Hello,

  Here is the trim piece when it was still available on the Borth web site as an unknown chunk of trim. 

https://borthautoparts.com/parts-products-catalog/index-of-other-parts/unknown-trim-moldings/gm-no-8702804-nos-black-mb-pontiac/

Rick

 

Great Pic of you guys N the LOGO.  Sorry we missed meeting up.  Safe trip home.

Sorry I couldn't catch up with you either. Safe trip home from me as well!

What did you think of the PTM? Next year will be the 100th anniversary of Pontiac and the POCI Convention will be in town too. Hope you can come back for that one.

Hello,

   I got all of the original front steering gear out of the Cat earlier this week and laid it up against all of the new gear from "Rareparts.com".  Measuring the length of each original tie rod, I adjusted the sleeves on the all new assembly to make the lengths the same.  With new Grade 8 nut and bolt hardware already purchased for the idler arm, the new things will soon get installed.

Rick

 

 

Hello,

  The steering gear is all in and the tie rod sleeves are grossly balanced at the same settings as before.  I did have to reuse my original 1970 sleeves because they were a bit shorter than those that I purchased new from the people at "RareParts.com".  Being a little shorter, this accommodated the adjustment needed to get both wheel hubs pointed straight forward while also leaving plenty of adjustability for the inevitable front end alignment that will be needed. As you can see in the previous picture, those sleeves were caked with greasy dirt that had to be thoroughly cleaned before I could reuse them.   The hardest part of this cleaning was thread chasing the internal threads in each original sleeve.   

All of the new steering gear castellated nuts got tightened down and then backed off slightly but I have not yet inserted the cotter pins. All of the grease fittings also got greased.  

  I have also laid in and clamped the new trunk weather seal into the channel but I have not glued anything in.  I need to get a new tube of black weatherstrip cement.

  I needed a new three-pole horn relay to replace the faulty relay in the Cat but the new relay came with no instructions to explain what each connection did.   Using a small 12 volt lamp as my "horn" load, a small switch as my steering wheel horn button and a 12 volt power supply, I was able to puzzle my way through how it will need to be connected to the vehicle wiring.

  I also laid in and tightened the power steering hydraulic hoses. And I removed the original Pontiac throttle pedal with its TH400 transmission kick down wiring and replaced it with the same kind of pedal that I used on my LS swapped El Camino.  I need to buy a new LS engine throttle pedal cable to finish this job. 

 I also got the last wire disconnected from the engine (the crank position sensor cable behind the starter) so that I could move the intake manifold out of the way.  This will allow me to put the engine hoist lifting plate onto the top of the oil gallery in readiness to soon drop the engine and trans into the engine compartment hopefully for the last time. I need to watch a You Tube video on the best technique for turning the flex plate so that I can install the three bolts from the flex plate into the torque converter.  And then install the block off cover over the flex plate.

And lastly, today was a good day for work on the car.   I got the old brake booster out and the new master cylinder off that I had temporarily placed onto the old booster.  On went the new booster and master cylinder - that little clip at the brake pedal was tedious.    There was some kind of plastic "gasket" between the back of the booster and the firewall and the rebuilt booster did not come with a new gasket.  I traced out the old gasket onto some very thin card stock from a Little Friskies canned cat food carton and made a new gasket. I cleaned up a little surface rust behind the old booster and repainted the firewall.

  I have ordered a bleeder kit for my master cylinder because I can't seem to find mine from when I brought my El Camino back from the dead - about $12.00 or so.  And I need to order another three-pole torque converter clutch (TCC) brake switch from "PSI Conversions" for use with my electronic 4L60E transmission - about $30.00 with shipping.  I KNOW that TCC switch is around here somewhere - probably next to my brake booster bleeder kit -  but they have both been hidden by the small gnome or troll that likes to move things around in my shop.

Rick

3 hours ago, B52bombardier1 said:

I have ordered a bleeder kit for my master cylinder because I can't seem to find mine from when I brought my El Camino back from the dead - about $12.00 or so.  And I need to order another three-pole torque converter clutch (TCC) brake switch from "PSI Conversions" for use with my electronic 4L60E transmission - about $30.00 with shipping.  I KNOW that TCC switch is around here somewhere - probably next to my brake booster bleeder kit -  but they have both been hidden by the small gnome or troll that likes to move things around in my shop.

awww been there done that !!!!!! 

the garage ghost has it Rick !!! ....... some where in my garage is the factory wing nut off the top of my 64 air cleaner !!!!!!!!!

Hello,

  So many things have been fixed on the Cat since my last post and I'd really like to have a few pictures to post.  But most of this activity is not very photogenic.

  I got the Lokar Universal 4L60E transmission dipstick shortened to the same exact length as the same Lokar stick that I'm using in my 4L60E-equipped El Camino.   It is now nestled down into the fluid pan.

  I ordered the door weatherstrip rubber and have been test fitting it before I start applying a little black glue to anchor it.

  I got the newly mounted master cylinder bled of all air bubbles in readiness for my wife helping me today with finishing the bleeding at each wheel cylinder.   We got all of the air out of each wheel cylinder and the pedal is VERY firm.  With the pedal depressed, each drum absolutely cannot be turned by hand.  Yet, with the pedal released, each drum is thoroughly released by the internal retracting springs. 

 I have also needed to move a few brake lines slightly around to get them clearance from things like the upper control arms.

 Yesterday was a big day with the convertible top motor and pump.  I finally re-routed its power source at the fuse panel because its original circuit is faulty.  It has a broken internal fuse panel connector that I'm not going to be able to directly repair but I have ideas.  In the short term, I have given it another source of power until I can go to NAPA Auto Parts and get one of those "Add A Fuse Assemblies" to make this more permanent - the pump motor needs a 40 amp circuit given what else is on that circuit.  Running the top up and down, it pulls a measured 20 amps of current.

  But even with a dependable 13.8 VDC (using a 30 amp power supply with an amp meter - no vehicle battery is installed) and fat current, the top struggles to move without some hand assistance.  And the pump is noisy with visible air bubbles in the lines.  I finally figured out how to tip the pump reservoir up and remove the fill plug to pour in quite a lot of Dexron 6 transmission fluid - the reservoir must have been two thirds empty.  Once it was at least half full, I kept motoring the top up and down to purge the air out of the lines.  Then pour in more fluid.   Up, down, repeat until no more air in the lines and the fluid was drooling out of the reservoir.   Now the pump is quiet and the top goes up and down with a lot more vigor.  

  Today, I got the trans tunnel floor patch panel welded up but not to the floor.  There were two small patch panels that needed to be MIG welded to the larger piece that cover up the slitted section of the big panel.  The big panel was slitted months ago to enable it to lay flat on the trans tunnel and I'm only now getting around to finishing this job.  Tomorrow, I will purchase a tube or two of seam sealer to wrap the job up.

  Maybe you have noticed, maybe not, but I really should be concentrating more on getting the engine and transmission in. However, I have all of these little jobs to do (especially around the engine compartment) and the small chunks of time that I have fit better with completing small jobs.  But these small tasks will soon end and I will be elevating the motor and trans off the floor to put the three torque converter bolts in.

  And get on with mounting the motor / trans, welding the mounts and with making this Catalina move under its own power.

Rick  

Hello,

  I have made a lot of progress since my last post, though not without some frustration. A few hours ago, I was ready to quit but kept at it and eventually found where things were stuck.

   The transmission tunnel patch panel is finally in but I need to apply some seam sealer tomorrow.  The engine will not come all the way out for this because . . . . I'm done with big engine and transmission moves at this point.  I hope to never again see this engine and transmission combo sitting on the shop floor.

  I got the engine and transmission set in earlier today but a lot of things were in the way and needed to be moved or removed.  As you can see in the picture, it appears that the high mounted alternator will fit under the hood but I have not laid the hood on yet to find out. There is about an inch of clearance from the PVC pipe and the hood has some crown to it with likely space available underneath the hood sheet metal.   This is the small case LS engine 105 amp alternator and if I'm lucky, the large case 130 amp alternator might fit. I do not want to spend what could be $2000.00 USD for an all new front engine accessory drive kit.

