It's alive!

[HuntzNSam]

Posting in the hopes it helps someone else. New to nailheads, not cars, but we still make mistakes. Our 60 Invicta Ebay find ran for two days before dying two blocks from home. Towed home with my daily driver 52 Chevy pickup (that was a sight!). The ¼ inch of black crud on the AFB did not bode well, must be the reason. Contacted Jon Hardgrove, CarbKing, for a good kit. Inside wasn’t horrible, but cheesy plastic accelerator pump said someone had been there before, but hadn’t taken the time to clean it. Cleaned, adjusted, and re-installed, got it running for 15 seconds then died again. Fuel delivery was good and clean. Previous owner had done cap, rotor, points, condenser, all new no need to check that. We rocked the crank while watching rotor, timing chain sloppy. Apart, yes it was sloppy, but hadn’t jumped, not bad enough to cause a no start.
No way in the world would I admit the stupidity of failing to check for a bad new $3 condenser before tearing the engine down, but the little voice in my head told me I screwed up. To cover up, I ordered a Pertronix3 from Jeg’s after years of good luck with Pertronix in the truck. On the Nailhead, plan on removing distributor, despite claims in can be done in-situ. No easy way to get the 55 year old grommet and wire out and the new ones in without distributor on the bench. Needed a new 2 pc distributor wrench to clear the firewall and wound up having to grind down the OD on the 9/16 end just to get it over the bolt. Cheap junk but made it work.
We ordered the timing kit from Mr Nailhead, Russ Martin at Centerville Auto Repair, getting valuable info in the process. While waiting for damper rebuild from Russ, got everything clean and ready, heater re-cored, rad tank stress cracks soldered, and we drilled our 80’s Ford fan clutch/water pump tool to hold the crank while doing that 220 ft-lbs of torque on the balancer bolt. Worked great! (If you don’t have one collecting dust in the tool box, Summit sells a universal tool – if it doesn’t bolt up directly, add a few more holes - Harmonic Balancer Wrenches SME-906007). New hoses (note the Dayco 70324 for a 61 fit fine despite no listings for a 60 lower hose), oil change, and time to fire it up.
Popped right over, hooray! We got the timing and carb dialed in and it is running great! Thanks CarbKing, thanks Mr Nailhead, and thanks Team Buick for the manuals and forums! A better job of diagnosis would have saved us time and money, but the end result is what counts. We’re hoping El Nino keeps it warm and dry so we have some days to drive it this winter.
Thanks
HuntzNSam

[BornBuick]

Sam good to hear things worked out O.K. for you and welcome aboard. Nice cool car. Keep it stock that's the best.

[bhambulldog]

Nice job !
Nice car !
I love the flat top