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Originally Posted by njsteve

Thanks Bruce! A couple of foot section of PVC plumbing pipe works great for shipping. I can PayPal you some cash for materials and shipping, etc. PM me your PayPal info. Thanks again for the help.

FORMULABRUCE TO THE RESCUE - YET AGAIN!!

[njsteve]

FormulaBruce came through (again). He sent me an original 1973 dipstick that he claimed was pretty rusty. It arrived in an almost three foot long section of PVC pipe. Now that's how you ship a dipstick!

After several days of soaking in my favorite liquid (evaporust, not beer) it came out nicer than the original broken dipstick. I also ended up adding a slight bend downward at the tip (toward the finger loop) and this makes it clear the internal restrictions at the tube joints much easier. The real key is to feed it slowly down the tube and not try to jam it down like you were stabbing a zombie with sword.

Old one on top, replacement on bottom:




Replacement on top, broken one on bottom:




Installed:

[Formulabruce]

Happy to see this worked out well.. I am curious thought to what might be the "3rd" life of that PVC tube LOL

[njsteve]

Just don't tell me it was part of your toilet plumbing during life #1.

[Formulabruce]

"Twas" left over Bathroom sink drain pipe, not used till I slobbered it with Purple PVC cleaner/ primer ... LOL hope the cap unscrewed ok

[njsteve]

The online version of the Hemmings Muscle Machines feature is now up at their site:

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/mu...5/3749884.html

And today's news is that the car was just nominated for the Muscle Machine of the Year at HMM and the voting is now open.

http://www.hemmings.com/mmoy

[Pepi]

Looks good, just voted.

[dpoltzer]

Just voted as well! Good luck.

[4birds]

You got my vote!

[frank.g]

Here's another vote for the SD!

[njsteve]

Thank you everybody!

I haven't had the SD out of the garage in the past couple months as I have been getting it all cleaned up for the Vintage Certification at MCACN this November. I cleaned up the original Firestone 500's and used the heat gun to get all the white, waxy, mold release to reabsorb back in to the tires. They sure are nice and shiny now. I also got the car back down off the jackstands after dusting off the underside. Next comes the exterior. I might actually wax the car!

Since I have the Gramma's car (our '75 455 Esprit) and my son's 2001 WS6 to play with, we are keeping busy over at the homestead.

[njsteve]

Well, we brought the car to the 2016 MCACN for Vintage Certification and a family reunion with the original owners Enrico "Rick" Stein and his wonderful wife Lenora Stein. They took their first vacation in eleven years to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary by reuniting with their old SD455 that they bought new and sold in 1986. To say they were excited would be the understatement of the year. The both got extremely verklempt when they first laid eyes on the car from across the room at MCACN. They stopped in their tracks with tears in their eyes. I had made up a little anniversary card for them with their "then and now" photos and placed it on the radiator support for them to see it when they got close to the car for the first time in 30 years since they sold it.

Here's the framed anniversary card:



And the happy couple:

[njsteve]

And yes, both of them are still well over six feet tall. Here are the Steins replicating their first photos when the car was delivered back in 1973:

Note the height of the guys just behind them, for scale!





I have to say that the two of them are the nicest couple of folks you'd ever want to meet. Rick and Lenora hung out with the car for all of Saturday and then Rick took over the solo guard duty on Sunday. At 80 plus years of age, Rick has more energy than four twenty year olds. He was holding court the entire weekend discussing everything he knew about all sorts of musclecar topics, not just his old SD455. (he has a photographic memory). It was fun hearing the stories like how he lived just a mile or so from Joel Rosen's shop back in the heyday of Motion Performance. He also knew Donna May Mims from his road racing days in the 1960's.

When I say he has a photographic memory I am not exaggerating. Steve Shauger (the director of the Vintage Certification program) was awesome when he presented the Steins with their own duplicate plaque with the SD455's award on it. Rick thanked Steve and then examined the plaque for only a second and blurts out: "Hey, you got a typo in the VIN!" We were all flabbergasted - Does anyone else out there think that when they are 80+ years old, that they will be able to remember the VIN of a car they owned 43 years earlier? Steve promptly printed him out a corrected copy and gave him a Vintage Certification Team offical shirt.

Rick and Lenora were also rather amazed at all the spectators who would come up and wish them a Happy Anniversary as they walked by. They were deeply touched. An as an added bonus, Rick was also photographed and interviewed by a number of media people including Kevin Oeste of V8-TV.

[njsteve]

As for the car, the SD455 was awarded its Legend status with total of 2893.4 out of a possible 3007.7 points. If my math is correct, that is a 96.2% score. I have not been able to see the score sheets yet so I don't know what needs to be addressed for the future but I think that is pretty respectable for a first attempt.


Hopefully the presence of Rick and Lenora counted for an extra credit point or two in the tabulations.

[Formulabruce]

This is a Really Great story for a great car !. Great people make these cars much more fun to own, and babysit!! Grats on your very high score!!

[bird72]

NJsteve, that is just very cool you made that meeting happen, as I am sure you had a hand in it playing out. It to me far surpasses the car score, which is pretty good also.

Out of curiosity, do the Steins have a vintage car now? They are a sweet couple if sweet fits their stature....

AAAA++++

[njsteve]

They still have a garage full of Harleys, a monster RV, a 24,000 mile 96 Tahoe, and a Cadillac or two. One is 95 STS with 2,400 miles. I offered to sell them their car back but Rick said he prefers that I just store it for him at his "NJ annex". :-)

[njsteve]

As for the score, you have to have over 95% in all five categories to get Time Capsule, the highest award. I had well over 95 in four of the categories but was 91.5 in the engine compartment category due to a repro battery (which gets you zero of a possible 30 points), a couple non original fan belts, and zero points for the starter which they said was a 455HO starter and was not original to the car as it had a 1971 date code on it.

Anyone know whatsup with the SD starter part numbers? I remember reading somewhere a dsscussion on the various starters used on the SDs but the date is a long way away from the car's date. Rick said it had never been touched when he had the car. The second owner was the one who gave it a dime-store tune up and replaced the belts (the A/C belt is original).

[The Boss]

Great car & wonderful people there Steve - you are a good steward for the car.

[Norwood]

The car looked great at the show. A fine example