My 1990 ZR-1 #2342 from SPAIN.

[1977CamaroZ28]

Good morning again?.

My last update was front ball joints and coolant hoses. All original after 32 years, leaking grease on rims and around its place and, what?s more, with an erratic/noisy feeling when you drove trhough bumpy roads. Steering too. I could feel little imprecise movements on steering wheel very unpleasant?

With the rubber coolant hoses the same. Time is unforgiving. The upper left hose (driver side) was leaking coolant near to original clamp. A little fissure around the clamp began to leak coolant over radiator shell. This was only the beginning because radiator had two or three fissures too. It was discovered when we took out hoses and was not possible to repair because of fissure location between ventilation sheets and lower parts had aluminum oxide too, big problem with difficult solution. The radiator was not original one, last owner put one double core aluminum bought on ebay (unknown trademark) more or less during 2.013. We needed to solve the problem with quality parts and DeWitts was the choice.

Taking advantage of the situation with all radiators and shell taked out, complete coolant was drained and restored. We had problems too with one broken nut side thread on air conditioner accumulator and was necessary to put new one from Four Seasons climate control products with complete restored R12 and washers.

We changed too gas filter (Mahle) and serpentine belt (Continental), both from Jerry's Gasket store.

After all the work, the car now runs smoothly and quiet. Stiffness or firmness are the words to describe present driving. Steering become direct and precise. And AC blows cold like never before. year after year we are improving everything necessary.

Some pictures about all of this?

[1977CamaroZ28]

Ball joints AC Delco Gold Series from Rockauto.

Gas filter and Serpentine Belt, Mahle and Continental respectively from Jerry's Gaskets.

Samco Hose Kit from Merlin Motorsport (UK).

[1977CamaroZ28]

[1977CamaroZ28]

[1977CamaroZ28]

The problem with AC accumulator:






And finally new one installed:

[1977CamaroZ28]

[1977CamaroZ28]

[1977CamaroZ28]

That's all for today... It will continue!!

[Erik]

Great read.
Thanks for sharing what you have done.

Out of curiosity, what is the benefit of the historic license plate? Seems a lot of work to achieve it.

[1977CamaroZ28]

Thank?s Erik

About your question, main things are:

1-. To have special law for classic cars to avoid driving restrictions in big towns because of global warming (Spain has hard and restrictive laws about pollution).

2-. In Spain is mandatory to pass through technical Inspection called ITV (Literally: Inspection Technical Vehicle in spanish) every year when your car has more than ten years. This kind of controls are very hard and aggressive to the cars. With historical license plate you obtain special treatment. First you go to ITV every two year until the car has 35 years. After that ITV every three years (from 35 to 39 years). With 40 years or more, ITV every four years. And ITV inspection is less severe with classic/historical cars.

3-. You obtain special insurances with better prices and coverages than daily cars.

4-. And classic cars are exempt to pay some oficial driving taxes.

Mainly, these are the main points to obtain historical license plate here in Spain.