1936 Buick 90L Akron-Canton craigslist

[Oregon Desert model 45]

NOT MINE

 

 

 1936 buick limo - $7500 (Massillon)

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/cto/d/1936-buick-limo/6453744242.html

 

True barn find. Gangster car...1936 buick. Series 90 limo...99%complete. Straight 8..3 speed..runs and drives. Very solid..easy to restore... Has jump seats..duel side mounts...glass partition between front and back seat. Missing water pump and hood ornament..3302800926

 

 

[Matt Harwood]

"Gangster car."

 

*PUNCH*

[Bloo]

There's gonna be a lot of wood in a 36.

[Bloo]

FIsher had a fix (diagonal bar) for sag if that is all it is. There is a description of what to do in the 1936 fisher body manual. The rub is, the wood would have to be intact. The 2 back doors on my 1936 Pontiac are floppy. It is because there is very little wood left in there. We have a member or three here who can help with wood, but they are thousands of miles from me. Iowa would be closer but probably not close enough. I would sure want to see inside the doors.

[MCHinson]

If it had good wood, that would be a neat car to have. It is probably missing the air cleaner since it has the wrong carburetor. The right carburetor and air cleaner is not going to be fun for someone to try to find. I have a friend who is restoring one here locally.  I am not a woodworker. I would be scared to have a car with that much wood. 

[KongaMan]

1 hour ago, Matt Harwood said:

"Gangster car."

 

*PUNCH*

From Massillon, it might not be wholly inaccurate.  Columbia Heights was known as "Little Chicago" back when this car was new.

 

Not sure how it runs and drives without a water pump, though.

[Dynaflash8]

It looked like maybe the door striker plate was missing.  The wood, I've been told, commonly went bad in the center post and would not hold the striker plate screws.

[MrEarl]

Wow, what a survivor. Runs and drives he says. Needs water pump he says.  If I bought it I'd fix the water pump, get good brakes on her, clean her up a bit and show the hell out of her. But tha's just me, tha's the way I like 'em. 

[JoelsBuicks]

Very tempting, I have one of these, a Series 90 with the jump seats but not a formal sedan.  I’ll be starting on the wood replacement in the near future and my experience with rewooding is that the lions share of the work is in setting up the many cuts.  The actual cutting happens quickly and making two sets could be done  much easier.  

 

It would be a bid gamble to buy this car thinking that the wood may still be good.  I have seen some wood in amazingly good shape but for the most part, the wood has seriously deteriorated or completely rotted.  And, this can even happen in places where you’d think the wood was most protected.  My opinion only is that wood species used, which were several, has a lot to do with longevity. 

 

What a fine ride this this would make!

[Bloo]

24 minutes ago, JoelsBuicks said:

Very tempting, I have one of these, a Series 90 with the jump seats but not a formal sedan.  I’ll be starting on the wood replacement in the near future and my experience with rewooding is that the lions share of the work is in setting up the many cuts.  The actual cutting happens quickly and making two sets could be done  much easier.  

 

Please post about this when you do it! We could use more wood threads around here. Also, patterns are scarce. If the wood in that car isn't good enough to pattern from, its going to be a huge headache for the new owner. I have been trying to reverse-engineer my Pontiac doors with a lot of Internet research, and information is extremely scarce. I have, I believe mostly figured out how Fisher did it, and have begun to make some of the missing parts. I would sure love to see inside more 1936 Fisher doors.

 

I would also be interested in what species you find in there. There wasn't much of mine left, but it appears it could have been Beech. Some parts might be Ash. I am using White Ash for the pieces I am attempting to make.

[JoelsBuicks]

Bloo, you can search under Me and My Buick and find my old thread for rewooding my 1931 8-67.  That car had many pieces completely gone and you are correct that it does present quite a challenge to make and fit new wood.  Even the most rotten wood will provide useful “forensic” information.  I discuss how I make patterns in that thread and it is applicable to the ‘36 as well.

 

In short, rewooding involves placing new wood ‘into’ metal frames whereas the original build was to place sheet metal ‘onto’  pre-made wood structures.  So joining corners and cross pieces is done differently and of course the assembly can be tricky, especially on doors.  When I rewooded my 36 Roadmaster, I built a cradle to hold the door skin straight so that I wouldn’t build a twist into it.

 

My wood of choice is white oak and cypress because both have great rot resistance.  Pieces that demand high strength get white oak and the other is cypress.

