Sorry for keeping you waiting.
 Here's a pic of the completed
long block.
The valve cover is Cermakrome coated. Note the GM 605-series power
steering
box. The sector shaft has exactly the same diameter and spline count as
the original box, so the original pitman arm bolts right on. The bigger
and
better 800-series box would have a larger sector shaft. The only
drawback
with this 605 box is that it moves the sector shaft 2 inches to the
passenger
side, so I had cut the center link at driver's side and make it longer
at the other end, to compensate. |
| Not visible in
this picture, but I had to make a new rear engine mount and a trans
mount for the Super T-10. The clutch received a new clutch plate, and new throwout and pilot bearings. Standard GM stuff. |
 This picture
doesn't do justice to my
hand fabricated pushrod cover. This finned aluminum cover is once again
one of those items I don't really need, but my pal Warre talked me over
to make it. Now that I've done it, I must admit that it looks hot.
The breather is an Edelbrock item.
As far as I can tell, none of the '46 Buicks came with an oil filter. I'm using a leftover filter relocation kit here. It's a side-flow filter only. |
| The fuel/vacuum pump, water pump, starter and
distributor are
loaded with new internals. The water pump overhaul kit is a story in
itself. You won't find an overhaul kit for a 1946 water pump anywhere,
except that I found one here in Helsinki! That's right! There's a parts
store that's been owned by the same family for decades, and they have
kept a lot of the old stuff. I also found a new Stromberg AAV-26, and
it only fits the 40's Buick 320! The distributor has a Pertronix kit inside, and a NOS vacuum advance diaphragm that I found on Ebay - thanks Wayne! I won't use a single used hose in this car. I've had my share of that old hose horror with my other cars. |
 |
| I had to use a chainsaw to
widen up the
doorway of my basement, to get the body out of there. It went in
without
fenders, and came out with fenders leaded on ;-) The body is
mounted
on a rack with castors, being easy to move around.
You might be amazed that I painted the roof in this pavillion, but it's the best place I have. I sanded the body to bare metal, performed some more panel beating and leading, then brushed on Spies-Hecker Zinc Chromate primer, then sprayed on some layers of PPG DP-40 Epoxy. I let the epoxy cure for a few days, then came back, wet sanded with 320 grit, and applied some plastic filler to smoothen up the roof, let it cure one day, dry sanded it, brushed more zinc chromate where I cut back into the metal, and sprayed some more epoxy over the whole roof. After a few days I came back and wet sanded it all with 400 grit. Then I sprayed on a white PPG basecoat on the roof, followed by white pearl (neutral mixer), and finally a few coats of clear. The lower body will receive another color at a later stage. Everything looked perfect (less
insects
in the clearcoat) until next morning. It appears the plastic filler
shows
through the paint. This shouldn't have happened. I let everything cure
and shrink much longer than recommended, and the 2-part epoxy should
have
sealed the filler. The experts say that I should have mixed well, not
only
the filler, but the hardener too. And I shouldn't have sprayed my epoxy
so heavy and wet over the filler, because it can react and swell the
filler
if too heavy coats of paint are applied at once. So either the filler
is
outgassing something, or the successive coats of paint sank into the
filler,
dulling off the clearcoat.
|