[67drake]

Moved it out of the shop to get the wife’s Suburban in for new brakes. A little too chilly out for me to work in the driveway. My sons on the other hand put new door bushings in while outside. Ah, to be young.

[PAUL K]

I blacked out the grilles on the new to us 74. Not sure if I'll go back to original but wanted to test the look.

Any thoughts?

[73_Lemans_350]

Took my LeMans out for a cruise! Beautiful night. Now we await a winter storm.

[Scarebird]

The main shop is on hold currently, finding a contractor that returns emails is tough here. A mechanic friend here has a close friend who does this sort of masonry thing. I am having him enclose a walkway and convert it into a garage - the Lemans snuck in and notes it's approval:



Some friends had me over for dinner, they noted a car swap meet thing going on in our hometown. So the old girl rumbled down for a visit. To say this car turns heads would be a British-level understatement. So entering the complex (local expo center) was interesting. They put the Lemans right up front. There was a lot of other interesting kit about; a 74 (?) Mk. II Escort - very clean lines, Minis, buncha 2CV's and a lot of BMW's.



Inside was mainly motorcycle stuff; not much in the way of intakes, cylinder heads etc. A lot of toys and for some reason multitudes of headlights. There was of course a functional bar that even at 10:30am was doing a land office business. Portugal...



My friend Andre turned up and gave a nice tour. By the time I finished the inside the number of cars outside had tripled. The Pontiac was soaking up attention.
Strangely, no other car had their hoods up? A couple spots down was an early 70's Opel.

I wonder if GM used the same colors over here?

[Scarebird]

Update on paint:

The time period shows a Blue running in availability the same time as Lucy Blue, even though the codes are different. My guess is they are the same:

Exterior Colors - Factory Code, Name, Plaque Number

1969 Colors
15 - GT Metallic Green / Forest Green - 336
BB - Sand Beige - 448
CC - Sun Yellow - 450
DD - Regal Gold Met. - 447
HH - Strato Blue Met. - 235
JJ - Rallye Red - 520
PP - Spring Green Met. - 338
RR - Brilliant White - 451
UU - Metallic Silver - 135

1970 Colors
16 - GT Chartreuse - 406*
BB - Sand Beige - 448
CC - Chrome Yellow - 446
DD - Aztec Gold Met. - 404
GG - Copper Bronze Metallic - 507
HH - Strato Blue Met. - 235
JJ - Flame Red - 508
PP - Spring Green Met. - 308
RR - Brilliant White - 451
SS - Sunburst Yellow - 407
UU - Metallic Silver - 135
WW - Rallye Orange - 513
ZZ - GT Chartreuse - 406*

* Some sources have this as ZZ, others as 16.

1971 Colors
CC - Alpine White - 416
DD - Strato Blue Met. - 235
GG - Aztec Gold Met. - 404
HH - Jade Green Met. - 304
PP - Astro Silver Met. - 135
QQ - Rallye Gold - 411
RR - Flame Red - 508
TT - Antique Bronze Met. - 412
XX - Fire Glow Orange - 529
YY - Chrome Yellow - 446

1972 Colors
CC or RR - Alpine White - 416
DD or HH - Strato Blue Met. - 235
HH or PP - Jade Mist Met. - 303
QQ or SS - Rallye Gold - 411
RR or JJ - Flame Red - 508
TT or GG - Antique Bronze Met. - 412
XX or WW - Fire Glow Orange - 529
YY or CC - Chrome Yellow - 446
UU - Astro or Grecian Silver Met. - 135

1973 Colors
CC or RR - Alpine White - 416
DD or HH - Strato Blue Met. - 235
HH or PP - Jade Mist Met. - 303
QQ or SS - Rallye Gold - 411
RR or JJ - Flame Red - 508
TT or GG - Antique Bronze Met. - 412
XX or WW - Fire Glow Orange - 529
YY or CC - Chrome Yellow - 446
SS - Grecian Silver Met. - 135

[BB70]

Looks good Paul

[kingbuzzo]

sinister looking... 👍

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

sinister looking... 👍

Thanks, that was kinda what I was hoping to accomplish. I find it interesting the factory blacked out the grills in 73 and 76 but went with the two tone the other years.

[433lemans]

I like it!

