I'm working on a friends '72 GS455 4spd convert. It's 1 of the 12, numbers matching cars built with that combo for that year. An aftermarket shifter was installed sometime before 1987, by a previous owner. Unfortunately, the hole got aftermarketed too ou: . We're going back to a factory correct shifter and boot. Any ideas about what size the original hole should be? We hope to fabricate a repair piece, and have it Mig Welded in. Thanks for any/all help. Here's what it looks like now. Joe X.
Joe: I can get a photo or two and some measurements tomorrow afternoon, unless somebody posts earlier. He'll have to get a hump too. Wish somebody made the correct Buick hump, but others have swapped in a chevy hump and made them to work with a little modding. You're right about the hack job somebody did to that car. Gonna be a lot of work to tidy up that tunnel. Might almost be easier to cut a section of tunnel out of a donor car, cut the right size hole and weld the whole piece in place. I'll check the post tomorrow to see if you're still looking for photos.
Joe, this may be a long shot....But I have the oricinal floor section out of a 68 GS 400 4 speed car that I took out to be able to use the factory hump in my 71. I know the hole is original size and could possibly be used to weld in and correct this problem. It may be a bit of work but I am sure its just got holes where the spot welds were that held the hump piece in. If interested,I can run to my moms garage and get it or take some pics of it. I just used it to trace the hole on the floor of my 71 so it was nothing but a pattern. I don't plan to reuse it so it could be up for grabs... Maybe you could just weld the hole in and save some time....lol
Dave, Pat, and Angela, Thank You for the replies. Please post some photos if you can. Pat, I'm sure that '68 piece, should be the same thru the years. After looking at Angela's photos, maybe we're not as bad as we thought. For some odd reason, some sort of garbage can tin was screwed to the floor (see all those screw holes EVERYWHERE ou: ). The metal is pretty bent up also, but perhaps a good dolly/hammer job would fix that. We do now have a correct factory shifter setup, and need some help on the hole, for a correct shifter boot. Thnx again, Joe X.
floor hump hole Joe: I don't know if the photo here will help much, but hopefully the measurements will. The hole in the tunnel isn't a smooth cut hole. If you're measuring from inside the car and would follow a normal curve to the hump it measures roughly 8 1/2" wide from the center of trans tunnel outward towards the drivers side and 6 3/4" long from front to back. If measuring as the crow flies from underneath it would measure about 8" from center of tranny tunnel to outer edge of hole. Measuring from the floor overlap seam from underneath (front portion to rear portion of floor pans) to position the hole fore to aft, the edge of the hole starts at 5 1/4" from that seam. The spot welded on hump overlaps that hole by 1/2" at the front, and roughly an inch at the center of the tunnel. This is the factory hump, not sure which hump you plan on using if you can't get an original. Hope this helps Joe, by the way your Cortez Gold car is beautiful :TU:
It looks like some of the original screw holes are still there so it don't look as bad as initially thought. I took the shifter boot ring off of silver today and traced it on paper so maybe one can be made.
Dave, and Angela, those photos are a big help. Thank You. We a least have an idea now of the shape of the hole, and some lenth and width sizes. We'll have to see if Duane Heckman is still producing the shifter boot rings. Thanks all, Joe X.
floor hump Joe, I don't know if this is of any use to you but there was an auction on ebay where the seller was selling the whole transmission tunnel from a 4 speed A body car. Actually they had 2 of them in different auctions. I don't know if the tunnels got sold but i have bought stuff (original 68-72 GS 4 speed shifter and linkage) from this seller after the auction was over (I had missed auction) and they gave me a fair deal. The seller is chicago muscle car. They always have stuff on ebay. Maybe you can try to contact them. I see that someone already posted pics with a tape measure otherwise I would have done the same with a my tunnel. Do you need measurements of the hole in the tunnel itself and not that of the 4 speed hump? I can provide that if needed. Allen allioop108@aol.com
That should be no problem for a good welder. My car was originally equiped with AC and I got a less than perfect piece of firewall from a non AC car and had a welder splice it in. Came out perfect and you would never tell that car had AC. He is doing the same thing with the portion of quarter panel that came attached to my replacement outer wheel well since my portion of quarter has rot only at the wheel well section where chrome attaches. I've seen other nearly impossible stuff he's done so for someone to section that piece of floor tunnel into a car should be no big deal. Allen allioop108@aol.com
Thanks for the reply Allen. We won't have time for the E-Bay thing, as we're real close to putting in the engine and trans. We'll have to find a good welder man, and patch a peice in, and fill/grind all those holes. Here's where were at now. Joe X.
