It's a Buick, but it's not something you see very often. Caballero!

It's painted!
These photos above show the paint on the body as it came out of the booth; not polished yet.

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Here are two of the doors after polishing:
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After polishing, the paint shop will install the doors, lift-gate and tailgate.
Then I will bring the body to my garage for assembly.

Good looking color!

Beautiful!

I received the completed park lamp bases and grille extensions from the plater.
Time to assemble the park lamps!

I installed a new socket and pigtail in each lamp base.
The lenses and gaskets are also new.

Here's one side mocked up:


Here's the test fit of the park lamp onto the grille extension




I still need to install the seals on the attaching studs and add the grommets to the conduit where it passes through the grille extension panel.


The power post was looking tired and worn. Here are a couple of photos of the refurbishing process.
After disassembling and cleaning the part, the insulator was painted semi-gloss black and the base and posts were with a copper layer to prep for a final layer of plating:


Then plated with "Copy Chrome" by Caswell:


The second piece in the above image is one of the folding seat back lock posts. It was showing a lot of wear on the post; the "Copy Chrome" is an excellent match to the original plating.

I recently cleaned up the back side of the aluminum side trim panels. The ribs on the visible surfaces were polished several months ago, but the back surfaces had not been cleaned and sealed. After cleaning, I found a few spots where the oxidation had penetrated all the way through the aluminum panel. OH NO!



I finished cleaning the back of all 4 panels. Only one panel exhibited any actual penetration. The parts have been sent to a local plater for anodizing. Hope to have the completed parts back by the end of the year.



Back at the paint shop...

The metal interior garnish moldings, the inner rear compartment and the inside surfaces of the tailgate are being painted interior "Tan" before I bring it home. Here's the tailgate with the inner surface painted tan:


Weatherstrips installed on the doors.


Doors hung on driver's side:


Getting close!

I wonder if there are any of the autoworkers left who worked on the assembly of theses cars when they were new. The youngest of them would now be in their 80s.

This thread is fascinating.

Today I installed the new headlight pigtails into the headlight housings.

I was able to open the crimps on the original ground lugs, so I crimped and soldered the new ground wires into the original terminals.
With freshly plated adjuster screws, these are ready for headlight buckets.


The rear bumper trim inserts need to be painted with a silver and black stripe pattern.
It was interesting to see how the exposed areas of the original bumper inserts look after nearly 60 years of New Mexico UV exposure.


I used one of my original panels as a test panel.
I painted the matte silver base, then masked off the stripes with 1/8" wide tape.
I was out of flat black rattle can paint, so I used semi-gloss black.


This is another one of those million details that still need to get done...

This is, again, the best thread ever. I'm checking daily for updates, this is the most GORGEOUS car!

Home for the Holidays!






Beautiful, sunny day with temperature near 50F; perfect day to move the car!

Great Christmas present!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Here's an update on some recent activities...

I assembled the freshly plated door handles with new seals and lock cylinders.



Polished all 160 chrome squares in the grille, then masked them all off and painted the grill frame black.
This took a while!



Here's one half of the grille after polishing and painting:



I went through all the rollers in the window regulators. About 25% of the rollers had flat spots or cracks, so I replaced those.
The rest of the rollers were in excellent condition. I cleaned and lubricated them; regulators are now ready for installation.



This was a big day; new tires mounted on painted wheels and installed on the car.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/223V5MF]

Love the wide whites...But really,its the only choice for that ride. Thanks for the update.

This pic was taken on January 14; temperature hovering around 15F.
Spent 2+ hours removing the power brake pedal, booster, master cylinder and associated parts from this 58 Super.

20180114_154157 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I had previously acquired a few odds and ends from this car, nmost importantly a front door window frame that I was able to shorten to fit my car. This visit, I needed the power brake master cylinder in hopes that it would have a useable vacuum cup retainer. The retainer that came in my master cylinder was disintegrated so badly I couldn't even get dimensions to make a replacement piece.

Thankfully, this retainer was slightly pitted, but serviceable.
I used it as a pattern to fabricate a new retainer.
20180118_161855 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180118_170204 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Here is the master cylinder, finally complete and ready for assembly to the booster unit.

20180125_142306 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

The booster housing on the Super is much nicer (no pitting) than the one I planned to use in my car, so I am going to get the housing plated and use it in my car.

