I had one in a Corvette, thought it was because of the fibreglass firewall. Didn't know other (metal) cars also had those.
My Buick parts book indicates that all '70-'72 v8's were supposed to include that shield. I'm sure most were left off the car the first tune-up. I once had a nos shield assembly that came with some other parts - I think Dano ended up with it.
I had a 70 lesabre years ago that had 30k on it. That shield was still installed and funny enough it had that sticker on it too. I parted the car and couldn't give that thing away. It's probably still at my folk's place somewhere.
These went to the same place as the starter bracket, overflow hose clip and fuel line clip after each specific part was replaced.
LOL Still have the starter bracket also. (was removed when I pulled the starter to install headers in the mid 70's). The overflow hose clip and the fuel line clip are still on the car.
I pulled/saved one of an original Skylark around '86 when I was working in a shop. Not sure if I still have ot sold it. Even the orig distributor cap was so nice/not worn that I saved it. Sold that not long ago.
I bet the points were kept cleaner and lasted longer with those. The carbon from rotor button is what I'm thinking....after all it's a spinning hurricane inside a distributor....
I usually didn't reinstall the point guard. The only cars where I would reinstall them was the fiberglass/plastic Corvettes. Some of the older Corvettes also had external metal guards over the spark plug wires at the distributor.
