile of parts from the disassembled body donor 1938 Model 41. I found a one bolt and one nut. 

[Durant Mike]

Matt

  I hope you all weather the storm up there in Wilmington and your cars make it through alright. 

[MCHinson]

It has been a while since I posted so here is a bit of an update. I had only minor damage to the garage, a few trees down, but the approximately 30 inches of rain that fell here during the storm resulted in my back yard, driveway, and front yard being flooded between 1 and 3 inches. The worst was in the back yard since it is lower than the front. This flooding caused approximately 1/2 to one inch of water to flow into the garage. We had no power for about 5 days and after getting power back, I still had to wait a few days for the water to soak into the saturated ground so that the water level would be lower than the garage floor level. I have spent a number of days working in the garage, pulling stuff out, sweeping rainwaters out, drying stuff in the sun and discarding water soaked cardboard boxes. Luckily, I lost very little of value in the garage. My prestorm preparations kept the interior kit and other car related potentially damaged items out of harms way. I guess the garage is as clean as it has been in a while, but I don't recommend this as the best way to clean out a garage.

 

I still need to remove a few trees that are down on a side property line but we are basically back to normal. Wilmington was cut off from the rest of the state by flooding across all roads into the area by the storm. We still have one road, US421, that is still flooded and has a section destroyed, but as of today, US 74 from I 95 to Wilmington, and I 40 have been reopened. I have friends who had flood waters in their houses. I know people who had flood waters in their businesses. My problems with the storm were relatively minor compared to a lot of people. We still have River Flooding occurring here in town and will for a few more days. 

 

My hand is basically totally healed from the surgery. The storm has added a few more weeks of delay to the project. I do hope to get back on the Buick project in the near future. I need to rearrange all of my stacks of parts and assess where I am in the project and hopefully find a good metal work guy, since the first one recommended by a good friend seems to be unavailable. Hopefully, I will have more progress to report on the project in the near future. I am really ready to get back to work on the car.   

[r1lark]

Matt, good to hear your damage was relatively minor. Unfortunately a lot of people didn't come out so lucky, we are still praying for them..

[Luv2Wrench]

Great to hear you're doing OK Matt.      NC has definitely been in our thoughts and prayers!

 

[Durant Mike]

Matt, glad to hear you did OK, although still frustrating, it could have been much much worse as we see in news clips further up the road from you guys in Jacksonville and New Bern.  Glad the cars are OK too!

 

[MCHinson]

 

Yes,

 

Friends in New Bern and Jacksonville, as well as in Burgaw, Whiteville, Fair Bluff and a lot of other small inland towns suffered far worse problems than I did. I do have some local friends here in Wilmington who had several feet of water in their homes from the storm. My troubles from the storm are just a minor irritant compared to what happened to a lot of friends. It will be a long time, if ever, before a lot of people ever get back to "normal".

[MCHinson]

I finally had an opportunity to work on the Buick project a little bit this morning. The hood hinge on the original 1938 Century hood was rusted almost to nothing. Luckily, I happened to pick up a 1937 Buick Century hood which has an identical hinge mechanism. I figured it would be easier to swap that hinge instead of finding someone to use a metal brake to duplicate it. This morning, I drilled out the rivets that hold the hinge pieces to the 1937 Century hood. I then drilled out the rivets that secured the remains of the original hinge pieces to the previously sandblasted 1938 Century hood. Removing the hinge pieces uncovered a bit of rust between the hinge and the hood. I cleaned up the replacement hinge pieces with a wire brush and a wire wheel and then applied a coating of Ospho to the hinge pieces and the edge of the hood where the hinge attaches to the hood.  The last photo shows a comparision between the best one of the original hood hinge pieces and the replacement hinge pieces from the 1937 Century hood. Next I will prime over the Ospho and rivet the hinge pieces to the 1938 Century Hood. I still need to make arrangements for a body shop to do the remaining metal repair on the body. Hopefully, I will have that done soon. 

[Taylormade]

What type of rivets do you plan to use?  Getting ready to do a similar operation on my 32 Dodge Brothers.

[MCHinson]

I have a standard "pop rivet" tool. I am going to see if some standard pop rivets will work. They are available in a size very close to the original rivet size, although not exactly the same size. For the purposes, I think they might work. If not, I will order some tubular rivets from Restoration Supply Company. I think that they would be a slighly more correct rivet for the job. Rivets are on page 38 and 39 of their online catalog: https://www.restorationstuff.com/pdf/RestorationSupplyCompany.pdf

[Gary W]

Hi Matt;

Great to see you back on it!

