Messages

16

General Discussion / Door Latch Rods

« on: June 07, 2015, 09:01:33 PM »

Did a search with no luck. Can someone explain or has pictures of the door handle/latch rods for a 69? (preferably installed) I have the rods from two cars and they both have the same peculiarities.

The pics show two rusty original ones on the inside, (they've never been removed from the latches) and two black ones from another car on the outside. The rods on the right are the driver's side. Since the ends are flat on the driver's side they are the only ones that will fit in the slot on the door handle mechanism. Everything I read is that both sides are the same; standard and deluxe interior. As you can see, both pairs are close to mirror images in addition to being slightly clocked differently. I was depending on the originals to be correct for use as an example. So now I'm totally confused!

What gives?

17

Maintenance / Loose Wrist Pin In Rod

« on: April 22, 2013, 11:18:39 PM »

What would cause a wrist pin to come loose in the rod? The engine developed a knock and upon tear down I found that the wrist pin had moved back against the cylinder wall and gouged two grooves in it. It's a stock build with 9.5 pistons and a mild cam. The engine has 1,000 miles on it since a complete rebuild.

A little background:

There have been two sets of pistons installed recently. The first set was during the first rebuild, 7,000 miles ago. The second set was after the engine overheated and the engine rebuilt again. The overheating caused piston and cylinder scuffing on two cylinders. The majority of the damage was with the same cylinder as the loose pin. The adjacent cylinder also had a little bit less scuffing.

I'm thinking the overheating had something to do with it. I'm wondering if the machine shop should have detected a little bit less force required to remove the damaged piston. I'm sure if the overheating did in fact cause the loose pin, it should have been noticed then.

At this time, the pin is loose enough to be pushed out with light tapping.

Any ideas? Thanks!

18

Restoration / Window Crank Questions

« on: March 05, 2013, 05:53:59 PM »

I have a few questions concerning the front window cranks on a 68 Firebird with a black custom interior.  I did a search and the responses were all over the place, so I'm hoping another try will help.  I'm hoping the Camaro and Firebird were the same in this area.

1.  Are the cranks different (more arch) on the custom door panels compared to the standard panels?  I was hoping someone could provide pics of cranks that are known to be original/correct of the two interiors.
2.  What color should the knobs be?
3.  I've seen window crank springs in catalogs.  Do they go over or under the panels?  What's their purpose?

It seems like this would make a good research topic. 

Thanks everyone!

Larry

19

Restoration / Matching Hood and Fender Contours

« on: January 15, 2013, 05:03:22 PM »

I've been rereading John Hinkley's report on the Camaro assembly process.  I noticed that he says the fender inner braces/reinforcements were welded to the skin in a fixture to match the hood contour.

Would this be a good way to match the hood and fender contours of repro pieces?  Last time I did this was to bang, pry, jump, etc, on the hood to match the fenders.  Worked out pretty good in the end but I wonder if breaking the spotwelds on the inner braces/fenders to align them to the hood instead of vice versa would be easier.

20

Originality / Re: Power Feed Wire Color

« on: February 24, 2012, 05:12:52 PM »

Pretty sure it's a Tan 14G fuse wire.
The FAIM does say 14R -red.
Is that why you're asking?

On my 69 diagrams I designed a few years back I designated this wire to be red as I didn't have an original bat cable on hand to verify the actual color.  A recent buyer noted that my drawing had red and thinks it should be black.  Now I'm curious as to what it should be.  My purpose has always been to have available an accurate wiring diagram besides the "flawed" AIM diagrams.

A 68 Firebird I finished last year had a brown fuse link wire.  I thought that may have been a Firebird thing; didn't think much about it!

21

Originality / Power Feed Wire Color

« on: February 24, 2012, 04:05:59 AM »

Quick Question: On original battery cables, what color is the power feed wire that goes from the positive battery terminal to the junction block?  Red or Black?

Larry

22

Restoration / Plastic Repair

« on: February 22, 2012, 02:30:44 AM »

On the grille of my 69 there are a few irregularities, such as pits and low/wavy areas on the surfaces.  What would be a good filler to use on it, which I assume is ABS?

