Loading Chevrolets onto a train 1971
- Thread starter bobs409
- Start date
They even had the battery caps set up towards the back side to keep them from leaking while they were being shipped that way. All planned.
Uuh that’s what they are loading. Only cars I know they did that with. I wonder if the current small cars whatever they are, are transported like that
Robert
Greg Reimer
Well Known Member
Those are '74-75 Vegas. Those had the protruding front bumper and the forward sloping grille. The Vega was short enough that the car could be shipped on end like that and the rail car wouldn't be too tall. The cars also had cable ties around the engine mounts so the engine and trans wouldn't jiggle and get loose and damage the radiator or the exhaust. I worked in a Chevy dealer back then, we had a supply of the cable ties after the cars went through new car prep and they were removed. They came in handy when making all kinds of things. Best thing that ever happened to Vegas was when the aluminum 4 cylinder came out and a 350 was bolted in. The factory came out with the Monza for 1975 and the small block was an option. A V-8 Vega could have been built with factory parts, although that wasn't the easiest way to do it.
Greg Reimer
Well Known Member
Someone I knew back then from work collected aluminum scrap and would take it over to a recycling plant and sell it. One pickup truck load he had had 3 Vega aluminum blocks in it. The scrapper told him to take those blocks back and not mix them up with his aluminum scrap. He told him that the silicone in the aluminum those blocks were cast from would contaminate and ruin the whole batch if they were melted down together. Must have been some real junk metal. If the Vega would have had a cast iron block with a conventional deck and pistons in it, it would have worked. The design was a good one, the overhead cam head was simple and rather clever, but the block was the whole weak point in that motor. Steel sleeves and non tin plated pistons helped, but the freestanding cylinders still moved around too much.
And then you had the Cosworrh Vegas that didn’t work either as around here dealers didn’t have folks trained on engine management sort of like the very early injection units
Robert
409Inmyblood
Active Member
The Pontiac Astre had the 4 cylinder “iron duke” engine which was a good replacement for the aluminum motor.