[njsteve]

Through the graciousness of PY member 70Steve from down-under in Australia, a mint copy of the Sept/Oct 1990 issue of MUSCLECARS of the 60's/70's arrived today.

(BTW, the yellow hemicuda ragtop on the cover was my old car that I sold to Otis Chandler in 1987 - very weird coincidence that they are in the same magazine!)

Here it is:

[Bentwheelbob]

Steve - the valance looks great. Significantly better than the metal replacement, and it really shows on a white car much more than it would on a darker color. You do good work. When I got the Black Car on the lift yesterday I got to appreciate first hand some of your fine work on the drop offs and rear frame repairs. First rate and essentially undetectable.

Regarding the valance, how about a little education. From reading several threads on here, the original poly valances were very prone to damage due to the manner in which they were mounted. Have you changed the mounting to prevent this from reoccurring or done something else different?

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by Bentwheelbob

Steve - the valance looks great. Significantly better than the metal replacement, and it really shows on a white car much more than it would on a darker color. You do good work. When I got the Black Car on the lift yesterday I got to appreciate first hand some of your fine work on the drop offs and rear frame repairs. First rate and essentially undetectable.

Regarding the valance, how about a little education. From reading several threads on here, the original poly valances were very prone to damage due to the manner in which they were mounted. Have you changed the mounting to prevent this from reoccurring or done something else different?

Factory Shipping Truck/train ruined a plenty of them... and I think Steve kept his "loose" but tight enough in his post, which is a must just for driving flex.

[njsteve]

Yes, i filled all the existing rad support mounting holes in the valance and drilled and slotted the new ones, which were lined up with the actual bolt locations. The new holes ranged from 1/2" to 1" away from the originals!

Your black car would have had the same valance but I think the front bumper was replaced with an NOS one 25+ years ago because there were no screw holes underneath where the valance would have mated with it. This may have occurred during the second owner's repainting, when the NOS quarters were installed. Additionally, the rubber nose material was very smooth and perfect on the underside, not something you see on an old bumper.

[1973Formula]

At this point the repop valances have been available for a while. How can you determine that you are looking at a factory valance? Are there any markings?

Thanks,

[njsteve]

The Parts Place valance is made of thin, black ABS plastic of even thickness: 1/16". The upper mounting flanges are way too wide to fit in the locating notches in the underside of the bumper.

The factory polyethylene valances were molded in body colors and vary in thickness, from way too thin: 1/32" (on the sides where they mate with the lower front fenders, to thick on the bottom 1/8" where they attempted to mate with the rad support (but the holes were in the wrong places). Polyethylene is a waxy, easily scratched polymer material. They also have several molding seams on the inside.

Here's a photo of the original white poly valance I repaired for my white 72 T/A next to the black Parts Place valance. It was completely shattered and burned but I got it repaired better then the blue one I just used, so I put it back on the white T/A.



Here's a portion of my old thread on repairing that one. It has a lot of detail shots of the poly valance:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...ne#post3331725

[165th]

Originally Posted by 1973Formula

At this point the repop valances have been available for a while. How can you determine that you are looking at a factory valance? Are there any markings?

Thanks,

The GM valance has a part number on it. Can't remember what the number is though.

[Judge273]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Yes, i filled all the existing rad support mounting holes in the valance and drilled and slotted the new ones, which were lined up with the actual bolt locations. The new holes ranged from 1/2" to 1" away from the originals!

Your black car would have had the same valance but I think the front bumper was replaced with an NOS one 25+ years ago because there were no screw holes underneath where the valance would have mated with it. This may have occurred during the second owner's repainting, when the NOS quarters were installed. Additionally, the rubber nose material was very smooth and perfect on the underside, not something you see on an old bumper.

Not only screw holes but bumper has notches to receive the plastic valence as well. I am learning how to put the plastic one back from a good part source and a man with knowledge as to how to...





Raised parts on top of valence.

[njsteve]

Thanks for posting those detail shots. You can see that the mounting notch indentations in the underside of the Orange car's bumper are square and there is no way that the raised rectangular areas on the Parts Place black ABS valance would ever fit those indents. That is one of the major problems with the repro valance.

