My first thought was; "Cool, he found an old ad with a wagon of the same color!" Then I noticed the tires and license plate, and, realized; No! it's the same car! Great photos. Well, that's a nice wagon. But, that Roadmaster! The buckskin color on the top compliments the red very nicely. It's beautiful,! I love the Roadmasters, every year model.
Well, it's back and installed. Here's the rebuilt motor, with transmissions and cables renewed and tension adjusted. Ready to go.
Roof rails and quarter class are now in. Adjustments fore/aft and up/down are finally complete to my satisfaction. To my satisfaction.... has always been both a blessing and a curse...Sometimes I have to just stop because it's not going to get any better. No glass cleaner handy, so we have fingerprints this time around.
Looks good and tight.:TU: I can appreciate the effort that took. The dispy doodle the rear window does, going up and down, is a real bear to get adjusted.
Back to finishing the evaporator installation.... Since we now know it will fit with the dash frame temporarly back in and the PS defroster duct removed , it's time to finish it up. So here are a few pictures. Now I can paint the dash, start putting the instruments back in it and wire it up. I'll put the almost complete dash back in as a unit except for the dash pads. The interior shop can have that little task after they get some leather on them. Well, that should keep me busy for awhile and off the streets.
Amazing work! 12 or so years back I build a 57 identical to the car you started with except mine was owned by a doctor who drove it very little and kept it covered up in the garage. I swore to keep that car until one night my wife and I drove it to dinner and some lady had a fit over it and her husband wanted it for their anniversary. I priced the car well over what i consider the value he bought it on the spot. I've regretted it ever since. There is a white 57 super in Harriman Tn with 32k original miles that someone decided to chop and lost interest. From the Doors down the body is perfect and complete last time I saw it. The guys name is Rex Walls if anyone is interested. Im not promoting him in any way and have no offilication or connection. Just thought someone might need it.
Regarding the modification of the PowerGen alternator, I'll eventually get to some aspects of re-wiring the engine (including this special alternator) and want to keep it all together in this one thread. So I'm transferring some of the verbage from a seperate post to here to keep it all in one place. For this ’57 Riviera we’re doing, we wanted an alternator that retained the looks of the original generator and with the same bolt up pattern. Powermaster has a one wire alternator that does exactly that and is very reasonably priced. However, there was one other feature we needed in order to duplicate the original starter performance and reliability. This related to the so called ‘push to start’ function. After contacting them and exchanging some pertinent information, they promptly came up with a modification (which can be quickly done upon request) to their one wire alternator that duplicated the function of the original stock set up. <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O></O> Short Answer: <O></O> Needed the alternator to perform the same function as the original generator by providing a ground through the starter relay and then taking away the ground when the engine starts and generator is turning. This is the ‘redundant’ back up to the possible failure of the vacuum function of the steel ball in the carburetor at the accelerator switch which opens and closes the ignition to starter circuit. <O></O> <O></O> Long Answer: <O></O> Without getting too technical, the accelerator switch on the carburetor closes when you push the pedal down due to the small steel ball being forced up against the two ignition terminals (by the throttle shaft) on the carburetor, The engine starts and vacuum pulls the ball away opening the switch and the starter disengages. At the same time, the starter relay loses its ground when the OEM generator starts turning and puts current up to the ground side of the starter relay. That’s the backup (plan B if you will) in case the little steel ball ‘sticks’ or is gummed up and the starter doesn’t disengage when the engine starts pulling vacuum and begins running. It required an internal modification to the alternator itself and the addition of a simple ISO relay to the starter circuit, which when energized, took away the ground at the starter relay..just like the generator did. Some pictures with comment: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/23702152
Work on re-assembling the dash back together after complete rebuild is coming along. The bezels and little knobs of the cold and heat levers are yet to be installed. Old Air Products has offered to assist in utilizing most of the OEM AC/Heater/Defroster/Blower controls to adapt to their evaporator. This will eliminate the necessity of an aftermarket 'add on' control box under the dash, if we can pull it off. The leather padded dash top and two front pads will be the same color as the steering wheel which is being recast at a shop somewhere in California. It will be a shade similar to 'India Ivory' of '57 Chevy fame. Here's a couple of general pictures. The second picture basically shows the color comparison of the body of the car and the dash. The body is PPG basecoat/clearcoat with pearl and the dash is their single stage 'Concept' with no pearl in it. Everything looks completely different outside in the sun. Artifical light does crazy things with color sometimes. Will start re-wiring the dash pretty quickly now. I better go to bed.
Beautiful Car indeed! I am new to the forum here in NJ. I am looking for a 1974 LeSabre Luxus Convertible... Can you instruct me on how to post to a message board or to other members - Sorry to bother
I'll send a private message to you about posting if you haven't figured it out by now. Meanwhile, here's three shots of the rear bumper install. Not only is it heavy, but tweaking that bad boy was the highlight of the day for me....It was a battle, but I eventually won. This car will have the dual exhausts and we do have the 'dual' left side exhaust manifold which is different than the single exhaust driver's side manifold.
