posting pics?

[electra225]

Watching me trying to get something involving a computer to work is not an occasion for the faint of heart to witness......

[electra225]

i reset the system so the pictures will be smaller. Let's see...

[TC Chris]

What year and model?
Chris Campbell

[electra225]

That is a 100% factory-correct 1954 264 cubic inch "Fireball" V-8. It's in a Special sedan, model 41-D, sold new in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It is still owned by the original owner, now 93 years young. This particular model has no power steering, power brakes and no Dynaflow.

[Firedome]

Wow that is one beautiful engine compartment... one of your restorations Greg? '54-56 are some of my favorite Buicks.

[electra225]

Art did the restoration on that one. It was done before I opened my shop. I believe it was done in 1992 or 1993. Marie still maintains it in that condition at 93. She's a spry little lady. I've done some work and re-restoration on it. There are no torque tube parts left for standard transmission cars. The front u-joint went out, so a custom driveshaft had to be built for it. Marie would never let us take the dents out of the upper radiator tank. The radiator is original, and she was afraid we might destroy the radiator removing and knocking the dents out of the upper tank. Most all upper tanks you see on those old Buicks are dented in from people leaning on them over the years.

[William]

Good Ole' Marie. I have met her I think twice, maybe three times tops. She remembers me each time, and I'm referred to as the tall guy from Michigan.

Bill

[electra225]

Yep, you are the tall guy from Michigan. Of course, to Marie, everybody is the tall guy. She's not very big. But she does remember you.

[electra225]

Bill, I included the front fender of Rich's '63 Bonne station wagon. 421, Tri-Power, eight lugs, AC, the works. Even had GuideMatic. I know you like that car.

[TC Chris]

When I was sent to TN fora year, arriving in Nov. 1969, I knew I couldn't afford to drive around in the ''65 Olds Starfire I had driven down in. So I looked around for a used car and parked the Olds. My price range was < $200, max. I test-drove a '55 Buick with Dynaflow. 4-dr sedan, blue. I think I worried a bit about the gas mileage with a V-8 and Dynaflow and maybe the car's age, so I ended up buying a '62 Corvair Monza with unknown actual mileage. Seems to me it was reading about 67K. It seems likely that it should have another 100K added to that. In any event, the little car endured my thrashing for a year and I sold it for what I had paid for it. All it required was oil to replace the puddles it left when parked.

The previous owner had removed the choke linkages from both carburetors. To start it I had to use rubber bands to hold the choke plates closed. That got old in a hurry so a trip to the Chevy dealer got me the 2 rods, and the chokes worked just fine when set up properly.

I've always wondered what happened to the '55 Buick.

A 93 year old original owner. That's quite a feat.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

We lost a member of our local Buick club last August. He was 98 when he passed away and drove his '38 Special until he was 94. I posted a picture of him and his car on the other forum.

[TC Chris]

We lost a member of our local Buick club last August. He was 98 when he passed away and drove his '38 Special until he was 94. I posted a picture of him and his car on the other forum.

Last weekend I rotated (i.e., turned to make a new flat spot) and pumped up the tires on my '38 Special. I'm getting more inclined to throw cash at getting it restored. Keep that in mind in case you hear about restoration shops in the Michigan region.

Chris Campbell

[William]

Thanks Greg for the photo of the Bonnie. I love that car, it is absolutely gorgeous!

Chris, I can check on the car place here in Hart if you would like to see if they would be interested in your Buick?

Bill

[TC Chris]

Thanks Greg for the photo of the Bonnie. I love that car, it is absolutely gorgeous!

Chris, I can check on the car place here in Hart if you would like to see if they would be interested in your Buick?

Bill

That would be welcomed, Bill. Hart is probably a reasonable trailer drag from Bay City.

Chris Campbell

[walyfd]

Bernie Boback was a BOC guy from my area. He had a '56 Century in blue and gray. He drove that car everywhere. Sadly, he's gone now and nobody has seen his car in years...

I'm doing this '62 Fleetwood and think about all the people who knew I always wanted one but will never get to see it. I'm wondering if I'll ever see it done...

[electra225]

My grandpa had a '56 Century that was dark metallic blue with peach under the sweepspear, and a metallic gray top. 2-door hardtop, with power windows, power antenna and five Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels. That was his second-favorite Buick. He liked his souped-up '37 Century better. He kept that old '56 until he died. My cousins still has it. It had everything you could get on a '56 Century except air conditioning. It had the aluminum bellhousing Dynaflow and a window distributor like the '57's had. It was his first new Buick since the '37 Century that would outrun his buddy Russ's Twin H-Power Hudson Hornet. The '56 Century was LOTS faster than the '55 was.

[Motorola minion]

This is what I started with. My radios were GE, Panasonic, Trutone and Sanyo pocket jobs, so my standards were pretty modest as a kid. Then I learned to fix the tube stuff and it was a new world. A Fisher 610 got me hooked.

[electra225]

We all started with something basic, I guess. I still have my mom's Gilt Edge record player, a 78-only model, circa 1946, that she bought at Sears. The cartridge is dead, of course. I may try to put a later model tone arm on it with a different cartridge. Then soup up the amplifier to accomodate the cartridge. I still have my little Truetone 4-speed kiddie player that I got for Christmas in 1959 along with a 45 of "Calcutta" and Lawrence Welk's Christmas album. I still have those. The Truetone has a 4" speaker with 50C5 audio. It has a million hours on it, and shows it!

[19&41]

When I was 6, my grandparents taught me the correct way to play one of these. It was the first phonograph I used and listened to on my own. I still have it, boxed up, so this pic from bing will have to do. My next audio device was a Hitachi tape recorder.

[TC Chris]

When I was about 5 my parents bought a house that came with a console Sonora acoustic phonograph in the basement, and a bunch of 78 discs in the storage drawers. It was a big mahogany thing with Queen Ann legs/pad feet. It has a big wooden tone arm. I'd go down in the basement when bored or weather was bad and play the 78s.

The mechanical part was European--brass, polished and lacquered even though nobody could see it unless you pulled the works out. There's the theory that character is how you behave when nobody is looking; we could modify it to say quality is how you make something that most people will never see.

Still have it, in storage now. Cool device, and a hi-fi of its time.

For newbies, I'll post the link to the YouTube video of my first non-78 phono--a basic one-tube RCA steel suitcase device:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrc0enXp8AY&t=62s

Pretty basic, but RCA insisted it had "Golden Throat" tone.... The sticker says so, so it must be true.

Chris Campbell