23. new paint and wheels off

27.1.12

We had a good evening scraping and sanding and painting the chassis.

Little Phil came round and we made a big step forward with the restoration process.

The chassis and cross members are now shiny black again and looking great. We sanded the rear springs back to bare metal and later covered them in clean oil.

There are still some detail bits to paint, and I will have to get right underneath the car to finish the painting. The flash photography has highlighted a few bits we missed.

Next week we hope to get the wheels off for cleaning, and sort out the front springs and rusty brakes.

30.1.12

I have been reading the 1928 Buick Reference book. It shows how to get the tyres off, but not the whole wheel.  The parts list has the hub caps, and a hexagon nut on the end of the axle.

I thought it said 4 nuts, all 3/4″ thread dia and 2 of them are left hand thread, 2 right hand. Which makes sense, as I would expect left hand nuts on the left side of the car, to prevent them unscrewing when the wheels are going round.

Saturday I took one of the rear hub caps off, it was only finger tight, and found a big rusty nut inside. Not the 3/4″ nut I was expecting.  It measured 1.48″ A/F which I took to be 1.1/2″ spanner size. This was a mistake as the expensive 1.1/2″ socket I bought on Sunday is loose on the nut.

I now know that 7/8″ whitworth spanner is about 1.48″ across the flats and might be a better fit. Whitworth sizes are English, not American, and I would be surprised if this is original.

Today I used the 1.1/2″ socket to loosen the right side rear wheel nut easily. Removing the rear wheel from the axle is not so easy. More later.

The front right wheel has the 3/4″ R/H nut, as per the parts list, and I undid this, and the front wheel came off easily.

4.2.12

We got the front wheels off easy and Little Phil made a good job of cleaning them up. The front right is fine, but the left wheel has suffered more from the damp storage conditions, and some of the blue paint needs touching up.

We left the rear wheels in place. They are stuck fast on the tapered axle, and we need a wheel puller to get them off. I was going to use a method I read on the AACA forum http://forums.aaca.org/f165/how-do-wheels-come-off-320943.html that involves use of a big hammer, but Magic Brian has offered to make a puller, so we will wait and do it the correct way.

Phil then rubbed down the front springs and oiled them liberably, while I checked our boxes of spares for the missing brake parts.  The covers are missing off the rear brake drums, as are the big bolts & nuts.

I found enough dust covers for all 4 wheels, a couple need repairing, but we do not have the big operating bolts and springs for the rear wheels.
Brian!!

We will strip the brakes to get them blasted, and give the bolts to Magic Brian.

Project Buick is now progressing nicely, thanks to the new workshop and Little Phil’s enthusiasm.

Rodney the electrician is very busy at the moment, but will hopefully call next week to access the work needed on the lectrics.

7.2.12

Magic Brian has made a magic puller.

We tried it on the right rear wheel and it popped off without any effort at all.

The thread on the left rear hub is damaged, so we will file the thread before we try the puller on that wheel.