1978 Pontiac sunbird safari wagon 2.5

[mahoy78spyder]

Larry, I appreciate how you take the time to explain in detail how you did many tasks... you could easily produce an instructional video out of this! Great job!

[lleelduo]

Thanks. It all goes back to my college days, degree in organiztional management, w/emphasis on training. I thought about becoming a teacher also. Funny where life takes you. I am a GM parts manager.

[mahoy78spyder]

Ahhh... I knew there was something I liked about you... I worked in GM parts too... Back in the day, I knew cars and I knew computers, and for awhile, I loved working in parts, but it didn't pay the bills as well as my technical skills did so I went back into that field and have stayed there ever since. But the lessons I learned (and how to navigate around a parts book, groups, etc.) were invaluable - especially now that I've been searching for and slowly collecting every NOS part left on the planet for my Spyder. ...Just noticed we live in the same state too... good to have another Hoosier on the board here!

[lleelduo]

Ken: If you need to search for any parts I have the GM dealer locator. If you have a part number you are looking for, let me know. I have found a lot of things for my car that way. I am fixing the exhaust on the car next week. Then I am tackeling the A/C. Someone cobbled up all the lines at some point. Then a shakedown cruise, and I am back on the road.

[lleelduo]

SORRY I HAVE NOT POSTED IN A WHILE. I bought a rear spoiler, luggage rack, and all the NOMAD parts from a guy in california. I will make my car a "SAFARI" wagon after all. I have mounted the spoiler and rack. It took some nerve to drill 12 1/2 inch holes in the roof and hatch. Use a center punch drill to mark the spots for the spoiler bolts, the back edge of the mounting brackets hang over the hatch some. for the correct spot, the bottom point of the spoiler should have about 1/2 inch space from the hatch sheet metal. I used a 3/16 drill, then a 3/8, and a final 15/32 to put in the holes. I used drill stops on the bits to keep the drill from going in too far and damaging things. Use a NAPA pt# 665-3160 sealing well nut. These are made for a 1/2 inch hole, I drilled them small and you have to "thread" them in with a twist. Better sealing. Make sure that you dont get the rear hole too close to the outer edge of the hatch, or it will not seal if it goes on the point of the sheetmetal bend. I bought a cheap door bottom rubber sweep at lowes and cut a gasket to put between the mounts and the hatch. You have to use the mount as a template to mark the rubber and cut it out. Holes have to be made in the gasket to go around the rubber wellnut gromet, the same as the roof rack gaskets. I used a exacto round cutter to punch the holes out. I bought new 1/4-20 stainless steel screws to mout it all. The roof rack is the same process, Make sure if you are adding the rack to a car that did not have one, that the rack is mounted in the right direction. The rack vertical supports should tilt forward. Also make sure there is adequate clearance front to rear on the roof rack to spoiler. the correct position also makes the rack roof slats cover the ridges in the roof sheetmetal. Measure 4 times,drill once! Glad I did it. looks GREAT!

[lleelduo]

The nameplates on my car show their age. I pulled them off and scraped off the adhesive off the back. The chrome is not pitted or flaking so that is good. The sunbird nameplate has a applique in the center of the "S" that looks like a sun. the outer surface is in good shape but the color is coming off on spots. These inserts can be removed from the emblem using a hair dryer and a small pick to pry them off. heat the back of the emblem to loosen the glue and not damage the glossy top surface of the emblem insert. The colors are applied to the back of the clear insert like reverse painting on glass. I used model paint to touch up the places where the paint had come off. The main portion of the nameplate I striped off the edge paint and cleaned and polished the emblems. I got semi gloss black testors model paint to spray the black outer edge back on. I sprayed the whole emblem black. While the paint was still fresh I used a thin lint free cloth dipped in paint thinner to wipe off the top surface of the emblem to expose the chrome face. A light touch has to be used or you will wipe off the side surfaces of the emblem also. let them dry thourghly and use a dab of clear silicone adhesive in the "S" to reinstall the sun insert. 3/4 inch 3-M double faced adhesive tape on the back and an exacto knife to replace the adhesive. looks good.

[lleelduo]

Finished emblems

[sportriderok]

Those look perfect! Most emblems that have been redone are really obvious, but yours look factory. I'm "borrowing" your idea, just like I did on the tailgate window molding. (My Roadster Factory package arrived this week!)

