Da' further adventures of da' trusty billy-goat wagon!

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick caregivers who stroll down memory lane from time to time,

We are having a very unusual start to the Memorial day weekend with a little rain falling today.  That reminded me of another adventure with my trusty wagon involving the weather.  In the mid-1980s, I attended 2 Riverside Telescope Makers Expos.  It is held every Memorial day weekend at Camp Oakes near Big Bear Lake in Southern California.  It is over 450 miles from my home and about an 8 hour drive.  One year Biquette got the call to make the drive and so I picked up the two friends going along with me as early as they could break from work - sometime in the afternoon.  It is a very crowded affair and getting a good camp site was important to be comfortable, so people line up in front of the entrance before the campground opens.  We arrived around 3 in the morning utterly exhausted.  In order to get some sleep, we tossed a tarp on the ground, put our sleeping bags on top of that, and quickly fell asleep.  When we woke up it was daylight and there was a dusting of snow on us and of course Biquette! It was only the second time my wagon experienced snow in the 50 years we have owned her since 1968. 

Fortunately, that year the storm blew through quickly and we had a nice clear weather the remainder of the weekend.  The previous year we weren't so lucky.  We had snow and rain and extremely cold temperatures under cloudy skies for most of that weekend.  Little point to having a telescope under those conditions!

The moral of the story is that even in California you can't count on the weather for the Memorial day weekend! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick fans of a certain rascally billy-goat station wagon, . . . . . 

Greg and the gang at Orinda Classic Car has been working bring my trusty wagon back to life.  First they installed some nice and shiny steering and suspension upgrades.  The suspension parts came from UMI:

http://www.umiperformance.com/

These include some tubular front controller arms:



As you all recommended, here is the 1-1/4" front anti-sway bar:



The silly folks at UMI Performance, put their product sticker - upside down!  I'll have to ask them for another sticker.

Also as you recommended, on the rear Biquette received the stronger boxed controller arms:



Another recommendation satisfied, she also has gotten a rear anti-sway bar:



All this should improve handling without making ride harsher.  Hopefully it will help cope with the many potholes to be found these days in California.  This afternoon, I brought in another load of parts and Greg had ready gotten the engine in:



Silly me, I forgot to take any photos of the new steering box.  However, you can see the variable ratio steering box just below the coolant recovery tank on the right side.

As usual, Greg had a horrible time squeezing the engines and the long-tube headers in.  Here is a view of the passenger side:



There is still plenty of work to do, but definitely things are coming along!

Thanks for your support!  

Cheers, Edouard   

[cwmcobra]

She's really looking good, Edouard!  The new and improved Biquette will have an entirely different character than before.  I'm imagining the big smile on your face when you get to experience that for the first time.  Hope you've got some long and winding roads to drive to put her through her paces!

Great progress, keep it up!

 

Chuck

[TrunkMonkey]

She's a handsome goat! 

You will like the UMI package.

I did all of mine on my 64 Convertible, and it is so nice to drive.

No more rolling and yawing in the curves. It is flat as a pancake.

Curves I used to take at 35 tops, I can do at 60-65. It is a very big difference.

[elagache]

Dear Chuck, Michael and mid-60s Buick owners who like to lean into those curves!

Thanks!  I'm hoping that indeed the suspension upgrades will make Biquette much more enjoyable to drive.  I also hope it will help with some of the "ocean waves" to be found on our freeways these days.  Alas some stretches were built on fill and or over creeks.  Now with the "feast or famine" rainfall, these areas are settling faster than Caltrans can repair them.  As a result, your car will literally rise and fall kind of like a ship over waves.  Deferred maintenance has made driving into "quite an experience" these days and that's no compliment! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[Super65lark]

Sah-weeet! Jealous. Looks awesome Edouard.

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick fans of a certain rascally billy-goat station wagon, . . . . . 

The good news is that Greg and the gang at Orinda Motors got the engine in my trusty wagon running!  Not only that, it sounded like it was running well.

Greg then turned the engine off to make a few adjustments and . . . . . . When he tried to start the engine again - Nuthin' . . . .  Greg quickly checked the fuel pressure gauge which also read - Nuthin'.  A further check, yes the fuel pump was properly energized.  Alas, sitting twice for periods of a year or more without gas appears to have killed something in electric fuel pump in the gas tank.  All this happened on Thursday and a new fuel pump wasn't expected until early next week.  However, when I stopped by the shop yesterday, Greg was busily dismantling the tank!  The pump had arrived via next day air!

