52 Special - Let's try to resurrect a survivor

I'll keep that in mind. This pump is...rough. Makes me wonder if evap-o-rust or some such could be brought to bear, it's pretty innocuous. Unsure.

Finished scraping the marine life out of that rearmost block freeze plug, and while it looks a whole lot better than I *expected*, yeah, it also looks like it's pinholed and needs replaced. I'll clean a bit more and see what I see before I take the big hammer to it.

#3? Looks surprisingly good. Makes me suspect that the rear 2 freeze plugs have been replaced over the years. Almost had to be, given how shiny they buff out.

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Upcoming: Going to take a break from the Buick for a bit, doing some vacationing stuff and won't be in the garage for a time. Will let parts I have ordered trickle in. Plan is to be rested, refreshed, and ready to jump back on it when I start up again!
Please tell me that it will be living on the road as a daily driver again...

I'd hate to see so much work for a car to be used as eye candy.
 
That's not my intention. I don't know how long I'll want to keep the old girl, but for now, it (as they say) "sparks joy" every time I see her. And something as straight and rust-free as she is, even with the old paint...she's aged gracefully. It would be a shame to erase all of her history for no good reason.

I need to finish buttoning up the engine - I have exhaust manifold issues to resolve as well as the freeze plugs, temp sender, heater valve, the one pushrod that was bent, and whatever else inevitably gets exposed by this exercise. I'm not going to go nuts, just try to give her what she needs to get running again.

And, after the engine is running reliably, I'll still have to turn my attention to the torque ball, which now drips continually. Nothing like disturbing a seal that's set quiet for 15-20+ years to make it grumpy!

My list is quite a bit shorter than it "was", but I have to admit - drilling/extracting/tapping/helicoiling cast manifolds doesn't excite me. So I've been delaying.
 
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