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

Gary thanks for that info and pictures. The 72 Skykark I had a junkyard cut the trunk floor out for me also had the original tank metal on metal as well and the build sheet was just sitting there on the metal. Amazing they survived all those years of rain/salt/snow. Most Olds I have worked on had a rubber pad between trunk and tank. Probably better without because less likely to rust.

 

Gary,
You mentioned before it had the original rad. hoses. I used your photo of the upper hose as the basis for my reproductions. Can you post a photo of the lower to see if my location of the printing is close?
Thanks again for all the timecapsule photos.
Steve

 

Gary, just another question about your car. If it has the original heater valve in the heater hose does it have a straight or 90 degree bent vacuum nipple?

 

Dave,
71 & 72 buicks didn't have the rubber pad on top of the gas tank. They stopped that at the end of the 70 model year. You can also see the decals on the rear spiral shocks, and the aluminized coating on the tailpipe.

Keep the pics coming Gary.
Duane

 

Went up in the attic and found the old hoses. Here is the lower hose. The ink stamping appears to be yellow, but the thin stripe appears to be white. The lower hose was made by Gates while the upper hose was made by Goodyear.

 

More upper hose photos

 

One of the very few items on the entire car that had ever been replaced was the water shut-off valve. So it is not original. Our other cars have straight vacuum nipples but can not be 100% sure they are original.

The only other items I can see that were ever replaced were: distributor cap, plugs, plug wires, 1 engine belt, air filter, battery, radio (original was taken out in 1972 but came with the car) & tires (replaced original set just before I bought the car).

 

Here is another sticker that is usually gone, the frame code sticker on the drivers side of the frame, at the top of the arch over the rear axle. This car was undercoated but you can see the outline of it.

I was able to remove it in 1 piece. After getting it off I can look at the "sticky side" see that the paper sticker was a thin white label with large red letters stamped on it, and it was placed on the frame "upside down" when viewed on the completed car. This sticker is shown in the factory assembly manual.

I'll see if I can find it. I put it somewhere for safe keeping but can't remember where

 

The assembly manual says the front face of the brake drums should be painted black on cars with road wheels. Well this car came with full hubcaps but they still painted the drums black. The paint appears to be VERY thin, and almost gloss black. Only the vertical face has paint. You can see in the photos that 2 of the wheel studs still have the retaining rings on them that were put on to keep the drums from coming off during the assembly process.

This also tell me that no one ever checked the brakes on this car for 32 years prior to me buying it.

Rear Drum

 

Front drum:

 

In the interior a couple of the front seatbelts have an extra little tag hanging off the normally present sewn-on tag. The extra tag is preforated (spelling?) like it was intended to be torn off and the primary info tag can remain since it was sewn-on. The removable tag simply told what applications the belt was intended for.

I don't think the original owners ever used the seat belts in the car. They all look so new they could pass for NOS. The owners left the 2 front lap belts pulled out of the retractors and folded/rolled up so the that the seat belt warning light would not continue to buzz when the car was in "Drive"

 

The radiator still has the ID plate/tag and you can see that it was painted black but that a flat stamp with white paint was used to high-light the letters with white paint. You can see that the stamp was square because you can see the corners of white paint. I removed the overflow hose from the clip so the tag could be photographed.

 

The passenger side front inner-fender appron that covers the upper A-arm has about 40-50 extra staples in it. It looks like someone was testing the stamper!

 

Looking through my pictures I realized that the rear seat belts all had the extra little ID tag still in place also. Here are a couple of them:

 

I'm glad this thread came back up, this is awesome information!

Thanks Gary!

 

great stuff .......ttt

 

I have a couple of 70 radiators which are in even better shape because the cars were kept inside and there is no question but that the raised letters on those tags are not highlighted.

 

Jim,
Gary's car is a 1972 car from Flint, while your parts are from 1970 cars (? production plant). There were a lot of changes over the years, especially from plant to plant.
Duane

 

I have a 70 and 71 sw tags still on the XS radiators from Flint with no highlights on the raised letters. Never had a 72. I will say that I have looked at a lot of radiator tags now since we started discussing these issues and have never seen one with the letters highlighted as shown. Could be they were put on in 72 or someone way back high lighted his after they left the factory. I cannot think of any other explanations for the difference.