Restoration Supply is a wonderful source for this kind of stuff.  

They have "threaded rivets" that I used when I did my Model "T" a few years back.  It made for a very nice easy install, the finish look was superb, and in the future things can be removed hassle-free.   Just an idea.......not that you'll be taking the hood hinges off anytime soon!

 

Keep up the great work!

Gary

[MCHinson]

I was able to prime the hinge pieces and later I was able to attempt to assemble it. I don't have any rivets available locally that are quite right. For the time being, I have temporarily attached the hinge pieces to the hood halves using a few machine screws and nuts. This enabled me to slide the chrome center section of the hood onto the hood and place the hood back onto the chassis temporarily.

[MCHinson]

No work on my Buick today but I did visit a local AACA Chapter and 36-38 Buick Club member who needed some help with 1937 McLaughlin Buick Special. He needed a new manifold gasket installed. The front and rear sections of the gasket had obviously been moving around a bit and deforming due to the manifold nuts not being as tight as they should have been. His car runs quietly now. 

[Gary W]

Matt;

Do you know if he had the gland rings installed?  Did you torque the manifold down?  How many pounds do you put on those manifold nuts.  I want to go over a few things like this before my maiden voyage.  Thanks

[MCHinson]

It had the ring glands installed. The manifold nuts were quite loose when I removed the original gasket. I was able to remove them with a wrench easily. Somehow they were loose enough for the gaskets to sort of bunch up in several locations. I have never seen anything like it. I did not use a torque wrench. I tightened them down by feel based on experience. I suggested that he retighten them to feel good and tight after several heat/cool cycles. He is a bit older than I am and bought the car at an auction and I don't think he had ever done any work on it at all. I don't think that whoever worked on the car last tightened them as tight as they should have been, and apparently it was a short time before the auction so they were never retightened after the car was run.

 

[chistech]

I would recommend having the manifold checked for straightness and resurfaced if it needs it. I do it will all the engines in any car I restore. Wait, not all. I forgot to do my own Olds manifold and sure enough, when I started the motor up it started leaking. My manifold was warped significantly so it was off to the machine shop to be resurfaced. No more issues with the gaskets and leaking.

[MCHinson]

1 minute ago, chistech said:

I would recommend having the manifold checked for straightness and resurfaced if it needs it. I do it will all the engines in any car I restore. Wait, not all. I forgot to do my own Olds manifold and sure enough, when I started the motor up it started leaking. My manifold was warped significantly so it was off to the machine shop to be resurfaced. No more issues with the gaskets and leaking.

 

I don't think there is a problem with the manifold. Everything seemed to line up with it well. It was a weird situation where I think someone just did not tighten it down properly and the guy who owned the car never did any work on the car after buying it at auction as a fresh restoration. 

[chistech]

I kinda of said what I meant incorrectly. What I meant about having it checked was to just put a straight edge on it to check it. I really mentioned it so Gary could check his before he actually needs to run his car. I've seen plenty of six cylinder manifolds with doubled gaskets because of them being warped enough that they leaked with just one set of gaskets.  Doubling the gaskets was a quick fix when getting the manifold planed is a pretty quick, inexpensive, and the correct way to fix a warped manifold with a leaking gasket. 

[MCHinson]

After a significant delay, I can report a little bit of progress on the 1938 Buick project. After many failed attempts, I think I have finally found a local paint and body man who I trust to do the sheet metal work and paint that I decided I did not want to tackle. A friend says he is the best paint and body man in the area. He actually showed up to look at the project to give me an estimate. Yesterday I stopped by his shop and we are making plans for him to do the work. While the day to day collision work will take priority, he thinks he can finish it within a year. Since I need all of the remaining glass out of the car before he gets it, I decided to cut out the glass today. I did not take too many photos but the front window glass can easily be removed by removing the window channel and simply raising the window all the way and working the glass mounting piece out of the window assembly. The back door windows were a bit harder to get out, but the process is the same. I then used a razor knife to cut the window rubber and removed the glass from the back windows and then did the same on the windshield. I did take a few photos while working on the windshield. It will be a little while before he can get started on the car, but I wanted to at least do something on the project since it looks like it will be back on track shortly. It is sort of nice having all of the glass out and added to the parts pile. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by MCHinson (see edit history)

[GARY F]

Gee, I thought you forgot about us.

[MCHinson]

No, I did not forget, I just had some medical issues, some other priorities that came up, and increased business that bumped the project onto the back burner. Other than that, finding a paint and body guy took a lot longer than I had hoped. I have spent months trying to find the right guy to do this job. 