So I left Greg to amuse himself with that project but I did manage to take this quick photo of the new steering and suspension components with the engine installed:



Those freshly coated headers do look nice next to the new suspension parts and steering box! 

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick fans of a certain rascally billy-goat station wagon, . . . . .

Yesterday I got the call I was waiting for.  Orinda Classic Car had gotten the engine installed, checked everything over and Biquette was ready to come home!  I rushed over and Biquette spent her first night in the garage with her engine since April 2017.  She was low on gas, so I thought I would run over and fill her up.  While I was there I took this photo in front of the Flying-A sign:



It should be a decent candidate for an attempt at digital aging.  I then ran over to Orinda Classic Car for a quick photo shoot.  I parked next to their Ford Model-A truck:



Here is the view from the back:



I had hoped to ask the gang over there to move the 1964 Skylark convertible for a quick photo shoot, but they were too busy for that.  Still I took this quick photo:



It is the last week of school around here and so the traffic is unusually heavy.  So I decided that was enough activity for today and started to take Biquette home.  The engine is running much better than before.  However, the throttle linkage was stiffer than before and harder to work.  Just to make sure all was well, I decided to accelerate a bit faster to make sure the engine was running fine.  Unfortunately, at this point the accelerator linkage got stuck in that open position!!  It was enough to rev the engine over 2000 RPM - not the sort of situation you want on city streets!  I cut the ignition and managed to drift over out of the traffic.  Jerking the linkage was enough to get it back into the idle position and I hoped the problem was a temporary one.  Alas, not so.  This time I had the throttle stuck around 1500 RPM.  I was less than a mile from Orinda Classic Car at that point so I managed to limp back here and left Biquette for Greg and the gang to figure out what's up.

Never a dull moment when you own a classic car! . . . .

Cheers, Edouard 

[Super65lark]

Oh bugger! That happens to me sometimes too, and I've lubricated everything I can see but to no avail. It usually happens just like when you said, you mash the pedal abruptly and it stays all by itself.

But hey! She's working and you even had here home! I bet that felt so good. i once had Ruthy on jackstands in my parents drive for over 6 months and it was agonizing.

Congrats! She looks grrreat! 👍 

[cwmcobra]

Sorry to hear the news Edouard.  Sounds like you're on the right track to getting all the bugs worked out.  Keep the faith!

 

Chuck

[option B9]

  Edouard, Your flattop wagon looks great, and so does that gray 65 Skylark Convertible in the background of photo #4...
   
                                                 Tony

[GS66]

Sorry to hear of 5he accelerator issues, hope it?s resloved quickly. Thanks for the 64 pic, looks great with the Keystones on it.

[Loren At 65GS]

Certainly hope they can find the throttle issue quickly.  Probably nothing major.
Nice '31 model A PU they have.  Looks to be a pretty '65 convert and the tail of a mid/late T-bird.  Always liked the first Thunderbirds.  Couldn't imagine fitting into one though. LOL

  Loren

[elagache]

Dear Iain, Chuck, Tony, Jim, Loren, and mid-60s Buick caregivers,

Thanks everybody! 

Never a dull moment with these cars!

Cheers, Edouard 

[elagache]

Dear mid-60s Buick fans of a certain rascally billy-goat station wagon, . . . . .

It took me a while to recognize the horror of the situation.  As soon as I bought Biquette home I took care of "da' important stuff!"   You know, put the dash clock to the correct time, got the stereo balanced between the front and rear speakers, stuff like that!   

Greg is a very nice guy, but he is a Chevy guy.  So no surprise he didn't put the air cleaner with the Buick decals correctly facing the engine.  Well now that certainly won't do will it!    So I innocently turned the air cleaner 90?.  Of course the top refused to move, the whole air cleaner assembly instead turned . . . . .

Fast forward to this morning - what do you know.  Part of the throttle was rubbing against the air cleaner,  Greg very nicely removed the tab in question when . . . . I now realized all that was necessary was to keep the bottom of the air cleaner in the correct orientation to provide the necessary clearance. 

With the tab removed no more accelerator sticking and Biquette was able to come home once more!   She had been left outside enough that the birds had done some bombing practice on her hood, so I cleaned that off before putting her away.  I even managed to get this photo next to a neighbor who still had some California Poppies growing:



So she didn't completely miss out on the Spring flowers!

To end this chapter of a very long soap opera, Biquette is back on her charger in the garage and will spend the weekend as "snug as a bug in a rug!"

Thanks for your support! . . . 

Cheers, Edouard