Creativeindy

I know how this crowd likes stories and pictures so I figured I would finally post mine up with it's history with me and my current progress. Picked up this 1971 Cutlass S in southern Indiana. It's not my first Cutlass, I've had 4 previous including a 69 S, 69 442, 70 Supreme Vert and 66 F85. The pictures I seen before buying and talking to owner made me think this was asurface rust only car and I could probably have it daily driver ready in 30 days. He claimed interior was cherry, and "drives and shifts like a muscle car should"(actual quote). Claimed there was just surace rust and it had all new brakes all the way around including lines, drums, pads, cylinders etc.

When I went to actually purchase the car, I drove it and it was a complete turd. Absolutly no power in the engine, There was no exhaust what so ever. It had been cut off 1 inch past the connecting flange on the passenger side. Tires were dry rotted to the point there was a 99% chance they would all pop trying to drive it home. Transmission was a basket case and I am still amazed I was able to make it all the way back home in it. Rear body panels were filled with bondo and sheet metal. Only impressive thing was the floors were all solid and the doors and front fenders were actually in bondo free, restorable condition. Interior was mouse infested and reeked of a dead animal. Seats were completely trashed and missing all the stuffing. Frames were rusted and carpet was dry rotted. Dash was the only solid thing inside the interior.

I only drove it home instead of trailering because the owner stated he would not be afraid to drive this car across the country it's that dependable he claimed. Owner wanted 3k, I talked hi down to 2400 over the phone already before I drove down. I walked away from it, told him I was going to pass to much wrong that he didnt inform me of for me to shell out 2400 on. The owner called and text me for the next hour as I headed back home until finally he lowered the price down so far from original I couldn't pass it up. I snagged it for 1200.00 and I turned around and headed back to get it.

Title shows 63k miles on the car as well as dash. Motor and tranny apparantly have been taken out and "rebuilt" according to him however if memory serves I recall seeing #8 heads which didn't come in a 71. I'll have to check when I get home to confirm. I need to grab block numbers to check if its numbers. The tranny was shot by time I got home due to several leaks were they let this sit outsides and mice and other critters ate through most of everything. Car was wired wrong, nothing works electrical, brake switch was never hooked up, every window pours water through it due to dry rotted weather stripping and seals. Spark plugs were wrong, wiring order was wrong, dist was WAAAAAY out of whack, tires shot, live baby mice in floor boards, it was a pile of crap but I love a good challenge.

So fast forward 19 days and a little bit of money and we have a considerable gain on a freshening up of a classic car. I will do a quick list of the improvements I have made so far on the car. Fresh tune up and correct firing order, rebuilt TH350 transmission with shift kit, headers installed(what a pain) and flowmaster thunder 40 series system with H pipe installed, radiator, brake booster installed, upper and lower ball joints, tie rod ends, sway bar bushings and end links, new hood, front fenders, found a mint OEM bench seat from a fellow member, new interior panels ordered, weather stripping all the way around, eletrical all hooked up and mostly sorted out, AC system installed, shocks on all 4, gas tank installed and tons of little odds and ends done to it.

As of last night the entire car has been stripped of old paint. Has to put some skim filler on the sail panels where the factory welds were showing to get it smooth and in a few other small places to even out low spots. Lots of sanding and rust repair to come including 2 NOS rear quarters a fellow member on here sold me a few days ago. I am hoping to be in paint by the end of next week if all goes to plan. Lots of late nights in the garage but its so worth it to bring one back from the dead.

A couple members on here from Indianapolis have helped me to get missing parts, non rusted metal, and helped in the knowledge department. I love the Oldsmobile community, seems to be a load of knowledge around here thats been a life savor to me.

Here it is soon after buying getting new tires and battery at Wal-Mart so I could attempt to make it home safely.







Some other shots of stripping and progress.








And my beautiful helper...removing the flex pipe attached to a temp muffler so we wouldn't get a ticket driving it home

don71

I'm exicited that you took on a project like this. I'm not sure I'd be that brave...now. If I was younger, Oh Yea. And you got it at a good price.

Kudos man, this has got to be fun. Enjoyed your story and pics. How far did you drive this home?

Looks like you have some good help.

Allan R

What a great story! Well, I have to say you're a braver man than I am taking on that challenge. Incredible amount of work you've done on it in a short time. Sounds like you met Scott and Eric! You planning to keep it the original color and roof?

