[unruhjonny]

that's too bad it took so long, and you make a threat for things to happen - but they do look great!!

I don't recall seeing the note on lap belts a stating they shouldn't be worn for person's less that 4'7" tall... now I'm going to have to look at mine.

I know I have some of those 1971(?) male/lap belts - are those plastic sheaths supposed to be soft, because all of the ones I have seen have been pretty rigid...

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by blue71ta

Chris,
it's much easier to install the caps with the wheels off the car, with the wheels laying flat on the ground (right side up). Still not easy, but easier. You can set one tab (of the cap) in first, then pry the others in with a large, flat head screwdriver (or similar tool). You'll notice there are 3 slots in the center of the wheel opening. I believe this is where the cap tabs fit in. It is tough not to scratch the wheels though...

this is bang-on.

these are supposed to be hard to install - it prevents them from coming off.
Also often the front hub will absolutely prevent the caps from slipping on or off because of the way that the tags are bent.

A number of years ago I bought from Performance Years the plastic locks that work with 1967-1974 centrcaps - those are great little parts to have!

[weranc55]

,

I'd never had seatbelts restored before, but I'd heard it was quite expensive, so I did some shopping around and located a woman in Texas who said she used to work for Snake Oyl, and had started her own seatbelt restoration company. The price she quoted was very reasonable compared to what I had been told it cost to have belts restored, so I decided to get my belts redone. Part of my decision to get the belts done was because every frigging buckle in my car rattles. I've heard there is a foam piece in the buckle that acts as an "anti rattle" device (I don't know if that's true or not). Anyway, I was told the foam piece deteriorates over time, and then the buckles will rattle. I checked all the deluxe buckles I had and none of them rattled when I shook them, so I figured maybe there were made differently.

Anyway, I went ahead and authorized the work last October, and since they were deluxe belts and my interior is blue, I had the belts restored in blue. The belts were supposed to be done in eight weeks, but that didn't happen. There were many excuses, (I won't cite them all here), but three weeks ago I said "enough." I sent an email advising that if the belts were not done within the next two weeks, I wanted to cancel the order. I received a reply apologizing for the delays with a promise to complete the work within the next two weeks. I was also told I would receive a 20% discount for my trouble.



Maybe there's a reason why she left snake oyle. She probably got canned for not getting her work done in time .

[eaglesan13]

The evap lines at the rear of the car were all missing when I got it, and I had ordered the new metal lines from Inline Tube so I could make the system functional again. I was planning on installing all new rubber fuel lines at the same time, since some of them were original hoses. When I pulled the left rear tire to get at the hoses I noticed that the metal fuel line which was part of the fuel gauge sending unit had been cut near the center of the tank and replaced with a rubber hose, which was laying ON the transverse muffler. Picture 1).

I had to order a new sending unit which includes the metal fuel line. Wayne (the first owner) had told me he remembers painting the fuel tank gray, but he didn't remember why he had done it. I had intended to strip the paint off anyway, so when I removed the tank to get at the sending unit I went ahead and had a dustless blasting guy strip the paint off the bottom of the tank.

[eaglesan13]

I bought the sending unit from Ames, but wasn't too happy with the fit. The metal lines were about 1/4 inch too short where they turn downward at the rear of the tank. I had to bend them to fit, and the ground wire was too short, so I had to splice in about six inches of wire.

When I built my bronze 70 Formula 400 I had problems with the fuel line at the passenger side exhaust manifold causing the fuel to get hot, so I had installed flexible shielding on the fuel line to keep it cool, so while I had the tank out of the Trans Am I went ahead and installed the same shielding, since the metal lines are close to the transverse muffler.

The bottom of the trunk floor looks very nice, no rust here at all.

[eaglesan13]

The metal evap lines form Inline Tube fit very well, and the evap system is now complete and should be functional. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the underside of the body above the rear end had what looked like varnish on it. I'm wondering if the fumes from the open evap lines could have settled on the body and turned to varnish. It was sticky, but came right off with some brake clean on a rag. Between the open evap lines and the rubber fuel hose resting on the muffler, I'm lucky there wasn't a fire.

[eaglesan13]

There are pieces of metal welded to the side of the rear frame rails on both sides. When I first saw them I thought someone had braced the frame rails (maybe when the car was being raced); however, when I was under the car working on the fuel tank I noticed holes had been drilled in the rear bumper under the license plate, so I emailed Wayne and asked about them. He said the car had a trailer hitch on it at one time, he had a dune buggy which he towed behind the trans am.

[eaglesan13]

With the fuel tank in, and all the fuel hoses and evap lines in, it was finally time to install the Gardner exhaust system that I bought earlier this year. It' s in now, and the car is back on the road. The chrome tips are the original ones, they were in a box that came with the car.

