72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

I unbolted the rear spoiler, tail panel, rear lamps and bumper. You can still see where the remnants of the original set of tape stripes were. Interestingly, the factory was about 3/8" inch to the left of center. So much for assembly line precision.

[njsteve]

Here's the finished dash and gauges. I removed everything and cleaned it up (mainly removed all the dust). The 1970-73 engine-turned dash panels are nearly impossible to find in nice shape -they all turn yellow with age. I ended up disassembling mine, removing the factory clear varnish with lacquer thinner and then sprayed a new layer of clear over the aluminum. It worked great -really pops now. The switches all function properly now too, even the A/C stuff: you can hear the compressor clutch click when you trip the switch. All the gauges work too, even the clock. That was actually fun to restore. It's even rather easy, just remove the unit, take a small file (your wife's favorite nail file works perfectly) and file the set of points flat. Then spray all the gears and internals with WD-40. That's it. The clock runs, well...like clock now.

Here's the "before" shot, complete with cheesy aftermarket Grant steering wheel and stereo:




Here's the "after" shot, complete with my daughter's baby shoes hanging from the mirror -she's already claimed the car as hers.
I guess that means now I have to teach her how to powershift an M-22:

[njsteve]

I removed the doors and trunk lid and loaded the front sheetmetal up, to bring them to Enoch tomorrow so he can start on them. This way he can have 1/2 the car semifinished when the body arrives. More evidentiary photos show that these cars must have had their doors and trunk lids installed when they went through the red oxide primer dip. Notice that there is no primer under the hinge area at the door jam and only some seepage on top of the trunk hinge where the shims left a gap.

[njsteve]

Here's how she looks at the moment:

[njsteve]

Here is the original plastic front valance from the car. All of the mounting points are broken and it is cracked in several places...and the parts that aren't cracked, are melted from a past carb fire gone out of control. Next to it is the "Parts Place" reproduction. The upper flanges seem to be wider than the originals and of course the whole thing is much thinner tha the original factory piece, but it's all we have to work with at the moment until someone makes a better one. I would think that these pieces would be in high demand to accurately reproduce as the cars look so much better with the plastic valance than the steel one: you don't see the unfinished lower nose flange with the plastic valance as you do with the steel ones.

[71-LS6]

Hey Steve, good job on that dash panel. Following this thread is kind of like watching old episodes of "McGyver". Keep the pics coming.

[njsteve]

I don't know about McGyver but I feel more like Cliff Clavin on Cheers sometimes:

"As a matter of fact there Normy, the 1972 Camaro and Firebird, or F-Bodies as they are more commonly referred to by those in the know, were the lowest production year of any of the years from 1967 to 2002 due to the fact of a full strike against the Norwood Assembly Plant was instituted by the United Auto Workers, resulting in thousands of unfinished cars left on the assembly line being scrapped as they would not have passed the more stringent 1973 emission and bumper standards...."