Will This 1954 Buick Run, Drive & Stop For Under $1000?? Last On The Road in 1992. Left For Dead 

Ben you did great getting the Buick running; I discovered your tube channel when you pulled that 53 Olds home and was intrigued by your talent. My first car was a54 Olds with a 324 cu.in. that was 1957 almost a new car back then it had 23000 miles on it. I recently bought another 54 olds that had been sitting for for 20 years, put a new tank, fuel pump, spark plugs, cleaned up a frozen water pump by inserting a hacksaw blade between the impeller and housing cleaning out all of the corrosion and was successful in getting it to turn reinstalled and made it pump again. Keep up the good work we all enjoy all of your videos.

I kept looking at it and thinking how beautiful that car must have been off the showroom floor and what excitement and pride the original owner must have felt. Whatever it took that was labor and money well spent. A second chance for a car like this is priceless. Great job as always.

For another $200 for floor pans and you've got a running and driving 54 Special. Not bad!

six years since the camaro? wow..time has flown, and you, we, have come a long way..and thanks for 54 minutes of car restoring..my favorite topic...

Nice old Buick , and interesting to see that it can be brought back to life for a reasonable amount of money ! As I recall , Dynaflow , like the original Packard Ultramatic , has all the Torque multiplication within the Torque converter , thus there is no sensation of gears changing when in Drive . It gives a very smooth Take-off at the expense of somewhat slower acceleration than a traditional Autobox . Correcting the leaks and filling fluid to the correct level may address the reverse problem and odd noises.

I'd love to see you restore this car. This generation, 54-56 Buick is my favorite. I had a 56 special hardtop in the late 70's. Great car.

2-door, nice color, nice patina. What's not to like? Idles smooth, too.

I love it, that blue the new tyres and wheel trims looks great. I'm prepared to say you won Ben made it under a $1000 based on essentials to getting it running. Hopefully more updates to follow. Happy New Year everyone

So cool to see it driving, braking and rattling! That car is worth saving!

Off to a good start. Get some floors in it, the body looks pretty solid.

My mother had a 1955 Buick Special when I was a boy. Took my drivers test at 16 in 1960. No power steering for drivers test parking. Great car. The dynaflow transmission does not have a noticeable shift.

Nice car it deserves to be worked and saved.

Beautiful car, Ben. Glad to see another one brought back to life.

I bought this exact same year and model from my brother in the '70s. Manual steering and brakes. When I asked him why the steering wheel and brake pedal were so big, he said I would find out when I drove it. Man, that car loved the open highway. A great cruiser!!

A friend of mine had a 1956 Buick, and he had transmission problems all the time, he also broke the front universal joint several times. Being an enclose drive shaft it was a challenge to do. He used it for years and loved it.

Ben, great job!!! I am so glad to see you saved a 50s Buick. Those front grills are something else. They are classy cars. Keep up the good work. Now you have a rattletrap and a rust bucket. Ha

Ben,the '54 Buick has the DynaFlow transmission.Your '56 Sedan DeVille is equipped with the Hydra-Matic transmission.The Buick definitely must be saved,it will go nicely with your '56 Sedan DeVille,your wife's '55 Pontiac.Cheers.Bob.

Loved the restore my first car in 1963 was a red and white top 1954 Buick super two door, had a lot of fun in that beast. The hood ornament is used to aim the car. Dynaflows don’t shift they have a variable pitch torque converter.

Manual steering is fine as long as you're in motion. It only becomes a bitch when you're parked and need to turn the wheel but the large steering wheel helps with that as well.

I love old Buicks. Thank you for giving this one the attention it deserves. Good job.

Not criticizing at all , but here is my experience with putting Rotella or Delo 400 in older engines that have not had this type oil used in it before is not good, it cleans the rings to the point where they don’t seat and will turn valve stem seals into mush and will clog a oil filter from all the crud it removes from the engine, I learned the hard way and it was time consuming and expensive to correct my blunder on a 58 caddy.

That dashboard brought back so many nice memories. I was about 5 YO when my parents had a 54, Of course, no seatbelts back then. I would stand up on the hump in the backseat and watch the road. so, I saw that dashboard a lot!! B-4 that was a 51 Roadmaster. Nice cars. Good job on this one, nice to see one back on the road again!!

Nicely done! Gotta love the styling some of those old cars have. Totally reasonable on the cost, since some of those things weren't absolutely necessary to meet your goals.

