Classic Hifi Care

Posting this for Greg, our Buick guy.

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It's a handsome old boat. My '57 was a Super 2-dr. hardtop, a rusty Michigan car but it started and ran and I've always wished I had kept it from the junkyard. Mine was lacking the grill bar that said "1957" but a few years later I found one in the trash at curbside. It lives in my shop now. From the old car, I kept the working radio and the steering wheel center emblem. I've always since had an irrational affection for the '57.

When I went to TN at the end of 1969, I needed a cheap, modest vehicle for local use. I looked at a '54 Buick 4-dr. I was nervous about a vehicle that old so I settled on the '62 Corvair. That car was a real trooper, agile and reliable, and it probably got 2X the gas mileage of the old Buick. I had a lead foot in those days, a serious lead foot, and the gas mileage was still in the 20s. I advanced the timing and ran premium gas.

Chris Campbell

That is a nice old Special, Chris. Just as a matter of trivia, the headlamp rings on Special and Century in '57 were chromed. The rings on Super and Roadmaster were painted except the outside front edge, which was chrome. The taillight housings and the bumpers, front and rear, were different between the "junior" Series and the "senior" Series. The paint in the sweepspear on all models except Roadmaster 75 was red. On the 75 Series it could be red or black, depending on body color. Wheels on all models was red, except, again, Roadmaster 75. They could also be black on that Series. Kelsey-Hayes wires were a dealer-installed option on 1957 Buicks. These wheels were also a 20-point mandatory deduction in Buick National judging until 1995 when Art Wright presented factory documentation for this option and got the mandatory deduction deducted from National judging standards. Wire wheels were not available on Roadmaster 75 due to interference between the hub of the wheels and the finned aluminum brake drums. Other Series used steel front brake drums. A 1/4" spacer between the wheels and brake drums fixed that. Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels neither add nor subtract points due to the fact they were available from the dealer. The dealer would sell them to you for your "58 as well, so most judges won't count off for K-H wires on a '58 Buick. Art refused to restore a 1955 to1957 Buick unless it left his shop on K-H wires.....

Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels correct for those old Buicks used tubes. Current production (reproduction) offers them in tube and tubeless models. You will get a 10-point gig in Buick judging if you have tubeless wires on your old Buick. While Buicks on steel wheels had tubeless tires starting in 1954, the wires used tubes. K-H wires are "technically" correct for my '63 due to their being available thru the dealer back in the day. You would be hard-pressed to convince a show judge of their originality in actual practice. Now, if you could produce a document from a dealer that said they supplied the K-H tubeless wires for your '63 Electra..........

The Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels Buick used were not unique to Buick. Cadillac and Oldsmobile used them, Ford used them, Packard, Chrysler, Kaiser and maybe others. The bolt patterns and hubcaps were different, but the wheels were all pretty much the same. Packard used the same bolt pattern and offset on their wheels as Buick.