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Re: Plenty of Problems in Plenum

To: Bricklin@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Plenty of Problems in Plenum
From: "John T. Blair" <jblair@exis.net>
Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2000 19:01:17 -0500
At 11:46 AM 1/3/00 -0500, Sheldon Chervin wrote:

>#762 was stripped of it's nose and fenders to give me a better Idea of how
>extensive the rust was on the plenum and attached metal: It's bad......in
>fact it's really bad: I removed the wiper motor and the hood latches to give
>me a better Idea of how bad the rust is in the trough: There is some very
>large areas open to the inside behind the dashboard: The driver side top
>side of the Plenum is mostly gone: I will have to remove the top of the
>plenum to faciltate the trough repairs: What I would like to do is replace
>the plenum without removing the windshield and from my observations that
>should be possible ( I may have to leave an inch lip of the old plenum
>around the windshield): I also intend to Follow John Blair's excellent
>article on removing the Dashboard........My mechanic friend tells me that
>the plenum looks very familliar like perhaps out of an AMC Car......?Does
>anyone know if that is true and what year and model car it comes
>from.........? Anybody been thru a Plenum replacement yet.....? Any
>advice......?

Sheldon,

>74 Bricklin Stick Shift #762
>73 Volvo 1800ES
>73 Jaguar XKE 2+2

  First off I must compliment you on your collection of cars,  I had to sell
my 65 P1800 when my #1 son was born.  Needed a sedan, and it was either the
Morgan or the P1800.  I've always wanted an XKE.  

As to plenumns.  I've been told the Bob Hoffman has them, however, I don't 
see them listed in his 99 parts list.

I thought it was unique to Bricklin.  I've stripped several AMCs windshield
wippers, and I don't remember any of them having the same mounting plate as
we have on the Bs.

If the area around the windshield wiper xmissions is intact, then you should
be able to get any decient metal bender to fab. and install (weld in) patch
panels in such a manner that you can't tell they been added.  Same goes
for underneith the plenumn in the cockpit.

A friend of mine has a 74 that a lot of the top of the plenumn was missing.
He had his nephew (who was a body man) repair it with fiberglass.  He did
a great job.  The only problem is that the hatch marks of the glass cloth
are visable.  If you don't want a show car, this isn't a problem, and a
little bondo, could fix it if you want'ed to show it.

>Any advice......?

You probably don't want to hear this, but have you checked the sheetmetal
under the floor pans?  Is it intact?  What about your A pillars - especially
if the plenumn is rotted out?  Finally how is the sill plate at the A pillars?

Now for the part you don't want to hear!  I'd remove the dash, and windshield
for starters.  Now you have 1 of 2 ways of going:

1. pull the body off the chassis so you can pull the fiberglass firewall and
have easy access to the plenumn for welding.

2. pull the eng. so you have easy access to the plenumn for welding.

The 1st. will give you a better view of the sill plates, A pillars, and 
floor pan reinforcement plates/heat shields.

Which brings up another point.  I probably goofed, I painted these reinforce 
plates black.  However, they could be used as a heat shield if they were
painted silver.

Also, I'm looking for some silver mylar with a very thin or non existant 
backing to glue to the underside of my floor pan to act as a heat shield.
Jim Kelliher owner of VIN #1191 has some very nice stuff under his.
Unfortunately, we don't know where he got it from.  I just tried several
auto parts stores (including AutoZone, and PEP Boys) and major Hardware
stores (Home Depot) to no avail.  Anyone have any suggestions?

John

John T. Blair  WA4OHZ          email:  jblair@exis.net
Va. Beach, Va                  Phone:  (757) 495-8229

              48 TR1800    65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
71 Saab Sonett III (71500840)    75 Bricklin SV1 (0887)    77 Spitfire

Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan 
Bricklin: www.bricklin.org



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