Great minds think alike. That's what I did with my trunk too! I put the big rubber OLDSMOBILE mat down over top. Of course when the carpet's black and the mats black, it all tends to blend together.

 

I blame my interior!

It gives me a disposition towards chocolate brown... My garage door? Chocolate brown. Front door? Chocolate brown.

It's taking over...

Hey i saw those rubber matts, how do they look? Any fancy pictures of that???

 

The rubber mats look really good. On the backside it has a template with instructions about where to cut the rubber so the jack tie down will work. Haven't cut mine yet. It's a pretty darn good repro of the original mat and quite heavy (but flexible as it's rubber) construction too. I'm thinking of getting the repro floor mats for the front and rear; but it's not high priority. The price of these accessories has gone way up over the past 5 years. Here's what they look like. Sorry the tape's not 100% focused but you get the idea. If you enlarge the third pic you can read the cutout instructions.

I think it will blend the theme of your trunk to the inside of your car quite nicely if you decide to go with it.

 

Am I going to A show in Ottawa? Only one?

Here is a good one to set as your goal. There will be a section set aside for Oldsmobiles, as mentioned in another thread, in honour of a local Olds guy who passed away last year.



Tony, I'll also send you some info on others.

 

Paul, you gotta get the other guys around there to attend. It could be a mini "C.O. Canada" get together. Are you registered yet?

 

that's amazing!!! So how does registration work? Man I should probably get my car painted properly before this.....

Dave out in embrun is pretty close to Ottawa too, I'm sure he'd be excited to see his hood on my car, it fit like a glove.

 

I am going by memory, but I think registration was show up, bring a donation (food or cash) for the local food cupboard and fill in the car information paper they give you (the one you see in the windshield of cars at most car shows). That's it.

It is a show and shine, so there are no awards. They do do door prizes like a raffle, where you buy some tickets for a chance to win a prize.

Allan, you're retired, why not take a road trip to our Nation's Capital?

Glad to hear the hood fit well Tony, makes things so much easier.

And Tony, hopefully you will get to see my Cutlass finished by then as well.

 

It would be nice Paul, but I just worked out the cost to do that: over 3000.00 which includes fuel/hotel/food for the 10 day there and back. Not like the old days when my Dad, bro and I went cross Canada. Back then it was around 80.00 to do the trip when gas was 30 cents a gallon. + we pulled a small pop up trailer and camped every night.

Yeah, I remember filling the tank from 1/4 and it cost less than 5.00. Now I'm depressed.

 

Yours olds had a hitch back then???

I remember my dad saying a ride down to florida in his 73' tornado cost 40 dollars in gas!

 

Not the car I have now. My Dad bought it new from Don Wheaton's in August of 71. He would swing by school and let me drive it home. He had a light duty hitch welded to the frame so we could pull that little tent trailer.

And yes your Dad is right - even with a big 455, 40 bucks in gas to FL sounds right. To us now a days that sounds unbelievable doesn't it? You had to live through that time to appreciate it now.

 

Small update,

Engine bay on it's way to being restored.

 

Coming along nicely Tony. Don't forget to install a hood insulation pad, and clean up those hood springs/hinges

 

Do i need to glue the hood pad insulation on or does it just clip on???

I'm thinking about powdercoating the springs so they last, anyone have good luck with that??

 

The hood insulation is held by big flat plastic fasteners - no glue needed. You can powder coat if you want, but since the car is now being cared for instead of neglected, I think paint will be just fine. Besides, you can use the $$ left over from powder coating on something more deserving. I would not powder coat springs simply because of the movement they need to have opening/closing the hood. Don't know how powder coat stands up to flexing.

 

Tony that ride is looking good! need to see some other pictures. Will you be able to make the car show - would be great to see what you have done. Also herd on the radio that the race track car shows on wed have started in Ottawa. Also looking forward to the Kemptville fathers day show. Go every year! Car designer you live close for that one right. keep up the good work guys!!!

 

Thanks! I'm definitely try to make the car show in mid july (right now my car still isint certified on the road....)

In the upcoming weeks what i have left is...

1) Suspension installation

2) Steering removal and installation (idler, sleeves, tierods, centerlink etc)

3) Get steering alignment at my local shop

4) Hopefully be able to sand 'er down and give her a nice coat of paint (either i'll do it if i have the time, or i'll get maaco to lay down a basecoat clearcoat for around 800)

5) ROLL DOWN THE HIGHWAY!

 

Tony,
Once you have all the stuff lined up and ready, the timeline is really quite good

1. Suspension install - about 2 hours per side if you take it nice and easy
2. Steering removal and install new including front sway bar stab links and bushings? About 3 hours (use pickle fork on stuff you're not keeping - much faster) Use anti seize on the tie rod sleeves - much easier to work them into place. Also - they have opposite threads
3. Alignment?
4. ??? Didn't you just paint that car?

You could be rolling sooner than you think.

 

Tony, that engine compartment is looking good. Looks like you have a good plan in mind. Keep it up.

Econow Kemptville is about half an hour away for me.

 

I just put down a base coat, no clear coat yet...

Last year, i had my car at a buddy's shop, he told me i had a couple months to work on my car, then all of a sudden he rented the space out and i had to get my car home before something happened (some buddy huh?).

Hmmmm, there seems to be different size pickle forks, i guess i'll need something that comfortably goes around my balljoint??

Anti-sneeze is a great idea! I've got a jar of it on my mantle.

 

Don't know the answer to this so I'm just throwing it out in the air. Don't you have to put the CC down within a certain amount of time of spraying the BC? LMK what you find out.

Pickle forks come in all sizes (just like pickles). Fortunately they are cheap. Since you're not going to even re-use your front control arms the only thing you need to pickle fork or use a BFH on is the pitman connection to the centerlink. Just support the idler arm when you take out those 2 bolts. I put a small amount of shop towel inside my socket to make the bolt head stick to the socket and not drop into the frame. Worked great. Same on the install.

Pickle forks fit around the narrow part of the boot on ball joints. May tear through the rubber to the ball joint itself depending on how careful you are

 

Dear all,

I just got my water pump and timing chain

You are all very artistic when it comes to painting parts, how do I prep the water pump for paint? The surface is rough, do I shoot it with carb cleaner to remove the assembly oil and air dry??? I dont want to have to redo it once the pump is on the car........

 

That's about all I did with mine. Carb, TB or brake cleaner. Degrease, clean and sand as needed, air dry, mask anything that needs masking, shoot. I've never had any issues with that.

Some guys will put primer under the paint but I'm not sure if that's the best idea under a high heat paint. My only concern with that is if the primer doesn't let the heat dissipate like the high heat pain does.

You're timing gear cover and water pump should be Olds gold. The alt bracket, water pump brackets, fan and pulleys should all be black. Might as well do them while you have all the belts off and they're easy to get at too.

 

Oh the brackets are black?? I do have a pint of semi gloss high temp paint, I'll use that. So far i've used duplicolour and it's worked out pretty well.

 

Yup, I was kind of wondering what was going on with the gold alt bracket and the red PS pump bracket....You could always go with a different color theme under the hood if you wanted, but I know you want to do the car close as possible to original. Here I go just making extra work for you.

 

Allan, not again

Tony, I honestly can't remember what I did on my car. But what Allan says sounds right.

 

I never let up, do I? In a nutshell, we all think the same so I'm sure it's all good. Hey Paul, I posted on another thread today and used the word "colour", just like you reminded me....

 

Gentlemen,

I'm worried about painting the front of the timing cover. (the part that the water pump sits on.)

I can inevitably see the paint flaking away into my coolant system...

Do did you guys just tape off that section and leave it bare metal?

 

Tony, my man. You install the chain, then bolt on the timing cover, then bolt on the water pump - paint them both at the same time and walla! Then you paint your pulleys and such and install them! No fuss no bother.

Of course, the BEST way to do this and make sure everything ends up being painted properly without fear of paint contamination? PULL THE ENGINE, PULL THE ENGINE....Then after the rebuild? Paint the engine, paint the engine.... Sorry Tony, just messin a bit wit ya. But seriously, some guys do paint the timing cover before they install the pump. Don't know why.


EDIT: Why you up so late??

 

Haha! Up late because this darned car won't change it's timing chain on its own!

I had an uncle that loved cars, he left me a set of sockets about 30 years ago, I dug it up and guess what?!

1 and 1/8" snapon socket!! Looks like this balancer is coming off tonight!

 

Who wants to see how nice and taught my timing chain was (also notice how the camshaft gear is about 45 degrees out of time.)

 

Yikes! and the upper part of the chain isn't even tight on the cam gear! No wonder your car didn't want to run. Next pics hopefully show a new one installed, then the cleaned up front of the engine c/w paint and nice shiny black pulleys.... Keep up the good work Tony

 

Preview of detailing...

 

Tony, good detailing work. That timing chain picture looks familiar, except mine was missing a lot of that plastic coating on the cam gear. That was all in the oil pan.

 

Me too! I went in with my hands and you wouldn't BELIEVE what pieces of metal i was pulling out!

Those pieces of metal were swimming 6 inches away from my crankshaft

Here is my current progress: So i didn't have the 40 dollars to spend on a 6'' gear puller, why would i??

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE 8 DOLLAR CANADIAN TIRE STEERING WHEEL PULLER!!!

Here is the steering wheel puller in action, i basically used the bolts as leverage against the old crank gear, MAN was that thing on tight... I blame the keyway..



next, we have the stripped front end of the engine block, for 40 years of crud? I'll call it "decently" clean on the inside.





Lastly! NEW CLOYES TIMING CHAIN!!!

 

Awesome work Tony! Your water pump 'detail' is impressive as heck. Great taping job. Can you do me a favor? Your WP is HD by the look of it, and I'd like to know the measurement from tip of the fan extension to bottom bolting surface. My car didn't have HD, but I'm putting one in. Hope the pulleys will line up ok. Can you check to see what stampings you have on yours? (just the WP and Balancer)

Don't forget to change out those ugly rad hoses too! Prolly the last time they were done was 30 years ago!

MORE! MORE! MORE! I've lovin the pics you're posting. The inside of the timing cover cleaned up really nice. Good fit with the new chain too!

 

Hey Al,

I got the Non-AC water pump from Cardone, A-1 CARDONE58294, i have the original water pump that came with the car as well as the last replacement from the previous owner, this one looks to be really well built.

I'll take the measurement this evening. So you're looking for the total height up until the plane where the pulley bolts on?

I'll have to check the casting on my balancer, i brushed/painted it last night at 2:00am. I actually found the timing hatch marks left by the factory! So i know for sure that my timing ring didnt slip or anything.

You won't believe what i found in the oil pan! bits of gasket, shards of plastic, it was horrible!

 

Bang on! Does your car have the spacer the 4 blade fan attaches to? I want to replace my WP with one that will work with a fan clutch and I think that means going to a longer extension for the reverse pulley.

 

Don't know what the PO did with my 4 blade stock fan, there's some variant of an aluminum 6 blade under my hood now, there is also a 3" spacer behind it... No part numbers on either though...

I'm on my way home now I can take the measurement for ya

 

 

Please take note of my precise measuring implements.