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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And to think just 7 years and 37 days ago I was pressure washing the last project that looked just like this underneath! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
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I remember that like it was yesterday...
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
The car got picked up in Vancouver this morning by TFX Transport. http://www.tfxinternational.com/
Now the clock starts ticking...3000 miles to go! The car is starting at the farthest point west, from New Jersey that you can possibly get! http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...loading001.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...loading005.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...loading007.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
BTW, Grant said it was raining all day and then stopped for the 15 minutes it took to load up the car. Once the car was in the trailer, it started raining again. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">BTW, Grant said it was raining all day and then stopped for the 15 minutes it took to load up the car. Once the car was in the trailer, it started raining again. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] </div></div>
That shouldn't surprise anyone... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">BTW, Grant said it was raining all day and then stopped for the 15 minutes it took to load up the car. Once the car was in the trailer, it started raining again. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] </div></div>
Thats a sign....... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: njsteve</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Mike, That had to be this car since it was from that exact neighborhood from 1972 to 1985 and the only black Formula up there at the time. Give your brothers a heads up about this thread. I'd love to have their opinions and stories, too.
Great info on the PHS adddress, too. That's what I love about this site, people sharing their stories. It's really amazing what a small world it is. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img] If you are in Chicago in November, I may bring the car to MCACN if Mr. Ashton thinks it fits in the "as found" class. I'd love to have you and your brothers see it in person. </div></div> An absolute MUST for MCACN 2012! And I can pretty much assure you...there will not be another black 455 Formula in the show! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img] Bashton MCACN Managing Member |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
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Well, I don't know???? They did make a second black one for the US market and I think it's in Kansas.
I wouldn't want to be that person who ends up wearing the same prom dress as another attendee. You know how truly embarassing that would be? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/shocked.gif[/img] Never again! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/no.gif[/img] |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
I guess I can't take part eh Steve?
Grant |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Steve
It sure is a small world ,when we have a person on the site that remembers the exact car cruising the streets of London Ontario.I emailed the widow of the formula that I bought it from,and she will not give me the time of day,too bad. Grant |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Grant, you are required to participate in this restoration process. It's the law. Didn't you read the fine print on the bill of sale? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
In regards to the previous owner, I do feel for her loss and understand her sensitivity on the subject of the car. Maybe once the car is done we can reintroduce her and her family to it. Did you have any luck running out that lead on the engine builder? |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Steve
I have had no time yet to do anything like that,it is about 1 1/2 hour return drive and a toll bridge both ways,so I will tie in seeing my brother one day at the same time,as he is about only 15 minutes away from Port Moody where the shop/shops are.I will "get er done" though,and see what transpires. Grant |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
The car is slowly making its way to the East Coast. While waiting I needed something to do so I started tinkering with the extra set of grills I have for a 72. I used my tried and true plastic paint stripping method of soaking the parts in "purple stuff" degreaser. It is the best thing I have found for removing paint from plastic without harming the plastic.
Here is one of the grills outside the vat while the other one is soaking: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10370.jpg And the results after about a day of soaking, scrubbing gently with a plastic bristle brush and fine scotchbrite pad and then resoaking. Kind of like the "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" directions on your shampoo bottle. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10371.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And here is the reason for using the other grills. It seems that the second owner, in an effort to stop the car thieves in his area, used fiberglass to seal the hood latch access opening in the driver's side grill. He then installed an inside-the-car hood release cable. It requires two people to open the hood, one pulling and holding the release cable and the other lifting the hood. I think this is where the Strategic Air Command got the idea for the "two key" missle launch system.
[img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img] http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/P1000502.jpg He was not paranoid, as the car was victimized twice while he owned it. Once in the late 1980s when the seats (and sadly, the broadcast sheet along with them) were stolen, and another time in the 1990s when the ignition was popped and they tried to take the car. |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Got the spare grills refinished. It took a while to mask off the black grates and then paint the argent without getting any on the grates. Very tedious process, indeed. I need to find some better chrome trim rings. Hopefully the ones on the car are better than these.
