Scott Farrington Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 Today is the day she sees light again. Been tucked into a barn for approximately 10+ years as the former owner slowly lost the ability to work on it. Took the four flat tires off and filled them with enough Slime to make 'em solid! Got them aired up and onto the car this morning. Now I had to push it up onto the trailer for the short journey home. Took an hour, but handled great on the come along! No body roll at all! In the light I see the work ahead of me... she needs everything. However, this is why we do this. I'll post more photos later 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 25, 2018 Share Posted August 25, 2018 (edited) They always seem to need less work than they really do when someone else owns them, As soon as you take possession, the list grows significantly. Getting ready to replace the what looks like a new throwout bearing in the restored 40 Ford coupe I bought. Never saw or heard that when I tested the car out before I bought it. Less than a 1/2 mile on it around the yard and it's howling. Like your buick any tranny work involves pulling the rear end or the engine. Have fun. You can't beat a conv't. Edited August 26, 2018 by auburnseeker (see edit history) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted August 26, 2018 Author Share Posted August 26, 2018 As I was mowing the lawn this afternoon I kept telling myself "I can have that interior out by 9 a.m. tomorrow if I'm careful. " Already have 10 lists in my head on this thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 I know I have learned one thing. Whatever I estimate for time to do something. Double it, then add a little more cushion. It's better to come out ahead of schedule than behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 34 minutes ago, auburnseeker said: Whatever I estimate for time to do something. Double it, then add a little more cushion. Grimy's Law of How Long Projects Take: * Figure out how long it SHOULD take (e.g. 2 hrs) * Double the digit (4) * Move to the next higher increment of time (day) * Therefore, a project which SHOULD take 2 hrs will actually take 4 days. You'll never be wrong, but occasionally will get lucky. 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 25 minutes ago, Grimy said: * Therefore, a project which SHOULD take 2 hrs will actually take 4 days. You'll never be wrong, but occasionally will get lucky. You must be watching me work. I thought I would have my garage all sided come the beginning of summer. I was just finishing up the Tyvek today. Now I just have 300 14 foot boards to cut and nail up then another 300 batten strips, not to mention 360 two foot pieces of Soffit to prefinish and install, 24 windows to trim out (on the outside) should be done in 5 years. LOL 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 4 minutes ago, auburnseeker said: should be done in 5 years. LOL Are you sure you can finish by then? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 Probably not but I like to be optimistic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted August 26, 2018 Author Share Posted August 26, 2018 We have a realist! So, before I head down to the office where she currently resides still on the trailer, I have been thinking about the fuel system as I know I am having to rebuild everything in the fuel system. What are everyone's thoughts on building the car for E85? I live in the corn belt and it is getting harder to find non-ethanol fuel here. I don't want to worry about the wife putting the wrong fuel in the tank. So, as I head down to get you kids pictures of the car, I would love to hear your thoughts and any experiences you've had with alcoholic old cars. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
39BuickEight Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 I also figure, whatever I put on the car, I will have to take back off at least twice. ? 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 If you are doing the fuel system over anyways, Probably most of it will be compatible. I would still try to run ethanol free when possible. Besides messing up the fuel system, the ethanol has a lower boiling point, and is less efficient, so no sense in paying to put crap in your tank that is of no value to your car whatsoever. Even if you use everything that is compatible your carb may still have trouble. They were designed to be run on real gas, might as well use it if it is at all available. I don't put stabilizer in anything anymore and be sure to use nonethanol from a pump specifically for that, not sharing a hose with the regular pump and have had no problems since. The gas just doesn't seem to go bad in a years time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KongaMan Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 2 hours ago, Scott Farrington said: I don't want to worry about the wife putting the wrong fuel in the tank. There's an obvious solution to that. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 E85? POSSIBLE BUT A LOT OF TROUBLE with no returns unless you have a high compression race car.. In south central Texas it is E10 unless I drive 100 miles. Performance is adequate, but not great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trimacar Posted August 26, 2018 Share Posted August 26, 2018 (edited) The obvious answer to your question about ethanol fuel is make sure that all materials used for fuel pump and carb rebuild won't be affected by the stuff. Don't use a new old stock rebuild kit, get a quality kit from someone like Now and Then or other reputable supplier. There are two other things to consider. Find someone familiar with your carb, and have it re-jetted to meet the needs of using ethanol fuel. E-10 has less energy than regular gas, and E-15 even worse, so carb needs to be able to keep up with the changes. Second, many collector cars sit for long periods of time and this is a killer with ethanol. It is organic, and will go bad in 6 months to a year. So, you'll have to do fuel management to make sure the gas doesn't stay in tank or carb for long periods of time. Edited August 26, 2018 by trimacar (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted August 26, 2018 Author Share Posted August 26, 2018 Excellent advice everyone! I truly appreciate it. Now, to the car. Yesterday we power washed it and today I had planned on getting the interior out. Best laid plans and all... so here we see why I am excited about this car: very solid body! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted August 26, 2018 Author Share Posted August 26, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted August 26, 2018 Author Share Posted August 26, 2018 This is the inner fender behind the front of the door. This is the most rust on the car! