blucar

In 2007 I purchased a '49 Old's in Rapid City, SD... I brought the car home to CA and spent the next four years gathering information and parts for the car.
The information I gathered convinced me that I did not want to pursue the rebuilding of the original 303 CID engine and Hydromatic trans..
The time has now come to get serious about rebuilding the car.. Within the last two weeks the body has been stripped down and removed from the chassis.. The chassis has also been stripped of all bolt on parts..
On Monday of last week, 4/2... the body was hauled to Santa Ana for a bath in an acid tank and a phosporic dip.. I got the body back on Saturday... Somewhat of a shock to see the amount of rust out in floor pan/quarter panels.. A new set of floor pans/quarter panels have been ordered from EMS in Cleveland.
The FatMan front end showed up yesterday so we have our work cut out for us... Bill

oldsmobum

I had no idea that they came out of those dips that clean... Looks like you're going to have a hell of a ride when you're done

Olds Dad

I just looked at EMS's web site, and they show only chevy and ford stuff...are you using chevy panels or did I miss something?

Love your project...ALWAYS one of my favorite Oldsmobiles is that style

blucar

It should be noted from my earlier posting to this thread, that I spent over three years doing research on the '49 Old's 88's before I started working on the car...
My research revealed that the basic body on all of the 76-88 models are basicly built on the Chevy body platform, therefore the patch panels will generally fit any Old's/Pontiac.
Before I came upon EMS I purchased a couple of Qt panel, patch sections from another company, they were reputedly US made.. The quality was terrible and they did not include the upper portion of the wheel well opening.. I have since purchased the Qt panel sections from EMS.
I just ordered EMS's trans tunnel patch panel.. It is smaller than the large wide hump that the Hydro required.. The EMS panel is large enough for the 350/400 Turbo transmissions..
My research also revealed that 'FatMan' is one of the few specialty shops that fabricates a front clip that is engineered for the Old's.. The FatMan frame stub matches perfectly with the original frame, 13-3/4" from the front body mount hole. They even locate and mount the bracket for the core support and punch the clip for the bumper bolts.
I have a '39 Plymouth conv cpe which I spent over ten years restoring/rebuilding... I used a FatMan front clip on that car also because FatMan is the only company that makes front clips for the early Mopars..
No.... This is not a paid commercial for FatMan.. I just like to give credit where credit is due.
I was very reluctant to do a body-off restoration on my Old's, at first I thought I could do the job without doing a body-off.. The car was 100% unmolested, it had never been in a fender bender or had any touch up work done on the paint. Unfortunately the car had spent the first eight years of it's life in Minn. It was last licensed in 1958 in Minn.. The car had sat in S.D. from the mid '60's, awaiting someone to come rescue it.. Fortunately the yard that had it knew it was to valuable to part out
So why did I go to the trouble of stripping and acid dipping the body?
It appears that the '49 bodies were possibly the first to be mass produced by a simi-automated fabrication line.. Either that or this was the start of hasty, ill fitting fabrication. In order to compensate for the poor fit of the many body sections, the factory resorted to filling the voids in the panel seams with body caulking.. In some places the caulking was over two inches wide and a quarter inch thick.. To add to this mess of caulking/body seal, the body had been sprayed with under-seal..
I started adding up the multitude of hours required to scrape the caulking off, which would still leave a film of solvent based goo all over the metal.. An acid dip was the best answer....Bill

Intragration

Really cool car. Yeah, it's pretty unbelievable what you find with a good cleanup. Good luck with it, life is good when you have a project like this going and you can afford to do it right.

blucar

Last week we took the big step of wacking the front portion of the frame off in preparation to install the new Fatman front clip...
Fatman supplies very good instructions so we... 'measured twice and cut once'... I can still hear my high school shop teachers and my father always telling me to measure twice, cut once, before moving forward with a project.
Since Fatman fabricated their front clip to fit the '49 Olds, the abutment to frame was near perfect... A little work was required on the left frame rail where the frame was 'dimpled' for the original steering gear box.
All of the floor and quarter panel patch panels that I ordered from EMS in Cleveland showed up on Monday... Unpacking the boxes was like Christmas morning to a kid... The quality of the EMS panels is outstanding.. The rear fender panels are as close to perfect as it is humanly possible to make.
The eBay 'Olds Gods' smiled on me on Sunday evening.... A pair of '50 rocker moldings popped up on the Bay... They are mine now...
I have a very nice set of '49 rocker panel moldings and NOS 'Futurematic' emblems, however, since I am going to put '50 front fender trim on the car, to balance out the rear fender trim, I thought it might be nice to use the one piece '50 rocker moldings in lieu of the two piece '49's.
Just in case anyone is interested... I have a complete hub to hub front frame clip for a '49 88 which I am not going to be needing.. As you can note from the attached pix, the frame clip is bare, however, all of the parts, front hubs, spindles, shocks, springs, steering gears etc. have been boxed up for future use....Bill

