Frosty

I started a quickly little project tonight. It took about 90 minutes to get this far. I am replacing the 39 year old carpet in my '72 Lemans with a new OER replacement. So I torn the interior apart this evening. I removed the front bucket seats, the console, the sidekick speaker panels, the seat belts, the sill plates, and the rear seat. I also removed the driver's side door panel. I whacked my leg against the door panel the other day and that pryed some of the trim away. So I took the door panel off and I am gluing some of the loose material with Gorilla Glue and some clamps and fits-all wrenchs. I have straightended out the bent trim and re-secured the anchors. This is the original door panel and trim. I certainly don't want to replace it if I don't have to. Tomorrow I will yank the old carpet, replace the high beam dimmer switch, and clean up some of the under dash wiring, before I fit the new carpet. I may remove the steering wheel too, just to get it out of the way.

Try Steele Rubber Products or SoftSeal products for the weather seals. When you say "twin solenoids" are you talking about the gas struts that hold that heavy glass up when you open the boot? Otherwise, please attach a picture or two, since I am not certain what item you are refering to. The flip up head lights are suppose to go up and down when you turn the lights on and off. So a repair kit or motor replacement maybe necessary.

Yes you are old. Someone has just learned to use some manners. He is showing respect for his elders. I sometimes whisically tell someone who calls me "sir", I look around, act bewildered, and say "what...is my dad here?"

Glad to hear it is running better. I imagine that cap is either: (1) Really, really old (2) Has a small crack in it (3) Dwell window slide was left open Carbon streaking is often a sign of moisture getting into the distributor cap. Did you replace the rotor at the same time. Often times the rotor can wear, foul, or corrode when this happens. I always make it a practice of replacing the cap and the rotor at the same time to be sure.

Dude, of the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most! Seriously, if you think that a car in boxes takes up a ton of room, imagine how much room it takes to take it apart in the first place and how many boxes it takes to box it all up!!!! So does this build now officially take precedence over the truck?

Thanks for the cudos guys. I just wish I could have made the POCI convention. Dang..... notallthere - yeah the weather co-operated for a change. It was actually somewhat hot...and humid. I am up for a road trip period. I heard someone was trying to mimic the GA/El Camino that GM built. Both still exist as one is in the GM Heritage Collection and one is a private collectors hands.....still not certain how he got his hands on it. I once saw someone take an El Camino and graft the 77-78 Trans Am front clip and interior into it. I only saw that car once. When I was in college back in the 80s, a buddy was part of the Explorer Scout group at Buick Motor Division. The scouts along with some of the fab shop boys took an El Camino and grafted a Regal T-Type front end on it, turbo V6 and all. That was a cool car too.

Rodimus is correct on most of this information and I am not disputing it specifically. Clearly GM did engineer the Buick V6 into a special turbo package to fit the Trans Am's engine real estate. I will only argue that from an engineering/development standpoint, Pontiac Motor Dividion no longer existed. PMD was now a sales and marketing wing of GM and the brand name. GM had re-organized it''s design, engineering, and manufacturing divisions into C-P-C and B-O-C (Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada and Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadillac) starting in 1984. More over, the engine and transmission development was done by the C-P-C's F-body team, with a significant amount of help from the B-O-C Powertrain group since B-O-C still had responsibilty for the 3.8L engine program as a whole. In 1990, GM took the C-P-C and B-O-C Powertrain groups and consolidated them to create the GM Engine division. A couple of years later, they added Hydramatic Division and Central Foundry to the mix and created GM Powertrain. In 1993, I was transfered to the GM Powertrain Flint V6 Engine Engineering Center (the old Buick Motor Division Engineering on the Buick City complex) - which was all V6 engine platforms in GM North America. I worked with the many of the engineers who did this development work, along with the 60 degree DOHC and SOHC engines.

I am fairly certain it has something to do with emissions. I recognize the thermo-vacuum connection. Essentially the connection between the bellows to the top of the thermostat housing is a heat-activiated vacuum source - which GM usually set for about 104 degrees or more. GM has used those for years. If you can post more close up pictures of the device and what it goes to in the back of the motor, that would help. Have you gotten any Pontiac Historical Services documentation on this car? www.phs-online.com I am curious to know what emissions it was built with - California, high-altitude, or 49 state compliant? I am wondering of this is possible California car or perhaps delivered to a high-altitude state. The 305 was often installed in a lot of Pontiacs (not just the Phoenix) destined for California to meet stricter CA-smog emissions, or to high-altitude states like Colorado because of the thin air required different tuning for performance and emissions reasons. One trick that a lot of the car companys, like GM, did was to install an air pump that would inject fresh air directly into the exhaust manifold to reduce the PPM of NOX or CO to meet emissions laws. I suspect this is might be what this is for, but I need to see more detail to be sure. A lot of guys removed these pumps to save weight and improve performance. Now days, if you are doing a concours restoration, this stuff is worth it's weight in gold since most of this stuff hit the junk pile 30+ years ago.