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburnseeker Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 That does have a nice body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old-tank Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 22 hours ago, trimacar said: There are two other things to consider. Find someone familiar with your carb, and have it re-jetted to meet the needs of using ethanol fuel. E-10 has less energy than regular gas, and E-15 even worse, so carb needs to be able to keep up with the changes. Second, many collector cars sit for long periods of time and this is a killer with ethanol. It is organic, and will go bad in 6 months to a year. So, you'll have to do fuel management to make sure the gas doesn't stay in tank or carb for long periods of time. " I read it on the internet, so it must be true" Have you or anyone here ever re-jetted a carburetor or seen bad gas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trimacar Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 53 minutes ago, old-tank said: " I read it on the internet, so it must be true" Have you or anyone here ever re-jetted a carburetor or seen bad gas? Yes to both, it's not hearsay, it's personal experience. We re-jetted the UUR-2 carb on my 1931 Pierce Arrow, it made a world of difference. This is a car that I've driven since 1984, so I'm qualified to tell if there's a difference in performance. Engine sounds healthier and has more power after the re-jet. And yes, I've personally dealt with a tank of ethanol gas that got cloudy and would no longer start an engine. A friend of mine looked at the bad gas and said "looks like it has a infection". Trying to help, I'm not making things up nor relying on Internet fiction.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted December 27, 2018 Author Share Posted December 27, 2018 Wanted to give everyone a quick update: We fired the engine on Christmas day! Dad, my son, and I all got into the engine compartment and rolled up our sleeves the past few weeks in our spare time and got everything squared away/replaced/repaired and Christmas morning we poured some gas down the carb and fired it up for the first time in at least a decade. Engine sounded great and ran good with fresh gas down the throat! Still awaiting the fuel tank to return from the sealing company - seems there was a lot of rust in the tank. More than I thought originally. In the meantime I am cleaning the fuel lines and rebuilding the fuel pump to ensure it will be ready to handle the duties I will require of it for a long time to come. I did eliminate the points/condensor with a 6V Pertronix kit. Highly recommend this simple solution to the points system as the cars really run strong with them in place. https://www.facebook.com/100009723063887/videos/785057708494991/ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted December 28, 2018 Share Posted December 28, 2018 Congratulations! Sounds great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 A quick progress report: I have been gathering parts for the fuel system, the brakes, and hoses...general maintenance stuff. This weekend I finally finished the complete brake overhaul! This is a first for me and it felt great to do all of this myself! I know a lot of you are mechanics so this may sound mundane to report, however, I was super excited to actually have them adjusted and bled to perfection by yesterday afternoon! I personally rebuilt every aspect of the system - cleaned the lines and rehoned every bit of anything that could be honed. It is extremely satisfying to repair/rebuild something like a wheel cylinder rather than tossing it in the scrap bin and bolting on a Chinese made one. These old DELCO units with the cast in MADE IN USA on them just looked beautiful all cleaned up and put back together. I did not take any pictures as we all know what brakes look like, just wanted everyone to know that I am plugging away. Oh, I cannot wait to drive this sled! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 18 minutes ago, Scott Farrington said: Oh, I cannot wait to drive this sled! At that time, it may help to remember that new brakes will need some break in before they stop well. And otherwise, Congratulations!! It is a satisfying experience. BTW, did you follow the shop manual to adjust the front wheel bearings? It is kinda a big deal...to avoid crushing and distorting them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 1 hour ago, JohnD1956 said: BTW, did you follow the shop manual to adjust the front wheel bearings? It is kinda a big deal...to avoid crushing and distorting them. Actually, I did not know the bearing torque specifications so they are finger tight for now until I have the specs. I did not crank them down at all. I have the caps off and the cotters out until I get them torqued properly. Thank you for the heads up though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 @Scott FarringtonPut the cotters in place but don't expand the ends. That will stop the nut from accidentally falling off or getting so loose that the bearings get scored accidentally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Bruce aka First Born Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Scott, per the 1950 Shop manual. Should be the same. "Tighten spindle nut with 10" wrench until bearings are preloaded at least one hex. Rotate wheel one revolution to make sure bearings are seated. Back of spindle nut until bearings are slightly loose. Tighten nut until all bearing looseness is just removed. Then line up nut to nearest cotter pin hole and install cotter pin. Bearing preload must not exceed 1/12 turn of spindle nut." If I remember, the difference in the vertical versus horizontal cotter pin hole is 1/2 hex. Hope this helps Ben 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 (edited) Well, life was in the way most of the weekend. Was SUPPOSED to pick up a 57 Special 2-door hard top parts car...had an accepted offer from the seller and was going to bring it home on Saturday - as I was backing up to my trailer I receive a text and the seller tells me that he has an offer for more money. So I politely told him thanks and no thanks! 