oldsguybry

Nice !! How much does it cost to get a body and/or frame dunked in the acid tanks ?

It's to bad Dahmer didn't leave any laying around

okie88

Thanks for taking the time to post the progress on your project. The 49-50 fastback is one of my favorites. Could you let us know the company that you were unhappy with ? I will need to order some floor pans and rockers for one of my 50's one of these days and I'd hate to get some crappy products (not that I have anything against EMS, but I know of three different company's that produce Olds parts and I would rather stick with ones that are make specific if possible).

citcapp

Sweet restore looking forward to more pictures as you progress on this build

blucar

[QUOTE=oldsguybry;395591]Nice !! How much does it cost to get a body and/or frame dunked in the acid tanks ?

The total cost to dip strip the entire body, including all of the splash pans, hood, fenders, doors, etc., was $2,800. plus a two hour drive into Santa Ana from Ventura..
I choked a little on the price, but then when I added up all of many hours and chemicals it would take to hand strip the body, and then end up with a mediocre job, I justified the cost in my own mind.
The frame is not going to be 'dunked' into an acid bath... After we finish all of the frame modifications, mount the engine/trans and reinstall the rear end, and put the body back onto the chassis, we will take everything apart so the frame can be sand blasted and powder coated.
I have a quote of $550. to sand blast the frame and powder coat it.. For an additional $200. the shop will powder coat all of the engine compartment splash pans and rear end swing arms, panhard bar, etc..
It is my understanding that the Olds 88, Pontiac, (6) and the Chevy all used the same basic body shell, therefore, with maybe a few slight differences, the patch panels are interchangable.
There were two big issues with the patch panels that kept steering me back to EMS.
1. The panels are all made in the U.S. by plants owned by EMS..
2. EMS is the only vendor that I found that had the floor pan support braces... I found another company that said they had the cross braces, however, they just drop shipped the braces from EMS for an additional fee.
I did note that the one noticeable difference in the front floor pans was that Olds/Pontiac used the Hydro trans in lieu of the Power Glide. The Hydro required a larger trans hump. EMS has a modified trans tunnel pan that will work with any trans, including a TH350/400...Bill

gearheads78

Looking forward to watching this one.

blucar

The modifications to the chassis are moving right along.. See attached pix.. The new Fatman front end is installed, except for the springs.. We used temporary 'struts' in place of the springs.. The springs will be installed after the engine and body has been installed..
I made the mistake of trying to guess what the overall load was going to be on a previous car... The springs turned out to be to light for the finished product, we had to remove them and buy new springs which were left unaltered. I don't want to do this again.
The rear axle/diff has been rebuilt with new bearing and seals.. I picked up a 3.42 center section on eBay a couple of years ago.. The guy wanted lower gearing for his drag car.. The ring/pinion was perfect, I felt that new bearing/seals were in order since the unit was already torn down.
I had considered up-grading the differential to a mid '70's GM 10 bolt out of a Camaro... The early Camaro rear ends are the same tread width as the '49-50 Olds.. When the '49 rear end was torn down we found that we had a unit that was stronger than the Ford 9"... The axles in the Olds unit are huge, as is the ring/pinion.... I guess that Olds was concerned about the amount of torque that the new 303 V8 would put out..
I was concerned with the rear brakes, I was afraid that the '49 brakes would not be up to the task of stopping the car in modern traffic.
My four years of research on '49-50 Olds paid off... I found that the '49-50 Olds came with three sizes of brakes.. Ranging from 1-3/4", 2" & 2-1/4"...
The only replacement drums available are made to fit the 2-1/4" shoes, and/or the smaller ones... That made the brake issue, a non issue, I purchased the new drums and 2-1/4" shoes with a 2-1/4" install kit from Kanter..
The parking brake cables were frozen into the housing, probably a result of the many winters in MN, where the car spent the first eight years of it's life. Fortunately a friend of mine in Eastern Idaho has a '50 parts car, he sold me a set of rear backing plates with good cables...
We have installed the differential assembly into the chassis in preparation of a temporary reinstall of the body onto the chassis.. We need the body back on the chassis so we can fabricate the engine/trans mounts..
While the body is back onto the chassis we will install the new floor pans and pan bracing.
The wheels that are currently on the chassis are temporary '76+ GM 6x15 Rally'... I lucked out yesterday on craigslist... I picked up a set of near new P205/65R15 tires... This size of tire is listed as being 25.5" which should fill the fender well very nicely..
When the car is finished the wheels will be stock '49-50 rim centers mounted into new 7" rims, that will allow me to use my original equipment Olds 'dog dish' hub caps and stainless steel beauty rings....Bill

