Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Stumbled into a '58 Caballero at a local estate sale a few months ago. Had no particular interest in old Buick's nor had I even heard of the Caballero but after some quick research and watching (multiple times) the video of Joe's AACA Zenith Award winner, I knew I wanted it. Parked since probably the late '70s (1978 tag) but overall seemed to be in pretty decent shape. Hope is to get back into safe running/driving condition and not start down a major restoration road. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) 6/2/22 - Got her moved. Spent first night outside to allow any unwanted passengers a chance to vacate before going in the shop. Edited August 24, 2022 by Crusty Caballero (see edit history) 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 6/3/22 - Starting to peel back the layers. Original paint was spray green and hunter green. Pulled out the ratty (literally) carpets and gonna need to do the front floor pans. Haven't gotten to back seats yet. Carb is being rebuilt and all the plugs have been pulled with a little mystery oil added to each to sit for awhile before turning over. Also drained oil (stinky) and pulled filter (nasty). 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 6/10/22 - 81 year old neighbor is local old car guru and tremendous resource. He rebuilt carb, I replaced dist cap/rotor/points/condenser/plugs, rigged an external tank and we were able to crank it after who knows how many years. Water pump was seized so didn't run long, missing on at least one cylinder and some noise probably from stuck lifters. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 6/21/22 - Pulled the water pump to find a good bit of rust/crud so it needed a good flushing. Well there's flushing and then there's redneck flushing! Been working on a wildland firefighting engine for a private land mgmt org so figured I'd put it to use. 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 7/20/22 - $850 worth of recored 64 year old Buick radiator! Apparently it was the style of the top tank drove the cost up. But it's done and still has the original appearance. 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) 8/4/22 - New gas tank/sending unit/fuel line and rear shocks. Radius arms and axle struts were all bent and had to be straightened/new bushings. Working on all the brakes now. Pricey but went w/ powder coat for the wheels just because it was easier than cleaning/painting five wheels. Sure is nice having a neighbor with a brake lathe! Those cast aluminum/iron lined front drums are different. Edited August 24, 2022 by Crusty Caballero (see edit history) 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The 55er Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 Well I'll be darned another black & white one. This was my daily driver back in the early 80s. It was a local one owner (but high mileage) station wagon. Mine had always been black & white. I enjoyed my time with it for a year or two then I sold it and bought something else. It was sorta collectible back then but nobody really paid much attention to it. Best of luck with yours and I'll certainly be following your progress. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 24, 2022 Author Share Posted August 24, 2022 (edited) And that gets me caught up to what I've previously posted over on the Station Wagon forum http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/another-1958-caballero.57901/ I'm starting to run into some Buick specific issues/needs so figured it was time I joined over here. Edited August 24, 2022 by Crusty Caballero (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NailheadBob Posted August 24, 2022 Share Posted August 24, 2022 I love your new project, welcome to the "1958 Buick Club" on your engine miss on 1 cylinder, do a compression test and cylinder leak down test, burnt exhaust valves were an issue, my machine shop could not locate at the time 1958 exhaust valves for mine, so he used a 1959 Buick exhaust valve and machined it to fit correctly into my cylinder head, that was 30 years ago, still runs great. Looking forward to watching your project with your updates. Bob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 Looks like it is complete and should clean up nicely! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexRiv_63 Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 Looks really great. I would polish that up, fix what is necessary and drive it! I am subscribed for wherever you take it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 New brake shoes/wheel cylinders/hoses and Cokers all around. Master cylinder/booster up next on the list. Rebuilt fuel pump, new water pump and recorred radiator/hoses installed which finally allowed me to crank again. Runs pretty good for only firing on 4 cylinders (every other one in firing order??) - start sorting that out shortly. Power steering seems to work and I got forward/reverse out of the trans for a just a few feet each given no brakes. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NailheadBob Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 (edited) Here is the firing order: 1-2-7-8-4-5-6-3 , and photo from a tune up system chart. The brake master/booster has a very large nut on inside of car on firewall area, not very easy access, but here is a tool I made from a great neck 1 3/4" shallow socket #SO134 purchased on Amazon for about $12.00, and 1" punched square tube 2" long from Home Depot, then welded together, can use either a 1" open end wrench or a long punch into the square tube to turn the socket to remove large master/booster nut. What size tires did you install on the car? Bob EDIT: Once master cylinder off look closely at piston (long chrome shaft) gets pitted/rusted and will eat up new seals. BLEEDING BRAKES sequence : L/F, R/F, L/R, R/R , I learned this the hard way, I had a extremely low brake pedal and was used to bleeding brakes another way. Edited August 31, 2022 by NailheadBob Add photo (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Well, that video sure doesn't sound like 4 dead cylinders to me... The car looks great - nice progress! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 10 hours ago, NailheadBob said: Here is the firing order: 1-2-7-8-4-5-6-3 , and photo from a tune up system chart. The brake master/booster has a very large nut on inside of car on firewall area, not very easy access, but here is a tool I made from a great neck 1 3/4" shallow socket #SO134 purchased on Amazon for about $12.00, and 1" punched square tube 2" long from Home Depot, then welded together, can use either a 1" open end wrench or a long punch into the square tube to turn the socket to remove large master/booster nut. What size tires did you install on the car? Bob EDIT: Once master cylinder off look closely at piston (long chrome shaft) gets pitted/rusted and will eat up new seals. BLEEDING BRAKES sequence : L/F, R/F, L/R, R/R , I learned this the hard way, I had a extremely low brake pedal and was used to bleeding brakes another way. Had the firing order and double checked wire routing. Will try to get back on it today. Thanks for the booster/MC and bleed sequence info. I've got a second assembly that came with car but didn't see any large nut. Have been avoiding getting upside down on floor board to disconnect yoke and now it sounds like there's also a difficult nut to deal with. 225/75 R15 on the tires. Talked myself out of the wide whitewalls thinking I didn't care for the look but not sure I might regret that later. None of my local shops would touch the powder coated wheels. Had to drive a ways to a place that specializes in those high-dollar, ridiculous giant rims and rubberband tires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 1 hour ago, EmTee said: Well, that video sure doesn't sound like 4 dead cylinders to me... The car looks great - nice progress! Agree but note the blue tape on wires at dist cap. Any or all of those can be pulled and no change in idle speed. It's been decades since I messed with stuff like this so still trying to get my head wrapped back around it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 I guess first order of business would be a general tune-up and compression test. A vacuum leak could also cause that sort of behavior. Inspect the hoses and check the vacuum advance diaphragm. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 Fortunate to have a neighbor that was a professional auto mechanic for most of his 81 years. Came over this morning to help diagnose. I replaced dist cap/rotor/points/condenser/plugs first thing a couple months ago (and will do wires shortly) so he went straight to vacuum and it was fluttering badly. Compression test revealed stuck intake valve and broken push rod/lifter apart on #2. Got the valve unstuck/retrieved broken parts and neighbor had push rods/lifters saved from the past so once I can get it all back together we'll run another compression test. 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 You're not running any old gas are you? Is the gas tank clean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 Nooo, new from tank to carb and fresh ethanol free gas. Would love to have been able to salvage old tank but just not worth the gamble. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1953mack Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) On 8/30/2022 at 7:46 PM, Crusty Caballero said: Nice ride. More-door Buicks with red wagon wheels are popular on this forum. Have you ever thought about painting the top black to really stand out from the rest of the herd? Edited September 1, 2022 by 1953mack (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 44 minutes ago, 1953mack said: Have you ever thought about painting the top black to really stand out from the rest of the herd? As slick as all-black might look, in Alabama I'd probably keep the white roof... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 2 hours ago, 1953mack said: Nice ride. More-door Buicks with red wagon wheels are popular on this forum. Have you ever thought about painting the top black to really stand out from the rest of the herd? Probably not. I like the white over black and any repaint I might do would be back to original spray/hunter greens. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NailheadBob Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) Very nice progress your making, Here is a list of removal steps for the power brake unit. Bob Edited September 1, 2022 by NailheadBob Add photo (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 1 hour ago, NailheadBob said: Very nice progress your making, Here is a list of removal steps for the power brake unit. Bob Thanks. I've got the chassis/body/dynaflow manual, just hadn't gotten that far yet. But you did motivate me crawl up under the dash and pull the clevis pin and see, just as you had mentioned, the big nut against the firewall. Thanks to some previous shade tree mechanic work I was able to simply unscrew the booster unit from under the hood with a little pressure to help keep the nut from turning. I'm sure it won't go back on that easy so in the meantime I'll scrounge a cheap 1 3/4 socket I can modify. The offending beast (can't understand why it's not working 😉) : 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usnavystgc Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) OMG, that is some serious aluminum corrosion. It almost looks as if some saltwater got in there. I have recently rebuilt two of these so, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. There are a lot of internal parts but, it's really not that complicated. Edited September 1, 2022 by usnavystgc (see edit history) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 2 hours ago, usnavystgc said: OMG, that is some serious aluminum corrosion. It almost looks as if some saltwater got in there. I have recently rebuilt two of these so, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. There are a lot of internal parts but, it's really not that complicated. I got an extra booster/MC with the car that's in better shape than the one I just pulled. Also got a line on one supposedly rebuilt and still in box but not holding my breath on that one. Is there a particular source for rebuild kit that you prefer? I've seen them at Fusick and CARS/Old Buick Parts (some of the stuff I've gotten from CARS hasn't impressed) but not sure what other suppliers might be out there. Master cylinders are cast iron so my understanding is that they're Moraine units. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usnavystgc Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Crusty Caballero said: Is there a particular source for rebuild kit that you prefer? Here's what I can tell you. First of all you must be informed that I'm a serious tightwad :). When I rebuilt the first one, I ordered a kit from Fusick and I got to looking at it and its nothing more than gaskets, o-rings and u cup seals so... for the second one, i simply measured the size of the seals and o-rings I needed and ordered them from Orings and More and The Oring Store online. I had a lady friend make the gaskets from gasket material I bought from O'Reilly's. I think I spent over $150 on the first rebuild ($35 of which was the leather seal) and less than $40 on the second one (which did not need a leather seal). The second one turned out great just like the first. Here's a pic of the second one in it's finished state. You can see she did a great job on the gaskets. I would not pay the money for a rebuilt one unless you just don't have time to rebuild it yourself. The manual is very detailed on these. The unit you pictured is likely rebuildable. The aluminum likely acted like an cathode and it's likely the only thing corroded. Please don't throw it away and if you're going to, let me know, I will take it off your hands. The only thing out of the ordinary you may need is a two prong spanner wrench similar to the one used to put a grinding wheel on a grinder. I have the actual GM tool if you need to borrow it, I can mail it to you as long as you mail it back. It looks like this (J-5794). The hardest part for me was determining all the nomenclature they used for the various components but, I got that down now. It took a lot of reading over and over and looking at drawings and components. Edited September 1, 2022 by usnavystgc (see edit history) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usnavystgc Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 47 minutes ago, Crusty Caballero said: Master cylinders are cast iron so my understanding is that they're Moraine units. IDK who made the MC's but, of the two booster units, one was made by Moraine and the other by Kelsey Hays Wheel Co. Both were identical. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 Great info, thank you very much. And thanks for the offer on the spanner. May need to take you up on that if I can't find/make one. Plan is definitely to rebuild but the rebuilt one I mentioned would probably be a great deal if the guy can find it. He's also supposed to have several other parts from a '58 Buick that he had restomoded (new engine/trans/suspension/etc) that he want's me to have. I've read that MCs were either Bendix (cast aluminum) or Delco Moraine (iron). Learning as I go! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 Much better. Maybe third time's the charm! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAD36 Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 Just stumbled onto this. Nice find and great progress. Following the adventure…..👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usnavystgc Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 Wow, she sounds so smooth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 3, 2022 Author Share Posted September 3, 2022 The freeze plugs in the right head were weeping after the first crank and one of them finally gave way with subsequent runs. I've been dreading tackling those but managed to get both replaced today. No amount punching/prying budged them but luckily I was able to start a 1" bottom tap, thread in, and pry out. Driver's side plugs look good but I'm worried about those on back of heads/block/other places I can't see/get to without pulling heads/engine. As soon as I can get the booster/master cylinder back in operation, I should be ready to test drive. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 On 9/3/2022 at 3:22 PM, Crusty Caballero said: Driver's side plugs look good but I'm worried about those on back of heads/block/other places I can't see/get to without pulling heads/engine. Unfortunately, I have to say based on my experience that if one plug is done for, the remaining ones won't be far behind. As someone advised me when I posted about the one corroded core plug on my engine, "it's just a race to the finish and all this means is that the one plug is slightly ahead of the others." He was absolutely right, and the remaining plugs were totally gone within about six months. Fortunately, I was able to get at all the plugs in my 248 ci straight eight by taking the head off and didn't have to pull the block. I don't know what you have to do to get to this problem with the nailhead, but I would advise you to take care of this now rather than later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 17 hours ago, neil morse said: Unfortunately, I have to say based on my experience that if one plug is done for, the remaining ones won't be far behind. As someone advised me when I posted about the one corroded core plug on my engine, "it's just a race to the finish and all this means is that the one plug is slightly ahead of the others." He was absolutely right, and the remaining plugs were totally gone within about six months. Fortunately, I was able to get at all the plugs in my 248 ci straight eight by taking the head off and didn't have to pull the block. I don't know what you have to do to get to this problem with the nailhead, but I would advise you to take care of this now rather than later. I suspect you're right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crusty Caballero Posted September 7, 2022 Author Share Posted September 7, 2022 No luck today on the rebuilt booster/MC & radius rod pulled from a restored '58 Century that a local guy restomoded. Thinks he might have tossed the booster/MC but could still turn up. Nice radius rod but same length as my current rod that's 3/4-1" short. In nicer shape than mine so may ultimately cut/extend. Did score a bunch of other nice parts including a nice recored heater core which I definitely need. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buicknutty Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 (edited) I too just found this thread and that's an awesome find you have there! I'm following your adventure too. Keith Edited September 8, 2022 by Buicknutty (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NailheadBob Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 Nice radius rod but same length as my current rod that's 3/4-1" short. Great score on your parts you acquired. Did you figure out your "Rear axle radius rod" length at 40 1/2"? (being to short on your car) Group # 5.415 Rod, rear axle radius part # 1182531 for 40-60 series, so your Special and the one you just got from a century is 40 1/4" long center to center, that you had on another members topic, is 3/4" to 1" short Part # 1182533 is for 50-70-700 series what length is this part number? Maybe a 1958 Super, Roadmaster, or Limited owner could give you measurements? Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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