83hurstguy

Thanks for the feedback. Rob, sorry to hear of your poor experience. I received a response from Fusick today that they consider the appearance/condition unacceptable and are checking stock to figure out what to do. There's a reason I prefer to deal with them instead of TPP...

I can't just post only complaints in here... Here's a restored part I just got back. I sent a correct 400269 water pump to Flowkooler for their rebuild process with "upgraded impeller". The water pump I had was fairly rough shape, so I figured replacing the impeller wasn't a bad thing. They claim they generate more flow and higher pressure (unquantified).

I have pictures below of what I sent out and what I received back. I'm impressed with the results, considering the condition of the part I sent. Comparing impellers, their impeller is smaller diameter, but has more vanes with several of them extending all the way to the center bore of the impeller hub. Hard to say whether it will flow more or not. Turnaround was approximately 4 weeks. The only surprise was that I was quoted "around $189," and when I got the final bill, it totaled $213. Somewhat pricey... and I'm trying to figure out a way to determine if it was worth it.

Feel free to tell me I'm nuts... I figured someone had to be the guinea pig to see what the high flow impeller looks like, so here are the pictures...

rob1960

They did a nice job on that pump!. I put a new water pump on mine when I got it,it's a brand new casting but it came with a cheesy stamped steel impeller. It cools fine but I saved my original one to have rebuilt someday.$213 doesn't seem all that bad since it's the correct pump for a very rare car! My buddy Brian had his '70 W30 post done at Throrntons 2 yrs ago & they had his original pump rebuilt to the tune of $300!!!but hey what's another $300 when he spent $50k!!!!

olds 307 and 403

Nice that you were able to get one of the rarest Olds out there. Sucks that repo parts have all those issues. I can imagine NOS parts would be fragile at 50 yrs old. I wonder if the original parts were damaged. Makes a person wonder why they disappear? That water pump was nicely rebuilt, new 6" aluminum parts are over $100 now, so $213 isn't ridiculous.

junior supercar

you're nuts but you are right, you had to be the guinea pig.

years ago, when I had my 400269 rebuilt for the w31, SupercarsUnlimited charged $100. I have no idea if Greg Rollin @ SU still rebuilds them though.

fwiw, those OAI hoses look just like the NOS ones I have (now that I think about it, the second set I have as I haven't looked at the first set in years). The TPP scoops, well, I'll have to try and get ahold of Siedlik myself. I talked with him briefly at the Nats in Springfield and I thought he said he still had scoops.

btw, you have all the OAI clamps?

83hurstguy

The original middle clamps are still on the inner fenders. I picked up the NOS hose-to-scoop clamps that Siedlik has on eBay, bought repro oval ones from Fusick for the air cleaner.

This car has replacement front fenders and a front bumper on it. Guessing the scoops got damaged in whatever crashed those parts up... there's no brackets or anything under the car.

acavagnaro

I'm enjoying all of the posted information and pictures. Just wanted to add my own experience with the Fusick/Parts Place OAI parts to the mix. My car's a '69 so the scoops are a different PN than the '68's. Mine came wrapped individually in heavy brown paper and were in great condition. Not a mark or scratch on them. I was actually somewhat impressed with them since they're a fairly complicated shape and assemblies (2 pieces fixed together). I was worried they'd be warped or poor quality but that wasn't the case.
I had some poor plating issues on a couple of the clamps but that wasn't a big deal since I was going to respray them anyway. It actually looked like oxidation from the steel that was bleeding through the painting/plating. I agree the hoses seem to be of high quality.
I'd definitely try to return the scoops you have. My own experience shows they can deliver parts without the look of something that's been rattling around the bottom of a parts bin for a few years. Good luck with the rest of the build.

83hurstguy

Good to know, thanks for the feedback!

83hurstguy

A few things accomplished...

It appears that the original fan clutch was there in the car (see picture).

