[b-man]

Originally Posted by north

What’s an aero coupe?

1986 Grand Prix 2+2…..

[Keysup]

Originally Posted by north

What’s an aero coupe?

1986 pontiac grand prix 2+2

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Monte Carlo did that aerocoupe too.

[north]

I’m showing my age. I still think of an 86 as a new car. Why would anyone want to restore an almost new car?

I recall seeing a few of the aero Monte Carlo’s around back then but I never saw a GP aero in person until recent years at shows.

[PontiacHO]

Yes. It’s only 38 years old for crying out loud.

[stevesbirds]

Asking for the moon here but anyhoo, trying to track down correct harmonic balancer and alternator upgrade pulley that is stamped steel and correct offset is pretty tough.

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by north

I’m showing my age. I still think of an 86 as a new car. Why would anyone want to restore an almost new car?

I recall seeing a few of the aero Monte Carlo’s around back then but I never saw a GP aero in person until recent years at shows.

I feel the same thing. Anything 86 87 is forever a new car to me

[turbo69bird]

Originally Posted by 242177P

Aluminum hoods. 65-67 and 68-70 GTO. 70-76 and 77-81 Trans Am. I doubt it would be quite as simple as slipping a different sheet into the pile, but they're already stamping steel ones. Ah-loo-min-E-um.

Someone should know the answer to that since Pontiacs did make alluminum parts for cars previously running steel.as did other makes. Can’t be that hard or they wouldn’t have done it .

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by dataway

Forum members have gotten together and done this with a few small items. And you are correct, these days, if you have the CAD file, you can get most anything replicated for a reasonable cost assume it doesn't involve manufacturing techniques that are complex or no longer use.

Simple parts made of uniform metal, or plastic are typically doable, but combined items like for instance pillar post covers that are stamped metal, foam and skinned with vinyl it gets way more complicated for us DIY'ers to do.

I remember you started developing a digital library of CAD models for parts for your own car (engine first?). At the time, I thought it was a huge labor of love and I've always envied your skills and enthusiasm. How far did you get before the move took over your spare time?

Too bad the original engineering drawings are not freely available. I know some are out there and many on here even generated some of them, but how cool would that archive be?

And I agree on the complexity challenges. Even reproducing "simple" parts would require all the lost skilled artisans when they need injection molding, sheet metal, or progressive die tooling. And matching colors would be a nightmare, as I expect a lot of the pigments and dyes used 50 years ago are long gone.

The last product I worked on before retiring needed some highly-stressed, functionally-critical coil springs. We were working with a highly competent manufacturer and it took us about 4 passes before they could tool a simple spring to deliver what we needed. Everything sounds easy until you do it.

Mike

[turbo69bird]

I’d like to see the 69 bird 400 baffle repopped

[SD73]

2 Port 72-74 carb Vacuum Fitting with the correct tapered threads.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by turbo69bird

Someone should know the answer to that since Pontiacs did make alluminum parts for cars previously running steel.as did other makes. Can’t be that hard or they wouldn’t have done it .

From what I have read about the aluminum pieces for the early Pontiacs, it was a difficult process with an extremely high scrap rate. The parts were stamped usually on a Saturday, first shift, by the craftsmen with the most experience operating the presses. The aluminum required different techniques and pressures to avoid tearing and to still get the crisp feature lines they needed. The dies used were for the steel parts and did not have the features in them to produce aluminum parts in great quantity. If I remember correctly, the scrap rate was something like 1 usable fender or hood for every 15 pieces stamped. So it's not a slam dunk simple deal.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

...If I remember correctly, the scrap rate was something like 1 usable fender or hood for every 15 pieces stamped...

[Shiny]

I'm surprised they could get any aluminum parts off steel tooling.

If they got 1 out of 15, they probably had to manually finish them with some creative bodywork.

Just the springback of aluminum will be 3 times steel because of the modulus.

Here's a great article comparing properties and how they affect forming:

https://www.metalformingmagazine.com...l-and-aluminum

Mike