Beautiful Day In NY

The shop corrected the short and it really has been get in it and she fires right up.  Looking forward to a little afternoon drive as soon as this call ends.

She's in the shop

Hard to believe I didn't have my 68 out all year last year, but its at the shop getting inspected... The shop found a short in the left door jam light switch (of all things); the brake pedal went to the floor and new master cylinder on the way. Toyed with idea of disc brakes, but not wanting to dump $1000 this year... also they are going to dig into that tail light socket issue since its up on the rack.

GTO Hood

Bought a GTO Hood from eBay for $100. It has some rust, but overall not in bad shape for the price -- that coupled with the fact I could do a local pickup saved another couple hundred dollars.

I am not thinking of creating a GTO clone per se, not that there were tons of cosmetic differences between a Le Mans and a GTO, I just think the GTO hood gives the 68's alot more character.

Header Leak

Oh the joys of owning a 40+ year old car... it has been running well and I've been enjoying the car being more reliable but last week it developed a header leak. When I had the exhaust done a couple of years ago, the exhaust guy said they are prone to leak..

Inspected

This past Spring, I got involved in a little home remodelling project that I thought would take about a month but has drug on now for 4 and is still isn't quite done. The problem has been that it has taken all my time away from the rag top.

Rather than let the car sit in the garage all summer, I had it taken to a shop and had a couple of core things fixed. I had them look the car over, try to stop the tranny and thermostat cover leak.

In the looking the car over, they discovered a kinked gas line under the car, the rear mount on the drive shaft had been "hand crafted" and welded and they weren't comfortable with the engineering, and finally a valve cover leak as well. I said, go ahead and do that and change the oil, plugs and wires -- I just wanted to get it on the road. I guess it was pretty much an adventure down there, trying to get the right parts for the drive train because the engine, tranny and rear-end have become mix and match over the years.

They were able to stop the 3 leaks, its inspected and it runs fairly well -- although it still does have a mild hesitation when you just jump on it.

Anyway, after a few weeks away from home, its back in the garage.... and if it ever stops raining here; maybe I'll get it out on the road...

New Locks

I have lived without having door locks since I bought the car; and so I saw an eBay auction ending that hadn't been bid on yet for a set of 5 repro locks + keys. 2 doors, ignition, glove box and trunk.

Putting them in was pretty straightforward. Of course, I'm jinxing myself because I only had time this weekend to put in 4 of the 5 locks... still have the passenger door to do.

I found the 68 Pontiac Body by Fisher book useful for the doors, trunk and glovebox locks. The ignition lock was documented in the 68 Pontiac Mechanics book.

After having the panel off the drivers side door, I could see that the door itself was in pretty good shape -- no rot holes covered with bondo...

So now the doors match the ignition and the glovebox and trunk match... with a spare set of the early Pontiac keys..

Electrical Problems

It's been a busy summer and while I haven't had a lot of time to work on the car, I have been enjoying it. In driving it around, I have had several instances where the car would pretend to have a dead battery.

The previous owner had replaced the battery and put a modern alternator with a built-in voltage regulator on it -- the battery is fine and charging system is fine. The cables to the body and starter seems to have developed some corrosion and fail to let enough voltage through to turn the car over.

When the car won't start, I get out, jiggle the negative and positive wires at the body, starter connections and viola. I need to get disconnect, lightly sand the connections, and put some dielectric grease on them to prevent corrosion from building it back up and preventing the starter from turning over.

Spring Sprung

Had the car out for a few drives this past week and really need to get these leaks stopped. It was just warm enough to have the top down, but windows up; and as long as the sun was out, it was nice. Sure was nice to cruise around again. With 93 octane pushing $4/gallon its a little pricey to drive around.

The battery has needed to be charged a couple of times, and I can't figure out where the drain is.

In the past few months, I've purchased a view things from eBay, I have the 68 Fischer Body Manual, and the 68 Pontiac Service Manual; both original publications, which I purchased for about $20 each. Reprints are going for $30-40. The books are give very good detail, with reasonable assembly diagrams. I couldn't see why I would by reprints when I could get originals for less.

