1940 76C Reconstruct

[kgreen]

Grille paint:  The flat black block out areas on the grill were painted.  After looking at dozens or more photographs, I was amazed at the variations in restored models for what was painted and what was not painted.  With the help of vintage photographs, I'm rather sure the correct areas of the grill were painted.  The grills are now fitted on the car:

 

The hood latches are installed, check the uniform clearances between the hood, the grill and the fender:

 

Now on to the back of the car, the interior of the wheel shields and rear fenders were painted black.

 

[JohnD1956]

Awesome Ken. 

[kgreen]

Wheels completed.  Research indicated that the outward face of the wheels were body color (or Dante red if elected) and the inner face of the wheel was black. 

I might have to mount the tires myself to keep the gorillas at the tire store from messing these up.  I've not bought tires yet since I don't want the tires to be old by the time I get the car on the road.

 

My guide for the pin stripes is from the 36-38 Buick club publication Torque Tube:

 

Is Hugh Patterson still with us?

 

[usnavystgc]

Those rims look so nice.  Great job.

[EmTee]

Wheels look great!  If you go to a reputable tire shop they should have a tire machine with an arm that doesn't touch the front of the wheel.  If they can do a set of polished 22s they should be able to handle your 80 year-old steelies.  When I had my new tires mounted on my '38 a month or so ago they performed a static balance with their balancing machine so that there are no weights applied to the outer bead (and therefore no paint scrapes).  They used stick-on weights on the backside of the wheel, so they're hard to see even from behind.  The downside is it's not as accurate as dynamic balance, however, mine feel fine - no bumps or shakes.

 

How did you apply your stripes?  Were they masked/sprayed, pinstripe brush, other...?

Edited June 22, 2022 by EmTee (see edit history)

[kgreen]

2 hours ago, EmTee said:

How did you apply your stripes?  Were they masked/sprayed, pinstripe brush, other...?

Pinstripe brush, but not by me.  Rather a pinstriper who knew how to do what he did.  The guy is located in the UP of MI so he is not too accessible.

[kgreen]

A bit more progress, dealing with a missing part from the plater but have a spare to send out.  Another odd thing about this car is that for a production car, two identical cars have slightly different parts.  Sure, one answer could be that a couple parts got switched out years ago, but the different parts are not the type of part that ever gets lost or removed for service or accident.  The result is that I have replated parts that I can't use.  

 

The top is installed, adjusted and operable.  In a couple locations, Dan re-created rivets with stainless bolts turned on the lathe to make them appear to be rivets.

 

The rear fenders and deck lid are polished and buffed.  Aside from body prep, that task is one of the most tedious.

 

 

[neil morse]

That is looking so good, Ken!  Your attention to detail is remarkable.  Can't wait to see the finished product!

[kingrudy]

Absolutely gorgeous in every detail. You have the patients of a saint. I agree with Neil, can't wait to see the finished product.  

[kgreen]

Suspension work - torsion bars also known as stabilizer bars.  I'm not sure if the reference to these pieces are regional or possibly one is not as correct as the other.  These bars work in torsion to resist roll, thus I see a name based on function.  Steele Rubber refers to these parts as stabilizer bars.  None the less, I replaced the rubber on both front and rear stabilizer bars using rubber parts available from Steel.  This post is about difficult to replace bushings that aren’t routinely available. 

 

Rear bushing p/n: 50-0171-34, the housing rivet was drilled out, the bushing split on the rear horizontal, slipped over the bar, then the housing was re-riveted as shown below.

 

 

The front stabilizer bar was not advertised as available for this car.  A quick phone call to Steel with the help of a very customer-oriented parts clerk helped me find a bushing to match these specs: 2-inch width, OD 1.4375 to 1.5, bar diameter max at 0.674 inches.  The 1938 Cadillac, p/n 70-0717-33,  had the closest size with the inner hole diameter off by 1/16th-inch.  The exterior shape of the original bushing was round, and the Cadillac was flat-sided.  It also had a groove cut around the circumference that allowed the installation of two pins inside the clamp housing to prevent the bushing from drifting out of the housing. It fits like a glove even with that shape as shown below.  Same process as the rear stabilizer, split the bushing on the horizontal, then open the housing enough to shove the new bushing into place. 