😣 I decided to pull the heater parts and flush everything on the 1947 as I needed to replace all of the hoses feeding everything. So I cut the dry rotted hoses off of everything and started pulling stuff out from under the dash. God, the build quality on this car is just so good! I love the simplicity. I found the defroster motor assembly to be dirty and the wire is frayed going into the motor. Can I pop those rivets that hold the blower motor together and disassemble that motor to replace the wire? In fact, I found quite a few brittle wires under there that I will replace. All of that cleaned, I went under the car to pull the heater blower motor off of the frame rail and found the old mouse habitat from the barn. I should really get a picture of the crap that came out of the ducting under the car! It was packed!! Inside it all, and how they arrived there I have no idea...is a pair of pliers that have had to have been there for the better part of a decade! Poor guy who owned it before me went to his grave never knowing where he put those damned pliers!! So, the questions I have for everyone here are the aforementioned wire to the defroster motor and How do I remove the rear seatback?!? Thank you all in advance! Edited February 4, 2019 by Scott Farrington (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 So it has been an interesting couple of weeks, with two days in the garage out of all of them since there has just been a lot extra in life lately. On a cool note, we went back to the barn where the car originated and found a ton of parts squirreled away as well as the original California black plates that were on the car when it left for the midwest! Found the original radio, fuel pump, water pump, and tons of old stock stuff that was either pulled off of parts cars years ago or purchased and put away. We even found three spools of Packard cloth wire off various gauges. I even found the head to my original Guide spotlight! Today we disassembled the front of the car to get to the firewall and engine to clean things up and put new seals in. My father and my son helped me for hours and we had a great time! Really happy with the outstanding condition of this car! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 Passenger side and core support is off. Lots of parts to clean, polish and repaint now. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 Original radio with replacement buttons in the can in front. It was marked as being from this car! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 SO...A quick question to the group...how many of you would pull the motor at this point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NC-car-guy Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 2 minutes ago, Scott Farrington said: SO...A quick question to the group...how many of you would pull the motor at this point? Have you done a compression test? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 Just now, wndsofchng06 said: Have you done a compression test? We have not...however we have run the engine - no smoke no ticks - smooth as glass to be honest. Was shocked. Also, pulled the water pump and housings off and looked at the water jackets - no scaling! I am actually amazed at how clean the INSIDE of this engine is. My 57 had maybe 30% of the water passages full of scale build up. I can run a compression test pretty simply at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NC-car-guy Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 1 minute ago, Scott Farrington said: We have not...however we have run the engine - no smoke no ticks - smooth as glass to be honest. Was shocked. Also, pulled the water pump and housings off and looked at the water jackets - no scaling! I am actually amazed at how clean the INSIDE of this engine is. My 57 had maybe 30% of the water passages full of scale build up. I can run a compression test pretty simply at this point. If it's a strong runner with decent compression I'd let the engine stay for now. Scope creep can drag a project out forever... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 17 minutes ago, wndsofchng06 said: If it's a strong runner with decent compression I'd let the engine stay for now. Scope creep can drag a project out forever... This is my fear...as it would then turn into a full blown - nut and bolt - rotiserie restoration. I really want to drive the thing...just need some dang seats! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingrudy Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 On 8/26/2018 at 9:01 AM, 39BuickEight said: I also figure, whatever I put on the car, I will have to take back off at least twice. ? I thought that I was the only one who did work this way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Carl Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Don't even think about pulling the engine at this point. The driving season is soon upon us. Re-read the fifth posting here and heed "Grimy's Law of How Long Projects Take". Say : I hope you pulled the pan and cleaned up everything in the basement before you fired up the engine. Checked the bearings ? As well as the engine runs at this stage of the game, you want to keep it that way. Yeah, definitely enjoy driving the Droptop for a while now. Plenty of time to tear into more things later. Driving will give you a very good idea of sequencing the next steps. - Carl 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 (edited) Guys I need your help! How does one remove the seatbacks from the cushions on the front seat? Also: need to remove the back rest on the rest seat. I cannot figure out how to unclip them!! Help! NEVER MIND! I FIGURED IT OUT! I was pushing when I should have been pulling, duh. Have the front seatbacks apart and I will attempt to use what I have for patterns - gonna attempt to duplicate the seats. I have set up a sewing center in the garage and I have a friend who will give me guidance... as well as loan me a heavy duty sewing machine. Should be interesting. The photo below is the driver's side seatback. These two backs appear to be the most difficult of the project. Edited April 4, 2019 by Scott Farrington Update to original post. (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Farrington Posted May 20, 2019 Author Share Posted May 20, 2019 On the topic of mission creep...I failed to heed advise and pulled the motor and transmission as I found multiple leaks and the clutch disk was frozen to the flywheel. The throwout bearing could NOT get any more crunchy if it tried. So, I have now placed the engine on the stand and have it steamed off. All of the accessories are going to be cleaned and checked over, painted, and put back on the engine so that we can detail all of the parts before it goes back in. Further, I am going to add a filter kit to the oil system as this car has never had an oil filter on it. Of the seven parts cars I have bought, a couple of the engines have oil filters on them. Seems like they were accessories?!? Beyond that, seats are being pulled apart, repainted, and the burlap parts are being replaced around each coil spring, then the seats reassembled. Tedious work. Keeps me away from the television at least. Also, it is at this point where my family is pushing me to do a color change to Sequoia Cream over the Burgundy/maroon. Anyone have any feedback on that idea? Am I hurting the value much by going to cream over the maroon exterior? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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