I also got the seat tracks cleaned up and painted. Evaporust isn't cheap, but amazes me how well it works. I was going to leave the tracks bare metal, but there were a few spots that were just a bit too rough, and it would be a lot more work to get the finish good enough to just clear coat. Therefore, I ended up hitting them with some Eastwood detail gray.

Any idea who makes a reproduction seat track ****, and are they easily replaceable?

83hurstguy

Can anyone help identify this radio with what option it was?

Car appears to have had a rear speaker on the right side only, don't see evidence of one in the rear left side.

Also, the dash ***** are a silver color instead of the standard black plastic. Any idea why?

dnmfranco

Luke radio is correct U-63
speaker in rear U-80
those ***** have seen on 2 442's . Now the question were they added or did they come from factory that I don't know.

allyolds68

Aren't those 69 *****? It looks like a 69 wiper switch **** too


I'm assuming because the wood dash is missing that the dash was replaced?

dnmfranco

those are 68's , possible which could explain the *****.

1969w3155

'69 used a different style of *****, pretty much like the 70-72 cars.

allyolds68

Maybe the metal are the big car *****. I've always seen black plastic on 68 a bodies

1969w3155

This prompted me to go look at my '68 brochure, and that's what they are, used on the 88/98's.

dnmfranco

Agreed on the bigger cars , but seen them on 2 68s . More I am thinking probably transplants from original black *****

83hurstguy

Very interesting. Thanks for the info, guys.

Dash was not replaced... woodgrain came unglued, it's on the bench in the basement getting straightened (see pic with repro woodgrain in the background).

The only thought that I had was that my car has the deluxe seat belts with the stainless buckles. Was there any chance the radio ***** were linked to the seat belt option or some other trim option? I don't have much car ordering info here...

With them being consistently on the radio and all locations, I have a hard time believing they were all changed, but you never know.

dnmfranco

yeah I didn't think your lower dash was replaced as the ash tray cover is still there.
There could be a link between the two not sure to be honest. I have seen them on other 442's but never took notice if the belts were deluxe. In 69 they did no such thing if you got deluxe belts ***** were the still the same.

dnmfranco

they could have been if someone took them all from a 88/98, because really its just the ***** they would have converted. This is interesting though whether you could get them as options /over the counter, but just not listed anywhere I can gather

83hurstguy

Thanks. At least I know the source of them for now, makes a lot more sense. I found the sales brochure on wild about cars but it doesn't say anything about it. Could have very well been swapped... the car has air shocks, probably had headers (brake lines bent out of way from frame), etc...

I kinda like it. May keep it that way for a while.

dnmfranco

sharp *****, my guess is others chose them for that reason as well. Yeah if brakes were altered it was done to avoid direct heat from headers

rob1960

I added the big car metal ***** to my first '68 that I restored back in 1980. They just look so much nicer than the black plastic ones. I lucked out & was able to get 2 complete sets back then,when the cars were plentiful in the junkyards. I saved the extra set all these years & they were one of the first things I changed on the '68 I bought in '12. I've seen them on a few cars over the years but I don't think they were ever available from the factory on anything but the big cars.

allyolds68

Air shock could have been factory. Super lift shocks were option G66

83hurstguy

Rob, that is an awesome looking interior! I may have to clean the ***** up this weekend and see how they look, get a "parts wanted" ad posted.

Mike, good insight. I'm sure the ones on there now aren't OEM (montgomery ward brand, especially the extra lift kit bracket on the top), not sure if there's a way to tell if there were air shocks on the car originally or not (e.g. fill valve location or original line clips).

RAMBOW

Don't for get to mask and shoot the legs & feet semi gloss black.

RAMBOW

if you had factory installed air shocks, there was a little "ribbed" piece of flat steel they put on the rear axle assembly that covered the end where the lower control arm bolted up. I have heard the called rock shields. All Elcamino's came with them since air shocks were standard on them..

Another note, that weird aluminum thing that the air shock in your car bolted to- definitely not stock!!! Never seen one of those. Usually the shock bolts right to the frames spring perch! wild!

