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That I am aware of, I don't have enough of them! But I have some bumper take-offs I have not examined, might have a pair for you if two is what you need. Will advise as weather allows. Chris
Thank you for the reply Chris. If you have a pair of the large spacer plates that attach the bumper guards to the bumper on a '53, I would be interested in them also.
A previous owner and/or mechanic that worked on my car took the bumpers off to have a chrome like coating spayed on them, in doing so many of the parts to the rear bumper were lost as was the majority of the front bumper bolts. The bolts are not a problem, the rear attachment spacer brackets are. Wm.
So as you can see, the spacing for the rear bumper is a select fit assembly. When the rubber is in good shape on that rear valance, the bumper is meant to snug right up to it without crushing the fit of the rubber. What this did and does is allow leaves and crap to accumulate which rots both valance and bumper over time. I looked at some others, the spacers we discussed are a rough dimension then adjusted with washers, flat and the type used for body panel shimming. As you already know, the brackets have no allowance factory for moving out and in to change the final adjustment. BTW the three rubber pieces are not reproduced as far as I know.
Having thought it over I cannot recall a center bracket as you describe as missing for your car. Perhaps your car had a trailer hitch? That I have seen in terms of center attachment and reinforcement. Of course there might be detail differences in 52 and 53, but 1951 88B, 1952 and 1953 have many similarities.
Glad to see the rear valance on your car is in primo shape. They are commonly found with the edge rotted even on dry climate cars. It's a difficult item to find in good shape off of a car, and tough to repair or make from scratch (all but impossible).
I received a new dark blue floor carpet set on Tuesday from Kanter that I ordered several weeks ago, a nice looking piece of goods. We took the seats out, which revealed the entire floor area of the Olds, with 69 years of debris, etc. evidence of the vehicle having a large mouse population many years ago. The majority of the original blue rubber mat was still in place, in very bad condition. The original Jute sound deadening was also in place, showing sighs of water intrusion, mostly on the minor side.
Pulling up the floor mat and sound deadening revealed a floor pan, that, to my great surprise was in excellent condition, NO RUST OUT IN ANY AREAS, just light rust at the base of the cowl 'A' pillars, many areas looked like new. I am going to cover the floor pan with modern insulation/sound deadening, ROAD_KIL which is very similar to Dynamat Xtreme. The nice thing about the modern sound deadening/ insulation products is that they reflect the heat and shed water in lieu of retaining same. I have used Road-Kil on several vehicles. Wm
Last edited by blucar; January 8th, 2022 at 10:21 AM.
Took the seats to my upholster, he is an old school type of guy, was quite excited about the overall condition of the seats. No rust in the seat frames and no broken springs, he checked around and found some near perfect match for the seat fabric. Rodent intrusion was found in some areas of the seat cushions, it was hoped that we could repair the seat covers, but then, we were afraid the former rodent population had left a residue odor that would linger in the car, especially when the windows were up.
The seats were stripped down, new cushion material was installed, then the new covers were made and installed. The seats now look and smell like new, The fabric is a woven nylon type of material, very similar to the original.
The rechromed bumpers and grille are scheduled to be delivered to me during the second week of February. I took a portion of the front gravel shield off of the car, took it to the local paint supply company, they did a color match so I now have some paint to do some touch up paint work around the grille/bumper area before they are installed.
Something has happened to my phone/camera. can't transfer pix from the phone to my computer... Wm..
Not much has happened with my Olds for the past several weeks. My upholster got the seats all rebuilt, he was able to find replacement fabric that was a near perfect match to the original.
The floor pan cleaned up very nicely, treated the few areas that had some light rust with Rust Transformer, then painted the entire area with satin POR-15. The project to cover the floor pan with ROAD-KIL is moving along very nicely.
I received my re-chromed front bumper and grill, the chrome shop in Whittier did a beautiful job. The chrome shop had a problem with the rear bumper.. The coating, a poor substitute for chrome that had been sprayed on the bumper by a previous owner, covered up very heavy rust-out on the tail pipe side. The metal is so thin it cant be re-chromed.