Wow! Jack, that Bumper looks like a million dollars! (the dash, too!) And, the bumper alignment with all the other rear trim is perfect. We had a time getting our '55 on and, lined up. But, the '57 bumper looks to be more of a flush fit to the body. Not to mention that; the fender trim, and, the bumper has to line up. Good Job :TU:
Good work Jack. Tell me, on the engine bay photo above, are those new brake lines or do you clean, phospho then silver paint them? Just curious. If new where did you get them?
This car was assembled at the Arlington, Texas, GM plant and had the single right side exhaust pipe to the rear. As most of you hard core Buick guys already know, the left side manifold is different for dual exhaust on these cars. So, we had to locate a good servicable left side 'dual' manifold and eventually did (not cheap.) We then sandblasted and shot it with cast gray high heat curable paint which matched the right side manifold. After 2 hrs @400 degrees, it was cooled down and installed. We had a left side rear bumper end 3 piece 'exhaust hanger bracket' duplicated from the right side piece by our fellow hot rodder, good friend and master fabricator over in Ft. Worth. Only catch is that it angles in from the opposite direction than the right side. For him...no problem...come and get it! We did. I love these guys...... So, up at 5 AM Monday morning and with the car on the car hauler, made the hour and a half trip to Weatherford, Texas, to have the exhaust system installed. The mufflers are Flowmasters. Same (two) guys at same location have done all the show cars from my shop for the last 23 years. The're good...lots of custom cars come out of the Ft. Worth-Dallas area and make that little drive because of their reputation. I took a couple of pictures before they dropped the lift down. Sometimes I move the camera, so pictures aren't great. The car is safely back in my shop and this time we beat the forecast for rain and too, this task is always a good one to have behind you. Need to re-route the speedometer cable a little bit, but that's about it. While I'm thinking of it.....a special thanks to member Tom Telesco (telriv), who continues to come up, in a timely manner, with some desireable and hard to find parts as I move toward that light at the end of the tunnel. It's getting bigger.....
These were is such great shape, I saw no reason to change them out. Already had the correct bends, protective windings and ended up with no leaks.
The dash is now basically wired and ready for installation. I modified the stock wiring harness that dealt the AC/heater function, in order to use the original levers and switches as much as possible with the Old Air Hurricane set up. The idea here was to eliminate having to add an aftermarket switch box and levers underneath and connected to the bottom of the dash. We changed out the cold range and heat range plastic lenses for the vertical levers on this AC equipped car with the lenses from a non-AC car. The lever function for the cold range (left side) lense lettering is different between the two cars and we want to use the left side lever and cable for the defrost door. Tom Telesco (telriv) was kind enough to provide the lense for us. Thanks Tom. Notice in the next picture that the factory AC dash end duct has been reduced from 2 1/4" down to 2" to fit the aftermarket evaporator duct and hose size. The hose adapter was securely mounted to the dash inlet duct by drilling opposite sides for a small sheetmetal screw. I used stainless screws here to avoid any tendency of rusting over time by the cold damp air. Never really liked the overuse of duct tape when not necessary. Will do a flip on the deck lid and shoot the top side as soon as I mask off the bottom side. The paint line is up to the seam which gives it a good break. Hinges are done and hope to have this lid mounted to the body by the end of the week. The rubber seal on this car goes on the body and not the lid. Trivia...the Tri-Five Chevys has the seal on the deck lid and the early '50s Chevys has the seal split...top half of the seal on the body and the bottom half on the lid.....Nothing consistant sometimes, so you have to pay attention. The windshield should be going on sometime this week, and then the back glass and two side glasses. There is a total of 17 pieces for this backglass area including the moldings and the retainers. The retainers are all restored, new tack strip installed, and as soon as the stainless moldings are polished, it's all going on pretty soon now. Everything has it's time and place and keeping it organized is the key. Got to go to bed.
Thanks Bulldog. Spent this past week on the deck lid after getting the windshield in. After having the lid soda blasted , it was covered with one coat of epoxy primer some time ago and set aside. After finally getting around to it, I shot 2 coats of primer surfacer, blocked it, then one coat of sealer followed by 3 layers of basecoat. After wipedown, shot it with 5 coats of clear. That's a total 12 coats and normally par for the whole car. Was tired puppy and late at night. The rest of the weekend was spent color sanding with 1000 and 2000 grit and finished up buffing and polishing and finally done. That basically leaves the hood and inner fenders. Front fenders are already done. Going to put that off for a little while and get that dash installed and modify the new engine harness for the alternator. Here's a couple of pictures.
G'day James and Jack, Well the big day arrived last Saturday, and the Buick almost stole the show. I used my 57 2 dr Special Riviera for the main Bridal car, and hired a couple of 57 Chevs for the rest of the bridal party . The 2 dr pillarless Belair was for the groomsmen to get to the church, whilst the 4-dr Belair catered for the Bridesmaids. The three cars certainly looked the part. All 3 solid white cars. All unmolested classics from 1957. The cars certainly made a great impression on the day. :TU: The weather was fantastic.... bright blue sunny sky and little wind. Everything on the day went to plan, and everyone had a grand time. I've attached a few pics of the cars. :beer