One of these days, I will have to try to do some forensics on the 350 motor that is in it. It is a Chevy, not a Pontiac -- which I really don't have that much of a problem with but it would be nice to know more specifics about it. It doesn't seem like a crate motor, it seems like it was taken out of one car and put into this one. I would not be surprised if this car started life as a 6 cylinder. Actually, for $50, you can get the Pontiac Historical Society to look up the original equipment and copies of the dealer order forms, factory billing history and other information about the car's original configuration, like color, options, hardtop, etc. I could see where that would be important for a correctly restored car, but this Le Mans is unlikely to ever be restored to original condition... and usually, this restoration kind is generally reserved for Le Mans' big brother the GTO.

Winter Time is Forever in the East

Winter has never been longer than this past winter.... The convertible has been just sitting in the garage looking at me the whole of winter. Even so, it has been tough to find the time (or desire) to go out in the freezing garage and poke around.

I find it hard to get started on a project that you don't see immediate benefit from. Maybe I'll be more likely to start working on getting her back out on the road. I literally have done nothing but start it in January. I did try to start it last week and the battery is dead. Early spring time, I want to address the transmission leak -- jeeze, seems like deja vu from last spring; give it a tune up and oil change and enjoy it this summer.

Here's looking to April and May and the end of being in limbo.

Old cars for Turkey Day

Took a ride out with the kids to Tipp City Ohio to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with grandma. She has an old farmhouse with a barn, and in the barn her son-in-law has stashed a '67 GTO. Its in pretty rough shape -- he had bought it for its interior and put it in the barn to store it until he could get at swapping interiors. Unfortunately, he left one of the windows down and a raccoon took up residence in it. The raccoon was found dead in the car, having destroyed and eating most of the car's interior. About a month later, a possum was found next to the raccoon.

Her son-in-law does have a '66 GTO in his garage that is in very drivable shape. Red with black interior, it is a 400CI 4-speed and really sharp. He also has a 25th anne. Vette in the garage.

On the way back from visiting those cars, we stopped at a family friends house to look at his '56 Chevy 210 2-door hardtop. This car was beyond immaculate; absolutely top-dog show car. He gave $30,000 but you couldn't built it for that.... car must have been in the $60,000 range. Even the undercarriage had full paint. 327 with dual 4 barrel carbs; chrome everywhere. I couldn't even start to remember every upgrade -- but things were just as new on the car. I personally wouldn't ever wanted to have a car like that because you can never drive it anywhere for fear of rocks, dings and even getting it dirty for that matter.

All-in-all really fun to talk cars with these guys.

Washed and put away

I washed the car, took it around the block for what I think will be the last time until Spring. Sad time in North East. :-) Anyway, for this winter, I'd like to get the intake manifold leaks and the tranny leak fixed. I have been so tempted to buy a GM A-Body power disc conversion kit on eBay -- but that will have to wait for next year I think.

Inspected!

Success, finally success. I can hardly believe I've had the car almost 5 months; and that it has taken me this long to get the car inspected... but it is done and the car is legal to be on the road finally. So the goal over this upcoming winter will be to really address the existing leaks, replace the electrical socket(s?) for the tail lights -- but in general, try to keep the car generally drivable; and not get it in a position where there are several projects going at once keeping it off the road. I fear having it sit in the garage for years at a time, and getting the car back into the position that it is off the road for 6 years.

When I think back at everything that has been done to the car to get it on the road, there really was quite a bit of effort put in; but at least for now that this is a good hobby for me because all this effort really doesn't seem like work, it feels good to get things working or fixed, and I am enjoying the experience. It sure seems a lot easier to enjoy the effort when you can take the car out on the road and drive it around.

Exhaust pipes corrected, brakes and head lights.