Interior metal parts are all painted, so I have been able to begin re-assembly of many parts. Here, I have installed the steering column shift lever into the selector housing.
20180116_115112 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Almost all of my chrome plated parts are back from plating.

Here, I am drilling and tapping the inner liftgate handle to attach the inner portion of the assembly.
Originally, these two parts were peened together. The peened surface had to be machined off to enable disassembly, so re-assembly will be an old-fashioned threaded fastener with a drop of threadlocker.
20180116_173303 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr


Moving along with steering column assembly. I had to take it apart 3 times before I got the correct gap betwen the fixed column cover and the rotating shift selector.
20180121_103020 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Here, my helpers are working with me to test the Park-Neutral safety switch and the horn circuit:
20180121_144404 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Also, recently got to the heater/defroster controls. Here's what the inside of the damper housing looked when I began to clean it up:
20180117_081937 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr
20180117_082000 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I thoroughly cleaned the housing, repaired some small cracks and fabricated a new gasket. Here it is, ready to re-install:
20180118_073451 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180117_225603 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Stay tuned...more updates coming!

Assembled the new heater core into the housing and fabricated a new gasket.
Here's the core and outer housing ready to be installed:
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I started installing a little bling:
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And another layer...
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After all the hours of cleaning, polishing and detailing, it feels good to be putting these parts together.
These are the light and blower/heater/defroster controls.
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This is a "work in progress" picture, showing the heater and vent control cables. They looked quite rough to begin with, but cleaned up very nicely. A little bit of cable lube and some time and they're all working smoothly.
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Here's one of the vent control cables, along with the ignition power switch and the lighter installed in the lower control panel:
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The lower control panels with lettering painted and all controls and indicators installed, ready for installation to the dash:
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The main dash panel is going to be pre-loaded with the wiring harness, speedometer & gauges, clock and most of the bolt-on components before installation into the body. I've begun installing the harness and some components, but I have to wait for the front chrome panels before I can proceed much further.
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The fuse block is one of the few parts that had to be "re-cycled" from the original harness. I purchased new harnesses from YNZ Yesterdays Parts http://www.ynzyesterdaysparts.com/ early on in the build, when I realized that the insulation on every wire in the car was brittle and crumbled when flexed. So far, the new harnesses appear to be perfect.  
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One more shot from the garage, showing the latest stainless additions:
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Love the updates,thanks for sharing.

This is like getting a cadaver in med school and bringing it back to life. No, wait... that doesn't do the task justice. The cadaver would require less time and effort.

Love this thread!

I am very impressed (and jealous) of your skills restoring this gorgeous car. Thank you for sharing.

I thought the vent damper door seals were in excellent condition...until I began to install the doors. I found that the seals were cracked and I didn't want to take a chance that they might crumble with use.

Here's one of the damper doors, as removed from the car:


First step was to drill out the spot welds and remove the original foam seal from the doors. Here are the 3 pieces of the "sandwich"; the inner and outer door and the original foam seal:


I used a sheet of 3.0 mm thick, closed-cell foam to replace the original seals. I didn't have a 5/8" diameter punch, so I made a punch out of a 1/2" galvanized pipe nipple to make the correct diameter holes in the new seals.


Here are the inner and outer doors after cleaning:


I chose not to weld the doors together, being concerned about igniting the foam inserts. I used reinforcing washers and rivets to re-assemble the doors.


And here they are, back where they belong:

It's been several weeks since I updated this thread, but there hasn't been a great amount of progress. Life certainly has a way of stretching our plans out, doesn't it?

Liftgate latches and the upper tailgate panel are installed in the lower gate:


At the other end of the body, I've installed the cowl seal and started working on the windshield wiper system.
When 57BuickJim came over for a visit, he asked me happened to the wiper transmissions.

Look at the tip of the wiper drive shaft in this photo:



Over 3 years ago, I took the wiper transmissions off the car and bagged them. I never noticed that both of the splined drive capstans and shafts had been cut off.
That wonderful little surprise led to a frustrating search for 2 non-Cam-O-Matic transmissions.
I had 3 spare transmissions that came with the parts car. None of them were functional or complete. I got the RH spare working; the lower cable was off the pulley and wrapped around the base of the housing, underneath the pulley. Took a while with dental pick and gentle persuasion to get the cable back onto the pulley. It's now installed in the car.

