Quote:
Originally Posted by Grand73Am
Hmmm, I haven't seen that in my experience. Over the years I've rarely seen a wrecked nose on a Lemans, so not that common to me, yours being a rare exception. Mabye a regional thing?
The Grand Ams are a different story of course, with noses that rarely survived due to the bad urethane that cracked and broke up over time.
Hope you get that 76 going again someday  . |
I bought a '77 Can-Am when I lived in CT, same deal, took a hit to the nose and frame was bent. The frames are made in such a way to collapse.
I have been in a number of scrap yards years ago, always keeping my eye out, most every one had a smacked nose, at least here in the southern region - even several Grand-Ams which I would have used. The cars weigh so much with all the anti-rollover protection, side door impact bars, and crash bumpers that I attribute it to tire choice. The brakes work great for such a large car, but if you run a narrow tire or a low cost tire, the tires just can't hold the heavy car back. I think the old 70 series tires should have been the smallest tire to use. I had 15" tires and they were not very wide compared to a 70 series tire of the day.
The only parts I have seen are on complete still running/driving cars and no sense buying one only to rob parts to get my running again. It was a great car. Crappy gas mileage around town with all the stop and go making the 350CI work hard to get the 2.73 geared sled rolling, but on the interstate @ 70 MPH, I could squeeze 20 MPG (no A/C on the car) on my long trips to visit family (with the Q-jet I added).