I've been told it's very difficult to remove a vinyl top and make the car look as though it never had one, is this true? I'm not a huge fan of vinyl tops, and if it's as simple as peeling it off, I'll gladly do that.

Rear speakers, my car did not come with any, but I know it fits 6x9's, I was thinking of just cutting holes in the rear parcel shelf material and surface mounting the speaker grills, with the speakers mounted beneath, since there are no pre-drilled holes, I will have to drill those as well. Is this the best option? If not, what is?

Rust, my front drivers side door has a hole in it, am I better off patching it or replacing it? Pic of the door rust below. Also, what year model doors will fit this car?




I haven't had this car for very long, but it doesn't weigh very much, (3,600lbs), and it's also still practical in today's world, so I'd like to fix the car up mechanically, maybe do some cosmetic work.

 

Vinyl tops are glued down so taking it off is going to look ugly no matter what. That means a complete strip of the roof, grind off the pins that hold the trim and repaint. You sure you want to spend that kind of money?

re: fender rust - If this is going to be a DD, just patch it. Much cheaper and faster than trying to find another fender that's good. Most of them rot in the same place because of poor design.

Know your $$ limit on what you want to spend and stick to it. These things can get out of hand so fast it's not funny.

 

Yeah I know about the issue of how fast money can be piled into a car, also the rust is on the door, not the fender, which is somewhat strange. If the door rust was the only issue, I'd keep the car, but as I said, the vinyl top has me worried. I've seen vinyl tops removed revealing mint paint and some horrid rust spots where the car simply was not treated without much effort. With some filler you can make the car look as though it never had a vinyl top.

I figure, if I remove the vinyl top and it makes the car look worse, oh well, it was only $650, and these cars are not exactly desirable, though I would not mind keeping this one. Would be some good practice on body work for me I suppose.

 

LOL - I love the signature 'Bronze Battle Cruiser'. Fits the car well...

Sorry, my bad on the rust issue. If it was a fender, yeah I'd patch. But on that door it looks ugly and likely is really bad all along the inner pinch weld areas too? That might be a candidate for replacement at a local boneyard. IIRC 77-79 all have the same doors and you can use either Delta, Ninety Eight doors, Buick Lesabre and Park Avenue (77-79) as donors.

Check the vinyl and see if it's cracking or losing surface rigidity. If it's fine, treat it with vinyl conditioner or sealer and it may just work out fine. I've heard of some folks actually spraying their vinyl roof with plastic paint to seal it against moisture penetration. Just some thoughts - like you said, it's only a 650.00 car.

 

No one seems to have tackled your rear speaker question. Are there not openings in the package shelf for the speaker? I would think there should be. I seriously doubt that Olds used a different package shelf support for cars with and without speakers.

 

It has the holes but they are not drilled, it looks like it had some kind of bracket to hold them in, so I'm worried if I try to flush mount them there may be issues. I can add a spacer, but that would add vibration. I linked a pic of the parcel shelf from inside the trunk below.

Also, side note, got the shocks, brake shoes, and wheel cylinders ordered today. I also have to drive it about 10 miles to my fathers house in about two weeks, with the rearmost d-side brake shoe grabbing on the drum, guess I just won't stop unless I have too. Out of the way folks, my brakes work TOO well!

Vinyl is solid and fine, I went around the car thudding on it before I bought it making sure there where no "Holy holes batman!" spots, I can usually find them under vinyl tops. Trained myself on a few rotted out Mopar's in the junkyard. Just wanted to know if it was removable if I decide I don't want a vinyl top car, 'cause, I mean it is classy, but it's also a rust magnet. Also, saw another 77-79 D88 today, it was silver. I may drop a note under the wiper to see if they want to sell it, hey, maybe I'll get lucky and find one that needs engine or trans work, swap in my engine and trans, find another engine and trans for my D88, and then have a fleet.

