Napoleon Solo

After coming to my senses from nearly selling the car, a week or so ago I began the teardown. No major issues so far, front clip is removed and at my shop already and today I got around to pulling the interior.
This car is so dry and clean it's unbelievable. Not only is there no rust, the floor under the carpet is still shiny blue. The grease pencil marks on the floor pan are still visible! I will keep the pictures and info / discoveries coming as I progress.

oldcutlass

Nice and solid, outstanding.

therobski

What a beautiful find, I will watching the progress-robski

Napoleon Solo

At this point, I am about 80% of the way to pulling the body off. I need to find a rotisserie to facilitate the resto. I plan on keeping the car Midnight Mist with the black interior but I did toy with the idea of red or even black. I won't be doing too many mods in general, maybe slightly lowered. I am going to keep the whole drivetrain stock but install the console shifter.
The only other thing I want to do to personalize the car is powder coat the frame and all of the suspension parts, diff, inner fenders etc. a gunmetal grey (same as my wheels) instead of black. The powder coat colour is called "black chrome". The firewall and entire underside of the car will be wet coat painted to match.

That is the story so far...

Magna86

Yes keep it blue. Everyone has red or black. Funny how much easier and faster it is to take something apart than it is to put back together. lol

Napoleon Solo

Progress is fairly slow but that's to be expected I guess. I started chipping away at the crud the original owner used to seal the rear window. It seem there IS a little rust on the 'ol machine. The bottom corners of the window channel and some of the horizontal section are crunchy and holes have developed. I guess I can't get away from a little body work.
On the flip side of that, I stripped off the headliner and fibre board to reveal a shiny roof pan..

VinMichael

deck filler panel needs replacing it looks like. cut mine out of my 64 and have the new one sitting in its place. haven't got around to welding it in.

It's a bitch.

maybe time to get yourself a Spot-Weld cutter.

oldstata

If that's all the rust you have your way ahead of the game!

Looks like a solid car
I really like the 330 mine runs like a top. I even feel bad of the thought if pulling it

Good luck with the build

Napoleon Solo

I have a spot weld cutter for just such an emergency....
Where did you get your filler panels? Are all of the A body panels the same?

Oldstata - I came very close to selling the car. I am going to keep the 330 and likely just rebuild the 4GC carb. The stock setup will be all the power I need.

stan 65 cutlass

rear deck filler panels for 65 are same as 65 gto. maybe fit the 64?? maybe Robski knows??????

oldstata

Correct !! 64/65 are the same gto

Keener

64 and 65 are the same starting from the doors then back to the rear

Napoleon Solo

Thanks for the info guys but I'm aware that 64/65 cars are virtually identical from the A pillar back, I was asking if someone makes a reproduction part or do I have to scavenge from a parts car? Will 65/64 BOP / chevy panels all work?

oldstata

Yes there is a repop panel buy for the gto not Chevy

Keener

All 64-65 BOP rear filler panels should work. Not sure on chevelle but will venture a guess and say yes. The 64-65 chevelle roof skins interchange which leads me to this conclusion. Call a salvage yard and ask them to look in the interchange book. Personally, I would and have cut up a Buick, but if I found a gto, I'd probably haul the car home and sell it. Tamraz sells the panel you need, so does CPC.

oldstata

http://m.summitracing.com/parts/gmk-4330-710-64?seid=srese1&gclid=CMqbt6nU-b4CFQcSMwodx0cAJA

Might need to cut and paste but here is what your looking for might search for cheaper

therobski

Ames Performance, is your best friend for this buggy. I used a 64-65 GTO filler panel and a lot of other parts from them. Easy to work. I just updated my thread there is a lot of pictures on it to give some ideas. I like that car.

VinMichael

This looks familiar...




I got mine through ebay. Tamraz's parts is the seller


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

Napoleon Solo

I bookmarked that page. Thank you my bruddahs! I will be focussed mainly on the chassis for now so I won't be looking at the body for several months but I like to do my recon early. Today I bought my 330 gasket set and a complete set of polyurethane/graphite bushings. Tomorrow I expect to get my dash out and finish removing the electrical.

Napoleon Solo

That looks perfeck - did you need to mess with the panel at all or was it a good clean stamping?

therobski

No carving, fit right in. I restored my plastic dash ( no pad I believe early 64's). I bought my fllor and trunk pans from TopCo and those needed to worked a bit depending on what you remove from the car, my braces in the floor and trunk were all replaced too.

Keener

Rob, the plastic dash is not an early 64 item. Your dash is plastic because you have a club coupe (i.e. bare bones F85, vinyl floor, granny seat, etc). truly rare to find a club coupe these days and fantastic to see yours fully restored. I've followed your thread from the beginning. well done!

therobski

I may add that the floor and trunk pans did not have the same stamping creases and in areas would not match the originals when you dropped them. This was about 3 years ago,they could have generic early A body panels and thats all they had at the time. If was restoring a 64 442 I would have tried something else, but I'm fine with the results.