I did get the car back in to have the passenger side exhaust fixed up; since it was too tight to the body and was banging and rubbing when it was rolling down the road. The exhaust has a beautiful sound now that really mellows out going down the road. It is just a touch too loud at 55 and the motor is only spinning about 2000RPMs, but hey, what is a muscle car without a little engine noise?

I've bled the brakes a couple of times now and they still seem squishy. I got some advice that when I'm bleeding that I should open the bleed value, and have a partner slowly push down on the brake; but then HOLD it down; while I tighten up the bleed value. Repeat until no air comes out. This prevents air from sucking back into the line, which I think may have been happening on my previous attempts. This makes a great deal of sense, so another bleed sounds in order. If this doesn't address the issues; it looks like a new master cylinder is soon to be in my future.

I did have the headlights go out on me driving down the road again -- and my foot wasn't on it this time :-), but I still suspect that the foot operated switch is part of the shorting issue; and given it is really easy to replace, I may just go ahead and do that.

And as a final note, I did try to slip it through an inspection this past weekend. I lost a cable hanger, and so to keep the cable off the drive shaft, I had installed a spring where the hanger used to be. The eBrake pedal would set and I thought maybe if they weren't too careful or lazy they might miss it... but when you roll into a service station with a 2002 sticker in 2007, they kind of get suspicious and put it through the paces. The kid was cool though and didn't charge me for the failed attempt...

Flashers

I've been perplexed by the 68 Tempest/LeMans/GTO signal and flasher wiring for some time. I thought I understood the circuit; which lead me to believe that the flasher switch which is integrated into the turn signal switch in the steering column as shown below:


(Apologies for the blurry picture.) At any rate, I was able to use jumper wires below the steering column to get "flasher" behavior and this said to me that the problem had to be in the steering column turn signal switch and harness.

When I got the new repro harness and switch, I was astonished that it did not address the problem. I tried a number of different alternatives to diagnose where the problem was -- and I did notice that while I had a good fuse in the hazard lights slot, I did not notice the actual slot was dead; when it should have power. At this point, I went to the wiring diagrams to try to figure out how the wires went into the fuse block; with the idea that for now; I would bypass the fuse block and run an inline fuse to the flasher... bypassing whatever problem was actually going on in the fuse block -- saving that problem for another time -- like a winter time project.

At any rate, I went to the performance years forum to get advise. Unbelievably, it turns out there are actually two different flasher units; one for the turn signals and one for the hazard lights. One complication of the circuits is that different power sources are required for turn signals and hazards. Hazard lights are operational at all times for the car; whereas turn signals only operate when the ignition key is switched.

At any rate, the T/S switch is up near the steering column and this is the one that I've replaced and played with these past months. There is also one which is mounted to the fuse block which drives the hazard lights. When I looked at my fuse block, the flasher unit was missing! Well this is certainly at least part of the problem. I happened to have a spare flasher, plugged it in and viola! Flashers.

I believe that I'm now down to finishing the backup lights to pass inspection. I have that whole circuit wired, I just need to install the switch in the "exact" spot that causes the switch to trigger when the shifter is in reverse. That "exact" spot I've played with already, and there isn't a lot of room for error and I'm looking forward to alot of excitement getting it installed.

All in all it has taken me way, way longer to get the car into this shape; and while I think I am disappointed it has taken so long; I sure have gotten a variety of things fixed on the car through the journey.

Blown Fuse and Blown Mind

Took a few minutes and looked for a blown fuse to see if that was causing the dash lights from working. Sure enough, blown fuse. Had to run out to the gas station to pickup a 20-amp version and viola! Dash Lights.

It was so nice out the other night, I took it out with my dash lights fixed and noticed something interesting. The 68 has its bright light switch on the floor, a foot activated switch, just up under the emergency brake. During night driving I got used to driving with my foot on the switch -- so when encountering oncoming traffic, you can just flick your ankle and switch from brights to normal lights; and then back when the car passed. This habit was one that was burned in from when I was a kid, driving my 67 Mercury Cougar, which had the same bright light switch.

