Dash Cluster As you can see in the first pic the cluster is so dirty throughout you can't read anything at all. Disassembly provided the answers to where all that muck came from. First, it's obvious this was a smokers car. A HEAVY smoker. The mirror, speedo lense and the cluster housing were thick with that smoke tinge. That was most of the "fog". Careful cleaning with a soft brush and liquid soap brought the mirror and plastic speedo lense around. There was some deterioration of red around the speed #s and the fuel gauge but I deemed acceptable to run for a driver. The metal top cover beneath the lense is painted reflective white, and as you can see in the pics, pretty deteriorated from the humid Missouri air. this and cluster top cover were tough to clean. In the end a brush and soap didn't cut it. Had to to use a mild 3M pad and soap. Surprised I could save both of them in the end. Thankfully, inside the cluster things were nice and clean. Only two areas of concern. First is the cable head of the speedo. These go dry over time and squeak or in worst case start to seize and break the speedo cable. This assembly is swedged together from the factory and non serviceable. OK.... you COULD take it apart, but it would be a nightmare and risk breakage. I opted to drill a small hole in the casting to expose the shaft and put a light oil in the "well" that feeds the shaft. Worked great, speedo head turns nice and smooth now. Second problem is the trip odometer. The reset gear and shaft seized and someone turned the reset cable hard enough to break the cable off in the shaft. Broken cable came right out when I tapped on the shaft. The shaft worked loose with a little brake cleaner. Apply a light oil (use drill bit coated in the oil for tight areas...) Parts car had the trip cable needed. Checked the workings of the rest of the cluster and all looks good. when it warms up (it's -3 today) I'll hit the garage and check all the lights and connections. When I've seen pictures of other '60s speedo clusters it seems as though the nice ones are a much brighter white than mine. Even the areas that were covered from sun are no brighter in color on mine. All in all it turned out very acceptable. This cluster, as with so many other things from the era, is just a marvel of engineering. Check out the frame for the mirror, the cluster top plate and the housing. all heavy cast. Workings of the adjustable mirror. Unusual white background. The speedo design etc....... Just great stuff. The last pics are of the trip odometer cable. I'm sure it should have some kind of knob on the end of it. Have no idea what it looks like or where to obtain one. Ideas?? Steve weim55 Colorado
Mosslack, If your '61 is the same as mine the left signal and COLD light are both sun bleached more than the right signal. Maybe that's the brightness difference? Mine all have the same bulb. My owners manual states the bulbs that should be used. Mixed bulbs? Steve weim55 Colorado
Yeah Steve, the '61 is slightly different as mine uses the printed circuit board with plastic sockets and the all glass bulbs and wire contacts instead of the old metal based bulbs yours uses. But the layout of the indicators seems to be the same. Mine just does not have the candle power to fully light up the right turn signal indicator. On mine, the left side turn indicator green filter was faded, so I used a green LED type bulb there. It works great. The one on the right uses the standard bulb and is just not as bright. I indicated in the picture below why I think it's not as bright due to the fact the bulb is offset from the indicator. I may try a brighter bulb and see if that makes the difference. And yes the COLD light was also faded and I used a green LED bulb there which works great! Nice job on the cluster, luckily mine was not in that bad of shape and I was able to clean it okay just using Tuff Stuff interior cleaner. Also my knob is missing on the trip mileage reset, but the reset works as it should.