  I did have to trim / grind down the bottom edge of the aluminum air conditioning compressor bracket to get it past the frame cradle.  I will also need to weld a small steel plate "back porch" area for each rear most engine mount to land on for welding - I have never had this engine quite so far to the rear.  I also have plenty of clearance between the steering drag link and the oil pan and I'm OK with the angle of the engine towards the differential. 

  I have determined that my original transmission cross member will fit the 4L60E if I fab up a small brace to attach it.  The cross member will get sand blasted tomorrow down to bare metal and then painted.  The original cross member mount point "perches" that are welded to the frame rails will also get reused with their original brackets and sound deadening rubber pieces.   

   My "to do" list just got a lot shorter.

Rick

 

well done Rick  i am yet to sort out where my alternator will go on the 63, but i am looking and making a bracket myself and mid mounting it on the passengerside as i have my power steer reserve on that drivesr side.

 

Hello,

  I am struggling with getting my horns to work.  They do work when I apply power directly to them, but not with the steering wheel horn buttons.   I initially determined that I had a faulty horn relay so I bought another relay.  Then I mocked up the new relay on a workbench with a 12 volt power supply, a switch (my surrogate steering wheel horn buttons) and a 12 volt light bulb that pretends to be my horns. Everything works here - good relay and my horn light bulb works when I use the switch.

  The impossible part has been making this work in the Catalina.  There is a green wire coming from the steering column that I cannot make work as part of my switching mechanism to get the horns to blow.  When I run a continuity check of the horn buttons at the green wire further down the steering column at the long ribbon connector, their contacts appear to be closed all the time.  Nothing happens good or bad - it has continuity all the time.  But OTOH, the horns don't blow when I use the green wire in the circuit.  I am going to move on from this horn problem for now but go ahead and mount the horn relay under the driver's fender with some extension wires attached to it for later. 

  I now have two reasons to open up the top of the steering column.  1 - my horn button problem.  And 2 - the ignition key cylinder lock will not go to the Accessory position. 

But I'm now going to focus on dropping in the motor and transmission in for the last time. Except for the horn problem, I have solved most of my difficult problems in the engine compartment and I no longer need a lot of space to work in the engine bay.

Rick

 

 

 

Hello,

  I am temporarily defeated on getting my motor mounts in for several reasons.  My 120 volt MIG welder is not hot enough to properly do the job at the engine frame cradle and I could really use a car lift.  I am going to get the car towed somewhere, probably to the shop of one of my local car club members to finish this job so that overall vehicle work may continue. 

  I have wasted enough time on finishing these mounts but the job for the shop has been made easier.  I am within about one degree of being perfect on the pinion-to-driveshaft angles and there is no contact between the transmission and the new transmission tunnel sheet metal.  The cross member is mounted and the steering center "drag link" is well clear of the oil pan.  

Rick

Hello,

   I may be at a work stoppage for the motor mounts but other Catalina work continues.

  The new trunk lock is in.  The original lock got doused with media blast sand and could no longer operate smoothly.  The new lock works perfectly.

 The trunk weatherstrip rubber is now in and glued.  I have also found some brackets at Home Depot that I have cut down to size and drilled as top brackets for the radiator.  I will do something similar for the radiator sides and bottom.

 Today was a major chore.   I got the steering wheel off - easy.  I got the steering lock plate off - very, Very, VERY difficult.  It took every small hook tool and small flat screwdriver that I own to get that steel wire clip up and out of the groove so that the lock plate could come off.

  And finally, you may remember that my ignition lock cylinder could not go into the "Accessory" notch.  Getting the old cylinder out was another major chore.  There is a small GM blockage of metal that prevents depressing the removal tab on these lock cylinders. My smallest screwdriver could not fit in the slit that GM left to depress this tab to slide the old cylinder out.  A high speed steel drill bit is harder than this steering column metal and that gave me all the room I needed to depress that tab and slip the old lock out.  The new lock cylinder went in easily and works in all positions of the switch, including Accessory.

