The Lion King

Hi everybody!

First, I apologize for my English, hope you are going to understand what I'm writing. I'm a French guy who loves American Cars, and I proudly own an Oldsmobile Cutlass Brougham Supreme 1980, which was built in Detroit.

I spent three years to restore it: brakes, engine, trim, body, wheels...




The engine is the small block 3.8 liters V6, not a really powerful engine, but perfect to take me to my job every morning without a huge fuel consumption... cause here, the fuel price is a little high.

The only part I doesn't have changed is the rear bumper. Mine is critically destroyed by rust, and I can't find another one in France... because my oldsmobile is not really a common car accross this country.

Hope I didn't bored you at all, have a good day, considering it's almost 1pm in USA!

oldcutlass

Very nice, welcome to the site.

The Lion King

Thanks a lot

anthonyP

Very nice Cutlass. Surprised to see two of them. Hopefully you can find a good replacement bumper at a reasonable price. I'm sure you must get a lot of comments on the great condition and it's unusualness. Welcome to the site.

CRUZN 66

Welcome to the group... Nice looking Cutlass... From looking at the photo, your rear bumper doesn't look all that bad... Is the chrome bumper really bad or the reinforcement behind it???

Cutlass Fan

Welcome, it amazes me how many Europeans own Oldsmobiles. Don't worry about your English it's better than some North Americans lol.

stevengerard

Welcome, I was just going to say the same thing. Most folks from other countries respond with better English on these forums than we do. Those bumpers are probably cheap here in the states aren't they. Would it be worth shipping one to France if the part was cheap in the first place?

Inline

Welcome. The more Europeans the better

Cant you get non-EU plates at France? Here ( Finland) you can get those old-style plates By simply ordering them from inspection station.

Anyways, nice car.

The Lion King

Hi! Yes, the other Cutlass is a 1986 modified with GPL. It belongs to a friend of mine. I was very suprised when I drove it, compared to my 1980 cutlass: the road feeling is very, very different. The 86' is a smooth ride, no engine sound, no power (TH200 transmission), maybe GPL cut down performances...? But my 80' with its brand new engine is more powerful when you put pedal to the metal... it's also more noisy.

It's in good condition, yes. No major rust (except rear bumper as I said), just the original paint getting worse. It needs a good painting to be very nice.

BTW, my cutlass reaches two weeks ago its 310685 miles. Not bad for a granny like her!

Thanks! I spent some weeks in Louisiana few years ago, my english is a little bit rusty, because I'm more used to talk than writing.
Europeans owns a lot of US cars, indeed. Oldsmobiles are not the most wanted cars (ford mustangs are still the "must have" car), but they got a real charm and rare enough to get attention from other US car owners.

Thanks! To anwser your question, the chrome is not so bad, but the reinforcement is over.





It in't falling yet, but the rust perfores the bumper.






Thanks a lot one more time

It will be necessary to import this part. I ask somes professionnals, the less price I had was 800$ with shipping. Very high for me, so I'm not sure what to do.

Here some other pics. If you want more information or some stories about it, just ask

In the same time, if you want to know someting about France or European Cars, don't be shy, i'll try to answer you

The Lion King

Hi,

Yes we can

But they are non-legal. As you can see when you're looking at the pics, I had to change my plates after police stops me and ask me to change it.

Europeans laws are very strict. You can't really rely on the policeman moods here... such as is USA.

Olds64

Welcome to the site. That's a cool car and definitely a rare one for Europe.

Have you considered having your bumper repaired? You could remove it, cut out the rust and have the holes patched by a competent welder. Afterwards you could have the bumper painted, powder coated or even re-chromed (if that can even be done in Europe). In the long run it might be cheaper than shipping a good bumper from the States.

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

Good luck with your bumper search

Inline

Umm im European too..
Its then just your national laws which s***

The Lion King

Yes, but here's the problem: rechroming is very expensive.

Globally speaking, french old cars haven't got much chromed parts, and for the most of those, destroyed now. It's not a real business here.

For a part like my bumper, they ask me for $500.

Haha, you're right! We're not a good example for other countries. I always ask myself about how my "non legal" plates can eventually hurt or kill somebody whil I'm driving... meantime some mor*nes drives with "end-of-life" tires or cracked windshield...

Whatever.

