A Clamshell cometh... '76 Pontiac Grand Safari

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

Where did you find any 8 track tapes?

A few of them I've had from 20+ years ago. I had an 8-track player back then and would buy tapes at Goodwill. Someone gave me a big box of them about 10 years ago, and I just bought another box at a flea market. It's been fun getting back into this, but frustrating as heck because the tape splices keep letting go. I've already repaired like 20 in the last month. In fact, that first day in the car I had a whole stack of broken tapes by the time I got home, lol!

Lynol wrote:

Mark 96 Roady wrote:

Where did you find any 8 track tapes?

A few of them I've had from 20+ years ago. I had an 8-track player back then and would buy tapes at Goodwill. Someone gave me a big box of them about 10 years ago, and I just bought another box at a flea market. It's been fun getting back into this, but frustrating as heck because the tape splices keep letting go. I've already repaired like 20 in the last month. In fact, that first day in the car I had a whole stack of broken tapes by the time I got home, lol!

Hahaha, yep that sounds familiar! Been there, done that!

You might be expecting too much from +40-yr old cellophane stored in a hot car or attic. The newest of those tapes are pretty old and degraded by now, and the worst of them are possibly more splice tape than recording tape. They might make good fillers for the console, but not much more.

dmg4 wrote:

You might be expecting too much from +40-yr old cellophane stored in a hot car or attic.  The newest of those tapes are pretty old and degraded by now, and the worst of them are possibly more splice tape than recording tape.  They might make good fillers for the console, but not much more.

Yeah. I kept thinking "I don't remember splices breaking so much" then I realized that was 20 years ago, lol. So far it seems the tape itself has held up well, but the adhesive used on the foil splice drys out I guess, so when it comes out of the reel it just falls off and the tape stops. I have been successfully fixing them with foil HVAC style duct tape! And hey, don't think I haven't thought about getting a leisure suit!

Lynol, any updates? And, on the Cadillac forum I just saw a tutorial on using the in dash A/C controls for diagnostics on the 94-96 Roadmaster wagons. Was that you?

Lynol, I am late to this post but glad to see that Blue Clamshell finally found a good home. I remember the treads on the station wagon forum on it, and how uninterested in actually selling it the seller was.

If you want some more 8-track tapes I have about 15 of them that came with my 78 Safari, you can have them for the actual shipping price if you want. I have no intention of putting a working 8-track back in my wagon