As for the driver's side, I hoped to make one functional transmission from the three incomplete units I have.
I tried using a spare 57 transmission, but that wasn't successful. Even though the overall length of the transmission appeared to be identical, the distance from the under-cowl mounting surface to the tip of the 1957 shaft is shorter. The 57 part is too short to allow installation of the wiper arm. After taking the shaft out of a 57 transmission, it was clear that it could not be used in a 58 transmission housing; the shaft diameters and designs are very different. I had to find a complete LH transmission. Ordered it from Bob Fricken (wiperman) and it should be here by the end of March.




The heater core, inner and outer cover and plenum with blower motor have all been installed:
20180325_184935 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I had to install the blower motor housing THREE times because I dropped one of the wiper transmission nuts into the cowl vent when I was installing the wiper transmission. Of course, the nut dropped directly down the plenum and into the drain at the bottom of the firewall, where the plenum mates up to the floor pan. Could NOT get the nut out until I removed the blower motor housing from the firewall. And to top it all off, I did it AGAIN a few days later with another part.

Now, the cowl vent openings are taped off.

Tailgate emblem and letters installed:
20180308_195628 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Roof moldings were a bit of a challenge.
I pre-positioned all the clips and set the moldings into position on the roof. The moldings were almost perfectly straight, but they had a slight crown; down at each end and up slightly in the center. When I installed the seals and nuts on the first molding, I ended up with a gap between the molding and the roof between each clip position. The molding looked a like a sea serpent, gliding along the surface of the roof.

I had to remove all the moldings and add some curvature to the molding so that the molding would be tight against the roof when the clip nuts were tightened. When I set the center of each molding on the roof, each end was 4" to 6" above the roof surface, as shown by the black arrow in this photo.
20180307_114028 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

It worked perfectly; after tightening the clip nuts, the moldings fit tightly to the roof surface.


Here was another unpleasant surprise...
When I was installing the liftgate strikers and alignment bumpers, I found this broken bolt stuck in the nut plate.
I remember breaking that attaching screw during disassembly. I forgot to drill out the broken bolt before sending the car to the painter and they didn't notice it. Now, I was faced with removing that broken fastener from a painted and polished panel.

I masked it off with masking tape and a layer of rubber gasket material as an additional protective cushion...
20180307_141520 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180307_141646 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I tried to give myself a fighting chance at success by grinding the surface flat and center-punching the bolt.


As soon as I hit the center punch, the nut plate fell off the inner panel. It was being held on to the back side of the inner panel with two miniscule spot welds. Here's the nut plate:
20180307_143007 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I cleaned the nut plate and painted the exposed surfaces, cleaned the back side of the inner panel through an existing access hole, and used structural adhesive to bond the nut plate to the inner panel.
Done!
20180325_205705 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

More soon!

This is my favorite post, period. It's like following a chapter-play, and I can't wait for the next one!

Tailgate emblems look great.

The moldings that surround the ribbed aluminum trim panels on the rear doors and quarters require unique attachment clips. The moldings have a triangular cross-section and they straddle the edge of the aluminum panel. The clips have a stepped design to retain the moldings. There are 5 different clips used in various locations; 2 styles of end clips, straight run clips and a special coupling clip for the angled front joint.

Somehow, a couple of the unique end clips disappeared in the plating process. I don't know if they just disintegrated or simply got lost in the plating tank, but they are nowhere to be found.

The end clip has a tension "finger" to retain the molding orientation as the screw is tightend into the base of the clip. The clip in the picture is correct for one side on the molding, but I needed one that was for the opposite section.

Here's some creative material selection for you.
A spring steel binder clip matched the gage of the original clip. I simply cut it to size, punched a hole with a small center punch and extruded the hole to the proper size to accept an 8-32 thread. Tap the hole and it's done.
20180326_155918 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180326_165822 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr


I broke several clips when removing the moldings from my car, so I needed about 8 more clips to finish the installation. I'ver been looking for clips and have not been able to find any of the original style parts.

I took the best of the original clips that had been cut out of parts car.
20180312_142104 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

You can see where I'm going here...
I ground off the swedged tabs that held the stud to the clip base and knocked the stud out of the clip.
Then I installed a new 10-24 x 3/4" long stud into the body of each clip.

Initially, I used JB Weld "steel" epoxy to retain the stud to the clip head, but that didn't work. I ended up tig welding the studs to the clip bodies.

