[Brian Baker]

Just thinking out loud but aren't your rear tires mounted backwards? See the "tread".

[73LeMans]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

Just thinking out loud but aren't your rear tires mounted backwards? See the "tread".

You are 100% correct. LOL. My 5 year old, 0 mile ET Streets are are on the wrong side of the car!

I have since fired my tire tech.


Excuses I was thinking of coming up with instead of owning it -

- Reverse burnouts are easier on the car due to the gear ratio advantage (but only one speed)
- Putting on negative mileage (i.e Bueller) so the tires would last longer
- Camera mirrors must have screwed up the shot
- The classic 'I was playing a trick on you guys!'

Keep an eye out for other blunders. I'm sure they exist. They certainly are showing up in the friggin electrical department.

[73LeMans]

Some random shots I took of the "bigger picture". Nice to take focus off the frustration sometimes. Helps me remember why I'm doing any of this.

A few things left to do in this shot.
- connect the vac lines for the brakes (and cut those zipties holding them)
- some spark plug wires would be nice
- add the throttle cable
- connect the fuel pressure isolater and route the fuel pressure line
- Plug in the distributor




Lets appreciate that vast, open, and clean area of the firewall, shall we? Mmmmm....firewall.



Not 100% ready, but getting closer. There are a few gremlins lurking in these pictures I wouldn't undercover until startup. I'll document those later.



Vacuum pump catch can. Mounted slightly lower than the pump, so hopefully doesn't present an issue. Not ideal, but I'm running out of room for all this stuff!




The black dye on my steering wheel was showing some signs of wear, so I decided to redo it. SEM makes some awesome stuff. I took a chance (because Im cheap) and used the same SEM cleaner and prep I used the first time I did this wheel...which was well over 20 years ago. It worked! Bought a new can of color to ensure favorable results. Took almost 4 hours to get the wheel 100% cleaned of the old dye. This pic looks to be about 3.5 hours in.





Came out pretty good. I did NOT repaint the center section. As you can tell, color match is near perfect. As you can also tell, the interior is filthy.

[73LeMans]

I could show you the pictures of me setting drive line angles, but they're pretty boring. A bunch of shots of a magnetic protractor is about all you'd see. (who can read those tiny lines anymore?) A digital inclinometer is on my Christmas list in case anyone is feeling generous.

Panel alignment is also pretty boring work, so we'll skip that too, except for these quick points.

- 1973 A-body doors weigh 1665 lbs each (I'm guessing). Man, are they a PITA to align. But with a bit of time and a second set of hands to tighten the hinge bolts, my doors have never shut better. Hinges were rebuilt by me in 2010.

- I'm impressed my fiber hood that's been off this car for a good 3 years, actually fits in its spot after the fenders were remounted. I actually have a picture of that -

Once fastened, the same low spots that existed before, exist now.




The "interesting" topic, is the new seats I decided I wanted on a whim. I have to warn you though - there are very few pictures (I have 1 of the finished product) and a lot of foul language is used. Like George Carlin and Pulp Fiction Sam Jackson got into an argument kind of language. Read at own risk. And don't say I didn't warn ya.


The old Jaz seats were great. Affordable, well made, strong, semi comfortable and easy to install. So yeah, of course I wanted to replace them.

In all honesty, long drives were starting to wear on the wife and me with the old seats. This gave me the opportunity to update the car's look while making it more comfortable. Win win! (Next year, it'll be wheels to REALLY update the look, but for now, the seats will fit the bill). Kirkey 55s, here we come.



Funny, they don't look comfortable. Good thing I bought the covers with the contoured foam. Makes all the difference.


As you can see, they sit about the same on the floor bracket, so how hard can they be to install?




The Cambridge dictionary defines impetuous with the following:

impetuous - /ɪmˈpetʃ.u.əs/ - adjective - likely to do something suddenly, without considering the results of your actions. Acting or done suddenly without much thought.

Yeah, that sounds about right. That's me. At least for this seat purchase anyway.

Other than the height off the floor, these stupid $#&$*( ^$*()#@ , $^&forsaken seats had nothing in common with the old ones. And while that doesn't sound like a big deal, allow me to illustrate the 4 main reasons why it is.

