Figured out how to remove a fresh air intake from a '70s Superior!

[Kurt Arends]

So.... these plastic '70s-era Superior air intakes are impossible to remove without destroying them. Superior had always used Cadillac's air intake, that was used on the Series '75s, up until like '69/'70'71. Those Cadillac-supplied intakes were a nice, heavy pot metal intake and they were easy to service. They cannot be taken apart from the outside and the 3 bolts just spin when trying to take the nuts off from inside the quarter panel. I still have my '74 Superior ambulance sitting here, so I decided to go this route.

 

[Kurt Arends]

These later intakes were 100% plastic. The issue, in removing these later intakes, is that the 3 machine screw heads were literally molded into the plastic mounting plate. With any slight amount of rust on that screw... the screw head will just spin within the plastic mounting plate. The black intake is the Cadillac-supplied version that Superior used from '63 until '69(?) The orange intake came off of a '74 Superior 54" ambulance. The only real way to re-use these(rather than destroy them) is to grind off the screws from the back-side(inside the quarter panel) and then drill new holes to re-mount them.

 

[Daniel Scully]

I have a pair just need to cut them off.

 

[Kurt Arends]

Those are a breeze to take off! Takes about 10 minutes to grab the pair! Those should be identical to the black one in my photo.