Will This 1956 Buick Special DRIVE 1,200 MILES Back Home? (P1)

definitely the oddest intro location ever there's the coffee pot i'm at an airport hotel in austin texas where i just picked up a 1956 buick special two-door hard top this one's really unique however on the title here the previous owner has my name on it in fact it has family history all the way back to the late 70s early 80s of course i'm just gonna try to drive it 1200 miles home we're gonna stop along the way see some friends do some cool stuff and i'm gonna take you guys with me [Music] so why all the way across the country to texas and why this buick specifically there's thousands of two-door buicks right i want to learn on you some more history on it then hopefully this will make more sense for you like i was saying the previous owner was actually me i had owned this car for oh probably about eight nine years somewhere around there but before that my father actually owned it and i tracked it all the way back to 79 or 80s when i think he picked it up he was the second owner and growing up my fondest memories involved this buick one way or another i spent hours in between my grandpa and my dad and an old scottsdale pickup driving the junkyards and tree rows an old farmsteads and just in the hope that maybe we'd find you know a better headlight bezel or a better trim emblem in fact the first intake and four barrel i ever helped take off i was too young to do it myself was a one off of a riviera i believe it was a century had the four barrel and that ended up on this special and another memory i have is one of those old metal petal john deere tractors i had some twine with some sickles and guards and miscellaneous metal i'm in a dirt floor shop and i'm pedaling that thing around just making a dust storm 10 feet away my dad's painting the car with a siphon feed gun just doing his best to get it done for the parade which i think was the next day and just i have thousands of memories like that fast forward when my dad passed away i took the car in and it needed a lot of love he did the best he could you know on a farm way up by canada over the course of almost a decade we stripped the thing down to nothing and did a full-on restoration but unfortunately when we were about 99.987 percent complete i literally only had four trim pieces to put left on the car it was involved in fire it was devastating to me it was really hard to see it like that and just think about going through that again so i regrettably ended up selling the car and it bugged me every day i spent literally 10 years looking for this car and i found it jumped on a plane i bought it over the phone said give me a number i paid 50 more than what i sold it for that's fine and we're gonna go take a look at it it was actually delivered last night in the dark um so i didn't want to film or i didn't really get a close look at it so you guys are going to look at it with me for the first time in many many years supposedly still runs we're going to hit the key and just hit the road and see what happens i'm gonna do my best not to swing you down memory lane too often but if i'm being completely honest i'm making this more as a documentary for my kids and my family because it's never leaving my hands again but i'm really glad you're here along for the ride chances of me making it 17.39 this hallway is too long i already see it through the glass over there there it is 1956 buick two-door hardtop what makes this one fairly unique and low production is it came factory with power steering and power brakes and the specials were kind of the entry level buick back then it looks pretty dang good yeah looks great so the rear quarters the trunk all of this was fire damaged from about here back all the stainless is still missing i can actually see swirl marks from the fresher bodywork still in it but it's not dented in beat up it really is a straight old car i put thousands of hours into the body work on this hand sanded everything down to bare metal my brother sean helped me jessica helped me there wasn't a speck of paint on this car and the only bondo in it was a little bit right here and i believe oh well right there where it's starting to bubble other than that it was it was really straight color sanded this thing hands wet sanded it i mean it was a ton of work this is new that wasn't busted i don't think the windshield was cracked either he did put some new bumper parts on it i guess yeah so these are newer that's definitely newer i remember when that happened my dad uh oh no i think we had a renter on the farm back some equipment into this and damage that a lot of memories so this is the only pieces that i didn't finish was this stainless that's still off of it it comes up over the wheel i never got that on and that's when it was in a fire never did find these tail light housings i'm looking for new tail light housings that's the way that was kind of bubbly awesome first sign coral leaking from underneath of it looks like that's been dripping all night what makes that even better is growing up it always had an overheating issue so clearly still something going on great let's start the trunk guy likes to dig in back there see what we got going on tell us the story you know oh yeah we got stuff lots of stuff oh just a spare rad just in case that's nice he did say he gave a