Last Indian

’ll do my best to help. I would like to preface this with my input to how complexed lighting is, which in many ways is why it’s such a shambles today for car head lights! Light in of itself is a science, a very complexed science! Light is the only reason we can see! Our eyes are one of the most remarkable gifts we have! Nothing, absolutely nothing can duplicate them! No matter how close we get with sensors, they can’t duplicate our eyes and to get even remotely close it takes multiple sensors that do different functions! The human eye can at one glance discern distance, intricate color, shading, texture, soft, sharp, vapors and so much more! All of this is because of light! Next to locks lighting fixtures are the oldest know inventions along with different fuel to obtain brighter illumination! By the mid 20th century we had achieved fairly good road illumination given the limitations of incandescent bulbs & their Kalvin color light band. The parabolic design had and has proven to be the most optimal reflector for light refraction and in a round design! So all we needed was a better light source, one that could mimic daylight! But no! New, dare I say less capable engineers that couldn’t see to the end of their noses with 5500 degrees of Kalvin found it was more fitting to carve up every headlight fixture into some abortion that didn’t come close to resembling the very oldest of light fixtures. The point here is that headlights starting in the late “70”s kept getting increasingly worse because they kept chopping the parabolic up, reducing its size, making it only a piece of a round parabolic and magnifying it with non optical grade glass! Which meant light was lost as well as distorted! The Cibie takes all the light that comes from the parabolic and concentrates it in a smaller focal window! So now for you guys, Frosty, Kiwi and any others. Since you have old 7” or 5 ¾ headlights that are true parabolic housings you can have the best of both worlds! The Cibie’s of today may not be what they were when Cibie owned them, but they would still be heads above anything else out there. There is a guy named Danel Stern, see the attached link. https://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html It appears he can get you the Cibie lights. I would than recommend getting 5500 to 6000 Kalvin color hid lights! These will consume less power and run cooler then standard H4 bulbs. Since your cars don’t run computers there are no issues for you to get around so you don’t need cad/cam canceling adaptors or the like. If you talk to a good HID company like Retrofit Source you should be able to tell them what you’re doing and get what you want. When you’re done you should have a very clean installation and a setup that looks stock!

Here’s a place in the states that sells H4 hid systems. They are a good outfit, I’ve bought from them many times in the past. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/ The thing that’s great about the Z beams is as I said they were around before projector headlights, but they are also quite superior! The cut of the 24% lead crystal glass lens uses true optic opacity to direct the light in the Z type pattern. In this way it is both pure in replication of the pattern and wave length of light! Where as a projector headlight uses a magnification system, a parabolic housing and a cutoff plate to direct direct the pattern and light wave length. The projection system displays a variable pattern in intensity, focus and width depending on what the distance is in front of you! Like a movie projector has to be focused to make the picture clear, except a projector headlight doesn’t have the variable focus element. Also the optical clarity of the magnifying lens in all of the projector headlights I’ve looked at, even the high end cars like BMW, Mercedes, etc are not truly optical grade glass! Which means there is not only a distortion of the wavelength of light, but the true lumens that pass through the lens! All bulbs that list their lumens do so without a fixture influence, fyi!

Kiwi, hard to say from a picture, but Valeo did acquire Cibie in 1978, I think it was “78”? So they very possibly are Z beams. The attached link gives some information about it all. My 1969 Z had Z beams starting in 1974. As I stated earlier they were hands down the best lights I ever have seen! Some of today’s lights are good, but for the most part, most headlights today still either lack the adjustment ability to really make them effective for the driver without blinding the oncoming traffic or just plain lack the technology as a light fixture. So most folks do what people do! Throw more power in it! Which only makes it worse for oncoming traffic, but you know, screw the other guy who cares! Z beams did better and before what projection headlights do! The throw a cutoff light beam! And when I say a cutoff light I mean absolutely bright daylight and then right above that night! I would assume that if you could get a HID light with the right base that you could use them in the Z beam and quite likely improve the overall performance of the Z beams because of the Kalvin color! The only downside I saw to the light was that the metal housing was plated like a mirror with silver, that for me over time deteriorated like a mirror does. So the lead crystal lens is adhered to the metal housing. So I separated the two, stripped the housing down to bare steel and sent it out to be copper/nickel plated! Which came out pretty cool because it had just a slight rose tint in the right light because of the nickel. https://valeoservice.cld.bz/valeo-CIBIE-brochure/2-3/ Not real obvious, but you can see a bit of the rose tint here.

AND the Devil still reigns supreme! 🤭!

Nah, never really did. Just kind of something I tinker with here and there.

Kudos to you Stewy! Most folks would or do think folks like us are crazy! But we get it, and for me that’s enough! When you put that much of yourself in something it takes on a personality, it may be an inanimate object, but really it is so much more! As long as at the end of the day we know what it’s proper place is with respect to other things, than we’re good.