Some interesting numbers........ My bottom of the line 4411 LeSabre 2 door sedan was the cheapest Buick in 1960. $2756.00 with no options. A 1960 Impala 2 door hardtop, top of the line Chevy, with a base 283 and no options went for $2704.00. Slightly cheaper than the base Buick.That Impala was a pretty zooty car for the $$. But it is a Chevy. Makes me think of the perception between the makes at the time. If just the fact that you owned a Buick put you a couple steps up. I'm too young to know about that. I won't be able to toss my own opinion in here 'til I have my LeSabre on the road. A top of line Electra 225 was $4300.00. A full $1544.00 more than my LeSabre. A huge difference. The floors got the POR 15 treatment on Friday when it was warm here. The smell of that stuff was so strong even with the car closed in the garage it stunk up the whole house. Had to push the car outside just to breathe safely in the house. Then it snowed. Of course......I'll post about the floors when they're finished. Steve weim55 Colorado
Clock My LeSabre does not have the optional clock. Which is a bummer as the '60 Buick has one of the coolest clocks to ever grace an automobile. The clock in my parts car went missing by the time I purchased it. I will add one later when find a good example. And thanks to Buick it will be easy when that time comes. The clock pedistal on the dash is completely wired and ready to go. Even though the car didn't come with the clock originally. All you have to do is back out one allen screw and just slide the clock in place of the blank. Done. For the time being my blank housing will have to do. Steve weim55 Colorado
Interesting. I just assumed that was a clock when you were talking about removing the cluster. The '61 mounts directly on the dash pad between to the main pods and is colored the same as the dash instead of chrome. I see clocks for the '61 on ebay all the time, hope the same is true for the '60. Very nice polish job on the clock delete?
Floors The first thing performed at the start of the project was to repair all the rust damage to the floors. Getting back to the finish work of the floors now. With all the holes fixed the rest of the floors needed to be cleaned and prepped for POR 15 Coating. All the floors had a fair amount of surface rust to clean up plus under the back seat area was flakey and pitted. Pretty nasty but not rusted through. We used a 4" disc grinder with a couple of brutal wire wheels and a 3/8' drill with a smaller wire wheel for the tight areas. These made quick work of the job. The nasty areas clean to solid metal really well. A couple hours had the floors ready final cleaning and paint prep. Kevin washed the floors, dryed everything off and applied the first coat of POR 15. This stuff has that potent "this stuff will kill you" smell. So it must be good! (laughs...) This has to be applied with the car outside. The fumes are STRONG. It's to be applied in a thin single coat with a second coat applied later. A quart of POR 15 easily did two coats with some to spare. Used a brush to apply and the brush marks smooth as the finish drys. A glossy smooth finish. This stuff is pretty amazing. It is some tough stuff. It drys hard. You have to bare down HARD with a screwdriver to mark up this coating. Covers well. Confident this will be the end of rust anywhere on these floors. The pictures don't do justice. Especially the pitted rusty areas. I'm very happy with the POR coating. To finish I'll drill a small 1/4" hole in each of the low areas of the footwells and under the backseat area to let water escape in the future. Steve weim55 Colorado
Steering Column Lots of issues here. When I got the car the shifter was completely seized up and still very tight after lubing the linkage to the trans. Turn signal lever is almost seized as well and the signals don't work. Horn doesn't work either. A scraping noise when the steering wheel is turned. Paint on the column collars is really bad. So yea, it needs to be completely gone through. Remove the column and tear it apart. Strangely the factory service manual doesn't cover the steering column (!!??) Not too tough though.... Lets dig in.........
Nice progress Steve. I had thought about using the POR15 myself, but I'm still not sure. Once I get the passenger side front floor pan replaced, I will decide then. Your floors sure do look good!