I have to find a replacement rear bumper for the car. I would appreciate any help to locate a good rear bumper for a '53 Super 88... Wm
I have been busy getting various issue with my Olds taken care of for the past few months, namely the chrome on the bumpers,, some upholstery issues and new sound deadening material on the floor pan.
My upholster was able to find material fro the seats that was a near perfect match. We removed the original floor pan sound deadening material, fining mostly original black paint except on the area under the drivers where the floor mat was completely wore out. I repainted the floor pan with POR 15 and covered the entire pan with Road Kill, a product similar to Dana-Mat.
The front bumper and grille turned out beautiful, Central Plating in Whittier CA did a very nice job. The rear bumper turned out to be a real problem. At some time in the very distant past, the tail pipe had been installed wrong which allowed the exhaust gases/water to accumulate on the back side of the bumper resulting heavy rust acculation which rusted the bumper out.
We found a bumper for a '53 Olds in Hamilton Montana, however, as the bumper was being removed it was discovered that the car was a '53 88, not a Super 88. The Super 88 and 98 share the same bumper and guards where-as the 88 is different.
My bumper guards have been re-plated but I don't have the mounting plates for the guards..
I need a rear bumper for a 53 Super 88/98 Olds, I would appreciate any help to find a rear bumper for my car. Wm..
I received good news from Mike at Central Plating in Whittier CA two weeks ago, Mike found a good re-platable rear bumper in Caldwell ID. Should have a bumper in a couple of weeks.
Still have the problem with the bumper guard attachment plates for the bumper guards/ center frame mounting point.
I think I can fabricate a pair of mounting brackets out of 3/16" steel. my '53 Oldsmobile Chassis Book does not show any pix of the 88 Super/98 rear bumper. It appears to me that the mounting plate is a T shaped affair.. The rear gravel shield on my '53 has a notch/dip in the edge to accommodate the two mounting plates.
The left door lock striker plate is broken on my car. I have looked through all of the vendor source's for a striker plate, none available. If any body has a spare plate I would appreciate sharing it with me.
Thank you for the response... I have been trying to remember who it was that wanted my '53 88 backup light deletes.. They are yours as soon as I get around to taking them off of my car. I'll post a pix of the door striker plate and the rear gravel shield on my 88 Super, I do not have any idea what the mounting plate plates look like, As I have written in several of my contribution to this forum, the rear bumper and bumper guards for a '53 88 Super/98 is for that model/year only. Wm.
The past few weeks have been very busy, I am relocating my hobby shop which required packing everything up, tools, extra parts, of which I have quite a collection for many vintage vehicles, from B to O, cars and trucks. Actually I am trying my best to down size, I turned 88 on the 18th of July. Fortunately my health is excellent..
I heard from the chrome shop in Whittier, CA, good news it appears, the rear bumper Mike got in Caldwell, ID off of a '53 Super 88 has the bumper guard mounting plate attached to the bumper with the correct guard's.
I took a couple of pix of the rear gravel shield panel on my car that shows the two dips where the bumper guard mounting plates attach the the frame mounts.
I also took a pix of the left side door latch striker plate, mounted to the "B" pillar/quarter panel. looking at the pix you can note the lower portion of the plate is broken off. Wm
Last edited by blucar; August 7th, 2022 at 06:51 PM.
Happy days are here.. Mr chrome shop delivered the rear bumper for my Olds to me today, he also delivered the brackets that attach the bumper guards to the bumper and attach the bumper assembly to the center frame brackets.
Mike at Central Chrome had to buy another bumper core to get the missing brackets.
