Frosty

My first car out of high school was a '73 Lemans Sport Coupe with a 350 2bbl, TH375 auto, air, PS, PB. It was Lucerne Blue with a white vinyl roof. So I can relate. Nice thing is that there are plenty of Pontiac engine combinations available. So a 400 or 455 will fit perfectly in the engine bay. Lots of speed parts for Poncho motors. There are also some suspension and brake combinations for Colonade style A-bodies. Also, a lot of other parts interchange from the 68-72 models too. About the only thing you can't get readily is major sheet metal. So what else would you like to do with it?

You might want to check with the automotive aftermarket and audio/electronics shops in your area. A company called AutoAdOns were advertising $99.95 remote car starters around Christmas time in my neck of the woods. I installed a Viper in my wife's Aztek for under $500 about 5 years ago. My old Blazer had one installed for $150.00 last year. So if brand preference is not important to you (it really isn't for me), then shop around your local community. You might be able to find one cheaper than even Best Buy.

Try either YearOne or Hawk's Third Gen Parts. They both carry 3rd and 4th gen Firebird/Trans Am parts. Hawk's often has salvage and parts cars too. YearOne has an excellent catalog you can get or download. www.yearone.com www.hawksthirdgenparts.com

NEW or made in the last few years Economy car: Chevy HHR SS Midsize sedan: Cadillac DTS Midsize coupe: Cadillac CTS-V Fullsize sedan: Mercury Marauder Luxury sedan: Rolls Royce Phantom Truck: Dodge Ram SRT-10 (w/ Viper V10 Motor) SUV: Buick Enclave (for the wife) Luxury SUV: Hummer H2 (just to tick off the tree huggers) Sports car: Corvette ZR-1 Muscle car: Challenger SRT-8 Super car: Saleen S7 OTHER 5 classics: 1. '87 Buick Grand National GNX 2. '70 GTO Judge convertible - Ram Air / 4 speed / Orbit Orange or Polar White 3. '70 'Cuda convertible - Hemi of course 4. '34 Ford or Chevy cabriolet street rod 5. '37 Studebaker Pick-Up TV/Movie car: Monkeemobile Iconic car: Petty blue, hemi powered Plymouth Superbird Your one Just cuz car: '86 Corvette convertible (my dad worked on the 4th gen Corvettes)

Personally, I think this car should end up in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. The museum already has Kennedy's limo in which he was assassinated in. It also has a couple of other presidential limos too. However, the Secret Service has said that no other presidential limosines will go into museums when they are retired from service.

I am officially jealous! Bad enough that I have to goto DK's with Tim Horton's Timbits in my hand to borrow his TIG or his soda blaster. Dang, I need to get some more expensive toys.

Steele Rubber Products http://www.steelerubber.com/ They have weather stripping for both 2 and 4 door'78 Phoenixs. I have used their products on my convertible's rear quarter window glass, door seals and A-pillar seals. You might also want to get some 3M super weather stripping adhesive (I prefer the black over the yellow since the weather stripping is black). You will also want to get some 3M weather stripping adhesive remover to help remove any factory glue that is still on the car.

OK fellow gear heads....what automotive related presents did Santa bring you for Christmas? In my case, I got: 1. Pivoting ratcheting box wrenchs with a corresponding open end wrench in both SAE and Metric sizes from Craftsmen and Husky 2. Rechargable cordless LED trouble light from Craftsmen 3. A Steve Kafka Pinstriping starter kit w/ instructional DVD 4. 5 cans of One Shot Sign/Pinstriping paint (white, black, yellow, red and blue), One Shot Reducer, and One Shot Hardener 5. Trucks! DVD - Project Old Skool F-100 pickup 6. Book entitled "Advanced Pinstripe Art: How-to Secrets from the Masters" 7. A pinstriping beugler wtih several pinstriping heads and instructional DVD 8. A can of Fix-A-Flat, which will go in the Trans Am or the wife's Aztek.

Send me an invite. A buddy of mine just inherited an '86 Vette convertible from his uncle. Perhaps the wife and I can come down in that. Otherwise, we'll come down in the Lemans.

I am running a 3.55 in my 12-bolt. I am still kicking myself for not looking for a 200-R4 instead of the TH400. I would have liked to have the overdrive gear for all the highway driving I do with it. I choose the 3.55 as a middle of the road gearing between street and performance.

I couldn't agree more. Seems we are just have the wrong marque allegience for some publishers.

I would also suggest that you find the shop that is going to make your driveshaft and get their measurement requirements or order form. I had a custom driveshaft made when I went from a TH350 to a TH400 on my '72 Lemans convertible and from the stock 10-bolt rear end to the Mosier 12-bolt I have now. It cost me about $300 for a new driveshaft but they do all the proper cutting and balancing before I got it. They also told me that a steel driveshaft for the street was cheaper than aluminuim. Since I was not planning on taking the car to the dragstrip and pounding on it, I didn't need the weight savings either. Aluminuim cost between $100-200 more depending on the application and speeds being reached.

