Fresh Out Of Cali! 1926 Buick Roadster Speedster
This 1926 Buick sure grabbed my attention this morning, in a good sort of way, and I’d like to thank Barn Finds reader T.J. right off the bat for sending us the fine tip on this one. It’s billed as a Speedster/Racer with a Buick Master chassis, and although it’s not currently running the car looks like there are some good bones here to work with, so if you’ve been in the market for a vintage Buick to take on as a project this may be a good one for you to check out. It’s located in Spokane Valley, Washington, and can be found here on Craigslist with an asking price of $11,500.
If there’s a bombshell about the car, it may have to do with the engine block. While the seller is very upfront in letting us know that the car is not running, he goes on to talk about all the work that has gone into the fuel system parts, including a chemically cleaned gas tank, blown-out fuel lines, and a cleaned-out carburetor with a new float and gasket. He also mentions the new tune-up parts, such as spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor, plug wires, and points. But not until the very end of the ad do we find out that this poor Buick was the victim of a transporter mishap in 2021, which resulted in two engine block cracks on the water jacket side. We do get a photo of the motor with the damage circled in white, and the seller believes removing the engine and welding it will fix the problem. What do you think?
On the outside, things are looking decent, and it appears to be a mostly complete example. The seller says that until 2021 the Buick had been a California car for the last 55 years, and I’m wondering if the damage previously mentioned to the block occurred during the jaunt from Cali to Washington. The seller points out that the car has 5 new tires, tubes, and rim flaps. All of the brake bands have also been professionally relined. On top, the original roadster materials have been carefully removed, and will no doubt be good materials to use for patterns to fabricate new pieces.
Everything inside is looking respectable as well, not perfect, but OK for a driver. Check out the hand-marked pattern on the stick shifter- these cars came with a 3-Speed manual that placed first gear in the bottom right and reverse at the upper right! Wonder how many of these lunged forward when unsuspecting drivers thought they had it ready to go backward? The seller also mentions that boxes of spare parts are also included in the sale. What are your thoughts on this 1926 Buick Speedster/Racer?
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Comments
Good welders can fix cracked blocks. Interesting car. Could be a bunch of fun. Kid in college had a ’50s Buick straight 8 in an early 3 window coupe that he bolted directly to the frame with no rubber mounts. Used to stoplight drag on Friday nights. Light car, big torquey engine, and he flipped it onto it’s side one night taking on a big Chevy. Little too much torque there.
Sort of makes you wonder if the Owner lost all interest in this awesome 1926 Buick Roadster Speedster after the transportation accident damaging the block.
Don’t call it Cali…please.
JB Weld the block. Done.
Yup, at least worth a try.
Weld engine – get it running – put on your asbestos pants – climb in and go.
I remember that Buick had a right hand drive shift pattern about that time. I don’t know why unless they were selling cars in England.
How can the block get cracked just by transporting it?
Howie
I’ve seen professional collectors and builders dump nothing but straight water into everything from Model T’s to multi million dollar ‘66 Ford GT’s. While water has the best ability to transport heat ethylene glycol antifreeze prevents freezing, expansion and cracking of cast iron blocks. And that’s probably what happened to this engine when it went north on a transporter. Freeze plug technology wasn’t exactly ubiquitous in 1926. And even freeze plugs aren’t 100% assurance that there won’t be damages.
This engine can possibly be repaired but it would need to be removed, totally stripped down, cleaned, blasted, Magna-Fluxed, heated to several hundred degrees F and then welded while hot with a high nickel content rod and then Magna-Fluxed again… Been there. Done that.
Thanks Dr Ron.
A long careful pre-heat, analysis of a coupon of the cast iron, stop drill the crack end points, grind open the repair area, and the proper alloy of rod. That might do it.
Old cast iron could be a problem (there could be localized, connected stress cracking )
Then – – some guy will show up with JB weld or similar product, and it will work better than a carefully planned repair !!
I’m scratching my chin. Like envisioning this car at the Newport Hill Climb. Humm?
Good plan FOG!
I live 1.5 hours from Newport and get up there for the hill climb nearly every year and this bitsa Buick would be perfect for The Big Hill.
Just the sound of it would be entertainment.