Correspondence with Galen Dae (Part 1)

Hi Chris,

Please to meet you Chris. Car looks like the day I sold it. Absolutely gorgeous. Not too many red on red cars. I owned it July of 91 and sold it on 6/26/97. Please kick me for doing that!! Anyway I worked on it almost every week and probably put only 200 miles on it in 6 years. So sorry my restoration book was missing. I will try to remember what I did to the car.

The guy I bought it from lived in Livermore, CA. and worked at the Wente Winery in Livermore, I think his name was Glenn Folks. He was not a "car nut" like me and seem to not know that much about it. He was an older gentleman and told me he had bought it from some young guy at a gas station. Anyway Glenn was at a car show and had a 'for sale' sign on the car and I was interested as I was looking for a while for a fastback coupe. The lines are gorgeous. I had wrote down the numbers to the motor, tranny and rear end and researched it and found that the dates and numbers matched. There was some minor work needed at that time with nothing major.

I inspected the master cylinder after I drove it home and found that it was almost empty. I looked on the inside tires and saw wetness and found that the brake cylinders were all bad and leaking. I purchased new calipers with resleeved cylinders with stainless steel and had Big O Tires install them and install new rubber bushings in the front end and do an alignment. I had to bring the original calipers back to get some money back for the core. I purchased the calipers at a place called Carter's Corvette parts in Livermore.

I had problems with the Holley carburetor as it was leaking fuel and worn out. I think it was the original List 2818 part that came with the car but I went to the Chevy dealer and bought the same carb but a newer version. It kept running rich and fouling the plugs after about 5 miles. I kept downsizing on the jets and then it ran too lean and started bucking and starving for fuel. I can't remember what jet size is in their now but I finally got it dialed in.

I wrapped a starter blanket on the starter as it had heat soak and wouldn't start after it got hot. Had to wait about and hour to cool down but it was fine after the starter wrap. I tried to keep everything stock and would only buy parts from Zip or Mid America. The repro knock offs were already on the car when I bought it. The center cap chrome piece did not have the blue and red stripe on it so I painted them on.

I was checking the torque on the intake manifold and snapped the bolt head off of the second bolt on the driver's side closer to the radiator. It started to leak coolant so I had to remove the intake. I filed down the neck of the bolt and got it flat on one side taking a vise grip and turned the rest of the bolt out.

I replaced all the bolts with factory bolts new old stock on the intake and used Fel Pro gasket for the intake. I remember when I removed the distributor the tag was still on the neck of the distributor with the correct part number. That dist. is original to the car. I also installed a new set of points and condenser. If you look under the distributor shielding you should see a plastic piece that was original to the car.

I don't think the motor has ever been out of the car as the rear bell housing has orange overspray that goes onto the top of the tranny. The heads are matching and dated close to each other. The casting clock on the back of the block is raised designating that it was cast on swing shift. The motor, tranny and rear end matches the 350 horse motor and build dates.

The rear is a 3:70 posi as it winds up really quick in the street. I raced a Ferrari in the street and had him for about a block then he flew by me.
There was a small hairline crack above the frame kick up above the rear driver's side tire from the torque so I put some JB Cold weld and patched it. Anywhere you see black semi gloss paint was painted by me after doing a lot of research. Noland Adams book was a treasure trove of information. The bottom splash shields were cleaned and repainted using Rustoleum along with the bottom and side of the frame.

The car was up on jack stands for about a month so I could clean the frame. There was no rust just a lot of red color dirt. I used a small wire brush and toothbrush to get at all the nooks and crannies. I then used a small paint brush to paint the frame and control arms. The passenger footwell fiberglass on the outside still had in orange crayon "job and a number" from the factory.

I had the driver's door open for a week and the hinge sagged a bit and the door wouldn't close so I shave off a bit of material on the door edge to get it to close. The gap still looked nice and I repainted the edge with red lacquer.

The passenger front fender had some rock chips so I had a place in Milpitas, CA. repaint it with red laquer and they blended it very well. The front and rear bumpers are original to the car. I replaced all the bolts with the correct ones. The rear tail light surrounds were painted black which is incorrect so I masked it off and repainted them silver.

I was driving and heard a sound like grinding, when I came home I jacked the front up and the front passenger tire fell off the hub as the roll pin had sheard off the knock off hub, I drilled out the broken pin and replaced it. That was close!

The left side pull out vent cable was broken that connects the vent cable to the rear blower motor in the cabin behind the driver. I purchased a new one and replaced it. The blower motor was working.

The shifter when placed in reverse would get stuck and not disengage even with the clutch depressed. The guy I sold it to had some bushing replaced under the handle and it was fixed.

The car had the leather seats in there already but the codes designate vinyl but red is correct. The jack and knock off hammer are from Mid America and not originals. The dash is too shiny so I did lose points at shows. I didn't paint the inside. The radio was an expensive option at that time. The clock didn't work anymore so I replaced it with a quartz one from Mid America. Had to send in my old one. I also replaced the glove box liner. I repainted the glove box door.

Sure there's a lot more info missing. I'll write back to you soon.

Best,
Galen Dea