oldolds88

i like your build. i just picked up a 49 like yours,except the tail lights are different. mine have the reflectors on the top made with the fin as one piece. cant find out why. any idea.

Aron Nance

Loving all these '48-'49'-'50's restorations that are popping up today on CO! My favorite style of the great Olds marque! Keep the thread(s) coming, enjoying every minute!

blucar

The tail light bezel, lens and reflector are the same, '49-50.. The fender peak trim is different, '49-50.. The '50 trim is much larger, standing a couple of inches above the fender at the juncture of the tail light. The '50 had provisions for the backup light where-as the '49 used a round backup light on the apron below the trunk.
The '49-50 Olds 88's are near identical with the exception of the rear fender peak molding and the absence of front fender/door trim on the '49's..
There is one other big difference that most people miss.. The '49's had the 'Futurematic' emblem on the lower portion of the front fender... It is a large cast piece that lines up with the rocker molding.
The '50's had 'Futurematic' embossed into the rear fender trim.. The rocker molding is a one piece stainless strip that extends from the rear fender to the front fender well.
As a result of the popularity of the '49-50 88's with the customizers and hot rod dragsters... The majority of the '49-50 88's will not be found in their original state.
It is very common to see the '50's with no fender trim, front or rear and it is very common to see '49's cloned into being 50's by adding the '50 rear fender peaks and the one piece windshield..
It is a little know fact that the '50 one piece windshield did not appear until part way through the '50 model run...
A close review of the attached pix will show the difference's between the two cars... Bill

oldsguybry

Wow , is that boneyard in your avatar and in the pics you posted in SD ? There sure are a lot of nice old cars waiting to be restored that I'm seeing in the background .

blucar

Yes... The yard shown in my avatar and the pix I attached is in Rapid City, SD.. The name of the company is ... Moore's, they have a web site.
I have purchased a lot of parts through out the years and my '49 Old's from Moore's... Great people to do business with.
I talked to Moore's a couple of weeks ago looking for some additional parts for my '49 Old's... They had three '50 88 sedans when I purchased my '49 in '07.
I was told by Brad, the grandson of the original owner, that they had traded all of their GM cars to a yard in Sturgis, who specializes in GM's, for Mopar's... Moore's has always been very heavy with Mopar's dating back into the teens..
The online pix of Moore's is a little out of date.... probably at least ten years or more....Bill

oldolds88

thanks for the input. those yard pics are great. id like to get ahold of that side trim,im missing both sides, and have a messed up stone guard on the right.