This whole saga has confirmed that the rear bumper for a '53 Olds Super 88 is in fact the same as a '53 98, not at all like the 53 Olds Chassis Parts Book says...*1953-88 All....................page 346 Wm
Congrats on completing your bumper. I know that is a great feeling. Congrats on being 88 and in excellent health and still fooling with old cars. I am 76 and in excellent health and have been wondering if I should take on the restoration of a 57 Chevy that I have had for many many years. You are encouraging to many of us. You may be the oldest member we have on here.
Redoldsman, Thank You for the kind comment.. I seem to have an ongoing habit of taking on project cars that are not in the "bellybutton" catagory, You would think that parts for a '53 Super 88 would be quite common, GM made/sold a lot of them. I guess they are like the '53-54 Chevy's and Fords, once the '55/56 models came out with the all new styling and engines, old was very quickly.
I purchased my original 53 Olds Super 88 in late '54. it had under 7.K on it. The '55 Chevy's were the rage, most of my friends bought one. The Chevy's with the 265 CID V8 were the rage, selling for way over list price. I payed $1,200. for my Olds, it would run off and hide from the '55 Chevy's'. Most people alive today have no idea how bad the early SBC's and Y blocks were, you were damn lucky if you got 50K, without major work out of them.
My original '53 Super 88 had over 88.K on the odometer when we sold it in the summer of '57 for $800. Of course the majority of the miles were Western US highway miles. Wm
Last edited by blucar; August 14th, 2022 at 07:52 AM.
I received the last of my chrome pieces from Central Chrome last Saturday, There was a delay in finishing the left and right grille corner pieces, these pieces are cast( pot metal )in lieu of being mild steel like the rest of the '53's grille pieces are. The corner pieces had to have extra copper plating as a base coat to cover up the serious pitting in the pot metal.
The upper grille bar was pot metal on the earlier Olds, as was the Buick's The upper grille bars was very prone to cracking which resulted in a very unsightly grille.
The Olds is going into the paint shop next week to have some work done on the paint to eliminate the minor road rash that has occurred over the years. As soon as the paint is touch up, we will buff the car out and reinstall all of the chrome trim..
Wm. You've accomplished quite a bit in one year. Congratulations to you on your (newly acquired) 1st year 1953 Olds Super 88 anniversary. I've enjoyed following along on your restoration.
Thank you for the kind words Norm..
As I have mentioned in some of my comments on my tread, I looked for a replacement to my original '53 Supper 88 that I sold in 1957 until I found the car I have now, last fall. My original 88 had 80k on it when we sold it, the replacement has 77k, pretty incredible if I do say so myself.
Can hardly wait to get the paint touched up and get the newly re-chromed bumpers/grille, etc., back on the car.
On the paint issue.. The car has been repainted once. many years ago, information I received with the car would indicate that it was re-painted prior to 1994. A typical medium quality job. My painter is going to do some touch up work on the front fenders where the grille/bumpers were, and the top of the hood, plus a few other areas. There is a lot of paint on the car so we will buff it out with heavy duty 3M buffing compound.. We have already tried buffing a few areas, they came out very nicely.
I am hoping to achieve a very high quality survivor look to the car, like it came out of grandmothers garage.. Wm.
I had some pretty dramatic changes to the repair of the paint on my Olds a couple weeks ago. The body shop that was scheduled to repair the paint, doing touch up work to the paint, 'David' told me he was very concerned as to how the car would turn out just doing touch up in the areas needing attention.
David told me his shop was quite slow due to the slow down in the economy, therefore he suggested that he would do a total repaint for an additional $1,000, from the price quoted. I was stunned, I asked David what kind of a time line were we looking at, David said two weeks, I told David he had a deal.
David turned his prep crew loose on the car, much to their surprise they found that I was right, the car had only been repainted once, many years ago. Not one area on the entire car had very been worked on, the car had never been in any kind of fender bender.
The car went into the paint booth on Friday afternoon,,
I picked up the Olds at the paint shop yesterday, the shop did a very nice job, The car is painted with a Velspar single stage product.