OK Steve: Will you be my long lost brother who can mentor and guide me to conquer new horizons? The signal collar goes over the shaft and there are a few screws that will remove it. No problem there. The yoke or the actuator is usually the culprit. It's pot metal and it breaks easily. The reason it breaks is because the screw that holds it into the collar either gets loose and sometimes even strips out. The secret is to find a way to keep the screw in place so the yoke doesn't loosen up. A friend suggested heli-arking it but that part's over my head. There is no place for a nut to keep it in place because the collar rests flush against the steering column. There is no problem finding a new yoke because they broke frequently and I'm guessing that the Buick Parts Dept kept many in stock back in the day. It is also interchangeable from 57-60. Also, a little grease on the ball bearings and roller helps too. Remember to keep the wire that goes to the signal switch box in neutral when re-assembling it. The switch (can be taken apart and cleaned easily) has a neutral position as well as where the wire fastens to the swiveling plastic grommet on the collar. BTW, those welds on the floor pan graft look fantastic! Mitch
3 Speed Shifter A simple system yet very different from a conventional H gate column shifter. Only one lever is used off the column with gate selection controlled by the column tube slide contacting a bolt on lever at the end of the column. I'll show an assembled pic of this when the unit is back in the car. Most 3 speed stick column shifters do not wear well. Poorly engineered, they wear to the point of almost falling apart and rarely hold adjustment for long. Not so with '60 Buick setup. These engineers did it right! The shifter collar is not a cheesy slide on plastic affair. It turns on a THREADED column end that is fully adjustable. Zero slop. (see the pic) The shifter pivot pin is a husky 3/8" fully captured by the retaining collar for the shifter so it can't work loose. The transfer pin for the shifter socket is a husky 7/16". These simple upgrades made the shifter wear like iron. Every component was in fantastic condition and like new. No wear. Just disassemble, clean grease and adjust. Only one minor problem. Someone got brutal with the shifter and bent the tip that fits into the socket in the column. I thought I would use the shifter handle from the Dynaflow column. No go. It's totally different. So had no choice but to use the slightly damaged original handle. Chrome on the handle is poor also. It'll have to do. While the shifter and slider tubes are different the rest of the steering column components are the same between the stick and Dynaflow. I'll fill you in on the paint used for the collar later. A great match to the original color. Steve weim55 Colorado
Mitch, I was very lucky and both of signal assemblies were in great shape. I only had to do some minor tweaks for a proper adjustment. I'll take a look at the collar and yoke screw for some ideas on that. I'll address the signal assy. in the next post. Thaks for the kind words, Steve weim55 Colorado
Turn Signal Assy. Turn signal setup is pretty simple but a little different from the '68 - '72 GM stuff I'm used to. First, everything is metal, well almost anyway. The collar - housing holds all the controls while the switch itself is mounted on the steering mast. A 14" cable connects the two. Yoke and housing are made of pot metal. I don't know if i'm just lucky but both assys. from the LeSabre and the parts car were in great shape. A quick cleaning and grease had the mechanism working smoothly. Only one hitch. Where the yoke pivots on the retaining screw. With the screw tight the yoke was locked and too tight to operate. By loosening the screw a little the yoke would work but surely the screw would back out over time being loose. The first remedy I tried was to use the screw from the parts car assy. No go. They have different size threads !? Same housing. Even the same casting #. D4-57. Mid year change? To gain the clearance for a proper fit I hand filed the back of the yoke until I had just the right clearance with the screw tight for smooth and tight operation with no binding. The switch is swedged together from the factory with no easy way to disassemble. Blew out the switch with compressed air and sprayed a little dielectric inside and the switch works smooth as glass. With the housing assembled with the cable, the switch is placed in the center neutral position and well as the yoke and the switch is tightened down to the mast. Done. Signal switch works like new. Really precise. Does not have that "plasticy" feel of the later GM stuff. Tossed a steering wheel in place and the cancelling system works great too. That gap between the shifter collar and the signal housing is set by turning the bearing head that threads in to the shifter collar. One full turn is about 1/16". Easy to set with a couple of trys. To address Mitchs question: Since the yoke screws come in two different sizes, maybe a good number of housings could be saved simply by tapping the retaining screw hole to next size up. Since the housing is pot metal no weld will hold so thats out. A careful braze with a gas torch would do it. What I would do if the threads were stripped and no other options: Get some Permatex sleeve retainer (green stuff) and assemble with a couple drops in the threads and let it set up overnight. That thing will not come loose! To take it apart later you will have to melt it out with a torch. A cheap easy fix. Steve weim55 Colorado
