’35 Buick Series 40

Following a successful trip through Oman in the ‘vert; a Herbie; and a Porsche 914, Ian, Howard and I started planning our next jaunt. It just so happened that Ian had bought a 1935 Rolls Royce 20/25 in Canada and shipped it over to Dubai, so thoughts turned to vintage and next thing I’d bought a 1935 Buick Series 40!

Actually a Buick McLaughlin it to came from Canadas, but was far from original and had been modified to in the UAE. Pristine in black with a slightly dubious white vinyl interior, it embodied an early gangster car from the 30’s, it even had the Godfather on the rear seat.

Motivation was provided by a last 70’s Ford Mustang 200ci inline-six with an autobox shifting on the column. Welcome modernization, if not for the purists.

First job was to replace the hot-rod-esque wheel and dodgy port-a-wall white walls with some real ones on quality spoked wheels of the correct size – what a difference it made to the stance and looks.

I drove the car around for a while like this, but despite some disc brakes, they and the steering  were a little lethal. The car could change lanes with little input from the driver.

So, the second project was to fit a Mustang II front end, complete with rack and pinion steering, decent suspension and better ventilation disc-brakes. We took the opportunity to also fit 4-link suspension to the rear.

Steering, braking and handling well, it is a useable car in modern traffic, not fast by any means but it can keep up and stop, which is good when everyone is looking at you!

Next up were touring mods for a trip to India, but more of that later.