The Lion King

Yes, you're right!


Thanks

Yes, but the major problem is the rechroming price. I don't know in USA, but here, one of the rare rechroming professionnals ask me for $500. Without any repair on my bumper.

Too much.

anthonyP

The chroming price is about equivalent to in the States. I am always amazed at the number of innovations and safety items that were first found on French vehicles and the performance of the later vehicles.

Inline

You could try and ask from few other European chromers.

Heres few which are highly suggested on our national american-car site.

1. ArtChrom / Poland

http://artmet-chrom.com.pl/

2. DalaKrom / Sweden

http://www.dalakrom.se/index.html

Their home-page seems a bit empty, but they are definitetly at business.

You could try to ask from those, asking doesnt cost anything. Both would be close enough even for small road-trip to drop the parts and later go pick them up, if you wish so.

Olds64

As AnthonyP said, $500 is about what it runs in the States. I understand that having to repair the bumper might be pricey as well.

Here's a video by Eastwood on chrome powder coating. Maybe this route would be a bit cheaper. It definitely isn't chrome, but IMHO it looks pretty good.

Funkwagon455

Welcome to the site! As previously mentioned, your English is very good for not being your native language. Thanks for sharing your car and look forward to your improvements and adventures.... Hey!, Not all of us can drive a Delahaye!

Junkman

Welcome, and I will start off by saying that your English skills are far superior to my French skills, that today are non existent. About, I dated a French woman for about a year, and I was learning French, but she wouldn't always tell me what some words that she uttered meant...
As for the bumper, I can ask a friend in California if he might be able to find a bumper with good chrome on it at the "pick a part" salvage yards. Usually they are fairly priced. I have no idea of the cost of shipping, but if he finds one, we can work on the transportation costs at that time. If you can give me some idea of size, and weight, I can do some shipping cost estimates on the UPS and FedEx websites.

The Lion King

Safety belt is a good example While in the 50's in USA safety belt was not a legal obligation, it was in France. But despite of that kid of safety improvement, french old cars weren't confortable at all. Smalls and not powerful, because our roads are half-sized compared to yours! We do not have a country as big as US...

Thanks for the information! I'll send a email.

Yes, seems nice! But how long this good appearance is supposed to last?

Thanks Funkwagon! I do my best. I'm going to post some other pictures of its "restauration" for road, as we said in France.

No, my other car isn't a Delahaye! I've got the world-famous "2CV" in my garage, next to my daily, the Renault 21 Nevada, sold in USA under the name "Renault Medallion"! I also got a Alfa GTV 2.0 1976. A good car, but I'm still working on it in order to get it back to the road.

Here's a picture:




For fun!





Si tu veux pour les mots, je peux t'aider!

Thanks anyway, there's some words i'm still searchig for in english, but it come back to me slowly. French people are very bad learners, and globally speaking, they didn't speak english. So I can't train myself by speaking english with them, because they cannot understand what I'm saying, even if the sentences are simple. I'm still speaking english with my parents and uncle when I see them, but not enough to keep it up.

About my bumper: the rear reinforcement is very specific regarding to the anchor points (not sure about the term). I can send you pics and size, I've did it some month ago, but I'm at work now, can't access it. It's very kind of you!

Have a good day

Olds64

Powder coating is generally more durable than automotive paint. The powders can be formulated to resist chemicals, heat, UV rays etc. In Oklahoma there are companies that powder coat oil pump-jacks and equipment for the oil industry, so there are powders out there that would be suitable.

71SX

Nice car! Happy Motoring!!

rustyroger

Whereabouts are you, I have a sister who lives near Bordeaux.
I have a few parts for 3.8 V6 Buick engines.
If you are near the ferry ports to England there are several reputable chroming shops over here, and it may be a better place to try and source a rear bumper too.

Congratulations on your very nice Oldsmobile, I suppose 2CV's (or tin snails as we call them over here are becoming rare even in France now?.

Roger.

BlueCalais79

Just looked up the part number for the rear bumper, looks like the 2 door is slightly different from the 4 door for 1980 Too bad as I know who's got one NOS (new old stock)

I believe I have some 6 cylinder parts for a 3.8 motor (cam, lifters, etc) for a project I abandoned many years ago, still in the box. Not sure what your plans are for your motor but I can look and see what I have.

