1961 Invicta Daily Driver

Hello all.

So, I've been working on a partially restored 1961 Invicta (4 dr) for my daily driver. I love this car quite a bit and picked her up for a steal in Reno, NV ($3300 cash). The exterior is a bit weathered (left out in the sun, I think), but the interior was redone a few years back and is in immaculate shape.

I'm not going for a perfect historic restore, nor am I turning her into a hot rod. Just going for a very attractive, clean daily driver. I'm active duty (USN, IS3) and the car gets lots of comments from everyone from my commanding officer, to the gate guards. I plan to redo the paint this year, and aesthetically, the car will be complete.

Now, I'm not the most.. mechanically educated person. I'm not a mechanic by any means, but I've picked up quite a bit over the years. Despite lacking some knowledge, and learning a lot about older vehicles from the Invicta, I've done a lot of general maintenance to her and repairs, without trouble. She was running, but cranky when I bought her in December of '09, and since then she's now running as smooth as my 1998 LeSabre did. Still, I've got a few issues that I'm wondering about solutions for.

1) Windshield. Issue one is that the driver side has lots of little swirly scratches in it. When driving at night, oncoming traffic and street lights nearly blind me, as they create light patterns along the swirls. I'm not sure what formed these, but is there a way to buff them out? My other issue is I'm not sure how the defroster works, or was suppose to, and the window likes to fog over. Not good when you are trying to get to work and you have to try and dry the window off with paper towels every couple minutes. I'm hoping this is mostly a winter issue, as this doesn't happen on warmer days here in Nevada.

2) Speedometer. Hats off to Buick for the 'space age' speedometer, which not only is reversed and projected onto a mirror, but is a bar of lights. Or, well, should be. See, none of the lights are working. I'm moving into an apartment with a garage this next week, and I'm going to take the dash apart and start seeing about replacing bulbs. Any thing I should know about this sort of speedometer? Meanwhile, my Garmin will have to remain my primary indicator of speed (I don't think that would go over well with law enforcement, I keep to very conservative speeds for this reason).

3) Brake lights. They work, but only when quite a bit of force is applied to the brakes, but light braking doesn't illuminate them. Easy way to adjust this? I kinda don't want to get rear ended by the endless jackasses who tailgate me already. Would serve them right, but I love my car too much to see that happen. Also, not dying is high on my priority list. No seatbelts added, not that I think they would do much good.

4) Manual. Any advice on shop manuals for the 401 Nailhead/1961 Buick? I find them around the net, but what would be your recommendations?


I'm sure I'll have other questions. Like I said, I'm a newbie to all this, but I think I have a good enough head to manage to tackle whatever the car throws at me. It's been a very good hobby for me, and I do adore the car. After a couple of extended jaunts of over 150 miles, I'm planning on taking her to San Francisco with my girlfriend (who originally told me to buy the car when I found it on Craig's List. She's a keeper, right?).

Once I get enough post, I'll add pictures and the videos of the car on here.

 

Now I know this sounds weird, but check your tail lights for short circuits. My '60 Invicta developed a short in the wiring and when it burned out it took the brake light switch AND the dash lights out. Once the circuit was completed again, the dash lights started working again. Every light in that car is run through your headlight switch, and Buick built in a failure indicator that when the tails fail, the dash lights go out.

Good luck!

 

I'll try and answer a few of your questions.

#1: There are products out there to restore glass and windsheilds ( compounds and buffing wheels). I can't think of any off the top of my head, but they are out there. A quick Google search should turn something up.

As far as the defroster, I can only speak for how it operates on my '62. When you depress the defrost lever, it moves a cable which pulls a lever on the heater core box under the dash. That in turn allows air to flow from the outlets thru the air duct tubes to the inlets in the dash. Sounds like the lever isn't operating correctly, or the tubes are disconnected.

#3: I'd check out the brake pressure switch, might be faulty.

#4: I'm not aware of any Nailhead specific manuals, but a '61 Chassis and Body Manual are a must have. Check out eBay, they are on there quite often.

Oh yea, welcome to V8 :beer ! Looking foreward to the pics.

 

@Marc: Will do.

