Buick Coupe ‘27

[Tulsa Buick27]

I have a 2 door 1927 Buick coupe I’m about to start a ground up restoration on. I welcome any advice! The car is complete, owners manuals intact, no missing parts. Thanks!

[keiser31]

Take more photos than you think you will need.

[Mike "Hubbie" Stearns]

I would also print them as well. It’s easier, larger, than your phone. You can add important info on the back also. Mike

[ILIKECARS53]

And when you think you have enough pics........  take more.     Do not take a thing off the car without taking a photo first.   Can not stress enough the importance of pics  and  diagrams etc.  You think you are going to remember how things go back together in a couple of years but you are not.  Trust me I know and so does everyone else on the forum.  Good luck.

[keiser31]

Never throw away a part you have taken off. It may be needed for a pattern or example.

[keiser31]

Be certain it is titled in your name prior to starting any work. I cannot stress this enough!

[EmTee]

Start a thread for the car over in "Me and My Buick" so we can all 'armchair quarterback' your every move! 

 

https://forums.aaca.org/forum/58-me-and-my-buick/

[wayne sheldon]

Pretty sure that is a 1928 model Standard six. Although it my have been early enough to be titled as a 1927?

[Tulsa Buick27]

What would make it a 1928? I’m curious to know. I was always told it was 1927. 

[Model56s]

I just completed a body-off restoration of a panel truck. All advice above about taking pictures is very sound, especially what ILikeCars53 said. Overnight I would forget the position/orientation/whatever of a part and spent a lot of time researching. On one occasion I had at least a dozen pictures of a section, only to find a critical corner showing how a part was mounted was missing in all images. I quickly regretted discarding old parts and stopped the practice - repros don’t always fit and the old one would have been a useful reference.

I kept a spreadsheet of all expenditures (cost, item, source account and vendor) which clarified a lot of trade off decisions later as I watched the costs mount. In hindsight I would add a purchase date column. The result is the book value of the truck is 34% higher than the total cost. Plus, the spreadsheet gave me a quick and easy reference of my suppliers. 

Have you set a deadline? Although I overshot my deadline, it drove the completion and the truck was on the road after 1 year & 8 months. If something happened to me I didn’t want to leave my wife a pile of parts in the garage.

 

Half way through the project I insured the truck for what I had in it at the time and increased the coverage upon completion. Good luck and don’t hesitate to ask questions here.

[TAKerry]

All good advice. Bag and label all parts, down to a single bolt you may remove. When doing so, make notations on a piece of paper and put in the bag. Dont write on the bag itself. I did that the first time around and by the time the bags beat around in a large tote, the sharpie writing all but wore off, leaving a lot of guess work. Also a P touch lable maker is great to have.

[Guest]

If it's a car you love don't save receipts unless you need it for a warranty or part number of course it's better to have part numbers in a book in the car.  

 

The best way to complete is to plan on having it ready for a tour!  Even if you miss it will be far closer to completion.  Iv had fresh cars with no paint/hood or without lights/top ect.  After the tour/event it's a breeze to complete AND make those adjustments you didn't know about.

 

-"If you fail to plan you plan to fail"

[drhach]

If you do save the receipts, don't let your wife see them  

[JohnS25]

2 hours ago, drhach said:

If you do save the receipts, don't let your wife see them  

🙀she pays the credit card bill 😢

[drhach]

5 minutes ago, JohnS25 said:

🙀she pays the credit card bill 😢

[rodneybeauchamp]

And try to achieve at least one thing every day. Regardless how small or seemingly insignificant.

 

Don’t wait till you have the time or the perfect day or nothing else to do ….. or it will never happen.

 

At the end of each week you will be amazed at  the progress you have made.

 

Just my two bobs worth

Rodney 😀😀😀😀😀😀

[dibarlaw]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:01 PM, Tulsa Buick27 said:

I have a 2 door 1927 Buick coupe I’m about to start a ground up restoration on. I welcome any advice! The car is complete, owners manuals intact, no missing parts. Thanks!

Again to clarify that this is a 1928 Model 20, 2 door coach, not a coupe. The data plate on the firewall in this photo will show a stamp of 28-20.

[wayne sheldon]

On 8/14/2023 at 8:29 PM, Tulsa Buick27 said:

What would make it a 1928? I’m curious to know. I was always told it was 1927. 

 

1928 for Buick was a one year only style. A transition between the mid 1920s style and the ones built from 1929 through 1932.

Mid 1920s Buicks had shorter sweep front fenders that followed the front wheel just a bit more closely. All the fenders had a "double crown", or a step up from the side curve of the fender and the top of the fender. 1928, like the models that followed for a few years, had longer sweep front fenders and a much smoother crown with no significant bumps or raised areas other than the outer bead and the seam between the crown and inner skirt of the fender.

Mid 1920s Buicks radiator shells had a slightly more pronounced shape, with sharper offsets and corners. The 1928 is only slightly changed, but when one gets used to them the difference is quite noticeable. Be aware that there are actually a bunch of different years and model sizes of the radiator shells that do not interchange for a number of reasons. The difference in the 1928 shell is quite subtle. The 1929 through 1932 shell is very different with rounded corners instead of sort of sharp turns from the sides to the top.

Mid 1920s Buick headlamps were of a semi-drum style. They varied by years and models in the specific sizes and shapes, as well as finish (plated or painted trim or buckets. However all Buicks 1925 through 1927 had drum style headlamps. 1928 Buicks had a "bullet" or "acorn" style headlamp, very rounded in the back, however somewhat "chunky" looking. The 1928 bezel/rim looked heavier than the later headlamps. the '28 rims were similar to the earlier ones. 1929 through 1932 Buicks had a more sleek sharper acorn style, common among many fine cars of 1929. The cowl lamps on 1925 through 1928 Buicks are a shape similar to the headlamps. Drum headlamps had drum shaped cowl lamps, acorn shaped headlamps had acorn shaped cowl lamps. That trend did continue into the early 1930s.

There are dozens of other minor details, and I certainly do not know most of them myself.

 

And, of course, as dibarlaw mentioned, check the data plate on the firewall for the model number.