76 Laguna- window sticker, build sheet and more

my 76 Laguna S3 documents. Interesting to compare to others. Note the interest rate!!

And a few more

And a couple more
Thanks for looking.

My 76 Chevelle sedan is also a Doraville car! They might be siblings. My car's name is Belle. What's your car named haha? I see by your sales tag that my car is 3 months older than yours.

76 Chevelle2Tone , if she is from Doraville they are ken for sure.
I just call mine old girl. We have been together 48 years .

I'm the second owner of mine although I have had her for well over 30 years, much longer than the original owner. He was an elderly gent and said "I think you will take good care of her". I guess I could have treated her better but I never abused her either and kept her garaged. She has been a daily driver her whole existence. She's a two tone obviously, medium saddle and cream. I redid the interior seating years ago but plan to do more interior customization this year and next once I finish with the mechanical restoration. Quite a few parts are still easily available but some have never been reproed and are difficult and expensive to obtain. I have problems getting sedan specific parts. I hope you don't have many Laguna specific parts to obtain.

I think parts for any G3GM are hard to find. My door hinges were so worn I had to pick it up about an inch to close it. OPGI listed a set of four hinges for the GM A body . I ordered a set and took about 3 months to get. I received them ,looked at them and put them on the shelf. When I  went to install they had sent me two upper left hand hinges.45 days had passed so I couldn`t send it back. I ordered a single upper left hinge from The Parts Place and received it in three days.
   I have ordered a headliner from two different  companys. OPGI and Eckler`s, they were both wrong had to send them back. I know what you are going through. Good luck with your car.

The problem of getting the right part requires constant checking and rechecking. I thought the problem was particularly bad during the pandemic. I was going to start in 2020 but put off starting until 2021. Even so some of the parts ordered in 21 were wrong because of website or stockroom errors. Of course everyone was shorthanded then.

I was a bit concerned when you said you had started to buy parts in 2020 for that reason. I would suggest you carefully review those purchases and verify that they are correct. As for returns, I found the companies generous about that. A couple of parts that were wrong weren't apparent until six months later. They still agreed to take them back unused and exchanged them for the right part. I would talk to the companies and explain the situation and see what they say.

Another issue I have mentioned elsewhere here is the extreme variability of parts descriptions and search engine sensitivity. Including the part number is useful but then you might not find a badly needed part because they didn't use it. Persistence wins in the end. I have got most of the mechanical parts I need at this point but it was a struggle. I would also ask here if you are looking for a must have part.

76Chevelle2Tone wrote:The problem of getting the right part requires constant checking and rechecking…

I dare say we've all had issues with getting parts. Another issue, albeit rare, is when the factory makes an undocumented substitution on the assembly line. In my case, the AC/heater fan blower motor is not "correct" for my 1974 Monte Carlo. It matches up to a pickup truck. There aren't any "extra" holes in my car and the holes that are there match and line up perfectly to the "wrong" motor which leads me to believe the "correct" motor wasn't available on the assembly line so they used motors out of another bin until the "correct" motors were brought to the line. Although this is a minor annoyance for me, another substitution was an unexpected delight. The factory installed HEI; I guess they were out of the point ignition systems.

Back to the issue with parts, I'm at the point where I keep a handful of consumable parts "in stock" in my garage. Things like fan belts, radiator hoses, brake shoes & pads, various filters, windshield wiper blades, wheel bearings, etc. Other "wear" parts I keep duplicates on hand, things like an alternator, water pump, power steering pump, steering box, starter, etc. Then I have the stuff that's made of "un-obtain-ium", things like year, make, model specific interior parts (e.g., pillar trim, door panels) in the correct color, tail light lenses, pot metal body pieces, some mechanical parts like the intermediate steering shaft that I recently rebuilt, etc.

A big challenge for me is I only have a two-car garage and most of the real-estate is taken by my Monte Carlo and my '68 Cadillac. In other words, I have to make efficient use of my fixed space to store my parts while also storing all the regular and specialty tools needed to do all the work on my cars myself — I lost confidence in "professional" mechanics long ago. My "backyard" is nothing more than a 6-foot wide walkway so any kind of shed is not feasible.

