Before you go buy a new one, my headlight switch was intermittent, so I pulled it out the dash and discovered it can be taken apart and cleaned. Get one of those little sachets of bulb grease from your favorite auto parts place and spread that on the contacts before reassembly. Also clean the points on the back, that's the bimetal circuit breaker. It'll trip if the points are dirty and high resistance because that will generate heat - not from excess current though. Mine has been reliable since I cleaned it. Feels a lot better to operate also.
Winter has set in, and the Catalina is in the unheated garage while my slightly off topic car gets a few things done I removed the wrapper from the spring and have decided for now to leave the old ones as is.
it has reached the time of year where the snowblower gets out of the garage and the old cars wait for spring
HELP WANTED Getting ready to install the new set of Umbrella seals that came with the 52 Pontiac parts The man who built the 350 was in decline and suspect that they were omitted accidently Here are the questions for those of you that have performed this task using air pressure to hold the valves in place with the springs off What PSI of compressed air did you used (have seen anywhere from 20-40 to 120+ online)? What position do you have the piston at (up or down)? Did the air cause the engine to rotate?? Thanks in advance for those who have been down this path before and are willing to share their successful tales or cautionary warnings
I have used full pressure of compressor (120ish psi) and done all 8 cylinders at one spot of rotation of the engine. However, the safest way to do it, would be to have each piston up when you change the seal to make sure a valve doesn’t fall a long ways down. I have only had the pressure rotate an engine if it was low on compression. I leave the other seven plugs in to keep it from rotating when airing up the eighth cylinder.
Small block Chevy's don't use umbrella seals. They use a small O-ring that goes in a groove just under the valve keepers.
jracer "Small block Chevy's don't use umbrella seals. They use a small O-ring that goes in a groove just under the valve keepers. [/QUOTE]One more item to the list, many conflicting views. It's a newer OT, 1974 350 of unknown past life. will see if there are any O-rings once i pull the first springs thanks
That's an awesome Pontiac, you're fortunate to have found one in great shape. I like the way you are bringing it back to being a reliable driver. Best of luck with it.
Thanks, it is an interesting car and I'm trying to improve it from the "You are here" condition it was in when i got it. The body and paint are too nice to go back and rework it, at least for now.
I'm part of a car club that only the first year is HAMB friendly. But we did a Tech Session on straightening bumper dents (kind of making it up as we went along ) Actually, turned out pretty well and achieved my goal of "making it less bad".
Looks better from here! With the cost of getting bumpers re-chromed anymore, I typically do the same and call it good enough.
Finally got around to addressing the brake pedal, turns out it is from a 90's Ford Truck the Pedal was ~1" from the gas pedal and on occasion I would hit the gas when braking (with a 5" wide tennis shoe) Pulled it out and straighten it and then repositioned the bottom of the pedal. Used an Induction heater to heat the bar. Much better
Decided that a Tach may be nice to have and i had a couple laying around, so... Took the one that was in the 59 Nomad when i got it and started modifying and cleaning it up. Thought was if it was a total disaster, I still have the nicer one left. had to rework the mount to properly fir the steering column Still need to mount after the paint of the bracket dries and then wire it up.
Started taking apart the passenger door to see what all it needs and where to get it. Found a good old post on making replacement rollers. found some of the seals needed but was striking on the rear one and then recalled the rear window on the 59 Nomad from April of 2013, found the old picture here on the Build pictures.
Picked up the new glass up on Monday and am almost ready to set the first quarter window. Went with the green tinted glass, since i have a green car
Turns out replacing the glass in the quarter windows is really not too bad.  Also, the green tint is not very dark and that's great,
Progress continues, new seals and glass on the drivers wing window. Waiting on channel seals to complete.
Got some parts today and put them onto the subassemblies. The small rubber parts for the windows are "Functional equivalents" at best but were fairly inexpensive. The new wing window lever is very nice.
So... Hypothetically... replacing the old rough rock guards with the new to me, shiny smooth ones will reduce drag. Wondering how much faster and what the MPG improvement might be? Or do I have to add "asking fora friend" to keep the replies form getting too insulting? Okay, it was just a part that was available at a decent price and was splurged on, back now to more functional items!
Back in 1958, older friend Bobby Souza (he was 18! LOL...we were 16.) Bobby came over in the '52 Pontiac Catalina identical to yours! Color and all, we liked the spotlight w/rear view mirror. We, being Ford guys, were very impressed with Bobby's work: Pontiac had been purchased cheap, as it had a blown up straight 8 engine. Bobby had installed a '56 Olds 88 with Hydra-matic! He'd only had it 3 weeks. He let us off easy, explaining that Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles shared same chassis those years, so factory '53 Olds mounts sat that Olds right in there. He made strap steel mounts to move radiator back, but still! We were Model A channelers, and roadster fans limited. The Pontiac was 'Pie in the Sky'!
Great story, this now has a 350 SBC with a TH400 Not a lot to go on as to how it got to this point, most of the work was done by the guy two guys back. Had a 53 Chieftan as my first car when I was 14, was on to car 3 by the time I got my license, it was the same color combination, probably the main reason for purchasing it
Surely the smoother rock guard will be good for 10 mph, 5 mpg, and take a second or so off your quarter mile time.
I missed a load of progress! Looking nice now, my rock guards were dull but did polish up quite nicely with my machine. I need to redo the glass in mine- more a case of getting round to it though. Phil
I'm sure you're right! I'm glad to see he replaced both sides, cuz I'm thinking doing one side only would cause a high-speed 'pull' in one direction if he'd only replaced one, leading to a serious handling issue! It's always best to keep everything symmetrical for that reason! YOMV...
The Jalopy Journal