My computer bit the dust a few weeks ago so no posts for that time period. I have been motoring along and I'll get back to filling you in with the progress. Thoughts thus far....... For you guys who actually restore vehicles (returning them to as new) my hats off to ya. The process to return this car to the road as a driver is a ton of work. It would be many times over more work to actually restore this '60. Then there's the $$. Some of you will look at some my work as pure hack. In some cases it's just what has to happen to get her on the road in a timely cost effective manner. No more waiting for this that and the other... (time money time money time money......) Tried to put the time and effort into the areas that really count. I can come back to the areas I skimped on later if the time and money are there. The bottom line is THIS CAR HAS TO BE BACK ON THE ROAD BEING ENJOYED. No more BARN FIND! The next chapter for this old girl needs to be rolling over asphalt miles at a time, under it's own power. Back to it....... Steve weim55 Colorado
Wheelcovers I believe my '60 came with the base small hub cap on body color wheels. All were missing when I got the car. Have yet to find a decent set. I do have 2 sets of the full wheelcovers used on LeSabres and Invictas. A very cool cover that fits the aero styling of the '60 perfectly. Better looking than the standard cap IMHO. I have 'em and they're free. Time to use 'em. Not in the best of shape, lots of dings and scratches. They'll do for a driver with a little love. Picked the best four and started by stripping what little paint was left with chemical paint stripper. A little hammer work here and there. Impossible to get all the dings around the edges out. Fine SOS pads scrubbed and polished the shine. A quick mask with masking tape and a razor blade. Paint with semi gloss black. Not sure what sheen was original in the center. I think the semi gloss is a little too "shiney". It'll do though..... Steve weim55 Colorado
Looks very nice Steve. I agree 100% with your comments above also. I'm retired and don't have the extra $$$ to invest in my '61, just want to get it to a place where I can drive it whenever I want. My RA has been very bad this winter, I'm sure b/c of the severe nature of this particular winter, but I've been feeling much better and am getting ready to work on my baby again. I'm inspired by people like you who make something nice with a little elbow grease and paint. Keep up the good work!
Took some time out a few weeks ago to spend a Sunday in one of my favorite old car yards. My son Kevin was going to pick up some parts for his '63 Chevy and that gave me time to wonder and explore the "yard". To explain, this place isn't really an operating junkyard. Just one guys massive collection of old cars. Gotta be at least 500+ vehicles from the 40s through the 80s. Lots of unusual stuff nobody else would have saved. Yes he does sell some parts and complete cars. I already know he has only two '60 Buicks. Both rough and picked over. But the collection is so huge you never know what you might come across in the weeds or pass that you missed before. I got really lucky and came across a few little items I thought would have been impossible to score. A '60 Buick 2 door sedan comes with a small, plain armrest door pull. 2 door sedan ONLY. My driver side unit is really bad. I came across the '61 Olds in the pics below and took a look inside. Unbelieveably it had the same armrest. In the correct color! A factory maroon car with a gold and white interior!? Unreal...... That picked up the day! The same car netted the rear ash trays I needed. The originals my '60 use a painted lid and were in very poor condition. Olds replacements are all stainless and nice. Not exactly the same but a definate upgrade. Trudging on I came across a completely gutted shell of a '59 Olds 2 door sedan that had a much nicer left rear window interior garnish moulding and coat hooks. A big improvement over my rusty originals. Another score! Lastly a gutted shell of a '63 Impala gave up a rear shelf speaker grill. All little stuff but much needed. Any of you that want to kill a day wandering through Dwaynes stash (yes it will take a whole day!) looking for a car to take home let me know, I'll put you in touch. He's just east of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Steve weim55 Colorado
For Mosslack: Hang in there. I hope the RA gets better as spring comes. Here's few pics for you from Dwaynes. He has at least a half dozen '61 Buicks. Here's three of them. The Invicta Custom is a pretty cool car. All leather interior. Part of the Custom option I suppose. Rare too. Let me know if I can hunt for some parts for you..... Steve weim55 Colorado
Thanks Steve, great find for sure! I am looking for a single speed wiper motor and a single wire fuel tank gauge sending unit if you happen across either one of those. My wiper motor was not working at all when I got my car, but I did manage to free it up enough to get it working somewhat. I would just like to have a spare to rebuild. I found a new fuel tank sending unit, but it's about $80, which I will end up buying if nothing else is available. Mine worked when I got the car, but when the exhaust was installed, I think they must of hit the gas tank so hard it broke the sending unit, because that is when it stopped working.