Nonetheless, we know what we have and the challenges that come with it along with the satisfaction. Adapt, overcome, improvise. There are some very knowledgeable, resourceful and generous people on this forum who I've found to be quite helpful.

Very cool stuff! Not many folks have that many documents on their classics after all those years. Your car has some cool options. I noticed it came with the Econominder gauge as did my 76 when I bought it back in the late 80's. I updated it to a factory tach I found in a 75 Monte Carlo I found in the junkyard. You also mentioned in another thread that you were going to install a GTO tach on the hood. I've just restored a factory tach if you want to go that route. He's a pic.

Wish I had found this site a year ago. I already have the tach and fitted and wired it. I`m not going to mount until I paint the car.
What did you have to do to install in your car.

jpowen49 wrote:Wish I had found this site a year ago. I already have the tach and fitted and wired it. I`m not going to mount until I paint the car.
What did you have to do to install in your car.

That is going to look bad azz!

Another issue, albeit rare, is when the factory makes an undocumented substitution on the assembly line.

I had an even stranger situation with the original hood ornament on my car which I posted about elsewhere here. The hood ornament is not the standard one but an undocumented variant of it which was not used on any other models as far as I'm aware but only on a modest number of 76 Chevelles in the Midwest and South. This is what is funny about people worrying about stock perfection. The last people worried about it was the factory itself.

Thank you 76Chevelle2Tone. I don`t think you`ll have any trouble selling your tach. I know there are a lot of purest that won`t like what I`m doing.
I remember when my car was brand new people would ask if it was a 442.

jpowen49 wrote:I know there are a lot of purest that won`t like what I`m doing…

To paraphrase, do what you like with your car, for those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

Just read the rest of your post. To install a factory tachometer with vehicles equipped with the Econominder gauge cluster you basically just have to add a pin in the gauge cluster harness plug that mates into the flexible printed circuit board on the back of the cluster. Then you simply run that wire to a tach filter on the firewall and then the tach filter lead goes into the HEI plug marked "tach". On 75 models, the pin was already installed from the factory when the Econominder gauge cluster was ordered. Then that wire ran to a pigtail mounted on the gas pedal bracket. So then all was needed was a tach filter and one end of the filter ran through the firewall to that pigtail. Hope this makes sense.

I understand what your saying. I have replaced my wiring harness and had to use my old plug because they are obsolete. I have a couple more gauge clusters and printed circuits with gauges as spares .Are the tach filters still available.

Here is a generic filter that will work for our tachs.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154670651167?fits=Make%3AChevrolet&epid=6004814881&hash=item240316d71f:g:VqUAAOSwXmlhg-tJ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsJOS5ukUJTGE9lXh8DxJe5su%2F05FUL6IpmvB8Hu%2BWH8c8L8xYoCIvyNPTa6k%2BwLpqGcKHf8PGNgyxBEBfixM%2Baaysv5p4DzeIhySeyzssl7dT2aTUgw9wurGvLq3nbCEBp291I1SbNws4kM%2FzZph8zGHsSr19nPbkDzxyS%2Fm48IRk%2FSfUUN2uI3HNSRP7UEwsksCzUgdvTcZoxXf5nh1G5KBPGKHnB5v0n2ptvrQX15r%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4KLkfizYQ

A few more items I have for my Laguna. I bought this as A set in 1988. I think this is about the time I realized I would keep this car a long time.

I live by those GM factory manuals. Saved my bacon more times than I can count.

jpowen49 wrote:my 76 Laguna S3 documents. Interesting to compare to others. Note the interest rate!!

Thanks for posting all this.

Where did you find your build sheet?

K

Keith, your welcome. I  found it just  lying behind the interior right quarter panel while disassembling the interior. It was around 2007, I parked and tarped it in 2002.

jpowen49 wrote:Keith,  your welcome. I  found it just  lying behind the interior right quarter panel while disassembling the interior. It was around 2007, I parked and tarped it in 2002.

You've inspired me.

I have never found a build sheet in my car. I've had the carpet, fuel tank, seats and doors apart but nothing there.

I presently have the interior apart installing a full roll cage. I'm going to check behind the quarter trim and above the headliner while it's apart.

K

Keith, hope you find it, you`ve looked everywhere else. Mine was real damp and decaying, It most likely wouldn`t have lasted many more years.