20180328_083704 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180328_114502 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Problem solved.

Next stop: the liftgate!
Here are the 9 stainless steel moldings that mount to the top of the liftgate.
There are 4 pairs of different lengths (shortest parts are furthest outboard) and one longer piece for the center position.

I made a template to help position the end of each molding equidistant from the edge of the window opening.

20180329_102544 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Finicky job, but it turned out great:
20180329_120734 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Have a great week!

It feels good to be making progress!

I had to fabricate several more clips of various designs, but I FINALLY got all the stainless steel trim installed - below the belt line - on the body.

Here's another example of the end clips that I made. It retains one end of the side spear molding to the front door. I didn't get a photo of the completed clip, but I used that "finger" in the middle of the clip to retain a spring wire to retain the clip in the molding.



Finally, here is the driver's side trim on the car.



Adding thermal insulation and deadener to the floors and toe panel.


My enthusiastic helpers are rolling the adhesive-backed deadener on the floor pans.


Wiper transmissions installed and tensioned





I had the dash parts painted with matte clear and I didn't like it. I disassembled all the dash parts and manually polished everything to a higher gloss level.


When I removed the heater controls to polish the painted panel, the epoxy that was holding the lens and bezel assemblies together decided to let go. Better now than on the road somewhere....

I removed the epoxy residue and used a small punch to crimp the edges of the die cast bezels over the metal lens retainers. That's how they were originally assembled, but I used an adhesive instead of crimping when I assembled these parts. I was concerned that crimping the parts would damage the bezels.

Luckily, all the crimps worked and the assembly is complete and tight.

I also wanted to tighten up and improve the fit of these parts into the dash panel. Previously, when I moved the control levers, the bezels would slide in the openings and the bezels felt loose on the panel.

I cut narrow strips of adhesive-backed felt to cushion the edges of the bezels and also cut a short piece of PVC tubing to insert over the rib of the dash panel that engages the lens's spring clip.



Here you can see the felt strip installed along one edge of the bezel:

This shows the pvc tubing installed on the dash panel:


Those two additions made a HUGE difference. The lenses are tight and they don't budge when I move the control levers. Glad I decided to re-do these parts; this is much tighter than the initial assembly and it should eliminate any potential rattles.

Your patience and attention to detail is captivating to watch Joe. Putting this caballero puzzle back together and documenting it all with great pictures has become automotive serial art.
When the car is completed, will you drive it on long trips with family on board? Or will the car be relegated to show queen duty?
It would be quite something to see it in person ( and you of course) at a wagonfest.
Looking foward to seeing the next installment.

Thanks, Nick.

I will drive it, but I plan trailer it to a few shows initially.

I would like to get it judged at a few major AACA and Buick Club of America events, but then it's going on the road.

I don't know about any major cross-country trips, but I'm looking forward to getting it on the road.
Wagonfest would be cool...hmmmm....

I've owned one car that i considered a trailer queen.
I eventually sold it because I was afraid to drive it anywhere.
I don't intend to let that happen again.

Beautiful, I love it

This past week I've been working on a number of items.

Now that I've got the gloss levels I want on the painted parts, it's time to re-assemble the instrument panel.

The chrome trim panel turned out great!


Rear view of instrument panel early in the assembly process. The glove box and a few components have been installed.


Front of dash with glove box door, heater/ventilation and lighting controls installed.


I think this is so cool looking...


Glove box, clock and passenger air outlet:


Instrument cluster installed, along with the dash wiring harness. Harness came from YNZ Yesterdays Parts; it has been a joy to work with.
The temperature and oil gages are not in the instrument panel; they are already plumbed into the car and awaiting installation into the dash.




Front view with instrument cluster installed:


I installed the vent and heater plenum and the flexible hoses for the dash outlets before installing the IP into the car. I'd rather do this on the bench than laying on my back under the IP!


Here you can see the passenger side hose connected to the air outlet, as well as the glove box lamp wiring and the heat/vent control cables. The cables are temporarily banded together to simplify the installation of the instrument panel. Once this is in the car, I will route the individual cables to the plenum, vent and heater controls.


To prepare for loading the IP into the car, I removed the steering wheel and dropped the column as far as it would go. You can see the two black struts that attach the column mounting bracket to the firewall, just below the windshield. 57BuickJim is going to help me load the IP. He's got a lot of experience at this, having done 2 or 3 of his own cars. I'm following his advice on what to build up before installation and what to leave for "upside down in the car" work. All the firewall deadeners and insulation are in place, the e-brake pedal assembly is installed and connected to the cable and the windshield wipers are complete.