Is this on your Phoenix? A Chevy 305 powerplant?

The Green Hornet

I need to clear the air a tad. Yes, Pontiac V8s were available in the Trans Ams and the full size cars in '78 and '79. Unfortunately, the swan song for the 400 Pontiac was 1979 (technically those engines were built in '78 for the Trans Am). The 301 and the even lower 265, or the Chevy and Olds small blocks were the only V8s left for Pontiac until '81. After '81, only the 2.8 Iron Duke (aka the Iron Puke) was the last motor Pontiac Motor Division built. Let me say something about the 301. Since I had a 301 in my old LeSabre. It took some tweaking to get that motor to get up and move. It was a 2-bbl carb model with a single exhaust and a single catalytic converter. My dad and I spent a lot of time tweaking the carb and timing to get it to move decently. since this was a full-size, full framed car. Otherwise, it was a dud of an engine. The turbo 4-bbl version might have had more pep than my 2-bbl version, but not too much I'm told. There are good reasons why the aftermarket never embraced this engine. The main reason people bought these cars was American's purchased new cars every 2-4 years back then. People were loyal to their brands too. These cars were adverstised as the latest and greatest, call it revolutionary car. A car that will set the industry on it's ear. Safer, better mileage. A real game changer....etc, etc, etc. People thought that these new cars were going to be just as good as their old V8s and V6s. Sadly, they were disappointed, but you didn't know that back then. Heck even today you don't know if a car line is a lemon until several years later. So to with this car. History tells us it was a dud. You didn't know that when you drove it off the lot 30 years ago. Another thing to consider, the 80s say the wholesale conversion of American car production from V8/V6 RWD cars to I4/V6 FWD cars. Imagine what it cost GM, Ford and Chrysler to make those kinds of investments to totally re-do their corporations - from design to plant refurbishment. This was done, in part, to the infinite wisdom of CAFE, NHSTA, and EPA regulations. Since the asian manufacturers had built these kinds of cars for years in their own countries were gas was already uber-expensive (compared to US gas prices), our government nearly handed the American car market to the Asians. Yes the Asians quality was poor in the beginning, but so were these first FWD American cars. Over time, the Asians got better quality faster than the US companies did. The 90s saw fit and finish issues like Grand Prixs and pickups that could not keep their paint on the car. So the US companies had to play catch-up in terms of fit/finish/quality. This lack of quality lead to a huge dissatisfaction with Americans who flocked to (then) cheap Asian cars that don't break down as much. So we've lost nearly a generation or more of American car buyers to the asians. Personally, if I can not purchase the type of car I want from a US car company, then I will look to European manufacturers next. I won't look to the Far East.