 

I have used Ash for other projects and have sawed a lot of it on my mill.  I can’t seem to control the powder post beetle infestation, even on pieces that have been varnished.  Ash machines very well and is strong but I’m not going to take the chance.  Just today I was building some door jambs out of ash that I had and it was well worm eaten - almost unusable.

 

I’ll share info when I get to that project.

 

thanks,

Joe

[RivNut]

9 hours ago, MrEarl said:

Wow, what a survivor. Runs and drives he says. Needs water pump he says.  If I bought it I'd fix the water pump, get good brakes on her, clean her up a bit and show the hell out of her. But tha's just me, tha's the way I like 'em. 

 

[KongaMan]

This car is within spitting distance of the ancestral manse, so I gave him a call.  The seller bought it from an estate sale about a month ago.  The missing water pump was hanging from a nail in the garage and he forgot to grab it when he loaded the car onto the trailer.  It starts easily and runs smoothly, but he's disconnected the main wire from the fuse block and installed a 12V battery for the starter.  Floors and running boards are solid.  Rear doors are fine, driver's door sags a little, front passenger door droops about 1".  Leather upholstery and door panels in the front, cloth upholstery in the rear.  There's a roll-up window behind the driver's seat, and a speaker mounted in the ceiling (presumably for an intercom system).  No mention of a video system or subwoofer.

[C Carl]

Think of the heavy door as a parallelogram , or two stacked parallelograms. They exert a significant cantilever load , a foot/pound moment , (the weight of the entire door times the distance of its vertical center of gravity from the hinges) , upon the hinges. The framing , when sound , resists the displacement of the parallelograms , but when compromised allows the displacement of the vertical sides of the parallelogram with respect to each other. Even if the doors were heavily cross braced , the rigidity would still depend on the structural integrity of the bracing. It doesn't take much sag to cause misalignment. (Hmmmm ......... , I wonder if my mere words convey this properly. I think so , but drawing it would be better).     - Carl 

[Dynaflash8]

23 hours ago, KongaMan said:

This car is within spitting distance of the ancestral manse, so I gave him a call.  The seller bought it from an estate sale about a month ago.  The missing water pump was hanging from a nail in the garage and he forgot to grab it when he loaded the car onto the trailer.  It starts easily and runs smoothly, but he's disconnected the main wire from the fuse block and installed a 12V battery for the starter.  Floors and running boards are solid.  Rear doors are fine, driver's door sags a little, front passenger door droops about 1".  Leather upholstery and door panels in the front, cloth upholstery in the rear.  There's a roll-up window behind the driver's seat, and a speaker mounted in the ceiling (presumably for an intercom system).  No mention of a video system or subwoofer.

If it is a big round speaker in the headliner between the windshields, it simply the radio speaker.  That was available in/on a 1936 Buick.  I've seen one in a junkyard.  I think it is their best radio. The water pump is available from CARS, iNC. in NJ.  They are brand new and I guess CARS has had them made.  The same water pump fits 1936-1949 320cid cars.  I just bought one.  I have a leaking core if you would prefer.

Edited February 1, 2018 by Dynaflash8 (see edit history)

[JoelsBuicks]

Jake, I do still have the 36 Roadmaster and two other 36 Roadmaster as well.  I rewooded one of them a few years ago and I need to finish a couple cars before I start on them.  I have ‘36 and ‘37 Series 90 and these bodies are the same.  I plan to make at least three sets of wood for the Roadmasters and three for the 90’s. Someone will be able to use it.  It might help fund a chrome job or some interior work.  I have a 36 Series 60 Coupe and I may make two or three sets for it and may also do this for my Series 40.  My new shop will enable me to expand the woodworking area in my wood shop which is cluttered now with three cars.

 

As far as the sagging doors goes, Carl explained it pretty well.  That wooden parallelogram that Carl talks about has joints that were once glued and screwed.  Even if the wood is not rotten, the glue has broken down and the screws are loose.  The door doesn’t necessarily sag as much as it twists; usually coming out at the bottom and in at the top.  This gives every appearance of sagging.  The rear doors likewise twist out at the bottom.  They also are attached to wooden hinge posts (unlike the front door hinges) and this rear hinge post has a lower joint that weakens and moves outward.

 

The ‘36 wood is far more complicated than the ‘31, even though the ‘31 has more wood.  There are multiple tapered pieces and many compound curves.  The joints are tricky and assembly really benefits from “dress rehearsals”.  They didn’t build these cars thinking that someday someone would put in new wood.