Tungsten

Hey folks. I found this forum after searching specifically for a forum dealing with classic Oldsmobile cars. Surprise, right? Here's a little history that explains why I'm here and why I look forward to posting more as time progresses.


In 1968, my Great Uncle purchased a 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass S. Ordered it from the factory exactly the way he wanted it. I believe it's the Silver Green color, black interior, bucket front seats, automatic on the column, 350ci, air conditioning, etc. After he passed away, my Great Aunt drove it until sometime in the mid to late 1980's when she had a minor accident that scared her too much to drive again. The car was repaired using NOS parts and then left in the garage.

Subsequent to that, the car has sat in my Great Aunt's garage, un-driven. When she passed away, the car was left to my Grandfather who had several cars of his own and never had a reason to drive the Cutlass. It continued to sit.

My grandfather passed away a few years ago and left the car to my father. My dad would love to put the Cutlass back on the road but due to other obligations and worsening financial conditions, simply does not have the means (or the time) to do so. So the car continues to sit.

I've pitched the idea to my dad several times over the past 15 years or so that he should either give or sell the car to me so that I can properly restore it and enjoy it as a weekend toy. He's always declined, holding on to hope that he'd one day be able to do those things himself. Anyway, I hit him with the idea again just recently and pointed out that the longer the car is left to sit and wither away, the more work that will have to be done to get it roadworthy once more. Much to my surprise, he agreed and is starting to come around to the idea that maybe it really would be best to pass it along to me now rather than let another 20 years of neglect take it's toll on the car.

Just to clarify, I'm a 36 year old, adult professional with two kids, a wife, three dogs, a nice home just outside of Nashville, Tennessee, and a life-long car enthusiast starting back in the day with Hot Wheels and progressing over time to a myriad of go-fast toys and successful restoration projects including a Mach 1 Mustang. I'm in a pretty good position to actually take the Cutlass, fix what little may be wrong, restore what little needs to be restored, and allow my whole family (Dad included) the chance to enjoy it once again.

I'm pretty excited by the prospects of this project and look forward to learning much from the rest of you here as we begin our journey restoring a numbers-matching car that has been in my family for the past 40 years.

Thanks for having me.

Oldsmaniac

Welcome, Just ask and you will be guided!

Tungsten

Thanks for the welcome. I'm already knee deep in searches here on the forum, making notes and filing information away.

My plan, at the moment, is to trailer the car back to Tennessee and then pull the engine and freshen up anything that needs to be replaced. Seals, bearings, rings, etc. and then do the same for the transmission. I want the car to be essentially "as it was" once I am done.

The only significant changes I anticipate making at this point involve the brakes. I would very much prefer to convert to disc brakes, and to that end have been looking at the kits from SSBC as they would allow me to use the factory 14" steel wheels for certain events and shows.

Tungsten

Wow... this place is a wealth of information. A few minutes spent searching and I've already learned that Inline Tube has a great disc brake conversion package for our car at a fraction of the cost of the SSBC kit. Excellent!

citcapp

welcome aboard, as you have already found out there is a wealth of information here along with a whole bunch of great people always willing to help out. The family hand me down car is always a great thing. Get her done and take dad for a ride and/or let him drive it either way is a winner

f-85 rallye

Welcome! from a newbie (to this site) Sounds like a cool '68! Good luck with her!
BTW 4th post! Ha Ha!

Tungsten

Thanks for the welcome. Yes, I really don't think you can beat a family hand-me-down in terms of history or personal significance. I have fond memories of being driven around in this car a lot growing up, as my aunt would take me "in to town" every Friday night to go shopping with her, grab a meal at one of the only remaining soda fountains in town, etc.

It's funny how back then I never really saw the Cutlass as being a classic anything, but just an "old woman's car" so to speak. Now I look back and see so much sentimental value and of course the guttural appeal of classic American power.

I'm anxious to revive it.

