Interesting notes from a true 25k mile survivor '72 Buick

Jack Assembly

Note the original jack is gold and black, but the handle is gray. Never been out of the trunk! This will be a nice part to put in the trunk of our '72 Stage 1.

 

Original valve stems

Note the original valve steam cap is smooth with no lettering, I'm sure other styles were used, but at least in this case it had no script.

 

Tire decal

This little sticker "C-16" is on the backside of the tire and is visible when the tire is bolted face down in the trunk. Wonder what this means? Wonder if it is a Uniroyal sticker or a Buick sticker?

 

trunk Weatherstrip

This is a detail most people don't ever notice. The original alignment marks on the trunk weatherstrip. It is usually visible on even high mileage cars but people rip the old rubber off before they ever notice. This car has a red and white mark. I've seen other colors on other GM cars. It is visible in the 1st overall trunk photo I posted above, its about in the middle along the front edge of the trunk opening. I think the mark was there so that the installer would make sure the ends meet in the right location. Which is another point almost everybody gets incorrect on their restoration, the 2 ends of the rubber are NOT supposed to meet in the center near the striker, they are always offset to one side. It doesn't look as neat as having them meet in the middle but if you want your car to be correct and as it was built when new, they are usually offset about 10"-12" to the left or right.

 

Gary-

Keep the pictures and information coming! Truly a time capsule. Thanks for sharing. I love this kinda stuff! :TU:

 

Wow, you guys who do concours resto's are really going to be able to get anal now!!

 

The '72 2 bbl 350 I have has a stud in the pass. side and a bolt on the drivers side of the t-stat housing. Like Adam said, probably for the TCS.

Gary - Thanks for all the info, keep it coming. Are the heater hoses and by-pass hose black?

 

Here is a picture of the steering box aluminum cover. The bolts are definitely black. The heads have a "N" but also have "1L" below the "N". Note that the ID sticker is still present and readible "BZ". Every steering box that we have seen that was in decent condition has always had black bolts.

 

buick64203,
You are right about the Air test, here is what is written on the back of one of the 1972 Buick factory photos showing an engine being tested.

 

Darrenkp,
The bypass hose is painted red (see post #10, on 1st page of this thread for the photo). The original "ribbed" heater hoses are present and are all black. The 3/4" hose had wire clamps on both ends, and the longer 5/8" hose had these also but the short (~6") hose that goes from the intake to the water shut-off valve had the traditional tower clamps (this is an A/C car). Those wire clamps were tough to get off today due to the tight space.

 

Well you asked for it...

The PS pump still had the sticker with the 2 letter code on the back of it. This obviously would have matched a code on the buildsheet. I think this is way cool, we have never had a car with this tag still intact.

I found several other tags today, I'll post them tomorrow (wife wants me off the computer!)

 

:tu:

 

vacuum setup

if you can,can you post a picture of the vacuum hoses i would like to see how the factory did it and if they used a plastic tee or aluminum which ive found on other cars.in 72 i believe the tvs and tcs where one unit.at least thats how it is on my 72 skylark 350 2 bbl...........................thanks..ed

 

Those wire clamps at the heater core are a nightmare to get on or off. Much easier with the fender off. What plant did the car come from? Very nice time piece by the way. Answers many questions for resto geeks like me.

 

Wow someone was doing some searching to dig up this old post from 2 years ago!

dreeesh, I will snap a picture of the vacuum hoses and post it here in the nest few days. I did look and it has an aluminum T on the hoses near the T-stat housing.

copperheadgs1, I agree with you on the heater hose clamps. The heater core started leaking last year so I had to remove the clamps while doing the replacement. Needless to say, but I did not reinstall these originals or the original hoses. The clamps are a pain in the butt!

After driving the car everyday for the last 2 years I have run the mileage up to 37,000. I also had to replace the fuel tank sending unit when the fuel gauge quit working and found a really nice condition build sheet on top of the tank as shown in this picture. The car was built in Flint near the end of the '72 production year (July '72).

 

Gary, was there any rubber on top of your tank or was it steel on steel?

 

Oh by the way here are a couple of picture of "The Turd" as my wife calls it. All of the paint on the driver's side is original, and the entire passenger side was repainted. Now all these years later, the original paint is now better than the repainted sections.

 

This car was steel-on-steel, no rubber. I am 100% certain that the tank had never been removed because the car was undercoated and the bolts on the fuel tank straps were still covered (along with the threads which made removing them a pain).

Here is a picture of the area above the tank. As you can see the car was undercoated (it came from Chicago). But one interesting note that is incorrect on many/most of the concours restored cars at shows: the body drain plugs were installed after the car was painted so they are not painted black (still just a natural metal color) and the body sealer is still visible as a white color. Also note that there is so much body-colored overspray that the floor almost looks like it is "burnished cooper" rather than black.

This car has about 100 more small detail items like this that are interesting to crazy folks (like me). It has been a great $1700 daily driver for me for the last 2 years. I need to make sure that I get all of them captured in a picture before I use the car up!