I just had a conversation with Dave Johnson and am getting the 3 stamps mentioned in the subject line in the coming weeks. This is going to be my approach: you will ship me your hose (s) and I'll stamp and ship back to you in the same box. I'm not shelling out money to buy a bunch of hoses and end up sitting on half of them. If you want to drop ship from Todd or CARS directly to me, that works as well. The Dayco radiator upper hoses I recommend for 1970 GS 455 and '71 GS350 & 455 are: #70548 1970 GS 455 lower: #70742 (this requires some trimming) Gates: Upper: #20577 Lower: #20597 1971 lower hoses: Gates: 20919 Dayco: 70648 For anyone who hasn't seen the stamps, this is how they look: Breather: Upper hose: Lower hose: One very important thing of note: the ribbed texture on the newer radiator hoses doesn't leave a "smooth" stamp, as you can see in the picture of the lower hose above. I just wanted to make everyone aware of that and not to expect perfection. It's not like they were building show cars to begin with. Pricing will be very reasonable and payment will be made via Paypal or Venmo. For those who want to use money order, you can include one in the box with the hoses after you've determined shipping costs back to you, which would likely be the same to get them to me. Again - as of right now, I'm not buying any hoses, so there's no need to reply you're "in for three" or that you'd like "one of each". Whatever you ship or drop ship to me will be what gets stamped and returned. I think I'm making this easy for everyone and look forward to helping my Buick brethren out. Until that time, I'm going to close this thread. When I have the stamps in hand, I'll reopen. I just wanted to give guys time to get their ducks in a row and maybe get the Dayco/Gates hoses from the local auto parts store (or wherever) and/or check with Todd/CARS to see how surplus might be regarding breather hoses. Pricing will be determined once this thread reopens and my address will be listed then as well. Stay tuned...
The stamp store is open. Price will be $25 per hose. I came up with that number due to materials (ink, stamp pads & acetone) and the fact that it took me over a dozen tries to get the one in the picture I've attached to come out respectable. PM me and I'll send my address.
Just finished another pair of '70 hoses for another customer. I've decided to use the '71 Dayco lower for both '70 and '71, as they have a nice, smooth texture and also fit better. I'll edit the original post later.
I've had a couple people reach out regarding the "line" often seen on reproduction radiator hoses and the definitive answer isn't yay or nay but that there is no definitive answer. I've seen both with and without the line, a line that has "breaks" in it that isn't fluid and also hoses with a complete line. Below are two original examples of one with the line and one without. 1970 Stage 1 magazine road test: 1971 big block Gates lower hose: Here's an NOS Goodyear that Cook got from Dave Johnson back when he owned the Aquamist car: So, it's pretty much a toss up. Getting a good hose with good texture that you can get a good stamp on seems to be a chore, although I've recently had good luck with the Daycos. I have no plans to make mine with lines. Getting a good, clear stamp on them is enough of a pain in the rear. I'm beginning to see why Caruso stopped doing the Swan power steering return hoses. I hope that clears up any confusion going forward.
Pretty sure I have an orig. '70 GS 350 upper hose. My Stage 1 may even have an orig. upper as well. I'll check & post pics if so.
2 NOS Hoses (yea, I know NOS doesn't mean squat wrt how they came orig.) Also what I believe are orig. hoses w/yellow stripes.