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Suggestion- if you can get a Wittek type clamp on the bottom of that flex pipe to your heat stove like the factory did it, you will be happier when you pull off the air cleaner and not have to muck around getting it back onto the stove AND the air cleaner. Or even a worm clamp would work.
You can see the "tower" of the wittek clamp facing the rear down at the bottom of the flex pipe.
Looking really good Keith! I will be doing this particular job fairly soon to my 79 H/O. Putting in a headliner in my blue 79 was a grind, but that job on a T-Top car will be much easier. I've decided to remove and re-dye all my interior panels from the b-billar on back, since all from the b-pillar on forward were re-dyed. So right now as long as I don't look back it looks fresh and new. Seeing your photos will help me do my task when the time comes.
Thanks Gene. One thing I discovered on the T-top b-pillar panels is it appears the factory mis-labeled R and L on those pieces. I took stuff apart months ago, in a hurry, and didn't take good pics of what I was doing with those panels. I saw R and L on several of them so I thought "no problem...they are labeled...it'll go back together"...I'll be interested to see if that is the case with your H/O panels (circled below).
Working my way towards the front of the car. Found this lower outer seat trim on ebay, it polished up pretty nicely. Now I need to find the lower outer piece for the driver's side.
I'll look around this weekend, that one is the #1 most high traffic piece, tough to find in decent shape. But I know I have a bunch somewhere.......
On another note, I just got my cans of bright white dye yesterday from Vinyl Pro, and next week is going to be in the mid seventies, so it's spraytime! I'll be using your photos of the pieces you dyed as a reference, so thanks for that. I'll also need to dye the headliner fabric (white) as the "off white" headliner I bought turned out to be tan. No biggie, it looks like it will slide right in.
One question for you. I've never seen the style of sail panel dome lights on any other car, but I guess they used these on other G-Body T-Top cars, I never paid attention. When I went to replace the bulbs with LED's and clean the lens, I noted the body of the light was plastic not metal and it was a dyed surface of silver rather than metal. Did you dye that piece anything special color?
I didn't get too fancy with that light base. I used one of my silver paint pens and called it good.
Good luck with your interior painting, hopefully your dye mixture sprays on a little thicker than mine has. 4 more cans on order!
Thanks for looking through your parts stash for the seat trim Gene, I appreciate it!
Silver pen, excellent idea, I'll run with that, thanks! Looks like I won't get to the storage facility until during the week, rain all day here today. The area lot surface at the facility turns into mud when it rains, so I avoid going there.
Door panels back together, looking pretty good, cigarette burns and all! New felt sweeps (inner and outer). All electrical (locks/windows) back to working, although the window motors have to work extra hard with all that new stuff to push the window through. Bullet mirrors tightened up and fresh gold paint.
Those sail panel dome lamps are typical T-top fare for late 78-88 A/G bodies.
Bases are GM p/n 3074596. Lenses are GM p/n 20058960.
I believe you can repros new aftermarket for 90 per pair, although they claim their p/n for the reflector is 20058959. I honestly think they just made that up as GM never sold that lamp as a unit and that part number never existed in GMSPO literature that I can find. It did exist as an engineering casting number for the reflector portion, but the catalog part number has always been 3074596. I learned many years ago, engineering casting numbers may NOT necessarily end up as GM Service Parts catalog part numbers.
I have NO idea of the quality of the aftermarket, of course.
Pair from Gbodyparts.com
Biding my time waiting for the correct dash cover overlay to get here as I work my way toward the front on the interior. So in the meantime I've been messing with an old AM/FM/Cassette Delco radio with a non-working cassette player. I got in there and found one of the two belts shot so replaced those and got the cassette player working. Still have some issues to work on before I mount it into the car, but I think I can get this close to original on the radio set-up. If anybody wants to see what's inside these old radio units, here are the pics.
This is really looking sharp, lines are crisp, dials and ***** are clean, radio face is in great shape, does the green light on the left side work when the cassette player is in use?
Thanks BC79 and old80!
Gene, I don't see any light on when the cassette is spinning. I noticed when putting the radio back together I lost one of the blue plastic cap coverings that go over the two lights.
Understood now. In looking at your video I was able to get a better look, this style is an earlier design, I think it was used in 1978 and early 1979, it had no green bulb light indicator that lit up when a cassette was being played. On those later designed models the indicator was just below the FF/RW button.
Got the dash overlay in this week, but the color is way off! So...ordering more interior dye. Since we're bored, I finally found a convenience spare I've been on the hunt for. Best I can decode from the date is it's either a 1980 or 1990. Does anybody still have their original 79 H/O doughnut spare, and is this one somewhat close?
Gene, found a set of lower seat trim pieces at MKAP, Mister Keith's Auto Parts. Figured I couldn't go wrong there!
Eh, well, all I can say to that is that you should just be careful regardless where you shop is all. Don't know if things have changed, but in the earlier days, I'd rank him just a notch above BAP.
Keith, those pieces are just fine, looking good! Totally your call, but consider looking into a set on NOS (not reproduction) sill plates, they really brighten up the look once the door is opened. However, as this is a heavy wear area, they won't stay pristine forever, trust me on that one.
If they're fairly straight and not full of dents, you can take your used ones to a local metal polisher and brighten them up and make them look new again.
If you want NOS ones, they're p/n 20008170. Pretty pricey for the GM ones new in the package if you can find them. Expect to pay about twice the price of repros.
Keith, those pieces are just fine, looking good! Totally your call, but consider looking into a set on NOS (not reproduction) sill plates, they really brighten up the look once the door is opened. However, as this is a heavy wear area, they won't stay pristine forever, trust me on that one.
x2 on the metal polishing, that's a great idea as well as these are getting harder & harder to find NOS so one can expect higher prices. Plus as mentioned these are high wear pieces so it will not be long before they are scuffed up/dulled up again depending on the car's use. I just put mine back on my H/O and they were NOS when I put them on for the Nats last year. Man, I can't believe how much abuse they have taken since then. Scratches everywhere. They are only NOS once.......
x2 on the metal polishing, that's a great idea as well as these are getting harder & harder to find NOS so one can expect higher prices. Plus as mentioned these are high wear pieces so it will not be long before they are scuffed up/dulled up again depending on the car's use. I just put mine back on my H/O and they were NOS when I put them on for the Nats last year. Man, I can't believe how much abuse they have taken since then. Scratches everywhere. They are only NOS once.......
If only there was some type of clear film you could have them covered with to protect them.....🤔
Got the interior paint order in today and dyed the dash overlay, so we are getting closer. In putting the dash back together I realized I'm missing a bezel trim piece that I never had, probably because the guy before me put in the aftermarket gauges. It's the piece that surrounds the rallye gauges...think I found one on ebay but not many to be found out there from my initial search.
The complete door sill GM p/n is 20008170, fits either side. 78-88 A/G 47or 87 body styles.
If you do need to get them polished and hose up a Fisher emblem, they make repros of just that Fisher Body emblem as well, albeit a tad pricey at 10 bucks each. GM p/n 20010201.
I know nothing about the availability or the quality of aftermarket stuff as I try to avoid that if possible.
I polished up the sill plates a while back and did mess up the Fisher emblems. Looking back in my expense records it looks like I paid $28 to get a set here. They are on the plates and looking good!
Keiyh, if it's that plastic black surround piece that goes between the gauge cluster lens and attaches to the large rectangular dash piece, let me know, I have a few of these. I actually know where one is.......
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