1958buickforum.net

Hello all, my name's Jeff, I'm 34 and live in Central Alberta, Canada. This is my first '50's GM, have been heavy into late '50's Chrysler products the past few years. A friend told me about this Buick that was dragged out of his father-in-law's barn where she had sat for at least 15 years, and wanted to get rid of it. $700 later, it was in my yard, last week. The engine was seized, so I took out the plugs and poured diesel in the cylinders, and let her sit for a day...apparently it wasn't seized badly, because I put a snipe on the crank bolt and after a bit of defiance, it moved! I was excited. I worked it back and forth until I could make a full revolution, tried it with the starter but it wasn't working...pulled it apart, cleaned it up, put a different solonoid on, and back in. Touched up the points with emery cloth, rigged a tank of premium up to the fuel pump, water in the rad, hotwired the ignition (no key) and cranked away...slowly it started firing more and more, til it ran on the starter for a couple seconds then ran on it's own after about a minute! Massive clouds of smoke! (had to burn the diesel out of the cylinders) I put it into gear and slowly she lurched her way out of my shop...the longer she ran, the better she ran. After 10 minutes she stopped blowing smoke, and would fire up and idle without touching the carb, I was impressed!
I have always been the "hard luck" guy who buys cars with either extremely seized or ultra-low compression engines, or no engine at all...this car must be good Karma This was last weekend, now she's in my shop so I can fix her brakes, axle seals, and transmission...she has no Drive, only low and reverse. I just ordered a transmission rebuild kit from Ebay,this will be my first tranny rebuild. another area needing attention is the dash, that barn must have been very damp as the dash is heavily rusted and all the switches are seized!
This is all I have for pics so far, more to come...the car is still wearing the original black paint (which polishes up to a hell of a shine I see
One thing I noticed is this car has a factory underseat heater, looks just like a baseboard heater from a house...is this common for these cars? (will get pic of that too)
Thanks for checking her out! I'm sure this forum will be very helpful as I get her fixed. I tried uploading a pic of her with tires up, etc, but file was too big. Not sure how to get around that.

Hi Jeff,
sounds like you're making good progress on the Buick - it looks to be in great shape body-wise, considering how long it's been standing.
I also have an under-seat heater in my Special, if the Specials have them I would think the rest of the range has them too.
Keep up the good work!
Kerry

I don't recall if the underseat heater was standard on all models - Specials were barebones and nearly everything was an option - but all of the '58 Buicks I've seen have them.

Decent car for restoration, congratulations. I've never been lucky enough to have a seized engine unseize for me.

Thanks guys, that's interesting about these heaters, what an unusual thing I find, yet very handy! I will be needing a few things, like some letters from the trunk and hubcaps, does anyone here have any of that to sell?

I should have some used hubcaps, I'll try to check out in the shed this week, weather permitting. Its been raining for several days here.

That would be awesome, thank you 58 Limited.

I wanted to update this, finally got the transmission back from the trans shop, $2000 later, and drove her at last on saturday...oh man, was that satisfying!! That long, gorgeous arched hood, huge wraparound glass, great feeling power steering, fantastic Buick ride quality...I just made a half mile quick run to make sure everything works, but was in heaven.
Ordered new carpet and dual exhaust from Ebay, I was suprised at how cost-effective that was, $390 with shipping for a front to back dual exhaust system, including mufflers of course! No shop I've seen can build duals that cheap. Then I intend on putting as many miles on her as I can! Does anyone here have trunk letters? I need S,P,E, and A. Any help would be much appreciated.

I forgot about looking for the hubcaps for you. Its been a hectic year and I recently had surgery for a ruptured disk in my neck. I'm just now getting back on my feet from that,unfortunately. I might have the letters S, E, and P from a Super I parted out, I'll have to look and see if I still have them.

Did you get the exhaust from Kepich? (klasskollection on ebay). I used him for mine, and so far it fits nice. Direct bolt in...cheap too.

I have four hubcaps. There are little dings along the edges from removing and re-installing. The centers need to be replaced, replacements are available from CARS, Inc. If you are interested, make me an offer. I can send pics if you want.

I haven't found the truck letters yet, but I haven't gone through every parts box either.

58limited wrote:I have four hubcaps. There are little dings along the edges from removing and re-installing. The centers need to be replaced, replacements are available from CARS, Inc. If you are interested, make me an offer. I can send pics if you want.

I haven't found the truck letters yet, but I haven't gone through every parts box either.

Thanks but I already found a set from Frank Lyle. He has the trunk letters too.

Smartin wrote:Did you get the exhaust from Kepich? (klasskollection on ebay). I used him for mine, and so far it fits nice. Direct bolt in...cheap too.

No I got mine through classic exhaust, wasn't very happy about the fit...part of the problem is Buick must have used a different exhaust manifold for the drivers side, when duals were ordered...I ordered and received dual exhaust, but my car just had single exhaust originally. I found that the flanges just barely, or missed fitting into each other, had to weld it somewhat where there was a space. And the markings were a joke, no intructions, just tried to figure out the chicken scratch markings...I wouldn't recommend them.

badass resurrection story! i love seeing old barn cars brought back to life.

im just now reading this story because ive had a crazy few months and this is the first time ive been on the forum in a while... hopefully things are starting to calm down now.

i should really get back to work on my Special, stories like this give me inspiration!