Napoleon Solo

I am in the final throes of stripping the interior but I can't seem to get the rear 'door' panels off. I am reusing them so I don't want them damaged. Is there anything I'm not seeing?

HonestDave

I've still got the one from the blue coupe I bought off you. It's in the barn at Lake Cowichan. Cut through the rear seams, from top of the rear seat right to the trunk lip. If I sell my rocket and end up keeping the panel, maybe there's a trade somewhere.
Some very light surface rust underneath that just rubs of. Otherwise, solid as a rock (unlike my 442).

Napoleon Solo

Right on, Dave. Let me know if there is anything you need. My plan is to have the interior out completely this weekend and the body ready to come off by the second week of July. Stay tuned.

therobski

Keener thanks for the correct info, sounds right too. I was told that the plastic dashes squeaked and that's why GM started padding them. Have you seen 65-66 Club Coupes with non padded dashes? Like you said there's is not many base post cars around. Another question was 70 or 72 the last year for the F-85?? Few more pictures before and after:

Keener

RamZ has a plastic dash in his 65 442 club coupe. Last year of the F85 was 1972 (last of the 3rd gen body style).

Keener

Did you remove all the screws from the left side (i.e. toward the trunk) of the panel? They might be tucked in behind the vinyl.

Napoleon Solo

THAT"S what I'm talkin about - hope to be at that stage of chassis reassembly by August.
Personally I've never seen a non padded dash base model. I guess when buying an Oldsmobile, typically people wanted all of the goodies that you pay extra for. Leave the taxi cab stripped cars for the chevy guys!

TK-65

Olds made 30,000 standard F85s (coupes, sedans, wagons) and unless optioned with a padded dash, they all came with plastic dashes.

The federal government required padded dashboards to be standard equipment starting in 1966. So it wasnt squeaks that made Olds stop using them, it was Washington.

Swede64

My 64 F-85 standard wagon came with a plastic dash. Not options on my wagon except power brakes and power steering, found the build sheet i the rear seat.

therobski

Hey at least the few of us plastic dash owners don't have to worry about re-padding!!

stan 65 cutlass

dave, are you telling me you have a rear deck filler panel 3 miles up the road in your barn?? maybe now my rebuild can continue. i think a bbq dinner and game of pool is a great place to start.

Napoleon Solo

Oi!
I'll see that BBQ dinner and raise you an extra large Timmy Ho's coffee! That's right - it's on now buddy!

Just messin' with ya...If you need it to continue it's all yours. It'll be months before I'm at that point.

Napoleon Solo

The car is just about ready to go back to the shop to have the body hoisted off for blasting. Today I finished dropping the fuel tank and much to my disappointment - no build sheet. But, on the other hand, the fuel tank is perfeck and I can even re-use the tank straps. The securing nuts actually loosend without much effort. In the picture you can actually see shiny trunk floor where the strips of tank goo were. I'm really looking forward to stripping this car.

On a side note, I decided to preserve the interior floor and dash grease pencil marks - the interior will not get walnut stripped.

I also decided that I am going to do the bodywork and paint the car myself. At the end of the day if I'm not happy with the result - strip it and do it again. And again if need be. I'd rather spend those thousands alotted to a painter on goodies for the car. I have set a budget of $10k to complete the car including rechroming and engine reconditioning. If I paint it myself I think I can come in below that.

oldstata

I think that 10k is very doable

With my build all my body work and paint I'm only in it 3k now I am not painting it my self but I did trade work with my painter I resealed/ head gaskets his engine for my paint job but in supply's like I said 3k and that's with buying a few new tools

stan 65 cutlass

hey no fair bribing dave with coffee!!!!!!!!

he would stop the world from spinning if it would make coffee time last another 1/2 hour. honestly tho, the only thing stopping me from buying a new panel is the shipping from the states. cant seem to find a canadian distributor

Napoleon Solo

Problem is, Stan - a Canadian distributor will gouge the blazes out of you. Seriously - if you need that panel it's all yours. It will be September or October before I will be looking seriously at it. I have goodies shipped to my P.O. box so I just dash down to pick them up. Easy peasy. (George and Weesy).

Napoleon Solo

This weekend I got a bunch of odd bits done like speedo cable disconnect, interior stripping finished, wheel arch trim and rocker mouldings removed. I did discover one rusty spot right beside the body mount at the back of the D.S. rear wheel well. I am looking forward to blasting the body and chassis. That won't happen until early september cuz I'm going to Europe for a few weeks.
I am bartering the use of a friend's rotisserie in exchange for blasting his jet boat. That saves me a grand out of pocket to buy one. I'ts looking good for me to come in well below the $10k mark to complete the car. Another customer/friend quoted me about $1100 for all of the materials needed for bodywork, priming, paint and clear. I'm still on track to be finished by April 1st next year.