Started to bend up some pieces for the new plenum! What do you do when you don’t have a brake? Improvise! What else! But still a long way too go!

Just what I was thinking Sprint! That’s actually what, I, would do, but I would just bore it out to the next size up and make a new piston for the next size up seals. In that way you’ll move more fluid and make the brakes even better! Any good machine shop could do that.

We’re always glade when things work out! The divider plate proximity to the impeller is another example of cavitation that creates flow disruptions. Way to go Frosty!

Ok a couple things strike me. One depending on several things, taking the thermostat out can, not always, but can have a negative impact on engine temp! Pulley size, water pump design and radiator type/design can and does impact coolant flow! If the the combination allows free movement of the coolant it can circulate the coolant to fast never allowing it to stay in the radiator long enough to cool. If the combination causes a restriction in the right place it can cause cavitation, which can act as a type of air lock that causes heating problems. Sometimes it will even allow coolant to move through an engine in a non uniform manner causing localized heating because of areas that become stagnant in movement. Also you mention that you have a shroud and that the fan is 1” away from the radiator! I presume the shroud is deeper than 1”? If so and the shroud is a typical shroud that is built as a tapper, then the fan blade tips need to be placed at the smallest portion of the shroud opening. Otherwise the fan will actually cause cavitation of the air flow and become very in efficient at moving air through the radiator! To a degree it will act like blocking the front of the radiator to restrict air flow!

Understandable, but just in case you’re not aware; you might want to either hang on to the 283 or sell it, even as is! To a good Hot Rodder they are gold! Any good muscle car guy worth his weight can take a two bolt main 283 and build one of the nastiest small block engine that ever existed. 600+ hp & 500 lb. of torque is an easy reach for that motor.

Ahhh the memories! Dragway 42, Thompson drag raceway, Norwalk! I’ll never get to do that again, but remembering is always good! Thanks buddy! Now I have to go get a tissue!

Yes, Pontiac, in those years did run a Chevy drivetrain. So the tranny should mate to any Chevy small block engine. That said, depending on what you have to spend and what kind of power you want? The 283 could be the better choice as a rebuild! If built right you could get anywhere from 400 to 500+ hp! Do you know what the tranny is?

Copy that! It might fill up really quick! Had a little good weather! Got paint?

Those are excellent jack stands! More than sufficient for even a 4000 lb car like my Lacrosse’s. The only thing I get concerned about with all of those types of jack stands are the top footprint. It’s conducive if there is a channel to place in the V groove of the top part of the jack or a good flat portion of frame, which today most cars don’t have! So I made my own many years age out of 3” pipe and pipe flanges! Very very stable & very strong! Still what you have is good!

Good question Ringo! Depends on a number of factors. First are they tripods or four sided? Stamped steel or cast aluminum! Ratchet tooth or shear pin? If stamped steel do you know what gage or can you measure the thickness of the steel? Finally, do you use them to just change tires & oil or do you do more vigorous work under the car? Additionally I should include that each stand supports 3 ton. So say you have 4 stands & put the entire car in the air you are supporting, as an example, 2 ton with 12 ton! If we divide the car in quarters each quarter weighs approximately 1/2 a ton. Which is being supported by a 3 ton jack stand!

Well, I’d say you got your money’s worth out of it! I figured you didn’t use Dex-cool, but you never know! That s- - t is bad stuff!

I feel for you buddy! Been there do that, only in a stone driveway and no convertible! You are right, it's ugly! How old is the core? & Quick question, what kind of anti-freeze do you use?

Welcome Thomas! I thought you were a Ford guy!

Well when I built the valve covers for the 3800 on the Indian I had the right stock, but when I built the plenum cover I didn’t! So I made do with what I had. So now I will design and build a new arrangement! Not sure what it will look like yet, but it will be different. The valve covers have a deep fin, a more traditional look. the plenum cover is very shallow. Not the same kind of look!

Ok! On the custom autosound site they show three choices for GTO, but none for Lemans!

Ok! That’s better! Now that’s my hat! I see that, but custom autosound shows no radio for the Lemans! I assume that the GTO dash for the radio is enough different?!

I’m sorry, but coloring is more on the Corvette blue side! I also don’t wear that style of a hat! On the important side of things! You may have dealt with them before, but if not you might try them! Crutchfield, I have done business with them since the late “70s”! They have always been very good, helpful & knowledgeable. Easy to do business with easy return policy if needed, etc.. https://www.crutchfield.com/S-IDWuOkbb60b/

Ok wise acre! It a smurf bench top!

Well got went to my local metal supplier today! Got this for a new project I’ll start who knows when?! Any guesses as to what it will become?