brand new spare that's really cool actually on the radio owner's manual got a battery she's a delco looks like this is the stainless that's a lower arch door still got some juices i must be a car cover hood hinges shop towels headlights so there's some missing stuff there's a wiper motor some digital things huh looks like you put some carpet in or well there's some fire damage there actually some there too i have to really dig in and see how bad it got i can't quite remember there's a closer look at that yellow it's actually not that bad of a yellow now that i'm older when i was young i was obsessed with this black and white because it did have black and white interior from the factory but now that i'm older i might go back to yellow i don't know you guys let me know this looks just like i remember it now the back here he must have redone the seat carpet because all this was all this was messed up headliner messed up the deck lid so he's done quite a bit of work back here carpet looks great definitely has a bondo grain bin mice smell we got a triple smeller it always had a mice bondo kind of fresh paint spell there's a trim piece missing here this should have a it's a big i think it's plastic actually comes around right here have to look for that but yeah it's still in really decent shape this came apart this is supposed to be glued up in here i put this in he left that in there so the temp gauge used to work but we always had that heating issue so i put this in so we could actually make sure that it wasn't the gauge because i think these were like a mercury filled tube compared to like newer style technology same with oil pressure and then i put a tack in and then this used to be an electric fuel pump door panels they're dirty but they're there this stain here that's fire extinguisher residue i think the other one has it too now originally i want to say that the ceiling had polka dots in it and i want to say that this wasn't ribbed like this and that also had polka dots but it was the black and white i can't i can't quite remember that specifically let's pop the hood should have a 322 nail head under here nervous around this thing she's got some shine on her still 322 nail head and this thing used to sound just amazing had a nice rumble to it power steering power brakes again that was kind of odd for the special took me forever to find that jug that washer jug looks like he's replaced the wiper motor but everything else looks pretty much the way i had it before this was off a different car so this rod must be a different one looks like he also out of the transmission cooler which is nice to keep that dynaflow nice and cool we're gonna be pushing it a little bit on the highway i think these do run 110 top speed but they like to cruise around 60 65 but overall i mean some of the wiring has changed and a few other things broken but man am i glad to have this thing back pretty dang good shape overall there are some you can see where they re-spray it well maybe you can't because it's black but there's a lot of just heavy scratches they didn't really finish out their primer very well when they sprayed the quarters but that's okay she's a good 15-footer well the battery was pulled for security purposes ooh left me a vice grip so i'm going to throw that back in here and then we'll just see if this thing fires right off really cool how you start these you turn it to on and then you mash the gas pedal to the floor and there's a little switch on the carburetor here that has a check valve in it and that's what actually engages the starter relay for the starter but this one's been changed to something different for now and i got to fix that when i get home but let's throw this in here and i really hope it's charged because i don't have cables or tools or anything i literally have that vise grip this screwdriver and this plier 600 cold cranking apps that's not quite a lot but should hopefully work there we go check the oil click oh yeah that's pretty fresh actually got plenty let's twist on it see what happens [Music] she fired right off has that same sound i remember too looks like there might be a leak on the water pump see that buildup down there i guess i could check the miles when i sold this it had 50 640 miles and now it's got 53 910 so he's only put what is math 3 300 miles so that's not bad [Music] sounds great this is updated on not working that's uh that's probably what this is plug your ipod in there you know clocks never worked got cigarette lighter lights over here this is actually your two-speed wiper they run on vacuum it's pretty neat dynaflow shift pattern reverses at the bottom down there ashtrays are here over here and then this is a speaker for the old radio and that's your temperature control he did say it doesn't have a heater which is great because it's about 10 degrees and snowing at home so that's going to be fun driving through well this is a little different for me i usually don't pick up cars that run so i'm slightly confused what to do with my hands i think first step let's put some fuel in it make sure all the gauges are working i gotta swing by harbor freight pick up some tools there's some general stuff and then i guess we're just gonna stab it on the highway and see what happens i only have a fraction of the camera equipment i usually have so this is gonna be