No concerns when closing? I don't want there to be an issue down the road when some unwitting mechanic decides to fold the hood rather than close it gently.

 

Uh, no. They aren't the same as the steel hoods. The reason the SMC hoods were stopped being made was because they were separating at the hinges. The pressure of the hood struts tried keeping the hoods open, while the owner was trying to close the hood causing too much pressure at the rear of the hood and splitting them.

 

Any input Scott on where the correct struts might be ordered?

 

Uh, no. Or at least, not necessarily.

Has worked fine for me for ..... 20-some? 30-some? years now. It just goes ... "Schwinnnnggg!!" once it's raised a bit.

LOOK at how the hood struts work, at the various opening points of the hood: you'll see that with the hood closed, there's ZERO pressure from the struts, because of the angle that the hinges are at.

Now, the issue of how the owners closed the hood, that's something else entirely, right there. Even with a steel hood, if you just grab the hood and start trying to close it, it puts an ENORMOUS force on the hood right at the hinges, because of the angles that the parts are then at. But all ya gotta do to control that, is to push REARWARD on the hood at the same time you close it; and to kinda gently work it from side to side. It's not that hard to keep from breaking the damn thing off.

 

I agree sofa and no, I don't know where to get the proper struts. I just know that a lot of people have been using the tired regular struts when the steel hood owner is done with them.

 

I love the Camaro dual snorkel with the hood intake.... So I made mine that way..

 

That might work! - I have a set of take off's I could try.

 

I get my struts for my SMC hood at AutoZone, #E95976.

 

When I ordered my 83 L69 I ordered the 4-wheel disc brakes but I got a letter in the mail stating the Posi rear was no longer avaiable. I was a little bummed at that.

It was a 2nd week of June build. IIRC that would make it one of the early builds. So, PurelyPMD, it's possible that all disc cars got the open rear. I wonder if a few of the very first models made it through before they decided to can the option...?

 

Mine is an April build, sold new 04/18 so that would likely be one of the earlier ones.

 

Well according to the Camaro White Book there was a code 17 for the interior in 1983. 17C on the trim tag would denote custom cloth interior in charcoal, which is what this car has.

 

Thanks David, I finally realized Charcoal was the correct color when I ordered the headliner, speaker covers & visor replacements. They look great!

 

Really? I just checked and found that the information I was looking at was exterior color codes. I looked at three different charts and all were exterior. Thanks David.

 

PurelyPMD, did you ever get a chance to look at those carb numbers? Back when mine was new I was having those heat soak problems and it seems like I remember the service dept saying they changed out the carb from a Monte Carlo.

 

Carb no. for a 1983 L69 (VIN code 7) is 17083205.

 

I'll check it today, sorry didn't see this.

 

Here you go, 17083205 built on the 69th day of 1983 (great date for an L69 carb huh?)

 

Thanks for checking. I have a 17083207 carb on my '84 L69, built on the 139th day of 1983. I wonder if it came from an L69 :


Works great, I'm getting 21 MPG on the highway at 75mph avg.

 

From what I've seen the 207 is an HO carb as well.

Here's a good resource page from the early third gen site.

http://www.earlythirdgen.com/forums/...php?f=29&t=769

 

The 17083207 carb is from a 1983 LG4 w/ manual trans (MK6).

 

So my 1 year relationship with this car is over and it's off to it's new, VERY HAPPY owner. A woman and her sister came down to drive it last month - they didn't know much about cars and even less about what they were buying so I didn't put a lot of effort into persuading her other than encouraging her to look at some others before she made a decision. I had done a lot of work to this car getting it to it's current condition, replacing far more parts than I had originally intended while trying to maintain it's originality.

I put the car on e-Bay and with 2 days left and the bids getting very close to my reserve she called and we cut a deal - I delivered the car to her last Thursday & it's staying in state.

She was trying to replace the car her husband sold when they got married. They lived all within walking distance from her aged parents and her sister who was divorced and he ended up getting all of the calls asking for help with things - and always gladly did them. She said that she had to get it for him because she knew he never would. I told her that in our world, she was a hero for what she was doing!

Yesterday I got a text that her husband LOVED it and they were out cruising.

Pic when I dropped it off...



Pictures texted yesterday - I thanked here for sharing the moment with me!

 

That is too cool Chris! He's VERY happy! Love the story.

 

Wow! And he got a great car! It was actually my wife who found my present car and talked me into getting it. This guy has a gem of a car and a gem of a wife in my book as well!

 

Great story!

 

What a great story!
After reading this journey again, It just dawned on me that I have a nos set of smc hood struts still in package.

 

Of coarse you do!

 

I have some of the weirdest random stuff