[Bliss_Street]

I totally am not a patient man today, lol.



It doesn't catch the metallic shimmer, but ya'll get the idea. The blue ring is actually white, I need to clean the adhesive off it from the protective cover.

The paint has a delightful 1970's bowling ball look to it. With the clear coat, it will look really nice.

[Bliss_Street]

To give you a better colour idea, the red in the Z71 is sort of a standard automotive red as compared to the painted rim, which is more candy apple.



And mounted. This picture is by far the best representation so far. The iPhone camera isn't great with colour fidelity and I certainly haven't edited these.



All 4 wheels are done and mounted, all with the proper lug nuts and torqued properly. All in all, I get more comments and looks now, and it has even better road manners. Every thing I do to the car is like one more layer of a great drive. I drove up to the plant to bring my wife lunch and she was astounded by how smooth and controlled the car was compared to 6 months ago. I also washed the exterior by hand and detailed the interior. She's a gem. Well, I mean she still has some rust spots, that $99 paint job and a ratty roof top. But you can see her inner beauty *cough*.



Then I changed the oil. My thoughts were to flush it all out and let the new oil do it's thing for a bit, knowing I will be removing the motor soon. WOW it was an eye opener. That **** was rank. It flowed out of the pan and you couldn't even see through it. and the filter......

Needless to say, I'm embarrassed I didn't do this earlier. I bought a quality filter, not race worthy, but an AC Delco one. Hey, that's my retirement fund so I support it when ever I can. I also got 7 quarts of Valvoline 10w-30 and a ZDDP additive for the flat tappets. I'm a Mobile 1 guy normally, but this was in stock and it's not like it's a random quality oil.

There was a pronounced change in the sound of the car. Smoother. Meaner. More muscled. So much so that my wife actually got out of the bath and came to see what I had done. This is the sort of thing one dreams about as a teenager.

Does it still drip? yes, that's the rope seal though, and will be solved in the rebuild. But no drips from the filter or the oil pan, so that's good. I then promptly drove the car almost every day for 2 weeks. It's been almost flawless.

Almost? Well, I filled the car up with 87 octane right after that. Topped it off to start getting a baseline for milage. Up to now, I never drove it enough to where I was worried about it. And I used 87 without thought. The truck gets 87, and it's sort of muscle memory. Over the next 70 miles, I started to notice that under about 60% throttle in 3rd gear (mostly) I was getting some spark knocking. My first though was that it's the octane. then I did some looking, and honestly, I'm not so sure. I thought it might be carbon build up, casting flash, or I was running lean at a certain point as the distributer advanced. That's a lot of variables to trouble shoot by Thanksgiving. I did note that the spark plugs are not fouled.

The car simply isn't set up for unleaded fuel, certainly not 10% ethanol. I've refuelled with 93 octane, which hasn't really helped. So, I'm driving gently for now and after the inlaws are gone, we'll rebuild and address that knocking.

And yesterday, we had a moment:



We officially broke 38,000 miles! yay!

[Old Blue 66]

This may be a cheapo fix, but my 66 had the exact same challenge when I inadvertently added 87 octane. It was a bone stock 72 Pontiac 350.

Someone suggested adding an octane booster the next time I filled up with 93. The particular brand was NOS Octane booster. I think I was buying the of road version. I certainty helped. The motor was quiet again. The catch was I had to use it with each fill up at $9/bottle.

A couple of years later we switched out the intake and carb and the need to the booster was gone. That says something, not sure what though.

[perryka]

Bliss_Street, I have enjoyed following this thread quite a bit. Always look forward to the next entry.

Question for you - where did you get the gasket for the diff cover? I'm having trouble finding the right one for my 67 GP.


Alan

[Bliss_Street]

Originally Posted by perryka

Bliss_Street, I have enjoyed following this thread quite a bit. Always look forward to the next entry.

Question for you - where did you get the gasket for the diff cover? I'm having trouble finding the right one for my 67 GP.


Alan

I got it from O'rielly's Auto parts. I do believe they had to look it up in an actual book rather then the computer drill down they usually use. I dealt with the manager and he knew what I was talking about, just not how to find it in the computer.

This looks to be about the same one I used. Although, I seem to remember mine being felpro.

