Re: Insane engine shop story!
 

Even my 9-year-old daughter (here helping me assemble the short block) thought it was totally nuts.

Re: Insane engine shop story!
 

Sounds like it may be time for him to retire,for whatever reason. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/frown.gif

Re: Insane engine shop story!
 

Sounds like a really neat car, but the engine shop guy should be hung! Good luck with the project.... https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif

wilma

Re: Insane engine shop story!
 

Here is the latest photo. I am assembling the engine so I can run it on my engine stand. Actually I dont have an engine stand so I'm just going to install it back in the car just to get it run in and then pull it out and take the body apart for painting. I dont like letting freshly assembled engines sit. I had a cam go bad on my last project after the engine sat for a year without being initially fired up. So hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll have some noise to report on. You gotta love the baby blue color of the 1972 Pontiac engines. (I gotta hate the $24.95 a can it cost for the correct paint though) https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

It's Alive!
 

Well I just got the 455HO up and running in the world's most expensive run stand: I ended up bolting the engine and trans back in the car and hooking up the basic wiring and a tach, oil pressure and a temp gauge. No exhaust, just a couple of dump tubes off the exhaust manifolds. I tried using my mechanic buddy's rubber exhaust tubes (the ones you use in the winter to pipe the exhaust out of your shop). They didnt help one bit. In fact the exhaust coming out of the manifolds was so hot it set the insides of them on fire. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif Very scary for a few minutes -it looked just like a blown head gasket: billowing white and grey smoke out the pipes. I yanked them off the engine and the smoke disapeared (along with the crowd of neighbors who gathered to watch my garage burn down). I let it run between 1700 to 2500 for about 25 minutes, I changed the oil and no metal was on the magnetized drain plug. I let it cool down overnight and it started with a click of the ignition key this morning. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif So it all looks good for now. Now I can pull the car completely apart and store the engine til it's done. This thing was so loud I had to use my industrial ear protectors! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...emlins/eek.gif

Free gift from 1972 UAW workers!
 

So here I am snooping around the interior of my 72 T/A and I see two studs coming up from the rear floor. Really strange. Here's what I saw:

Re: Free gift from 1972 UAW workers!
 

I peel back the factory mastic sound deadener and I find a right rear side marker lamp bezel face down against the floor pan:

Re: Free gift from 1972 UAW workers!
 

Can you imagine how many technicians tried to figure out that rattle in the floorboard over the entire warranty period of this car? It was obviously put there by a disgruntled UAW worker just prior to the six month strike that shut down the Norwood plant for the rest of the model year in 1972. (as you may recall that was the reason there were so few 72 Camaros and Forebirds built)

Re: Free gift from 1972 UAW workers!
 

That became an option on the Delorean later on as well.
I believe it was originally RPO 0U812 http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/k/hippy.gif

Spray Day
 

I just spent the entire day with a pressure washer underneath the Tran Am. The entire original floors are still covered in their factory red oxide primer with white overspray. Not a speck of rust underneath the car (other than the trunk well but that is standard on any 2nd gen F-body). There was no undercoating so all I was removing was the years of road grime. Just amazing! I found the factory paint marks on the suspension pieces, the part number tags on the coil springs. Even the leaf springs had the part numbers still stenciled on them in white paint. Now I know how archaeologists feel when they unearth a new dinosaur. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif I will post some detail shots this week after I finish removing 33 years of grease, oil and tar from my entire body. My wife saw me coming near the house and locked the doors. She said that was the dirtiest she has ever seen me in the entire time she has known me. I wore a full rain suit (which is now in the garbage, but still managed to get my face hands and hair totally blackened.) -I looked like a West Virginia coal miner coming home from work!

Re: Spray Day
 

And here we are: Greasy Man and Spotless boy, about a half a second before my wife abducted him and dragged him away from grime-central. She just doesn't know what fun really is! https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif

Re: Spray Day
 

That must have been fun !!!

Re: Spray Day
 

did the same thing on the '68 last fall..I came up with laying old king size sheets under the car to keep all the grease and dirt off the driveway...sure made cleanup fast roll them up toss in the garbage, rinse a little all done sure beat cleaning the driveway after the car trick, I always had a gravel area for messy stuff until this place now I have to think before making a mess..lol.

Bud.

Re: Spray Day
 

Looking good--you really realize the details and effort that goes into a restoration of this type when you do it yourself. You've got quite a journey going there.

Morris

Re: Spray Day
 

I get more of a kick out of the restoration process than I do after it's finished and just sitting there. It's like a jigsaw puzzle; what do you do with it when it's all finished...take it apart and do it again? This car is kind of neat in that I am keeping as much of it in its original form. The floors will remain in their original (now clean) state. Other than stripping and straightening the upper sheetmetal and replacing a portion of the trunk well, the car will be a "reassemblation" not really a restoration. -a new challenge for me. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...mlins/grin.gif

Re: Spray Day
 

Here is some of the underside's original finish: this is the inside of the trans tunnel if you were laying on the ground looking up. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Spray Day
 

Here is the underside of the rear floor, passenger side, along with the rear dif with yellow paint on the yoke.

