Parking Lot Spotlight 6/13/2011

Here is another cool  car sighting.

This one was in the parking lot of the a local auto parts store Checker’s or O’Rielly’s….or….all those mergers are making hard to have common name that everyone can related too (remember when there was just NAPA….can’t find them very often).

1969 Chevelle 454 Restored shell

This 1969  Chevelle  was merely as shell…oh but is extremely well done restoration.  The paint was excellent (makes ya wonder why it was being dragged round uncovered), the inside of the shell had been as expertly sprayed as the exterior..it was almost a shame to put in the interior in there.

Reproduction gauges and not much in the way of interior yet.

The badge on the car shows that this car housed or will house 454.  But however, the 454 didn’t show up on the scene until until 1970 so this must be a retro fit.

You can see the big power plant is missing.

It looks absolutely ready to for dropping that monster engine back in and hitting the strip.  Hey I don’t even mind the wheels!!!

Didn’t find the owner (or driver) , part store was crowded.

Of course this isn’t a 1970, I’ll update the data a bit later.

Some 1970 Chevelle facts:

– The 454 was produced between 1970 thru 1976.

–  It produced 450 hp configured with 4bbl carb

–  It was designated the LS6 with 475 ftlbs of torque and 9.0:1 compression ratio

The majority of the Chevelle’s  (approx. 13,000) had V8 in 1970 and approx. 10,000 had 6 cylinders.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Wrenchin’ Tips – Masking

Having grown up working in my Dad’s body shops, was often given the honorable task of taping (masking) off the areas that weren’t going to get sprayed and areas, like windows and mirrors where you don’t want over-spray landing.   I learned a few tricks that help speed up the process, but more importantly help ensure a good clean paint job.  Removing over-spray is not a fun process.

I’ve tried the machines that merge the paper and the tape, great for straight lines, like the Coca Cola trucks we painted but for tight corners it just doesn’t work.

To save time, which equals a money saver and to get sharp clean lines, outline the areas with thinner tape, 1/4 inch works best.  After that use the tape and paper machine and run that along the previously laid tape.

Here’s one more.

I can’t possibly tell you how much a pain it can be to tape off emblems and name plates and it’s never clean.  Do yourself a big favor, figure out how they are attached to the sheet metal and purchase replacement them.  You know where I’m going… remove the badges and emblems.  That is the only way to do it right.

Clips for my 70 Mustang badges

Thanks for reading.

Tim

NMC – Pace Car Display.

This is a great collection for Indy Pace cars.

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NMC Main Gallery II

This is brief run down of the car’s in the main gallery.

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Main Gallery II, posted with vodpod

NCM – Swap out in Main Gallery

This is a great show of the main gallery.  In this clip they have just placed the AJ Foyt #8 Corvette on display and are setting up a C6 Grand Sport next to it.

Thanks for reading.

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NCM – Mobil Oil Display

There are some great displays at the museum.  This one is the Mobile Oil service stations.

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NCM – 1962 Corvette Display

One of the  beautiful Vette displays at the Corvette museum.

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NCM Raffle Cars C4 and Owner Pick up

At the entrance. Here are two of the cars that are up for raffling. There is also the a vette you can “try on”. In this clip I stated that the vettes at the end of the building were there for customer to sit. No true. That is where the code R is fulfilled. Code R is for delivery at the NCM. You can view a 1984 C4 in the window.

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Thanks for reading
Tim

Almost Live Corvette Musuem and Assembly Plant

Yes…I’m going to try it again!!!   Weather permitting I’ll be posting from both places, tomorrow 5/16.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Engine Mini-Series – Pontiac’s 326 Follow Up

Charles – Thanks for dropping by and giving us some of your insight.

Here is what he provided:

Hi, i’ve never heard of the Chevy reaction in 38 years of studying GM’s history.  Pontiac was violating GM’s rule of limiting cubic inches of cars smaller than full-size to one cubic to every ten pounds of car’s weight, so cars like Pontiac’s Tempest/Le Mans, Buick’s Special/Skylark, Old’s Cutlass/F85, and Chevy’s Chevelle/Malibu were limited to 330 cubic inch displacement. Pontiac marketed the 336 as a 326, and after some time, someone in GM figured out the actual bore and stroke made 336 cid. Pontiac had to change the 336 down to the 326.  Then for 1964, Pontiac (Thank You – John DeLorean) created an option for the Le Mans, the GTO option, since the standard Le Mans engine obeyed the limit rule, there was nothing in the rule saying you couldn’t offer an optional extra cost, bigger engine.  Can you say 389 cid, 348 horsepower ?,  OH YES, turn it on, wind it up, blow it out, GTO.

1964 LeMans GTO Convertible

Thanks for reading.

Tim