DoctorLarry

Hi, Derick. The stuff I am using is beading supplies from my local Hobby Lobby. They are cylindrical glass beads (not the round ones) and they make flexible braided wire that can be easily bent to 90 degrees. They have three sizes so you can do large hoses like oil coolers as well as fuel and brake lines. The beads are Miyuki Delicate. Not cheap, but will last a lifetime.

In pictures of a Cale Yarborough Cutlass, that was how it was aligned but it had brackets on both sides so I put brackets on both sides as well.

For the safety of the driver's pants:

Yes they did.

That's what the white brackets are for. I have a panhard bar from the TBird but I have to shorten it. I was looking at the Olds Cutlass photos I have to see which way it ran.

Got back after 10 days in southeast Asia wit a group of MBA students. Did some more research on short trailing arm cars by looking at some of Tim's old builds and the Petersen archive photos. I mocked up the rear end then shortened some TBird arms and made some new mounts. Plumbed the rear diff brake and cooler lines and glued it up. I made some brackets for the track bar which I have to shorten and find some suitable shocks and then this part is done. Them I need to run brake and fuel lines to the front, plumb the master cylinder and front brakes and install the coil and battery. Then the chassis will be done!

Is that the Salvino kit?

Tim is correct. It is a 77 Buick that was being raced in 1978. Evidently there were a few drivers that went the Buick versus Olds Cutlass route. Janet Guthrie evidently was another.

Maybe Thirkettle, not Thirkette. Hard to read.

Had the opportunity to travel with a group of MBA students to Hong Kong and Bangkok over spring break and so had some dead time to kill in a few places. I have a dormant couple of Buick projects (73 GS and 76 Century Pace Car) and someone opened a thread on Randy Ayers' site about 78 Buicks. They posted a web site that had racing pictures from several races and I found this one. The driver's name is Jim Thirkette(?) but I thought it was a gorgeous car. Anybody know about him? I read a little and saw a few other pictures, seems he was a west coast regular.

Does anyone make a kit with short rear trailing arm suspension? I assume the chassis you used had rear leafs?

Who did the decals?

I also worked on the engine wiring. It needs a fan and some touch up, but almost done.

Got some time in Friday night. I wondered about the rear suspension on the car since the front was ridiculously stock. Harry Quackenboss called Herb Adams and verified what he thought, that it was a truck arm required by NASCAR. However, in looking at photos of the car, it appears that the trailing arms were very short, almost like old Lakewood leaf spring traction bars. Given that there were no clear pictures, I improvised somewhat. From the photos, you can see something like a rear trailing arm but they are short. I shortened a TBird rear setup and mounted the cross member where the old rear control arms mounted. Correct? Probably not.

Trying to get them done but work keeps disrupting my hobbies.....

It uses a metal plate and foam element to seal against the hood-it does not use the normal cowl intake setup. The 73 Grand Am had two NACA ducts in the hood that could be opened up for a factory ram air setup (although the EPA nixed it because of noise levels). The car used the hood ducts for fresh air rather than the usual cowl setup, which raised a few eyebrows among the NASCAR tech inspectors.

Not much time lately on this but a few things done. I scratch built an intake from a Chevy NASCAR engine base and mounted the resin Holley Dominator I found. Stripped the chrome from the valve covers and drilled the engine for plug wires as well as a distributor. Plumbed the braided fuel line for the carb. Added roll bar padding and started to mock up the engine. Added the braided lines to the remote oil filters and drilled the valve covers for the vent lines back to the oil tank.

I do them occasionally when I have some spare time.

They also had installed mesh over the front grilles in this photo. I lived 18 miles from the Daytona track for 21 years and went to a few races. The amount of sand and other debris kicked up in a race at those speeds is pretty substantial. If you walk near the track during a race you feel like you are being sandblasted when the cars go by.

The Petersen archives photos show a racing seat like this with a fabric cover-may have been Corbeau but clearly not the usual NASCAR.

Harry, are you harryquackenboss on Linked In? Just wondering. Thanks for the kind words. I love the Collonade Pontiacs and have owned three Collonade GM cars. I also resin cast Pontiac scale cars and have always wanted to build the 73 Grand Am. With your help and Mike's as well as the Petersen archives, this project became a reality and it is a blast.

Very nice-you guys are detail masters.

The Motor Trend story referenced the chrome wheels. Evidently chroming caused hydrogen embrittlement on the wheels and they were indeed heat treated afterward to eliminate that. My opinion is that you are correct. Those really look like Spyders to me. The Motor Trend story also said that the wheels flexed so much that one of the bleeder screws on a caliper was ground off causing a brake pressure loss that they had to fix.

This was from a Martyn Schorr book about Pontiacs-section on an engineering prototype Adams put together at Pontiac. They reference Kelsey Hayes supplying the wheels which look almost exactly like the Motor Wheels. Did the team ever test them on the Grand Am? It sure looks like it in that photo I posted.

I read somewhere else that for a test version of a Firebird they had at Pontiac that Kelsey Hayes supplied the wheels which looked a lot like Motor Wheel. Did the Tempest use Minilites for weight or because the team was paying for their own parts?