[perryka]

Ok, thanks. Seems like an unusually hard piece to find for some reason. That Summit part has the same description as the Fel-pro gasket that I have that is too small. Your guy must have cracked the code.

Alan

[Ben M.]

I got my gasket at a local parts store that didn't do computers but had the books still around (and archaic parts with no UPC codes on the boxes still on the shelf), the computers at the generic parts stores were all wrong.

[Griffinspc]

Wow, I hadn't seen any updates (no email notifications) for months and decided to look at the thread to make sure you weren't on an extended vacation and you've done a lot and it's great. Don't know why I was lost in the shuffle but will keep looking.

Congrats!

[David Brown]

67-70 differentials are unique unto themselves and a lot of parts are very hard to find. Do you have the O'Rielly's part number? May help some of us in the future.

[rustyrelic]

Hey Bliss,

It's been awhile since you last posted. Still have the car? Anything new to report?

[perryka]

I'm glad somebody else asked. I have been missing reading this story, and wondering what was happening.

Alan

[Bliss_Street]

That's so weird, I was just thinking about this thread.

Last time I posted was just before Thanksgiving. My inlaws were in town and I wanted them to have a ride in the old girl before I put her away for the winter. I had planned to pull the carb and motor out to refresh them.

Well Thanksgiving was a blast, everyone loved the car. Mid December my wife got a call to attend some meetings up in Detroit. One of those meeting ended with a suggestion that we were now on a 90 day warning for an impending move. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen fast.

With that in mind, I quickly re assembled the carb and got the car running again. Sure enough, the end of February she was offer a promotion the would move us to California. She started right after that. House went on the market exactly 12 months after we closed on it.

At this point, we are both in a temp apartment in Cali until we close in Kentucky. The car is being shipped along with my truck, they both should be here March 6th-ish. In looking for a new house out here, the car is being taken into account. Once we are settled, I'll get back to work.

That being said, does anyone know of a good shop in the western LA area, both for work and maybe employment?

[Bliss_Street]

Ok, since I know y'all like pictures.


Traveling with 2 dogs and a cat is a train wreck. At least the TSA guy was laughing the whole time, especially when he made me take the cat out. I'm still healing from that.


But we made it onto the plane with minutes to spare.


I left CA to go back to the house and pack out. I got there and the first thing I did was make sure that the Cat started since the car hauler was coming the next day. Nothing. It seems I left the lights on the last time I drove it a month ago. Classic. So I got the jump set up and after that it started no problem.


Movers showed up and were quick about it.


The garage was last and the hardest to watch.


They didn't they could get the car carrier into the sub division, so they shuttled the cars out with a local wrecker. See you guys in two days.

[Mudtrux]

I just got my '67 Cat. Subscribed to your thread.

[Bliss_Street]

We has some issues with the car after receiving it off the transporter. I started a threadover in the Street tech section if anyone wants to look it over.

As for news, the car is back to running great. We are also under contract on a house, after 5 attempts we found someone that wanted our money. It's got a nice little spot for the car, so I'm dying to get the house closed and get the keys.

I found a good shop with an older mechanic that started his career at a Pontiac dealer, which is nice. And the sheer number of people with older American steel sitting in driveways and in garages out here is heart warming.

So things are looking up.

Originally Posted by Mudtrux

I just got my '67 Cat. Subscribed to your thread.

Congrats, I hope you love driving yours as much I love driving mine.

[68Catalina68]

Great thread, love how much detail and time you devoted to it. What are your plans this year for the car? I have a 68 Cat that has been getting beat up by our NYS weather.

[M1Lover]

I was looking for information on the rear axle seals for my '67 Grand Prix and came across this thread. It was a joy to read and I must say that I admire your determination and attention to detail. I'm an OCD sufferer as well and if something isn't just right, I get a bit wiggy about it until it is. GOOD JOB on a GREAT CAR. Let's hear how it's been running these last three+ years since you've posted about it.

[Stuart]

It looks like the original poster hasn't been back here since the middle of 2014, so I'm guessing he won't see the new posts....

[Griffinspc]

I was hoping he'd keep up with the story too. Ah well, car guys. Can't live with them can't live with them.

[coonhunter70]

Wish he would come back!