Chevy and it’s customer loved the Chevelle, the customers because of the low price and horse power, Chevy because of the sales. Now days a Chevelle is a highly sought after collector car. Finding a real good one is rare unless you want to play nearly a years salary.
Among those are clusters of the extremely rare. Within the production of the 1965 Chevelle there is an extremely rare version. That was the year Chevy took its brand new Mark IV 396 engine and hoisted it to the engine bay. It was the first of its kind (but not the last – the following year the 396 Chevelle became a regular model) with 375 hp and a 4 speed transmission. This was the special SS model of the Chevelle.
This was Code Z16 and only 201 1965’s were made with engine/transmission and trim, making this one of the rarest of the Chevelles SS.
Folks seem to like this segment so let’s continue with 1950.
19 major car makers existed back then and Chevy topped the production totals with 1,498,590 units followed closely by Ford with 1, 208,912. The rest of the field were all less than have that.
So you’ve read my review and I promised to drop a note as to the “Long Lasting” part of Griot’s Garage’s – Long Lasting Tire Dressing.
Now is has rained nearly every day since I applied the dressing.
So take a look at the tires with 2 applications and 3 applications.
Tires with 2 applications of tire dressing
Here is the tire with 3 applications of tire dressing
Here is what I think as a wrap up. Long lasting to me doesn’t necessarily mean just duration, but can it stand up to everyday driving – oh—yeah…just in case I failed to mention, the Vette is my daily driver. It lived up to the Griot promise. I’ll continue using this product.
Let’s jump up 13 years from 1926 to 1939 and see what the numbers look like.
1939 shows Chevy in the lead for production numbers with 577,278 units produced. Ford is about 100k behind at 487,031 (half of what they were producing in 1926). The rest of the makers finished up like this:
Before I attempted to use the tire dressing, I washed the car and gave the rubber a good scrubbing. For the actual application I used an old sock. When I first poured the dressing on to the sock, it was a bit runny, but still has some consistency. Keep in mind the temperature, 105 degrees in my garage where I stored it and where I was applying it and about 108 outside. I was a bit concerned, because with two show cars (one, a trophy winner and white!!) and having the tire dressing flung all over the paint isn’t cool, which is exactly what I won’t use the Eagle One brand.
I gave 3 of my 07 Vette’s tires two coats and I have one 3 coats. Take a look a the results.
First coat:
First coat - not even - most likely due to the sock.
Another first coat
An additional note – these pics were taken in my garage with a less than optimal source light.
Now with the Vette moved out into the sun and two coats.
Two coats - pretty nice coverage.
I really liked the 3rd application.
3 coats created a good look
So know I’ve given each tire 3 coats and since I don’t do this for a living, the next test had to wait. I had a few ‘honey-do’ chores, before I took the Vette for a drive. So the car sat in the sun for about an hour – temp was about 108.
With the to do list completed, I needed to take the Vette out to toss some air in the tires. Yes…average guy tools = small compressor that doesn’t hold enough air to top off four tires..heck…it can barely do one…got to upgrade one of these days.
Here is where the rubber meets the road and hopefully the tire dressing doesn’t meet the paint, but first a note. I did in fact drip some of Griot’s Garage – Long Lasting Tire Dressing on my chrome wheels and sure enough it cleans off with moist rag.
Take a quick spin about 1.5 miles from the house and I don’t drive 30 miles an hour…the tires spun pretty hard the entire trip.
I’ll mention, again the temperature and I think that might have something to do with it, but really this wasn’t bad. The real test was whether or not it spread to the paint and since it’s a black car you aren’t going to see it as easily – it’s a clear liquid as well. So a quick swipe with a white showed me all I needed to know, it came back clean.
So I’m pretty pleased with how the product worked.
As far as the “long-lasting” part. I’m not going to be able to render a fair opinion yet for a couple of reason:
1. I just put it on
2. We don’t get much rain here in Southern AZ but it is the monsoon season so it has rained 3 times since the application.
So that will have to be in Part 3 later on.
I need to add a few notes as I always do when I review a product. (Some of that laws school was worth the $$$.)
I don’t work for Griot’s, my only connection is that I”m on their mailing list. This is the first product I’ve purchased from them.
I did see a tweet from someone related to Griot’s Garage commenting on this review, but don’t know the individual.
I’m not Consumer Reports or Consumer Digest. I only comment on products I use in my search for “stuff” that works well for me.
Whenever I write about a product I try to follow the instructions provided and always give any variances or events/conditions that might impact the outcome.
There is a lot of emphasis on numbers for production when it comes to collector cars and I get that, who wouldn’t what a low product something or other.
So I got to thinking about production numbers and thought it would be interesting post some up from time to time.
Now in 1902 there weren’t many cars being produced but there were 8 makers.
For the Mustang the studs pass through the track and the nuts are under the car so a little space is need. Since most average guy’s don’t have a lift in their home garage, so I pull out the trusty 2 ton floor jack and a jack stand.
As most Mustang owners know, they were built with subframes. When jacking up the car with a floor jack place it on the frame, or use the standard scissor jack that attached to the seam at the rocker panel. Either way once it’s in the air, DO NOT FORGET to put the jack stand under the car. Yes it actually takes longer to do the set up then to remove the bolts…but take the time to be save.
2 Ton Floor Jack
Floor pan plug that protect the bolts and studs.
These plugs pry out very easily. I was able to get them out with just my fingers. Once they are removed you’ll have access to the nut. The distance between the opening and the nut requires an extension and the length of the stud requires a deep socket. These were 1/2″. The Mustang was raised in Arizona (get it? First reader to drop a comment explaining “get it” wins a DVD.) and all the plugs are in place. This kept all the road grime and what not off the studs and nuts, they separated easily.
When you are done you should have this many parts.
When I purchased the Mustang I was told that the upholstery was replaced at some point. (Keep that in mind for later as well.)
As you can see in the video I wasn’t able to get the seat out of the car. I initially I figured it was because I couldn’t pull out level enough for the studs to clear the holes due to the fact that I was holding the camera. However, after putting it down I still shouldn’t get the seat out. So I climbed back under the car and found that there was a second nut on the right rear stud. I’m guess it was doubled up, when the last installer wasn’t sure whether they already but one on? And of course you can see by the previous picture that those two nuts not the same as the others.
Part III will be coming up in a day or so.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Here’s a lost video from my trip to the Barrett Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ this past Jan. All you needed to do was sign up for email notification of deals from Chevy and/or Ford and you could drive these cars or ride them while a professional driver took you for a spin. I opted to drive the Ford Taurus SHO, ( the wait was shorter) I wrote about that in this blog entry http://wp.me/pKHNM-o2
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.
