A Plea to Pre-WWII Buick Owners

[Centurion]

I'm a regular on the BCA Forum here, and want to make a plea for help from some of you who are pre-WWII Buick fans.

I recognize that most of you view the AACA as your principal club affiliation and focus your attention on the AACA forums. I understand and certainly support that. You may not be highly motivated to check in on the BCA (Buick Club of America) Forum, realizing (correctly) that the majority of topics seem directed toward owners of the post-WWII cars.

My concern, however, is that owners of the pre-WWII Buicks visit our BCA forums for the first time with questions and needs, and my sense is that there are not enough of us with expertise regarding the earlier Buicks. Consequently, many of these questions fail to receive the responses they deserve. Within the last week, for example, I've seen technical questions on the BCA General Forum from two different 1934 Buick owners and one 1927 Buick owner. Many of these questions go unanswered.

Personally, I would be delighted to see active participation on the BCA Forums among owners of the early Buicks. I know that there is considerable expertise about these cars within the BCA. The challenge is to encourage those knowledgeable individuals to utilize the forum.

Does anyone have any thoughts or perspective on this issue?

Here's my request. If you have knowledge of the pre-WWII Buicks and also have the time and opportunity to scroll through the BCA Forum topics on a periodic basis to look for pre-WWII Buick questions, that would be great. If you are able to contribute to the discussion and help those with the earlier cars, I think this would help maintain interest and enthusiasm for these cars -- something we would all like to see. Thanks for your help.

[Guest]

Brian ~ Is there any practical way to create a pre war section, even if only in the technical area?

I used to try to read the Buick forum, but got so overwhemed by all of the modern, even into the '90s as compared to pre war postings, that I stopped reading at least 18 months ago. Just too much trouble for the little bit that was of interest to me.

I would be glad to jump in regarding the older Buicks, I go back to 1914, but I am just not willing to read so much to find so little in my area of Buick interest.

hvs

[Centurion]

Howard, you've made an excellent point -- and this possibility had crossed my mind as well. I will float this idea past the BCA Forum moderator to see what she thinks.

Yes, this is a challenge for the marque forums for surviving auto manufacturers. It is not unusual to receive questions such as: "The radio is not working in my 1992 Century. What should I do?" I want to say: "Please go to your Buick dealership and get it fixed!" Obviously, these kinds of technical questions are outside the scope of our forums here, but that does not stop these kinds of questions from coming up.

I appreciate your reply.

[Guest JT]

Brian, I have had similar thoughts in relation to the Packard forum. It would be nice to have a little more participation for the prewar car years and I have thought of suggesting a prewar section for the Packard forum. At the same time I thought it might water down the Packard forum as a whole and cause less participation if the pre war section didn't take off. And of course Packards only ran to 56 so maybe there doesn't need to be a division.

I read the Buick forum only occasionally for the same reasons as Howard so I think a prewar Buick section would be a great idea to generate more interest.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Brian and Howard...

Excellent idea to add a Pre-WWII Technical title block.

I will make a post in the Moderator's section to bring your ideas to the attention of the Internet Committee & Webmechanic to add this.

Regards,

Peter J. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Centurion]

Peter, we should hold off before making changes to the Buick forums. I've posted some questions there to get some input, and we need to determine the appropriate categories. (This is a decision for the BCA.) Thanks for your willingness to help!

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Sounds good, Brian...

I posted in the Moderator's Forum that the powers that be please read your post.

They will see your request to hold off until hearing from you, but, will have a heads-up of a potentially great improvement to Forum "customer service".

Regards,

Peter J. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[1937hd45]

Brian, I rarely read the Buick Forum, just don't have a Buick now or need info. Sad to hear about the lack of interest in the Pre WWII stuff. The late model cars took over the car shows, now it looks like they are doing the same on the internet.

[Steve Moskowitz]

The concern expressed in this thread is very valid. If you look at virtually any of the club forums, there is a lack of participation on early car posts. Even members of the HCCA are not active in their own forum. I hope there are answers to this problem, since we could frustrate a younger person from getting involed in these cars.

[Terry29-26]

Brian:

There are many places to post replies to questions on pre war Buicks. Many of us "old guys" Don't spend a lot of time on our computers so when a request is posted on more than one forum I only reply on the first site I see it in.

There were several replies to the 27 seat Question on the "27" buick site. If I go looking for 29 buick parts my first post is on the Silver Anniversary News Letter. If I can't find what I am looking for there then I post on other forums. I'm not surprised when there is no reply to a request for some thing that people with the same model don't have.,but I post elsewhere just in case there is someone out there that bought the wrong part at a swap meet and wants to unload it.In the past I have bought parts that I thought were Buick and when I tried to put it on one of my cars only to find it was the wrong year or model and some times the wrong make. (I have a few of those items I would be willing to sell and or give away).

Every day there is another web site set up and there are getting to be to many places to look at and answer questions. Keep it simple and easy to find and people will keep coming back to use this forum.

I have Buicks from 1916 to 1989 (13 in all) and do all the work on them.

Terry29-26

[Guest]

Brian,

Like Terry I am an Old Guy. However, given my choice I would still prefer to do all of my "shopping" right here on the Buick section of the AACA Forum. This is because my collection is not limited to Buicks alone, so I can look around the other makes without going very far.

I still would like to see a division within the Buick section much as you suggested.

hvs

[Centurion]

Terry and Howard, thanks for your responses here and on the Buick site. Your comments are noted, and I will try to nail down a "final" proposal that draws on your input and that of the others.

I appreciate your interest.

[HarryJ]

Brian ... This has been a concern of mine for a while, not in the Buick forum, but in general as the ability to maintain and repair these first generation of automobiles is being lost. I just bought a computer and I,m 55 years old, most of us old guys are not of the computer age and some of us may never get one of these new fangled machines; but since I got mine and found the AACA site a world of knowledge has come available. I agree that we need a pre WWII forum; however we need a way to build a data base that is easily referenced in the future as the present forums are fleeting and only temporary. Items such as identifying part numbers and how to handle repairs properly need to be available in a permanent data base. I made a suggestion as a AACA club project to start transfering paper parts and service manuals to computer accessable files; this should also include dissertations from old mechanics also. Presevation of the physical automobiles is important; however, preserving the knowledge of how to repair them is equally important.