my 2015 thread on my 95 Pontiac Parisienne

well it's been too cold to do much this past winter, the weather seams to want to cooperate this week.

So my first mod of the year is one that was insprited by Texas Mike. I was meaning to do this a while ago but it's a low priority mod. Those of us that grew up in the 60s 70s 80s might remember that high end GM's cars came with stainless trim on the brake and gas pedals. My 91 roadmaster wagons had the trim on the brake pedal but not on the gas pedal.

I was in the Junkyard looking for mid 80's rear drive buick lesabres for another project I'm working and noticed that the 85 lesabre i was pulling the dash pad out of had the brake and gas pedals with the stainless trim so I took them too.



took em home cleaned them up



now it's time to get to work on this minor mod







the only mod that was required is that the 85's pedal mount is the same as the 95's, the cover plates are different, the 95's is part or a bracket but it mouts the same as the 85's so it's just a matter of removing the plates and swapping them.

the 85's metal plate



the 95's plate with braket



and the finished mod, looks like a Pontiac Parisienne should

u need one for the ebreke now. looks good

Its the little things that keep these projects fresh and fun. Nice work.

Very nice touch. I may have to do this.

NICE! My '89 Custom Cruiser had the trim on both pedals, my '92 Cruiser had the trim on the brake but not the gas, and my '96 Roady has neither, they're both black. I want to do this mod on my '96 now, thanks for the heads-up.

How hard was it to get the cable off the gas pedal? I've not looked to see how high under the dash it is on the Roady.

The brake pad would be cake, but I'd want to do both like you did.

It's the little things!

-Mike

Mike it's pretty much the same as changing a brake cable on a bicycle

buickestate wrote:

Mike it's pretty much the same as changing a brake cable on a bicycle

Awesome. Will add to the to-do list!

Awesome - Looks great. I did this on both my wagons. On the brake pedals, mine both say "Anti-lock Brakes" on the mid chrome section.  I have never come across an e-brake pedal with chrome that will fit our wagons however.  If any of you do, please share as there are several of us that could use them!

Wagoninabox wrote:

Awesome  - Looks great.  I did this on both my wagons. On the brake pedals, mine both say "Anti-lock Brakes" on the mid chrome section.  I have never come across an e-brake pedal with chrome that will fit our wagons however.  If any of you do, please share as there are several of us that could use them!

Nab an e-brake pedal out of an 80's-era full-size Caddy.

Tried that.  The 91-96 B Body's have a very wide e-brake pedal.  I have pulled all that I can find when yarding and brought them over to a B Body to test fit and all of them so far have been smaller. I do not want to switch out the entire pedal; just the pad.

Looks silver in the pic, but that's Pontiac Blue! Love it!

Interesting, my 92 OCC has stainless trim on the gas pedal but not the brake. Went missing I suppose?

1992 OCCs are the exception to the rules.

My wagon has been leaving little puddles of engine oil where ever it's parked, so it's time to deal with the leaks..... clean degrease paint new gaskets. valve covers were leaking a bit, but the intake was the worst i found so far. next will be the front of the engine, new water pump, new cap and rotor, and new seals and gaskets for the timing covers and fresh paint there too

this is what I've done so far


































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I love the silver/blue late 60's-era Pontiac engine color. BUT now you have to clean-degrease everything else under there!!

Keep the pics coming!

-Mike

Looking good! Loving the retro blue...

buickestate wrote:

So cool.

Mike is right, such a slippery slope...

pat u need a throttle body cover with a pontiac emblem

mtrhead79 wrote:

pat u need a throttle body cover with a pontiac emblem

do you got one to donate to the cause?

no i dont sorry they are kinda cheap on ebay thats where i got mine that says lt1 {original i know}. one guy can make them say what ever you want

new seals in place



the opti back on and the new water pump on



and some modification to the air intake





the leaks seem to be sealed up and my missfire seams to be gone the engine runs smooth

Has anyone made the comment to you that they didn't know Pontiac had their own version of the B body wagon yet?Since Canada got their own versions of cars like ours with different names,its possible!

Many times Jim, many times.... the fun is when you get a guy who claims to know all about the Canadian only pontiac parisiennes

You really should have got that on video,I would love to see it.Is that a 60s era Pontiac engine color,I went to high school with some guys who had nothing but GTOs and I remember that luminescent color on the blocks and intakes.Spent many a night under those hoods.That was the wide track Pontiac era,how many here remember the 70 GTO commercial with the "open exhaust option" when it FIRST ran on TV?

The Vacuum Operated Exhaust?

stewzer55 wrote:

The Vacuum Operated Exhaust?

no, Jim is talking about a little known factory option on the 68-70 GTO our fellow forum member JoeT knows more about this since he reproduced that oem system then made it available to the GTO community. it was manualy operated via a lever under the dash.

buickestate wrote:

stewzer55 wrote:

The Vacuum Operated Exhaust?

no, Jim is talking about a little known factory option on the 68-70 GTO our fellow forum member JoeT knows more about this since he reproduced that oem system then made it available to the GTO community. it was manualy operated via a lever under the dash.

You got me there Pat,I only remember the 1970 commercial and the choke cable under the dash.Didnt know it was offered on the 68/69 year models.I didn't think it even made it onto the production cars because of excessive leaking.The current electronic ones are pretty durable.