 

T

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by kgreen (see edit history)

[kgreen]

The greatest news for this Buick since the day the dealer passed the keys to its' new owner in the spring of 1940 is that the body and paint is complete and that the car will be in my hands this Friday.  I'm meeting Dan at the Shades of the Past car show (https://www.pigeonforge.com/shades-of-the-past/) in Pigeon Forge, TN this Friday.  This has been a long process, I first delivered the car to Dan in July of 2017.  Dan and his sons are incredible metal workers which was their primary focus on this car.  Dan didn't work on this car exclusively or even full time in all these years, but would use it as fill in work where his other clients left him breaks in his schedule.  Here's the car, partially assembled, loaded and by now on the road.

 

One of my plans for Dan's work has been that once he aligns body panels, the panels would not be removed from the car.  For that reason, I delivered a partially assembled rebuilt/remachined engine and a cleaned and tested radiator so that Dan install those parts before his final body alignment work.  The toss up was leaning over the freshly painted fenders to install remaining engine components or handle the front clip with removal and reassembly, risking damage and difficult re-alignment.  I may yet have to remove the hood though.  

 

I still have a huge list of tasks to complete; brakes, wiring, steering, suspension, dash assembly, engine accessories to name a few.  It has been so long since I had my hands on this car, that I'm not even positive that I have all the parts I need to finish the work.  None the less, I am so looking forward to getting this car back in my garage!

 

For comparison, it took the two cars shown below, plus a chassis from another Roadmaster to get to this point.

 

 

[Grant Z]

On 4/7/2020 at 2:01 AM, kgreen said:

Skip Boyer did amazing work reproducing the engine turned pattern on the dash panels.  Alternate rows are offset by one radius and the slope of the pattern runs across the dash and lines up with the radio grill.  Skip did this work on polished steel as where the originals.  Here they are with clear coat applied.

 

Hi, those engine-turned panels sure do look amazing, along with the rest of the car.

 

I've emailed Skip twice over several weeks regarding doing my 1941 panels, and have had no response. I sure would like my dash to have those panels like yours. It would then probably be the only RHD 1941 Buick with engine-turned panels (I'm in Australia).

 

[Buicknutty]

 Awesome progress, and you must be excited!

Keith

[kgreen]

I’m at a car show in Pigeon Forge where Dan and I swapped the car from his trailer to mine this morning. I woke up this morning feeling like a five year old on Christmas morning.  The car looks absolutely amazing. I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to take photos. 
 

I’ll carry it home this Sunday and have a version of a gender reveal party next Sunday at the house. I’ll have a couple folks over for what I’ll call a trailer reveal. I’ll need the help pushing it into the garage when it’s offloaded from the trailer. 

[2carb40]

Congrats Ken? Can't wait for photos of progress!

[kgreen]

10 hours ago, 2carb40 said:

Congrats Ken? Can't wait for photos of progress!

You're invited!  How do you like your burger?

[2carb40]

Sadly, I will be absent, but sure would like a couple photos.

[kgreen]

The Fender Reveal yielded one overriding question:  why a 1940 Buick, why that car?  The answer is because that year Buick was my first car and I loved that car.  I spent all my high school summers working on that car, oftentimes well into the night; swatting moths out of my trouble light, smelling old grease and unfortunately sucking in noxious welding and sanding fumes.  The fact that Buick could only sell 600 of them attests to the lack of general appeal for this car, but definitely to my appeal.  This time around I thought it would be fun to go Roadmaster over Special, and I've always liked convertibles.  The other significant question has an answer well beyond that make or any other make.  The Fender Reveal provided an outstanding opportunity to gather with friends and talk about anything and everything.  This is the real investment.