The Lion King

Hi Roger!

No, I'm living in Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand. You may know this place, cause this is where Michelin tires are made! French Quality

If I may ask, why your sister is living in France?

Concernings parts, it won't be necessary: my engine is a Rockauto one, "mexican rebuild", but whatever: it runs!

A snail... this is funny, because here nobody sees it like this! But it really looks like a snail, for sure. Most of us says "4 wheels under umbrella".

Contrary to what you were thinking, 2CV are absolutely not in the way for desappearing. There's a lot of specialized garages which makes complete restaurations, some company are still making the differents parts, including complete trim and body!!! This car is very popular here. You are not going to saw one of them in winter, but as soon as the sunny days comes up, 2CV becomes road princesses...

Something very funny about this car too, is that ederly people still use it as a daily car like in 1960. This is both a collection vehicule and a useful vehicule, due to it mecanichal simplicist principles... and so its reliability.

Yes, I bought a 2 doors rear bumper one year ago, very good shape, not high-priced: perfect. But the bumper fillers aren't the same. So I can't mount it on mine.

As I said, my plans for the engine are simples: do not touch as long as it work correctly

Thanks!

Ok, thanks. A friend of mine who sells the same told me that is was well to chrome a piece of foundry (brakes as shown in video), or a new piece polished as a mirror.
On an old part (fat, dotted), the thermolaquage involves a preliminary sanding otherwise that does not hold. An old bumper, once sanded, it is full of holes to be filled with mastic. And the thermolaquage works only on the naked metal.

I would like to thanks all of you for making feel me at home! You're awesome guys, seriously.

As a thanks, I'm going to try to write down its story here, for any of you who are interested Difficult exercise for me, because my english is still rusty. But a least, it will train me a little bit.

I'm 23 years old. When I was in USA, my parents used to drive a Ford LTD from the 70’s (next, a chevy VAN 1987). I always remembered this huge car, as all the others. Back to France, I dreamed a lot about buying one of them. I though a long time that it will be impossible for me to buy a US car, because here in France, US cars are associated with rich people. However, after a small research, I found out that nobody wants that kind of cars in Europe. In fact, their consumption and their size dissuade the potential buyers. Also, everybody thinks that it’s difficult to find parts for them. Hopefully, a great forum on the web tells me the truth about them.

I then put myself to find one. I had no substantial budget, so I focus my research on a 80’s mid-size, which are at the lowest price possible in Europe (USA also), easy to repair (no electronics) and good looking. At this time, I had no mechanical knowledge. The only operation I had ever done was oil change on my daily car, the 1987 Renault 21 “Nevada”.

I found my Oldsmobile on a french internet forum. I was first looking for a Buick Skylark 1980, but Oldsmobile was bigger, better looking than Buicks. After negotiation, I obtained the car for 1100€ ($1200). I was as happy as a tornado in a campsite…




I was finally driving my own American car! What a rush. The V6 engine was a lot for a young guy who were only driving an old Renault.






I know, in USA, it’s one of the smallest block you can find… but here, it’s twice as much as standard car’s engine liters. The Olds was powerful, imposing, all that I was looking for. I drove it 2 months… and the first issues come up...



...to be continued

Olds64

Those are really cool pics, thanks for sharing.

The Lion King

b

rustyroger

The Lion King

Maybe she fall in love with our food & great wine...

I don't really like spain too, but if you want to visit, you may go to the south spain. Less people, more cactus and more plains.

Thx for advices! I change the oil and filters every 3500 miles.

Indeed!

Very suprised!! How americans sees this car? Like a classical, a collector car? Or more like a "normal car"?

Anyway, here's the second part of its story!

Chapter 2: Oh dear, we are in trouble…


I was driving this car every day, to go to school, supermarket or my parent’s place. And one day, I heard a huge explosion in the engine compartment. The car was still running, but the white smoke spreading all around it made me think “something is going wrong…”.
I keep driving for 2 miles, in order to find a place to stop the car. My father joins me, and the diagnosis was simple: cylinder head gasket. The temperature gauge was not functional, and I did not see it growing. I was more than sad… my beauty was out of service. With my father, we towed it at home, and that was the beginning of the real work.



We decided to do a security refresh for the car: suspensions, electrical, brakes, and head gaskets.




