72 TA : New Project

[njsteve]

Had a fun time at the Performance Years Open House yesterday in Hatfield, PA. Great bunch of people there. Hung out with a few Performance Years site members. Here's a shot of their 71 and 70, next to my 72.



Also spent some time with Tom D, and his High Performance Pontiac Magazine crew. They spent a good two hours shooting the T/A at a nearby barn, in the early evening. (You have to shoot a white car either first thing in the morning or the last thing at the end of the day, in order to get the exposure right. Here's a sample shot with my point and shoot camera at about 7:00 PM.



The car performed flawlessly. It was only 45 miles or so, so my son and I drove the leisurely hour to get there. The only stop was to rescue a female box turtle trying to cross Route 202 in PA.

The return trip was fine too. Ended up using a quarter of a tank of gas for about 90 miles of travel. We had the A/C going full blast on the way home. It was definitely a hot and humid day. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[Postsedan]

Great pic, looking forward to the ink! Congrats!

Dan

[njsteve]

Took her out to the local cruise night in Flemington, NJ yesterday. Good showing of cars there and it was about 90 degrees out.

There's nothing like rolling up the windows and running the A/C full blast on a hot day. She ran ran great -and the temp gauge never went above the first notch. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Since we are in the midst of an apocaliptic heat wave here, (It was 108 yesterday), I took the 72 T/A out for a spin in the inferno, better known as New Jersey, today.

I went to the local cruise night again but only 20 cars showed up due to the oppressive heat.

The car uses its original, four-speed radiator (no trans cooler) that was recored with a modern three row, copper core. She handled the climate amazingly well. Here's some temp samples taken with a heat gun:

Outside Temp: 102 degrees
Pavement Temp: 121 degrees
Pass-Side Radiator Tank Temp: 153 degrees
Dr-Side Radiator Tank Temp: 183 degrees
Thermostat Housing Temp: 197 degrees

A/C on Max, center outlet temp: 35 degrees [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/cool.gif[/img] There's nothing like a good running, old R12 system.

Factory temp gauge reading: about a millimeter past the first hash mark on the gauge.

[njsteve]

Today's 72 T/A Temperature Update:

Outside Temp: 92 degrees
Pavement Temp: 110 degrees
Pass-Side Radiator Tank Temp: 138 degrees
Dr-Side Radiator Tank Temp: 178 degrees
Thermostat Housing Temp: 185 degrees

Factory gauge reading: directly on the first hashmark

A/C still blowing nice and cold [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/cool.gif[/img]

So there you have it, I guess the first mystery hash mark on the gauge is 185, even though it is exactly halfway between &quot;100&quot; and &quot;210&quot; on the dial. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

I spent a hour or so removing a valve train noise that I suspected was the crazy oil dripper contraption that the 455HO's used under the valve covers. It was a tinny/clanky sound that obviously wasn't a lifter but was definitely in the valvetrain somewhere.

It seems that the roller tipped rockers I am using were nicking the oil dripper indentations on the passenger side. I pulled both valve covers and removed the contraptions as they are not really needed with the roller tipped rockers. There is enough oil spray coming out of the rockers to lubricate everything that needs lubricating in there, anyway.

Top view:



Underside view:



Closeup view. Some of the nicks are old and some look fresh and shiny.




Now there are no more annoying noises that shouldn't be there. Just the annoying noises that should be. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[mockingbird812]

Git some!!! Sounds good. Love seeing the flapper doing its thing! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Never stop tinkering. One of the honeycombs on the car was just a slightly different shade for several years now. It finally annoyed me enough to do something about it today. This was the result of a later purchased spray can of the now defunct, OEM Paints Honeycomb paint (which at the time was selling at the ridiculous price of $79 a spray can).

A few months ago I had my local Napa dealer mix me up a quart of single stage Honeycomb paint. It took them a lot of searching and a phone call to their supplier but they were finally able to cross reference the PPG DQE 8906 number over to Martin Senour #55-5327. A quart was about $35. (It requires a $25 can of hardener as well). I barely used a quarter of the quart can to paint the four wheels. You can also order direct from these people: www.tcpglobal.com

I ended up dismounting the front half of the tires so as not to disturb the balance weight positions on the backside. I wrapped the rubber in a couple plastic garbage bags per tire and tucked it under the front rim edges. I then mixed the paint, hardener and reducer and used a Preval spray bottle to apply the paint, since I don't have a paint gun. Once it cured, It aired the tires back up to reseat the beads, put the caps back on and all was well again.

The result was better than I expected. Comparing the color with an original paint wheel and it looks pretty much dead on. (even better than the OEM Paint mix, which was a bit too gun-metal colored, or at least the later can was)

Original wheel:



Repainted wheel:





I guess I'll do the Polyglas mounted set next.
Just so they all match. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[MrsBillyBobcat]

They look AWESOME Steve! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/worship.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

If anybody is near a newstand, the T/A is supposed to come out in the January issue of High Performance Pontiac, which hits the stands in October. My subscription copy always arrives suspiciously late and dog-eared from the mailman pre-reading it for several weeks before it shows up in my mailbox.

Please give me a heads up if you come across a copy. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]