The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[njsteve]

Here's the brief article on the designer of the Pontiac Formula wheel:

http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...tory_survives/

[StealthBird]

What's not shown or mentioned in the article (I met Ben Harrison in Dayton a couple years ago) is that the wheel he's holding in the photo has a "1" (in a circle) on the bottom spoke. I mentioned to him that this was the Momo F1 wheel (in his seminar, he could not recall the manufacturer) which was used extensively on F1 cars in the 60's, then popular on European cars. Then as we were talking, I noticed that the other two spokes had extra material that extended from the rim onto the spokes about 1.5 inches, but the bottom spoke did not, so that Momo could display the "1" down there. He then remembered that the interior department covered up that "1" to match the the other two spokes. They wanted Momo to supply the wheel, but there was no way they could rely on a low volume European company to supply potentially tens of thousands of steering wheels for a GM assembly line, so they copied the wheel.

What Ben Harrison brought to the table was the idea to use this wheel (which he loved) on an American car, and it turned out to be an iconic steering wheel.

As for Pontiac nameplates, anything after Lynn Myers arrived in 1999 as president of Pontiac didn't quite work out. She loved the Aztek, and it was her first major product release. Soon the old nameplates that had been around for decades began to fall away, like Firebird, Trans Am, Grand Am, Grand Prix, Bonneville, to be replaced with names like Vibe, Torrent, G3, G5, G6, and G8.

[SS427]

Awesome Steve as usual!

[StealthBird]

A couple more Formula SD455 cars...

[njsteve]

On the Performance Years website where I have the sister thread to this, a NJ guy chimed in that he went to the Konner Chevrolet Show in West Caldwell, NJ over the weekend and a 73 SD455 Formula was there. Original owner, a retired airline pilot, still has it and it has around 100k miles on it. Florentine red with burgundy interior and burgundy vinyl top. They made 3 autos and 4 four speeds in that color, out of the 43 total.
Very cool!

[Xplantdad]

Ohhhhh....I am in love [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[TMagda]

Steve,

Really cool car. Thanks for all of the posting you do. I really enjoy reading them.

Why are you making a new front valance? For a better fit?

Thanks,

Tom

[njsteve]

The vast majority of the 1972's and 1973's came with the polyethylene valance but they broke very early in the ownership timespan. Some of them even broke while the cars were being driven onto the trailers at the assembly plant. It was a bad design, made out of never before used material, compounded by the mounting holes molded in the wrong place.

The original owner Rick, said the he had replaced the original poly valance with the earlier steel valance early on, when it cracked and shattered.

The poly valance has an upper cross bar that mounts against the underside of the nose and looks much more streamlined than the &quot;gap-tooth&quot; look of the replacement steel valance.

[napa68]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I want to give a shout out to members &quot;KevinW&quot; in NJ, who found the Milwaukee craigslist ad for two NOS tires, and &quot;67442&quot; (Paul) in Wisconsin who then proceeded to play the middleman and run down to the seller's shop and pick up the tires for me and then wrapped and shipped them to me. I now have a full display set of 1973 date coded Firestone 500 Radials. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

The original spare (in the middle) and the two original tires (on the left) from the car are date coded the 18th week (late April) of 1973. The two NOS tires on the right were produced during the 25th week (mid June) of 1973, which makes them all perfect for the late July built car. And best of all they all have the unique, early 1973 white Firestone shield logo which was discontinued in late 1973.



I also got a tip from Paul on how to get rid of that white waxy stuff on the tire surface that no solvent would remove. Paul said it was the original mold release material that outgasses from the rubber over time. He recommended using a hair dryer to melt it and to let it soak back in. I used a heat gun set on low and whodathought but it worked great! I would heat the stuff and it would instantly melt into a glossy liquid which could be wiped away. Then another application of heat and the remainder would soak back into the tire!

Here is the original spare before:



And after using the heat. (disregard the white in the treads, that is tire dressing that hasn't soaked in yet)



</div></div>

I just found out who you bought those from. I was telling the story about your car to a customer of mine and WHAM....................the world got a little smaller.

[njsteve]

I just found another NOS early 1973 Firestone 500 so now I have three and need one more for the display set. (Not counting the trunk mounted spare that has never been bolted on the car).

I found this one on a Corvette forum. They guy had it for the past 20+ years. This size (GR70x15) was the same size used on the Corvettes in the 1970's.