We did our first order to rockauto, and it takes us 3 months (we could only work at weekends, and it was winter, with no garage: we worked outside) to complete.









2012/11/19 --> Head gaskets failure.
2012/12/21~22~23--> Head Gasket fix. Valve replacement and grinding. Bloc cleaning.
30/12/2012 --> Repairing of false contacts into the dashboard. Dismantling shock absorbers
(Merry Christmas, the car is running again!)
[Hibernation (snow...) + casual fixs (radio, wipers, lights)
30/02/2013 --> Front and rear shock absorbers replacement, front and rear brakes replacement, purge.
15/03/2013  dismantling old exhaust, we made a new one made of old pipes with two lines.











I spent hours stretched out under this dashboard. I even ordered three different gauge panels on eBay. And by the end of March, it was running again…!











Then, I order a new carburetor at rockauto, the old one was to damaged to be properly repaired. The gas consumption drop to 15L/100kms, a great improvement compared to its previous consumption of 20L/100.
But two months later, another problem appears.
I was going to the post office. After I have been posting my letter, I tried to restart the car. A terrible sound of gears come to my ears, and the nothing: the engine starter was dead. Unfortunately, the Oldsmobile was parked in a very difficult access place. We had to push it out to load it on the tow truck. Rockauto provide me its news engine starter… one week later, the Oldsmobile was running again. In my head, I started to ask… what’s next…?

Olds64

Good job keeping your Olds running!

Crafting the exhaust that way is ingenious. Necessity is the mother of invention. Unfortunately, there will always be little problems that come up, but if you did head gaskets outside you can tackle anything the Olds throws at you.

The Lion King

Chapter 3: a simple light “OIL PRESSURE”…

Since I bought this car, I always heard in the engine a jingle noise. As I said, I’m not a mechanic, and I didn’t pay too much attention to this noise. But some weeks later, the noise became very impressive. The oil pressure (indicated by gauge) was between 10 and 25 psi. I started to search on the web what was the recommended pressure for the engine. I didn’t found a lot of information… but one day, stopped at a red light, the “oil pressure” “idiot light” light up. The pressure dropped under the 5 psi, and the noise was louder.

https://videobin.org/+6v0/8dr.ogg

https://videobin.org/+6uz/8dq.ogg

I ordered a new oil pump. Helped by the shop manual, I unsettled the old pump, and I saw that it was very used. Unfortunately, during its replacement, a bad use of a hammer cracked a little the oil filter support. After pump replacement, I made a patch for the crack. During the test, there was no leakage, and the oil pump did its job correctly: I was satisfied.

Next day, I take the car for a long ride: 625 miles in two days. I was with my girlfriend, she was driving, when she wakes me up and said: “There’s smoke at the rear”.

“Don’t worry, some oil may be on the exhaust, it’s going to disappear”.

Two minutes later, she said again… “There’s lot of smoke. And the oil pressure reaches 0. The light just light up.”

At this point, the engine started to make the same jingle noise I used to hear before. I started to panic, and we parked the car to the side of the road. When I opened the hood, I saw what happened. My “patch” I applied to the crack was leaking. It didn’t resist to the engine accelerations on the highway. All the oil was splashing onto the exhaust pipes. I refill the engine with oil, and we started to look for a garage.

I finally found a car-wrecking. I asked for pipe dope, and I sealed the leak with it. I also bought two oil barrels, and we finished the trip without problems…

The car continues to run. I traveled more than 4000 kilometers with it during one year. Some problems appear sometimes, but nothing very important (flat tire, grilled bulb…). And then comes the time of oil change.

When I replace the oil filter, I didn’t see that the crack reaches the side of the oil filter support. When I unsettled the oil filter, a small piece of metal fall down. I replace a new oil filter and start up the engine to go to restaurant.

3 kilometers later, I was forced to open the hood again, and I then took a jet of ardent oil in the face (and my white shirt, also).




This time, there was no possible fixing. Despite of its breakdown, I decided to get back the car at my home. I overfill the engine with a 5-liters oil can, the leak becoming bigger and bigger. The last kilometer, the engine not having oil anymore, a deaf noise was listened, and some smoke appeared under the hood and in the vents. The piston rod was down the oil carter. The car continues to run, reaching its place, and it’s the last time I ever heard this engine.