I noticed that when I braked, the lights would flicker. Then I realized, that when I put on the brakes, my body weight would transfer forward and cause my foot to depress the switch slightly, causing the circuit to the headlights to fail -- thus shutting off the lights. When I let off the brakes, they would jump right back on! When I moved my foot position away from the switch, the lights behaved perfectly; I had to laugh. It kind of blows your mind the funny things that go wrong with old cars.

Brakes bled

I went to another auto store to buy some hose but they only had a very expensive kit; but the guy at the counter said, all you need is the hose and bleed it into a jar. Keep the jar higher than the bleeding screw and pump out the brake fluid until there are no more bubbles in the hose. Well, this I already knew, but I needed the right size hose, and they didn't have any. The clerk did suggest I try going to Home Depot and get some.

I picked up some 3/8-inch transparent hose in a 20ft loop -- no it wasn't worth trying to find it by the foot :-) Worked really good; although I seem to be clumsy because I keep spilling the brake fluid... this makes every project 2 times as long, because it takes me as long to just clean up my stupid mess.

Brakes are good -- but in driving the car at night; the dash lights are out (they were working previously) and the headlights seem to have a short while driving as they go out for instant and back in... not exactly warm and fuzzy driving on a dark night.

Anyway, I guess it's progress -- the brakes are much better and don't feel spoungy any more.

Learning is expensive

I wound up ordering a new Horn Relay and Turn Signal Switches. These set me back close to $200. I thought I had debugged these issues however after plugging both new parts in, neither the horn nor the flashers worked with these new parts.

Horn
After making no progress, I went back to my Hayne's Electrical Manual, and I discovered that instead of applying power to the switch terminal, I should have been grounding it. This was expensive, as I believe my original Horn Relay is probably functioning well. (I saved it and might sell on eBay at some point.) At any rate, the Horn Relay Switch has 4 terminals.

RH-Back -- Horn Switch (activates when grounded)
RH- Front -- Horn
Middle -- Power (12-volts)
LH -- Buzzer Switch

The wire running to the Horn Relay power terminal had no power, and I discovered that this wire, while bundled in the wire bundles running up to the distributor, it was cut and basically didn't run anywhere. On the wiring diagram, this wire should run to the voltage regulator -- which I discovered was missing! When inquiring on the Pontiac forums, I have learned that the alternator that was installed by the previous owner actually has an internal voltage regulator built-in; which probably why the external one that is standard equipment on this car was removed. I rewired this switch to the alternator, reconnected the wire running along the Driver's side fender well to the RH-Front switch (it was dangling) -- and when I grounded the back switch, the horn blared!

Finishing the job of the horn, I had to buy a non-standard cancel cam that has a cut out for a horn peg. This slot in the cancel cam was not actually part of the original equipment, but was actually needed by the horn switch of the steering wheel I bought off of eBay. Seems like that hardware was at least a '69 or maybe even as last as a '70. Anyway, the horn now works from all 3 buttons on the steering wheel. Another part I'll probably put up on eBay one of these days.

Flashers
The new turn signal switch didn't clear up my flasher problem either. Both the right and left directionals work, but the flashers do not. I was able to get a "flasher" behavior by completing the circuits that I thought should be completed, and this made me think, ok the flasher switch which is integrated with the turn signals. Got the new switch and wired it in, and nothing. Same problem. I went back to the books and everything pointed to the flasher switch. I've already replaced it -- well, at least with a part I got from the previous owner. I bought a new switch and nothing. I had already verified the fuse was good visually, and so I pulled the fuse thinking this has got to be the problem. I tested the fuse with a test-light and the fuse was just fine. Then I tested the fuse box... and that slot in the fuse box seems to be bad. I'm a little confused why a separate fuse is required for flashers, when both sides of the directionals are functional. At any rate, I'm thinking the only difference I can think of is that the directionals only work when the key is turned on, whereas the flashers generally work without a key. Anyway, dead slot in the fuse box, and I have lead going forward.