The VIN on your car should start 336871()XXXXXX The () will be a letter like M, R, Z etc which indicates the plant the car was built at. The XXXXXXX are unique to that car. If you look on the engine block just below the #1 cylinder there will be a stamping pad. Attaching a pic so you can see. The stamping is very light so you'll need to clean it well to read. But it should start out 3()1XXXXXX where the Xs represent the last 6 numbers of the VIN. That's the ONLY way you can tell if that's the block the car was born with. You're right the 71 350 came with 7 heads - same as 72. The 8 heads are from 73-76.



Well with all the critters you say were in the car, any chance of finding a broadcast or build sheet will be very slim.

Glad you are a motivated and competent guy! Not too many of us have a helper like that. A car gal and good looking? You have a winning combo there.

70olds455

I am surprised you drove it home in the condition the car was in. Looks like you will have it looking good in no time.

Rmsx327

I snagged a '72 here in Indy! (Had 63k, too! )
The car sure looks nice! You're going light speed on that thing! Got more done in a few days than I probably will this whole year.
Keep up the good work!

Allan R

Forgot to mention - your block casting should be 395558 2. You'll find that casting to the right side of the oil filler tube, just before the oil pressure sender.

Creativeindy

Thanks for all the kind words guys. I am very motivated to get it finished so it keeps me busy day in and out. I have met Scott and Eric, both are super nice fellas. My fenders and seat came from Eric and my AC, Hood, Transmission core and other odds and ends came from Scott. Good guys and they both love Cutlass as much as I do it seems.

Allan, correct. My casting is 39558 -2 however the intake is 411990 casting with #8 heads so this is def not the correct engine for this car. I believe the engine in here is out of a 76ish Olds upon checking.

Creativeindy

Drove it about 110 miles in total. First 30 miles and had to stop due to not shifting because all the tranny fluid blew out behind me. I filled it up and within no time it was all over the road again. It stayed at 70mph all the way home so not to bad once I get it in high gear. Tranny has since been replaced and rebuilt so it shifts and runs fine right now.

Allan R

411990 is the casting for a 1973 350 4bbl intake manifold.
Reference: GM Parts Manual Group 3.265 part 411990

If the engine is out of a 76 the block stamp will start out as '3()6XXXXXX where () is the plant of manufacture - likely M, R, Z, B, etc. 6 would represent the 76 model year. XXXXXX is the last 6 matching digits of the VIN the motor was born to.

Sounds like you may have what we call a Franken-motor.

You drove that car 70mph with a known faulty trans? Don't know what to say to you about that....

Creativeindy

Transmission... partially correct. I drove it and it started to slip. When I pulled over to check fluid levels it was empty. I filled the car and and let it run in the auto store parking lot for about 20 mins. I seen no visible leaks on the parking lot. So we tried to head home again and it shifted fine(well sorta) at first. I had to manually move through the gears because it was shifting way to early. I just assumed at that point it was a bad vacuum on the modulator. However as it may be I was no in stop and go traffic so by the time I was almost home and came to my first stop light is when I noticed it slipping in and out of gear again. By the time I arrived at home it was empty.

When I arrived to buy the car I just assumed it has vacuum leaks and needed a tune up. The guy claimed it would drive any where so I didn't reserve a trailer to get it I figured I would drive it home. Had I known it was this bad and had a faulty tranny I would have just trailer it to the house.

Yea I came up with same thing on the motor, I just assumed it was out of a 76 since I found several threads on here with same casting numbers and all of those seemed to have 73 to 76 model Oldsmobile's. I guess I have a widely used block (68 thru 76) intake suggest a 1973 350 and the heads suggest 73-76 350 is what I came up with upon searching.

Creativeindy

The engine stamp pad reads 36RXXXXXXX which obviously isn't my VIN. So between heads( '73 - '76 350 79CC 411929 Casting), intake(which is used primarily on a 1973 350) and a widly used block (68-76) my engine is more or less a 73 stuffed into a 71. I was wondering why it had EGR valve on it when I bought it. I took what the previous owner says with a grain of salt. Most owners don't know or BS there way through a sale.

Allan R

Yup, your stamp means 3(olds)6(76 model year) R (Arlington TX) 176827 VIN derivative of the car it came from.

That would explain the blue paint. IIRC in 76 the engines were blue. But looking at the pics you posted earlier, it's also obvious someone when rattle can happy in there.