blucar

You should be a little more specific in just what side trim you need.. ie, Year, model, front fender, rear fender, door, rocker panel and rear fender stone guard.
I have a NOS right side rear fender stone guard for a 4dr..
I have a very nice right side stone guard for a 2dr 50 88.
I also have a pair of '50 88 front fender moldings.. They need repairs, however, they are not badly mangled.
I have a couple of extra front fender air vent/parking light assy. Need re-chroming..
I also have a near perfect right rear fender peak molding for a '50 88 notch back sedan/cpe..
As a point of info.... The taillight assemblies and fender peak moldings are different... 2 dr Clb-Sdn requires the assy made for that body, where-as the sedans and notch back cpe's use different assy...
I had a reputed Old's expert tell me a few years ago the the taillight assy/fender peak assy were all the same, regardless of what body style. He maintained that if the assy did not fit the body it was because the body was messed up... The addition of a little body filler would correct the problem..
WRONG... Based on the previous info I was buying taillight assy and fender peaks... None of which would fit my 2 dr clb-sdn body... by at least 1/4".. One day I saw an add on ebay for a taillight assy for a 'fast back 2 dr', I sent the seller an email asking for more info... I received a response with the Guide part number that is embossed into the bezel housing... AHA! the number was different than the four assy's I had purchased..
As a side bar... The 'authority' that had told me they were the same has a '49 Olds 76 2dr clb sdn which he has cloned into a '50 88 2dr clb sdn... Of course he never told me that he had cloned his car... A friend of his clued me in... The 'friend told me to take a look at the firewall body tag the next time I saw the 'cloned car' at a car show, which I did.. The ' Model No' 76, Body Style, 49--3507 clearly appears on the tag.
I had considered cloning my '49 into a '50, that is why I purchased the '50 rear fender peaks and front fender/door moldings.. I decided to leave the car as a '49 because the '49's seem to be a little harder to find. The '49's also have stainless moldings around the side windows, doors and quarter's, which the '50's do not have.
The 'Old's Authority" tried to tell me that the stainless window moldings were a special trim package which was available at extra cost on the
49's-50's... Hmmmmm? Smoke and Mirrors, me thinks.... Bill

blucar

We have made great progress repairing the floor pan rust out and cleaning up the firewall.. Since I am not going to be using the original heater/defroster, peddle assembly and steering column, we filled all of the holes for same..
I am going to be using a firewall mounted peddle assembly, master cylinder/brake booster and column from a late 90's GM SUV/van, pickup, which required some modifications to the firewall area above the original steering column location. A little massaging of the recessed area where the heater temp control valve was located with a plasma cutter, which allowed us to move the rolled edge to the right, resembling the original right side of the recess in the firewall, created a flat area, to accommodate the new peddle assembly location.
I am currently traveling in Montana in my RV, it has been snowing since 4 AM, typical Memorial Day weekend in the Inter-Mountain west.. I have very limited internet so I will have to post progress pix when I get back home next week.... Bill

blucar

Just in case someone might have a spare rear gravel shield, mounts to the lower portion the body and extends rear-ward to the bumper.. I need one. The one I have is badly mangled, probably from being moved around the wrecking yard for so many years.. Mine is repairable, however, it will take a lot of labor to do that..
Please keep me in mind... Bill

blucar

The rust-out repairs to the floor pan are just about done.. It turned out to be a bigger job than what we anticipated... Here is the story:
The floor pan patch panels/cross bracing that I purchased from EMS in Cleveland are first class quality, however, the fit left a lot to be desired because the parts are made to fit the Chevy body... It is assumed, based on printed info that the basic Olds/Chevy body is the same.... Wrong..
The exterior body panels are 'somewhat the same', with minor variations that are easy to overcome. The floor cross bracing and floor pans are a whole different matter...
The problems and differences are due to the difference in the chassis' of the two cars. The Olds has a heavy X frame to accommodate the more powerful V8 engine/automatic trans, where-as the Chevy has a more conventional ladder type frame.
Fortunately the heavy gauge of the cross braces made it easy to modify them, adding the new ends to the portion of the cross braces that were rusted away.
The floor pans also required modifications in order to get a good fit to the braces/body, and clear the frame. The trans tunnel for the Olds is much larger than the Chevy, Hydro vs. 3 spd. Fortunately I purchased the modified EMS 350/400 trans tunnel which worked better with the Chevy pans, and mated up very nicely to the cowl/toe-board.
If only the 'foot area' of the floor pans had needed replacement, the job would have been much easier, however, since my car spent the first eight years of it's life in Minnesota, the entire floor plan with the exception of the trunk area was gone.
I am a little upset with the cost to repair the rust-out, by the time we are done, the repair to the body will exceed $15k, including the parts... On the bright side, the rest of the body is perfect with hardly a dent in it.
I guess that only time will tell if the cost to restore the car exceeds the market value of the car. This is actually a mute subject because I am not building the car with the sale thereof in mind...Bill

PS... I am having difficulty with my camera/photo program, I will have to post pix of the body repairs when I get the problem solved...

blucar

It looks like my photo program is going to work now...
You can note from the pix of the completed cross bracing, we applied POR-15 to the portion of the cross braces which will be covered by the floor pan.
No one will ever know this was done once the car is completed....Bill

As a point of info.... Currently there is a pair of fender skirts up for bid on eBay... The listing states that they fit all GM's, Chevy, Pontiac and Olds... The Olds skirts are different from the other GM cars... There is a lip incorporated into the fender opening on the Olds which the other GM cars do not have... If you closely review the attached pix of my LR fender you can see that lip... The Olds skirts also have a roll on the bottom of the skirt that the other GM skirts lack... Don't get stuck with a set of skirts like I did before I got educated..

frmula505

Great project, will be keeping an eye on this thread.