Sure, you can rework ABS with a heat gun, but for the $250 you pay for the part, you shouldn't have to.

I should start my own polyethylene valance repair facility!

[njsteve]

I located an NOS Delco Remy distributor cap for the car. The second owner gave it a "tune-up" in the late 1980's and must have tossed the original AC spark plugs and cap.

The correct cap should have the "Delco Remy Patent 2769047 R" embossed in a circle around the coil terminal. All the modern replacements (including the brand new AC Delco cap I bought), are blank on top. There is also a noticeable difference in the weight of the original caps versus a modern Delco cap. The old ones are glossy, heavy, and thick. The new ones feel almost like ABS plastic and are very flat and cheap looking.

[njsteve]

I was talking to the third owner, Mike, the other day. He mentioned that there is evidence of the exploding recalled Firestone 500 tires on the car. I recalled that the front of the driver's side rocker panel had a wire brushed look to it and that must have been where the separated tread flapped against it during the blow-out when the second owner bought it and drove it from AZ to CA. But he mentioned that on the driver's side of the hood there is a "cat-o'-nine tails" mark across it. And wouldn't you know it, I looked closely and there is a series of small chips in a flail pattern on the hood from the direction of the driver's side wheel well.

Here is the wide angle and the closeup of the battle damage:

[njsteve]

The next item on the To-Do list is replacing the heater core. The car has had its heater core bypassed since before the third owner bought it, which in car-guy language means it must have been leaking at some point, early on just from sitting. So stay tuned for that funfest.

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by njsteve

The next item on the To-Do list is replacing the heater core. The car has had its heater core bypassed since before the third owner bought it, which in car-guy language means it must have been leaking at some point, early on just from sitting. So stay tuned for that funfest.

Just put one in an AC car box,( out of car) and now I want to have the original rebuilt. The new one is aluminum and seems cheap to the copper unit. Curious as to what you find for parts. Im betting you will want yours rebuilt too.

[RamAir]

Originally Posted by Formulabruce

Just put one in an AC car box,( out of car) and now I want to have the original rebuilt. The new one is aluminum and seems cheap to the copper unit. Curious as to what you find for parts. Im betting you will want yours rebuilt too.

I was able to source a copper/brass one from O'Reilly's. I've heard others say the aluminum is better, but I liked the copper unit.

[njsteve]

I brought the original one from the black car to my local radiator guy. He said there is no way to successfully repair the old copper cores. They get what he called "champagne leaks" which are hundres of tiny pinholes in the decaying solder that dont show up until a certain psi is attained. He said that the new aluminum ones are fine. I got one from Rockauto for around $30.

[OVERULD]

Steve
On page 28 of the article in a discussion of the SD 455 block, it mentions that "a lightweight silicon aluminum version of this block was produced, but not for the street." Somehow I've missed that all these years - any more details available on those blocks? Anyone ever seen one? Is it basically a RAV block?

BJ

[njsteve]

There's a lot of semi misinformation in there. Like the idea that for an extra $56 you could get the WU-3 Ram Air hood on the SD Formula. (pg 30)

[70Steve]

Glad you like the mag Steve. Hard to believe how old it is now...just seems like yesterday I bought it.

Wasn't there an article about an aluminium block in HPP some time back? I seem to remember there was, but not sure if it was a SD 455 or not now.

[OVERULD]

HPP did an article on Greg's RAV motor that he put in a 70 TA. He later took it out and sold the TA. Is that the one you are thinking of?

BJ

[njsteve]

BTW, NEVER store one of these valances in this bottom side up, position especially when the weather gets cold. If you are going to work on it in this position, make sure you have something under both signal lamp pods to support the outer ends. Otherwise that crack in the bottom will spread right up to the top, and the valance will break into two separate pieces.

When I stored mine, I use a bunched up, old car cover with a higher area in the center, and I then placed the valance on it with the outside, facing up and the entire length of the valance fully supported by the soft cover..

You have a very rare example there that doesn't have one of the upper mounting bars broken.