Tungsten

Thanks for the welcome. Is there a minimum post requirement that we're all supposed to meet or something?

citcapp

Not anymore, you should be good to go

Tungsten

Gotcha. I hadn't noticed any limitations on where I could post... been searching too much.

redoldsman

Welcome to the site. This is the best Olds site you will find. There is wealth of information here and lots of good folks. You will be able to get an answer to any question you have. Sounds like a great car. You can't go out and buy that kind of history. You mention pulling the engine when you get the car home. I would consider making an attempt at getting it running before I yanked the engine. Do the usual things like pulling the plugs and putting oil in the cylinders and cranking it over for a few days. The gas tank will probably need to be dropped and taken to a radiator shop for cleaning and sealing. Put some fresh gas in and a fresh battery and I bet she will surprise you. Good luck and let us know how you are doing with it.

rocketraider

Boy are you in for a surprise... I'm pretty sure that this one, like a lot of 'S' cars, is a 350-2bbl Jetaway with tall gears, but even those made decent horsepower and torque.

Then again a lot of people drove their Oldsmobiles like little old women, never dreaming what their car was capable of. Unless the little old woman was like my Aunt Rene, who knew full well her Oldsmobiles were capable of keeping up with anything on the road and blowing a lot of it in the weeds. She's had 1966 and 1970 442's and a supercharged 1995 Ninety Eight Touring Sedan among other things.

You're in Nashville. Check out the Music City Rockets. They hosted the OCA National Meet two years ago and are a good bunch of folks.

Just be aware that the reproduction parts market for Oldsmobiles is nowhere near what it is for Mustangs, and you sure can't buy the stuff at K-Mart like you can for Chevrolets!

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO, enjoyed reading about your family car. Hope to see/hear more of it soon.

Tungsten

Guys thanks for the great welcome and equally great information. I'm really looking forward to this journey and hope to have the car here where I can begin work on it soon. Pictures and a solid stream of posts chronicling the process will certainly follow.

wolfman98

Always nice to see another Olds being restored to her former glory There is a wealth of knowledgable guys on this site who have no Quams about helping out anyone fixing up an Olds. Good lick with the project and don't forget to post pics from the start of your resto onward . We all love pics of Oldsmobiles

68Tom

Welcome Tungsten. You and I are about the same age, and I too had loads of questions when I started my restoration. This board is fantastic--as you have seen, there's tons of knowledgeable people on here who also happen to be great people.

Feel free to ask me about resto parts, as I've pretty much purchased everything over the last 8 months.

Here's a pic of my 442/Cutlass S hybrid (you can hunt down the post on it if you want the backstory--it's too long to post here. lol.) Anyways, I'm just about done.
photo.jpg

76Supreme455

Welcome Tungsten. You will find wealths of information here on this site. I am a member of the Music City Rockets Olds Club in Nashville. We would love to have you join us. Give me a shout sometime and I will tell you about our group. Reach me at owena@comcast.net

Tungsten

@68Tom -- I spent some time last night going through your thread about the trials and tribulations that lead to the '68 currently in your possession. Quite the story!

@76Supreme455 -- Will do! Are any of your members regulars at the MHRC Cruise In in Murfreesboro?

Tungsten

Good evening all...

Quite some time has passed since I first posted here. Back when we were first attempting to rescue my great-aunt's 1968 Cutlass S my dad put the brakes on the issue and said he wanted to restore it himself. We knew that wasn't going to happen but he rebuffed our offers several times and the car continued to sit.

While it sat, the garage it was being stored in actually caught fire and the car miraculously made it through relatively unscathed. Again we offered to buy it, and again the offer was turned down. We eventually decided it wasn't worth family tensions, so we let it drop and the car continued to sit.

Last month, my dad passed away very unexpectedly and my great-aunt's will left me the Oldsmobile in the event that my father passed away after her. Losing my dad was one of the worst things that has ever happened to me and was not the way I had ever hoped to acquire the car. It's our hope now that we can restore it to what he had told me he wanted it to be like and maybe he can "look in" from time to time and enjoy it. I just wish he were here to take a ride in it once we're done.

Anyway, we rescued it from the old homestead yesterday and rolled it into our garage today. It's in remarkably good shape and is for all intents and purposes 100% bone stock and has been preserved as such for the past 18 years since my aunt stopped driving it.

I've posted some pictures on my Smugmug account in case anyone can benefit from them in their own restoration project. As far as I can tell, these are the next best thing to seeing one brand new in 1968 with the obvious exception for the wheels.

We had to improvise and throw a set of wheels from a mid 1980's BMW 5-series on there (damned if the lug pattern didn't match) in order to get it on the trailer. The factory steel wheels were rusted to pieces and the lip wouldn't hold a bead and therefore the tires wouldn't hold air. We rescued the pie-pan hub caps for the restoration project but the wheels were a loss.

