1938 Special Not Mine

[dibarlaw 993]

At our June 30th Mason-Dixon Car show at the Hershey Museum this 1938-41 showed up. The owner had a request to have it shown as for sale and the fellow had a small selection of misc.parts for sale. The engine may not be original as it had a dual carb set up.

Shabby paint but very nice chrome.

 

  Interior and headliner looked original and in good condition.

[wndsofchng06 2,187]

Looks like a nice deal

[auburnseeker 1,452]

If that's the original wheel,  it spent a lot of it's life inside as it's in beautiful shape.  Which means the rest of the plastic and possibly interior wood graining should be in nice shape.  I've seen alot worse for the same or more money. 

[auburnseeker 1,452]

I tried buying one of these a couple of years ago in a basement,  that had been restored in the 7o's.  It wasn't in bad shape but had a little metal work done when they restored it.  Didn't look this good and hadn't been moved in 25 years sitting on 4 flat tires.  I would have given them 5500 at the time or maybe a tad more.  They wanted 10G.  I think it eventually sold for around what I was willing to give them though they never called me back.  I didn't make the offer at that time,  I told them to clean it  out and get it out of the corner so I could see the rest of it.  They never called me back for it or any of the other cars that I havd the same request as they were all overpriced by 2 to 3 times what they were worth and eventually sold for.  Ironically they called me back 2 years later to buy the parts.  In the end I can't complain as I did better selling the parts than I would have selling the cars and alot less work to get them out the door as I would have gotten all the cars roadworthy if I sold them. 

In fact I still have a load of parts to go back for but the seller keeps having joint replacements,  so we haven't connected on them yet.  I think the last one was the last joint so we should be good to go once he recovers. 

[suchan 58]

Steering wheel and graining look good and original. Too bad the abominable snowman's on the front seat so you can't see more of the upholstery, but what I can see looks good. And a dual carb setup? Somebody should get after it!

[MrEarl 5,869]

@dibarlaw re shabby paint, I take that to mean a poorly done repaint?  If so were the door jambs and inner trunk etc painted or. Or is it original and just in poor condition. Did you happen to see any rust. What was the condition of the interior?Tears, exposed cushion material? 

[BuicksBuicks 52]

I keep looking at the rear windows. Have they "milked"?  They are easy to replace so its nothing to loose sleep over.

[auburnseeker 1,452]

Only about 80 percent of them.  You still have good visibility out of the other 20 Percent.  Just pretend it's chopped,  it would be the same looking out the back lites then. 

[dibarlaw 993]

On ‎7‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 5:57 PM, MrEarl said:

@dibarlaw re shabby paint, I take that to mean a poorly done repaint?  If so were the door jambs and inner trunk etc painted or. Or is it original and just in poor condition. Did you happen to see any rust. What was the condition of the interior?Tears, exposed cushion material? 

Lamar:

It did look like a repaint to me. I did not investigate too deeply on the door jambs and such. As chapter director I was busy with taking care of things with the car show. But from what I saw the upholstery looked original and was very nice. Including the headliner and door panels. The wheels did not look correct to me as the 38 hubcaps sat in a larger recess of the wheel. Looked like it would be a great driver.

 Larry

[MrEarl 5,869]

On 7/4/2018 at 4:50 PM, dibarlaw said:

Lamar:

It did look like a repaint to me. I did not investigate too deeply on the door jambs and such. As chapter director I was busy with taking care of things with the car show. But from what I saw the upholstery looked original and was very nice. Including the headliner and door panels. The wheels did not look correct to me as the 38 hubcaps sat in a larger recess of the wheel. Looked like it would be a great driver.

 Larry

 

I was considering looking at this car if still there in October Hershey but looks like the seller is pretty intent on moving it. We will see....

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1938-Buick-Other-special/253756431991?hash=item3b150fde77%3Ag%3AZ4gAAOSwE2tbTMel&_nkw=1938+buick+-fits&rt=nc

 

[MrEarl 5,869]

finally found the video.

 

 

 

 

 

made an offer, we will see

[auburnseeker 1,452]

Looks like a good car. I was going to post the link yesterday when I saw it but couldn't find this thread again.   Will look great at Buick gardens in front of the Dealership if you get it. 

[60FlatTop 3,805]

Oh, its a barn find. I was looking for a survivor.

 

We were talking about old cars at the Diner this morning. Those guys know their stuff.

 

That's Numbers Matching (our bookie, used to be barber) sitting on the stool. And Potatoes Browning doing the cooking.

[dibarlaw 993]

Here is another photo of the car at our show.

 

[auburnseeker 1,452]

I think they just dropped the buy it now another 500 Mr Earl.  It's calling your name. 

Edited July 18, 2018 by auburnseeker (see edit history)

[RivNut 2,280]

5 hours ago, dibarlaw said:

Here is another photo of the car at our show.

 

Looks like the paint is okay except for where someone used the wrong color trying to do some touch ups. I don't remember my dad's  38 sounding quite like what I heard in the video. ?

[39BuickEight 480]

It does sound a little odd.  Maybe the valves need to be adjusted?  Before he opened the hood it sounded like a flock of birds were flying around in there.

[MCHinson 2,360]

I think that a simple valve adjustment would solve the engine noise problem. While my experience is with 320 engines in Centurys, Recording of these engines usually sound horrible if the valves are not adjusted correctly. I have listened to one in person and then listened to a recording of the same engine and for some reason, it seemed to sound a lot worse in the recording than it did in person. 

[Joe Cocuzza 95]

That engine noise sounded more like a knock than just a valve train sound. Yes you can hear the valves clearly but the knocking is also evident.

Also, there was an awful lot of blue smoke coming from the tailpipe when the engine was revved.

The one carb - the one closest to the firewall - looked like it was leaking badly, too.

 

[MrEarl 5,869]

9 hours ago, MCHinson said:

I think that a simple valve adjustment would solve the engine noise problem. While my experience is with 320 engines in Centurys, Recording of these engines usually sound horrible if the valves are not adjusted correctly. I have listened to one in person and then listened to a recording of the same engine and for some reason, it seemed to sound a lot worse in the recording than it did in person. 

 

What Matt said. 

 

Btw, my “low ball” offfer was declined. ??

[suchan 58]

I heard the knocking as well. Seller should've taken MrEarl's "lowball" offer. The buyer is going to spend some money, maybe a lot, to get that engine back to good health. The rattlecan touchup job doesn't help.

[RivNut 2,280]

Perhaps that extra 401 and ST400 I have would take care of the knocks and smoke.

[suchan 58]

BIN price is down to $7K with 3 days left. I smell a $5K-ish sales price. It's already got the dual carb setup; as long as the motor needs getting into anyway, make it a hot rod!