Hanging at the base of the windshield and covered with painter's tape are the Temperature and Oil Pressure gages. The temperature gage line is already installed in the driver's side cylinder head. The oil line will be in place before the IP is loaded. Then I will route the lines and install the gages into the back of the intrument panel.


Making good progress this week; more soon.

Lots of updates this week; I'm catching up on recent progress.

I found an original brake line on a car that was being parted out locally.
I didn't think it looked like an OEM piece, but a google search and some bookwork made it clear that this was the correct part.

I took my time and used a tubing bender plus a few different diameter pipe fittings and even a 3.5" diameter resonator case to make the proper bends; came out pretty good.


I had a professional glass installer come over to install the windshield.
He filled the glass channel in the rubber gasket with bedding compound and laid a bead of bedding compound into the glass channel on the body. He inserted a cord into the pinch weld channel of the rubber gasket; the ends of the cord were positioned at the bottom, center of the windshield and taped to the inner glass surface.

Here, we are setting the windshield in place. You can see the cords taped to the glass.



That began a lengthy process of using the cord to coax the rubber channel over the pinch weld flange, while continually positioning the glass into its correct position.



Here's the end result:


Now I get to install the moldings.

While the installer was here, we test fit all the flat glass into the appropriate channels and I bought enough glass setting tape of the proper thicknesses to install all the door and vent window glass. I also got enough bedding compound to install the quarter and liftgate glass. I plan to tackle those pieces myself.

With the windshield installed, I moved on to installing the front inner sheet metal and the engine compartment wire harness. I started on the driver's side, since most of the harness and the battery are on this side. First piece was the inner wheelhouse, along with the core support extension.



The +12V junction block and the main section of the engine and lighting harness are resting on the inner side of the wheelhouse.The new master cylinder brake line fit perfectly.


Retaining clips aren't installed yet, but the harness length and fitment looks great.
This is the headlight and horn connector on the left side of the core support.


More soon!

Amazing work. Simply amazing.

This should have it's own show on the History Channel. Thank you for sharing!

This is artwork. Pure artwork.

WOW.......

It has been nearly 40 years since I did a project like this.
Phenomenal work and patience.
Brought back many memories.

And I know there are travails and conquests that you
have left out because they were difficult but few
would understand the effort required for success.

Lovely and dedicated work.

The accolades due you are well earned.

Very cool project! can't wait to see the end result after all the build up!

the attention to detail on this project is spectacular. I've gotten to see this project from the start, and have been pleased to help where I can, I'm doing my best to be on par with with Joe's attention to detail. I've been enjoying the challenge Joe has given me with the upholstery.

I'll bet the helpers are bragging to their friends about this car! They must be pestering the daylights out of you to finish it so they car go for a ride.

After you show it, please consider converting to a dual master cylinder. It would be terrible to risk this work for something as simple as a failed wheel cylinder. I lost a wheel cylinder on my 65, and it was very close to disastrous. I converted it to dual right after.

Got back from a 3 week vacation on May 17, so I will be catching you up on April's progress...

I installed the center link and set the toe-in close to the alignment spec in the service manual.
This should be adequate for short moves (on and off a trailer for the near future) until I get the car aligned.

April 15 was a big day; my son-in-law and my wife helped load the IP into the passenger compartment. This was not without incident - the passenger door tried to close on my wife's finger and I managed to kink the wiper control cable when we were bringing the IP forward toward the windshield.

Both my wife's finger and the wiper cable responded well to first aid.
IMG_4505 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I made the dash to cowl seals by sewing a vinyl outer wrap around 2 sections of foam-wrapped cord. These seals go between the dash panel and the lower cowl door opening.
20180415_140109 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

I miscalculated the clearance for the cross-car air duct hose. I had installed it in the same space that is occupied by one of the IP hanger struts. I released one of the hose clamps in order to load the IP; I will go back and re-route the hose after all the dash to firewall connections are completed.