83hurstguy

Thanks Ben. Was it just the rear feet or all four corners? I found some conflicting information on the Chevelle sites about that. I probably should have also done a better job painting the slide lever arm so it looks more like plating as well.

Also great info, thanks. I definitely don't have the shields like El Camino, found a few pictures of them.

droldsmorland

After market shock extenders. Mr Gasket if I remember.

RAMBOW

The front feet for sure were masked. I've seen untouched originals with a sharp 45degree mask line right where the track bends straight down creating the leg.

I would do both the front and the backs so you don't see them.

be sure to cut your carpet the right way too to hide the track feet! (i know you are aways out yet... but I have some photos diagramming how to cut those- remind me when you are ready for carpet and i'll dig em out.

83hurstguy

As an update to the scoop and plating issues I posted above, they pretty much “are what they are,” for lack of better terminology. Fusick was helpful, but is a victim to what they get from the Parts Place. They exchanged the RH side scoop, and the second RH one I got is warped similarly (possibly slightly worse) than the first one I sent back, indicating that TPP’s tooling for the RH scoop halves together is likely messed up. I could just return them, but since my OEM parts are missing, these are really the only thing available… I’ll deal with the parts for now… and I’ll have to pay to get the exhaust manifold shroud replated or paint them.

For an actual update on the car, the wife and I started working on restoring the seats a while back. The original driver’s seat was missing, so one was obtained from a parts car (thanks rktolds). The seats in the car smelled horrible from decades in a barn, and we wanted to get them done so we could put them into safe storage in the house while working on the rest of the car.

I couldn’t decide if I should have someone do the seats, or whether we could cover them ourselves. After talking to Ben Rambow (classicolds member Rambow, www.seat-guy.com), he convinced me that we could definitely tackle this ourselves with his installation kit and support.

Here are pictures of the seats as they started. The seat that is absolutely roached was the drivers seat from the parts car. The seats that were from this ’68 don’t look horrible in the pics, but the vinyl was dried out and stiff, there were some tears, the foam was stiff, springs were rusty and mice had done their work. Oh yeah, and that smell was making the whole garage stink...

83hurstguy

My wife is extremely supportive of the car hobby and likes the ‘68. She helped tear the seats down when we were luckily enough to have some nice weather in January. After teardown, the seat frames and springs went away for media blasting, then I painted them black.

It was obvious during teardown that there were some spring issues in the front bucket seats due to corrosion (which mice helped accelerate), but the true magnitude of the issues were really obvious after painting. Quite a few broken wires, and even more thin spots.

Ben was going to send spring repair wire for us to work with, but after surveying the extent of the damage, we elected to remove the seat springs from the frames and send them out to Ben for his repair expertise. Reproduction spring assemblies were definitely a consideration, but Ben’s experience with them is that they are stiffer than OEM springs. I am on the taller side, and did not want to sit higher up in the car than necessary, so we went with the repair route.

I attached some pictures of the springs after blasting and painting with the worst damage before getting sent out.

The heavy lifting for this portion was done by Ben, and he has pictures of the repairs in his photobucket folder here:
http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/se...?sort=3&page=1

As you can see, he performed a significant amount of wiring splicing using identical replacement wire to restore the seat springs back to a condition as original as they can be. Impressive work, Ben gets two thumbs up! If you ever have questions about your seats or getting them restored, he's the guy you want to start with. Talk to him before you buy parts, as his advice and expertise is invaluable, and he can steer you in the right direction and possibly even provide you the right parts.

This post illustrates another reason why it's always best to start with the best parts or car you possibly can... things are fixable, but it costs time, money, effort, etc...

83hurstguy

Before we get into some pictures of the covering process, I figured I would share some information I learned from Ben and this experience about seat foam. I ordered seat covers and foam before tearing my seats down, thinking I would recover them almost immediately, before forgetting how they go back together (and that was months ago, lol). In retrospect, tearing down a factory unmolested seat before ordering will ensure you order the most correct replacement parts, though it’s not a big deal either way.