 

It started like this (That's Lamar from this forum on the right an JD, a local Buick chapter member on the left).  The car has no brakes, no means of shifting so it stayed in neutral and no steering gearbox.  I had connected the tie rod ends with a length of angle.  Here we are pushing the car out of the trailer:

 

Had to make a tight turn to aim the back end into the garage:

 

The color does not photograph well, the car is not fire engine red but a deep maroon.  When I held an original color chip up to the car, this color is not very far off from the original color after aging 80 plus years.

 

Now that the car was out in the sunlight, I could have a closer look at the excellent work that Dan Kemp did on the metal and paint.  This is also a great time to figure out my next steps in putting this thing back together.

 

 

[kgreen]

Here we are tucked into the garage.  I say tucked, but this garage has twice the space of my previous house.  The Roadmaster wouldn't have fit into my previous garage unless I took one of the bumpers off.  We just moved into this house in June of this year and the upstairs garage is all mine, mine, mine.  Here's part of the Reveal crew, Bruce Kile (middle), President of this chapter and long time, huge supporter of the both this and the national organization.  If you've attended National Meets, you would have met Bruce and his wife Shar as the usually manage the hospitality suite and Lamar aka Mr Earl of the Buick Sales and Service fame on the right.

 

  

 

Lamar brought a bowl of Scuppernong, a famous southern treat (https://www.southernliving.com/garden/plants/scuppernong) to compliment the BBQ meal.

 

 

Yes, I have the gravel pans for the engine bay!

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by kgreen (see edit history)

[kgreen]

 

I had a display of Buick literature for the car including the Buick Facts for 1940 that I picked up at Hershey last fall.

 

No interior:

 

and no trunk shelving or liner

[kgreen]

 

Parts, parts and more parts:

 

Dashboard mock up:

 

Wheel mock up

 

And a part from a swine

[kgreen]

This is the hobby, no matter what the car is; make and year aside.  Guys accumulated in the garage,

The women folk mostly stayed out of the garage

 

It was a great gathering, I wish others of you all reading this could have been there.

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2022 by kgreen (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

Gorgeous, Ken!

[JohnD1956]

What a party!  Fantastic gathering and wonderful car!

[neil morse]

22 hours ago, kgreen said:

It was a great gathering, I wish others of you all reading this could have been there.

 

And you can be sure that we share that wish!  What a great party, and the car looks spectacular!

[kingrudy]

The skirts look absolutely beautiful on this car, I got a pair from Matt Harwood and will put them on in the spring. Beautiful car Ken. 

[kgreen]

Very slow progress with holidays, visits, football season and still organizing the garage after the move this past June.  Read organizing as finding.  I've had to sort several boxes even though labeled to find the rest of this car.  Aside from body panels, I believe I have parts for three cars in the garage.  The first thing finished is the carb rebuild.  Purchased the kit from Jon aka Carbking.

 

Here's the carb before starting:

 

 

 

 

Here we are finished and ready to install:

 

 

 

I picked up an NOS vacuum switch (not shown) two summers ago.  Not sure if the old one is bad or not, but it has filthy contacts so it would take a bit of work to make whole.

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by kgreen
Neal's incessant sense of humor ; ) (see edit history)

[billbuickgs]

WOW !!!!  ,

Beautifull , Just like a fine wine  or a expensive one off painting .

Hope see the beauty one day in person .

Bill

[neil morse]

Looking good, Ken.  From the orientation of your photos, I see that you have the rare side draft carb! 😜  When's the first start-up likely to happen?

[kgreen]

21 hours ago, neil morse said:

Looking good, Ken.  From the orientation of your photos, I see that you have the rare side draft carb! 😜  When's the first start-up likely to happen?

Knocking out the generator and the starter this weekend.  I'm sending the water pump out for rebuild and see that many people on this forum use O&G or Gould.  Egge will also rebuild, but they are way across the country which increases shipping cost.  Next up is the gas tank.  Matt Harwood strongly recommends the guys at ReNu but there isn't a shop nearby Atlanta for that process.  The local radiator shop says they do tank coatings as well; still evaluating that they would be useful to me.

 

You said "rare" side draft carb?  I'm not aware that it was rare as that is all I've seen on the 1940 320 cars that I've had.

