Shout out to my Buick Friends

[Hubert_25-25]

As you are aware, I am restoring a 1927 Buick Master for a client whose father passed away.  He had 7 antique cars and 3 daughters.  My client received 3 cars (including the Buick) because he said "you are the most likely to complete the Buick".   One of the remaining items on the car were the hood latches.  The car had plastic boat supply store latches.  So I started a search. 

27DonB sent a few left over latches to me.  Not the full set, but a start.

David in Australia said he had a set so he sent me 4 latches.

I was busy on the upholstery and it was only later that I noticed that the original latches were longer than the boat latches.  So I went on a hunt for hood sills as I needed to remove the wood spacer blocks that were made to hold the boat latches.

Kevin Roner sent a single sill and my intention was to make a replica for the opposite side if I could not find another original.

A week later, Leon Rumpf said he had a set of sills and a 3/16" thick reinforcement mounting plate.   

I cleaned these parts up and made new reinforcing plates using the original as a pattern. 

I assume her father was never able to source these parts when the car was assembled in the 80's or 90's.  Of note is that I was not able to find complete assemblies, but rather that the parts came from the 4 corners of the earth:  Australia, Canada, Oregon, and Massachusetts.  Rubber bumpers came from Bob's in California.  

THANK YOU    DON, DAVID, KEVIN, LEON and don't forget Larry DiBarry who also helped in the search.  I also must mention Fred Rawling who offered to bring his sills which he had not yet installed to the Buick Nationals so that I could copy them if the search was fruitless.          Hugh     

 

Edited June 15 by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)

[garnetkid]

Hugh, it is me and many others on the board that thank you for all your help in your detailed instructions that ensure our we can keep our cars running as designed.  I kept those sills all those years thinking I might need them but that seemed unlikely. So passing them onto you was an easy decision.  Leon

[28Buick]

I join the many on this board that thank Hugh for his expertise and helpful advice.

[EmTee]

On 6/15/2024 at 1:13 AM, Hubert_25-25 said:

One of the remaining items on the car were the hood latches. 

You must be getting close to the finish -- what's left to do?

[Hubert_25-25]

Thank you for the kind words.  I have been making several updates to other postings, if the work that I was doing applied to them.  So these next items are an assortment of other items that I sorted on this car but did not post.  

As you know, I rebuild these AC speedometers.  Inside there is a rotating metal spider for the speedwheel.  The speedwheel is on a spindle.  As the spider spins from the cable input, the magnetic field will spin the speedwheel.  Once I opened the speedometer, I found no spindle on the speedwheel.   It was just glued to the spider with black RTV sealant and showing 60 MPH in the window.  To rebuild it, I used a later model white speedwheel and added all the necessary parts.  I also used modern magnets and calibrated it.  It matches my GPS speed App.  Nice to have a working odometer as well.  This is driver quality as the owner only wants it to function.  

The next item was cleaning the engine block.  An early job that I did working as a Porter for Livonia Volkswagen after High School.   Make the engine bay look presentable for cars on the used car lot.  These engines are more difficult, but satisfying all the same.   Very time consuming to degrease, scrape, and mask all this off.  One can of engine primer and engine paint.  You do have to be very careful preventing overspray and covering everything as the vapors creep around.   

 

Several electrical gremlins as well.   I recently went to shut off the engine, and the ignition switch no longer worked.  There was enough voltage coming from the generator that it was still feeding the coil.  I had to disconnect the generator output wire to get the car to stop.  When I went to check the ignition switch connections, I found many wires that were all the same color, and the generator wire was heat shrunk to the coil wire.  This is not what the wiring diagram shows.  I seperated the coil wire from the generator wire.   I came out the next day and the battery tender was very warm.  No lights.  The battery was flat (0 volts).   I pulled the cover on the generator cut out relay.  The points were closed while the engine was off.  You can see where the pivot for the points had failed.   I also fixed a headlight connector that would not give me low beams.  The contactor had slipped behind the insulator.  I used brass rivets, drilled them a little deeper, then soldered them to the wires.  All the lights are working now.       

So now that I have done all this work on the car, I told the owner that I was interested in driving the car the distance to return it.  Would I be able to get the license plates for the drive.  It turns out that Dad never had a title for this and several of the other antique cars.  So I will be helping with getting a bonded title and going thru the process.  I would have done the title process when the value was lower, prior to all the work, but it is what it is.   Hugh   

 

Edited June 19 by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)