Back in January 2012 when this wagon was bought off craig's list in Brunswick GA it was in sad shape. the pervious owner had driven her off the road took out a few fence posts and the corner of the engine compartment where the battery was had some rust issues from the battery leaking. The wagon had sat for many months between the time of it's accident and my purchasing it. That battery acid is nasty stuff. while wagon sat waitting on a buyer the acid ate away at the old battery tray and portions of the rad support and inner fender, the off gassing from that process etched and left deposits on some of the other under hood metals. One of the first things I did to the wagon was deal with the rust issues caused by the battery acid on the inner fender and rad support.
Yesterday I finally dealt with the unsightly rust stains on some of the aluminium in the passenger side of the engine compartment.



after

I also had top change the rear wiper motor, I used the one from the ratmaster!



I will add that one of the more fragile parts on these wagons are the fastners that hold the wiper motor cover in place. these fastners should be on our list of parts to grab when ever we see a wagon in a yard

Awesome improvements Pat,wish I had your determination.Been very fortunate with my wagon in 10 years of ownership,the original owner always kept it in her garage which drastically cut down on any sun damage.Getting the hood repainted shortly due to some clear coat issues.

Pat what did you use to clean the a/c accumulator? Mine is stained like that too.

As always, nice work!

-Mike

Mike I just used some CLR with a 3m green scrubbie then a quick rubbing with some metal polish

Flasheroo wrote:

buickestate wrote:

stewzer55 wrote:

The Vacuum Operated Exhaust?

no, Jim is talking about a little known factory option on the 68-70 GTO our fellow forum member JoeT knows more about this since he reproduced that oem system then made it available to the GTO community. it was manualy operated via a lever under the dash.

You got me there Pat,I only remember the 1970 commercial and the choke cable under the dash.Didnt know it was offered on the 68/69 year models.I didn't think it even made it onto the production cars because of excessive leaking.The current electronic ones are pretty durable.

Haven't been on in a while; thought I'd chime in here.
There WAS a dash-operated exhaust system offered onthe 1970 GTO.
It was called VOE (Vacuum Operated Exhaust) and it was basically an internal bypass valve in the muffler.
Only about 200 vehicles were produced with the option before the insurance companies and GM clamped down on Pontiac and made them cancel the option and destroy all the tooling and parts. The claim was that the option promoted aggressive driving and street racing.

When I owned Waldron's Antique Exhaust, I worked with Tom Hand to reproduce the mufflers and control systems.
Tom had done all the research and had made a few systems on his own. Together, we were able to re-create a production version of the optional VOE exhaust system.

Here's a video of my 71 GTO with the VOE mufflers installed:


Here's the original Pontiac commercial. In the ad, they call it "The Humbler".
This commercial only aired during the 1970 Super Bowl:


At the 0:15 mark, you see the driver reach under the dash to pull the control switch. The car in the commercial is a Ram Air car; I have never been able to find an original Ram Air VOE car. We went frame-by-frame in the commercial to identify where the switch was located, what it looked like and how it was attached to the Ram Air under-dash bracket, then we reproduced the entire control system.

The mufflers contain 3" diameter bypass tubes and poppet valves to control the exhaust gas flow. When you activate the dash switch, it activates large vacuum actuators (one on each muffler) that shift the muffler's internal valve. The valve shuts off the return tube and opens a large bypass opening when it shifts.

There are check valves and vacuum reservoirs in the system to allow the valves to stay open under extended wide-open throttle operation.
It was a very fun project.

The system is expensive, but I love the way it sounds.
I've added VOE muffler systems to several of my cars over the years; I even had one on my GMC Sierra.
This summer, my 68 GTO is getting a set!

Pat, you're doing great work on that Parisienne!

JoeT wrote:

Pat, you're doing great work on that Parisienne!

How goes the wagon restoration,Joe?

That Humbler package is ssssaaaaaawwwwweeeeetttt sounding!

Flasheroo wrote:

JoeT wrote:

Pat, you're doing great work on that Parisienne!

How goes the wagon restoration,Joe?

Progress has been minimal lately.

I got all the front end sheet metal and the dash out of the car earlier this year, but we were traveling for much of the winter.

Then, we had a very pleasant surprise; my daughter and son-in-law told us they would be relocating from Illinois to Michigan!
They've been sharing our home while their house gets some well-needed repairs and freshening.
With the two of them, my grandson and their dog living here and all of the projects on their house, I basically haven't touched the car in 2 months.

I did, however, manage to get the engine to the builder this week and it is now at the machinist's shop. Waiting to hear if it needs to be bored.
I'll post an update in a couple of weeks.

Pat's getting more done than I am!!!

JoeT wrote:

Pat's getting more done than I am!!!

and there is still more to get done, not to mention the other project that needs to come home

I'm forecasting lots of colourful metaphores.....

buickestate wrote:

JoeT wrote:

Pat's getting more done than I am!!!

and there is still more to get done, not to mention the other project that needs to come home

Do you think it will come home this month?
I think it's lonely...

spent some time with some clay, polish and wax

Turned out nice,clearcoat on the roof looks perfect.Have to get my hood repainted very soon.Once the clearcoat starts to go,it doesn't take long to start pealing off in large pieces.Glad its just the hood and not the entire car.

Very nice Pat, gotta do that to the Olds soon. Wagonfest is almost here again!

I envy your roof rack strips, I need new ones.

stewzer55 wrote:

I envy your roof rack strips, I need new ones.

I have the ones off the ratmaster stored away somewhere and they would work on your occ. that said they were put away pre the accident and my memory isn't what it was prior

the newest mod, thanks to Nick Danger

some more clay bar, polish and wax......