There are some sellers out there who are straight up about their car. But most of them are like you say - BS slingers who want nothing more than to see the car gone.

Anyway - looking forward to more progress on your car. Keep up the good work. BTW if you run into problems with stuff, it's nice to know that Eric and Scott are close by and you could always look at one of their cars for reference or ideas.

oldzzy

Wow your moving fast on this project! Your making the rest of us look bad lol. Looks like you're going to have a nice car when you get done. It's always nice to have your wife/girlfriend interested and involved in the project. My wife helped me take out the old motor and trans, and was so proud of herself she had to tell anyone who would listen to her about it lol.

455man

Wow that thing looks like my Cutlass did. But you are making progress way faster than me.

Creativeindy

You're not alone, mine did the same. When she seen me reading this thread last night and seen her picture on here she was so excited. She gets excited over the silliest of things ha-ha.

She has helped me considerably so far. She helped me strip the old paint off every panel, sand around nooks and tight spots we cant get with stripper, DA, or blocks. She has helped with exhaust work, transmission exchange and interior work. She always goes with me when picking up parts and checking on possible new car purchases. She is very supportive about the car and is positive and excited to see how it will all turn out.

When guys say their wife is there best friend I can honestly say that and mean it. We pretty much do everything together no matter what it is. She also has a sport bike so we ride alot, to and from work in mornings and evenings, and hanging out around the city with other friends. So yea, it's nice to have a woman who is supportive of something like this.

As far as the car goes I jumped in with both hands and feet. I would love to do a full frame off but I just dont have the room/time right now. It's in a 3 car garage but we have another car and our bikes in there so space is tight for some things. I learned my lesson on the last few Cutlass I've owned as far as buying parts and paying someone to do what. I will say the majority of the Olds community are awesome people and willing to help in any way. I just wish some people, who hold key parts others need were not so money oriented but it's thier stuff so it is what it is. Makes it hard to get quality or decent parts at an affordable price that way

If everything goes to plan I am hoping to have the car in the booth sometime next week. I'm still trying to come up with a color for it. Can't do anything until my rear quarters come in. I am going to try and weld them in myself. Never done this before so I am hoping it all goes ok.

Creativeindy

Last night I finished the Flowmaster 17119 Thunder system with H pipe. Thoughts are I love it. Made the car idle considerably better, sounds good, quiet in car but loud in rear, sounds just like I had researched. It's almost a tad too quiet but from previous experience these will loosen up some as I break them in. Install time took about 1.5 hours with minimal cutting. I jacked car up on all 4 corners used jack stands all the way around and was cake sliding everything into place.

I took pictures of it clamped into place night before last, but I welded it all in late last night. Rest of the images are previous owner body work, stripping pictures and rear window removal and rust issues.

oldzzy

looks good! how about a video to hear the new exhaust?

Creativeindy

I'll try and grab one tonight when I get home. It's night and day from what I had on there previously which was headers into 2.5 Collectors into Pipe extensions long enought to place the mufflers in there spots under rear seats into Thrush mufflers with dumps. It sounded like pure garbage and made the car run funky IMHO. I welded everything up and hit the key, normally I have to pump it a couple times and keep hitting gas every few seconds for a min until she warms up due to no choke. Last night she surprised me but firing right up and idling like she was brand new. I assume the back pressure has something to do with this not sure.

Allan R

Should also save those vinyl top trim pieces. There were a lot of guys looking for the pieces that go across between the 2 window trims.

Creativeindy

Mine were partly damaged from previous owner. I did however save everything I pulled off of the car what I can use I will probably toss on here to help anyone out that needs the stuff. If I dont have any use for it might as well try and help someone else out with it. I'll double check and make sure on whats left for the trim pieces for the top from those sail panels.

Allan R

Just to clarify: The parts that are hard to find are the slightly curved long (about 20"?) pieces that go above the wheel flare on the quarter panel. The corner connectors are repopped.

Creativeindy

Were talking about the same pieces....I have to go dig them out of trunk but if memory serves the corners were damaged and I cant remember if the longer pieces were or not. Hopefully not.

