rocketraider

I had forgot about the Chevy plant in Atlanta; I see the Doraville plant often when traveling to Marietta.<P>Being as 'Vair pickups (incredibly neat vehicles!) were built there, is that where the Lakewood wagon series designation came from?

Here's another idea. Since you want to keep yer airplane gears and the trans has to be rebuilt anyway, get a 200-4R BUILT UP RIGHT and stick it in there. You'll have two advantages. A deeper low gear to augment the current gear ratio, and overdrive final ratio for all out top end blasts. You could still go up to 3.42-3.55 gearing and keep yer top end capability.<P>I don't really recommend the 700 for your application because (1) it has to have an adapter plate to mount to a BOP block, and (2) it has a deep first gear but a WIDE ratio between 1st and 2nd.

Hadn't read CarCraft in a while, they (like the others) got into a Camaro/Mustang rut several years ago and I figure, if you've seen one you've seen 'em all, so I quit reading. Same with Hot Rod, which I now find myself getting again since Petersen killed off Muscle Car Review which I truly enjoyed. Popular Hot Rodding satisfied my go-fast gene better than the others, but since Pete Pesterre died they don't stray from the mainstream much either. One of these days I will realise I am not, have never been, and will never be, mainstream.<P>?!? And then today, PHR comes and danged if they don't have the bitchin'est 62 Caddy ragtop I ever saw! Caddy powered too!<p>[ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: rocketraider ]

Comfortron was actually Oldsmobile's gimmick name for ATC that Chevy picked up on for their big car line. I know that by late 70s (after the downsizing) Pontiac was also calling ATC Comfortron and have seen several Bonnevilles and Safaris with it.

Find a pair of #5,6 or 7 small block Olds heads, put big valves in them, ream the head bolt holes to accept the 403's 1/2" head bolts, then do a little port matching and cleanup. Use Edelbrock's matched cam for the Performer intake, installed straight up. Get the carb and distributor blueprinted and performance curved. Small primary tube diameter headers for low end torque thru Flowmaster or DynoMax exhaust with an H-pipe. Shift kit for trans with around a 2500 stall converter, 3.73 gears and around a 27-28" tall tire. Subframe connectors are a must. It might not break the tires loose at 30 mph (though I have known some Pontiac 400 equipped cars to do that) but you'll know it's in there, and the Mustangs etc will soon find out.

Is it a big car or a Cutlass? Several companies will make a harness, but if you can find a good used one it will be less expensive and will connect correctly the first time. My experience with repop harnesses is that you will have to correct at least one item to get everything like it should be.<P>If big car, I can point you toward a couple yards who might have them. I have a 64 Starfire and the full set of manuals, so I can make a color copy of either the big car or F85 wiring diagram if you want.

455 what? There were three.

What's this? A major modified car rag feature something besides a Camaro or Mustang? Dayam...

Subframing would be your easiest way out, overall- plus you get the benefit of modern suspension. Guy here has a full custom 52 Ford pickup that is Buford powered sitting in a stubframe from a GM X-body (Nova etc). You'll have to update rear end and driveshaft too, as long as you're into it that far. I think this would make an awesome restified street cruiser- classic styling and modern underpinnings, without resorting to the overdone SBC/turbo 350 that are a dime a dozen at any rod show.<P>I sympathise about wanting a reliable drivetrain. I have a 64 Olds Starfire whose SlimJim trans and 4GC Rottenchester carb have beat me up till I'm tired of them. The thought crosses me little brain to stick a 455/turbo 400 in that one for fun, and find another nice one already done to enjoy as a collector car.

We had kin living in upstate New York who were used to wearing sweaters in July, and one year they came here in a just-bought 67 Caprice sedan, Tropic Turquoise w/ black vinyl top and cloth interior. No A/C. And it was hot here the summer of 67. About three days into their visit, the new Caprice went to Sears and had a hang-on A/C installed for the trip home.<P>And a lot of people were like my dad and his sister- they wanted things as simple as possible. One of their brothers always had loaded-up Roadmasters and Ninety Eights,and she and Dad always sniped about "Mack and his damn gadgety cars". Her husband bought a 68 four-door T-bird that was forever in the shop with some electrical glitch, which only reinforced her belief that cars should be simple. I think she was happier with their 1960 Falcon wagon than any other car they ever had.

