What did you do to your G-Body today 2024

[UC645]

What's the metal right angle bracket for behind your pass side hood hinge? Just happen to catch my eye...

Love that color BTW

View attachment 242125

That’s the bracket for my fuel regulator, didn’t really have another place to put it

 

[MrSony]

Was correct, modulator line fell off.
Still chasing my *ss around with these stupid ****ing fittings. Still a constant drip. It's slowed way down, but still drip. Drip.
Drip. Tried Teflon paste, Teflon tape, gasola, nothing stops it.

 

[CopperNick]

Actually managed to finish and re-assemble the body of the radiator air intake duct for my 85 M/C SS.

This is the view that the radiator gets to see; up close and personal as it were.

And the, as you would see it, perspective. The section of fibre material is some kind of a gasket or baffle that closes up the gap between the duct and that P-thane bumper cover. As this point it is still only attached by the bottom row of pop rivets as it sustained some damage at some point as well and I have to identify the various rips and tears and seam seal them back together. Yeah, it might be faster and easier to replace the gasket but that would mean having to find a piece of the raw materail for it and fabricate one as I have yet to see them advertised in a catalogue somewhere.

This is the view you would see if you were looking down into the duct from above. You can see the bottom flange of the duct and the tabs that accept the attachment screws. There are matching "P" clips snapped into place along the bottom flange of the rad cradle and both side panels have the same means of assembly to the side flanges of the rad opening.

And how it all looks from the passenger's side. At this point this panel was just freshly pop riveted into place and the rivet bodies peaned down from the inside to tighten them up beyond what the riveting gun can accomplish. Despite it looking like there is one severe ding in the side of the panel, sorry, trick of the light, and the angle of the picture shot. Up close and tactile, this is actually the smoother of the panels after all the hammer and dolly and heat shrink work that it had to suffer for me to get it even approximately close to what it more or less looked like from the assembly line.


At this point the complete duct has already been mocked into position and I have managed to source the metric mounting bolts with the captured washer, only with a 25 mm dia washer instead of the 20, (which is also available) Given that the factory apparently alloted a massive amount of tweaking room when it came to install this duct, having the larger washers decreases the chance that a bolt could "pull through" or tear the hole in which it sits.

I am still finding and repairing tears in this panel group as the latest ones to reveal themselves are to be found in the duct cover at each end where it attaches to the duct body. Since that panel is still on the bench for work, there should be no trouble to introduce it to my MIG gun and tack-tack the tears back together.

I do recall that, when I purchased this car and did some of the initial road ready work, the pair of collapsible bumper rams on the front for it had both shown indications of having been shunted hard. Buddy of mine remembered the car and noted that a previous owner had not been known for being the best driver in the city.

The next big step for this end of the car is stripping and priming that urethane front bumm-per cover. I liked those pictures of that shot stand that was fabricated by another threadee on the board to show the progress on their cover. Looks like he used fascia board and 2 x 4's which would work for me.

I also have to see if I can get the engine to fire after all this time. I am reluctant about this simply because I want to be absolutely sure that the mains and rods have enough pre-oil time so that they are not dry when i first fire. The next pre-oil exercise I will have to put a Johnson bar on the crank damper and roll the engine over as I prime it to make sure oil gets through all the galleries and not just up into the rockers.



Nick

 

[Malibu795]

Weird things
Engine would randomly stall out and dies, running a stock style HEI distributor with tach hooked, disconnect the tach, engine runs,
Pulled cap, found engine oil inside the cap. Getting a new one tomorrow under warranty

 

[MalibuDavyou5]

Had to wait a few days, between Wind and a few short Rain showers but I finally got to the second coat before the wind picked back up around 12 noon. I still have the Driver half of the Roof to do, adding a touch more to the Deck Lid, and Touch ups here and there. I have to buy another Quart of the Jet Black, which is fine cause I finally got the Harbor Freight Gun Settings just perfect, as the paint was atomizing correctly and 1 quart stretched out to all that I got done today. I am very pleased with the result. Sadly though I am running out of funds and need to find work very soon. Other than that I have a 2k Clear ready to mix up with its hardener. Personally wish things could have gone better, I am seeing a few waves in the paint (Minor), but I got all the Dents that I needed to and there are still a couple of areas I have to cut out and weld. Will hopefully start the Clear Coating Tomorrow.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

That's quite an improvement over what things looked like just a couple weeks ago!

 

[mclellan83]

Got the temporary exhaust done, updated cigarette lighter to something substantially more useable
Video clip

Glad to see someone else running that as well, I put one of those in my Blazer but still a long way out from actually using it

Busted my rear at work for the last 3 days for some OT, then moved on to fitting the Powermaster starter I bought back in the spring. Fits well, but it grinds when the engine first fires off. I know these gear reduction starters don’t rotate the small amount required to retract the bendix like a direct drive one, but this seems odd. May require an extra shim or two.
With that tackled, I moved back to wet sanding the nose at 10pm:
View attachment 242030

It didn’t come out half bad, but in the process of sanding the orange peel out, I burned through on the main body line right beneath the lower right of the grill to the rough base that was on these noses to begin with. Couldn’t sand it flat, so I sprayed a small patch, but put a sag in the epoxy since the humidity skyrocketed in the afternoon.