I only considered using Legendary covers with ACI foam (Legendary sells this as well), as the feedback on both companies has been consistently good from the Olds community. I’ve seen a few PUI covers in person and can tell the difference immediately, the replacement grain/pattern just isn’t as good. Feedback on other foam manufacturers has consistently been described as “too firm”.

Ordering the seat covers is straight forward, but ACI does sell several foam models for A-body bucket seats with different variations in grooves for the seat cover “tucks”. The tucks are flaps with listing wire in them that go from the seat cover, down through the seat foam and attach to listing wire on the seat springs to provide the seat with some 3-D contour and definition. Some buckets will have tucks that run the full lengths of the cushion, others (like the ’68) will have a partial length tuck, and some will have none at all (I believe the later ’71-72 seats are that way). I have attached a sketch showing the short tuck locations on the ’68 seats, this should also apply to ’69 seats.

When you buy the ’68 seat covers and foam, you are supplied with new foam that has no grooves cut into it for the tucks, though you can see where the grooves will nominally be placed on the lower cushion (picture below). Compare this to the pictures below of the original foam from my torn down seats, which each have two full length grooves (the other lines are just indentions from the original seat covers). The blank foam provides a slight extra challenge, as you’ll have to cut them yourself. Not a big deal, just a bit more nerve wracking when it’s your first set of seats and Step 2 involves taking a razor blade to new foam. ACI does sell foam that will have the grooves pre-cut, you’ll just have to know to specially request that foam model when ordering, hence why it’s a good idea to tear at least one of the seats down before ordering.

costpenn

Very well detailled post Luke - thank you - learned a lot about proper seat refurbishment for future projects.

83hurstguy

Thanks Joe! More info coming soon...

Side note to continue the earlier conversation about silver dash *****. This is interesting... there's a '68 H/O on ebay right now, it has deluxe seat belts and the silver metal ***** in the dashboard as well like mine does... I attached two pictures from the eBay ad. Car is #69, anybody know the history of it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161707219011...MakeTrack=true

My442

There is no way that the Flowcooler impeller is a better design than the original GM design.


It just looks prettier.

83hurstguy

Out of curiosity, what do you base that assessment on?

dnmfranco

Luke that car has come up for sell a few times out of Arizona . I personally don't know anything on the car though.

83hurstguy

Thanks Dean.

83hurstguy

Been a busy week, so I got behind on the updates...

Here are pictures of the lower seat cover process. I first bolted the seat frames and spring assemblies together to ensure everything was relatively straight and matching between them.

After splitting the frames back up, you can also push on the spring assemblies to ensure the spring ends are seating in the pockets correctly. Mine had a few spring ends that made noise, and some adjustments with a punch and hammer to the spring retainers resolved them. After the springs are properly seated, I replicated the factory isolator pads in the front and side springs to prevent them from making rubbing noise.

The next step is to cut grooves in the foam (since mine was supplied with none), then lay down burlap and jute padding and hog ring it to the springs. After the padding, the foam bun gets attached. Lastly, the listing wire tucks go through the foam to the seat springs, then you make the perimeter attachments for the cover. That's a high level overview...

I attached a picture of the two lowers. Note that the back panel is NOT attached in these pictures, so the upper edge appears loose yet.

83hurstguy

With the lowers completed, it was time for the uppers, with virtually the same process, though more challenging.

'67-'68 seats had a side button (instead of center rear button) for the tilt release. A gasket that was approximately 1/4" thick made out of cardboard sat around the tilt button underneath the seat cover. The originals were disintegrated, so I made two new ones per seat out of 1/8" thick cork gasket material. I have a picture of the new gasket installed below. The outer screws are not holding the gasket in place, they are actually for the escutcheon that goes OVER the cover to reinforce the seat cover opening. Not sure if it makes a difference, but the OCD in me feels better. Not sure if it makes a difference, but the OCD in me feels better.

Last picture is the upper cover nearly complete.