Olds64

Your engine threw a rod?

If so, it's time to find a donor vehicle. A difficult task in France. Or, remove the engine and have it rebuilt.

Sorry for your bad luck.

rustyroger

Would you like me to see if I can find an engine for you?.
Belgium has a strong American car following, it may be worth seeing what you can find there.

Roger.

anthonyP

If you can find one, it might be a good time to upgrade to an Olds V8 - except of course a 260 engine.

Olds64

Oh yeah!

The Lion King

Unfortunally, the French Law does not allow us to replace a car's engine if it's not exactly the same engine model.

So my cutlass is originally with V6 engine, It's on the VIN, I cannot change for a V8...

Chapter 4: times to move forward…


At this time, I knew that it was necessary to replace the internal elements of the engine. But I had no skills to make it, so I asked to a friend to make it for me. I thus took out the engine of the car with my dad help. I did the mistake to extract the engine WITH the converter… but hopefully, the transmission was ok.




















Once the engine was taken out, I thus used my R21 Nevada to take it at my friend's. He dismantled the engine to take it in rectification workshop.








Two weeks later, he told me that it will cost 4000€ to re-manufacture my engine, new parts included. It was too expensive for me, and I give up. I spent several month to look at French classified ads on the Internet, to find a second-hand engine. As I said previously, is necessary to know that the French law and insurances authorize the engine change only if the same engine is installed. I could not change thus legally the engine for V8, for example. It has to be à 1980 V6, as the VIN described… I thus found a second-hand engine. But thanks to my network of knowledge, I fast understood that this engine was also damaged as mine. I thus continued to look, until I find what I am looking for... in Rockauto store! A new remanufactured engine, for $800! That was just perfect. I immediately order it, and my new engine was delivered two weeks later.








After a painting, preparation and tests, I was able to install this new engine in my car, under a very cold rain, BTW. It did not come alone: a large order of parts was made at the same time: candles, wire, filters, gaskets, pipes, etc… by june, 2014, the car was running again.










I was more than happy… but… During the engine replacement, I found out that the transmission did not work anymore as well as before. I did a oil change of the automatic transmission, but nothing changes. Few days later, I realized, at a friend’s birthday party, that the car had real difficulties to move. For a very good reason: a leak was present into the oil cooling pipes… when we managed to install the engine, we forced a little bit on this pipes, and a leak appears. I fixed it, and the oil pressure rise, allowing the car to move correctly…
But it was not the end of my troubles.

Olds64

I'm glad you were able to find an engine. It's good that you ironed out the problems after the install. We anticipate the rest of your story.

rustyroger

Whoops!.
Something got lost in translation I think. Myself and I think a few others were thinking your engine woes had just happened, not part of the history of your ownership.
But never mind, let us have the rest of your story. Keeping and running an American car in the UK has its problems, but in France you are on another level altogether. I think I speak for all at ClassicOldsmobile when I say well done!, we wish you happy and trouble free times with your car.

Roger.

The Lion King

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay, my work takes me too much time these days.

Thanks for all your message, that's nice

I'm surprised to hear that it was difficult for UK to keep running them... what kind of problems are you facing?


Here's another part of the story:

Some days later, I was to the restaurant. I open the hood to show my friends the new engine. When I closed it, a shower of sparks, accompanied with smoke and flames appears.

Thanks to the reactivity of one of my friends, the fire which started next to the carburetor, did not have time to propagate. But the car was not any more electrically powered...

I needed days and days to understand how was set the electric system of this car. I finally repaired the breakdown which was situated on a "fusible wire" (also known as “thermo wire”) next to the engine starter. The breakdown cause was a small wire, which was damaged. It touched the engine, and the short circuit was there.

After this last problem, my car works finally normally. The performances are impressive, and I have a real pleasure to drive this car.

There was no more big trouble with it. I changed some parts laterly, like engine mounts, brakes, electrical, starter, etc. But globally speaking, my car is working fine now.

I've still got some things to work on. The car is vibrating (particulary in the steering wheel) when it reaches high speeds, I don't understand why. Shock absorbers are brand new, transmission and engine mounts too. The engine is well-equilibrated, it didn't vibrate.

I'm also searching for a roof-light cover, mine is missing.

Have a good night all