I heard of 3m Rigid Parts Repair.  Does that work OK when used to feather out these areas?

Thanks!

Larry

23

General Discussion / Re: 69 Quarter Louver Fit

« on: October 29, 2011, 04:44:41 PM »

OK, so I also decided to get the mounting templates to see if this might settle this. The upper and lower bars on the drawings match the actual louver bars on the Corvex ones, but the stud holes on the drawing don't match the actual louver studs. They are off as much as 3/16". That's more than enough to affect the alignment, I wouldn't know which holes to elongate to allow the louver to install properly on the quarters.

I don't know which is wrong, the templates, the louvers, or both! I think I will return both and regroup here.

BTW, I did a Google image search and came up empty there too.

24

General Discussion / Re: 69 Quarter Louver Fit

« on: October 25, 2011, 01:05:33 AM »

Thanks!

Anybody else had a chance to look at their original louvers?

25

General Discussion / Re: 69 Quarter Louver Fit

« on: October 12, 2011, 11:39:36 PM »

No...but just make sure the curve on the louver matches the curve of the wheel well and the tops & bottoms are horizontal or it won't look right!

Interesting point.  The tops and bottoms are not parallel and the quarter indentation curves match the wheel well.

I got them from Ground Up/Corvex.

I have an original louver stashed away for 30 years I need to find as a comparison.

26

General Discussion / 69 Quarter Louver Fit

« on: October 12, 2011, 02:39:19 AM »

I just did a test fit by placing the louvers over the sheetmetal louver indentations and noticed that they didn't seem to align very well.  If I line up the vertical bars to the sheetmetal indentations, the tops and bottom aren't horizontal.  The top looks worse than the bottom.

I can't be sure if it's the louvers or the sheetmetal indentations are crooked.  Has anybody run into this problem?

Larry

27

Mild Modifications / Cabin Air Filter Mod

« on: October 03, 2011, 08:06:54 PM »

Has anybody tried or heard of adding a cabin filter to their car? After working my butt off building a clean and "new" vehicle, it sure would be nice if maybe this would keep a little bit of the dust out.

I was thinking of modifying the kick panel vents to accept an over the counter filter. One concern is the possibility of it getting wet and how much the air flow would be restricted.

Any thoughts?

28

Mild Modifications / Smoothed Bumper Availability

« on: June 08, 2011, 06:22:55 PM »

I've been seaching but haven't found anyone who sells smoothed bumpers.  I saw what Year One has, but they aren't chromed.

I thought this was a popular mod so I figured they would be easy to find.

I suppose I could mod them myself and get them rechromed, but I was hoping for an easier and cheaper solution.

Anyone know who sells them?

29

General Discussion / Identifying a 10 Bolt Rear End

« on: May 25, 2011, 01:19:31 AM »

I have a 10 bolt bare housing allegedly out of a first gen. The flange to flange dimension is 54.5" and the perches are 42 5/8".

Is there a way to determine if it's an 8.125" (8.2?) or an 8.5" ring gear?

Do my flange and perch measurements correspond to a first gen rear end? I would imagine if the measurements are for a second gen then the gear would be an 8.5", correct?

BTW, the brake hose bracket is welded to the driver's side axle tube instead of bolting to the top of the cover.  The only axle code I could decipher is "TAC"  The rest looks like it has been ground off.  The "webs" on the pumpkin aren't large enough for the casting date or casting number.

30

Restoration / Body Shell Inspection

« on: April 01, 2011, 02:27:01 PM »

Tomorrow, I will be looking at a 69 for a possible purchase.  The rear of the car, (quarters, wheel housings, rear panel, deck filler panel, and full trunk floor) was removed.  The front of the frame rails were left attached to the body.  The panels are now installed and the rear of the body is now complete.

What would be some quick and simple checks to insure the body dimensions are still within specs?  I would imagine with all of those pieces removed, there would have been a possibility of twisting, out of square issues, etc.  It's a roller at the moment.

I thought of using a plumb to check for squareness.  I know what the datum line measurements are but I'm not sure how to use them to detect twisting.

Thanks for any tips you can offer!

Larry