[njsteve]

Black plastic is repro. Green metal is original.

[Bentwheelbob]

Yeah, Steve's got that covered. I've got to say those green clips are very difficult to remove. They've got two barbed legs that face in opposing directions that snap down in the hole. To remove them you have to pinch the legs together while lifting up. Bent tip needle nose pliers or hemostats work well if you are very careful or not worried about a few scratches on the cowl. I mainly used two thin trim removal tools, one on each side, compressed the legs and lifted. On a few I had to use needle nose pliers due to limited space. Someone may have a better trick.

Now if there was just an easy way to remove tinnerman nuts.

[TA455HO]

I used to work those off by putting something small into the bend and prying - or I'd try to get something into the opening end but often the clip is right up against something that I didn't want to scratch or tear. I was working on one of my 1966 trucks that is original paint and I needed to remove a couple of the tinnerman style nuts without scratching the paint.

I went inside to have some lunch while still thinking about it and the bag of potato chips had one of the big chip clips on it to keep the open bag closed when not in use. Sort of like a big binder clip. Anyway, I looked at it a little bit and came up with a way to remove the nuts on the truck without damaging the paint or destroying the nuts.

I just use two small jewelers screwdrivers to open the nut/clip and remove them with no damage these days. See if these two pictures say enough to give the idea. In this case a console that I didn't want to tear the surface up. By just squeezing the far ends of the screwdrivers together it opens the nut right up. Works pretty slick.





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[Bentwheelbob]

I'm a lucky guy. I know it. I''ve got a fantastic daughter, a great wife, and a great life. I've also got a great best friend - My Pal Dave (MPD for short). I've known him for over 40 years and it's cool to have someone you love like him to share and help in your life's passion. For me, at this time, it would be cars. Well MPD had a tumor develop in a salivary gland and underwent surgery today. The biopsy prior to surgery showed no cancerous cells, and the surgery today went great. He's hanging out with a bunch of nurses tonight, and they'll kick him out tomorrow. It won't be long until he's back in the garage doing the "hard work"......

Keep him in your thoughts.

I'm a lucky guy.

[Pepi]

Wishing him the best of luck. Glad to hear it wasn't cancerous.

[Norwood]

Get well Dave

[Brewster]

Prayers the biops come back negative. Keep smiling Dave all will be good.

[SD455DJ]

Prayers offered for Dave's quick and complete recovery. He's one tough hombre`! Dennis

[The Boss]

Prayers sent out for silent Dave for a clean biopsy!

[Red Goat]

Wishing for a quick and full recovery for ya Dave!

[Tellyshavilli]

prayers for Dave God bless

[charles bledsoe]

Thoughts and prayers of a speedy recovery for your (MPD). Hope the nurses kick him out real soon so he can get back in the garage with you.
God Bless.

[Bentwheelbob]

Well, I haven't posted much lately, but things have been creeping along. I decided to pull the cluster to swap in new 168 bulbs in place of the old 194 bulbs that were likely original. Once I had the cluster out I decided that the clock should be fixed since it didn't work. Long story short I boogered the tach wire in the process, and end up sending the entire cluster to Pete Serio to fix the clock and tach. I can't say enough good things about the job Pete did. This cluster is like new, and Pete did a great job replacing the clock and getting the tach fixed and calibrated.

While the dash was torn apart, it seemed like a good time to strip the interior and clean everything. This car is in such good shape. All the parts are original, but they are 43 years old and it all needed a good cleaning. The carpet got shampooed, the seats got a deep cleaning with the seat backs removed, seat belt retractors, the whole works. MPD even pulled the pads from the pedals and removed the accelerator pedal assembly to clean it. It's all back together now and looks nice. We left the console out because the transmission is going to get dropped so the clutch can be replaced.

Most of the work that is left is under the car. In addition to the clutch, the bottom of the car needs cleaned and pressure washed, the black paint on the gas tank needs addressed, and the exhaust system needs swapped. On the exhaust, the system that is on the car is really sweet and well done. It's 2.5" with an H pipe and Magnaflow transverse muffler. Whoever put it on did a great job, and even used all the correct factory hangers for the muffler and tail pipe. However, it's not a correct system, so I am going to install the Gardner system that was on the Black Car. I think it will fit perfectly, but have a couple questions.

The Black Car is a 455 HO and the Red Car is a D-port L75. Someone installed Ram Air D-Port manifolds on the Red Car when the exhaust was installed and I am not sure that the dimensions of the D-Port manifolds are the same as the round port manifolds. If they are, and I think they should be, then the Gardner system should slide right in, and I'll get a new shiny system for the Black Car, which is still getting lightly fluffed. I hate to give up the performance improvement the custom system offers with freer breathing, but this car is so original it needs a correct exhaust to suit me.

Lastly, I pulled the Power Beam headlights which by all appeances are original, and installed new reproduction Power Beam headlights. The first set I bought immediately fogged/smoked on the inside, but the second set worked fine and are substantially brighter than the old headlights. While the lights were out the headlight buckets got cleaned up, and their condition is indicative of how clean this car is throughout.

Here's a few pictures including a couple that show the fogged repop bulb and an original.

[RamAir]

Looks great Bob and Dave. I think I'll pick up the repro beams and save my originals. Peter is right here in Columbus and used to work at Len Immke Buick where I worked out of college.

[Norwood]

Exhaust will fit the d port manifolds. Let's see if those manifolds push u to mod class at Natz

[SD455DJ]

Bob, like Craig said, the RA D-ports have the exact same outlet as the SD 455 manifolds, so you can buy the SD Gardner exhaust system, which uses larger diameter pipe than the std system.

Dennis

[Brewster]

More is better right Dennis

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by Brewster

More is better right Dennis

Darn tootin' bigger is better in the exhaust world....to a point that is....but between the two factory systems the SD's is worth 20 hp to rear wheels. The Pypes system adds another 20 hp!

Dennis

[Bentwheelbob]

Well, I'm not going to a Pypes system. The system that was on there was a nice 2.5" aftermarket system with an H pipe and Magnaflow transverse muffler. It was very well installed, but with this car being a 15K mile survivor I struggled with it's lack of originality. The manifolds are another matter and I'll leave them alone. I installed a round port preheater shroud and they look very correct - as long as Norwood doesn't turn me in to Nats Police. I'll look into the SD Gardner system, what's the particulars on it vs. the standard factory 2.25" system?

Onward...The bottom of the car got pretty well stripped today. The exhaust is off, driveshaft and transmission pulled, and the clutch and flywheel are headed for the scrap heap. The last piece remaining is the gas tank, and we'll probably yank it when the lift rolls out to the driveway to pressure wash and degrease the bottom of the car. Here's a few pictures of things as they stand now.

[Norwood]

Man how nice is that Jack