Heavy duty engine and transmission cooling and station wagon rear springs at the very least. A trailer this heavy will have to have an equalising hitch which may or may not be available for your car. You already have the HD frame in convertible, but the trailer load may make it flex more than you'd like. <P>I'd be inclined to get a truck with a 10000 lb towing package.

The Standard Catalog of American Cars shows 17,519 1963 Wildcat 4d HT built, but doesn't break it out into bucket/bench seat equipped. All it says is bucket seats optional on 4d HT, std other models. Since a 4d HT was aimed at a different buyer than the 2d HT or convertible, I'd say no more than 10% of 63 Wildcat 4dHT would have had bucket seats. It was aimed at the same market who would have bought a Galaxie XL or Mercury Marauder 4d HT, both of which had buckets/console standard. Neat that Buick offered it in a 4d HT at all- the other GM divisions didn't.

Couple other things to consider. You'll have to move some wires around in the instrument pod plugs, idjit lights and rallye pac use different locations, so you'll need a wiring diagram. Also- on 73-76, Rallye Pac cars had a separate seat belt warning lamp in a little nacelle that sat on top of the dash. And that thing is damn near impossible to get loose without destroying it.<P>From experience, I like GM sending units. Seems like aftermarket oil senders especially make the gage do weird stuff sometimes, fluttering, dropping to 0 and then back up, etc. Even respected name brands will do this.

I just wish they'd quit scheduling it the same weekend as Spring Carlisle. It used to be the weekend after Easter, meaning it moved around some. B-O-P Atlanta, are you listening? I drove 6 hrs back from PA on Friday and left for another 6 hrs to Atlanta early Sat morning one year, never again!

Those were the great days when you could order a car with what YOU wanted- not some "Option Package I" that was dictated more by the mfg profit margin on those options, or by EPA restrictions on powertrain combinations.<P>I believe Buick and Olds made automatic standard on the B&C carlines in 1971, maybe Pontiac. Chevy offered it as standard at least thru 1973 with 6-cylinder, and the A-body cars had it standard til about 1976. <P>Weirdest equipped car I ever saw was a 1966 Biscayne 4d-sedan with 6, 3-speed stick, radio delete, and COMFORTRON! Found another weird Chevy, 69 Impala, 327-Glide, PS, A/C and 6-way seat. You may have read about the weird mid 60s Buicks I mentioned last week.

If you have the side trim and hood spear you can get away with using 88-98 sheetmetal; if not, happy hunting. 62 stuff is not easy to come by (for that matter any year Starfire). Try Pacific West Auto in California, pacwestauto@1stnetusa.com, or Larry Camuso (also in CA)408-286-6537. These guys have come thru for me many times.<P>Matter of fact, Pac West is advertising a mint 62 f/s LF fender in this months Hemmings.<P>Glenn Williamson<BR>the Rocketraider<BR>1964 Starfire coupe

All of them have it except Jeff. He went to some voice coach to lose it. His mother has had some choice words about that in the local papers! Naow doan thet jus' beat Sayam? (translation from the Southern- Now doesn't that just beat Sam?) Ramble on!

If either carb originally had a thermostatic choke coil, you can adapt an electric choke to it. For the Q-Jet, get one for mid 70s Cadillac, leave the paper gasket out from between the coil and choke housing (otherwise it won't ground and won't work) and run a 12 gage wire to it from an ignition switch controlled circuit in the fuse block. There should be an IGN terminal in it somewhere.<P>The AFB is same design as the Edelbrock carb and you can order an electric choke for those thru Summit, Jeg's etc.<P>I think 67 Olds used a divorced choke, so I don't know how you'd adapt a thermo-coil choke to that intake to take advantage of engine crossover heat.<P>Just out of curiousity, are you an EVOC member? They're having a 9th anniversary party in Va Beach March 24th over at Ray Houser Automotive.

