Old Buick Parts

Grateful son thanks dad with a blast from his Northland auto racing past

By: Jon Nowacki , Duluth News Tribune

A fog as thick as beer cheese soup rolled through Proctor Speedway on Father’s Day, canceling the night’s racing lineup and postponing the beloved Old Timers’ Picnic.

That didn’t keep Guy Gaskill of Duluth, and his father, Jimmy, from meeting friends in the speedway parking lot to swap stories and exchange a few gifts.

Jimmy is an old racer at heart, and when he unwrapped his first Father’s Day present, he was surprised to see a shiny new racing suit. Maybe someone was going to let him drive in a vintage car race, he thought.

Then he heard a rumble from behind the speedway diner, and moments later, longtime friend Phil Hanson came wheeling around in a classic 1971 AMC Javelin.

“I thought, ‘No, it couldn’t be,’” Jimmy Gaskill said.

Hanson and Jimmy Gaskill raced a similar car with great success in 1980 and 1981. Guy grew up with it and knew it was his dad’s favorite, so he enlisted Hanson and family friend Roger Deloach to restore the car, with its custom red, white and blue design, as a way to thank his father for standing by him through some tough years. Jimmy drove the car on Sunday during the vintage car races at Proctor Speedway.

“Most people would have given up on me a long time ago,” Guy Gaskill said. “Dad never did.”

‘I wanted to make him that car’

Guy Gaskill, 39, has lived life in the fast lane. He has a track record he’s not proud of, including a seven-year stint in prison for selling drugs. It all came to a boil when he was critically injured in a road rage accident on Dec. 14, 2009, when his Chevy Blazer struck a traffic light pole at 26th Avenue East and London Road after chasing a Buick LeSabre northbound on Interstate 35 from West Duluth.

“I broke my pelvis, my back in two spots, my hip, every bone in my face, pretty much every bone in my body,” Guy Gaskill said.

The accident made Guy Gaskill a changed man, physically and mentally.

Guy eventually lost his right leg just below the knee, and he still is adjusting to a prosthetic. He’s had more than 12 surgeries and his entire midsection is supported by metal. He was in a wheelchair for more than a year and is still on pain medication. He said he couldn’t have gotten by without his girlfriend, Sherri DeMars, or his father.

My first new Old Buick - AACA Forums

Measure the opening for your hub cap. There are 3 different sizes for 1932 wire wheels. 50 series, 60 series, and 80-90 series. Many people only list the hubcaps as 1932. 1931 hub caps look very similar except they are aluminum. Most likely you will have to have any hubcaps you find restored. I can walk you through the process when you are ready to do this. You will want a copy of the 1932 Buick Specifications and adjustments manual. There are reproduction ones sold on ebay for about $20.00. I could walk you through the timing, but with the dual points ther are a lot of steps to get it right. The has excellent descriptions of all timing and carburetor adjustments. It is possible that your cork float in the carb has become fuel saturated and will not float to close the inlet needle. You can make a new float from a large cork stopper that you can buy at a hardware store. It is important to seal the cork with crazy glue to prevent fuel saturation. The original method was to use shellac to seal the float, but with the alcohol in modern gas, it will disolve shellac. Crazy glue or model airplane dope are both fuel resistant. The float level is absolutedly critical on these Marvel carbs. Too high a level and the fuel will flow out of the jets. Too low and the jets can't draw enough fuel.

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