I finally had a chance to display Mr. Cook's repro dealer service mats. I went to a beach show with my mother. Perfect day by the water.
I finally had a chance to install the masterpiece CF/IA, "K" date coded Harrison my radiator guy did a few months back. SJ tag courtesy of Todd Miller. I found this on eBay back in February and met the seller (from Long Island) in Connecticut because he was leary about shipping. Subsequent shake down had no leaks and this car also doubles as a grocery getter.
I saved another Harrison CF/IA August date ("H") radiator from the scrap heap and also bumped the timing up to the Buick 455 "sweet spot" of 32 ish degrees total. I erroneously had it lower for who knows what reason. Nice brisk day in the Commonwealth, too.
Saw it on eBay. Guy was asking $165 plus shipping. I reached out inquiring about the codes and he told he couldn't find any, was "a Mopar guy" and to come pick it up. Umm, okay! I can't bring myself to let this stuff get scrapped. Especially when there's one currently on eBay for a Chevelle needing to be redone for $1200. I'll most likely have this done and offer it for sale here.
The fun continues. Tach and gauges are boxed up and ready to ship to Scott Moody and the cluster will get refurbished, complete with the new woodgrain BYoung hooked me up with at the Nats.
Now you can take the glass out, refinish the top of the dash.....might as well pull the column out while your there...
First update/upgrades of 2022: Dave Johnson was nice enough to come down a couple weekends ago and impart his wisdom on dash cluster installation. It wasn't easy and we took a handful of backwards steps before tidying up the dash. The blue tabbed heater control cable was missing both tabs - not surprising - but we managed to get that squared away using his cable clip method. Mark Wajda's new reproduction woodgrain is spot on. In a hobby that affords us mostly less than adequate reproduction parts, his are second to none. All new bulbs and polished lenses make a huge difference as well and Scott Moody's recalibrated tach and gauges work as designed. The passenger side seat was fine when I had the driver's side done a couple years ago but last year, it cracked in a few spots, so that's been redone with new lower springs, new foam and the leftover black vinyl cover I had when I bought the pair from Todd Miller. Admittedly, the bottom is now stiff but it will settle over time. Next up are the replated hood hinges I had done by Cook's guy out in California. Tood hooked me up with some new bolts as well.
Haha! Thanks! Wait times for stuff are beyond annoying. The lower springs were a 3 month wait. I guess I should consider myself lucky...