EScanlon

GEEEZ! Does anyone want to check and see if he put valve caps on the tires? Or did he use purified air in the tires? Or ..... After last weeks fun, after this group berated a person's car, do we REALLY need to do it again? That you would do it differently....that's great. Is that because of having been exposed to this highly-critical group, or because you've learned better from having been a member of this group? Face it guys, the belittling that is going on is not only pointless, it comes off as "mine's better than yours!" The Flat Top Carbs may not be the item of choice....amongst those of us who know and want better performance. But face it, the manufacturer did in fact, SELL a whole bunch of units with them. They MUST have worked or the cars would never have rolled off the lot. Are there better alternatives? You bet, but that's what a HUGE part of this hobby is all about. That the original owner did not know and apparently did not do anything with the carbs may be as simple as he doesn't do his own mechanical work. Additionally if they're working .... they why replace them if you're satisfied with their performance? Last week a car was being berated for having had the distributor replaced now it's that the owner did NOT replace the carburators. Does it strike anyone as ~ PLAUSIBLE ~ that the owner wanted to keep the engine original? Sure there's dirt and grime in the engine bay. If it had been operating room clean someone would have spoken up and said that THAT was suspicious. Could it ~possibly~ be that the guy doesn't know ANYTHING about engines and just knows to NOT touch inside the engine compartment? Now, would it be plausible that he would pressure wash an engine that, WE as a group, know can be cantankerous and difficult AND doesn't like getting wet? So let's lay off the dismissive denigrating comments. Unless YOUR car is ~PERFECT~ and few here are anywhere close, let's give the guy an item that we all want....."The Benefit of the Doubt." That aside, although it is extremely odd to have such a difference between an exterior that looks recently cared for and an engine compartment that begets the use of gloves, it is entirely plausible. When I was refreshing cars for $ while in the service, I had one simple rule:I didn't touch anything inside the engine compartment that wasn't DIRECTLY related to the paint job at hand, and you had had the mechanical problems attended to BEFORE I worked on your car. Since several of these cars were external paint only, the engine bay concerned me only in making sure that it wouldn't vent dust and oil. Since many of these jobs were done on a materials + basis, I didn't try to up the cost. Personally, I like the intent and general direction of what he tried to do. But as the saying says "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Reducing the size of the opening by using the front center valance as a filler is ingenious, but it sadly mis-shapen for the surrounding metal. Heck, it's entirely possible that the car is some old guy's who inherited someone's "project" and is doing his best to recover something. So, let's discuss those items we don't care for on other vehicles, but let's not denigrate the people or their thoughts. $1 E

FYI: Carolina Z = 77 Z And to re-iterate Stephen's point, it was a divisive issue on the board. The best that could be done was for everyone to agree ... to disagree. E

If anyone has videos of a B-52 Bomber plane coming in with cross-wind, you would be able to see that that plane can CRAB it's landing gear and continue down the run-way at an angle. E

SEM makes a line of "paints" specifically for vinyl. If you talk to your paint store, you can even get regular auto paint colors "plasticized" or get the "plasticizer" for the paint of your choice, depending on what you are doing. Remember the mid 70's Corvettes? Their front nose piece was rubber and required that plasticized paint. 2¢ Enrique

Do a continuity check to ensure that the wires aren't broken someplace along their length. As far as the park switch, that "bump" is supposed to lift the reed and break the circuit. Is the nylon pad worn out? After this, the only thing I can imagine that may cause the problem is a down-right short circuit in the switch itself. See the following pic. Hope it helps. Enrique

Get the AM/FM with the switch above the tuning knob. It is an "original" model and at least you'll have access to the FM band. It isn't stereo, and it will fit in the 70-73 dash. Thanks for the input on the Ohm's. E