I hated the powermaster mini starters, never could get the shimming happy, either in/out to the ring gear or to the block. Did all the PM required checks for tooth clearance and it still made weird noises that always sounded terrible.

If this is a SBC with 153 tooth flywheel you may want to think about using a 90's style OEM LT1 starter instead. Buick Roadmaster, Camaros/Firebirds, Impalas, etc..It's a factory mini starter that fits with most headers and retains the nose cone to support the shaft and gear drive. I've had one in my 10.5:1 compression 383 for 8+ yrs with no issues.

View attachment 242032

There is also a Corvette LT1/LT4 mini gear driven starter from the 90's era that's even better (see below) but I couldn't get it to fit with my ARH headers, and it's not clock-able.

Just something to think about if you ever decide to get rid of the PM starter...figured I'd share my experience.

View attachment 242031

Unfortunately I’m running a 168 tooth flexplate, so I can’t use the LT1 starters. There is the 96-2000 Vortec truck starters though, which I’ll pick up a spare if I can’t get this 9012 Powermaster to work properly.

I think I’ll need a straight jacket to keep me from sanding body lines 🤣

In all seriousness, great tip. I’ll keep that in the back pocket for the other SS nose I’ve got. It needs some straightening out in the body line department, as it saw a repaint at one point with an apprentice going after it with a rabid DA sander….

No shims had it sounding rough, like it was forcing itself to turn. A 1/32 shim freed it up substantially, although I haven’t checked the backlash on it.

It does sound like it’s staying engaged but it’s only once the engine initially fires, it’s not like it’s continuing to run on.

I can tell you from experience that PM is not long for life, mine did the same thing and ended up with a handful of shims to finally make the noise go away. But then it died a year or 2 later, I went with one of the Vette OEM starters. Was nice to mount up and need no shims

Whelp, confirmed one of them is gone. mclellan83 - remember the cool light project I'd been referencing? Whelp, it's no more so no more secret.

My 82 GN is gone. I'd had to leave it halfway here in VA due issues. First health prevented me going back for it, but, had plenty of time. Unfortunately, my wife piled a bunch of her clothes in the 496 yukon and took off back on the 25th. Hadn't been able to get the truck back from her so, couldn't get back to get the car. The place storing it had said a few days ago no rush, I could have a few weeks, but, found out that it's actually gone.

So... who knows where it went or what they did, but, had an excellent Lear interior so I bet it's already cut up. Cross off another one of the 215.

Swear we need to start a thread and list of people in which area who are willing to take a trip to the local thieves to talk some sense into them

What storage facility? I swear I just wanna talk to them.

Let me know if you want a road trip buddy, would enjoy having a "chat" with them

 

[mclellan83]

Last night decided to pull the trigger on the replacement head unit that went into the GTO since I found a local one on Facebook, more than I wanted to spend and bigger than I had planned but gonna see how it goes. When I got home and plugged it in to test out the radio in the lower worked again. So might just throw this up top since I had been debating on putting the one I just bought down below but that creates more headaches so hoping to just put it up top so that I can focus on giving the Monte a good clean for the G Body Classic coming up

 

[CopperNick]

Had a message left on the voice mail that my Salvage yard had found a Blazer rear anti sway bar assembly for me. Apparently it was still on the vehicle so I made sure to insist that the vendor doing the supplying ship EVERYTHING!!! Nuts, Bolts, Screws, Brackets, Clamps Bushings, Drop links, Frame mounts, Leave the cupboard bare, sez I.

So that is on the way and should show up in a day or two now, allowing for the weekend. Once in hand I can go about the business of inventorying the bits and pieces and cleaning them to see what I have and is useable what will need to be repaired or replaced. Probably the drop links for sure. And the frame mounts are not likely to be a bolt in match but will be useful as templates for what I will have to fabricate so, hey more to do for the summer.


Nick

 

[ck80]

What storage facility? I swear I just wanna talk to them.

Swear we need to start a thread and list of people in which area who are willing to take a trip to the local thieves to talk some sense into them

Let me know if you want a road trip buddy, would enjoy having a "chat" with them

I appreciate the sentiment guys. As much as it sucks, in the end, it's only a car. Granted, it's been a 'forever' project I'd put away nearly 2 decades ago to get around to someday and still was a solid 7/10 car as it sat, but it's only a car.

Maybe it's a resigned nature these days with life, maybe I'm just tired out. Or, could be wisdom setting in. Who knows.

In the end, it's not worth an altercation that could turn dangerous, or, leave someone with an arrest. Problem with being from out of the area you also never know what 'connections' people have. I e experienced the insider thing in rural areas with law enforcement before.

Someday I'll get another one. It probably won't be as nice, or as bone stock original. But someday it can be replaced.