I spent a couple hours yesterday afternoon putting some of the shinny bling back on the car. The hub caps are old stock that i picked up for '49 Olds about fifteen years ago, the hood ornament is also old stock with near perfect chrome. Since most of the trim on the '53.s was S/S, other than the bumpers/grille, the trim cleaned up very nicely so the car will have a stock look after it is put together. Wm
Every since I purchased my '53 Super 88 in 2021 I find myself amazed at the general condition of the car,I am very glad that the painter talked me into doing a complete paint job in lieu of just doing some spot repairs.
The paint shop owner had told me that he would take off the accessories, etc., I elected to do it myself because I did not want any of the many pieces misplaced (LOST) like most body shops do.
I don't know where the Olds was hiding for the majority of it life, it sure of heck was not in the St Lewis area where it reputedly came from. The windows had student parking permits from the University of ILL in Chicacgo, 1962-66. I guess i can assume that a family member took the family, and/or grandmothers car to school, then it was returned to the barn/garage until '94 when someone did some work on it, including a new coat of paint to get it back into service. Sounds like a good story
What impress's me about the car is that the inside of the tail/headlamps, quarter panels, etc., has no rust, corrosion, debris like the normal '53 car would have.
I did find that the fender spears extending from the tail lights forward and the tail lights had been removed to do the repaint in '94. The majority of the water seals, small rubber gaskets on the 'spear' attachments were not put back on, eight out of ten were missing as was the seals for the tail/park lights. I made the small rubber seal out of cork, cut to size, got the park/tail light seals from Fusick....Wm.
I started the process of re-assembling the newly re-chromed front bumper/grille almost two weeks ago, somewhat of a difficult project.
When we started to dis-assemble the front bumper several months ago we discovered that the bumper had been removed in the past, probably in '94 when the car was repainted. Evidentially the man that removed the bumper was not very careful to retain and indentify the many fasteners ranging from 1/4-20 to 1/2"13 in various lengths, etc.
After many trial and errors I finally figured things out, purchasing over $50. of fasteners and spending almost ten days getting things together.
As soon as I get the area around the radiator detailed' the bumper/grille assembly will go back on the car.
It is very interesting that the way Oldsmobile constructed the bumper assembly, there are no visible attachments to the chassis.
I applied a coat of silver paint to the backside of the bumper after the assembly of the bumper was completed to prevent rust, etc., from forming on the back side. Wm
Last edited by blucar; November 13th, 2022 at 09:27 PM.
Reason: spelling
Wm...very nice work. I've enjoyed following your thread. Sounds as though the bumper reassembly was like solving a newspaper puzzle. Keep up the great work.
The reassembly of the front end of the car is pretty well complete, stile waiting for the front hood emblem to come hack from the chrome shop.
In my earlier contributions to the thread about the difficulty of reassembling the front bumper/grille assembly I mentioned the difficultyof finding correct fasteners to complete the job. I had to make several studs of various sizes, the 1/4 20 studs to attach the fender portion of the grille, six for each side, and water seal gaskets for each one out of 1/8" cork,,in lieu of the original rubber seals.
The car had been repainted in 1994, it would appear that the people that that did the work were not very skilled and/or careless in the disassembly/re-assembly of the car, many of the fasteners were missing and/o incorrect.
When I took the parking lights apart I found that the reflector hand not been removed and/or masked over, therefore the were painted blue. I disassembled the the parking lights,carefully using paint remover I was able to remove the blue paint exposing the chrome reflectors. (see the attached pix)..
Working on the '53 Olds has been quite an experience, An example has been the head/tail light assemblies, The inner assemblies are completely void of any rust and/or corrosion, with an almost new appearance, (see attached pix).
