Correspondence with Galen Dae (Part 2)
Hi Chris,
I remembered some other items that I forgot to mention. I had the original black AC oil filter canister and installed a screw on one instead for ease of oil changes. I did include it in my boxes of parts hope you got that.
About a year before I bought the car I had attended a neighborhood garage sale and saw a lady selling a set of spinner hubcaps for that year. Of course I knew what they were and asked how much she wanted. She said $40 so I purchased them laughing all the way to the “bank”. She said her husband used to work at a gas station and a fellow came in with a Vette and they worked on the car but forgot to reinstall them and he left and never came back.
Strange twist of fate that lady who sold me the hubcaps lived a block away from me and we ultimately became friends with them going to the same church. A year later I purchased the Vette and had the hubcaps already. Strange twist of fate!!
The headlight motor is original but one of the headlights is a bit slower than the other. I replaced the headlights with original T3 bulbs. They aren’t very bright but I didn’t drive at night anyway.
The front springs are original to the car and were fine so I left them as is, it still has the inspection tag on one of the coil springs (I think it was the passenger side). I purchased a repro plastic tag for the rear end oil bolt and installed it (it’s red plastic) hope it’s still there. There was also a repro radio tag that I got from Mid America which hung on the radio knob when it was sold.
All the door weather strip on the doors are new. I even used the same yellowish type of adhesive like what the factory used to install them. The two upper door weather strip at the top of the inside door body are new also. The screws holding them down are the originals. Most of all the screws/fasteners that were still good were carefully cleaned with a wire brush or toothbrush so as not to scratch the oxide coatings and then reinstalled.
The manual steering gearbox was still in good shape so I left that alone, the rag joint was also in good shape. The inner fender stapled splash shields are repro ones as the ones were falling apart. I tried my best to replicate the position of the staples but they were really hard to align the old holes to the new staples. I worked on it for two days and gave up so I bent the staple legs flat and glued the shielding to the inner fender to give it the appearance of being stapled. You may one day want to redo that. The entire inside firewall and inner fenders were scuffed to get rid of the loose paint and then resprayed with the Rust O Leum satin black to give it that egg shell sheen described in Noland Adam’s book. The wire harness was fine and is original to the car. There’s white color resistor attached to the firewall to the left of the master cylinder which is original. Ground straps were cleaned and reattached to the frame. Car was on frame restored not off frame. You can still see the original rubber mount mount on the front passenger side. I remember that it was dry looking squashed so the body mounts may eventually need replacing. Motor mounts are original never changed. Never had any issues with them.
The horn was working intermittently so I removed the steering wheel to see what was going on. One of the wires was pulled out of the contact slightly so I cut it and strip the insulation a bit and reinstalled it. It worked fine after that. The steering wheel was slightly off center so I aligned it back to center and tightened it back up. Surprisingly the wheel was in super shape and did not have any cracks. It’s the original one.
The body was manufactured at the A O Smith plant and then brought by train to be fitted to the drive train. Most coupes were made at that location. The HT designation on the stamp pad indicates the 350 horse hydraulic Duntov Cam motor mated to the 4 spd. It was an 11-1 compression motor and I could never get it to idle smoothly. It loped along at about 700 rpm at idle.
The M-21 tranny ran fine all I did was pump out the gear oil and put new oil back in, same with the rear end. If you look directly under the “rear end pumpkin, there’s the date code stamped on it which correlates to the build date.
I repainted the underside of the hood and installed new weathstrip on the hood. It came out really nice. The alternator was replaced with one from Zip with a closer build date, the alternator wire/plug was also replaced. Fuel filter was replaced with the correct one I think that was stamped AC? Heater hoses were replaced with the correct ribbed ones using repro tower clamps on all hoses. The radiator is a replacement. I remember using an inspection stamp at the top of the radiator passenger side to make it look factory. The neck on the original aluminum coolant recovery tank was coming apart. I tried to JB Weld it back but it did not hold so I purchased a new one with a later stamped date from Zip along with a new correct cap.
The tires were already on their when I bought the car, Goodyear Invicta tires?? So they may not be safe anymore because of the age. All the glass was made at the LOF (Libby Owens Ford) company and was date stamped. I think the buyer after me changed the front windshield since there was a scratch on the driver’s side. Not really sure but check the date and etched stamps.
When I sold the car there was a minor oil leak at the front timing chain cover, I didn’t bother to fix it since it was minor. The gas gauge did not work so I stuck a broom stick handle down the gas tank opening and move the sock like sending unit. I brought the car to FH Daily Chevrolet in San Leandro and they dropped the tank and replaced the sending unit. The gas gause was working fine after that. They did not find a tank sticker on it.
I have the old DMV title to it, would you like a copy? Need your address.
So tell me how did you arrive to purchase the car? Was it advertised on the internet? Who did you buy it from? I sold the car for 26K I know they go for much more today. Please let me know if you want to sell it back to me! I have a very nice 69 Camaro which I will not let go. I’m the second owner on that one.
I will e mail you again if more information pops up in my memory banks. I hope you enjoy the car as much as I did. Keep in touch. Let me know if you are ever in the San Francisco bay area.
Galen Dea