I must admit that I owned used '81 Phoenix for about a year in 1985. It was the worst car I ever owned and it's why I am such a RWD bigot. It left me totally bitter towards FWD cars as a whole. This was the sister car to the Chevy Citation, Buick Skylark, and Olds Firenza. It was GM's first major FWD car program since the introduction of the Toronado back in the 60s. The 2.8L Iron Duke was a fair commuter motor. It got you down the road but with low compression for emissions, it sure could not get out of it's own shadow or break any speed records getting you there. However, this car was notorious for it's braking problems, which my car had the problem. In my case it was a combination of poor materials and aging brakes. The brakes were replaced but the pedal still left very spongey and required some pressure on the pedal to get it to brake. I finally took it to Midas and they tried to bleed the brakes and found that they could not bleed the left front. They put 200 lbs. of air to it and could not unclog the line. The brake flexline between the caliper and the hard line was a tube within a tube design and the inner tube had collapsed in upon itself. When I first pushed the brake pedal after leaving Midas, I was so use to giving the pedal so much pressure that I dang near put myself through the windshield. Another issue I had was rust. The floor pan literally rusted out in 4 years of Michigan winters! This explained why my carpet seemd constantly wet. So I patched them up and undercoated the hell out of the repair before I got rid of the car. My car was a dark blue, 4-door hatchback with a bench front seat and a column shift automatic. The hatchback (from the back) was not as good looking as this SJ is. My Phoenix was purchased as basic transportation after my '84 Trans Am was totalled by a drunk driver in December of '84. I needed a daily driver until my next Trans Am ('the '86 that I still own) came in. Well before I got my new Trans Am, my dad and I struck a deal. He and I swapped cars....as he was getting a new Buick LeSabre Limited. I gave him my junkie Phoenix in exchange for the old family '78 Buick LeSabre Custom with a Pontiac 301. He traded the Phoenix in when his new car arrived a few days later. The last time I saw the Phoenix was a week after my dad got his new Buick. It was sitting on one of these ultra-cheap used car lots - you know the type, the stuff even the dealer won't have on their lots. I chuckled when I saw it and wondered who might buy the damn thing. I will never know.... This SJ looks to be in great condition and still has a lot of the style and grace the line offered. I loved the cockpit feel of the gauges and the air vents. The quality of the car was not where it needed to be, for sure. Still it is one of those cars that, with the right options and some luck, was a nice family car. It would be best to be purchased as a cruise car since you don't see the "X" cars anymore. It would be a head turner like your Astre would be at any Pontiac car show since these cars were not loved very much.

So that's what your project looks like. So now that your wife has green lighted this project, how soon does she expect it to be put back together so she can mash the gas? Also, what ? No picture of the tranny???????? Dude.....shame.

You did. It just wasn't limited to the GTO, but rather limited to a hatchback Ventura. Point taken.

Actually, it was available across the entire Ventura II hatchback line starting in 1974, this was the first year that the hatchback was available on the Ventura X-body models. So a GTO, Ventura, or Ventura Sport with a hatchback could be ordered with a dealer added option code N31. Since you are an obvious X-body fan, I would have hoped you would know that one.

"Drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son." - Dean Wormer - Animal House I know, I know, for some of you, it is more of a mantra or a way of life.

I can not dish on the Aztek too hard since my wife and mother-in-law both own one. While the Aztek still has what one critic call ed'it looks like an angry dumpster' for looks, it is a well thought out SUV. It rides well, gets good mileage, and haul the family soccer team. It is a good family vehicle. Everyone that I know who actually owns one absolutely loves it. To this day, I continue to scratch my head over that. Okay smart guys - can anyone answer this question: when the Aztek came out, you could get an optional pop up tent. This was not the first Pontiac to do so. What other Pontiac had this same option? I want the year, make and model.

The wife made it official this morning - we are not going to Kentucky and the convention. We think we might try to pull off a family vacation to Scotland instead sometime in mid-to-late August. We might have to miss Woodward though.

I will send your regards. Are you going to be around middle of July? The Vintage Chevrolet Club of America will be in town for their national convention in Flint to celebrate the 100th year of Chevrolet? Lots of possible parts vendors I imagine.

Professor and notallthere joined me last year at Woodward. As Pro said, "I like this type of car show, it comes to you!". Still no word yet when the city of Pontiac will put the Widetrack signs up, but I can't wait. So when are you going to visit your grandfather?

Now you are teasing us! No plate like Chrome, No plate like Chrome, No plate like Chrome !

Styling like that is no longer allowed - due to more stringent CAFE and tree-hugger rules. Nope, jelly bean designs rule. Something to do with aerodynamics, I think. However, I agree wtih you. Cadillac had fins on the their Deville cars (such as they were) into the mid-90s.

OK - the convention is in 2 weeks. Is anyone going? The wife and I are signed up, but she is not too sure she wants to go. So we could still back out. I don't want to, but that's how things go when you are married sometimes.

I've used Mother's Mag and Chrome Polish for chrome and brushed aluminuim since the 70s. I love it. I used Meguiar's clay bar and wax system, especially the Quik Wax and Quik Detailer. I have not heard of Zaino until now. Surf City Garage products are starting to gain popularity now thanks to lots of infomericials like Two Guys Garage.

Yup...that would be the one. Gorgeous aren't they? LN7_Nut - I've heard that said, but even though I live near the Chrysler Museum ,and all things Mother Mopar, here in SE Michigan, I can not honestly say I have seen one for myself to be certain. Still the Savoy and Fury had some great fins and body lines, but the front ends do nothing for me. I think the Savoy just keep getting uglier as the 60s wore on.