1. ) I'm 5' 8" on a good day in heels. (At least my license says so)
The new seats have contoured foam that while comfortable under my legs, now angle my knees slightly upward, instead of allowing them to just go outward. That means I need to sit a bit closer to the wheel to reach the pedals. And when the roll bar's down bar has to pass in between your shoulder and your elbow to pass technical inspection at the race track, this presents a problem. With this, I'd be too far forward for the bar to be considered legal. And a new down bar / roll bar is out of the question.....

2.) The cross bar also has guides welded through it for seat belt bolt retention. 2 for each side.



With the old seat, it sat perfectly between those two spots. Now, because the new seat is wider, I cant center it because its already as far over to the drivers side as it can be. Any closer and my arm isn't protected by the down bar; it sits on top of it. I guess that's really OK, since the further to THAT side I go, the less it centers up on the steering wheel anyway. $#&&. Maybe its me, but that is the $%^& I notice when I look into the car.

3.) With bright red Kirkey logo centered in the headrest, its real easy to tell from the outside of the car if the seat isn't level. Not saying the old ones weren't, but if they were, no one would ever notice. I can think of 100 other things Id rather do than level a seat with a 47 year old floor.

4.) And finally, if that wasn't enough, the Kirkey butt bucket is lower in the seat than the Jaz. I need to gain some height or else I'll never see over that scoop. (ha, like I can now!)

Am I the only one that makes up silly requirements and then sticks to them regardless of much more work it creates? I keep fixing-forward hoping it will get me where I need to be. It eventually does, because I make it happen, but its done with a lot more effort, stress, and time than needed. The requirement I'm talking about here was to NOT move the existing brackets on the floor. I didn't want to drill more holes. Not a ridiculous requirement, but given all I've done to get these seats to fit and look good, life may have been a lot simpler if I just moved the brackets to a more advantageous position. (Not that there is a ton of room to do that mind you)

The problem too is I like symmetry and staggering the seat brackets wouldn't have looked right. And most importantly, the seat is a safety item - its gotta be smartly constructed, with the "what happens in an accident" scenario always playing in your mind. Too many pieces, too many fasteners and you may end up with weak link you didn't count on.

For that reason alone, my first inclination was to call a race shop and have them reinforce the floor, weld in a halo off the floor and bolt the seat to that. I imagine that would have been a lot quicker and safer. As a matter of fact, this whole setup was all supposed to be "temporary" anyways, just to get me in the car for testing. I spent so much time on it, I'm not sure I'll swap it out now.

I'll shut up now and show you some pictures. (I went and took some more. I felt bad I only had 1)







I have to say, this will be the most comfortable I've been in this car since its bench seat days. The shifter is easy to get to and visibility is great over that scoop.

I do have to be careful...with the height Ive built in, the seat is barely below the main halo bar. Hard to tell in this picture, but its about 1/2" below the bar. Not ideal. Tech may have something to say about that.



I'll be using these under the car to act as washers.




There are certainly a lot of ways to mount a seat. This is my interpretation of one way to do it. There are likely slicker ways to make it happen, but its level, solidly mounted, and puts me in all the right positions to focus on the driving.

Now I just have to modify those pedals so I can reach.....

[73LeMans]

Soooo...if the engine is in, and the electrical is run, and the fuel is run, you see any reason I cant start this thing? Me neither.

Lets just pretend I posted about making the spark leads. And while you're pretending, imagine I said this:

I went with the Taylor 409s because I like the way they look - plain and simple. Taylor makes a great wire and these should prove no different. Just buy the universal set - The Pontiac set has wires that are way too long IMO.

If you can imagine all of that, we just saved ourselves a post on making wires. I had no pictures anyway.

Since we are in the pretending mood, lets also make believe I ran the fuel isolater and connected the vac lines for the brakes, and plugged in that pesky distributor.


First things first.

Tip#15 Always purge new fuel lines into a cup before sending fuel to the carb:



A shout out to the kick ass wife who tolerates all this crap, for getting distilled water for me in the middle of this ridiculous "pandemic".

Now we need oil and we gotta prime-



What else?
- Fuel fittings are tight
- 5 Gal in tank
- Lash is set
- Timing is close (initial is 10)
- Rotor is at number 1 on compression stroke
- Wires connected. CCW dont forget!
- Trans fluid at the ready
- Fire extinguisher is....somewhere...nearby. Where did I see that last? But seriously, its at the ready.
- Rear wheels are off the ground....you know, just in case that trans that's been out since 2015 ecides to do something funny.

I'm guessing this site (or maybe YouTube) doesn't allow YouTube videos to be embedded? I'm using the proper coding; other links work, just not when I feed it a YouTube link. I spent an hour coming to this conclusion. I gave up. Stupid YouTube.

As cool as it would have been to have the video clickable right here, I'll just give you the link:

====================First Fire Up=====================================
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0uEynN2IUc
====================First Fire Up=====================================

What I discovered after fire up -

- All my fuel fittings were not tight
- Minor water leak at the crossover and head
- She starts a tad hard
- My temp gauge no long gauges temp
- I'm not getting all my mechanical advance (barely any!)
- Electricity hates me
- The alternator isn't charging the battery (but its putting out voltage. Not a ton, but more than 12)
- The exhaust is smokey


How does the list of "to dos" get longer AFTER firing up the car? %&*%% ^#&()*%&*%. %$^&*(%^( %$@ *^%()_)%^

[3X24SPD]

Hey Mark, your stuff is looking real good.
I'll look forward to seeing how it runs.
NED street nights are opening back up this week.
Let me know when you're ready to come up, I'll tech your car through.
-Bill

Originally Posted by 73LeMans

I could show you the pictures of me setting drive line angles, but they're pretty boring. A bunch of shots of a magnetic protractor is about all you'd see. (who can read those tiny lines anymore?) A digital inclinometer is on my Christmas list in case anyone is feeling generous.

Panel alignment is also pretty boring work, so we'll skip that too, except for these quick points.

- 1973 A-body doors weigh 1665 lbs each (I'm guessing). Man, are they a PITA to align. But with a bit of time and a second set of hands to tighten the hinge bolts, my doors have never shut better. Hinges were rebuilt by me in 2010.

- I'm impressed my fiber hood that's been off this car for a good 3 years, actually fits in its spot after the fenders were remounted. I actually have a picture of that -

Once fastened, the same low spots that existed before, exist now.




The "interesting" topic, is the new seats I decided I wanted on a whim. I have to warn you though - there are very few pictures (I have 1 of the finished product) and a lot of foul language is used. Like George Carlin and Pulp Fiction Sam Jackson got into an argument kind of language. Read at own risk. And don't say I didn't warn ya.


The old Jaz seats were great. Affordable, well made, strong, semi comfortable and easy to install. So yeah, of course I wanted to replace them.

In all honesty, long drives were starting to wear on the wife and me with the old seats. This gave me the opportunity to update the car's look while making it more comfortable. Win win! (Next year, it'll be wheels to REALLY update the look, but for now, the seats will fit the bill). Kirkey 55s, here we come.



Funny, they don't look comfortable. Good thing I bought the covers with the contoured foam. Makes all the difference.


As you can see, they sit about the same on the floor bracket, so how hard can they be to install?




The Cambridge dictionary defines impetuous with the following:

impetuous - /ɪmˈpetʃ.u.əs/ - adjective - likely to do something suddenly, without considering the results of your actions. Acting or done suddenly without much thought.

Yeah, that sounds about right. That's me. At least for this seat purchase anyway.

Other than the height off the floor, these stupid $#&$*( ^$*()#@ , $^&forsaken seats had nothing in common with the old ones. And while that doesn't sound like a big deal, allow me to illustrate the 4 main reasons why it is.

1. ) I'm 5' 8" on a good day in heels. (At least my license says so)
The new seats have contoured foam that while comfortable under my legs, now angle my knees slightly upward, instead of allowing them to just go outward. That means I need to sit a bit closer to the wheel to reach the pedals. And when the roll bar's down bar has to pass in between your shoulder and your elbow to pass technical inspection at the race track, this presents a problem. With this, I'd be too far forward for the bar to be considered legal. And a new down bar / roll bar is out of the question.....

2.) The cross bar also has guides welded through it for seat belt bolt retention. 2 for each side.