The car made it through customs fine and the delivery truck is supposedly coming here tonight. I will update you all as soon as I have the car..... http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10411.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Nice!
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
She arrived at 9:30 tonight!
Great job by TFX International in Canada. Very professional people. They kept me updated whenever I asked what the status was. They never promised the impossible - they gave me an accurate assessment of how long it takes to get from one end of the continent to the other, and through two countries. And she arrived a day early, (Though, of course I would have preferred it arriving 10 minutes after I purchased it but without a Star Trek transporter, that was a bit impossible at this point in time). It was picked up on 04/16 and arrived on 04/29 which is around 2 weeks for the 3,500 mile trip. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/S7007814.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/S7007812.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Looks great Steve...congrats! Are you gonna sleep in the garage tonight? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]
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LOL. I dragged the wife out to the garage to see the car a few minutes ago. She was sleeping at the time. While she didn't appreciate the wake up call, she actually loves the car, especially the color.
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Cool!!! Congrats again [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Steve, I know it wasn't built with one, but please keep the rear spoiler on. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Hi Steve
Nice to see the car in it's new home.No surprises from the shipping Company like you have had happen to you before? I still have not found a replacement for the Formula yet,but I am looking at a double black 77 Trans Am,with the Hurst hatches that sold new in West Vancouver,with every option except air.It probably was one of the last to be built as GM of Canada documentation shows it was shipped from Norwood on June the 28th 1977.It only has 78,000 documented miles on it,with receipts going back to 1982.Some rust on the pass side body,but tomorrow I get it up on the hoist and see if the owner is correct at saying the trunk/floors and frame rails are perfect.It is not an SE,but a factory dble black order is the next best thing.Enjoy the ride Steve. Grant |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Hey Grant, keep looking, you'll find something out there. With your luck it will be near me in New Jersey and you'll have to fly 3000 miles back here! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
Thanks for the original advertisement you sent. It arrived yesterday. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/formula1.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/formula2.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
I brought the car to my buddy's garage last night and we put it up on the lift. Lots of loose bolts in the front end, including the subframe to body bolts! At least the oil pan plug was tight. (Grant warned me about how many bolts he had to put back in this thing when he found it).
Looks like its going to need some portions of the rear frame rail on the passenger side replaced. The bottoms of the rails near the front spring perches are notorious weak spots on these cars. Unfortunately, the trucking company used the factory hold down spot in that location when shipping it here and it pulled the metal out of place a bit. This spot is a place where three different pieces of metal are sandwiched together to form the end of the frame rail. It holds moisture and here is the result: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10421.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10423.jpg And the broken-out section of the pass side rear frame rail from the tail pipe hanger holding the entire weight of the exhaust due to the broken universal rubber hanger that was carriage bolted to the floor pan above the rusty aftermarket muffler. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img] http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/P1000545.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/P1000546.jpg I won't be able to make an accurate assessment of the underside until I can get this thing steam cleaned. I checked with the local equipment rental place near me (the only one that rents the hot water pressure washers) and they quoted me $275 a day to rent the thing. JEEZ! Are the hot water sprayers really that much better than the regular cold water ones? You could almost buy a cold water pressure washer for that price. |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And here is the dirty bottom half of the car. The floor pans looks nice, with some red oxide showing through the grime in places.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10453.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10452.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...SDC10451-1.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10450.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10449.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10447.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10445.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And so it begins....again [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Isn't it nice how the only clean thing on the underside is the white painted driveshaft! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
You did that, huh? LOL
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
I went crawling around the car some more. At least there is some good news: it has two NOS GM quarters, NOS drivers side outer wheelwell and NOS tail panel installed. The labels are still there. That's about $6k worth of GM sheetmetal I don't have to search for. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10530.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10526.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10528.jpg And some bad news: the end of the passenger side frame rail is missing the flange that mounts up with the inner tail panel. Here is the drivers side: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10426.jpg and here is the passenger side: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC10427.jpg So far it needs a passenger side frame rail for donor sections, left and right trunk drop offs to replace the home made ones. (I just ordered the new reproduction units that just came out), a passenger side outer wheel house and portions of the inner wheel house. |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Hi Steve
I actually have checked out cars for sale in New Jersey lately,I figure if I find one there by fluke,at least I know someone that I could have a beer with before driving it home.I drove from Toronto to Vancouver before and Vancouver to Montreal along time ago. Grant |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Started working on the car today after being away on a trip. Attempted to get her registered since the forms from Customs finally showed up. Of course once I got there, the DMV lady said I have to contact their headquarters on Monday, since the car is coming from a foreign country. (Of course that advice was completely different from what they told me the last time I was there a couple weeks ago when they said I needed the Customs form to complete the paperwork package.) [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]
I replaced the leaky valve cover gasket and got the horns working (it was a disconnected wire at the relay - solved that one pretty easily). Click on the photo to hear how she sounds at the moment. http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/...h_SDC11122.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Nice...I love the Pontiac exhaust!