  Now that I'm in this far with the steering column and since I have existing horn button problems, I'm going to order a new turn signal switch assembly and wire harness and a new horn button assembly.  I'm not going through taking this steering column apart again.

  I may also mask off the dashboard and floor area and repaint my steering column in car color green again.

Rick

 

 

Nice progress Rick 👍

Reminds me of all the fun I had replacing my old column in Lucy with a new tilt unit and then all the starting/ignition issues I had with it after that. Ah memories! 

Excellent progress Rick. Keep it up!

Hello,

It has been a while but the work has not stopped.

I sanded down that paint chipped paint area on the steering column and eventually got a good coat of paint on it but it was not easy. I initially tried to spray some reduced two stage Verdoro Green paint with a "Preval Spray System" small propellent hand sprayer - no good. All I got out of it was a greatly reduced atomization and an orange peel surface - had to sand all of that off. A nicely prepared rattle can of single stage Verdoro Green paint did much better.

I got the all new turn signal switch installed along with another new and now Pontiac correct horn relay. And now my horns work from the steering wheel. The all new cigarette light assembly also works perfectly. The old socket was very corroded from the fifty five year old cigarette chemistry.

I have now also removed both of the back seat so called "door panels" and have begun working on the window wiping door felts on these and the front door areas. All of the old, crusty, cracked window felts will soon get removed and the new felts will soon be installed. Some of the green vinyl along the edges of these panels has gotten loose over the years but has also now been reglued and clamped down.

Since I had to abandon the idea of using the original GM low mount passenger side AC compressor, I ordered an ICT Billet 551474-3 high mount compressor bracket. This works with a modern Sanden 508 or 709 AC compressor but not all of them - there are particular variants required for a proper fit. The Four Seasons 57580 or the Vintage Air equivalent (VTA 04709-VMA) are required at about $260.00 USD brand new, less, if rebuilt. This will also make me adapt the top radiator hose that I intended to use with a hose splicer from the people at "Jags That Run".

https://jagsthatrun.com/collections/hose-splicers

And finally, I got the all new steering column ignition switch and neutral safety switch installed this morning before it got too hot here in Louisiana. The ignition switch was easy. The neutral safety switch had two rectangular plastic nubs on it that prevented the switch from correctly settling that tan white plastic operating arm into its place in the steering column. About thirty seconds on each of these plastic nubs with the Dremel tool eliminated this problem. The thin red circled areas on the neutral safety switch indicate where the nubs got eliminated.

My mechanic that will be welding in my engine mounts finally got me a spot on the lift open yesterday. But he is leaving town for a week and it'll be the 30th of June or so until he can start the work. Until then, the car is here at home.

Rick

On 6/21/2025 at 3:25 PM, B52bombardier1 said:

I initially tried to spray some reduced two stage Verdoro Green paint with a "Preval Spray System" small propellent hand sprayer - no good. All I got out of it was a greatly reduced atomization and an orange peel surface - had to sand all of that off. A nicely prepared rattle can of single stage Verdoro Green paint did much better.

I hate to hear about your problems with the "Preval Spayer" bro. I've been using them for at least 4 years now for everything from steering wheels to the custom "laced" mailbox I painted for my wife. I've seriously used enough of them that I started buying them buy the case a couple years ago. Hope they didn't change something in their recipe. The column does look good Rick, great job bro.

1 hour ago, Wrongway said:

please explain ????? what are these "preval spary systems "

Rick, that bracket looks super expensive !!!

Thats where i want to mount my alternator on my L98 engine !

18 minutes ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

please explain ????? what are these "preval spary systems "

So they allow you to mix and shoot small amounts of paint, say base coat with reducer in a glass jar and then screw on a pressurized can so u can touch up paint or paint small parts with the convenience of a store bought can of spray paint. When they work they are great, when they don’t they are aren’t. Iv found them useful for testing new paint colors, or touching up a custom color. It’s justa easier then mixing and loading up a paint gun then tearing down and cleaning a paint gun to repair a scratch or chip when an ounce or two of paint will do.

