vintageracer
05-08-2013, 07:09 AM
IF You Were A Fastrner Engineer for GM in the 1970's What The Hell Were You Thinking concerning design and attachments of trim components and or body panels to a GM car????
Last year I had a 1977 Buick Regal (A Body). I counted the fasteners (bolts/nuts) I could SEE that would need to be removed to take off the right front fender. I could see 29 fasteners that I would need to remove! That does not include any others that I could not see!
I just removed the left rear taillight assembly from my 1976 Cadillac Seville San Remo Coupe to change/clean the red lens and the bulbs. 8 fasteners! 4 speed nuts to remove the heavy pot metal taillight housing and 4 screws to remove the pot metal chrome lens trim bezel. The taillight housing is cast pot metal and weighed 24 ounces (over 1 pound) and the chrome metal trim bezel weighed 5 ounces.
The left front chrome pot metal top front fender trim is shaped like an L and is only 9 inches long in total. 4 machine screws with 2 flat plates into which the machine screws attach to mount this piece of chrome trim to the car!
No wonder the 70's GM cars rusted, got totalled or bondo'd back together. I knew the engineering design was not that great however how could it go from bad (1960's) to worse in the 1970's? So far I have counted over 20 bolts to remove and disassemble the front bumper.
Nobody lived long enough back then to put all the original fasteners back in a car that needed wreck repair or to be properly painted!
Truly Amazing!
Last year I had a 1977 Buick Regal (A Body). I counted the fasteners (bolts/nuts) I could SEE that would need to be removed to take off the right front fender. I could see 29 fasteners that I would need to remove! That does not include any others that I could not see!
I just removed the left rear taillight assembly from my 1976 Cadillac Seville San Remo Coupe to change/clean the red lens and the bulbs. 8 fasteners! 4 speed nuts to remove the heavy pot metal taillight housing and 4 screws to remove the pot metal chrome lens trim bezel. The taillight housing is cast pot metal and weighed 24 ounces (over 1 pound) and the chrome metal trim bezel weighed 5 ounces.
The left front chrome pot metal top front fender trim is shaped like an L and is only 9 inches long in total. 4 machine screws with 2 flat plates into which the machine screws attach to mount this piece of chrome trim to the car!
No wonder the 70's GM cars rusted, got totalled or bondo'd back together. I knew the engineering design was not that great however how could it go from bad (1960's) to worse in the 1970's? So far I have counted over 20 bolts to remove and disassemble the front bumper.
Nobody lived long enough back then to put all the original fasteners back in a car that needed wreck repair or to be properly painted!
Truly Amazing!