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Lapham3

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Posts posted by Lapham3

  1. I think I saw an indoor show pic of this car somewhere in the past.    It takes me back almost 50 years as I had a '65 Pont Grand Prix, that was the same body as the Catalina which had the 2+2 option. My car was Fontaine Blue optioned with the base 2+2 421 with Carter AFB rather than the GP base 389. With 2.73 gears that car beat up a bit on my dad's '67 Wildcat 3.07 geared 430.  Unfortunately my wife tried to take down a telephone pole with that car.

  2. The comment regarding tire quality reminds that as a young pup I worked for a while in a busy Goodyear tire shop. Some may remember that in the 60's the OE tires were 2 ply and the 4 ply were optional-and quality of many tires was iffy.  Tires with defects and being out-of -round (and wheels) were every day. It wasn't rare on a road trip to have flats, cord separations or road hazard events. Spare tire use was always part of the picture. (as bent 'decorative' Riv bumpers from the OE jack can attest!)Tires are much better today, but there are still many, IMO, that are not round enough. We used a spinning 'hop' of more than 0.030" as a guide and trued many tires over this amount. Today, about nobody but racers know about this and the term is now 'shaved'. 'Road force' balancing 'manages' sins today. As always, monitor tire condition and pressure. (and bring along a small floor jack!)   Rivs, do love the open road.    Dan    Mpls. Mn.

  3. With a nailhead, I would tend to change the rear end gear set before giving up the 400 transmission. I wouldn't even attempt the purchase/installation of a Gear Vendors on my '66 Riv. I have the complete banjo off a '70 Electra with a 2.56 ratio that I was going to do a swap with one my Wildcats 'one of these days', but that day hasn't happened yet!  My old hauler El Camino has a 2.41 ratio and the early fuel injected 3.8 Buick with the 4spd overdrive in our '85 Olds Ciera wagon ended up at 2.29 =both did very well on the road.        Dan   Mpls. Mn.

  4. From my experience, that's pretty normal and I've seen even a bit more 'slop' without issue. I've got a '66 225 where you can hear the clunk on a quick tail wag-no problem in 20 years. Tony, is that the Rivboat you had at Flagstaff in '06?-looks a lot nicer now!   Dan    Mpls. Mn.

  5. I remember my dad 50 years ago talking about how the two largest areas of consumer expense- the ' home and auto' and with those businesses being 'rife with those who seek advantage' and to be careful. He was also a guy who would say, 'if you want it done right, do it yourself'. I have found truth to both over the years.

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  6. Classic Motorbooks=boy that brings back old memories. I recall that the original guy was a Brit who started out at his south Minneapolis house/garage not far from me. He later moved to a couple locations on either side of the St. Croix river on the Mn/Wisc border and it has spawned others to do similar 'transportation' publishing in the area. I remember years ago he'd mentioned that he'd bought a new Cobra back in the 60's and had still had it-an interesting guy.    Dan  Mpls. Mn.

  7. Yes-as usual Tom is correct. Years ago I sourced both the Buick and identical aftermarket kits and added them to my '65-67 B and C body cars. I couldn't find room on my '66 E body Riv and used a smaller one from a Mazda B2000 pickup. I don't recall what year these became a standard production item, but my '73 Pontiac had a similar design as OE.    Dan   Mpls. Mn.

  8. The basic ring and pinion was the same, but the carrier, axle size and spline count changed I believe from '62-'63. There are also a fair amount of 3.23 gears around as it was OE more with the '63 Dynaflow -where 3.07 was found more with the '64-5 400 trans.

    Dan   Mpls. Mn.

  9. Tom-you'd be the one to know best, but I recall that for the '66 the 425 was a $59 option from the 401. My 225 has it and my dad was one who always ordered cars to his wants and would check the largest engine option!     I've not seen a crack involving the oiling system either.        Dan   Mpls. Mn.

  10. Guys-a couple things-First dielectric is an INSULATING term-not meaning to enhance CONDUCTION. So, only use it as per the directions in Bill's post. The other thing is this reminds of a local fella who used this Lectric Limited set many years ago in his '65 Wildcat.  As I recall these were added along with other 'tune up' items and after the car would barely run. Some of us were helping him sort this out and the end result was that a certain production of the nailhead 'boots' were more conductive than not and most of the coil output was going to ground thru them!     Dan    Mpls. Mn.

  11. Yup-good old laws of science are good in our otherwise crazy world.. Points-optical-magnet are all just switches on the primary side. I was thinking about the super duper "Judson Electronic Magneto" of the late 60's with a bunch of neat cooling fins all over and a phoney diode stuck to the outside.-people thought their cars ran much better.

  12. I used to have some problems related-I'd mention that I was going to a boneyard(one of the few left) to pull some parts and somebody would want this or that. I'd find a donor, evaluate the part as well as I could, pull them and pay and get back to the person to find that the price I'd paid was too high. As I said-I USED to have that problem.   Dan    Mpls. Mn.

  13. Much better! Does remind of one of the fellas bought a '63 that had the earlier available OE reproduction done and it looked great. The only problem was the previous owner felt that was a higher priority job than the two broken head bolts!?

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