[Terry M. Hunt]

I was able to find a new air baffle P/N 09790696 for my '71 GTO in 1990. I bought this car new. It has A/C, but did not have this baffle in spite of the '71 assembly manual indicating that it should. This part has a couple of cracks in it now, so I figured I would just track down another one or maybe a reproduction. No such luck. I found posts as recent as 2012 from folks trying to find this same part, but with no luck. Just wondering if there is anything new regarding a reproduction as of today. I read some posts from some guys who had fitted front spoilers(which appear to be a different part with a different shape, dimensions, etc. than this air baffle) from other year models, etc. , but I'm not interested in doing that. Anything new on this? I wanted to check before I plastic weld up the cracks in mine.

['ol Pinion head]

Only solution Ive found is to plastic weld, carefully grind and sand, prep, and paint. For good part of two decades, I've been ck'ng factory AC 71-72 LeMans in yards, and finding a baffle that is all there and cracked or broken in one spot is very very rare. Usually the baffles are totally broken.

[PB]

If yours is all there, I'd plastic weld it up, highly doubtful to find this part NOS. I welded mine up and was fortunate to have all the pieces. So I have a spare.....I did track down an NOS one a few years ago and was fortunate to get it. I know Kilker up in MN has an NOS one too. Those are the only ones I've ever come across. I still punch in that number time to time on eBay, but never have found one. I've checked into local company's using my part as a mould for reproduction, but it is not cost effective for small guy like me. With the 3d printing, I'd say there is some hope....but it is an extremely large part. I wonder if parts place would do this....they finally made a decent repop of the front filler panel. That had to cost a fortune.

It's probably one of the rarest parts on the 71 and 72's.....not may people know they are supposed to be there...they are always broken up and gone...Roger's testimony substantiates its rarity. Nobody has seen them to even know what they look like! ��

[Judge273]

Can someone post a picture of it?

[Held for Ransom]

From PB...

[MescaBug]

Where is it suppose to go? I'm just curious, never seen that part before. I guess I'm not the only one!

Any pictures from the assembly manual?

EDIT: Nevermind. Just found a thread about it.

[Lloyd-TX]

I wonder if Patton Glade (in Austin, TX.) might consider taking on the reproduction of this part? Patton is a great guy, does fantastic work and is VERY reasonable on his prices.

Link below to his old thread about his '73 Firebird piece.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=552031

[Terry M. Hunt]

Lloyd, I sent Patton a PM to ask if he could help with a reproduction of this piece. I'll let y'all know what he says. At the very least I'm guessing we are going to have to ask somebody to offer up their NOS or mint used piece to get a reproduction made. Not sure who that would be, but first things first.

[Lloyd-TX]

Great. Hope it works out.

Keep us informed.

[Held for Ransom]

I don't think Patton will do these. It's one thing to stamp out a piece on flat stock sheets and another to have an injection molded piece made.

[P Glade]

Originally Posted by Held for Ransom

I don't think Patton will do these. It's one thing to stamp out a piece on flat stock sheets and another to have an injection molded piece made.

Lloyd - Thanks VERY MUCH for the good words!! Unfortunately, Held for Ransom sort of "hit the nail on the head". The '73 T/A front baffle I had made was a nice duplicate of the original. BUT...the T/A baffle is a flat piece of thick plastic and was relatively easy to have duplicated which meant the cost was also within reason.

On the piece Terry pictured.....that one is molded, has a right angle along the whole piece and also has the molded-in triangular braces in various spots. Being that shape....YEP...an injection mold would have to be made and now we're talking some BIG $$$.

I found a plastic supplier that was able to cut the T/A baffles from their nice thick durable black plastic sheet stock. Doesn't look to be the case here unfortunately.

I still have PLENTY of the T/A baffles......they are sort of an oddball part that apparently wasn't very common. Accordingly, I think I sold 2 of them (made 10-12) in addition to using one on the '73 SD T/A car we needed to first one for (restored the car). The work to get them made wasn't high cost so I didn't take a bath on them. The guy at the plastic supply company was doing some graphics work for the shop at the time and also reduced the work rate for the air dams.