Wow, they sure had their own way of doing things back in 1954...Good Job Ben - cool ride along 👍

I had a 1962 Buick Electra 225 four door for decades. Was my grandfathers car and I am 62. It had almost every option Buick offered. Such as trunk release in the glove box controlled by a manual pull handle vacuum tank thing, vacuum power door locks. Electric seats and windows. AC. Power antenna. It did not have the powered vent windows. I know all about old rusty Buicks. My car was rusty but not as bad as this one. My Dynaflow was pretty impressive speedwise. For a 4000 pound car went 0-60 in 6 seconds, when you power shifted starting in low gear, then moving into drive. Had the GM positrack rear axle. 2 speed transmission, torque converter also has a movable stator to multiply torque, a kickdown lever coming off the 4 barrel Rochestor 4GC carb which when you floored it, the stater in the torque convertor changed its internal vane angle to multiply torque to the wheels. Torque converter has a bolt on cover. I would floor it, and when you look behind the car it would leave a slight trail of rubber tire, but it did not spin the tire free of the road. In the early 80's raced a few Corvettes in the wild country roads, and kept up, even beat a few, they were very impressed. I had added a rear sway bar, and stacked a OEM front sway bar on top of the OEM sway bar, so 2 sway bars up front. The car stayed beautifully flat on turns. Top speed maxed out the speedo set to 120, my estimate it got up to 140 mph. Steering though was light as a feather at such high speeds. Past a huge passenger buss that was going 70 mph like it was standing still. Totally unsafe of me, wanted to know how fast it could go and I did that a dusk. The drum brakes absolutely were horrible, barely can stop, and very bad brake fade. Had the 401 nail head engine. Next year Buick offered the 425 nail head engine. Car was lucky to get 12 mpg. My parents had a valve job done, at 70,000 miles these engines would wear out, so the mechanic ground the valves further into the head lowering the CR from 10.25 to 1 down to maybe 9.5 to 1. Still I always ran it on regular gas. And all my ownership was with the engine slightly derated like that CR drop.

I still own one of those. Last driven when I was in high school in the 60's. Rin straight viscosity engine oil SAE 30 in normal weather, and make sure it has zinc in it. You will wipe the cam lobes off. I LOVED that car! Dynaflo automatic transmission with the variable pitch stator for torque muliplication. Still one of the best road cars I ever owned. Incredible cruizer! Hopw you finish it up!

Great car with lovely lines. Always enjoy your work!

It's definitely a win, great job and video Ben. Keep them coming

This is definitely a car worth saving! Awesome troubleshooting & mechanic skills! Very nice work! Outstanding results! Congratulations!

8:16 I would very strongly recommend a 24 hour soak in Evaporust. I have a 1958 Edsel that was crusty and rusty, and I soaked a lot of parts in a bucket of Evaporust, like bolts, water pump, i even used it to wipe the tarnish of rust off the chrome surface. I'm not sponsored, i'm not anything other than a guy who tried it and it worked. If nothing else, might be good for you to see what you can salvage from your older parts.

Congrats on getting this lovely old Buick back to being roadworthy. When you drove into that driveway, I was thinking I hope reverse gear works. Well, it did eventually, when you were back home, so that's good. Just wondering if the driver door popping open is a latch problem, or maybe due to body flex.

Great to see a young guy who likes traditional American cars! Put new floors in and have it painted, and you have a good driver!

Thanks for the long upload! What a cool looking car. Always loved this generation of Buick. Kicking back with a 🍺 and watching this sounds like a pretty good Friday evening to me! Hope you & the fam had a good holiday season, best wishes for the new year. 🤙

You really do a nice job of showing the work you go through to problem solve & get these old classics going.love your channel keep up the good work. Cheers

When you pulled out of the driveway I halfway expected you to yell, “Yabba Dabba Doo!” ala Fred Flintstone. If the brakes didn’t work, just put your feet down. 😁. Loved the video, Ben. Great work.

You saved it instead of trashing it...that's ACE in my book!

Cool ride, the cars of the 50's have so much class.

Man I know the reason your drawn to the 2d special is because it's straight up a beauty & even though it's not what your use too. Restoration to make it a presentable weekend driver would be very profitable to due so .Best wishes on it 🚘👍💯

i’m enjoying this so much it’s kept me off gold rush, thanks for the adventure and great video and color and editing

I love this old piece of History! I'd love to dive one like that as a daily.

I love your non Corvette videos.

That’s a beautiful car it deserves to be totally restored I would love to do it I would put it back to original

That really is a nice old Buick and to get it running and driving for what you spent is great now you can just sell it as a running an driving project and sell it to the next guy to restore it with new floor pans interior and you are done. Thanks for sharing always fun to see you working on the old cars.