Brakes
Fixing the parking brake turned out to be fairly painless. I loosened up the brake line fastener to give the line alot of slack. I added the hanger; one of the parts that came with the car, and the line actually was fairly taut before I got after the fastener. A few turns and the line was fairly taut. Inside a few clicks and the emergency brakes were on.

I tried to bleed the lines, using a one-man's brake bleeding kit. The kit came with hoses that are supposed to fit onto the bleeding screws on the back of the wheel cylinders. The front bleeding screws were too big, and I had to stretch the hoses to get them on. I bled each front, and then each back -- the back screws fit great. I made sure that the master cylinder reservoir did not get more than 2/3's empty and I refilled it after each wheel. The brakes are still spongy and I'm not sure, but I think the fronts didn't go so well. That's stretched hose might have let air back into the lines. I don't know.

Anyway, so 3 remaining issues for inspection. I need to finish the backup lights, get the brakes back in order, and finish debugging the flashers.

All in all a bit of progress this weekend, but I really had hoped to get it further along.

New Exhaust

After reviewing my options, and taking the car to a local mechanic, I opted to have a custom dual exhaust installed. Because the car has a Chevy 350 and Hedman Headers, any solution I came up with was going to involve some custom pipe work. After crawling under the car and looking at the condition of the existing exhaust pipes, I decided to replace the whole lot from the headers back.

In researching local businesses, there just aren't that many shops that do custom exhaust -- but I did find C's Auto Custom Exhaust here in Poughkeepsie. I had originally wanted Flowmaster 50s; and was all set to have them installed using "409" pipe, which has a blend of stainless steel for longer life. Apparently though, the Flowmasters were back ordered, so they offered me Magnaflo Stainless Steel mufflers at the same price.

It does sound nice... real nice low rumble taking off and very quiet and smooth at speed. On the short drive home though, I developed a bit of a rattle that is definitely exhaust related... I didn't have any time this evening to crawl under there and see if I can see what is rattling -- anyway, I might have to take the car back to get the rattle tightened down.

Ouch

One of the aspects of owning an old car is the incredibly strong feelings one has when you do something stupid to it. I was pulling it out of the garage and no other excuse, just didn't get it clear before I started turning it to spin it around.


Sigh.

In the meantime, I've been searching for an exhaust shop that can do custom exhaust in the area -- you'd think this would not be difficult. When I was younger, it seemed like everybody had some form of custom exhaust. From the research I've done, I 'd like to replace the glass-packs with FlowMaster 50 mufflers. Since it is a convertible, I do not want to have reverb (a problem apparently with the FlowMaster 40s) and I do not want to have the loudness of a glass-pack -- although they do sound cool, its just too loud -- well especially since one of them is rotted through.

I have taken pictures of the rear-end for the experts on the Performance Year's forum to verify it is the heavy-duty rear-end. I did find a cast "N" on the snout side, which would make my day.

Some progress

I've slipped in a vacation and had some additional house work which has delayed some of my efforts on getting this car inspected. I just haven't had the time I would like to work on the car, but I suppose, priority-wise, I am working on the right things.

I have however had time to be scouring eBay for 68 Lemans/GTO parts; looking for interesting ideas and getting a feel for how expensive certain things are. I've picked up:

• A working GTO Rally Clock which will install into the 3rd empty dash hole. There are really two ideas for this hole, the Rally Clock, and an in-Dash Tach. I opted to search for a clock since I am wanting to put a GTO hood on the Lemans (although no GTO emblems or such) and I think I've opted for a new hood tach, since I have an HEI distributor upgrade.
• A used dash face bezel which does not have the radio holes cut out. My dash has a modern box cd/radio cut into it, and this dash bezel will allow me to restore the dash to a more original look should I desire to do so.
• 66-72 New York State License Plates which I hope to get put on the car soon. The key factor will be whether or not the number is available, and I did not verify this prior to buying the plates -- they seem to go pretty easy on eBay -- if I cannot get the number registered (because some else is using a different years plates with the same number) then I'll just put these up for sale again and buy another set later.
• 3 rear GM seat belts for $72; which I've actually installed. I soaked the original seat belt bolts in the penetrating catylist, and put some anti-seize lube on them. The seat belts are used and not show quality. I guess I'll keep my eye out for a really cheap deal, but show quality belts are going for anywhere from $175-$350 dependent on quality and what's actually in the package.
• An engine compartment hood light.
• New NOS GM door lock stems. The car came with some cheezy "dice" stems.
• A wood-grained upgraded GTO steering wheel (not the hardwood model which seems to go for about $500). This replaces a very ugly Grant "racing" steering wheel and really the interior a much more stock, natural look.
  