vice grip garage blair witch style and what made me think of that is i don't have anything to charge any of my devices or gps or anything so hopefully that cigarette lighter works we'll have to stop and get something for that or i'm gonna have to wire something into the battery some sort of converter or something first stop gas station hopefully this fuel gauge works that's gonna be a nightmare and then we'll go pick up 72 dollars in junk tools that'll work it's got drive horn works we're good to go what else do you need temperature is at 190 already and i haven't even pulled out of the lot and it's probably 74 out so that still could be an issue i'm gonna have to keep an eye on that i'm guessing this thing's only going to get about 10 miles per gallon but we'll have to see i'm going to run 93 in it actually i'm not because that contains ethanol so from the 89 and then since it's such a long trip we're going to be pushing it pretty good i'm actually going to find some lead substitute if i'm just be bopping them around town i don't worry about it but we're going to be up there in the rip ems and lead substitute just helps the valve trains these don't have hard seats on them so i'll have to add that to the old shopping list as well well guy miles will test on it right away i have a feeling we'll be driving through a bunch of rain definitely snow i'm also see if she's sealed up right away i can already see it's not that's fine this felt's missing but this has a nice watch this when i open the door that flips up isn't that cool so it should be pretty sealed from the top i'm just kind of worried around here how it's going to leak i put all new rubber in this when i did the car but again that was 10 11 years ago it's nice there just happened to be a touchless wash here [Music] swing back over here brakes seem to be working i didn't even think to look or check anything i'm just so used to not having them thank you you're welcome it is in use it's in use okay these little crank windows are nice on buicks you gotta lock them down there we go i can see outside right there i just noticed that's fine that side looks whoa we gotta go this way what are we oh it was in neutralis it's holding that 190. how am i supposed to know when to stop okay what's that mean there's no indicators in here as far as what in the world is going on also i've never seen a car wash without walls i guess that's a thing down here there's a towel right here i wonder if that's what this is for i hope it is is this a bathroom floor rug i don't know we're just putting it over here it's already violently hot in here i got the really cheap one you know so it's short in case it just goes sideways oh it's bad oh no front vent window major spillage where is it even coming in oh everywhere it's not good the door gaps are wrong that's my fault dang it back window solid well i got that one right all right shut it down i don't need anymore i'm good turn it off no oh that's the issue goodness gracious yeah got it can i just leave well overall that went really good i thought i'm trying to exit okay i forgot what i was doing i think i was gonna get tools or something oh fuel gauge that's what it was it works says ron full 53 10 so that i can do my fuel millage all right jump around the intro state here and see what happens yep feels good been clipping along for about 15 miles now seems to be doing fine it's f195 some are right around there these 322s originally came with the two barrel and again we swapped a four barrel onto this one so i'm trying to find where i can keep my foot out of that four barrel for fuel mileage but also go a decent speed if you're wondering these miles are original so i'm fairly confident in that respect but it's old and nail heads are not easy to get parts for at all so this is really just you know we're just winging it basically hoping for the best they have a lot of power stations in texas no one there made it to the first destination very specific reason why i came to this town one there's an advanced auto parts i got a gift card that a fan sent me also use that there's also a walmart guy needs a going town shirt i didn't bring much at all harbor freight right down the street and also there's a whataburger what what what a burger anywho guys never eaten at one of them right now it's floating between 190 and 200 which i think will probably be okay i'm going to get some water wetter some of that lead substitute a couple other things in here got to get an air freshener of course and then we'll just make the rounds get everything else taken care of quick while i'm here in town guy grabs some hyper cool it's green i don't know it's got a flag on it says it does cooling stuff throw that in there see if it brings it down anymore or maybe it's just gonna stay and the oil seems fresher at least tastes like it but i don't know what kind you put in there if it has zinc in it or not so i bought a zinc substitute and i'll just throw that in the oil it's a must for flat tabs and then i found lead substitute but they only had one bottle and this treats 20 gallons which is the tank so i'm gonna have to scoot around town a little bit more try to find some more of that then of course i got some america flavor trees here pop them in i'm gonna check the trans fluid real quick see what we got going on there i got to thinking