Thank you Chris! (Sorry about the goof, but I'm glad it was caught. I hate finding wrong info.) By the way, you CAN put two speakers in the rear of the car, and you'll find that ALL of the plastic panels have the "grill" already pre-drilled for "stereo" speakers. (*) The HARD part is finding a bracket to hold the speaker onto the left hand side of the car (by the antenna). Fortunately, it is a simple matter of looking at the RH side speaker bracket to fabricate a LH side bracket. Then just simply run a pair of wires from one speaker to the other. Now, someone with experience with speakers please chime in. Should you wire the additional speaker in parallel or in series? I vaguely recall that one way causes higher resistance (increased ohms) and the other reduces it, which can cause speakers to be blown out. We aren't talking mega-watts of power here, but I'd hate to blow an original speaker (even if replacements are readily available and it would be hard to detect the change). E P.S.: (*): There is a subtle difference between the early plastic panels and the later panels. If your car has the vents in the hatch, then it should NOT have a "grill" drilled through in the plastic just above the shock towers. Additionally, the dimensions of the "bump" for the evaporation tank are different between new and old. (plastic evap tank vs. metal)

The 70's radio was monaural, and there were two styles. One had the seek feature on the volume knob and the other did not. Both had 3 AM buttons and 2 FM. If I recall correctly, the antenna switch was above the tuning knob for both. There was a later model that had a rocker style switch to the right of the tuning knob, but if memory serves, that was for the later year cars. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) Enrique

Ok, here goes. Hopefully my pic editing worked. E

I was at a local Fred Meyer (local dept. store) and they had a "do-it-yourself" type of bed liner that according to the sample was hard. It reminded me more of something that might be brittle, but you couldn't bend the sample. That's why I mention it. E

"Honest Osipher! I was just being a booster seat!"

By "strike" they mean, HIT the tip of the rod on the metal that has the ground clamp attached to it. As you hit, the tip should "chip" the flux at the tip. Then as soon as you note the spark, and it should be a nice bright spark, then pull back just a bit to maintain the arc of the spark. Remember, the reason it's called ARC Welding is that you are maintaining a gap between the tip and the metal and the electricity ARCs between the two. As it arcs it melts the metal rod and deposits it on the base metal that has the ground clamp attached to it. Lastly, check to make sure that you have a good ground with the clamp. I've seen "little beads" being made because of a poor ground clamp. 2¢ Enrique

And in late 71 and later cars, the seats recline...... E

No worries, but did the answer I mentioned help you? E

Red Eye: Which car? The 71 does have a mid-cycle park feature which has a couple of wires attached to the back of the wiper motor crank-case. If one of those wires is disconnected or not making proper connection due to a break etc. it will keep cycling as it never gets to the "park" position. The 74 has an intermittent wipe feature, as such it could be the intermittent relay that is either shorted or ....? I'll leave the 83 to Stephen Blake. The 1600's were very similar to the 71. Enrique

I just popped in on this thread, but what would be wrong with using some of the Pick Up Bed Liner products? E

And Billy Bob is a young fart all full of stink and lumps! E

Scott: One HUGE word of caution/advise: DRIVE THE CAR FOR A FEW DAYS / WEEKS FIRST.....BEFORE.....YOU START ON ALL THE "FIXIN' UP" YOU WILL WANT TO DO. This is of course, presuming the car is running. If it isn't, then do just the necessary items to get it running first.....THEN address the fixin' up. Case in point: I just bought a 72 240 for $500 because the owner had decided to "repair" what he felt were "not real good" brakes....4 years ago. The car had been on jacks since he tore the front end apart and his wife told him to get it out of the garage.....or else. Sad to say, his loss is my gain. So, like a new pair of boots, find out where they chafe before you go stretching them out and make them loose as a goose and break your ankles. 2¢ Enrique