After installing the seat belts, I took my girls to the drive-in last night which was really cool. We did good getting there and back -- however, in driving back, the headlights went out for an instant (driving lights still on) and then back on... and then again a second later. Drove it straight home and obviously have something not quite right there. My guess is the grounds to the headlights aren't quite solid and it causes it to fail intermittently. Also, after watching two movies running the stereo and some internal lights, the battery was just barely able to crank the motor -- luckily the car likes to start right up and it didn't turn out to be a problem. I would expect a battery charge to hold longer than that, although the battery is supposed to be only a few months old.

On the inspection front I have the following left:

• Replace the mufflers. The hole in the driver's side muffler really adds just a bit too much "ambiance" to the sound for me; and it probably isn't too, too wise driving the car around at this decibel level. I am leaning towards FlowMaster 50-s because I want the car a little quieter than the 40s (since its a convertible) and because the 50-s look like they come in a size I can just plug replace the cherry-bomb glass-packs that are on it now.
• Adjust parking brake. I've been under the car a couple times and in looking at this issue, it seems that I'm missing a cable hanger, which may be in the box of parts I got... I've seen an s-shaped wire floating around, which looks suspiciously like the cable hanger.
• Horn and Flashers. When Larry was here, he put on the stock steering wheel, but the horn mechanism doesn't quite match, and we are thinking the steering wheel really is a '69 and the horn relay seems to be slightly different, which seems to require a notch in the receiver stem to hold the mechanism in place -- something apparently the '68 didn't need. Also, I have traced the interior wires to the horn to terminate inside the engine compartment and that has to be run inside the passenger compartment and wired to the horn. Haven't debugged the flasher issue at all, but I have already noted that I've replaced the flasher unit in the dash already, but didn't correct this issue.
• Backup Lights. I'm still only 1/2 way through getting the backup lights wired.
  

Other issues that I am limping along with and need to get corrected:

• Engine leak. The thermostat housing is leaking and needs to be addressed. Should be trivial when I get the time. It does need a tune up as well.
• Transmission leak. I still haven't addressed the transmission leak, but in reading forums and such, the TH-400 seems to be prone to leak, and I'm thinking that the next step is to look at what it will take to replace the dip stick shroud.
• Read End leak. I need to identify my rear-end -- it is a 10-bolt, but I don't know if it is the heavy duty kind, and I have no idea what kind of gearing is in there -- posi or whether it is stock gears or upgraded to 3.55 or higher. I suspect it is stock 2.93 because my RPMs in 4th gear at 60 is a little over 2,000. If the rear-end gear was higher, like 3.55 or so, I would think the RPMs would range from 3,000-3,500 at 60.
• Door Locks. I do not have keys to the door locks; I have ignition and trunk keys. I need to have copies made of the keys I do have, and I plan to go to real locksmith and get his opinion on what the best options are. There are plenty of complete replacements on eBay, so it's really a matter of trying to figure out what the easiest plan of attack is. One option will be power, remote locks which I am interested in pursuing.
• Rear Light Sockets. I still sorely need to replace the rear light sockets to make them much more reliable.

I won't even list the upgrades that are running through my head.... one thing at a time -- its easy to let your mind wander... I really want to keep things realistic and to-date, I just haven't lots of time for much work yet.