3 hours ago, Wrongway said:

So they allow you to mix and shoot small amounts of paint, say base coat with reducer in a glass jar and then screw on a pressurized can so u can touch up paint or paint small parts with the convenience of a store bought can of spray paint. When they work they are great, when they don’t they are aren’t. Iv found them useful for testing new paint colors, or touching up a custom color. It’s justa easier then mixing and loading up a paint gun then tearing down and cleaning a paint gun to repair a scratch or chip when an ounce or two of paint will do.

That’s so cool !!!

That bracket from the ICT Billet folks was right at $300.00 USD. I certainly can't make it for that price or at all for any price. And I need a solution for an AC compressor.

The only problem now is that I will soon head into the back of an auto parts store with a cut to length and bent piece of coat hanger wire in the shape of what I need for a 1.5 inch inside diameter top radiator hose. What I picked before will no longer work because of this bracket.

Yes, I thought the Preval paint sprayer system was a neat idea at $13.00 USD, but it simply did not work out for me. Maybe it had a bad shot of propellent, IDK???? The paint lacked atomization - maybe the paint needed more reducer???

Rick

4 hours ago, B52bombardier1 said:

Maybe it had a bad shot of propellent, IDK???? The paint lacked atomization - maybe the paint needed more reducer???

That could also be Rick. I have had a can, maybe two over the years that (in my opinion) acted like the propellent mixed in with the paint or something and contaminated the paint causing it to "peal back" as soon as it sprayed. Almost like extreme fisheyes EVERYWHERE the paint landed. It happens fast enough the I can normally cuss for a min and wipe it way using reducer. But as you said for $13.00 for the complete set up and $7 and change for a refill, I've had pretty good luck most of the time.

Hello,

My convertible top switch has failed and I have a replacement on the way, shipped. The switch has power to it but nothing happens at the pump motor unless I apply power directly to the motor's wiring harness behind the back seat.

But here's the question: What is the trick to get the old switch out of the dashboard? I have the headlight switch out so that I can get a good look at the top switch but there appears to be a spring loaded clip that I need to release. Maybe it takes some long lost dealer only tool, IDK.

Any clues??

Rick

Hello,

It may seem like I have completely abandoned this project but that is not the case. I have been doing small jobs on the car that seem unworthy of much commentary here. But to note, I did finally get my convertible top switch that I mention above out. It took a lot of tugging but it came out. No damage to the faux wood grain on the dash fascia but it did need a little glue to tack the end back down.

My biggest struggle is still trying to find somebody to professionally weld my engine mounts down. This has been incredibly hard to find somebody that will sincerely put me on their schedule to get it done. Things will progress VERY quickly after that. I promise you!!

Rick

Hello,

Finally, finally, finally. The Catalina heads to the shop that will weld in its motor mounts on Tuesday morning. It'll cost me $160.00 USD to get it there on a flat bed tow truck and the same to get it back, hopefully on Wednesday. I'm taking the day off and will be in the shop with the car. How much the actual work is going to cost is unknown and unpredictable at this point.

I will also get a few other things done while it is there. The shop will install new bushings and pins in the door hinges because these doors are very heavy. I also need the passenger rear window put back onto its regulator tracks because the window got loose when I was putting the new glass wiper felts on. I despised doing the windows on my El Camino and I suspect the Cat's window regulator work will be just as aggravating. Maybe I will watch another GM A-Body quarter window You Tube video and change my mind - there are no B-Body You Tube videos for this as far as I can tell.

With the engine & transmission finally welded into place and with the car up on a lift with its weight on wheels, I will be able to get an accurate measurement for how long the new driveshaft needs to be.

After the motor mounts are done, things will progress quickly towards the car moving under its own power. I wasted so much time trying to do the final mount fitting on my own.

Rick

No one said doing up cars is a quick process Rick

Little steps at a time add up quick !

I am so hanging out to get my ls into the wagons frame , but I know I need to do all the little things before hand !

But you’re doing a fantastic job !!!👍👍👍👍

I am so enjoying your thoughts on the little processes

Don’t forget we love pictures

Edited July 26, 2025Jul 26 by 64 kiwi boni