Restoration

The photo's above show how the car was before I purchased it.

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As I have been told by the former owner, the car was originally from Benalla in North East Victoria. In the future I hope to trace it's history and find out where it was in the 29 years it had on the road before being stored in the 1970's.

04/07/2004 - Purchased from Nalinga (Central Victoria , Australia) and put into storage for future restoration. The car also came with a spare car which is missing the front panels and is in very poor condition but could be useful for things that might be missing or broken on the other one. Also some cylinder heads, hub caps and spats were thrown in.

21/08/2004  Inspecting it's current condition - Went out with my mate Col to have a good look under the bonnet and a general inspection, the oil still shows on the dipstick after 30+ years and looks like there is no water or moisture in it, the radiator looks ok but will need further inspection to find out if it will hold water. The engine still turns over quite easily by hand and the oil fill was sealed so we have decided to take it to Col's work in the near future and attempt to start the engine so we can have a listen to it, although the engine will be rebuilt in time. The paint colour is Convoy which has faded badly but little "crows feet" can be found in the paintwork thanks to being garaged under cover.

Although the carpet is reasonable for 58 years old I will remove it when the weather warms up to prevent any dampness being stored thus causing rust, the car will also need a good pressure wash and de-grease. So far the only rust I have found is in the bottom of the drivers side rear door (right hand side being in Australia) and at the bottom of the rear window. The interior trim is reasonable considering the age of the car, the cloth seats are quite sound with no major rips but the door trims have seen better days and the head lining although not falling out has discoloured. 

The tyres inflated even after 30 years and only one has a slow air leak and all hub caps are still on each wheel, the windscreen and windows are in good condition as with the bumpers, although rechroming will clean them right up during restoration.  Gauges/instruments are fair and it still has the original radio. All rubbers and weather seals have perished and will need replacing, I hope to be able to get new ones made up from Scotts Old Auto Rubber in Melbourne.

Rear view of car. The tyres held air when pumped up after 30 years.

My father checking it out.

As you can see the car is still intact and even has the original wheel caps still on.

11/12/2004 Further Inspection - A humid Saturday so Col and I decided to go out to my fathers farm to give the dogs a run in the open space and also pump up the tyres on the Buick while we were out there. I decided to take some more detailed photos to show on my website of the present condition it is in......

View of engine "as is" and hasn't been started for over 30 years.

Minor rust at the bottom of the rear window, not bad at first look.

LH front door hitting guard, will need further inspection to see what is wrong here, hopefully not too serious.

RH rear door rust, looks minor.

headlining very discoloured but all in one piece.

Dash in fair condition but steering wheel will need restoring as it is full of cracks.

05/02/05 Floods -  After 3 days of steady rain I decided to go and check how high the water was in the creek and to my surprise the whole road was closed due to flooding. The Buick managed to escape being flooded out but it came close.

Spare Parts Car (below)

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Last Updated 06/02/2005