1938 66S Interior Questions

[Daves1940Buick56S]

I am trying to wrap up putting the dash and garnish moldings back in my car. I am getting down to the last couple of items and I have 2 issues:

 

1. The small grommets on the lock button openings on the door garnish moldings need replacing as the old ones crumbled off before I sent out the moldings to be woodgrained. I took a look at standard sized grommets and no go - the diameter difference between the buttons and the opening is pretty small. Any ideas?

 

2. My interior rear view mirror is plastic bodied and has cracks. I can probably fill, sand, and paint but - is this the original mirror or an aftermarket replacement? Pics attached.

 

Thanks, Dave

 

[MCHinson]

I am not sure what grommet you are talking about on the garnish mouldings. All of my experience is with sedans and on them the door garnish mouldings don't have any sort of grommet around the lock knobs. They just have a small round part of the metal garnish moulding that surrounds the lock knob. 

 

Your mirror looks exactly like the mirrors that I have seen, except the ones that I have seen were all woodgrained and the entire mirror assemblies that I have seen are made of metal. 

 

If you need a replacement mirror, I suspect Dave Tacheny can provide one for you. You can best reach him at 763-427-3460 between 4 and 7 pm Central. 

[DonMicheletti]

My '38 46s has no grommets either. I have had 2 and they were the same. Also, the mirrors are all metal construction and woodgrained.

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Thanks all! After installing the garnish moldings and the lock buttons I can see no room for any kind of grommet. Don't know what the material was that crumbled off the hole edges.

 

After relooking at the mirror it is metal - magnets don't stick to plastic! The color looks to closely match the gauge panel color. The is no other paint underneath so it was either painted this color originally or the woodgrain was stripped off at some point. So I went ahead and filled the cracks with JB Weld and will sand and repaint. At some point I will call Dave T for the proper replacement.

[38Buick 80C]

4 hours ago, Daves1940Buick56S said:

Thanks all! After installing the garnish moldings and the lock buttons I can see no room for any kind of grommet. Don't know what the material was that crumbled off the hole edges.

 

After relooking at the mirror it is metal - magnets don't stick to plastic! The color looks to closely match the gauge panel color. The is no other paint underneath so it was either painted this color originally or the woodgrain was stripped off at some point. So I went ahead and filled the cracks with JB Weld and will sand and repaint. At some point I will call Dave T for the proper replacement.

 

Based on the color it is likely your car had a chevron pattern dash ( or the mirror came out of a car that did) and that is why it is not wood grained yet seemingly original.

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Do you have any pics of the chevron pattern?  Thanks

[MCHinson]

I think Brian is correct about why your mirror is not woodgrained. Here are a couple of photos of Chevron pattern dashes. While rare, they seem to be more common (or possibly only available) in 1938 Centurys. Somewhere in an old Torque Tube issue, I recently read where someone had reproduced the decal and was advertising trying to sell a few extras. That was many years ago. They only made a few extras and it I remember correctly, they were over $400 each. 

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Ok, I do remember seeing pics of this before. I am kinda, no actually very glad mine wasn't like that, I like the Butt Walnut in which I redid mine. Original panel was like Matt's, kind of straight grain. I also have an extra dash with a amateur-applied straight grain, not real good.

 

I finished installing the clock today. All done but the rear view mirror.

 

Cheers, Dave

[38Buick 80C]

9 hours ago, MCHinson said:

While rare, they seem to be more common (or possibly only available) in 1938 Centurys.

It was most definitely used on Roadmasters as well. There is an unrestored model 87 out there (last seen at the 2011 BCA National and then sold at auction in ME) with a chevron pattern dash. I'm fairly certain my 80C had it originally as well based on evidence I found during the restoration (though as most know I had it wood grained during the restoration).

 

I think you are likely correct that it had more prevalent used on Century's.

[MCHinson]

While I apoligize for taking this off the original topic, Brian, do you know if the original Chevron pattern in your 1938 80C was in one large segment like the 1938 Centurys as shown above or was it in two separate panels like the different pattern ones found in the 1937 80Cs as shown in this photo? 

[38Buick 80C]

my 80C was painted over so i have no idea.

 

Here is the unrestored model 87 at the 2011 Danvers Meet

[DonMicheletti]

For what it is worth, my '38 model 81 originally had a continuous straight grain pattern

[38Buick 80C]

4 hours ago, DonMicheletti said:

For what it is worth, my '38 model 81 originally had a continuous straight grain pattern

 

Correct the RM's should have a straight grain. There was a really good article in the original TT by Harry that has all the options with really good documentation. There were quite of few variation by model, and multiple options per model. I will not attempt to recap the article but no doubt someone can find the volume issue page etc, I cannot look at the moment.

[MCHinson]

Thanks Brian. I found it. It is Volume XX Issue 2. I am attaching a Google Drive link to that issue below. There is a lot of good information in that issue. The article on pages 14 and 15 describes 1937 80 and 90 series dash patterns and continues on pages 16-17 with charts for all 1937 and 1938 trim and paint options.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VmQ13CQMlJEkUPnYr69F2F7SAElnyyAB/view?usp=sharing

[38Buick 80C]

That wasn't the article I was thinking of. I did some looking and it appears it was earlier than Harry's era (my mistake) and appeared in several articles across Volumes III and IV culminating in a summary on page 25-26 of Volume IV Issue 8...ironically a familiar name was involved in THAT discussion at the time 🙂

[MCHinson]

40 minutes ago, 38Buick 80C said:

That wasn't the article I was thinking of. I did some looking and it appears it was earlier than Harry's era (my mistake) and appeared in several articles across Volumes III and IV culminating in a summary on page 25-26 of Volume IV Issue 8...ironically a familiar name was involved in THAT discussion at the time 🙂

Here is that issue: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EI4Gj9Q4f4e_6GQvdkZd1Rh4CLPbSBGk/view?usp=sharing

[Daves1940Buick56S]

Interesting. Lou Wildt, quoted in the article, was one of the owners of my '38! Perhaps he redid the dash woodgraining and got rid of the chevron. My interior was originally tan mohair and when the interior was redone it was changed to gray Bedford cord. Perhaps he redid the dash then although it was pretty difficult to get it out which made me think it had not been removed since the car was built.

[suchan]

Those old TT magazines are a treasure. Great to see they're still available for reference.