However, currently I have working lights in the dash. Someone did something to it a while back and I have no clue what the lights should be indicating. All the indicator lights symbols have been moved around. The right blinker light is functioning on the far right of the dash display, but it reads 'TOW'. When running the engine at anything above an idle, the second from the right light comes on steady, with the right turn signal symbol on it. The light next to that reads 'COLD' backwards and doesn't illuminate. On the left side of the panel none of the lights work (except a backlight that illuminates the panel). The furthest to the left is left turn signal symbol, but doesn't light (the turn signal does work, however). The next light is... I really don't recall. The next one (closest to the centre) read 'GEN' (generator, I assume).

It's really screwed up, and I would like to figure out where each one really should go, what light bulbs need replacements and what should or shouldn't be illuminated and when.

@Andy:

Thanks. I'll look into all that. The sliders for the air confuse me. I once got really hot air coming from the floor vents, then never again. Something I plan to look into soon. Thanks for the advice, this is a learning experience, but I'm enjoying it.

 

2) Your Garmin is very accurate. Mine matches my speedo all the time.

3) A set of JC Whitney seat belts would be a good idea, (imho).

eBay is the place to look for the factory chassis manual.

Here's one now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1961...00442719365QQptZMotorsQ5fManualsQ5fLiterature

at 39.00, I'd jump on it.

That sounds like a bad ground. Once you can take it all apart, clean up all the connections.

Welcome!

 

If you can C&P this link, you can see the car and various work being done (or should be able too..).

facebook.com/album.php?aid=143411&id=664021690&l=4cba3a2dc7


It would be a project, but part of me is very, very tempted to start running all new wires. So many are in horrific shape, while others are tiny, added later, and I don't think are up to the power loads. All of them are very ridged, as well, with some damage to the jackets. While everything else on the car is great, the electrical side of things is kinda scary.

 

Welcome to the board!

The foggy windshield could be a leaky heater core and maybe why the heat is not working.Pull the carpet on the pass side floor and check for water/coolant.Look around also where the hoses attach to it on both sides of the firewall for any leaks.

As posted above,the chassis manual is a must.Good luck with it.

 

Hello from another '61 owner!

I have a '61 LeSabre sedan that I recently aquired.
http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=196858 I haven't torn into the dash much...yet. I'm having many of the same problems as you are.

The cold light could be the temperature sensor on the water crossover or the bulb, or the wire in between. You can get a new sensor from NAPA. I forget the part number, but it took a while to find the right one, but Found it.

I have a 61 Chassis manual. That's what you'll need. You may want to pick up a body manual too but it's not as important at this time.

 

Sounds like a problem with travel on the brake pedal arm & the brake light switch. Light braking the pedal is depressed only a small amount, not enough to activate the switch.
Hard braking the pedal travels further, activating the switch as it goes.
See if it's an adjustable switch. Later cars had a switch secured to the brake pedal support. The end was threaded so you can adjust it in & out. Unplu the wiring connector before you rotate it around a few times.

 

That's how my '64 was, except the opposite. they'd stay on. Same problem

 

Same problem, same solution?

I'm going to check out that today. See if I can't fix it.

 

Should be the same solution. Those switches are pretty generic, and were used for a number of years.

Your dash lights are another problem, they're on a printed circuit, and it was the second year for that design. As such, those printed circuit panels can be difficult to troubleshoot and fix. 1959 was the last year they used wire to each individual bulb. Your best bet is to find a service manual and a wiring schematic. The 1960 speedo cluster is exactly the same cluster as your 1961, so you have two years to get parts from.

 

Thanks for the help. The shop manual is on its way, and I hope to gt cracking on the dash soon.

Little snag, I'll be traveling out of country for a couple months. Any advice on storing the car? I have a garage now. Just disconnect the battery? And thing else advised? Should I run the engine and pull the choke to kill it, when I park it for the last time before I leave (it what I was taught to do with aircraft motors)?

When I come back, I'll have more than the funds I need to fix all the little things (new window seals, new gaskets on the engine, transmission and brake service) and get a new paint job.

 

For just a couple of months, just take it out and get it good and hot, stop alnd fill the tank with gas, air the tires to 32, and you will be fine in a garage. It sure wouldn't hurt to take the negative terminal off the battery. For 2 months, you dont need Sta-Bil, but if you want to use it cool.

 

Oh yeah. I forgot that the '61s have the switch on the master/brake line

 

Didn't go on deployment after all, but I am repairing the master cylinder right now.

The switch was an easy fix and the lights work now, except that the master cylinder seems to have burst a gasket and it won't hold fluid. Parts are on order.

 

Some pictures, just to make the thread more complete.