Light At The End Of The Tunnel- '49 Riviera Update

by Paul Blackbourn

Geeze, Motorvaters…

How long has it been since I sent in an update? I have not seen the light of day since the last article – honest, I’ve been in the garage all that time.

I left you with tales of rebuilding the gearbox and the engine, and an ending comment that the main body had just been bolted onto the frame, waiting for all the panels to be fitted thereafter. Well people, I can tell you that it took me around a year to fit, paint, refit, hack, whack and smack all the panels into shape.

In brief, the front fenders can’t have ever fitted properly, as the fender overlapped the sill when the gaps were set correctly all around the door. So the part of the fender that meets with the sill had to be cut back about 10mm on each side and made as though it had never been touched. All the inner fenders were just blasted and painted satin black (easy) but the hood had to be ultrasonically dipped as it had been left in bare metal for many years before I had it; other than that it didn’t require too much work, just paint.

There was a day quite recently when I managed a 15-minute non-stop string of loud swearing. I was on my back messing around with something under the body when I pushed against something with my foot and that thing fell against the rear fender and dented it. Well I could have packed it in there and then, luckily this disaster did not break the paint, so I managed to sort it out. If swearing could fix things I’d be the best in the world at times.

In article two, the hydraulic window and seat lifters were mentioned briefly. I had been running them up and down on occasion on the little rig / set up that I constructed for this purpose. The original seal design in these cylinders is very primitive. It had crossed my mind while rebuilding them, the "don’t mend if it ain't broke" theory, i.e. keep the same design of seal inside them. This proved to be the wrong thing to do as I noticed after a while that they were starting to weep oil. So bite the bullet again… Take them all to pieces and have a new set of seals made to a different design, I’m quite confident now that they will be fine. Anyway, that’s it, they’re in now and stopping in.

There came a stage just after the final gloss coat was applied, that all the smaller pieces of car i.e. lights, dashboard with loom, wiper mechanisms and so on could be brought out of storage and bolted to the body. I tell you, it was a fantastic fitting some shiny parts to the body after all this time.

The engine bay was the next port of call, just a bare engine sat there in need of all its plumbing, cables, ignition, and the loom to be connected up to give life where it hadn’t been for many a long year. (I’d love to know when the motor last ran.) The hard work done over the years before, again paid off, as I can’t recollect many, if any, major skull pains whilst connecting things to the engine ready for the day -that day - the great day of the fire up.

After all the fitting together, with the carb, oil system, water and gearbox primed, the ignition was set statically, a 12-volt battery borrowed to run the timing light (6-volt car, remember) we started. Oh, the back wheels were off the ground in case it decided to set off out of the garage on its own. Basically, she popped, coughed, and groaned to life within two or three cranks of the engine and the complimentary tipple of gas thrown down the throat of the carb (she likes a drink!).

You might be fooled into thinking that I have done everything on the Buick. Well, I haven’t, as the front and rear windshields proved to be one thing I do not profess to be any good at. I had two full-day attempts at fitting the rear screen and gave it up, as a job for the man who can, normally me, but not on this occasion. While trying to fit the rear glass I scratched the roof, stabbed myself with a screwdriver, and got the whole of the rear of my beautiful baby covered in this non-setting black stuff. The man who can, arrived, and left two hours later with both front and rear screens in (I’m saying nothing) only it took me 2 hours to get all that black stuff off the back of the car. Go on laugh….

So to round up where we are now, the car starts up on the key and drives in and out of the garage with me sat on a jerry can for a seat. All the vacuum systems are fine and we also have brakes now, along with all the electrical system connected and functioning ok (after hunting down those evil bad earth connections). The hydraulics are all in the car and working, though I only have the rear quarter lights in place at the moment, but will probably have all the windows completed by the time you get to read this.

A question often asked is: "How long until you have finished?" My reply is: "About four grand!" And with the Buick Nationals, to celebrate100 years of Buick on it’s way, the four grand will take a side line until after I’ve been to the Flint, Michigan meet, July 23rd to 27th - see you there, Buick nuts.

So, left to do are: the interior, some chrome, and a set of five tyres to get, plus the usual bag load of smaller finishing off parts. After that, find something else to start…You’ve got to be joking, it’s someone else’s turn next. Back in the tunnel…