1951 Buick Special Deluxe - 13


Last week of May

FINALLY found and won an auction for an original radiator. These don't come up very often, and the few that have look pretty sad (or very expensive). The guy shipping this one did a great job of packaging. Also replaced the distributor rotor & external condenser on the coil (this isn't the "condenser", it's just a noise-reduction capacitor).

Also diagnosed the ignition situation. Figured out the points weren't delivering power, so got those cleaned some. Drizzling gas into the carb, I got the car to sputter some. Much exhaust smoke rises up from between the head & manifold - so the sealing there is shot. The electric fuel pump runs, but not much fuel comes out at the carb end of the line. May be an air leak (air being sucked in) or a blocked line. Need to work on that some more.

6/7/2014 - radiator and '55 springs

Got the radiator. Cleaned off the side flanges to bare metal, primed, and repainted. Core looks good. Rinsed out the core a bunch of times to get dirt & debris out as much as I could. Also got some replacement rear springs for the '55 from one of the AACA Buick forum members. These are only +100lbs from the exact ones for my car (so my car, +100lbs in the back seat - pretty much how I run all the time with the kids in the back seat). Got the springs cleaned off to bare metal, primed, and painted. Busy day.

2nd week of June 2014

Got radiator hoses and clamps. Got those installed. Decided to pull the exhaust manifold. Got a gasket for that from the local auto parts store.