Creativeindy

Exhaust video. It's pretty quiet in the car, but as I said earlier it will get louder and it did. The interior is still quiet, I did notice a little gain in audible after I drove it a couple times to test out placement and clearance. It's 25% louder out the rear now from break in but has no drone and no bad popping so thats a good thing.

oldzzy

Good job on the exhaust, has a nice little rumble to it. The tada at the end was a nice touch too! lol

Creativeindy

I'll get a better video this weekend. Like I said, it's considerbly louder now with a really low deep rumble at idle. LOL @ The Tada!! I passed the video around at work and u could hear everyone in the office at different times chuckle and I could tell what they were laughing at. LOL

sammy

Another one saved! Love it I am working on a 72 Cutlass S with a 73 3504bbl, and the guy wanted way to much at the start. Ended up trading an old snowmobile I had lying around that I never used! Any of these non restored finds are getting harder to find - people seem to think they are worth a fortune!?
Congrats on saving this one, it is good to see!

Ted

Creativeindy

Picked up a front and rear bumper over the weekend. Drove about 4 hours to the south to pick them up. Found a good deal on the local craigslist and it saved me a few hundred on buying them direct and a ton on getting mine rechromed. Both of the rear quarters and the trunk pan arrived last night. My trunk isn't real bad so I'm on the fence if I want to replace the pan or fix the few small holes.

Spent the past weekend getting the holes welded where the chrome strips were down the body. Fixed some issues on the front fenders where it had some rough spots. My hood had some prior mud in it so I removed it all when stripped but had to place it back in to get the hood level. Fixed a few small dents with some glaze. Used a high build surfacer on the front clip, roof and both doors. The rear I did not mess with due to getting new quarters welded in. Overall I wish the body work and stuff was better but I learn as I go. I am a Software Engineer by trade so I figure if I can build multi million dollar applications I can teach myself to sand and paint.


My very first attempt at welding EVER!!! 2 very important lessons I learned. 1. Dont just wear goggle type welding glasses. You get a sun burn every where else. 2. Always wear shirts and leather shoes as to not have a hot ember end up inside your tennis shoes.




Door primed after holes welded up


New bumpers



Rear end rust


Priming and sanding


My first attempt at spraying high build primer, sanding, fixing small dents, and re-prime again for blocking...turned out pretty good.

oldzzy

Got to love the cut outs in the rear bumper, it changes the whole look of the rear, for the better i think. Cars coming along nicely!

Allan R

X2. Those bumpers look to be in really good shape!

Just noticed the rocker looks like it has rust through. You planning to replace or weld up? Now that you're at this stage, Might as Well take off all the trim, locks/handles and window fuzzies/rubber seals and do it all like new. You can get replacement window fuzzies and all door/trunk and roof line weather stripping very easy and affordable for this car. Don't forget the cowl lacing either - it's often overlooked. When you take off the rear wheel moldings I'm betting it will be rusty under there too. Note: these are all just suggestions - you can obviously ignore them; especially if $$ is not there to do it right now.

If you're planning to clone the car to a 442? May as well remove the lower rocker trim mounts. The 442s didn't have that trim.

JOHNNYOLDS442

looking good nice progress

Creativeindy

Already have all new window fuzzies, weathestripping, door handles, locks and other chrome trim so thats why I didn't put much effort into removing the pitted door handles and or pitted trim/ dry rotted fuzzies.

As for the rockers, yes I have new ones ordered waiting on there arrival before my guy puts them on for me. It is rusty under the rear wheel mouldings. Only that one side is left on as it's bent and pitted. Those quarters are getting replaced in the next day or so anyways so not worried to much about anything from the door back.

Creativeindy

I'm so OVER sanding..... Next time, I will just pony up the dough and pay someone to do this crap. I'm to much of a perfectionist which is bad when I don't know a thing about body work and have a car that has a ton of imperfections.

On a side note the entire front clip, roof, and doors are blocked and ready for base. Now if everything else would just finish and I would be happy.

Allan R

Nothing about these projects is 'ever' finished. I felt I should warn you about that.....just when you think you're done? SOMETHING will come up. And when you do 'finish' there will be another project looming on the horizon...

We've all been there and understand what you're going through. BTW, unless this is going to be a trailer queen (not likely, right?) don't worry about perfection. Just get it to the stage where it looks great and is safe to drive. Then enjoy it!

Creativeindy

So it's been a couple weeks since I have updated but lots of parts are in and lots of new parts have been installed. The past week I converted the front drums to disc brakes (Thanks for the parts Scott). While I was doing this I noticed the control arm bushings were almost gone not to mention looking at the old and rusty UCA/LCA was just disgusting with all these nice shiney new ball joints, rotors, calipers, lines shocks and springs.

