The New, Newer Project: Part Tres...

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Time capsule X100,000,000.

Unbelievable.

I am excited to see your car at MCACN, this car will stand out in the crowd.

Ryan

[StealthBird]

Steve, they called it the Formula steering wheel because it was patterned after the 1960's Momo F1 steering wheel. That steering wheel was very popular back then, so when Pontiac copied the design, they called it the Formula wheel, as in Formula 1.

As for the car, Pontiac used the name Formula in the same vein as Trans Am. They were both racing series (F1 and SCCA Trans Am). Pontiac had a knack for naming their high perf cars after a racing series, or a track, such as Bonneville, Formula 1, Trans Am, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Can-Am, and Grand Am.

And your new steering wheel looks awesome. What a great find! You're very lucky to have found an original owner that not only remembers the car very well, but still has an interest in its well being.

[njsteve]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: StealthBird</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Steve, they called it the Formula steering wheel because it was patterned after the 1960's Momo F1 steering wheel. That steering wheel was very popular back then, so when Pontiac copied the design, they called it the Formula wheel, as in Formula 1.

As for the car, Pontiac used the name Formula in the same vein as Trans Am. They were both racing series (F1 and SCCA Trans Am). Pontiac had a knack for naming their high perf cars after a racing series, or a track, such as Bonneville, Formula 1, Trans Am, Le Mans, Grand Prix, Can-Am, and Grand Am.
</div></div>

I remembered about them naming it after another wheel but couldn't recall the exact trivia. Thanks for that.

So how do you explain the Pontiac Aztek?

Let's name a car after a group that tears the still-beating hearts out of their supporters and eventually goes extinct from its excesses...Oh, I guess they got that one right, too..... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[njsteve]

Here's the brief article on the designer of the Pontiac Formula wheel:

http://www.highperformancepontiac.co...tory_survives/

[StealthBird]

What's not shown or mentioned in the article (I met Ben Harrison in Dayton a couple years ago) is that the wheel he's holding in the photo has a &quot;1&quot; (in a circle) on the bottom spoke. I mentioned to him that this was the Momo F1 wheel (in his seminar, he could not recall the manufacturer) which was used extensively on F1 cars in the 60's, then popular on European cars. Then as we were talking, I noticed that the other two spokes had extra material that extended from the rim onto the spokes about 1.5 inches, but the bottom spoke did not, so that Momo could display the &quot;1&quot; down there. He then remembered that the interior department covered up that &quot;1&quot; to match the the other two spokes. They wanted Momo to supply the wheel, but there was no way they could rely on a low volume European company to supply potentially tens of thousands of steering wheels for a GM assembly line, so they copied the wheel.

What Ben Harrison brought to the table was the idea to use this wheel (which he loved) on an American car, and it turned out to be an iconic steering wheel.

As for Pontiac nameplates, anything after Lynn Myers arrived in 1999 as president of Pontiac didn't quite work out. She loved the Aztek, and it was her first major product release. Soon the old nameplates that had been around for decades began to fall away, like Firebird, Trans Am, Grand Am, Grand Prix, Bonneville, to be replaced with names like Vibe, Torrent, G3, G5, G6, and G8.

[njsteve]

And since the Polytech Autobody class started up again this week I started working on the polyethylene front valance that will be going back on this car. If you recall, I repaired a blue valance back in 2006 for the 1972 Trans Am. it ended up being a spare when I repaired the original white valance from the T/A. Here is the link from the original thread where I plastic welded the valance back together:

https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...opics/99647/23
https://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...opics/99647/24

Since I had to recreate the outer edges of the valance with polyethylene welding rod, it was about 1/2&quot; too short to match up with the fender edges and the lower portion of the nose.

Similar to the process of making a fiberglass mold off of an original, I used masking tape to cover the mating areas on the car, installed the valance (after redrilling the mounting holes in the valance to match the location of the mounting points on the radiator support). I then used a liberal slathering of rubber bumper repair compound and let it cure.











I then pulled the polyethylene valance back off and started hand sanding to get the contours. I also added the bumper repair material to the back side to mate up with the new flange areas. I reinstalled the steel valance and I brought the polyethylene valance to the Polytech class last night and started prepping the rest of the valance for primer and paint.

[SS427]

Awesome Steve as usual!

[StealthBird]

A couple more Formula SD455 cars...

[njsteve]

On the Performance Years website where I have the sister thread to this, a NJ guy chimed in that he went to the Konner Chevrolet Show in West Caldwell, NJ over the weekend and a 73 SD455 Formula was there. Original owner, a retired airline pilot, still has it and it has around 100k miles on it. Florentine red with burgundy interior and burgundy vinyl top. They made 3 autos and 4 four speeds in that color, out of the 43 total.
Very cool!

[Xplantdad]

Ohhhhh....I am in love [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]