Just joined, bought myself a 1952 Buick Special a few weeks ago, its a bit of a rat rod now but I'm going to be improving it over time. Mostly stock apart from the matt black and flames paint, and a little lower than it used to be........

 

Somebody did a lot of work on the front. That old straight 8 was a good reliable workhorse. Dynaflow was a little healthy on gas.

 

Yes, its had a lot of work done on the body all round - one of the future jobs will be to re-paint it but keep it similar to as you see it now. I love the straight 8, it has two 2 barrel carbs and an eight into four into two cast exhaust manifold all from an older Buick I believe and sounds great. Transmission is a 3 on the tree manual, that took a little getting used to but I'm fine with it now....

 

In 1941 &42 Buicks had dual carbs. I was too young to work on them then, but remember seeing the 2 carbs.

I wasn't aware a 52 was available with std shift.
Where the bullet tips on the front bumper are, I believe used to be where the front parking lamps were located..

They used to have the radio antenna located just above the center of the windshield and you were able to turn the antenna down if you wanted to from a **** on the inside.

 

Thanks for the info about the carbs, as you can imagine I'm on something of a learning curve about the car !

The bullet tips are gone now, didn't like them that much, the original lights came with the car, so I have cleaned them up and converted them to single filament bulbs so they now act as indicators with orange bulbs inside. I've also fitted new king pins and bushes, got the heater system all working, and fitted washers for the windscreen as there wasn't any. Next things I'm doing is replacing the rubbers around the quarter light windows and trying to get the speedo cable connected - I think there may be a bit of the cable drive square broken off in the speedo drive as the cable won't go in all the way.

I didn't know about the radio antenna, I don't think the **** is still there though.

 

You might have to remove parts of the dash to see inside the speedo head to see if there is actually a piece stuck inside. You might be able to use a small mirror and flashlight to do this without removing anything, depends on how much room you have.
There is a good possibility someone replaced the inner cable and the part that goes into the speedo head may be too long.

The best way to be sure would be to take your time and remove the speedo and see just what is the problem getting the cable all the way into the speedo head.

 

Ah, I meant the speedo drive on the tranny end of the cable, think I have that sorted now but thanks. Just received some parts from Rock Auto's so I should be busy for a couple of days, weather permitting............

 

Petty sure you can remove the speedo cable drive end from the trans with only one bolt holding it in the trans. Then you will have an opportunity to inspect the driven gear that indexes with the drive gear on the trans output shaft. Curious to know what you find, thanks.