Rattle trap 😂😂😂 Exactly what I was thinking. Congratulations on getting the Special on the road. Brave optimism paid off. I agree with your figuring on expenses. What a fun ride to see this come back to life.

I have a 1956 Buick Special Basically a twin to what you have just 2 years newer same color combo . Mine was my Grandfathers ,when I was 14 it was being sent to the salvage yard ,I begged my Dad that I wanted it he said no. when I was 16 I got a job at the salvage yard and the car was still there fully intact, I talked my boss out of the car for $100 and hauled it home .I tried to get it to run and my Dad actually helped me me was a mechanic. when it finally fired up it made a load clunk and stopped !Something broke? Engine is now locked up. That was over 40 years ago. I have not done any thing with it since !! Now I'm retired so I hope to work on it again!

The front end on that car is AMAZING: such dramatic style. Cars have a "face", and that face is "bad". I am thinking best Buick front style ever.

"My amp gauge started to work, which means my generator magically fixed itself." Ben... you've been around old GM vehicles long enough to know that's normally what happens. It's not magic... it's just quality parts coming back to life. I'd buy this sucker... but, dem floorboards. This car's seen some moisture. How are the rockers?

i live in Adelaide and have owned a 1951 Packard for nearly 20 years, I love the way you always seem unfazed at all the set backs and hard work it takes to get old bangers up and running on a budget. Geed editing. Its not an easy feat by yourself. I had so many problems new water pump rebuild kit from Max Merritt Auto that cost me more in postage n still came late. 200 bucks for a a machinist to rebore the unfitting impellar shaft. Seals didn't work after 1st install, then the belt didn't fit and other issues etc Still love this mid 50s era era of Buicks and 24th 1951 and on series straight 8 Packads.

Great Job! Reminded me a little of my Uncles' 1953 Roadmaster, huge, mighty and of another age. You're determination and stalwart stick-to-it-tivity make all your videos a pleasure to watch. But always remember what Sid Caesar said, "Punch Buick in grill, Buick die!"

Love the car.all that rust in floors is ashamed. Whats up with the wife's car? Thanks john from arizona

That looks like it's all there!!! Whatever you do, don't buff or wax the car. Just keep it clean and that's it. A wedding dress on a donkey just doesn't work. Well, there was a time when I was young....................... 24:45 Water temperature sensor location? 26:46 Okay, so it's not all there! When you patch the floor, make sure you use a metal access panel. 28:48 TWO access panels.

You say she doesnt' want to die. It's my experience that cars from the 40s into the 60s and early 70s want to run and will run without much fight. Once you get seriously into the smog era and the early days of "compuderisin" LOL those ol' girls just wanna die. And I can't blame them. Once cars got better in the latter 90s they are also harder to kill in my experience.

Great Job...thanks for sharing

Good job and thanks for saving another car. Growing up my folks bought a new 54 Buick Special Riviera Coupe and out of all the cars they had over the years it is still my favorite. We pulled a 15 ft travel trailer with that car quite a bit and never had any problems. Longest trip started in Ohio and then over the Rocky Mountains in 1960. It never overheated or had any issues. Good video all the best to and yours.

I love that 54 Buick. A true classic two door with a v-8.

Great to see 👀 it going!!! I remember the day I saw it on a trailer coming through McKinney and realized it was you, got to see 👀 the power wash video and then got to talk to you at Buckees in Melissa 😀 driving the '56 Cadillac made my day 😀, thanks for sharing and as always "Howdy from Texas "!!

Years ago my grandparents had a 56 Buick Roadmaster. That was a sweet car!

Love the old cars, that one is a little crusty but awesome! I hate the distributer at the back of the engine, so hard to work on these huge cars ..looks like an edlebrock carb pull off top of carb, check rods and bend float to suit think it is 9/32 top of fuel bowl to stop flooding.

Good to see another old Buick back on the road. The Dynaflow transmission you wont notice it shift.

Oh, that grille, nice find!

😁😁😁 Back in the day car doors not shutting was a common occurrence. Those on my dad's '57 Mercury had to be slammed no less than 3 times to get them to latch. Btw...the rattles were provided free to every dealer's first 10,000 customers.

my first car was a 1962 buick special i pulled from a field. had a small 215. 400 bucks and several weekends. I got it going again.

Beautiful car, lovely to see a bygone era resurrected! Please, always be careful when moving cars. As a younger man, unbeknown to me, my young daughter came and started playing behind the rear wheel of the car I was working on. I then wanted to move it back and hopped in to do that and then had a thought "just check the car". I was horrified and felt sick as I grabbed my toddler and went in and told my wife. It is now second nature.

