The '71-'76 Pontiac honeycomb wheels aren't actually aluminum. They're molded urethane (think GTO's "Endura" bumper) over a steel core and they're HEAVY! The manufacturing term was polycast, and in 15x7 they weighed about 30 lbs. each. At least some of the other GM divisions offered styled wheels made the same way through the 70's. Chevrolet had the turbine style and a couple of others, and Buick had a really ugly one with square blocks rather than spokes on the Regal.   The confusion may be because the snowflake wheels Pontiac offered after the honeycombs were aluminum. And the aftermarket currently offers the Pontiac honeycomb wheels in true cast aluminum, in modern sizes. ... View more

I was taking my elderly mother to visit her cousin in my recently acquired '68 GTO convertible and in the course of conversation, she asked me what "synchromesh" meant. I replied that it meant you could put the transmission into any gear without double clutching or matching the engine RPMs. And then proceeded to demonstrate. We were coming down out of a canyon and were going about 60. I pushed in the clutch and downshifted the transmission into third, then second, and all was fine. As I attempted to shift from second down to first, there was some resistance, but I persevered, and when it finally went into gear, I was rewarded with a loud bang from under the hood. The clutch would no longer engage. We were well over a hundred miles away from home, so I hitched a ride to the nearest gas station (this was in the pre-cellphone era) aand called AAA to have it towed to our destination. I borrowed some tools and disassembled it in her driveway. When I removed the bell housing I got a face full of dust and debris. The clutch disc had disintegrated, leaving only the hub and a few bits of the marcel. Needless to say, I felt like a complete idiot. To add insult to injury, when the tow truck driver clamped the steering wheel in place so he could tow from the rear axle, he bent the OE rallye steering wheel, breaking one of the spokes away from the hub. And wasn't that a treat to find a replacement! ... View more

While I agree that omitting the '55-'57 Nomad, the skylited Buick Sport Wagon of '64-'69 and its sister, the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser of '64-'72, and Volvo's 1800 series, I'm surprised there's been no mention of the '64-'65 Chevelle 2-door wagon.  ... View more

I was really hoping for at least a passing reference to Carl Edvard Johansson. Gauge blocks, or "Jo blocks", are critical to precision machining. At least, if you want your precision parts to interchange with parts made on a different machine... ... View more

In the late seventies and early eighties, SJs were a relatively cheap source for mechanical upgrades for earlier GTOs.  The front disc brakes, the engines & transmissions, and the rear axles (Chevy 12 bolts on SJs) all fit the earlier cars. My favorite was a '65 Tempest with patina, a ragged bench seat, and all the original grease left on the '70 455, as well as the '65 air cleaner, suitably modified for the quadra-jet. It looked like grandma's hand-me-down and ran like a scalded cat. I parted out a half-dozen or so. In retrospect, I feel kinda bad. Tons of fun at the time, though. I still have a '69 dashboard and automatic console I had intended to swap into a GTO, but l never got around to it... ... View more

Forget about the Leslie Special - I always wanted the Hannibal 8!  Growing up, "Push the button, Max!" was a common phrase in my house. ... View more

It was much easier to realize that teenage fantasy in the back seat of a Dart or Valiant than it was in the back of a Nova or a Mustang. (When is the last time you actually sat in the back seat of a Mach 1?) The early fastback Barracudas were even better - with the fold-down rear seat and all that glass to look up at the stars through...   I can still fit comfortably in the back of a Dart Swinger. That's not true of many of the cars my friends and I drove when we were teens and interested in back seat gymnastics. ... View more