Do you have spare 50 Olds parts? I'm missing the hood latch panel (part that goes from grill to radiator support and contains the part the hood latches to)
frmula505@yahoo.com

blucar

The firewall modifications, filling of unnecessary holes in the firewall have been completed.. A review of the attached photos will show that we filled the heater and most of the holes through the firewall. We also had to modify the area where the heater temp control valve was located on the left side of the firewall. The modification was required so that we would have enough flat space to mount the new peddle/power brake assembly.
Of course once the area is all painted out and the engine is filling the space, most people will never know that the firewall area had been cleaned up.
At this point in time I intend to keep the left fresh air vent assembly. My thinking being that it will be the only means to get fresh air into the passenger compartment, in lieu of opening a window....Bill

blucar

The project is moving along very nicely..
I picked up the new engine for the car on Friday, delivered it to the shop on Saturday.
The engine was built by Mondello Performance in Paso Robles, CA.. I decided to go with Mondello for two reasons... Their reputation and the fact that they could build me a complete engine, ready to run, with an extended warranty..
Mondello suggested a 403 CID engine because the engine is smaller than the 455, therefore it is easier to fit into the engine compartment... I had talked to several guys that had installed 455's in their '49-50 Olds... In all cases I was told that it was a very tight fit.
My engine as shown in the attached pix is a '76-77 Old's 403 CID with Edlebrock heads, Edlebrock Performer intake, Holly 780 Avenger carb, HEI ignition and a bunch of modifications to make the engine run better and live longer.
Mondello has assured me the engine will be very streetible and civilized on pump gas..
If things go well we will be mounting the engine into the chassis late next week.... Bill

okie88

Man, That engine looks nice !!! I'm really enjoying your updates, and looking forward to the finished car.

kcars

I'm enjoying following the restoration of your '49 Olds. Keep in mind that there is a 3rd first series 88 when looking for parts- It's the very rare 1951 88A. I just sold my restored 88A 2 door after owning it for over 18 years.
I found one of the best things about these great cars is how rare they are. At car shows, at least here in the North East, you rarely see a '49-51 88.
Good luck with your restoration and keep the photos coming.

frmula505

Wow what a great looking engine.
ps ever find the part we talked about?

blucar

kcars.... I did not know about the '51 88A cars until just recently..
I have a friend in Eastern Idaho that lives and breaths Oldsmobile. He has a '49 Club Sdn, 50 Holiday, 54 Holiday and a '51 88A parts car.
My friend has been good enough to share some of his parts with me, some of which have come from the 88A..
**505... I did look at the hood latch/filler pcs.. I have two.. I will be sending you a pix soon... In the meantime I have attached a pix of the panel in question that I took at a car show.. The car is a '50 Holiday with a belly button CBB... You know why the Chevy engine are referred to as being belly buttons.... Because everybody has one.... Bill

PS... The blue 50 Holiday 88 shown in the pix is my friends car..

oldcutlass

It's coming along nicely! Civilized engine assurance, lol.

blucar

As you can see from the attached pix, the floor pan repairs are just about complete... All of the welding is necessary to fit the pans sections together and to 'plug weld' the pans to the cross bracing members.
I have included a pix of the repaired cross bracing, which I have posted before, it might be easier to associate the pans and bracing to each other with the attached pix.
I will really be glad when the floor pan issue is completed... It has been a very costly deal, almost 3K for the pans/bracing, rockers, quarter panels and over 3K to install the floor/rocker portions of them.
I have never undertaken the restoration of a vehicle that needed such extensive rust repair.. Had I really know how badly the floors/rockers were, I most likely would not have started the project.
I guess it's kind of like picking up a lady at a bar when it's close to closing time... 'They all look good at closing time'.. In the morning it's a different story... 'What the heck was I thinking'.... Bill

55miketn

Just checked out the '49 project. All I can say is you do good work and do it right. Looks like you really did the homework. Appreciate quality work and will be following this build. Good luck!!