[lleelduo]

Air Conditioning! The godsend of modern cars. When I bought my car I knew that the air did not work. The compressor was locked up and the belt cut off. When I drove the car home I tried the fan. At first it did not work at all. Eventually the motor came on but there was no air flow, and it was noisy as heck. As I started doing 30 years of maintiance to the car, I decided to replace the heater hoses. At some point in it's history someone had replaced the heater core. Lets just say stuff was all put together wrong. I decided to pull the A/C outer housing off to put the new heater hoses in the correct position and the right type of hose. I disconnected the a/c lines and after several hours of cursing got the heater hoses off the firewall side of the heater core. I removed the evap box and it was full of mouse nest. I pulled half of a 5 gallon bucket out of the evap core and fan. Nothing worse than the smell of mouse piss! Whoever had worked on the heater core must have thought it came out from under the hood, found out it did not, and just slamed stuff back together. when they did they broke the fiberglass of the a/c housing in a couple of places. They also did not put any sealer back on the firewall and it looked like it was leaking water into the car. I took the evap core out, washed everything with lysol, and repaired the evap housing cracks. while the evap core was out I decided to replace the oriface tube. of course it was pluged and stuck in the core. I was unable to remove the oriface tube no matter how i tried. I ended up taking the core to an a/c shop 40 miles away, they could not get it out either. I could not find a new core at the time, so the shop cut the inlet tube off the core and welded on a replacement tube. The shop also flushed and pressure tested the core. I assembled everthing back in the evap case sealed it all up correctly and put it back in the car. I put a new blower motor in too while it was apart. Next the a/c lines

[lleelduo]

The a/c hoses had been patched together at sometime in its life also. The high side pipe from the compressor to the condenser had been cut off near the radiator support. The thing had been repaired with worst conglomeration of compression fittings, hoses and clamps you ever seen. It was no suprise that the compressor had gone bad. I looked for a new compressor manifold hose set. None was to be had. The Sunbird wagon was an odd duck. From what I could find, the wagon hose set was different than even a monza wagon with the 2.5. By mistake I found a manifold set for a 2.5 sunbird coupe. I figured it might be adapable and bought it cheap. The hose set came and looked promising. It had a muffer built in line going to the condencer and was basicly a straight pipe up to the condencer. I cut off the hoses, and did some bending to fit it through the core support and mount it up. The fitting on the accumulator side was not correct but I had the old hose with the correct fitting. I cut that off and mounted everything up. I used 5/8 heater hose to find the correct length for the flex sections and marked the correct indexing. I removed the hose as an assembly and took it to a a/c shop in fort wayne in. and they did a little welding on the fitting ends. put on new hose and crimped it all together. It all looks factory.

[lleelduo]

Well now I checked the rest of the system. the low pressure cut off safety switch looked ok, but I hated to put freon in the system and then have to take it out to replace a bad switch, so i pulled off the electrical connector to test the switch and something did not feel right. Whoever had worked on the system had cut the wires on the low pressure safety switch, twisted them together to bypass the switch and then taped it all back together so it looked ok, and pluged it back on the switch. When the system got low on freon. instead of shuting off the compressor, it would stay engaged and destroy the compressor! IDIOTS!The switch tested ok so I got a new connector and wired it up. On the engine there was a electrical connector that was just hanging loose up by the a/c compressor. I traced the wiring and found it was for a high pressure cutoff switch in the back of the compressor. The old compressor did not even have a switch installed! Someone really cobled the system together. New compressor, accumulator, mount a high pressure switch in the compressor, Charge it all up with R134. COLD BLOWING WIND!

[HI WINDING MONZA]

Great Job, how cold is it out the vents now ,Larry?

Doug in P.R.

[lleelduo]

Center duct, low fan speed, 5 min soak, fast idle, 49 degrees. ambient 77 degrees. Not bad for R134

[Kenova]

Center duct, low fan speed, 5 min soak, fast idle, 49 degrees. ambient 77 degrees. Not bad for R134

That'll make the nipples sore!

Ken

[lleelduo]

Just a little more on the luggage rack. it came off of a car that someone had spray bombed to paint with little to no masking. the rack is all stainless steel so I knew I could polish it. I disassembeled the rack. I used paint striper on all the bars ,washed them, and the rubber strip cushions, I then used #3 steel wool, followed by #0 and finally #000 wool with Blue Magic metal polish. LOTS of elbow grease and time. I followed this up with red jewelers rouge on a buffing wheel. Except for some small dents, It looks like new.