Enjoy the pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkyancy/sets/

I'll be glad to answer any questions I can and will be documenting the restoration project as we go. Hope to start on it in earnest next Spring.

rcorrigan5

You have my sympathy and regrets regarding the passing of your dad. Mine is approaching his last stage in life as well.

It looks like you have a nice gold mine in your '68 Cutlass S! Thank goodness the garage fire didn't get it.

As all the others stated previously, this is a great site for Q & A and tons of technical info at your fingertips. The people I've met here (at the site and a few in person) helped guide me through the restoration of my dad's '68 4-4-2 to an "as original" condition. It took about 2 years to complete (2005-2007) but it's been done for awhile and it came out pretty good. A lot of that "pretty good" had/has to do with the technical expertise available right here at this site.

BTW, I tried to access your smugmug site to see the pictures but it said I needed a password to get in.

Have fun as you begin your venture!

Randy C.

allyolds68

Very sorry to hear about your dad. The car is very nice. I'm not sure I've ever seen an original paint 68 that doesn't have the front fender heal rusted. Your smugmug link requires a password so all we can see is the pic you posted.

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard Sweet ride

Tungsten

Sorry about the photo album URL. We've had to lock down our family photos due to a rather unstable individual following along with them for shady purposes. I thought I had that album unlocked so that it was public.

Oh well... I've created a Flickr account instead and have replaced that URL for you guys.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkyancy/sets/

Enjoy!

Greg B.

Sorry to hear about the circumstances that led to you obtaining the Cutlass. My condolences.

I have a '68 that I bought from the original owner nearly 20 years ago and it too was very original. I see a few things that intrigue me. Your car is radio delete! I don't recall seeing a radio delete '68 dash previously. The underhood shots are interesting too. You mention the possibility of a disk brake conversion. My car has drums all around and your master cylinder looks to me like it is for a disk brake car, as the drum version is a bit narrower and more rounded on the edges. I also think somewhere along the way the windshield washer reservoir was replaced with a substitute, as it originally was mounted on the inner fender a bit more forward, closer to the battery, and I believe was black plastic (there may be some with the more common translucent white, but most '68s I've seen are black).

Your car looks very solid and a great place to start from. The Silver Green color is pretty rare and an attractive color when fresh. I considered it as a choice for mine. Good luck! Any questions, please ask.

sammy

Like another poster said, my Dad is approaching this stage also. He had a Buick that he signed over to me a while ago. Nice to see you have the car...appears to be pretty sweet! Have fun and keep us posted on your progress. Almost looks like you could jump in and drive

Ted

White_Knuckles

I've entered this madness since this summer as well. Got to say, this is a great forum chuck full of talent and resources.

The best thing is, people here share information with good spirit. Some car forums are not so pleasant with flaming and jeering.

Enjoy your toy and drive it like a stolen bicycle before we're all stuffed in Golf Carts!

rfmoody

Wow! What a cool story! So sorry about your dad. I know you are going to miss him. The car looks fabulous and this is the kind that everyone wants to find and restore. I live in northeast Ms and have a 68 Cutlass S convertible that I'm working on. However it's not in the shape yours is, but not bad. Thanks for sharing the story and good luck with the Cutlass.

GoodOldsGuy

Really like the post. What a great story and project to work with. I am sure you will have a lot of fun with this car. It looks great and a am partial to that color and option combo...Keep us all posted on your project.

Fred

64Rocket

Sorry for your loss. My Dad has already gone to heaven. I know the feeling of not having them around to guide with there wisdom.
I also have a '68 Cutlass, bought it from the original owner. Mine is pretty much the same as yours, in that it is the same color and bucket seats, coluum shift, no consul. Mine does not have the vinyl top, but a little more rust in the fender heels.

Gene

citcapp

Sorry to here about your dad. Great project and your dad will live on in memories and he will be looking over your shoulder as you do the restore.

This is a great place for help lots of people will chip in ideas and some even have parts if they are needed

m455sx

It looks like BMW has the same lug pattern as GM??? weird?

joe_padavano

Why? Lots of cars have the same bolt pattern (which doesn't mean they have the same pilot hole diameter or offset requirements). My 62 F-85 shares it's 4 x 4.5" bolt pattern with the early 60s six cylinder Falcon, Comet, and Mustang, as well as with the 280Z, some RX7s, and a whole slew of foreign cars with wrong wheel drive and the wrong wheel offset like Honda Accords.