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Thanks, I must be doing something right then. I've always kind of liked the style of the tubs and 40's Buicks as well. I mainly bought this one and dove into it as a learning experience. My father always had stuff from this period and mostly independents like Studebaker. I never really knew the man. We met about once a decade or 3 times in my life and now he's gone. The more I learn about him, the more I find that we were almost alike. This makes his having nothing to do with me very puzzling. My father came of driving age during what many consider the Mecca of automobiles and could have had (and did briefly) any of the 50's, 60's, and 70's cars he chose and cheaply. Stuff people kill for today. What I've been attempting to learn was why he would've stuck with this era, 40's-early 50's cars, motorcycles, and trucks. What did he find so interesting? The only way I could perhaps figure him out was to try it myself.
Due to many deaths in the family over the last 3 years, I've been contemplating selling maybe the 48 and possibly some others since they had many cars and I'm only one guy. Now, I'm the last one in the family still alive.
I do know that I'm selling off the rusty Buick seen in the previous pics background. Currently, I'm debating between the 48 and a 75 Tbird. 9 cars is way too many.

I think he, like many others, may have found that late '40s early '50s cars were, in a way, the last really well built cars in this country. Quality really started to suffer across the board starting around 1955, which was the biggest sales year in US history up to that time, and that high volume of production really took a toll. Even Packard suffered in comparison to '54 and earlier, partly due to shifting production to Connor Ave. Much as I love my 56, I think the '46-54 cars were better put together and suffered fewer problems overall. I prefer the looks of the 56, but find I'm appreciating the older cars more and more. I especially like the 49/50 cars.

I've been learning this as well. I've got quite a few from many eras and most don't seem to have the build quality of my 48 or my father's 41 stude. From my experience so far, Ford quality really went bad around 1957, GM around 55 or 65 depending on point of view. To me, I'd say 65. Especially the frames. What I may do is sell all the 70's cars and the extra parts and just run my 60's and older. What I've been thinking of doing is sell the 48 and then, after all the estate crap I've been dealing with across multiple states is finally over, find a real nice 48-50 tub. Thing is, "bird in hand" is usually best bet. These are just ideas...

For now, there's just too many here. 75 tbird, 78 ltd, 73 buick, 66 chrysler, 62 buick, 59 edsel, 59 galaxie, 48 packard, 41 studebaker
A lot of them use parts in common, but it's still never easy.

'55 Buicks were supposedly notoriously bad, so much so that it hurt sales in 56-57. 55-7 Chevs were pretty good though. From experience my 57-58 Mopars were pretty poorly built, bad door fit, leaks, rattles, premature rust, but ran good, and 55-56 Mopars were quite good all around. All of these brands were really solid from 46 to 54. My Clipper has mediocre body panel work and door fit, but feels tight. That '48 is pretty nice and looks very solid - maybe that's your keeper!

And keep it is what I hope to do. After a serious comparison of both cars considered. The 48 wins in almost every category except parts availability and gadgets. The 73 buick will go first. That's my mother's car, I'll put her in the 78 Ltd. The 75 Thunderbird (6 and 11 mpg) will go when I absolutely have to dump one. I'm going to modify the 59 Galaxie for my daily commute.
Back to the 48. On really humid days, I'm developing a slight miss at idle speed. 3 different cars here did it on the same day. Could this be from the new fuel blends? Possible carb adjustment...

In experimenting on the other 2 vehicles with the same idle issues, I've found leaning back the mixture .25 to .5 turn on both screws has improved them so I'll try it on the 48 as well. I'm attributing this to the fuel as none of them did this until the last fill-up. 3 weeks ago our last local station switched to the ethanol blended fuel.

Managed to sell the rusty 73 Buick. Once that's gone, it'll be easier moving things around here again. Next I'll try to unload the Thunderslug.

Back on the job! I got my trunk all squared away with the proper spare tire mounting accessories, still haven't found a jack yet. I also finished up the door weather strip work on the front doors. Major improvement! It completely got rid of the door rattle and occasional popping open on bumpy turns.

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It's been a good week. The buyer finally came and got the 73 Buick out of here. I mounted the rest of my tires and reoiled the shocks. Now we're rolling

I believe this should replace the breaker in question?Quote:

Also, the Thunderslug should be outta here by Saturday.

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