I can not figure out for the live of me, how this seventy year old vehicle from the St Louis area survived all those years with out being a rust bucket. I guess the odometer tells the story, with only 77k showing on the odometer and lube stickers on the door jamb to back it up as actual mielage, the car was not driven much in the winter months, and/or was owned by an elderly person for many years.,
I have a '39 Plymouth Convertible coupe that I found sitting in an open field in Montana in 1994, The car had sat in that field for thirty-eight years. The man that owned the car had bought it in 1951, called it his high school jalopy. I carefully mentioned to the owner that I would like to by the car, he asked me why I wanted it, I responded that I would like to rebuild it, getting it back on the road. The man replied. "I would like that, if you can get it out of here, you can have it". Needless to say I had the car out of the field in less than four hours. The car was complete with very little rust, portions of the leather interior still in the, and the top assembly still had portions of the canvas hanging on it.
When I registered the Plymouth with the Plymouth Owner's Club I found out there was only 31 '39 Plymouth convertible coupes known to exist in the world... It took me 16 years to rebuild/restore the Plym.... Wm
Wm. Once again - wonderful work. FYI, regarding cork seals. Another option you might consider is rubber both Nitrile & Silicone. They're sold at many local home improvement stores in small sheets of various thicknesses. It's easy to work with and provides a great seal. Do a Google search for "rubber sheets" or stop by a home improvement store to view them first-hand e.g. Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. It's excellent material for creating seals, gaskets, etc. especially those areas behind a washer &/or nut or bolt which fastens to metal in order to reduce chipping/abrasion.
Norm, Thank you for the kind comment on the progress of my Olds.
In my quest to find the correct fasteners for the various emblems, etc., I searched through most of the parts catalogs and/or vendors to no avail for the rubber like original seals that go between the washer/ nut and sheet metal on the inner side. I finally found neoprene fender washers at the local ACE Hardware Store, they had them in sizes running from 3/4" to 2".. Only problem was their stock was next to zero and they were $-82.each. ACE only had 3- 3/4" and was not to willing to order more.
In the process of removing trim, bezels, etc., I found a few original seals that had fallen down into the fender well between the inner and outer skin, also found a few stuck to the back side of the fenders..
Through out the years I have worked on a lot of cars during the course of a restoration project, I have never encountered rubber seals on trim fasteners, I have encountered caulking like material around a fastener, but not an actual washer like seal. I did note that on my '53, Olds punched a very large hole in the sheet metal where emblems, etc., were attached, therefore a large seal was required to close the hole up.
I used the 1/8" cork that I had in stock to make the seals, it is a composite cork/neoprene material.. Wm.
I'm back! Been very busy with my Olds, got the entire floor pan and quarter panels covered with Road-Kil sound proofing, Encounters some missing body sealant in the right quarter panel adjacent to the wheel house, the result of poor workmanship, no sealant at the factory. We repaired the hole, sealed it up and put Road-Kil over it on the inside and under-seal on the wheel side..While we had the door upholstery off noted the exterior door handles were in very bad shape, the only place on the car that had bad chrome except for the bumpers/grille. Ordered new exterior handles from Fusic, the doors sure look better now.
I also noted that the vent window rubber on the left door was junk, ordered new then had to figure out how to get the assembly out and apart to install a new rubber seal.
I.'ll have some pix loaded up in a couple days to add to my next contributions to my thread. Wm.
Attached are some pix of new sound deadening material, "Road-kil" similar to Dana Mat, that we installed over the entire floor pan, quarter panels, etc. I have also attached a pix of the new exterior door handles and new '88' emblems on the quarter panel.
The left side vent window really bothered me, the inside chrome was very good, however, the exterior chrome was very bad, and the rubber was pure junk. While the door opened up we removed the vent window, after a lot of research we figured out how to get the assembly apart so the rubber could be replaced.
It is very interesting to me how good the general condition of the majority of the areas we have worked on is. The inner portion of the doors, that can be noted in the attached pix, is typical of the car, almost as clean as a fairly new vehicle. Wm
I am new/old to this forum, I first joined in 2012 when I started a massive restoration on a 50 Olds 88 2dr fst back. As a result of many life changes I have not been active with the Olds group since 2015.