about it that's probably my biggest scare i did rebuild the transmission or had someone rebuild the transmission when i got the car because my dad only ever had low he literally drove this car everywhere 30 35 miles an hour i had a rebuilt the first time lasted maybe 50 miles and then found another expert had it rebuilt again i'm assuming that's what's in it now but man it's really hard to find guys that know how to work on dyna flows so i really want to make sure we take care of that thing [Music] completely empty well the transmission's empty i mean there's not even a drop on it hopefully the damage isn't already done it's just such a hurry this morning the nerves were just rattled you know so i'm gonna go back inside get some go make it happen or juice fill that up put the rest of this in it and then i need i think i'm just gonna we'll do the cheeseburger thing i think that's what i gotta have i thought this would be like maple syrup but just like consistency of 10 30 or something like that guys getting set up i got a digital readout holder the cigarette lighter works i'll be dipped now i can charge on that and then leaving harbor freight and this is what i picked up i grabbed these pittsburgh 225 piece sets these are like 129 i think but i mean this thing has i've never really had a time where i didn't have the tool i needed out of this thing i guess is what a guy's trying to tell you and it goes up to some half inch stuff so you can even do some wheel lugs not really supposed to but it works this is junk but it'll work in case of a flat it's 30 bucks and then i like on these flashlights for those that are emerging overseas so i think that's it you know i always just wing these trips i don't really have a plan but looking at the digital map here i'm going to be going right by some good friends of mine lance wyatt and christian they have a youtube channel called restored and i gave them a call and they said absolutely come on by they've got a lift so i think i'm going to put this on the lift we can get underneath of it take a look at some things torque tube torque ball probably the wheel bearings maybe even put some oil on the rear end if there's even any in it probably not yeah get a little shop tour while we're there maybe they've got a lot of really cool neat bizarre stuff and i'll take you guys with i don't think i'm gonna get all the way there tonight we'll try it was 289 miles i think from here which will probably take me five or six hours at the speed i'm cooking but we'll do our best now i just i'm not used to keys where did that go now [Music] [Applause] [Music] just swung into an eight of 11 here gonna get some fuel the gauge is reading just less than half but i don't know what we're getting for the mpgs so i'm gonna quack humiliate that out real quick temp's holding steady right at 200 now but i might be pushing it a little bit harder than i should doing a lot of 65 70. speed limit's 80 out here i just i got people just ripping by uh i've got 165 miles left it's saying so we're making some slow time that's okay i like this ease and this thing is the most comfortable car i have ever driven in my life it's like sitting on grandma's couch basically i'm gonna fill up throw it into the old phone here and see if we got any parts stores try to get some more lead additive and then just keep on rocking i found two more bottles of lead that'd be plenty for now i did the calculations on mpgs and i had to do it a couple times it's getting 15.1 miles per gallon i just we sure think we're something else today with all this here engine nerding and whatnot and we pulled off 15 miles to the gallon in a 1956 buick just jamming it down the interstate loaded full of junk that's just how's your brain feeling because mine's bottled up we got ice cream truck sure enough anyway sun's going down we gotta keep scooting someone's getting arrested wasn't me i don't know where i'm at but i just i'm gonna i'm gonna get out of is a here from the past to make sure you're learning from mistakes that you did last send me a letter when you're done [Music] evaluating what your short life has become that you should love [Music] of what you've seen so far there are better ways throw preconceptions down the drain cause this is your last chance that you should [Music] the future i will show [Music] you should know [Music] you should know [Music] you should you should know [Music] good morning guy made it in pretty good last night car ran really good could tell when i got off the highway though it does need a ignition adjustment timing and then the fuel make a happener we gotta twist on them a little bit you might be wondering why did i just jump in and take off like that i've never really done that before and the reason i had so much confidence is i literally touched every single nut bolt and screw in that entire car bumper to bumper roof to frame but as i was trying to shut the eyes off last night i got to thinking that was 10 years ago maybe more there's a whole lot that can happen in that amount of time i never even got to shake the thing down so i'm gonna be a lot more cautious today i'm gonna run over to my friend's shop lance wyatt christian they have a channel on youtube called restored and they're letting me use their lift we could put it up on that and just really pull the sheets back on this thing