1949 Buick Roadmaster “Riviera”
2-door Special Sports Coupe

by Paul Blackbourn

A paint job…NO!
A paint/re-chrome…NO!
A new interior, paint, re-chrome and engine rebuild…NO!
A nut and bolt restoration…NO!
Brought back from the dead, 100% brain surgery rebuild…YES!

I had to read my last update from around two plus years ago (2003) to see where I was then; it has been a hard time since then I can tell you. Not just because of the continuing physical effort over the time that had passed, but also the physiological type of knowing the car was basically finished, but it wasn’t.

I don’t need to tell you, as you see from the images, that the car is NOW finished, it has looked like that for around eighteen months; but it was not actually ‘properly’ finished until late July 2005. The body was together, as of the last article, so all the bright work had to be carefully fitted, the windows had to be installed and got working, the interior had to be re-trimmed and fitted - then basically, a final tweaking to get everything working smoothly/correctly?! - the latter taking me to the brink of throwing in the towel at the final hurdle, locking the garage (with me on the outside for a change) and throwing away the key - seriously! I did consider this at one stage, read on…

The engine has run OK from the first fire up, only to find a bog standard 6-volt battery does not have the guts to crank the motor when it is hot, as motors, especially new ones, get more gas tight as they get hot. If you don’t know, this is due to the pistons swelling in the bores, thus creating more resistance to the cranking motor. With a little applied modern technology and £120 we got over that problem, so far anyway. Also a pattern developed where, after a blast down the M1, or similar fast roads (actually that’s rubbish, the M1 is very slow where I live, but anyway…) where the motor gets up to full temp, the valve gear (tappets) got a little loose and tappy. Seeing as these '49 Roadmaster engines have hydraulic lifters this seemed strange, so I forgot about it for some months to see if the situation would settled down on its own. It never did settle down, so I can only presume that they could have been like this in their day, as it was early days for lifters in '49 and they may not have got things quite right. If you know different, I’m all ears.

A fellow '49 Riviera owner friend of mine in California told me he knew of after market insulated rocker covers that were sold back then, which would suggest that things may not have been as good as we expect today. Anyway, I did change the oil recently to a modern 15/40 grade, which has definitely improved things; the valve gear is quieter, the oil pressure is better and the motor just seems to be more free running.

The fuel pump had to be stubbornly removed three times, with the final installation of bits from two pumps rolled into one before it stopped leaking oil… so far so good. Then to the long (pressed metal with not enough pull down bolts in it) camshaft cover that was removed twice without 100% success, as it still leaks a little oil, it’s a bad design? That’s my story anyway, so does your cam shaft cover leak? “You’ll never see the outside world again” ha, ha.

I bought a new voltage regulator box as matter of coarse, so I would have worry-free charging from the outset, especially as we have all powered windows and front seat. This purchase turned out bad, as the new one developed a problem, therefore it was returned, the old one was fitted and the rest is history - good old stuff still working after fifty plus years.

What next? Oh yes, the interior… This wasn’t so much a mechanical tweaking saga but a “Geeze! How long is it going to take him to do it?” I took the interior for a full recover; I made all new clip on door, parcel shelf and various flat and trunk panels - all delivered to the trimmers the first working day after the Xmas hols, Jan 2003. I reckoned that there was about a full weeks work for two people and seeing as three people worked there I thought that by the end of January, at the outside, I would have a nice pile of fluffy stuff to go back in the car.

So… Guess how long it took before I got it back; one month? No, three months? No… it took him eight months and about 300 phone calls from me. As the job progressed very slowly I worked out that my job had been placed at the back of the queue and would never progress up this queue as long as the moon was in the sky. Obviously this was very annoying in itself, and more so as I had no seat in the car, which stopped me driving and put a direct stop to tweaking things. This was not to last as I soon knocked up a wooden deck chair type thing, held in with gaffer tape and the like, which served me well for a few months. I dread to think what would have happened if the feds had pulled me over.

