68 Wildcat Heater/ ac woes

Todd, I hope I'm posting in the correct place now. Anyway some explanations... I purchased a new decal to replace the worn out one on the heater controls before the car arrived not knowing there was more than one A/C system. When the car arrived, it was obvious that it was for the more common 4 dial system with the heater fan switch etc. and I tried to doctor it up to fit best possible knowing that the graphics were wrong. I could not find the correct replacement decal. The interior is sunbaked and the dash was in terrible shape with the chrome peeling on the instrument bezel. (on a side note, I found a minty top dash pad from a 1970 Riv that looks the same as mine. Anyone know if they swap before I buy it?) I elected to repaint the dash in Black and installed the 4 gauges at the same time. I was unable to duplicate the 60's style font on the dash so I ordered a letter kit from a hobbyshop. It was a lot of work to get it to look so wrong, but it was the best I could do for now. Back to the heater... My problem was finding my system in the Chassis Service Manual. I could not find an illustration of my particular system (using only the 2 rotary dials) but now, rechecking, I think illustration 13-407 page 13-95 might be my system. I had to rebuild all the cables as the mounting tabs had come away from the cables. I think I have the cables sorted out more or less. Now that I have a better idea where to look in the manual, I will give it another go soon, but my other car is due to arrive from the body shop (the painted shell) this week and this will likely distract me for a while as I have to reassemble it . I will be no doubt stuck for parts on the benz and this will allow me more time to get back to the Buick. Thanks for taking the time to point me in the right direction.

Gary 1968 Wildcat

Gary, keep up the good work. Don't be deterred by my evil-eye observations. The tendency is to become fascinated by all the minutiae involved with these cars.

Yes, figure 13-407 applies to your car. In fact everything in the last 60+ pages of that chapter concerns your Automatic Climate Control system.

Presumably the guy on eBay with Briz Co Inc, itsjustbriz@aol.com is the source for the repro faceplates. He has built quite a cottage industry selling these for various model years of Buicks. One idea is to find out if he has plans to produce the plates for the automatic system.

He uses a place that makes vehicle wraps to create the A/C faceplates. It would be interesting to see if a print shop or wrap supplier could make these out of thin plastic? The setup charge could be prohibitive though. I believe I could make a crude version using a laser printer and some leftover transparency stock intended for use on the old overhead projectors. Graphics from the shop manual would be used to create a layout of the master image. A coat of black paint would applied on the back except around the lettering to minimize light bleed-through. Then a final coat of white on the back to make letters illuminate correctly from the dash lighting.

Given the hints in the other post on using the online master parts books it is now possible to directly research the '70 Riviera dash pad. Also it now is possible to ID the A/C control unit and faceplate part numbers on the slim chance one of those will show up for sale somewhere.

When I restore my cars, I try to not make any irreversible changes in case the next owner wants to go back to factory, that being said, I can't just call "Year One" for parts because it isn't a Chev or a ford. I do have skills when it comes to refurbishing old parts that can no longer be found or found at reasonable prices. With respect to the Heat/ AC system, I first plan to replace most if not all of the vac hoses(and color code them) as they are quite deteriorated especially under the hood. Once all the vac leaks are taken care of, I will work thru the wiring relays and switches. This aspect of the car I find the most daunting, especially all the fasteners used in the dash that I have never encountered before. Drivetrains, suspensions etc. easy peasy. If the next owner wants to put the clock and Lf. A/C vent back in and ditch the gauges, it's easily done as I saved everything. That being said, I'm not sure there will be a next owner as I just can't get over the lines of this coupe. I find myself standing in the garage just staring at the car. I seem to be getting a bad case of Buickitis.

Gary