You know things are bad when Fram is putting there name on anti-freeze.

It has to be very satisfying getting these old cars running

One clue about smoke vs water vapor is that water vapor dissipates faster and becomes "invisible" much faster than oil smoke. Likely the hot water in the engine creates the water vapor when the system is exposed to fresh air which is much cooler than inside the running engine.

Those old nail-heads vapor lock really easy.

Now, that was entertaining! Thanks you for posting! Love the door each time you take right turn! Be safe!

I like the old Celica's in that guys yard you drove through. lol.. Probably rust free too! Being from Ontario, Canada, we don't see them like that.

Love old Buicks 54 great year. Like this channel a lot Great Cad too!!! Thanks

Old Buick's are too COOL, love the Waterfall Grill. It's a Low Rider if I ever saw one. All it needs is 3 outlet Lake Pipes and Wide Whites, oh and a floor.

Congratulations! That's a nice old Buick, I like the body style it appears as if it might have been green. Did you include some Windex in your budget?

SWEET 54 Ben! So much potential

Nice rescue/resurrection of an old classic Buick, Ben. Good base car for someone to refirb or restore though she obviously needs a lot of work. There's a lot of "weight reduction" on the floors to be replaced if someone is good with sheetmetal and welding. Yes, that era of cars often had different ways of starting the engines. Buicks had the floor the accelerator switch. Earlier 50s Nash/Ramblers, you stomped the clutch to the floor and there was a tab on the side of the pedal that hit a solenoid switch under the floor mat. My dad's 49 Olds had the ignition switch on the dash with a chrome button above it that was the starter button. Like that era of "hide the gas filler"! As a service station attendant in the 60s, the older cars of the 50s still on the road, unless you were savvy, you really had to hunt, behind the license plate, behind the tail light, it was a guessing game! Good video.

Ben, you love it because you have good taste in cars!

Looks pretty good for a car sitting neglected that long

Thanks Ben. The Dynaflow is sort of a CVT of its day, so no-shifting. I believe it's some sort of turbine with a variable-pitch torque converter. I could be wrong, so I'm hoping that someone will confirm or correct what I've written.

Have you thought about a simple fuel regulator between the pump and carb?

It’s super cool! I can see why you’re drawn to it!

Great job. Love the new seats lol (cardboard) I enjoyed seeing a longer video on your sight. Cheers

Derek is your hero.

You are brave kid...It wasn't looking too good at first... Nice resurrection! The best part was the healing of reverse!

Hey, Great video! I really enjoyed it. I hope you decide to keep it & put some floor pans in it. 1950's cars look good on you!

Runs good my van made that same chirping sound it was a bad torque converter not saying that’s the case here but hopefully not nice car !

Your Buick is the cat's meow.

Love to watch the oldies being re- done!!

It's beautiful. I've seen, wagons,55's.I don't think I have ever seen a 2door 54. It's all there,except body mounts,floor pans

I like the Blue and White Paint scheme on this car.

Great job on the old Buick.

Very nice Buick! *"Please remember to put 30weight 'NON- Detergent' in 'er... >Or you WILL find Problems with the Modern Detergent Oils cleaning it internally too good and too much!"*

Dynaflow does not shift unless you manually move the shift lever to low. It uses the torque converter system to proportion pull to speed. I owned a 1956 Special. Steering was not too hard because of the monster steering wheel leverage.

Learned to drive on 54 Buick!

@27:07 i love the transmission cooler inspection port

I think this is a lesson in restoring classic cars i have been there my self people don't realise how much you can spend on parts how many projects have been abandoned when the costs run away with you

Nice old car ,the earlier buicks look great 👍🏻

This is much nicer and more interesting to watch than just another old Corvette. yuck

So i spotted the FM1462 on the wall, you're near Houston. I'm in Hendersonville NC, so i won't be coming to Tx. any time soon. I'm sure i will need some parts though. I'll get back to you later. C Ya.

Gotta love the Buicks. But yeah, that was probably the noisiest test drive ever. So many squeaks and bangs. lol

That Buick was made the same year I was. I came home from the hospital in a Dark Maroon '54 Special 2 door sedan with a white top. Dad had that '54 until trading it in on a '57 Roadmaster. Would love to have it.

We had a 56 Roadmaster. Those transmissions just leak some. Your a great mechanic. Always enjoy your videos. Happy new year buddy!🎆