69 big block starter heat shield

[68l30]

Pic 2

[Mr70]

My book says:
Heat shield Part#3954224 early-
Part#361443 later.
Corvette only is #3943647.
I may have found a source.

[John Brown]

[ QUOTE ]
Guys? ........ what amazes me. With
all of the obtuse little items you see on eBay all the time,
I have yet to see a used, or true NOS heat shield. Steve

[/ QUOTE ]

There have been at least two of those heat shields on the bay in the last two months. The first one was a stainless one by a guy (Al?) from the Detroit area that was bid to over $500 and didn't meet reserve. The second was a NOS galvanized one that was on for about two days, then was pulled, "item no longer available". I just picked up a used galvanized one at a swap meet from a guy who didn't have a clue what it was. I remember taking a bunch of them off because they were sharp and would cut your hands when putting on headers!!

[bbdon]

$500?!! You gotta be kidding.
Anyway, this is what an original looks like. I pulled this off of a 325 horse 69 El Camino many years ago.

[nuch_ss396]

BBDON,

Thanks for posting those great images!

Now were cooking with gas! OK, is this a stainless
steel part? Sure looks like one. Do you happen to know,
or possibly remember the build date of that El Camino? Now
your shield certainly looks a lot different than the
last pictures posted. BTW guys, I believe that the
69 BB Vette shields were stainless steel too. Don't know
where that galvanized steel shield came from. Do any of
you? Hopefully, we can get a chance to see the other shield
images posted here soon to verify this one.

Well, it looks like this is a very productive thread. I
believe we have identified that early build date cars did
indeed have these shields. At least according to the book
anyway.

Keep those responses & images going!

Steve

[1969L78Nova]

The one on my Nova is galvanized.I can see why some guys threw them out. Despited installing a new solenoid last spring there were still a few times when I had to wait for the BB to cool down before the starter would engage!
Martin

[Steve Shauger]

My L34 survivor built 9B of 68 had one and my 69L78 built 6A of 69 had the remnants of one. I Still have a piece from the 6A car and will check what it is made of, but I believe it is stainless.

[mrrec]

Yep, Mr70, those shields were a pain. It was tough enough getting the solenoid wires connected after you rebuilt the starter or replaced the solenoid. The manifold was always hot, plenty of grease - just leave that shield off! Since I was in high school when I worked on 'em in the 70's, I'm sure I learned this "trick" from the full timers.

Why aren't there any around? We didn't save all that stuff at the station, we threw it in the garbage! It was junk!

Dave

[nuch_ss396]

Dave,

Didn't you have the foresight to see that these shields
would be valuable 25 years in the future? Come on! I
guess you also threw away SMOG system components too.

Oh yeah, I did that too............ sorry!
When you sit down and actually think about this logically,
I wonder how any of these sheilds survived the 1970's. Did
anyone back then actually think there would be a future
muscle car craze? Especially after the second gas crisis
hit the US in 1979.

Steve

[bbdon]

Yes, the part is stainless, and I think that the El Camino was built in April 69. I still have the intake from that car on my Nova, but it was too dark to read the date this morning. Too bad that the special nut that holds the shield was missing from that car.