and see what we got going on but so far everything's been going really good never mind cancel that looks like we got something oh i hope that's not trans well that's cool so that little coolant leak has now turned into this so i'm gonna do the right thing and just pretend i didn't see that basically still just fired up and head right there they're really close i'm hoping it's not the radiator itself i guess i do have the other one in the trunk but that might have been the cause of it heating up all these years kind of hard to say let's stop by the parts store quick then let's just rip over there and see if we can figure out what's leaking in here it is hotter than shakira's two-piece in here and i ain't kidding let's see if this thing fires right off today seems like we got battery gauge came up give her one pump look at that hold her up at a little higher aisle here for a minute i think i might also get this tack plugged back in i'm not sure why that got disconnected i think i'm running out about 24 maybe 2 500 rpm and if that's the case i can bring that up a little bit 2800 2900 that won't hurt anything and maybe make some ground up faster i mean yesterday i drove for i think eight hours and that was less than 300 miles i guess i did stop a lot because what's that average not sure it's really bad as far as the mths so when i hit the road again i gotta just try to bite down on it [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] how's it going man i'm pretty good how are you good thanks for having me so we're at the restore shop here lance why and christian you guys have kind of started off a new channel a few months ago yes sir and uh you've got some really cool stuff out here well some people think it's cool other people don't think it's junk but yeah we're into anything out of the ordinary that's for sure we got a spray coupe sand rail a bus an isetta pickups a hummer this is pretty awesome do you mind if i walk around a little bit not at all make yourself just watch out for snakes all right i appreciate the heads up and then the lift which you guys have been kind enough to let me use i appreciate that a lot i'm trying not to roll around on my belly much anymore you're all handy so get the buick in there a little bit if you don't mind i just want to check underneath of it yeah feel free to make yourself at home you'll be the first guinea pig to actually use it i've used it to lift off bodies and stuff on it so not not a full-frame vehicle yet if the tip's over wasn't me they got so much stuff out here the guy's pretty excited for when i get some land i'll be able to do this look at this speed boat that's gonna pull at least 25 28 miles an hour probably saw this service truck over here i'm gonna go ahead and jot that down on the list got two of them all sorts of weird stuff they got this running on a live the other day bubble top it's really cool tried to buy this truck already but i don't have enough dinero really nice pickup these guys do some cool stuff they're about into everything as you can see hot rods unique whatever else but i was basically driving right through here so there was no way i wasn't going to stop so i think i'm going to back this car it sounds like we got to back it in the way the lift is set up get it lifted up and see what's going on underneath this thing and hopefully fix that radiator leak whatever's going on there [Music] [Music] so he's going to help me kind of just walk through here and see if we can see anything out of the norm look at all the bushings and stuff like that and just take advantage of having this up in the air like this and here's the 322 that's kind of the shakira of oil pans i mean that thing is there you got the dynaflo the boot on the starter is gone that's actually looks like fire damage so that'll need to be fixed at some point and those freeze plugs look nasty that one looks really suspect i'm gonna have to keep an eye on that and i think oh yep sure enough see this little rod that is about to pop and i don't have one how many miles do you think i got left from that she's about to give out any momentum yeah oh shoot i need a radiator hose there's no parts store in this town right uh about 20 miles you do have some tight all right might get me back to town looks like the gentleman put new shocks on it i was hearing some clunking back here but i'm wondering if it almost ain't the exhaust binding up on something because it's only when i hit bumps not sure what that was but these buick rear ends are neat kind of look like the four nine and then this is a torque tube so instead of your traditional drive shaft the shaft is enclosed and then it runs up here to what's called a torque ball and that's kind of like a universal joint and that's why these nail heads and dynaflows usually aren't swapped out is because then you got to come in and change the whole rear end in the rear end you can put riviera wildcat the saber stuff like that but then you got to match all the perches so you really kind of got to know what's going on and then this frame is really cool so you've got the exterior frame and then you've got this x pattern i mean these things were just built like tanks back then i don't ever remember this that must have been my dad took a shortcut to the field too many old milwaukees or something hard to say but i rod in maybe