[chistech]

I can tell you Matt, a good paint and body guy is really not that hard to find. Getting one of those good guys to actually work on our old cars, get the job done in a fair/reasonable amount of time, and not charge you your first born is another thing altogether. I went through the same issue. A good friend and incredible body/paint guy, who painted my 83’ Blazer, my 31’ Chevy, and three customers cars basically told me last year that it would take him over a year just to even start my Olds. It took him 6-7months, with me doing all masking, wet sanding, stripping of masking, masking again, and stenciling for him just to get my wheels done. In that time he gave me less that 25hrs. Because he told me he couldn’t get to my Olds, I pulled it from his shop, brought it home, and set up a body shop in my own garage. I did what I could and found an old friend of my brothers that turned out to be a good body and paint guy plus he was looking for unique side work. Now I’m getting my Olds painted as I speak. I didn’t even mention that I also went by 5 reputable paint shops in my area who didn’t even want to touch it. Between the paint/body guys and Lebarron Bonney going out, it’s really put a quabosh on my little hobby helping others get their old cars back on the road.

[MCHinson]

I spent a lot of time searching to find this paint and body guy. I still don't have him working on mine yet, but I am encouraged that he has another antique car in his shop that he is actually working on currently. As soon as he finishes that one, he is supposed to get started on mine. Hopefully it will work out for me. 

[MCHinson]

Well it has been three months since I heard from the first paint and body guy that I was attempting to use for this project. I was recently introduced to another local guy who runs a shop doing more customized cars than original, but who clearly has the metal repair and paint skills to do this job. He seems to run a very professional shop. His system is to take a deposit to get put on the schedule. We agreed on a price that is much better than the last guy's price and today, I have paid the deposit. The car is on the schedule and I will drop it off with him on November 22nd. I should have it back in late January. Now I need to get serious about chrome and rubber parts for final assembly.  

Edited August 26, 2019 by MCHinson (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

Recently I got an email from my metal worker/painter who told me that he was running a day behind schedule and would like to reschedule the drop off from Friday, November 22nd to Monday, November 25, 2019. Yesterday, I moved the 1938 Buick Century around on the wheel dollies so that I could prepare to back the car out of the garage. I jacked it up and removed the wheel dollies. I had planned to back it out of the garage and then back it into the garage to make it easy to pull out and onto the trailer this morning. When I attempted to start it, I discovered that in the many months since I had last run it, the battery had died. My only 6 volt charger is a small 2 amp trickle charger, so I put that on it and left it charging overnight. This morning, the battery was not charged quite enough to start the car, so I used jumper cable and my 1937 Buick Century battery to start the car. My friend and I loaded the car onto the trailer and while he strapped it down, I loaded the fenders and hood side panels into the truck. We dropped the car and other sheet metal parts off at his shop late this morning. I left the charger with him so he can attempt to charge the battery for a couple of days to see if it comes back, or if I need to take it back for a replacement. I was busy with other stuff for most of the day and have a funeral to attend tomorrow, so hopefully in the next few days I will find the time to clean up the garage and go through all of the various chrome parts to figure out what will be the best parts to send out for chrome or if I can purchase replacement parts that have already been rechromed more economically. 

Edited November 26, 2019 by MCHinson (see edit history)

[STEVE POLLARD]

Looks nice Matt !

 

Steve

[39BuickEight]

This all sounds about like my paint guy I used last year.  He did my car between collision repairs, and took about 5 months total, but also charged accordingly (gave me a deal) since I wasn’t on the “schedule.”  I paid nothing up front, and he even transported it back and forth for me.  He picked up the body shell, returned it done for $1750 and picked up the doors and panels.  After he returned the panels and doors, I paid him an additional $1500 and then put it all together.  Lastly, he picked up the whole car that I reassembled, and he buffed it all together and blended a couple of spots.  I could have paid much more and had it back in a month.  People who don’t restore cars have no idea what it takes in terms of organization and communication to get one done, even when you are doing most all of it yourself.

[MCHinson]

The guy who is doing my metal work and paint only does antique cars, no modern collision repair at all. The majority of his work is highly customized stuff, but he was excited about doing work on a stock restoration for a change. I should have taken some photos of some of the other vehicles at his shop, but none of them are really appropriate for this forum. He is very talented, very busy, and while not cheap, his quote is actually less than the previous guy who claimed he would do it who I have not heard back from in over 6 months. The other guy who was supposed to call me when he was ready for me to bring it to him does modern collision work as well.