[Stibley]

My new distributor cap and rotor arrived from Rock Auto in the week and replaced the old worn wobbly terminal cap, rotor, plugs and leads. Number 8 plug lead was a pain to get on as the 455 transplanted in my 57 Starchief Catalina doesn't leave much room to get your hand in! Also replaced the PCV valve as I'm chasing a blue smoke on deceleration issue and have a feeling I'll be having the heads off at the end of the year for valve guides and seals,

[srmmmm]

After a couple weeks of cold and rain, it was time for a Sunday morning drive to take my grandson for a ride. With the exception of squeaking leaf spring bushings, the Firebird has been running great. That was until a 2-3 upshift at 5200rpm went awry. Fortunately I was around the corner from the house, but the next two light throttle upshifts at about 1200rpm were terrible, with the finally one almost being an internal lockup. Really disappointed having only 1700 miles on a TCI built TH350 that was supposed to be good for 575HP.

[7t4mula]

Originally Posted by PAUL K

I blacked out the grilles on the new to us 74. Not sure if I'll go back to original but wanted to test the look.

Any thoughts?

Love that look too Paul! I went with a much darker bronze surround on my 70 grill panels also and it’s much better!

[7t4mula]

Originally Posted by srmmmm

Really disappointed having only 1700 miles on a TCI built TH350 that was supposed to be good for 575HP.

Man… I’m so sorry to hear this! I can feel your pain, that’s a real disappointment for sure. Hopefully they’ll back their work and make it right for you my friend!

[Verdoro 68]

Took a break from buying parts for the Ventura and got myself a present. Gonna try to find some time this weekend to tinker with it.

[7t4mula]

Nice Ken,! I definitely have to check that out as I am in the market to buy a distributor. Where did you buy that?

[Verdoro 68]

Directly from Progression Ignition. It's pretty cool tech if you're into that sort of stuff.

https://progressionignition.com/prod...gories/pontiac

I'm trying to figure out a good curve to start from. I suppose the easiest way to start is to document how the current distributor in my car is curved and transfer that over.

[67drake]

60 degrees here today. I figured I’d get the cars out for some exercise. Took each one on about a 20 mile loop.

[Verdoro 68]

Busy weekend on the cars. Great weather for tinkering.

I went to install the Progression distributor on the Goat thought I'd warm it up so I could write down the current advance curve. I fired it up and within a couple minutes the idle got erratic and the car shut off. I installed a new fuel pump a few weeks ago and apparently it wasn't up to the task. The end of the arm broke off inside the pump!

Fortunately, I saved the old one, reinstalled it and was back in business. It took about an hour to install the distributor - super cool piece. I didn't get to take the car out because we were finishing up the carpet on the Ventura, but I did get an initial curve dialed in.



Back on the Ventura...I wasn't happy with the green paint the shop mixed up as it was too light and I went on the hunt for something closer. I probably went through 10-12 different off the shelf greens before finding Krylon Italian Olive which is almost an exact match. So, we repainted all the interior plastic. Cole had to work on Sunday so I kept going and installed a new package tray, new a/c vents, reinstalled the repainted panels and finished with new sill plates. Got things wrapped up just as the sun went down.

Original mix by the paint shop is on the rear door panel and part of the kick panel:


Some of my green paint collection:


The winner!


Repainted rear door panel:

[Stibley]

Finally got around to fitting my new Summit Racing mini starter which was a royal pain as the mounting block fouled the headers. After removing a small amount of the mounting block all was good. Sorted the poor earth strap mounting point from the engine to the chassis mounting. Fitted a new gearbox modulator, and sorted a minor oil leak from the oil pump/pressure gauge line union. Fitted another new set of ignition leads as I didn't like the neon blue ones I bought the previous week. All that and manged to get in a local car show at the Krispy Kreme and win first prize (Box of KK doughnuts minus 4 for my friends at the show). Good to to see the sun out and the start of the car season!

[Scarebird]

Had ACP Classicos (Portugeuse AAA) haul the Lemans to an exhaust shop to repair damage done by the Customs warehouse. They did superb work.
Chanced driving back as the weather has been constant heavy squalls and the wipers are not working. Going across the Ponte Vasco de Gama.

Cost about $105 to fill the tank with 95 Simple (they have 98 too).