[ZeGermanHam]

Thanks, Mark! Yes, the hangars at Sand Point are pretty much totally accessible. One of them has a fence around it, but you can still get right next to it. They all appear to be in use in some fashion or another. Either for long term storage or some other more active purpose. One of them is used frequently for public events, etc. Crazy to think that there used to be a huge runway and Naval Air Station right next to one of the nicest neighborhoods in town (Laurelhurst).

[Scarebird]

yeah, that's why it ain't a NAS anymore - serious NIMBY action there...
and runways were pretty short for jets.

[ZeGermanHam]

Yeah, the runway was about a mile long. There's still a PB4Y sitting mostly intact in 140ft of water just off the shore that failed to get airborne and went into the lake in '56 (all crew survived). Landing gear is still down and everything. Here is a 3D photo of it that divers captured a while ago.

[ZeGermanHam]

A little update here. In the time since my tow truck ride in May that was precipitated by difficulty hot starting and a carb backfire, it has been my goal to address that issue. I now think I have it sorted out after making a few changes. The first thing I did was check the carb float levels, and they were close'ish, but the front bowl was a hair high. After that, I noticed that my fuel pressure was also a bit on the high side, reading at 9psi hot idle. So I dropped the fuel pressure down to 7psi hot idle. According to Holley, they want to see 5-7psi, so 7psi at idle should leave room for a pressure drop at WOT.

After doing that, my next order of business was to figure out just how much hood clearance I actually have for adding a carb spacer of some sort. I am running the Edelbrock Performer RPM high-rise dual-plane intake manifold and a 3 inch tall air filter element, so I thought I'd basically have no extra room under the hood. Turns out I still had about 2 inches of clearance between the tallest point on the air filter lid and the underside of the hood. I was shocked to find that I still had that much room to play with. So I ordered a half-inch phenolic carb spacer from Summit and put it on.



I am pleased to report that after the changes listed above, my hot start issue seems to be a thing of the past. I've had the car out in similar temp weather since the initial problem and it has not once given me any trouble starting up when the engine is fully heat soaked. It would struggle before when ambient temps were in the upper 70s to low 80s, and it's no problem now. The carb spacer does really make a difference, since when the engine is hot I can't touch the intake manifold for even a second without burning myself, but the carb is still cool enough to keep your hand on. We'll see how things go as I rack up more miles, but things are looking good so far.

I spent the evenings last week removing lots of fine scratches that were overlooked by my painter who did the final wet sanding the other month. He did remove 99% of the orange peel which is fantastic, but he left behind LOTS of fine scratches from his own sanding all over the car. The hood, trunk, roof, quarters, you name it. He's a nice guy and does decent work, but he's always behind schedule and rushes as a result. Anyhow, I have my own equipment and experience for paint correction, so I went over everything again myself.

Before


After


With paint correction now (mostly) out of the way, I took the GTO on its longest drive yet since restoration this past Saturday. I'm in the Seattle area, and my spouse and I took a ferry ride over to Vashon Island to cruise with some other Pontiac friends. A work friend of mine restored a '64 GTO convertible with her dad a few years ago, and she is friends with a family that owns a 50k original mile '67 Bonneville convertible. Good company!

We cruised the island for a while, got dinner, and visited the lighthouse. Everyone's cars looked and performed great, and there were lots of waves, thumbs up, and flashing lights as our convoy of mid-60s Pontiacs rolled down the road.









My GTO seems very happy from a mechanical standpoint. Engine is great, trans is great, suspension is great, and the 4-wheel disc brakes are a treat. I can't tell you how much I appreciate a consistent brake pedal and arrow-straight braking.

Now I just need to get rest of the trim on and tackle a few other odds & ends, but I'm really starting to build trust with the car.

[johnta1]

Congrats on getting it to work!
What material is the spacer?


Car's looking good also.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by johnta1

Congrats on getting it to work!
What material is the spacer?

Car's looking good also.

It's made of "phenolic" material, but I think there can be different types of phenolic material composition. For example, there can be a phenolic plastic, which would be composed of various polymers and other synthetic materials. My cab spacer is phenolic "wood". Appearance wise, it looks somewhat similar to MDF plywood that has been impregnated with phenolic resin. Maybe others here will have a more scientific answer. But regardless, the phenolic wood spacers like mine are supposed to provide the best thermal barrier, better than plastic or aluminum.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G1402

[ZeGermanHam]

Wow, time flies, so I figured I'd stop by and give a quick update on my '66. All is well, fortunately.

During the winter, I decided to replace my existing steering box, which was a Jeep Grand Cherokee unit that was remanufactured by Lares. While I was satisfied with the steering ratio, the on-center directness was very not good. It let the car wander too much when driving straight and just made driving more of a chore than I wanted. I managed to get a Black Friday deal for $100 off a new steering box from Detroit Speed & Engineering.



Going into it, I knew this meant that I would have to make changes to my hydraulic lines, since the DSE box uses o-ring style fittings and the hoses on my car were the original flare style. I found some adapters on Amazon, which I thought would make things easy, but I soon found out that using them presented a clearance conflict between the high pressure hose going into the box and the low pressure return hose going into the fluid reservoir. I searched all over for a different high pressure hose that would fix my issue, but nothing fit the bill with the right combination of fittings, bend angles, and overall length. I then looked into the possibility of making an AN line, but by the time I priced out all of the materials for that, it seemed silly. Ultimately, the least expensive solution was to buy a PS fluid reservoir with a different low pressure return tube configuration. But that of course meant I had to remove the alternator and PS pump, then disassemble it...



Everything worked out in the end and the new DSE steering box is MUCH better than the reman'd Jeep Grand Cherokee box. Driving the car straight down the middle of the lane is so much easier now, which makes it more relaxed behind the wheel as a driver since I don't have to constantly make steering corrections. And for those who are wondering, yes, I did play with the JGC box to see if it was out of adjustment. It felt good on the bench. The tolerances just aren't as good as the DSE box, which was a brand new (not reman'd) unit.



I also purchased some floor mats from ACC to match the carpet. I like these much more than the original style rubbery plastic ones that I often see.



This past Saturday I took the longest drive yet in the car since putting it back together. About 100 miles each way, across the Puget Sound on the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula, then hopped on U.S. Hwy 101 southbound to eventually reach the race track to hang out with friends who were enjoying a lapping day.









Other than wishing I had an overdrive transmission, the car behaved phenomenally. Before the trip, I was concerned about overheating while waiting in line for the ferry. But despite prolonged idling time, it never went above 210F. I can live with that. As soon as I started moving, the temp went right back down to 180F and stayed there no matter what speed I was driving, slow or fast.

Got lots of compliments throughout the day and at the track despite being in the company of lots of very impressive metal. It was a very fun trip and was a good trust-building exercise with the car.

[Scarebird]

I am really glad to see your Goat out and about now.

I agree with you on the steering boxes: there is no comparison between the two.

[ZeGermanHam]

Thanks, Mark!

[Shiny]

Great photos, thanks for posting.

That's cool to see your car on the ferry! Beautiful car in a unique setting.

I like your creative solution to the fitting issue. I would not have guessed you could swap the reservoir like that. Nice job! Must feel great to have it all figured out and enjoy the car after all that work.

Excellent!

Mike

[ZeGermanHam]

Thanks, Mike! It has been fun, for sure.