Re: Spray Day
 

Here is the front of the cowl. The VIN was stamped in two places, below the circular fan motor cut out and next to the heater box rectangular cutout.

Re: Spray Day
 

Here's the 3.42 rear dif with color codes, orange and green.

Re: Spray Day
 

Front suspension with green paint marks on spindle. The srpings even still had the part number tags on them.

Re: Spray Day
 

That's some nice work Steve,with great results.

Re: Spray Day
 

Passenger side, front floor with the overspray visible. The factory white overspray was everywhere underneath this car.

Re: Spray Day
 

Driver's side floor front area.

Re: Spray Day
 

Top of cowl, blackout area.

Re: Spray Day
 

Driver side front cowl area. The black is flat black, not semi-gloss. Note the heavy runs in the black paint.

Re: Spray Day
 

The inside of the tran hump where the shifter goes through. This area had a random coating of the same body shutz (heavy undercoat) that the rear wheel wells had. An interesting note: It appears that the body shutz in the rear wheel wells was applied before paint. The undercoated area is painted white and when a section is peeled away, shows red oxide primer underneath.

Re: Spray Day
 

I spent the day powerwashing the frame and then using some paint stripper to get the real yucky stuff off. Look what I found under the paint by the passenger side rear of the subframe. It looks like it was hand-printed with a magic marker "5236 44." Does this correspond to anything?

Re: Spray Day
 

Here it is upside down so you dont pull a neck muscle looking at it.

Re: Spray Day
 

And here is a close up of the front coil spring. As you can see it was painted black originaly and still has the part number tag attached, #3988100 AX. Does anyone know if this tag is reproduced? I couldnt find it on Jim Osborn's site.

Re: 72 TA : New Project
 

Steve:

If you want the original factory order sheet and dealer info. on your car there is only one legitimate source, Pontiac Historic Services.

http://www.phs-online.com/

John

Re: 72 TA : New Project
 

I have all of the PHS data on the car. I was even able to locate the original dealer (they're still in business out in California) and they sent me some license plates and frames.

There's nothing like the feeling of calling Pontiac and getting your car's build sheet from their files!

But when it comes to the miscellanious decals it is very hard to find Pontiac specific items. https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...lins/frown.gif

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

I have the subframe all painted up and on the stand now. I started cleaning the control arms and noticed that the factory must have dipped the arms in black paint with the idea that they stopped dipping before the paint got onto the area of the ball joints. (or the ball joints were installed when the arm was dipped) Here is the lower control arm. You can see by the rusty area that there was never any paint on the end:

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

Here's the underside of the lower arm. (The wierd tiger striping is from the pressure sprayer set on too fine of a stream)

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

Here's the upper arm. It seems that the upper ball joints must have been installed when the arms were dipped in paint as there is no paint on the mounting surface of the arm where the ball joint was installed. This car still had its original riveted ball joints in place at 115,000 miles. (I took them out as I intend to drive the car and I'm not too crazy about having my wheels fall off at speed)

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

Here's the underside of the upper arm:

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

Steve... great pictures! I would be interested to see if the Camaros were assembled in a similar fashion! Great work!

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

I believe that the Norwood plant was the only plant making Camaros and Firebirds in 1972. The United Auto Workers went on strike in April of 1972, shutting the entire plant down until the next model year. That's why 72 is probably the rarest year for F-body total production. (only 458 4-speed Trans Ams were built). When the line went back up in 73, they ended up scrapping thousands of partially completed cars due to the fact that they did not meet the 1973 emissions and bumper regulations.

Re: 72 TA : control arm details
 

Great Pics, keep'em coming!

Re: Spray Day
 

[ QUOTE ]
And here is a close up of the front coil spring. As you can see it was painted black originaly and still has the part number tag attached, #3988100 AX. Does anyone know if this tag is reproduced? I couldnt find it on Jim Osborn's site.

[/ QUOTE ]

Contact Don Lightfoot,he is a member here and at Team Chevelle... he made me tags and various stickers for my COPO springs that no one else had. Resto looks great, keep up the good work.

ALbert

Here is Dons E-mail [email protected] Tell him ALbert sent you https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/imag...iggthumpup.gif

Re: Spray Day
 

I spent some time hand washing the spindles today, trying to preserve the original paint marks. It seems that the spindles have some type of grey phosphate coating on them. After using a toothbrush and some watered down detergent, here are the results. This is the driver's side spindle with its green paint mark.