So last night I bit the bullet and I figured since I put all those new parts on including shocks and springs why not just replace the controls arms so that is what I did. I ordered a nice set of tubular UCA/LCA sets with ball joints, sway end links, and the whole ball of wax with them. Ordered an upgraded sway bar and some new tie rod ends inner and outer. So now when they arrive I just have to remove everything I just put on, Sensatrac's, Springs, spindles, etc and swap it to the new arms but I think it will be nice upgrade over stock. Since I'm not building this for show or originality and it's a driver I figured this would be a nice improvement.

All my other parts finally showed up including some nice upgrades locally from Eric and Scott. Picked up all my trim chrome, door panels, seats, sport steering wheel, deck lid, and some visors from the guys. My Nos front bug/stone shield and head light surrounds showed up. Got some NOS headlight trim rings off fleabay. Picked up an aftermarket OAI hood and got some new springs and front latch kits from fleabay repops. Picked up an original owners manual and pouch, PUI finally got me my full window felt kit. Picked up a vintage 2 **** radio front however it has MP3, SD and iPod hook ups out the rear so I can keep that nice 2 **** look, don't have to tear the dash up and can listen to some music. Grabbed a package tray off fleabay along with carpet and headliner. My rear quarter sheet metal, trunk pan and rocker inner/outter panels finally arrived so I can finish the last of the body work. Picked up some used Cutlass S grills in decent shape from Eric as well the past week. The engine also has received a nice new Edelbrock carb and Valve covers along with a fully rebuilt and conditioned distributor with MSD coil.

The entire front clip, doors, deck lid and front grill etc parts have been sprayed with color. I went with a sublime green that me and the women like and since it was no metallic paint and we mixed the gallons together it should all come out the same doing it this way in stages. The door jams and sills were also sprayed and taken care of.

The engine has been timed right and carb adjusted properly. Added a coolant overflow jug and a new battery tray. Lots of goodies left to put on but my next hurdle is to get a longer Extention rod for the brake booster master cylinder. The original was a flush and the conversion cylinder has a longer shaft so I need a 4" entention and not 2" or at least thats what I found out from researching it.

I have it in me to believe that by the time I am done with this car I could have purchased someone else's already mostly completed or in decent shape car. But I guess what fun would that be to ride around in someone else's hard work.


New Tubular Controls Arms ordered

My First time ever painting. I think it came out pretty decent.

New Ball Joints

Everything is new except Calipers/Springs as they were not in yet.

Allan R

More pics, more pics.....I just found a deal on fleabay for NORS dust caps for my hubs. Bought a set and they are uber perfect! Those ones look a little beat up.

Creativeindy

Yea, I need to find a set of dust caps myself. These caps were off the donor car so didn't have much choice. I assumed I could pick these up locally as I thought I had been able to purchase these at Autozone before on another car I had. Little did I know it was not that simple. No one around here carries them it seems so fleabay is my only option for new caps.

I will try and get some better pics this weekend when I get more of it done. Hate taking unfinished pictures as it makes it looks like a pile of crap. I'm gonna document the Tubular UCA/LCA install step by step when I get them in.

Creativeindy

So the quarters have started to go on YIPPIE! Probably not the best or even the correct way to put them on but it's the best I know how. Spot welded the panel in, then did small 1/8th inch welds every so often while keeping the panel cool the entire time to avoid any warpage that could possibly occur.

Allan R

Very nice. What did you do on the inner liners? The front of that rs inner looked rusted through.

DENT

Good goin ,

Creativeindy

Patched. Wasn't that much missing just some small 2x2 area in the front and a small area in the rear. The fender lip I did the same thing and bent a piece of sheet with some stress cuts do it bends and welded it on the back side of the outer wheel well. I took left over metal from the quarter and bent it on the brake and welded it in to fix the rust that was at the bottom of the front and rear wheel well/trunk area in the pics. Then grinded everything and put rust transformer on and then some POR15 on top of that before I installed quarter. I then seam sealed the quarter to the wheel well's and other areas. I also used 3M body epoxy on some of the quarter for added strength on the back side. If I had it to do over I would get some inner/outer wheel's but I didn't know this much was rusted.

Good news is the Driver side is not any where near as bad. it is solid with just rust through on the quarter it's self and the inner/outers are solid as well. When it was finished tonight you could not even tell I bent the metal and patched it in. I mean I guess someone who messes with body work could easily tell but I think I did a decent job on it. Once the undercoat goes on it will be like new.