Ebay 73..looks good to me

does look pretty good - a few nits ... not sure its worth the ask ... i do like baikal

- '74 plastic 4 slat grille (with a significant dent in it)
- i thought baikal had silver hood / fender grilles
- front seats have been recovered / rear seats are original with patina ... color is a little off.
 
teahead said:
I'll never understand why repaint and leave those side marker lights.
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I'm not a fan of the sidemarkers. I plan to remove mine but I can think of a few reasons to keep:

Originality
Safety
Cost of metalwork
Still have holes in your trunk liner

Sharp car BTW!!!
 
i can think of NO reason to keep the front sidemarkers. the front turnsignals are there and they work just fine
 
Would be nice to get it fixed, lot's of updates pending I'm sure and if we don't keep it up... it will turn to dust.
 
teahead said:
I'll never understand why repaint and leave those side marker lights.
Click to expand...
I know I am about a day late chiming in on this, but I agree with the idea of removing the side markers. Even knowing there are potential legalities, the car looks so much cleaner and more pure without the US DOT add-ons. If I'm not mistaken, the side markers were not used in Europe. I realize this is an open ended question, but why does our continent require so much additional safety? I prefer the German delivery interpretation.
 
Two words: Ralph Nader. (Mr. "Unsafe at any speed")

No but seriously - we had some unbelievably unsafe cars and just needed to do some BASIC stuff to make them safer - like a collapsible steering column instead of a "death spear" in many cars. But like with most government regulations, the safety regs painted with a very broad brush and we ended up with a lot of extra stuff. Like 5 mph bumpers? Seriously? That was probably the insurance lobby that got that one added...

HTH
James
 
autokunst said:
I know I am about a day late chiming in on this, but I agree with the idea of removing the side markers. Even knowing there are potential legalities, the car looks so much cleaner and more pure without the US DOT add-ons. If I'm not mistaken, the side markers were not used in Europe. I realize this is an open ended question, but why does our continent require so much additional safety? I prefer the German delivery interpretation.
Click to expand...

If you were in the business of manufacturing automobiles for sale in the US, you too would ask the government to mandate the exact required level of safety equipment on your products. This is the only way to protect your company from ruinous lawsuits. Alas, it also dilutes the input of both stylists and engineers into automotive design.
 
There's a nice article on Wikipedia about bumpers.
Looks like Congress was looking out for consumer repair costs, which is what I remember from the time. Turns out that stiffer bumpers are worse for occupants, the shock gets transferred directly to the interior. Crush zones are better in that regard. Stiffer bumpers are also worse for pedestrians.
Regan later relaxed the bumper standards and repair costs went back up.

I have early bumpers and like the look and will try my best not to hit anything. To keep distracted drivers from impacting my rear, I'm putting in a hidden 3rd brake light at the top of the rear window and for additional turning indication, I'm looking at putting yellow LED signals behind the C pillar roundels. They will be hidden, but with a Chamonix body, the light should be visible when I indicate a turn, at least at night. Same idea as the turn signals in the side mirrors. Silly? maybe. But you can't be too visible.

Ian
 
Removed and filled my side markers and bumpers when I 'manipulated' my car.
Took it back to its original delivery Euro form.

Have never had an issue with the law in CA in 12 years, have driven 100,000kms now. (Metric speedo too)
 
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