70 GS 455 Reference Gift

I made it to the BCA National for three days this week but the find of the year was at a local car show on Sunday. There was a one owner GS 455 that was bought local and was garaged its entire life. It has about 120K miles but is about as original as you will ever see. This car can answere alot of questions but also stir up so more controversy. I cralled all over this thing for quite a while and took lots of pictures. Check them out. Owner was a real nice guy as well.

Car is bamboo cream and has original convertible top.

Check out the never painted very shiny air cleaner(foams were changed)

 

Any doubters on what clamps were used on the bypass hose??? Here you go. The owner changed the hose but re-used the clamps!! Smart guy. You can see they are red as the factory painted right over the hose which is gone now. No way to really tell the color without looking at the inside. The big green ones fit perfectly.

 

OK, what is up with the negative battery cable? Thsi original cable had a gound wire. Ever see this on a 70? Car is November car with plastic radiator cover. White overflow top, pointed gauges. etc. My 70 assembly shows a change to the cable in May of 69. Maybe this is leftover?

I know the battery is a reproduction.

 

Firewall markings. Check out the 50 B paint code and the Disc D. Still tough to tell the color of the crayon on the color code. The brake booster and voltage regulator are two of the few replacements on thsi car.

 

Now to stir this up again....The Trim Tag...The damn thing is painted black and it is a Flint car. I have seen many original and junked Flint cars and all are unpainted. Owner says car and firewall was never painted and From what I see he is correct. The other picture shows bamboo overspray on the other side of the firewall.

 

I dare anyone to restore a car and put that much overspray on the underside of the hood. The factory was sure sloppy.

 

Non Ac car tidbits...Check out the heater box. Never been off the car. This thing is very glossy. Check it out compared to the firewall. Look at all the sealant gooped all over the edges. I get a kick out of pristine restorations that have no sealer at all on the box. This is how it was done boys and girls. Also check out the red heater hose clamp. I have these for sale buy the way.

The hose clamp atttached to the intake was satin black not red.

 

Jason, if I go the Non-AC route, mine will look that way. I like the real look like a human made this not a robot.............Talk about another factory screw-up this car actually had the jack instruction decal from a B-C car not A body. Owner said it came that way. Worker must have had a rough night.

 

All the Flint built Skylarks here in FL have painted cowl tags....so not unusual for me to see this.

 

Weird George. I know of at least 5 Junkyard Flints up here that are bare and have seen tons more. Maybe the night shift painted them and the day shift did not?

 

I always thought maybe it just flaked off the tags gradually over time because of the surface not being prepared. I have seen a lot on which I thought this was going on.

 

My flint built 70 GS has a painted cowl tag.

 

I think Jim Lore may have nailed it.....the trim tag is aluminum. Aluminum doesn't take (and hold) paint like steel. With the "quick and dirty" methods the factory used to paint places like the firewall, etc, I think it's highly likely you may be seeing the result of a "paint-without-proper-prep-on-an-aluminum-surface".

Read any paint manufacturers info on stuff like DP90 epoxy.....aluminum typically has its own specific recommended procedures. Aluminum begins oxidizing very quickly when the bare surface is exposed. It could very well be that these tags (or the sheet stock used to make the tags) sat around in their bare metal state for some time before they finally got stamped, riveted on and painted.

 

I do not agree with the flake off theory and here is why....My local yards are full of Framingham built cars as well as Flint built. All of the Framingham cars have painted tags and not one of them has any flaking paint. If that theory was correct at least some of them would be at least partially bare and some of the Flints should have at least some of the paint left on it and not one does. One of the Yards I go to also has numerous other Buick models from Flint and all tags are bare. I also had many Oldsmobiles with painted tags and not one of them had any pealing paint from the tag. They were painted black. That factory paint was lacquer and it stuck like glue to everything. Also on bare flint tags you can always see a mask line on the edge of the tag. I think maybe on busy days they just got lazy. Bottom line. It was done both ways and either is correct.

 

Also on check out thatag on the car in the picture this post is about. 41 years old and not one flake of paint missing.

 

An examination of the very picture of the tag that you just posted in #5 reveals that the flaking process has begun. I suspect that individual environmental exposures accounts for the varying degrees of progress on various tags.

 

Jim, I do not see much peeling on that tag. Certainly there would be some tags at least half bare. ....There was also a low mileage 72 Stage-1 for sale at the Buick club National meet up here last week. The body had been painted but the firewall and engine had never been touched. Tag was completely bare. Car obviously has been well cared for its entire life.

 

What is on that tag above is more likely bamboo oversparay. There was plenty of it on this car.

 

Hi Jim, I know you are an attorney. Remember the Scopes trial? I have not found the Missing link between painted and unpainted. Darwin would be stumped.o No: