The Stickman

Ok here is a build thread for Twig's(my wife) 1979 Oldsmobile ChopTop delivery Cutlass Cruiser. We pretty much bought it as you see it. But we have had to clean up and fix some problems.
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As you can see all the body work was done for us, although we are going to strip it down over the winter to see what's under the paint. That and we are not to keen on the color. And there were some wiring problems under the hood. There was also only one bracket holding the PS pump. So it would flex to the point that there was no tension on the belt. Nor could you put any on it through adjustment. So my wife made a piece of stainless to put behind it and we have had no other problems. The car also has a Jegs crossmember to hold up the transmission.
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The Stickman

The first real thing we added was the ShotGun blower scoop.
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Now as it comes the only thing that holds it down is the wingnut on the small airfilter. After putting it on with the butterfly linkage hooked up there were three immediate problems. The first which isn't that bad is that the butterflies would not open all the way. Second which is related is that whenever my wife got on the gas the linkage for the butterflies would pull the scoop to the side as the scoop would just rotate around the carb. It we were running dual quads it wouldn't have happened. The other thing is this scoop is so heavy. It is a cast aluminum piece. So it was crushing the airfilter. So what we did was to add two braces from the front carb bolts to the underside of the scoop to hold the front of it up. This helped solve all the problems. I still have yet to fix the linkage to get it to open the butterflies all the way. But we will get to that. Now once we did all this we noticed the scoop was only about half way out of the hood. So we took a custom 2 inch spacer and put it inder the carb and it raised it up to the perfect height. There is one other problem. I measured the size of the scoop. then I laid out the proportions on the hood measuring off the centerline. Funny thing though. After I cut the hole the scoop was offset in the hole. Turns out the engine is from a van and may have offset motor mounts putting the engine off centerline. So I ended up making the hole bigger on the one side to compensate. Which isn't so bad as when I cut the hood I found some body filler in it so it is best just to get another virgin hood.
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Here is the front bumper after my wife took the grinder to it. She also had to fix the rear custom bumper. She tried to weld it but whoever made it used some very thin metal so welding it was hard. We will end up using it as a template to make a new better one.

The Stickman

BTW here are some videos of her car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylxFwUTaqIU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Ug5Deq2sY

The Stickman

Well we have painted the wife's car. We got rid of that awful Deliverance on the side too. I have looked at her car and noticed that with the short windshield and the long nose, which looks even longer with the short windshield It kinda looks like a WWII fighter. So that is the look we are going for. It is now OD green. It will also get a sharks mouth like on the P-40's of the Flying Tigers. It will also get a bomber girl leaning up against the rear of the front wheelwell.
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The Stickman

Well it's been awhile since I have done anything to Twig's wagon as we have been concentrating on mine. So here is an update as we are tryiing to get it ready for the GM show this weekend. Her wagon has been running hot so we bought the same radiator for her's that we bought for mine. But since she already had an aftermarket fan I didn't have to adapt ones like I did mine. I like the after better on her's than I do mine. Here's a few pics of it before adding the fan.
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The Stickman

Well it's been awhile since this thread has been updated but parts have been purchased which will make a huge difference in the wagons appearance. Not sure of the brand(it was probably on the box) but they are 18X8 wheels that were for a BMW. We got them off of Craigslist. $500 for 4 18X8 wheels brand new in the boxes.. Now I will have to take some time to figure out the perfect size tires to put on them for just the right look. This purchase put a hold on something BIG I was going to buy for my car but the wife deserves this as we hardly spend any money at all on her car and she is the reason I get to do what I do. So just rewards.
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Here is a rendering a friend on another forum did for us.
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The Stickman

Well some new parts have arrived for Twig's car. We had a Hurst shifter for her car but she grew to like mine. So we ordered her one of her own. But it's not exactly like mine. Hers has the knurled grip handle, guilotine trigger, top plate with regular numbers and set up for the TH350, and hers is lighted. Here are some pics.
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70 cutlass s

I like it. I going to keep my eye on this tread. Its different set apart from the rest, that's what I like about. Not the same old build. Keep up the good work. I also like the idea about the fighter plane.

ent72olds

Stick, lookin' awesome as usual! Definite change for the better....I like the fighter plane theme! Are you still going with that? If so, as a suggestion, maybe some rivets......

The Stickman

Sticking with that theme not sure I could do rivets. maybe if we find a good pinstriper. We are not exactly sure what elements we will put on the car. We have talked about the P-40 sharks mouth on the nose, a bomber girl(pretty definate on this one) and maybe the flying tigers symbol on the space where the rear windows used to be.

HARDLUCK88

i love it! maybe its just me, but i do have a personal affection for od green...

Jamesbo

I like it too

That "Delieveance " thing gave me the creeps

Paddle faster boys, I think I hear banjo music.

Aron Nance

Stickman: Still love what y'all are doing to those wagons! Really some nifty ideas, radical, and they all work! Will y'all be going to the OCA Nats in Sturbridge w/either/both of these rad rides? Hope to see them in person, and get to meet you.

The Stickman

I would love to. But the fact of the matter is that due to my migraine problem I can never really plan ahead. It would almost have to be a spur of the moment thing. "Hey I feel good lets go" type of thing.

The Stickman

Well we finally have the new wheels and tires mounted. I think they look pretty nice. The tires on the front are 225-40-18's and the rears are 245/40-18's. I wanted to go a little larger but I think these worked out for the best. The car will need to be dropped about 2 inches to look right. So my next thing to do is find 2 inch drop springs for the rear.
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henryk8398

Is that your wife in that picture? I understand she's a mechanic. That's way cool for you! What's her specialty?

OLD SKL 69

Looks very nice Stickman. Much better than when you bought it, by far. I like the idea of some of the plane decals on there too. Would look very cool. If you feel up to it, will you bring both rides to GM Carlisle this year?

The Stickman

I think the GM NAtional's is in the plans. Only Problem is that there is an all wagon show that same weekend and I kinda convinced a bunch of people to go to that so I might feel guilty if I back out now. But I am thinking the GM show will be better.