Now don’t forget all these happenings are eating up the weeks and months and I lost the best part of two summers faffing around with all these tweaks and other peoples delaying antics - not to mention the day I lost all the brakes (you’ll love this one).

Whilst over the Pennines one sunny August day in Oldham, about one and a half hour’s drive from home, I was attending a little event run by a friend to boost the old vehicle gang (with my wooden home made deck chair in, I might add). All the old bangers were sent round on a bit of a slow parade, which ended with us all returning to where we had started. Some while was to pass before I returned to my car, after passing the time of day with others and leaving the car for a well earned cool down, only to find NO BRAKES! The pedal descended straight to the floor and being as I am one of the worlds finest exponents of words not used in public places, you can imagine the air was blue! No brakes, no tools, two-plus tons of car on fluid drive, and to top it off, it was August Bank holiday weekend Sunday. How much worse could it get…? A lot worse, I can tell you.

Ha haaaaa, I said, I have break down cover! I’ll ring the people I have paid my money to, explain the situation. Did this - they rang the company who is contracted to do the recovery/break down, who kindly rang me back to tell me they WOULD NOT be coming out as they don’t recover American vehicles, and my car was too big anyway, “Oh really?!” I said but “you can imagine what nice words were being said in my head”. I obviously explained I had given all my vehicles details at the outset and have been paying this cover for some months etc., etc. This had no effect and I was basically left stranded by them. So, to cut a long story short a friend came out with some tools, we bled the brakes and drove home. I can tell you, with great pleasure, that the pair of companies involved do not now insure my house, daily car nor cover me for breakdown; and, in my opinion from this experience the pair of them are dogs doo doo on the bottom of my shoe!

Be aware from my experience; check your terms and conditions, what some person said on the phone is not what they put in writing. By the way the company is NOT the RAC or AA but shall remain nameless. The company is however, very high profile, and is on your TV screen virtually every night; their subcontractor is well know also, and furthermore they would not admit fault in miss-selling me a policy, but immediately offered to refund all the money I had paid… In my book, that is admitting fault! You decide!

The most time consuming problem of all and the one I thought in recent times would stop me ever finishing the car, was The Dynaflow transmission. I always knew that it worked perfect, but it leaked. I’m not even going to attempt to put down the things I did to it, as it would be a yawn for everyone. If you have ever removed a Dynaflow, or any transmissions before, on your back, under your car you’ll know it’s a time consuming and dangerous activity, especially when in the final stages of removal you have 245 pounds (17 stones) of transmission perched on top of a wobbling trolley jack, not to mention that in my case you have that bloody torque tube to wrestle with as well, and all the newly fitted front interior has to be removed before you get to the removable tunnel. Anyway, I did find the problem just after returning from the 2005 Rally of the Giants where I was asked to take the Buick to the NEC Classic American car of the year thingy. But as I was saying, removing the Dynaflow once, is enough, but having to remove it eight or nine times is absolutely soul destroying! It really did do my brain in. As mentioned earlier, I got to the point where I had done everything I could to cure it and mothballing the car was becoming an option – but, just by a chance trying something the problem was solved. It was something I was overlooking every time, just a simple tightening of bolts on a gasket joint that required doing the day after it was run from build up and installation. In other words it was a gasket that required a re-tighten after the transmission had been used at full temperature. That was the final big problem that was holding up the whole job, but we’re over it now it would seem.

So basically, that’s it folks, what you see before you is seven-plus year’s work; at times difficult, but enjoyable for the most part, with a reasonably accurate pleasing result - not to mention a rare car given another lease of life.

Oh! I nearly forgot, on attending The Classic American Magazine car of the year 2005 at the NEC the weekend of 5th November my (Green & Cream Dream, Waterfall Grill, Straight 8 coupe machine) was judged the Classic American Car of the Year 2005, despite some very stiff and wonderfully presented opposition.

Would I do it again? No, for now… but you never know what’s around the corner!