Intragration

I'm sorry it got so expensive, but I'm glad the car is benefiting from it. It's good to keep them around. I've had a couple projects that got a little bit out of hand, but in the end I was always happy for having saved the cars.

blucar

Thank you to all of the current contributors, and those in the future, that have responded to this topic.
The rebuilding of my '49 Olds is not my first rodeo... I have been building, rebuilding cars, and a few trucks since I was 14.
Sharing my passion for cars via the internet is something I picked up when I undertook the restoration of another orphan car.. A '39 Plymouth Conv. Coupe.
I found the Plym sitting in a field in Montana in '96. It had been sitting there for thirty-eight years. Fortunately Central Montana is very dry and the car was originally from Southern California, having been taken to Montana in the late 1940's. The origin and dryness meant that there was very little rust-out in the body.
Like the Olds, I spent two years doing research on the Plym before I started any work on the car. I also joined the Plymouth Owners Club, where-in I found out that there were only 36 known examples of the '39 Plym conv left in the world. Fifty-one hundred plus Plym conv. were built in '39.
I have attached a before and after pix of my Plym for review.
I find it to be interesting that the survival rate has been so low on the cars that are now referred to as being 'orphans'... The DPCD cars of the '30, 40, and '50's were great cars.. The Oldsmobile's were in many cases some of the finest cars of their respective era.
As I have mentioned earlier, I have had a '50 Olds 88, a '53 Olds Super 88 and a '63 Olds.. I bought the '63 new, ordered it built to my spec's... In reality it was not a very good car.. My sister bought a new '63 also, she had about the same luck with it.
I did keep the '63 over ten years. Other than the fact that the engine was tired, the rest of the car, body and interior was in great shape.. I sold the Olds for $450. having paid $4,700. for it. Had the Olds been a '63 Chevy I would have been able to get three times as much for the car, while paying in the low $3K for it..
I am not trying to start an argument about the pros/cons of any particular make of car.. we all know that some people like Ford's and some people like Chevy's... I just find it to be very interesting that the better cars have not held up well in the old car hobby.... Bill

gearheads78

Plymouth turned out incredible

Intragration

Very cool Plymouth. I also own and restored a Plymouth. It's strange beacause Plymouth and Olds both sold a lot of cars at certain times. I currently own three orphan cars, I'm becoming a bit of an orphan specialist. I just don't feel the spark for brands that are super-popular. I like going to bat for the underdog.

67 442

In on a great thread! Awesome project!! What Color will she be?

blucar

I tend to think that an automobile/truck is more of a male thing so I don't think of them as being 'she'... Cars are not very warm and cuddly..
I have a '36 Ford 5 win cpe which I have owned for sixty years come September... It is a street rod... The Ford is always referred to as 'Henry'.
Pix attached... The first pix was taken in '61 when the car had '40 Chevy headlights. I had just taken off the '37 Desoto bumpers which had been on the car since '52.. Second pix taken in the '90's... More of a stock look.
My Plym is called 'Walter'... I have not attached a name to the Old's yet.
I am going to paint the Old's Dune Beige.... This is a stock color for '50.
I am trying to recreate a car I had in 1954/55..
The interior will be a variation on 'Ultra Leather'.. Something called 'Avonti'.
With the exception of bucket seats out of a 325 BMW in the front and a custom made consul.. the interior will be very close to the original colors on the dash, window moldings, etc...
I just purchased a retro early Cadillac/Oldsmobile 'snail' air cleaner for the engine. The engine block and some of the accessories are painted the correct '49 Olds dark green... The air cleaner will be painted the same color.
I am having wheels made for the car using the original '49 Olds 15" centers on 6.5-7" rims. The wheels will be painted the '49 Olds engine color, topped off with stock '49 Olds dog dish hub caps and s/s rings.
I am hoping that the wheels will perk up the low keyed beige color of the car.... Bill

kcars

^^^ I'm so glad your picking a stock color for your Olds. Imo it's the only way to go regardless of the other upgrades/modifications. The Duene beige is fantistic choice.
A friend of mine just finished a 100% full restoration on a '67 Firebird. It's a factory 4 speed car. He painted it in a non factory purpleish blue color. Just not the right thing to do on an otherwise stock body.
Again IMO.