I know I spelled ORIGINAL wrong in the post title before all you Spelling Weenies go nuts. My fingers cannot keep up with my brain I guess? Here are some good shots of a mostly untouched 1970 GSX under carriage. The car is a New England car with some light rust in places but is very solid. It was under coated most likely at the dealer. There are some interesting things here for all you resto freaks. Check out the front firewall body mount. The car is late April Flint built and it appears they were still using the early sloppy orange striped mounts and had not gone over to violet yet. The body cushions have a heavy amount of yellow paint on them. There are two types of yellow cushions. One style has vertical ridges on the sides the others have no ridges. I believe the ridged style are later as I see them on 71's. This car has both styles so they must have been changing over at this point (late April of 1970) They both carry the same GM part number molded in #1377367. Strangely the ridged style also has the word " blue "molded on the bottom? The non ridged style are available from Cars as BM644A and are the best on the market with the washer molded in as original.
This one may end a lot of arguments but might make them worse as well. This rear end was painted black on the rear including the rear cover. There is an obvious line across the bottom of the axle tube where the paint ends. The left tube has more paint on it that the right tube. I am not saying this is correct for all but this Flint built GSX "DOES" have a partially painted rear housing. This would be in line with what Duane has said for years. The sway bar appears to have a combo of paint and under-coat on it. The bottom of the center section also has orange paint marks and a yellow two letter code.
Gas tank feed and return hoses have yellow clamps on the main feed and red on the return.......... Side rail fuel line clamps are now green on the main line and red on the return however it is tough to tell in the photo.............The three side rail fuel/brake clips appear to have black undercoating as does the fuel/break lines. These will be off soon so they should be yellow underneath. The "S" clips are black. The only yellow "S" clip is under the brake booster as it is a different size.
These appear to be the original head pipes with the flat bottoms. Someone appears to have given them the silver Rustoleum treatment.
Cool pics and info. I really appreciate the time you(and others) have taken to document and share this type of info. It is very interesting even to me who has a very limited amount of knowledge about Buicks much less these cars specifically. Many of us will never see a real GSX much less an unrestored one in this type of condition. :TU: So for that, we thank you. Is this one to be restored and will there be a thread started?
Thanks Guys, I enjoy this stuff to further knowledge for the correctness and variations. This car is pretty original . We are cleaning things up and deciding how far to go with making it look a bit nicer under there. Hope to have more pictures to follow. The only problem with leaving things as they are is they can deteriorate more.
Just an fyi regarding the exhaust pipes, aftermarket Walker and AP pipes that were available in the late 80's/early 90's at all auto parts stores were flattened on the bottom just like the ones you have pictured.
Frank, They are not the mounts but the cushions. Just remove the bolt and out they fall. The mount orange streaked mount pictured is still in place. ---------- Post added at 03:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:27 AM ---------- I did not know that about the aftermarket pipes. This car is pretty low mileage so chances are pipes are original. I believe the are double walled as well.
Uh o looks like Herbbies headed for a frame off .. PS my April Flint car had Orange mounts too . Workers likely used what was around not what some manual says . DL
Dave Nice pics. My untouched original paint 70 GSX Stage 1 4 speed car has same features. GM did a blackout rear axle paint drift over rear axle so front of axle and tubes will be natural metal finishes. Is this a second GSX you just bought?
I can add some light to a couple of issues here. My comments come from the B-O-P plant in Framingham circa 1972. The different body mounts on the same car is due to something GM used called TMD (temporary manufacturing deviation). Parts came in from different vendors, and there was stock "use up" and phase in of the newer part. The line was moving at 60 cars per hour, so GM did everything it could to keep the flow going. As far as the frame painting goes, the reason there is a visible line is the method in which the chassis was painted. The chassis were built upside down. At the end of the chassis assembly, 2 line workers with spray guns would dust the chassis with black paint. Just enough to keep the parts from rusting. And, it was not a meticulous paint job either. The amount of TLC these cars received was minimal.
No frame off DL I have been convinced not to touch the time capsul. If the next guy wants to restore it he can do as he pleases
