[BILL BOWMAN1]

Fixed the horn and changed taillight bulb on the Catalina. Better than nothing I guess.

[OCMDGTO]

Got a couple timeslips yesterday, lowered my shift points on the 2nd run and went faster

[carcrazy]

Pulled the 62 GP out of the garage and let it idle for about 10 minutes. Got in it, left the driver's side door open. Revved it and all of the sudden the main radiator hose literally exploded....spewing hot liquid everywhere. Got some minor burns on my arm.....could have been a lot worse!

[kingbuzzo]

jinkies...that's crazy...maybe she was lonely

[b-man]

Originally Posted by carcrazy

Pulled the 62 GP out of the garage and let it idle for about 10 minutes. Got in it, left the driver's side door open. Revved it and all of the sudden the main radiator hose literally exploded....spewing hot liquid everywhere. Got some minor burns on my arm.....could have been a lot worse!

That’s the biggest problem with that dress up phony braided stainless hose covering.

You can’t see the actual rubber hose to inspect it for swelling or cracking.

Something tells me that hose was over 20 years old.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by OCMDGTO

Got a couple timeslips yesterday, lowered my shift points on the 2nd run and went faster

That's great. Always a good time at the track when you find an improvement. How much did you lower the shift point? Same on both shifts?

[carcrazy]

Originally Posted by b-man

That’s the biggest problem with that dress up phony braided stainless hose covering.

You can’t see the actual rubber hose to inspect it for swelling or cracking.

Something tells me that hose was over 20 years old.

Could be, I was going to change it (along with the others) anyway when I install the new engine in 4-6 weeks. Never liked that dress up crap.

[67drake]

Originally Posted by carcrazy

Could be, I was going to change it (along with the others) anyway when I install the new engine in 4-6 weeks. Never liked that dress up crap.

Me neither. Chrome don’t get ya home.

[carcrazy]

Originally Posted by 67drake

Me neither. Chrome don’t get ya home.

Trying to get the engine compartment back to where it looks close to original. Even though the new engine has aluminum heads and intake they have been painted the original shade of blue. I had to go with non stock valve covers because of the roller rockers. I have a nice set of originals and spacers but decided I really didn't like the look of the spacers. Also planning to get rid of the billet pulleys for originals although I may use them on my 67 GTO.

[OCMDGTO]

Originally Posted by PAUL K

That's great. Always a good time at the track when you find an improvement. How much did you lower the shift point? Same on both shifts?

Thanks, was shifting at 5900 and am trying to lower it 5700 on both shifts. Need to get back to the track and get back in the groove as you can see on the timeslips. MPH is low for some reason.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by OCMDGTO

Thanks, was shifting at 5900 and am trying to lower it 5700 on both shifts. Need to get back to the track and get back in the groove as you can see on the timeslips. MPH is low for some reason.

Good deal! Sometimes I find shifting first a little early and second later helps the mph a noticeable amount.... Good luck let us know what happens

[Scarebird]

The Lemans was supposed to be sold, but the "buyer" had weird ideas: wanted to pay with part cash, part bank draft. Settled on all cash at my bank but he backed out as the car did not have the 'Nader sticker" on the door and was afraid he would not be able to title it here in New Mexico.

sure, buddy.

[b-man]

Originally Posted by 67drake

Me neither. Chrome don’t get ya home.

Factory chrome will get you home every time….

[67drake]

Originally Posted by b-man

Factory chrome will get you home every time….

Key word-factory!

[Jack Gifford]

Since the '26 is new to me (only 60 miles so far), I made a practice run to Sunday's car show location and back, about 22 miles round trip. I haven't yet tried cruising more than 45 mph, so avoided major highways- no problems. I suspect that it can be driven at the 55 speed limit, but I first need to address a little play in the steering box- it's not like any box I ever worked on.
Actually, what I really need to do first is join POCI's Early Times chapter, where I can get good helps with this 98 year old Pontiac!

[67drake]

I have a granddaughters birthday party today on the other end of the state (Kenosha) , so made a side trip to drop my valve springs off at my machinist, who is building my Pontiac heads for the ‘63. Saves me a 4 hour round trip.

[BB70]

Got the shell painted finally yesterday. The doors,trunk,hood and fenders have been done for a while. Still have the front bumper to do and redo the spoiler. Lots left to do, but getting the shell painted was a big hurtle for me.

[JLMounce]

For many years I’ve been a bit frustrated with the poor nature in which the front end of my Firebird was put back together by the paint shop. The car never seemed very tight up there and the drivers side fender and lower valence didn’t fit well. Most people never noticed, but I always did.

Since I have the engine out being refreshed, I figured it would be a good time to try my hand and fixing all of that.

I purchased a body bolt kit from AMK Products and went to town if the past couple weekends.

The amount of missing or bad hardware up front was astounding. There were several installation problems with the fenders and wheel wells as well. Now though I’ve got nice new hardware, everything is lined up and tied together correctly and best of all the valence and driver fender is aligned much better.

I probably should have replaced the rubber between the fender and headlight surrounds but that’ll be for another day.

[71GP76TA]

Put stock wheels and Firestone Wide Oval redline radials on the GTO.

[b-man]

Local Coffee and Cars this morning.

Surprisingly enough my heap gets more than its share of attention, the Tri-Power 421 HO attracts a lot of gawkers.

Afterwards I went home and adjusted the ignition timing for the first time since the 421 left the run stand. My builder was pretty conservative with the initial timing setting for camshaft break in.

I adjusted it from 5 degrees BTDC at idle to 13 so I’m pretty confident that will help it squeak out perhaps another couple of mpg and make it a bit quicker. Total timing at 3500 rpm without vacuum advance will be right at 36 degrees now.

So far the best I’ve seen with limited driving of around 400 miles so far has been a little over 13 mpg. Doing very little freeway driving with mostly 50 mph (including some stop and go) on our main road through town along with a 100 mile canyon drive.

I was already very happy with how it was running before so tomorrow when I hit the freeway for its first somewhat extended trip I’m hoping to enjoy added performance and fuel economy.