yeah i think we're i'm not seeing anything else that's really standing out are you did you see this right through it no yeah i got it a little link there oh yeah oh i have to get a flashlight in there something's leaking figures right when i thought about the first car ever that had brakes they're gonna go out this is that dupe uh dupli-color i think it's 1634 low gloss paint i've been using this for years that's been on it for 10 years and it's still holding up i like to see that because i'm still using it so but everything else looks pretty good got some rust starting in here again unfortunately a little bit right here i don't know this was probably redone well it had to have been but when i did the paint there was a little bit of bondo right here and a little on the other side and that was it in the whole car so this guy put a new tank in it this bumper shot if you've got a 56 bumper i need it give me a price so we just noticed a shake on these we got a little bit back and forth which is tie rod ends but when we lift it up and down i think the wheel bearings are a little loose so i'm gonna pop the inspection caps off and see if we can maybe snug them down i don't think the bearings are bad it doesn't sound bad but i just want to put a little bit more pressure on them they sit like this they'll probably prematurely wear out this car has four different hubcaps from four different buicks on them and they're still not perfect they're supposed to be a dark grayish black insert in all these and i think one of them i spent like nine months painting with the model brush and it looked really bad oh apparently i spray painted the back because that makes it dark red out here i'll be lance is trying to work on his stuff and i'm just yelling at him to get me tools but he's super nice so i don't think he minds sometimes this will happen if you put new wheel bearings in and just go until it feels tight and put the pin in and leave it you're supposed to put them to like 10 12 pounds then back them off and that seats them in there but this is got a wobble huh there you go it was only finger tight but we'll take a look at it and see by the way this is buick so left hand thread a lot of you might be wondering what's going on here well i don't see anything abnormal sounds fine so i'm just going to give her a little more oomph and i think we're good to go so the captain side was just loose the drinker side over here we've got bad news it's not completely shot but the outer piece you can see this groove in there and i don't have one of those micro meter reader upper deals but my eyes are still good enough that i can see this is not a new wheel bearing and it's been in there for probably all of the 55 000 miles the car has so it's gonna need a wheel bearing on this side pretty soon i think i might be able to get a thousand miles out of this thing but if i'm gonna be looking for a rad hose guy miles will try to find this bearing at the same time they might have it on the shelf probably not if i could find like a national bearing or something so tightening down this side more is not going to do anything it's just going to put more stress on the race so i'm going to snug her up again and just have to keep checking it or maybe we'll replace it well i think we kind of fixed it for now they got maybe some other hoses we'll go take a peek quick but if not i'll just try to track down another one and we'll just swap this in a motel lot or something later on but that's gonna go a couple more heat cycles that thing's gonna pop and then we noticed it's pushed against the frame up here and that's because this is a bigger rad and there's that spacer up there and let's push this back probably an inch and an eighth that's why that's happening so i'm going to do the right thing and just wrap a cold snacks can around that keep the rubbing down just a hair but everything else a little bit of a oil leak off the pump up there but everything else is looking well let's be honest it's in a lot better shape than a lot of things i've driven home so this makes me feel a little bit more comfortable i don't think i've ever done a 1200 mile trip with something this old so it's just nice having a little more comfort so we'll get her back down on the ground and hunt for a hose and then it's time to hit the road again pretty soon well i think that's going to do for part one of this adventure guy needs to try to find some parts for this thing big thank you to lance hawaii at the restored shop here and you can't forget christian behind the scenes they've got more stuff wired into this building than a dang bank and i ain't kidding yet well anyway this is a dry county so i'm going to do the right thing and just keep driving it around until i can find some cold snacks then parts store see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Vice Grip Garage

Views: 952,439

Rating: 4.9683137 out of 5

Keywords: motortrend, roadkill, vice grip garage, vise grip garage, vgg, garage, barn, find, drive, it, home, will, run, will it run, will it drive, road trip, cross county, route 66, museum, buick, special, riviera, century, roadmaster, road, master, delta, nail, head, nailhead, 322, dynaflow, 1200, miles, will it start, gm, buick special, hard top, hardtop, coupe

Id: opUkfrKoiuw

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 08 2020