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Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
In today's "Give A Mouse A Cookie" update, it all started this morning with me taking the rear seat out to fix some of the wrinkles in the seat cover. I pulled the back seat and set it in the 80 degree sun for an hour to soften up. Since I wasn't just going to sit around for the hour, I pulled the other seats out...and then the carpet...etc.
Anyway, I had a bag of hog rings so I adjusted and pulled and remounted all the new seat covers till 90% of the wrinkles were gone. They must have been installed in the Canadian winter and ended up being too loose on the seat foams. It worked out very well in the end. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11123.jpg The upright cushions are done, the ones lieing flat are warming up. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11130.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And while all the seats were warming up I pulled the carpet out to see what the floors looked like. All the original tar paper insulation was in place and actually very pliable and sticky (a real mess actually). Sitting in the sun the stuff was just as tacky as the day it was installed 40 years ago.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11139.jpg I wanted to examine the floorboards so I started carefully pealing with a plastic putty knife and got all of the tar paper insulation up. The car was originally rust proofed when it was new and it looks like they lifted the carpet and slathered the tar paper with extra cosmoline or some other goop and it pretty much saved the floors but it left a black tar mess in places. Here is what it looked like after a few hours of peeling: http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11143.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11142.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11144.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11145.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11146.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11147.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11148.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
And look what arrived yesterday:
I ordered a reproduction of the original owner's license plate from these guys: http://www.licenseplates.tv/ It turns out that the CWT-160 plate number that was listed on all of the car's dealership repair orders was in a unique 3-letter/3-number sequence that started in 1973 in Ontario. So it looks like that is as close as the original day-one plate as I am going to get. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11151.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
So, 7 years and 3 days after this:
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...sprayday1a.jpg It's cleaning time again! http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11190.jpg I set the car on some truck jackstands to get it in the air as high as possible and then soaked the underside with purple stuff cleaner diluted with 2/3 water. It then donned the Tyvex suit and face shield (much better then the raincoat I wore back in 2005). I then spent the next 8 hours pressure washing the underside. I think the key to getting the undercoating off this time was using hot water. I ran a heavy duty garden hose through the window and hooked it to the washing machine hot water feed. It worked great! Half way through the day I ended up pulling the aftermarket exhaust to get a better angle on the floor boards. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11160.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Here are some preliminary shots while the car was still wet. That hot water worked well on the 40 year old undercoating. I definitely was a smart idea to get a full face shield. When the 3000 psi hot water hits the undercoating it tends to blow it off in chunks that fly back at you. The black you see on the frame rails is the original black overspray, though it looks kind of grey when wet.
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11168.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11167.jpg The undercoating came off the tank nicely to reveal the original date stencil. http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11175.jpg Original vapor cannister hoses in place (unclamped as originally installed at the factory) http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11177.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
The floorpan. Gotta get rid of that white paint on the driveshaft!
http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11179.jpg http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/SDC11189.jpg |
Re: The New Project: Part Deux!
Very nice Steve. Good ideas!
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