With the old seat, it sat perfectly between those two spots. Now, because the new seat is wider, I cant center it because its already as far over to the drivers side as it can be. Any closer and my arm isn't protected by the down bar; it sits on top of it. I guess that's really OK, since the further to THAT side I go, the less it centers up on the steering wheel anyway. $#&&. Maybe its me, but that is the $%^& I notice when I look into the car.

3.) With bright red Kirkey logo centered in the headrest, its real easy to tell from the outside of the car if the seat isn't level. Not saying the old ones weren't, but if they were, no one would ever notice. I can think of 100 other things Id rather do than level a seat with a 47 year old floor.

4.) And finally, if that wasn't enough, the Kirkey butt bucket is lower in the seat than the Jaz. I need to gain some height or else I'll never see over that scoop. (ha, like I can now!)

Am I the only one that makes up silly requirements and then sticks to them regardless of much more work it creates? I keep fixing-forward hoping it will get me where I need to be. It eventually does, because I make it happen, but its done with a lot more effort, stress, and time than needed. The requirement I'm talking about here was to NOT move the existing brackets on the floor. I didn't want to drill more holes. Not a ridiculous requirement, but given all I've done to get these seats to fit and look good, life may have been a lot simpler if I just moved the brackets to a more advantageous position. (Not that there is a ton of room to do that mind you)

The problem too is I like symmetry and staggering the seat brackets wouldn't have looked right. And most importantly, the seat is a safety item - its gotta be smartly constructed, with the "what happens in an accident" scenario always playing in your mind. Too many pieces, too many fasteners and you may end up with weak link you didn't count on.

For that reason alone, my first inclination was to call a race shop and have them reinforce the floor, weld in a halo off the floor and bolt the seat to that. I imagine that would have been a lot quicker and safer. As a matter of fact, this whole setup was all supposed to be "temporary" anyways, just to get me in the car for testing. I spent so much time on it, I'm not sure I'll swap it out now.

I'll shut up now and show you some pictures. (I went and took some more. I felt bad I only had 1)







I have to say, this will be the most comfortable I've been in this car since its bench seat days. The shifter is easy to get to and visibility is great over that scoop.

I do have to be careful...with the height Ive built in, the seat is barely below the main halo bar. Hard to tell in this picture, but its about 1/2" below the bar. Not ideal. Tech may have something to say about that.



I'll be using these under the car to act as washers.




There are certainly a lot of ways to mount a seat. This is my interpretation of one way to do it. There are likely slicker ways to make it happen, but its level, solidly mounted, and puts me in all the right positions to focus on the driving.

Now I just have to modify those pedals so I can reach.....

[73LeMans]

Originally Posted by 3X24SPD

Hey Mark, your stuff is looking real good.
I'll look forward to seeing how it runs.
NED street nights are opening back up this week.
Let me know when you're ready to come up, I'll tech your car through.
-Bill

Bill - This is really appreciated man. Thank you. It helps when a trained eye says good things. And a fellow Pontiac man to boot.

I'll likely be aiming at October for some track time. Usually a Wednesday track rental works best for me if you work those, (and they still happen given the condensed schedule) Good air in Oct and it gives me some time to work out the minor kinks. I will definitely let you know when I'm heading that way.

[73LeMans]

I appreciate AutoMeter wants to step up their game, but when you just get done deliberately trying to get rid of the red/blue fittings under the hood and this arrives, its a tad annoying.



No big deal. I'll use the nickel plated piece I was using last time, so the red piece can go. Stupid blue piece.

As is typical, the gauge is no longer metal. All plastic. I just look on the bright side and think about how much lighter the car is.



Just a quick update on the Fuel Pump Controller - I connected two 10 GA wire leads directly from the battery to the FPSC and ran the car. The Full light flashed less frequently. Maybe 10x per min. Best Ive seen yet, but it still shut the car down. Per Tech advice, I then jumped out the ign/pwr on the controller to the bat terminal on the controller, still leaving the 2 10 GA directly connected to the battery. The frequency of the full light flash was worse than ever before...maybe 30x a min. I didn't leave the car running long enough to have it shut down, but I imagine it would have.

Next up is to isolate the tach wire from the MSD from other wires under the dash, and to try and shield it. If any one has use of a good product here, let me know. I just picked up some Electriduct 1/4" Tinned Copper Metal Braid Flexible Shielding Wire Mesh. Supposed to be a good guard for EMI/RFI.