As already suggested, if the used part someone has is decent looking (ie not dried out and all chalky from sun exposure), then plastic welding is the likely solution. I do A LOT of that (doing some now on a pair of black plastic '70 Olds front wells and recently on some wells for a '75 Hurst Olds) and it can yield nice results. If the part is going to end up getting painted/dyed then the repairs can be made almost invisible. However, "bodywork" to hide repairs is time consuming on these plastic pieces. If the repaired areas are hidden on a part once it's installed OR if the owner isn't worried about the nitty gritty final details it can reduce the time and cost of the work. I'm a certified DETAIL NUT and these plastic parts can get crazy sometimes. On the '68-72 Olds the plastic front wells are a big "feature" in the engine compartment BUT the "as molded" plastic surface finish and painted/dyed plastic finish are two VERY DIFFERENT LOOKS to me (and to my customers once I show them the differences). I deal with a lot of the black and red wells (red in some W30s and some Hurst Olds's) for customers and a nice looking set of wells look great in the engine compartment (especially if they don't have to be painted/dyed).


Anyone need a '73 T/A front air dam?????????????????? I'm thinking they may make nice replacement blades for the ceiling fans in my house!

Anyone with questions,post here, PM or give me a call (PM for phone number).

Thanks very much.

[tripower]

Good project for a 3D printer!

[P Glade]

Yes ---- 3 D's......

>Dollars

>Dollars

>Dollars

[notime]

I need one too and I do have a guy that does 3D printing. I had him make the 70-72 gto radio delete plates that are out there but those are small, not sure if he can do that big of a part but im sure he knows someone that does. Hard part is going to find someone to get me one to scan. Also, they don't come out smooth, they come out with a very rough surface and need to be filled, sanded and painted and probably wouldn't look good anyhow.

[P Glade]

Is this a relatively rare or hard to find part???? If not, spend the time and $ searching for as clean of a candidate as possible (do-able in the car parts world, not so do-able in the political world) and go from there.

If a 3D printed part needs all that follow up work then a decent original is a better bet IMO. Also...the originals are polypropylene plastic which is fairly flexible. What are the materials options with 3D?? (something a lot harder/more brittle?). There's MUCH more to it than just loading a scan into a machine and pressing the "PRINT" button. Maybe someday but for now my bet is it's still a very expensive endeavor.

[PB]

Hen's teeth Patton! I'm about to mount my NOS one on my soon to be completed HO project. I'm sure I could offer my NOS or good welded one for reproduction. But as indicated, injection moulding dies ore in the tens of thousands of dollars to make....I called a company in KS and I want to say it was in the hundreds of thousands. Not worth the investment until 3D technology makes it affordable to copy.

Makes me wonder where parts place got the front filler panel done, and the cost....must have been quite the investment.

I'll post a pic when I get it installed.

[P Glade]

Pat - UGGGGGHHHH!! That's what I was afraid of...one of those "hen's teeth" parts!!

I believe Parts Place has connections in China. At one time I heard that they just shipped cars over there and told the folks "start pulling parts and copying them". Probably an urban legend but my bet is they had sources of cheap factory/mold making over there and really kept them busy.

I'll keep my eyes peeled here for one of these....local old car salvage, swap meets, etc.

Anyone who has one of these.....you are welcome to post or send me detailed pics showing the condition of the plastic surfaces, any damage, etc and I can give you an "assessment" of what you would expect to have to do to obtain whatever "level of detail/finish" you are looking to achieve on the part. Again, I do A LOT of plastic work with the restoration work I do. I've been in the garage all night working over one '70 Olds front black plastic wheelwell I picked up last week (got a nice pair at the Olds Club Nats in Milwaukee last week....they were covered in black paint and white paint {someone's attempt at a a "custom look" back in the day apparently})....folks were walking right by them and not giving them a second look with all the flaking paint on them. That's what drew me to them....painted plastic wells with coats of spray paint means possibly nicely protected original surfaces underneath. So far that looks to be the case on this pair. Finding these wells for the Olds cars down here in nice shape is about impossible these days.

[Lloyd-TX]

Hey Patton, mucho thanks for taking the time to reply to this thread. I kinda figured it was a long shot, but the only stupid question is one that isn't asked.

Take care!

[Terry M. Hunt]

Doesn't look like we will be seeing a reproduction of this any time soon, so I'll be practicing my plastic welding technique and eventually repairing mine. Planning on taking the car to Cruisin the Coast in Biloxi, MS in early October.

[PB]

How to mount: