Inline Tube - Technical - Help for Hide a Way Headlights

Inline Tube - An Open and Shut Case - Repairing Hide - A Way Headlights

Story and Photography by John Kryta

1968 Pontiac GTO earned motor Trend car of the year – maybe it was the endure nose or the restyling for the 68 model year or maybe it just had a cleaner appearance that made it a stand out. The other A-bodies (Chevelle SS, Cutlass 442 or Skylark GS) were still holding on to the big chrome bumper and exposed headlights. The hidden headlight was not new for 68 since the 67 Grand Prix had them the year before and so did a few other luxury makes such as the Cadillac Eldorado, Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado but now the concept began to be used on the intermediate market and a few muscle cars. Hidden headlight began to be sporty – and for around $52.00 you could add them as an option to your GTO. A trend began and if you wanted a sporty look to your car you opted for hide-a-ways. Although they were all options, today we expect to see a 68-69 GTO with hide-a-ways and a 69 Judge in the famous Carosole Red and further a 70 Chevelle should be red with black stripes and a Buick GSX yellow but the reality is plenty of GTO’s came with the standard headlights and not all chevelle’s were red and you could get that GSX in white.

Weather you have an opinion that you like them or not they are very popular option that is commonly added today. It is a basic system that works off engine vacuum and 2 pods or vacuum actuators that are located in the front grill. There seems like there is a mile of tubing but it is only a vacuum source, and one hose in and one out. Since the source of vacuum is the engine I have noticed a another trend, most automatic cars them and less 4 speeds got them and if you had a Ram Air 4 even less had them. The bigger the cam the smaller the vacuum and the slower the headlights worked. Although you could order them some dealers knew the problem and advised away from them. It’s not that they did not work they just did not work as fast. We have all seen where one door comes up before the other or the system is fighting for air.

Later in life 20-40 years down the road engines were yanked out, bigger cams installed, hoses crossed and rust had created pin holes in the vacuum storage units. This all resulted in hide-a-way problems so we accepted it and hide the fact they don’t work by looking both ways and with a slip of the hand lower the doors manually and put them back up when we get home. We will break the system down and examine the problems to get you system working like new again.

Usually when you take the system out of the car or buy it at the swap meet this is what it looks like. It looks complete but seldom is and will need a few more pieces to get it working. With this set there is no headlight switch, vacuum hoses, or cover doors but the parts are in good clean restorable condition.

This system has been taken apart and all the pieces have been bead blasted in a small home cabinet. From the factory all the black pieces were dipped in a dye like paint. This is what is built up in the corners and harder to bead blast off. Once all the parts are clean we have painted them black. Since the factory never used primer on these parts we just painted the bare metal. If you use primer every scratch and chip will show the color beneath and draws your eye to it. For the rest of the hardware we have re-plated some of the originals and inline tube provided the rest new.

We started by rebuilding the vacuum actuator since they were in really good shape. We used a gold cad like paint for the body. If there is no rust or pin holes in the body and the rod moves up and down once the inner and the outer seals are replaced they are as good as new. There is an inner thick rubber seal that is sandwiched in the seam of the actuator, if you hold your finger over the vacuum hole and pull on the rod and you can move it in or out the unit is shot and must be replaced. The inner rod seal is only to prevent vacuum loss in the upper cavity. The ribbed boot is a dust cover and has no vacuum function. Even if the inner rod seal is torn the system will still work it just won’t hold vacuum. The black covers are bead blasted and painted with matt clear. These covers are sometimes cracked and are used to protect the face of the unit and provide a visual black out in the grill.

The door assembly pieces have also been painted semi gloss black and the headlight buckets are gloss black on the 69 and on many 68’s they were gold or silver cad and can be re-plated. Each bucket is held in with 2 adjusters and one spring. The adjusters have small metal tabs that snap into the door frame. If the paint and primer is too thick it will make them difficult to install. The adjuster has small metal spring steel tangs that hold it into the frame – it is common for these to break off in the install making them useless. I would order a couple extra because until you get the hang of it, one broken part can put the project on hold for a couple of weeks. This adjuster snap in area was improved in 69 so they do vary from the 68 part.

When working on these parts it is always a good idea to have the reference material out on the bench. The green cover 69 dealer maintenance manual has many exploded views of the system or take pictures as you disassembly the old parts. Another common mistake is assuming that the head light buckets are the same. They are all 4 different, each has a letter stamped at the adjuster stud A.B, J,K hard to read but they must be in the right order for the headlights to be straight and in the right order. The bulbs only fit one way and sit in the pocket on the edge of the bucket. The chrome trim rings are also different because they are cut out for the bucket spring.

This is the hardware that holds the metal door covers to the door frame. They have a thin head and a shoulder that the plastic bushings ride on. These pieces should be greased during the install. The other piece is a metal sleeved rubber bump stop. When the door is in the open position it rests against this stop. On the originals the rubber is always dry rotted and beaten down to the metal sleeve. If you system is rattling when you drive the car only with the head lights on, the door is bouncing off the metal sleeve because the rubber is gone, most likely driving you nuts. Inline tube makes this piece new.

The door unit is held into the nose with the right angel brackets shown at the top of the picture. These black brackets have slotted holes for the alignment of the unit and a locating tab. They are also marked R & L as are most of the parts. This inside edge of the door also shows the clips and screws that hold the plastic cover to the metal door. This corner also has a small slotted metal bracket that is used as a door stop. This can be adjusted out to touch the nose and hold the door in its closed position so all the chrome trim lines up on the inner grill and the cover. These are always missing so the alignment is off on most cars.

The hide-a-way door units are held to the ends of the inner nose with these mounting brackets. All noses from the factory had the studs under the endura so it is just a matter of bolting on the brackets if adding the option. They are held in place with small silver lock nuts.

This is the entire setup less the vacuum hoses ready to be installed in the car. The hide-a-way cars also used a different front bumper bracket. The bracket is larger and has a large hole so the door arm can pass through the bracket. This option can’t be installed without these brackets and they are not currently reproduced but maybe in the future.

The entire system is installed in the nose while it is off the car. The nose will be bolted on as a unit just like the factory did it. The actuator unit is the first installed and the grill brackets are next. This is a good time to get out the restoration photos and the manuals for reference.

The rest of the system is installed into the nose loose at first and once all the grills are in place everything must be aligned so the chrome trim of the grills and the surrounds are equal space on all sides. The process can take hours of adjusting and moving to get it just right. You may have to elongate a few holes and slightly bend on the brackets to get it perfect. The original cars were far from perfect. Once it is all tight the unit will be installed on the car. In the background you can see the vacuum hoses hanging from the car to be installed when the nose is moved into place.

With a few friends on hand lift the nose into place and align on the car. The nose will have a tendency to drop so start high. It is also very important that the car be under its own weight and not be on a jack or jack stands. It must be on the floor on its tires. The nose is bolted to the front of the frame only and any flexing of the frame will affect the nose location. When you jack a 68-70 GTO the nose falls away from the fenders since it is not bolted to the fenders or core support. It is just hanging off the frame brackets.

The only thing left is the vacuum lines these are available new from inline tube. The hoses are all color coated Blue strip is the supply line to engine vacuum source. The hose comes off the fitting on the back of the carburetor and is split with a check valve and continues on to the vacuum can in the fender and the headlight switch in the firewall. The can stores the vacuum for later use and the engine provides vacuum when the car is running. This is when the doors close faster when the car is running but should still close if the car is off. The blue hose connects to the center port on the interior headlight switch. The green stripe hose is the open hose and the no strip or black hose is the close hose – these run together in the head light wiring harness from the switch in the dash to the actuators. This schematic diagram is located in the assembly manual or you maintenance manual and comes with the new hoses from inline tube.

Today there is no reason the system should not work. All the parts are available new from Inline Tube. Most of the big parts can be re-used and even the hardware can be blasted and used over. All the missing pieces are available new and can save a lot of time and frustration. The bump stops are a must and brackets that are all bent up and rusty just slow the process down. The actuators can be bought new or rebuilt - it is time vs. money and aggravation saved.

Additional Photo's

Sources:

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Shelby Twp, MI 48315
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