Camaro dash pad refurb

Finally getting some time to do a little work on the B4C that's NOT fixing broken stuff. A looooonnnnnnggggg time ago, I picked up a near-perfect dash pad for the car to replace the shattered one that's in it right now. I figured I'd give it a treatment I learned from a friend decades ago when he was protecting the dash pad on his '69 GTO. He slathered the thing in petroleum jelly and wrapped it in Saran Wrap and let it sit for a while. I think he did it for like 2 weeks. It restores some of the flex to the vinyl, and helps it live in southeast Texas sun.

I did that trick on a dash pad on our SVO we're currently restomodding. Those are notorious for cracking, too. Like 3rd Gen Camaro dashes, the aftermarket sux for replacements.

With the Camaro dash pad, it's sat on the back of the B4C for about 5 YEARS. Now starting to clean it off. The petroleum jelly is taking off years of dust and dirt, maybe a little cigarette smoke from POs, and the pad is looking good. Here's a couple of pictures of the pad now. Updates as they occur.

(IMG:https://media.fotki.com/2v2erz3NWxJDYiP.jpg)

(IMG:https://media.fotki.com/2v2erz3rGxJDYiP.jpg)

HVAC Blower Question

I took the blower out of our 92 to replace it, and it appears that the blower cage is pressed on. I can see little, rusty, splines on the shaft, and no nut, nor threads for a nut. The replacement motor has a nut on the end to hold the cage on. I've hit the stud with PB Blaster and after sitting a while, tapped on it with a small hammer. No budge.

Is it really pressed on, and, if so, what's the trick for getting it off? Thanks.

Cheap Chinese cr@P!

:set rant=ON

While chasing a rattle in the back of the B4C, I noticed that the rear bump stops had deteriorated. Much like the spats on our 86 SVO, they just fell to the floor of the shop in crumbly pieces. Looking around, I discovered that the poly replacement pieces require you to cut part of the mounting surface away from the body. Not willing to do that, this IS a mostly-stock B4C 1LE car, I opted to just use factory replacements.

It looks like Dorman is the only co that has anything that's not poly for the 3rd Gen, P/N 31068, so I ordered a pair of these, not cheap, repros. I decided today was the day to do that, and after getting the back end off the ground and the wheels off, went to work. Being a mostly unmolested Texas car, the bolts came off will little effort, albeit more than I wanted to do, given my current state of rehab from shoulder surgery. Anyway, I started to bolt the new ones in place, and the freaking bolt holes don't line up with the body!!!!! I verified the P/N, but sure enough, the bolt holes are about 1/8-3/16" off. After drilling the holes out to 1/2" and slotting them with my die grinder, I got them on the car.

I'm really p1ssed that these things pass off as OEM replacements. It's not like I'm trying to fab a part for some rare, odd car. I can't wait to get my 'we'd love you to review your purchase' email from the reseller!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

The rattle, BTW, was a mis-assembled rear sway bar end link. I don't remember when, or who did the work, it was certainly me, with, or without help. Who knows. It's all better now. THAT sh1t fit!

:set rant=OFF
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Feeler - 3rd gen lift-off fiberglass hood

I keep having to move this thing around the shop, and am thinking about selling it. It's a VFN 4-1/2" lift off hood. We had panels where the light doors are on a factory car molded to the front corners so it's one piece from the bumper to the windshield. It was a lift-off, with Dzus fasteners added along the leading- and side-edges of the hood. It was painted a mat black, and was only used about a year before we went with a mid-range intake manifold so the intake and carb would fit under a lower hood. It's still in pretty good shape, except for the mods we did for our specific applicaton.

I do have a box, so shipping might not be a big deal, but I'd still expect it to have to go freight just because of size. Heck, the box probably weighs more than the hood, but it would probably only fit in the largest of UPS/FedEx trucks. I'm figuring a couple of hundred plus shipping would be about right, but it will have to be for a special car. Note that it is NOT CP-legal. Thoughts?

In case anyone was wondering what it looks like. Here it is resting on top of our SVO. Kind of dusty, but cleans up nicely. The closeup picture shows how the headlight lid areas are closed up.

(IMG:https://media.fotki.com/2v2HMoVwUxJDYiP.jpg)

Close up:

(IMG:https://media.fotki.com/2v2HMohb2xJDYiP.jpg)

1000 year flood?

Holy waterworks, Batman!! This stupid Harvey can GTFO, as far as I'm concerned!!! Friday and yesterday weren't too bad, some rain, some wind, but last night, after Harvey had collapsed into a TD, the rains started falling. We got about 12" in a 2.5-3 hour period last night. The yards filled, as they normally do, but it just kept coming. Finally, the water reached the weep holes in the first course of brick around the house, and started coming in around 1130 last night. We frantically moved stuff out of our office, which was formerly a formal livingroom, which in true 1970's fashion, is sunken. So there was the opportunity for the thing to fill to at least 6", or so. That's not so bad, except the UPS is on the bottom shelf of my 'server rack' that's in the office, and that makes the base at about 5" above the floor. Yikes!

So I shut everything down and unplugged the UPS and wrestled that beast out of the office to a safer place. We got a total of about 1/4-3/8" of water in 5 of our rooms, and then things slowed down some. After the water receded some, the water in the bedrooms actually drained. We still had some cleanup to do in the office, and have finally dried the floor from that.

We'll still need to remove the carpet from the dining room, and will, no doubt, have to replace some drywall, but so far, we've been lucky. The storms are far from over, though, so we're watching and worrying. But H0ly FSCK, we've never seen this much rain!! Our rain gauge is showing 12.3" of rain over the last 24 hours, and other rain gauges in the area have recorded more than 27". There are still water rescues going on as people cut themselves out of their attic and call for help from their roofs. It's bad here, all over the Houston area.

The garage got about 2" in it, so there'll be some lovely cleanup going on there in the next few days. We haven't been able to get out to the shop to check on the status there, but it's about another 2-3" higher elevation, so fingers crossed things are okay there. There's still 2-3' of water between us and the shop, so we'll have to wait a while before we can go check it out. Sadly, our tallest vehicle, or GMC, is stuck out in the shop, so we're pretty much stranded here for the next couple of days.

But just wow!