Despite my instructions, the muffler shop didn't clock the clamps correctly, but I will fix that later.

[keith k]

Originally Posted by eaglesan13

He said the car had a trailer hitch on it at one time, he had a dune buggy which he towed behind the trans am.

That car sure has had an interesting life... (including being lucky to acquire you as its owner!)

Nice work!

BTW, I see in the last picture the car has the Rally IIs and Polyglas tires mounted. Looks awesome!

[OVERULD]

Your Gardner Exhaust looks great! I have the same system on my 74 Formula 455. Would love to see some detail pics of your muffler hangers and tail pipe orientation to compare to mine.

BJ

[blue71ta]

Originally Posted by eaglesan13

Despite my instructions, the muffler shop didn't clock the clamps correctly, but I will fix that later.

You would think they would know better, especially if it's what they do for a living. At least it's an easy fix. Car is looking good.

[Mark D]

This is such a great story and a truly outstanding car.

Thanks for sharing!

[eaglesan13]

Yes, I have the rally II's on the car now. I took it out to the lake for a drive this morning and snapped some pictures. The car sits too high for my liking, I think it needs to come down two inches in front and an inch in the rear. That will be a winter project, right now I'm tired....

I've always preferred the rally II's over the honeycombs, but the honeycombs have grown on me. The plan has always been to have the Polyglass tires on the KR's and a set of Radial T/A's on the honeycombs so I can run either tire/wheel combo.

Originally Posted by keith k

BTW, I see in the last picture the car has the Rally IIs and Polyglas tires mounted. Looks awesome!

[Judge273]

Pretty picture of the blue sky and ocean with a nice TA basking in sunshine!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[eaglesan13]

I've been doing some work to the car over the winter and just got it back together. One of the items that needed to be addressed was the gauge cluster. While the clock worked, I couldn't set the time because someone had pulled the adjustment stem too hard and pulled it out of the clock. The stem has a gear pressed onto the back, and in order to adjust the time it's necessary to pull on the stem (against spring tension) so the gear can mesh with the clock gears. With the gear pulled off the stem, it could not mesh with the clock gears, so I could not adjust the time. (Picture #3 below is a picture I found on the internet which shows the gear). I had considered trying to fix it myself, but since the speedo was noisy and needed repair, I just decided to send the entire cluster our for repair. I sent it to RedLine Gauge and Clock repair and they did a nice job. When John from Redline got the clock apart he called me to ask whether I wanted it converted to Quartz, but John said it didn't need rebuilding because the clock looked like new inside (I guess that happens when a car sits for decades with the battery disconnected). Anyway, he said he could just reinstall the gear and oil the clock so I elected to do that. I've been told that when cars sit for long periods of time that the grease in the speedo will dry out and the speedo will make noise. Mine was starting to get noisy, so I went ahead and had it rebuilt. Since Redline had the gauge cluster, I sent along a set of new NOS oil and temp senders and had the gauge calibration checked to the sensors. They also calibrated the tach, so everything now works as it should. The gauges faces were in nice condition so no work was needed there.

[eaglesan13]

Here are some pictures of the gauges after I got them back from Redline. It's hard to tell but the lens was cloudy and stained with some kind of grease, but they were able to polish it out so I didn't need to replace it.

[eaglesan13]

When I bought the car a previous owner had cut a hole in the dash bezel to install an aftermarket mechanical oil pressure gauge. I hated how that looked, and one of the first parts I bought for the car was a replacement bezel (picture #2). I hadn't installed it until recently and I must confess that I kind of got used to the mechanical gauge, (I guess after spending a crapload of money on my engine build I found it comforting to have a mechanical gauge). Anyway, it had to go. Too bad that someone cut the original dash bezel because it was in excellent condition otherwise.

[eaglesan13]

The replacement bezel was in pretty nice shape but it had that "dull" aged look, as well as a small ding in it near the headlight switch. I contacted Randy Combs to see if it could be repaired without doing a full restoration and he recommended that I send it to him, which I did. He later called me and we discussed my options, and in the end I decided to have him restore the bezel. When it was done he sent me these pictures. It looked great...

[eaglesan13]

...well the dash bezel looked great until it arrived via the United States Postal Service (USPS). The box showed signs of damage, and once I opened it I discovered that the USPS stacked something heavy on it because they bent the heck out of the bezel. I called Randy and told him what happened and he immediately told me to send it back and he would repair or replace it at no charge. He later called and told me he was able to straighten it, but I had my doubts. However, when I got it back, it was as good as new.

[Judge273]

Looks road ready soon. I've got a few bugs to work out on my gauges.

My turn signal lights and cancels. Can hear the blinker noise too.

Yet my lights on dash don't worked?

Odometer works yet speedo not working. Yet it does with a drill spinning...

Crazy getting all these things to work..