1941 Buick Special Fires Up for the First Time Since 1986, Gets Ready for 10,000-Mile Trip
1941 was a turning point in (American motoring) history, particularly due to its significance – it was the last full-production year for carmakers native to the United States of Automobile. it’s also the first time American car enthusiasts were treated to the first multiple carburetion in a domestic passenger car, courtesy of General Motors’ Buick and the revival of a body style that would gain legend status more than two decades later.
In 1941, more than one-fourth of Buick’s production of nearly 374,000 automobiles came in the shape of a sloped-back two-door coupe – the Special Series 40 Sedanet (not Sedanette, as some might spell it). Just over 97,000 examples left the assembly lines until the war effort claimed all industrial production in the automotive sector in February 1942.
Imagine buying a new car in 1941 only to have it ‘rationed’ for the following four years, with gas consumption limits and tire-saving speed limits (not to mention tire rationing), to name but a few of the hindrances. Alas, the war ended, and America burst into an economic flourishment backed by a booming automotive sector. Still, prewar survivors weren’t simply scraped; some made it well into the rest of the century, serving their owners as if nothing had happened.
For one reason or another, one such Buick old-timer was parked in a garage in 1985 and never saw daylight until 2024. It wasn’t neglected; however, it was not used anymore, so the car’s overall condition after over eight decades is amazingly good. Chris Brown, the wrenching wrangler behind the NoNonsenseKnowHow YouTube channel, recently got his hands on the car and got it running again, getting it ready for the road trip of its life.
The car was bought by a viewer of Chris’ video-documented classic car adventures, and he asked the mechanic for a big favor – namely, to give the old Buick a thorough inspection and get it up and running. The catch is that the Special Sedanet is going all the way to Australia, more than 10,000 miles away from Pennsylvania, on the other side of the planet. We don’t have much history of it, other than that it had been sitting for nearly 38 years when the Australian purchased it this summer.
The YouTuber's look-into reveals a nice, clean car without major issues throughout—check the gallery for a quick glance at its underside, for example—but the great news comes from under the hood. The nice straight-eight motor appears to be stuck, and the mechanic has trouble turning it by hand, even with a socket ratchet coupled to the crank pulley.
However, appearances are sometimes deceiving, as the actual lock on the engine is not rust or any block or internal defect but a far simpler-to-fix issue. The transmission was in gear, not in neutral – once that was out of the way, the pistons reciprocated happily without any hesitation. For some reason, this 248 cubic-inch Fireball Dynaflash Eight, Buicks 4.1-liter valve-in-head powerplant has altered its oil-cleaning system (there’s no lubricant filter at all).
This particular example is powered by the base variant of the engine, equipped with the simple two-barrel carburetor, and not the lively Compound Carburetion unit, with a pair of said carburetors. The base engine had a 6.5:1 compression and developed 115 hp. Given that this is a Special Series 40, the low-range Buick for 1941, the rear axle is most probably a 4.4:1 (the optional one offered 3.9 gears, and a 4.1:1 was standard equipment on the dual-carb cars).
One quirky feature of this amazing pre-war classic is its sloping deck – a fastback of sorts that also made landfall in 1941 in the Buick lineup. The Sedanet was the sales moniker chosen for the two-door, six-passenger automobile to differentiate it from the Business Coupe with just the front bench seat – everything behind the driver was used for storage.
The odometer on this unlikely survivor shows 11,245 miles, or just over 18,000 kilometers, which would be wonderful if it were true and not rolled over. As expected from cars that haven’t run in a long time, the fuel tank is no good – the sending unit is shot, and rust has poked natural ventilation in the gasoline container. Amazingly, the wheels rotate freely – even the front left breaks loose after the vlogger sticks a screwdriver in the drum.
In 1941, more than one-fourth of Buick’s production of nearly 374,000 automobiles came in the shape of a sloped-back two-door coupe – the Special Series 40 Sedanet (not Sedanette, as some might spell it). Just over 97,000 examples left the assembly lines until the war effort claimed all industrial production in the automotive sector in February 1942.
Imagine buying a new car in 1941 only to have it ‘rationed’ for the following four years, with gas consumption limits and tire-saving speed limits (not to mention tire rationing), to name but a few of the hindrances. Alas, the war ended, and America burst into an economic flourishment backed by a booming automotive sector. Still, prewar survivors weren’t simply scraped; some made it well into the rest of the century, serving their owners as if nothing had happened.
For one reason or another, one such Buick old-timer was parked in a garage in 1985 and never saw daylight until 2024. It wasn’t neglected; however, it was not used anymore, so the car’s overall condition after over eight decades is amazingly good. Chris Brown, the wrenching wrangler behind the NoNonsenseKnowHow YouTube channel, recently got his hands on the car and got it running again, getting it ready for the road trip of its life.
The car was bought by a viewer of Chris’ video-documented classic car adventures, and he asked the mechanic for a big favor – namely, to give the old Buick a thorough inspection and get it up and running. The catch is that the Special Sedanet is going all the way to Australia, more than 10,000 miles away from Pennsylvania, on the other side of the planet. We don’t have much history of it, other than that it had been sitting for nearly 38 years when the Australian purchased it this summer.
The YouTuber's look-into reveals a nice, clean car without major issues throughout—check the gallery for a quick glance at its underside, for example—but the great news comes from under the hood. The nice straight-eight motor appears to be stuck, and the mechanic has trouble turning it by hand, even with a socket ratchet coupled to the crank pulley.
However, appearances are sometimes deceiving, as the actual lock on the engine is not rust or any block or internal defect but a far simpler-to-fix issue. The transmission was in gear, not in neutral – once that was out of the way, the pistons reciprocated happily without any hesitation. For some reason, this 248 cubic-inch Fireball Dynaflash Eight, Buicks 4.1-liter valve-in-head powerplant has altered its oil-cleaning system (there’s no lubricant filter at all).
This particular example is powered by the base variant of the engine, equipped with the simple two-barrel carburetor, and not the lively Compound Carburetion unit, with a pair of said carburetors. The base engine had a 6.5:1 compression and developed 115 hp. Given that this is a Special Series 40, the low-range Buick for 1941, the rear axle is most probably a 4.4:1 (the optional one offered 3.9 gears, and a 4.1:1 was standard equipment on the dual-carb cars).
One quirky feature of this amazing pre-war classic is its sloping deck – a fastback of sorts that also made landfall in 1941 in the Buick lineup. The Sedanet was the sales moniker chosen for the two-door, six-passenger automobile to differentiate it from the Business Coupe with just the front bench seat – everything behind the driver was used for storage.
The odometer on this unlikely survivor shows 11,245 miles, or just over 18,000 kilometers, which would be wonderful if it were true and not rolled over. As expected from cars that haven’t run in a long time, the fuel tank is no good – the sending unit is shot, and rust has poked natural ventilation in the gasoline container. Amazingly, the wheels rotate freely – even the front left breaks loose after the vlogger sticks a screwdriver in the drum.