The front hood ornament came back from plating in 2 pieces; I told the plater that I would re-assemble the parts. The plater drilled and tapped a pair of holes to accept 2 6-32 X 1/4" screws in place of the original peened heads to attach the "V" to the base.
20180416_151421 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr


I shortened 2 screws and assembled the parts with a tiny drop of silicone to act as an anti-rotation lock.
20180416_151508 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Part looks great!
20180416_153339 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Time to install the fuel tank!

Painted the straps, pre-positioned the tank, sending unit wire and straps where they needed to go, then lifted the empty tank into position. It was a lot easier than I expected.
20180423_075133 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

While under the car, I removed all of the plastic wrap that had protected the frame and running gear from body shop dust and overspray.
Looks pretty good under here!
20180520_152840 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

With the dash in the car, I could see that there was a big gap between the outer edge of the dash panel and the door opening. When the car comes back from having the hood and fenders installed, I will get some helpers to assist with re-positioning the dash. The part of the dash closest to the front seat has to be rotated "up" to close the gap and allow the seals to do their job. The gap is very exaggerated due to the angle of the photo, but you can see how the bottom, front edge of the dash is tight to the door opening, but there is a big opening at the upper curve that needs to be addressed.
20180419_080412 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Installed the main dash harness, fuse block, park brake warning lamp and began connecting all the instruments. Here's a look at the fuse block and the park lamp switch, mounted to the driver's cowl.
20180419_080448 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Routing the control cables for the vent, heater and defroster controls.
20180419_080511 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Engine compartment to main body harness connections all buttoned up!
firewall detail - bulkhead harness connector by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Installing all of the underhood sheet metal, except the 2 access panels behind the front wheels. Those pieces will be installed after the under-seat heater hoses, radio antenna, speedo cable and power brake hoses and tubing is completed.
right frt wheel and sheet metal before fender installation by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Managed to re-position the steering column clamp without removing the dash panel from the car; THAT was a relief! Here you can see tha the steering column lower clamp is in place and the outer "wings" of the dash panel are held away from the doors with painter's tape. Don't want any scratches now!
temporary installation of IP by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

The power brake reservoir I got from Pete Phillips was a 1957 version, which meant it had the tube on the bottom of the tank. The 58 version had a 90 degree inlet tube at the TOP of the tank. It was bothering me that this would be easily identified as a '57 tank, so I decided to re-work the tank to posititon that tube on top.

I removed the tank from the car and, after making absolutely certain that I could swap the brackets end-for-end, I drilled out the spot welds holding the two mounting brackets to the tank. Here's the end of the tank with the bracket removed:
Vacuum tank with brackets removed by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

And here are the brackets:
mounting brackets - vacuum tank by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Re-attaching the brackets:
Lower bracket - vacuum tank by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Tested and re-installed with tube on top!
20180419_131300 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Beautiful Joe. What attention to detail.

Tom

I'm making a big push to get the car back to the paint shop before we leave for vacation on April 27.

Opened up the starter relay and checked it out. It worked perfectly, so I cleaned up the contacts, the terminals and the case cover. Painted the cover and installed it.
Starter relay 1 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Same for the dimmer switch; tested and worked fine, so I cleaned it up and installed it.
Before:
20180420_191440 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

After:
20180420_200949 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

All the front sheet metal installed, getting ready to go back to the painter
20180421_163407 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Ballast resistor and blower motor resistor installed, windshield washer hoses installed to nozzles, wiper motor installed.
20180421_163457 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

On to the rollback!
20180423_131233 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180423_131301 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180423_132036 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Installed the hood center molding, the fender moldings, the headlight buckets and the radio antenna before the panels were installed to the car.
20180424_140728 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

20180424_160113 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

A few more pics of the fenders and hood before installation:
2015.04.26 left fender by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

2018.04.26 left fender headlamp bucket by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

headlight bucket installed LH by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

rt fender with molding by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Got these photos from Masterworks when I was still in Scotland. They did all the body work & paint.
Woo Hoo!
2018.05.15 in the sun by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

2018.05.15 Rt frt view by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

This showed up the day after I returned:
Dash pad carton by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

New dash pad; it looks GREAT!
dash pad wrapper by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

dash pad detail 1 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

dash pad 1 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Here are a couple of pictures of the fenders and hood. The hood bumpers are in and all the re-plated fasteners look great.
LH fender installed - fastener detail by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

2018.05.17 hood hing detail LH by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

2018.05.17 RH hood hinge detail by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

The hinge arms and bases are zinc phosphate plated, then oiled. Hood latch is bright zinc.
2018.05.17 hood latch detail by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Still have some work to do; the fender moldings need some convincing to fit tightly to the fenders.
2018.05.17 RH fender - molding detail by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

When I tried to connect the battery, I got HUGE arcs and sparks. I found a short to ground on the positive power junction post and spent a couple of frustrating hours trying to track down the short. I was finding nearly 0 resistance on the wire that feeds +12V to the coil and the ballast resistor. Took me a while to realize that I had not isolated the points. DOH! AS soon as I stuck a piece of paper between the point contacts, that circuit checked okay.