Many GM dealers installed aftermarket A/C underdash units, and Sears and Penney's installed them by the thousands in those days before factory A/C was commonly ordered. Some of the better known ones were A-R-A and Mark IV. Best way to tell if you have a factory kit? Look for a GM or car division logo on it somewhere. I know Chevy offered their underdash unit at least thru 1969. But the York compressor tells me it's probably an aftermarket.<P>Experience? My folks had a 1965 Impala with a Sears A-R-A that would freeze you out of it on a 90 degree day. Their 1969 with factory in-dash Four Season unit couldn't touch it for cold.

It was one of those "unproven" options and people were afraid of it, and more to the point, afraid of what it would cost to repair it if it broke. Same with the ACRS (Air Cushion Restraint System). Worked exactly the same as it does today, off bumper sensors. Had a driver's and passenger's side bag, and I think what killed it as much as anything was, you could not have Tilt-Away or Tilt-Telescopic steering wheel if you ordered airbags. People weren't as concerned with safety options then, and the insurance companies were too busy trying to kill off performance cars to offer ABS and ACRS discounts as they do now.<P>At the Oldsmobile 100th Anniversary bash, the show staff looked for a 1974 airbag car unsucessfully for months. I've only seen one in my lifetime.

I think the Buick Climate Control is like TempMatic in that you can select the outlets the airflow comes out of with the a/c control- lever on Olds, rotary dial on Buick. The bottom lever sets the temperature setting.<P>Tempmatic has 2 levers, one to select air outlets, and one to set temperature. You also have control of the A/C compressor with the semi-automatic system. On Comfortron the compressor runs all the time and you have just the one lever to set hi, lo, med, def and deice. Then the electric marvel does its thing, keeping you at 70 degrees if you're lucky!

Was searching a junkyard for wiring harness plugs today and found some 1965 big Buicks- an Electra 4-door hardtop and a LeSabre 400 4d sedan. Both reasonably complete and factory a/c cars. Weird in that the LeSabre is a radio delete car, and the Electra had wind-up windows. Hiatt's Used Auto Parts, Danville VA 434-797-9571 if anyone's interested. There were a couple mid-60s Skylarks in there too, and a 61-62 Special 4d sedan. Ask for owner Charlie Hiatt, he's more in tune to old car folks than his son is.<P>Almost forgot until someone asked me about 59s- there is a 58 Special 2d sedan in there too.<p>[ 02-20-2002: Message edited by: rocketraider ]

Tony, there's times I wish automatic temp control were so rare as to be nonexistent!<P>I have two TempMatic Oldsmobiles that work ok for the most part, though the 83 wagon has had to have a couple of junkyard programmers. It used to whistle and buzz to beat Sam trying to modulate temp in the car. I've gotten fairly good at diagnosing why they won't work- of course, the 22 degree morning that it stuck in full cold, and I drove 30 miles to work with no heat, made me determined to understand the silly things!<P>I have looked at several nice cars and once I saw they had Comfortron I decided someone else needed that car worse than me. A good friend who retired from Oldsmobile Zone service told me once that from 1966-73, more than half their zone level service work involved trying to get Comfortrons to work. That was all I needed to hear to know I didn't want one!<P>Amazing that Olds, who innovated it, dumped it in favor of TempMatic semi-automatic system in 1974, but Buick, Chevy and Pontiac stuck with it. Just today I saw a 1981 Pontiac Grand Safari that had it in a junkyard.

General Motors itself offered dual m/c changeover kits for pre-1967 cars thru the dealer parts departments. Wonder what are the chances of finding one now?

Moepar, I think you'll find there's some difference between S and Supreme 2-door bumpers too. There's a guy in Hickory who may be able to help, but for my life I can't remember his e-mail. Jim Michael, Classic Olds. Or try Jimmy Simpson down in Concord, grn72442@netscape.net. Both these guys normally do 68-72 but I know Jim is always findng decent later stuff.<P>We have an Olds Club of America chapter in NC if you're interested.