What kind of gloss is the heater plenum (in the engine compartment) supposed to be on 70-72 cars?? Thanks Tim
Ok, ok, ok.......Mr Nutcase At Large Here is a pic of a car I just finished. Notice the "natural" color. It is a cross between black and brown. All of the ones here in sunny FL are the same color. If you look closely at the box in person, you will actually see fiber strands. All of the ones (probably over 25 of them) I have removed from salvage cars were exactly the same. Let me know what you have seen/found! :TU:
Same color as the firewall Tim.. In fact, same paint. And don't mind ol' George, you have to recall that he lives in Florida, and there is no such thing as a Non-AC car down there. Otherwise they would melt.. Or so I hear.. Just starting to get nice down there, better finish this Blue ragtop (with AC of course.. :laugh: ) and mosey on down there. JW
Sheesh, I always think of the ac box. He said heater plenum, misread his statement. You are right JW, I hardly ever see a non-ac car here. I probably can count on one hand the number of non-ac Skylarks I have seen in the last 20 years here in the local salvage yards. When the silly Yankees move down here, they have to have ac in order to live. Bunch of wimps! :laugh: So, those non-ac cars disappear fast! Oh yes, you are right, the overflow bottle is a lil yellow like the Goodyear lettering in your avatar pic. Well, I could buy a new one for it but it gives the car character. Believe it or not that is the original overflow for that car and it was built 10/69. Not too bad for being 35+ years old. If JW looked that good at that age, he would be proud! :laugh: Come on JW sing it with me "Tiny bubbles, tiny bubbles in the wine........" When you get here, hopefully in Jan or Feb when you have 5 feet of snow in MN, I will take you down to the beach so you can see some honeys in bikinis to make you forget about MN. Oh, yes, I will even buy you a beer! Just ask Reg Thompson! :beer :beer :beer
Yo.. Don HO.. I'm gonna hold you to that promise Don... or um er ...George.. Been there in Febuary.. nice.. Been there in June... ugly.. 92* with 100% humidity, at 5am, is just not right.. And Ken, your almost correct.. I currently have 8 GS's in the shop, only one is a non AC car (a GS 455 convert from North Dakota originally) and I have one 4 Speed car.. The 4 speed, non air,stripper GS 455 is a rare bird indeed. JW
Oh sorry guys, I should have specified NON AC.... ou: ou: This is for the ragtop. Ok, so semi-gloss black it will be. Thanks for the info....I always thought they were gloss black. And you know, people think my white car is wild because it has AC!! Not many old machines up here did, hell half the year you are trying to stay warm... Thanks guys! later Tim
Tim, I'm not sure that I have ever seen a non-A/C Buick with low miles in good condition to answer your question, but I can say for certain that I have seen many several mileage Chevelles, GTOs, and Novas without A/C and the box you are referring to was more glossy than the rest of the firewall. This is because the box itself was painted prior to installation (look at the backside and you should see black paint) and was installed after the firewall was painted. Now some will content that it should be the same color as the firewall because the factory came back and sprayed the firewall black (for a second time to hide the body colored overspray) but it has been our understanding that this was done prior to the box being installed. You will however see a thick undercoating sprayed along the top of the box where it attaches to the firewall on some cars, this was doe to prevent wanter leaks into the box. However I've seen some GM A-bodies (especially cars built in Fremont CA) that did not get the extra undercoating on the box, perhaps because the weather is not as severe in CA as say MI. I might be able to dig up some photos of original boxes to show that they are pretty glossy in some cases. However, I think that you would not get a deduction for either gloss or semi-gloss at any Buick show, as both are generally considered to be acceptable. Just my experience and opinion.
Gary, my '66 GS also uses a glossier black on the heater box, than on the firewall.....The paint on the backside is in good shape, I should be able to match it well.
Example #3 Another low mileage 1970 Chevelle LS6. Note difference in the amount of undercoating on the box. The 2 1970 Chevelles were built at different plants.
If you are able to post a picture tha would be great. Also where was your car built and did it have the undercoating on the top edge?
Thank you (again!) for the info... :beer All the cars I've seen the orginal finish was so scratched up there was really no way to tell....sometimes the backside is different than the front too. The extra undercoating is very interesting. I don't know about you guys, but I find all the little details to be the most fascianting part of any restoration. Weather or not I do it correctly on my car is one thing (due to whatever reason), but to know the difference makes it ok in my mind. is that odd??? :laugh: later Tim