I'll try to find another door, it's rusted at the top too. Did not know about being able to use the 98, or Buick doors. Thought they'd be different, they where in the 80's. As long as it isn't letting water in during our yearly "Holy crap, why is the sky leaking like a fire hose?" rain storms, I'm fine with it for now. We don't get much rain, and we get most of it all at once. The weather in this valley is... Strange... To say the least.

Anyway, pic of the parcel shelf:

 

Actually you'd be wrong on this one Dave. My 72 had a deluxe radio with front speaker only. The rear parcel shelf was the cardboard one and it had no speaker perforations in it whatsoever. I'm inclined to believe that there were optional parcel shelves dependent on the rear speaker option. I bought a repro from OPGI (mesh) that has a dual speaker option. Most of the vendors offer 'plain' and 'mesh' trays although they don't say what 'plain' is. I'm wondering if it means a different surface, or no speaker piercings.

If you look at this parcel shelf from OPGI it is done in Madrid vinyl and shows no piercings for speakers that I can see.

 

The bottom of the parcel shelf is showing jute backing. That's for sound insulation. The other areas where there are cut outs on your parcel shelf are for the forced air defogger option. If the car had rear speakers, all you'd really need to do is remove the jute backing on the backside (it's separate from the shelf IIRC) and install the speakers. If you check the boneyard for GM cars of this vintage you should be able to score the mounting spring/clips and speaker boxes with jute insulation in them at really low cost.

To remove the parcel shelf, you have to take out the rear seat of the car and sail panel trim too. It's a fairly labor intensive job. I'd just use an olfa knife blade to lightly trim through the jute on the bottom if you're planning to put speakers. Do NOT drill the rear parcel tray - it will look like crap and not be any more functional than having that thin layer of mesh with sound holes already in it.

 

Thanks for the advice, I'll dig around in a few weeks when the car is on the road, make a trip to a local junkyard I know might have something.

 

I have no clue how I missed this thread man...

Not only did I spend little time on the suspension... I have played with the stereo too....

6x9's do fit, no issues. I will have to look in the morning, but I REALLY think there is a spring type wire type bracket that holds the speakers in. I have Pioneer 4-Way 6x9's without poking or modifying any part of the car or parcel shelf. There are no vibration issues.

To give you the background on the stereo...

It's a Pioneer Premier CD/MP3 player, wired into Infinity Kappa 3-Way 3.5's in the front and Pioneer 4-way 6x9's in the rear. Then for a little added thump, there's an Infinity Bass-Link sitting in there. And for the extra cool factor, I have a bluetooth receiver on the aux in so I can play the tunes on my phone through the deck. It has gotten many compliments, not just for sound but for quality of that sound. Audiophile-wise, it's one of the best I've had so far.

Aside from the deck not looking like the original deck, I am very meticulous about making anything I add look as stock, or as undercover as possible. The end result is to have a really formidable street contender that looks like Grandpa passed away, left me this car, and I tossed some white letter tires and a dual exhaust. Even with the exhaust, I worked as hard as I could to make it look like something the factory would have offered.

 

I think you're referring to one of these style clips. They would fit over top of the jute lined speaker box enclosing the speaker.

 

Allan, those brackets are exactly what I thought went there. I knew the other holes where some kind of whacky option, just wasn't sure what. Thanks for the heads up on what to look for.

Also, fdwheelman, thanks for the info as well. How'd you fit on the stock rally wheels? I thought they only sold in 5x4 3/4" lug pattern? I'm probably going with 17x8" cragar soft 8's in black, with 235/60R17's, same height as the 215/75R15 on the car now, with the width of the 235/70R15 I want, but strangely they don't cost much more per set.

This is the stereo setup I'm going for:

Head unit:

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_130X750...84#details-tab

Front speakers:

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...r-40CS354.html

And rear speakers:

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...-40CS6934.html

I'm using the dash panel from my 1989 Custom Cruiser (seen below) so that I don't have to hack up the '77 dash panel to fit in a 1 DIN stereo.



The '89 dash panel has a hole for power mirrors the rear window heat and motor switches, but that's fine, I'll find a use for those.