I just got issue #2 of Auto Enthsuiast. I am still very unimpressed. The sad thing is that my subscription label says I am paid through February of 2012. Right now, I think I'd rather read Camaro Performer, Super Chevy, or go back to reading GM Hi-Tech Performance.

While infrequent, it happens more often than you might think. For example. Austin Texas is the most famous Austin, but there are two in Arkansas, one in Conway county andthe other is in Van Buren county.

In case anyone is interested, there are 9 other U.S. cities or communities besides Pontiac, Michigan - all named Pontiac. So this might skew the Google statistics a tad bit more than just Pontiac Michigan. The towns are: Pontiac, IL - Livingston County Pontiac, IL - Saint Clair County Pontiac, IN - Clay County Pontiac, KS - Butler County Pontiac, MO - Ozark County Pontiac, NY - Erie County Pontiac, OH - Huron County Pontiac, RI - Kent County Pontiac, SC - Richland County For what it's worth, I have been to Pontiac IL - Livinston County before. It lies on Historic Route 66 and houses a Route 66 museum.

http://www.amgeneral.com/corporate/news/hu...made-in-america AM General still builds the HUMVEE for the military. In fact, AM General received an order for 500 HUMVEEs in May. They are currently in a joint venture with General Dynmaics developing the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). AM General was spun off from Americal Motors to build government vehicles before AMC was purchased by Chrysler. AM General is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana. In fact, they took over some of the old Studebaker plants for it's corporate offices.

I am not surprised at the ton of old guys at Hershey. They have the time and the money for that. I went in 2005. I liked looking at all the re-pop and vintage rust. I was thankful my tetanus shot was up to date. It just didn't have anything really for 60s and newer stuff right now. Carlisle is where you need to go for that sort of thing. Still Hershey is good if you are looking for pre-WWII stuff and tri-five era cars. You might find some 60-80s stuff there but not a lot. It is hard to imagine thinking that if you walked every row and aisle at Hershey it is 60-65 miles long!!! Dang that's huge. I am just thankful that Hershey is not as hilly as Carlisle.

In case anyone is interested, Pontiac Enthusiast has ceased publishing. Amos Publishing has combined all of it's titles into one magaine called Auto Ethusiast. It has a Chevy/Corvette, Ford, and Mopar section and then a general "Classic" section - which had one GTO feature. I was very unimpressed. If future issues are like the introductory issue, I won't be losing any sleep letting that subscription lapse. If I wanted Chevy, I could get a plethora of other titles. So all that is really left is High Performance Pontiac and Smoke Signals (POCI membership is required).

Did anyone go to any of the Carlisle shows or the fall Hershey show? If so, how was it?

Even so, the guy asking $1800 for a 1972 4-bbl carb that was for a GTO with a 455 H.O. and a 4-speed manual. I told that guy that he was going home with that carb. No one was going to pay that much for it. He said someone doing a concurs correct restoration would. I saw him again at the Pontiac Nationals in Norwalk Ohio a month later. He was down to $1500 but he still had not sold it. That is what I call 'stupid money'.

Pro - that almost sounds like a contradiction in terms. I really liked the old 6000 STEs sedans back in the day. Good luck trying to find one today. I don't think I have seen one in at least 10 years. Notallthere - any non-Korean built Lemans would definitely be cool! Heck, a supercharged Vibe would be cool. A turbocharged Pontiac 301-V8 powered T1000 (a.k.a. the Pontiac version of the Chevette or the Pontiac Acadian in Canada) would be cool.

I downloaded the brick program brochure from the National Corvette Museum.

I suppose that is theoritcally possible but it will be at least 2-4 years before that can happen. As I outlined a while back in a different thread, GM won't make a move to bring back Pontiac until the government is out any stockholder or proxy control of the company. Now that the government's share is less than 50%, they don't have a controlling share, but they are still there. Next, GM needs to decide to bring back Pontiac or at least a car with a Pontiac name heritiage like the Firebird. While the 2011 Camaro is already in production, and making a Firebird on it's underpinning is a logical choice, it will still take 2-4 years before one can come to production - best case (assuming GM decided today to bring back Pontiac and/or any model). The reason for the long lead time is two-fold. First of all, there are no "Pontiac" designs in any of the GM design studios in North America, Australia, or Europe - where GM's rear wheel drive engineering teams are located. The design process is usually 6-15 months long. Next, any design has to pass U.S. government crash, fuel economy, and emissions testing. This process is at least 24 months long. The '04 GTO was the quickest car GM produced based on an existing tooled car (the Monaro). It still took 2 years to bring it to the US to meet government testing. Finally, even assuming that much of the Camaro would be utilized, there is still a plethora of unique "Firebird' or "Pontiac" parts that have to be designed and tooled up for production. Building tools takes time too. So that is why it takes so long for a totally new design to come to market. This doesn't count any outrageous additional new laws for added crash safety or fuel economy standards.

I was a great time. I just was not prepared to get a new motor.

It's not that hard. Everyone knows that Chevy parts are cheaper than Pontiac parts!