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firstyearta · 01-10-2013, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by njsteve

Got the Gardner exhaust in today, changed the oil and took her out for a 60 mile road test. She ran great and rides beautifully. Of course the rear main seal started dripping from all those years of sitting. Typical...

I would love to know what is inside the engine when it comes to pistons and head work since preignition was rearing its ugly head at part throttle even with good gas. I guess this winter I will find out when I pull the engine to reseal everything.

Here are a couple shots of the exhaust and the repainted frame rails. The new KYB shocks came in a nice GM shade of vintage GM silver grey.

Oh, and the rear springs that I had de-arched one inch sit very nicely now on the 235/60x15s (the radial equivilent of the F60x15). They now match the ride height of the original springs in my T/A. The next project is installing the special front coil springs I had made with a one-inch drop from the stock spec. Right now the front is higher than the rear by about 3/4".

Can you tell me about your black frame rails?
Are they just sprayed black because your car is original black?
That just seems like way more black than just over spray?
Was the entire inner well painted black?
The reason I ask is...
About six months ago I'd mentioned in another thread that the entire underside of my '73 Formula was red oxide except for the outside of the frame rails where it appears they were sprayed black. I asked if this was factory and all the info that I received back said, "nope, they should have been red oxide".
Just wanting to confirm that.
Thanks!

njsteve · 01-11-2013, 07:55 AM

You are correct. The frame rails were sprayed at the factory with body color and then the wheel wells were undercoated. On my white T/A, the same areas were white. I reproduced the same amount of black after the frame repair, that was on the rails prior to the repair. The photos I posted just after the pressure washing show the extent of where the overspray landed.

I just used a light mist of flat black to reproduce the overspray. If you notice the triangular snubber bracket, it still has its original black overspray and it a little "flatter" looking than the area I blacked out. Once I drove the car a bit and got it dirty, they matched pretty well.

njsteve · 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by firstyearta

Can you tell me about your black frame rails?
Are they just sprayed black because your car is original black?
That just seems like way more black than just over spray?
Was the entire inner well painted black?
The reason I ask is...
About six months ago I'd mentioned in another thread that the entire underside of my '73 Formula was red oxide except for the outside of the frame rails where it appears they were sprayed black. I asked if this was factory and all the info that I received back said, "nope, they should have been red oxide".
Just wanting to confirm that.
Thanks!

Here's a similar overspray shot of my 72 T/A built a week before the Formula. The white on the frame rails is the original overspray. Ignore the white on the undercoating, that is from a later paint job. It appears that the assemby line paint workers would shoot some color on the frame rails and ignore the wheel wells because the wells were going to be undercoated later on the line.

And the post pressure washed shot of the rear wheel well prior to the frame repair.

firstyearta · 01-11-2013, 10:57 AM

Thanks for the info. I guess at some point someone must have just sprayed them black (as my car was originally red). It's just odd that they have almost exactly the same amount of over spray on them as your car and it's pretty much only on the face of the rail around the wheel well plus some on the side of the truck floor and it's the only area under the car that isn't perfect condition red oxide.

I've been debating how to fix it (as it won't clean off) by re spraying them black or trying to match the red oxide. But I guess if I was looking to make the car original, I'd spray these areas body color (originally red but now blue). Not sure I really need to get that carried away since while the car is stock in appearance, it's not really original (color that is).

njsteve · 01-20-2013, 03:31 PM

Spent the day doing my mid-winter, out of hiberaton, engine start up.

It was a nice day so I got the hemi charger up and running for the first time in a year. She started right up, so I took her out for a slow ride on the 40+ year old tires that the original owner installed back in the day. Sure rides different than the Firebird. :-)

There's nothing like modern radials!