Start up date?  Let's plan on May

Edited January 17, 2023 by kgreen (see edit history)

[JohnD1956]

1 hour ago, kgreen said:

You said "rare" side draft carb?

I think he was refering to the picts being sideways.  Sorta like when picts are upside down reference is made to the poster being down under  the equator. 😄

[neil morse]

33 minutes ago, JohnD1956 said:

I think he was refering to the picts being sideways.

Yes, just my attempt at humor that I'm afraid went right over Ken's head!

 

Ken, on the gas tank, I also wanted to use ReNu but had the same problem of no local shop.  I got a good referral to a radiator shop that offered the same service.  It's not rocket science.  As the guy at the shop told me, the key to applying a good coating is that "nothing sticks to rust."  So they open a few holes in the tank and thoroughly sand blast the inside to eliminate all the rust, then weld it back together and apply plastic coating to the interior.  I think the ReNu process is essentially the same.  It wasn't particularly expensive and I thought it was worth it for the peace of mind.  Have you looked at the inside of your tank?  I found it was pretty easy to use my smart phone camera to take some pics through the hole for the fuel pipe/gauge sending unit.  My tank had a lot of rust on the inside so I went ahead and had it coated.

[sebastienbuick]

Superb work, beautiful Buick, and it looked like a very good day !  

[JohnD1956]

I had the gas tank renu process done on Annie ( my 56 Super)  back around 2000 or so. Still looks good and haven't had any issues. Well worth the cost which was around 400 or so at that time. 

[kgreen]

8 hours ago, neil morse said:

Yes, just my attempt at humor that I'm afraid went right over Ken's head!

 

Oh yeah!  Darn photos loaded that way.  I've researched this issue as others have noted a problem with sideways posts.  I've rotated the photos in my file and reload them and they still come up off center.  I gave up.

 

I'm on the track of a radiator shop now, thanks for the idea.

[neil morse]

No problem! 😄

 

[kgreen]

No sense of humor and no ability to post photos properly - that's it, I'm done.  I'm now looking for a stamp collection in trade for my partially complete car.  Willing to take 100 unmounted stamps from various countries packed in an orange drawstring bag (remember those?).  I'm particularly interested in older stamps with a face value of less than $2.00.

[kgreen]

Under hood stuff this past couple of weekends to rebuild the distributor (many thanks to @GaryW) the generator and starter.  Like Gary's distributor, my shaft was in great shape and I did not need to replace the bushings.  The upper edge of the distributor where the vacuum advance BB's ride was undamaged.  I've have also included an extra set of points and a handful of condensers in the "go bag" for possible future use when driving.

 

The generator and starter were next.  I did two generators; one for the go-bag.  The generators were cleaned up and received a new bushing, brushes and bearing.  The starter also got new bushings and brushes.  I did not rebuild a second starter motor as it not likely to fail and weighs the same as an extra passenger.  I did pack an additional rebuilt solenoid though.

 

I did figure out a trick for loading the spring loaded brushes by pulling the brushes back with a string that I later cut off and pulled out of the generator.  The starter was a much easier deal.  

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by kgreen (see edit history)

[Grant Z]

On 8/30/2018 at 11:55 PM, kgreen said:

I've traded with Anderson for several parts for my '40.  He owns a beautiful '41, in which I had a wonderful ride in the Charlotte, NC suburbs.  It's hard to concentrate on good photographs when you are excited and want to see everything.  Here's a partial shot of his car:

 

Anderson also had a super rare part that I was missing, which he was gracious enough to sell for my use.  It is the correct vacuum switch and knob for the convertible top operation:

 

Hi Ken,

Would your friend Anderson be willing to converse with me - especially since he has a 1941 76C in Lancaster Gray which is the original color of my 1941 76C? Also, I'm led to believe there are only around 50-60 of the 1941 76Cs believed to be still in existence.

Regards

Grant Zippel

Edited February 10, 2023 by Grant Z (see edit history)

[kgreen]

Easy introduction, I'll PM the both of you.  In the meantime, here's his forum thread: