72 TA : New Project

[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...."

[njsteve]

I took a little break while getting the Camaro sold and delivered, so now it's back to work. I sent the original radiator out to be recored and got it back a week later. I went to reinstall it and it wouldn't fit. Very strange, it was 3/4" too wide for the saddles. The following Monday I called the radiator guy (very reputable, long-time radiator overhauler and custom tank fabricator) and he was scratching his head also. Until finally he says: "Hey wait a minute I was recoring a Camaro radiator the same week...could I have switched the cores? He picks up the phone and calls the Camaro guy and asks him if he installed the rad yet. The guy says: "I was just about to, right now." The rad guy tells him: "Just bring it back now, I'll explain later." Turns out he did swtich the cores and there was a 3/4" difference in the widths for the same year cars. He redid my radiator with a new corre (and the other guy's too) and had it back to me in a few days. No charge. I have to say he was a stand-up guy about the whole thing, no questions, no excuses. You don't find that very often these days in service industries. I would definitely recommend him: Arts Radiator Fabrication in Flemington, NJ. He was surprised that I wasn't angry. I explained it this way: if it was a simple mistake that I could have made, there is no way that I would fault anyone else for making the same mistake. So I guess the lesson for all of us is the old saying: "measure twice and cut once." Or in this case: "measure twice and install once."

I also found a correct, original master cylinder on ebay for $18, complete with the bleeder screws and had my local auto parts store send it out and had it rebuilt. I installed it and filled the system with silicone brake fluid and bled it. I prefer the silicone fluid on restorations because if you ever have a leak or a drip, it won't hurt the paint. Easy insurance.

[njsteve]

I found another 1971-72 charcoal cannister and restored that. My original had some slight nipple damage (insert joke here) from the previous owner's fire. Being the dummy that I am I always wondered why they called it a charcoal cannister. That was until I pulled the filter off the bottom while having it right side up. Here's what came out: about two pounds of charcoal.

[njsteve]

Here's the new one back in the car. I reused the original hose clamps after cleaning them up a little. I went to the local pet store and bought two pounds of activated charcoal (for fish tank filter use) and poured that into the cannister and then capped it off with a new filter on the bottom. I then reinstalled it on the base and bolted it back up to the radiator support. It should actually work as intended now.