Gramma's Car: the new project!

[9999]

Absolutely perfect stance. That car looks like a dream, Steve.

[njsteve]

Thanks!

I spent last night at my buddy's garage replacing the front to back, underbody fuel line. When putting the tank back in I noticed the last few inches at the tank end were seeping due to old salt corrosion. The hard part is finding the correct line. 1975 was a really weird year for Firebirds and Camaros. It was the first year of catalytic converters so the fuel, vent and return lines kept getting changed in production to route around that super hot contraption on the passenger side underbody. This car has the 3/8" fuel line running down the driver's side of the car and the 1/4" vent and return lines running down the passenger side. You'd think that would be simple to describe in the catalogs but everyone has them backwards. They also describe my setup as having the fuel line on the "B side" of the car. What the heck is the B-side? Wasn't that the other song on a 45 record?

And why the heck do the manufacturers spend all that time making a correct replica of the original line to then go ahead and bend it into a pretzel to fit in a big box? They could at least mark the line to tell you the location and direction to bend it back into the correct position. But nooooo!

Anyway we put the car on the lift and manhandled the new line into place while removing the old line. The fuel line runs alongside the brake line and uses the same retaining clamps. I noticed the wire protective coils on that line were a bit crusty as well.

And in true "Give a mouse a cookie and he'll want a glass of milk..." fashion, I decided to order the underbody brake line section and the vent and return lines. Of course they only sell them in the big kits that have all the other sections that you don't need. (the vent and return lines have a second section that goes from the subframe to the front of the car.) These never rust and rarely need replacing but you can't just order the back halves of the set. Oh well, that will be next week's fun.

Anyway, She sure rides nice now and sits right. I also ordered some carpet samples to replace the JC Whitney sewn-style carpet I installed back in the 1980's before anyone made molded carpet sets. The only problem is that Auto Custom Carpet lists a dozen possible colors for my interior: Beige, Doeskin, Buckskin, and Saddle with a light, medium, and dark version of each one! So for $1 apiece they will send you a sample swatch of each. At least I have the 1973 SD455 sitting next to Gramma's car so I can try to match the sample to an original carpet. The only difference is that the 73 has loop style and the 75 uses cut pile material. Oh well, we will see how that goes next.

Stay tuned!

[njsteve]

I finally found a shaker decal I liked...and it is actually for a 1975! These came on the 455 powered Trans Ams that were available in 1975 with a low compression 7.6 to 1, 200-horsepower 455: the same one in the big family sedans. It was a 455-HO in name only.

But the decal looks cool in the three-dimensional, blue color that accents the car's color.

And since the 1970 455 block in the car has parts from a real 1972 455HO inside it, I guess no one will really complain that it has twice the horsepower as an actual 1975 455-HO. :-)

Now I'm wondering how the 1973-75 tri-color blue, fender accent stripe would look on the car. They were available on the base Firebird, Esprit, and Formula. Anyone have any photos of the blue version of the stripe? Here's a couple photos of a '74 maroon car with the orange tri-color version of the stripes.

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Those decals look right at home!!!

I vote for the side stripes too!!

Ryan W31

[njsteve]

I believe the blue version of the side stripes are in the exact same color scheme as the shaker decals.

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I believe the blue version of the side stripes are in the exact same color scheme as the shaker decals.

Go for it!!

Ryan W31

[njsteve]

I had mentioned that I ordered the brake lines and the passenger side vent/return lines. The order arrived yesterday.

This is what I ordered from The RightStuff via Jegs:

FIN 7401 front-to-rear brake line
FGL7502 2-piece pass side vent line 1/4"
FGL7503 2-piece pass side fuel return line 5/16"

What showed up was:

FIN 7401 front-to-rear brake line
FGL 7501 2-piece driver's side fuel line 3/8" (same one that I already installed last week)
FGL 7502 2-piece pass side vent line 1/4"

They are shipped directly from Right Stuff so they were the ones that messed up, since the invoice showed I ordered it properly but they boxed up the wrong parts.

I called up Jegs and they told me to box up the FGL7501 and return it to them on their dime. But they aren't shipping out the 7503 until they receive the return. This is kind of pain in the butt since I have to replace the vent and return lines at the same time as they route together with the same clamps. So that job is on hold for the time being.

So What I did today was replace the driver's side front to rear brake line which was kind of crusty looking. I also replaced the rubber brake hose that goes from the rear differential to the steel line. I bought the AC/Delco replacement. The car still had it's original hose and it was not gonna budge from that fitting. I pulled the entire line out with the hose attached and then had to place it in a vice to get the hose off. This was so I could recover the bracket that bolts to the frame and secures the hose assembly. All in all it took a leisurely four hours including brake bleeding.