On Friday 9/10 I had a very unusual thing happen to me, surfing the web I came upon a 1953 Olds Super 88 fore sale. What was so unusual about the '53 Olds? It was an exact twin to the Olds Super 88 I bought in the spring of 1955 with 7, K plus on the odometer. I called the owner of the '53, I asked him some questions about the car, asked him to send me pictures of the car. I reviewed the pix, was quite impressed, the car was dead stock in very nice running/driving condition with 77K plus showing on the odometer. The paint is a little tired as is the upholstery on the front seat. It was obvious that the car needed some TLC.. I bought the car!!!
So what is so unusual about this 53 Olds.?? I had bought my original '53 Olds prior to meeting my wife to be. We ran the wheels off of that Olds having it in the majority of the Western States, and driving from coast to coast twice when I got drafted into the US Army in 1956. From my point of view the '53 Olds Super 88 was one of the finest and fastest cars ever built.My Olds would run off and hide from the very popular '55 Chevy's. When my new wife and I went on our Honeymoon in early '56 we went to Reno NV. It was late at night when we left Vegas, my wife was asleep in the front seat, she was half asleep when I told her I was going to have the car looked at when we got to Reno, she wanted to know what the problem was; I told her the car was a little sluggish when the speed got above 120 MPH...She did not go back to sleep for awhile.
My head and heart are full of memories that my wife and I enjoyed in the Olds, we drove the Olds over 80K from '55 to '58, then sold it when I got transferred to Germany. My wife and I were together for over sixty-one years when she passed away in 2016. Wm.
I failed to add pix of the rear portion of my Olds yesterday, attached is a couple pix showing the new upholstery on the seat and the new carpet on the floor..
I should have made mention in my early posting to this thread that the original sound deadening on the floor pan was a thick tar paper like product that was attached to the metal pan. The sound deadening material was in excellent condition except in the drivers area where the floor mat, a blue rubber type of material, had failed age, resulting in the sound deadening material being the only thing protecting the floor pan. Wm.
I'M Back...I have had some trouble with my computer program and I have two other vintage cars in the process of being rebuilt..One is a 64 Chevy C10 pickup that has proven to be a very big project, It is a very rare Rail Road truck, extended cab 2dr with a back seat, I put the body on a 1997 Chevy Z71 chassis. 5.7 Vortec 4L60 trans, GM 10 bolt. Nice truck.
The other project is a '38 Buick Spl 2 dr sdn, I am the second owner. A 37K mile car, original paint and interior that turned out to be a complete rebuild of every mechanical component.
I also developed a problem with my sight.. no big deal just had trouble seeing things,,,, Mainly my computer. With treatment my sight has improved, still got a ways to go..
I started a topic on the Buick Forum about my 38 Buick which has turned out to be the most active topic on the Pre-war Buick forum.
My 53 Olds is pretty well done, after looking for over two years I finally found a shop to rebuild my Hydramatic trans. The guy was located less than a mile from my shop, I thought he only worked on foreign cars;
The mechanic that worked on the trans was very surprised, the trans had never been out of the car and it appeared to have never been serviced, The pan had almost an inch of crude laying in it. The trans works great now, them old Hyydro's are hard to beat.
I finally found a NOS set of back up lights for the Olds, a little pricey,but very nice.
Attached is a couple of pix of the NOS 52-53 backup lights that i recently picked up on ebay. The 52-53 back up lights are very similar to the '49 and later all of which were made by Guide, they are also very similar to the back up lights ued on the Chevy pickup up through 1966. I have used the term similar because all of the GM Guide backup lights are close, but close only works with hand grenades and horse shoes. The 52-53 88-98 backup lights have a small hood on the upper chrome bezel which the other lights, except for the 58 Chevy station wagons.
I have attached the most recent pix of my 88 showing the grille/bumper completely done.
For the most part the car is done, still a few odds and ends, fixing the radio and the center medallion on the hood. Wm.
December 31st, 2021, 07:22 AM