Be careful of blindly applying the advice given there regarding soldering a wire to the back of the fuse box. While that will relieve SOME of the problems with the fuse box, it is neither a FIX-ALL, nor a Universal Fix. It may be, in fact, a time bomb. The small diagram he includes for the back of the fuse box is not consistent througout all the fuse boxes I've examined. (Aside from it NOT being a Z fuse box that's diagramed.) If you solder a wire accross the back you are going to create some major problems for yourself down the road as that isn't a common junction for ALL of the fuses. In other words, you will be SHORTING part of your circuitry if you don't pay attention. Aside from that, do NOT try that repair unless you know how to solder well. It is far easier to melt the plastic than it is to solder a wire across the back of 5 terminals. The PROPER fix for the fuse box problem is to clean the connection to the fuses (the brass grippers) AND the rivet connection that goes through the plastic and holds everything together. It is the RIVET connection that eventually corrodes due to exposure to air. If you have access to some spray contact cleaner, then this is what you want to use. Remove the fuse box from the car, remove the fuses and spray the rivet connections and fuse holders liberally with the contact cleaner. Then brush with a stiff tooth brush or preferably a small brass or steel brush to bring out the shine in the metal where the fuses clip in. Then, if you have access to a bench vise and a pair of metal pin punches(1/8" Diameter), lock one of the punches in the vise, and rest the fuse box rivet heads (visible through the fuse holder wings) on that punch. Then carefully punch the BACK side of the punch dead center with the other flat 1/8" diameter punch. This way you will spread the rivet out just a tiny bit without cracking the plastic, nor distorting the rivet. Remember you just want to improve the contact, you're not trying to hold up the car with it. Once done, you will have effected a much better repair in my opinion than trying to solder a wire on the back side of the fuse box. Aside from that, not everyone can pick up a soldering iron wth enough wattage to heat up the rivet quick enough to melt the solder and NOT melt the plastic. Lastly, get a hold of Dave in Marysville, WA for one of his healight relay upgrade kits. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14897&highlight=Headlight+Relay THAT upgrade, in my personal opinion and MANY others here, is by far the SINGLE BEST UPGRADE you can make for your car......bar none. 2¢ Enrique

And if you have rust on it, check and see if it is rust-THROUGH. If it is, you have bigger problems than it appears. That area of the car is where several pieces of sheet metal come together. The rocker panel exterior skin, the inner rocker panel, the door pillar support, the inner fender, external fender and part of the floor pan, are all coming together at that point. It's not unusual to find rust there, as that is where the rear panel "drains" to. When you open it up to replace the skin metal, take a good close look at the interior metal. E

The white wire connects the turn signal switch to the battery THROUGH the flasher. Without that wire you will not get any power to the lights to illuminate them. Be aware that it is not uncommon for the wiring colors on the switch (or component) side of the connector to differ from the harness wiring colors. The harness wiring for the most part DOES follow the wiring schematic, with only a few exceptions noted over the years and over various cars (which may have been flukes). The switches and components, however, have shown variations over the model years and batches. As long as they operate correctly, it is rare for anyone to note these differences as they aren't uniform or constant. AFAIK, there is NO solid green wire going to the Comb. Switch. There ARE 6 Green / XXX wires however, so look close to see the stripe, it SHOULD be there if it's going to the combination switch. Be careful when connecting any wire that could possibly be "live" to ground. It's not unheard of to blow fuses this way, or worse yet, cause damage at other points. Black ~TYPICALLY~ denotes a ground wire, or at least the "return" portion of a circuit. Shunting a power wire directly to ground will / may cause a spark and may get extremely hot very VERY fast. Trial and error on wiring is NOT a recommended way to go. By repeating "Everyone Knows" type of information, please don't feel I'm picking on YOU personally, remember, this site and posts get seen by a LOT of people, some of whom may not have the knowledge you do have or don't. As such, sometimes "berating the obvious" is necessary to allow those readers the opportunity to learn from each post. It also then helps the "Search" function. Enrique

Well Bill, it's like this..... Rick asked if you'd been behaving...... You posted a RACING video which, I'll admit, had a nice surprise, but nonetheless, where the rest of us would have been looking at the car, and the driver's techniques.....you're off catching glimpses of....breats!! Now you get it? Or is this the same "Who, me?" attitude you take when you get caught praying AND looking skyward under the open stair staircases in the mall? J/K E

Time out Chris, the better paint shops can match the sample you bring in, but that is the key. You MUST bring in a sample for them to match. From what he posted, he's asking for the original paint code. I know Gary knows it as he just had his breather painted, but I myself don't know the code. You're right that he can get anything he wants, but if he's looking to find the code as it came out of the factory, the breather he might have in his car would have 35+_ YEARS of age/ grime / use behind it. Me, I'd opt for the code and have the paint mixed. E

You know you are on a car lover's site when the question "What color is blue?" would actually make good sense!!! Ask Beandip, he just recently re-did his. Enrique

Ok, now I'm no transmission / differential mechanic, but how would the car run? 1¢ E