Re-checked the positive battery cable and found it had 0 ohm resistance to ground; a direct short. What I found was simple, but somewhat embarassing...

Apparently, when I installed the positive battery cable to the junction block, I installed the junction block end "upside down", causing the edge of the junction block base to cut through the heat shrink insulation on the battery cable. You can see the 2 bright spots where the heat shrink tubing was cut.
20180519_093057 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

All I had to do was turn the cable over and the lug no longer touched the base of the power junction block. Easy fix, but I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner.

Next: Brakes!

Was I seeing things? Are those ten lug wheels? Is that common?

Looks like 5 lugs with another pattern drilled into them or holes for a center cap of some kind maybe?

Andebe wrote:

Was I seeing things? Are those ten lug wheels? Is that common?

No, they are 5 lug wheels with a 5" bolt circle.
The smaller holes (between the lug holes) are there to accommodate the hub rivets and/or the guide pin that is screwed into each hub. There's only one guide pin per hub, but the 5 holes allow installation of the wheel without having to index the guide pin hole.

20170406_144501 by 2manycars2littletime, on Flickr

Wow, such a beautiful old wagon. You are doing an excellent job. I love it.

Thanks for educating me,Joe.

I noticed that the filler neck was not centered in the bracket opening.


Only took a few minutes to loosen the straps and shift the tank a little bit.
Much better!


I added DOT4 brake fluid to the master cylinder back in April.
When I pushed the brake pedal, it went to the floor and I found multiple leaks in the system,

Some of the leaks were caused by my forgetting to tighten some of the fittings after loosely assembling all the lines. But some of the leaks have persisted after re-torqing the fittings. I'm still working through the system, one fitting at a time.

Meanwhile, I've brought the car back home for assembly.
This color looks great in the sunlight!


I've had to remove the headlight buckets to to re-fit the eyebrow moldings.


The eyebrow moldings that came with the car were both damaged. In the process of straightening and polishing, the contours changed slightly. The driver's side is ready to go back on and the passenger side should be ready on June 4.


Finally got around to cleaning the blue protective coating from the whitewalls!



I've also been chipping away at trim installation; so far, I've got the hood emblem and 2 of the "whiskers" installed. It's a time-consuming process.


Today, I connected the transmission cooling lines to the radiator, hooked up the fuel and vent lines to the fuel tank, checked the torque on all the transmission mount fasteners and tried to adjust the emergency brake cables. Not sure what's going on with the e-brake cable; there is still slack in the cables with the adjuster at minimum length. I've got more work to do there...

Installed the fender "bulls-eye" ornaments.
It was interesting...
These are current reproduction parts. One of them dropped into position perfectly; the other was too large to fit into the base. I tried one of the original Buick parts I have; it fit perfectly.

I had to grind off the chrome plating and some of the copper plating at the bottom of the emblem shaft to get the emblem to fit into the base. Once I got the emblem to fit into the base, I painted and sealed the base to protect the surfaces. Another case for OEM parts over reproduction parts...

BUT, they sure look good!





The eyebrow moldings are on. These are fun to install...



Then on to the grille. More bling!


The grille still has to be adjusted to fit "square" to the rest of the front end components.

I also started working on the headliner insulation today. Measure, cut, glue, repeat.



Those little bumps in the narrower piece are there because I made the first piece a little too wide. I still need to trim it around the molding retainer nuts.

Next up: grille extensions and front park/turn lamps.

The chrome-plated die cast trim panel gets bolted to the steel base plate, then the lamp is attached to the panel.


The lamp housing attaches with studs, washers and nuts. I ran a tap through all the threaded holes to clean out all the excess copper and chrome plating from the threads.


After assembling the lamp housing to the plate, it's on to the car:




And repeat for the right side...




Just SO cool.

Work of Art. Period.