BradyB

Now that I have her running sweet, my thoughts have moved towards the future. Here are the things I'm possibly planning:

Touch up the bubbly rear quarters.

15" wheels to fit disk brakes via ScareBird

Air Suspension

5.3L with a mild cam, 4L60E

That should make a great cruiser.

D. Yaros

A nice looking ride! Have always liked the clean lines of the '63. Had a '63 conv back in my college days.

BradyB

Oh no, laying on the ground.

BradyB

Thanks D.
Your grill looks clean.

BTW, what is the best way to clean up the grill trim underneath the headlights? What gives the metal it's satin finish? Before I take a polisher to it I want to make sure I don't strip off the lacquer if it's there.

rocketraider

Somehow I knew that was coming for this car .

Hope you have a good fab man.

I wish I could understand why everybody thinks every old car and in particular every old Oldsmobile has to have a damn modern GM drivetrain.

I will never understand that mentality.

Your car, do what you want.

redoldsman

If you had whitewalls instead of lettered tires, the pictures would look like factory photos. Nice car and nice photos.

BradyB

This car has 179,000 miles and the engine and Slim Jim have already been rebuilt once. The Slim Jim leaks fluid and the 394 has a bit of a tap coming from the right bank. It could be just a loose header bolt or the valve train.

I like the 394 but I'm not going to pay out the nose to adapt a 700R4 to its weird torque converter set up. I would much rather put a few hundred bucks into a pull out $400 5.3L/4l60E that can pull off 25 MPG and 420 horsepower with a mild cam.

Essentially the car is worn out, I'm not going to pay top dollar to restore an outdated engine and tranny in a $5,000 car that is definitely cool but not a collector's classic.

This is a summer time daily driver, not a trailer queen.

BradyB

I know, I'm kind of mad that I need to drop the stock 14" steelies to go with disk brakes.

rocketraider

Like I said, I hope you have a good fab man, because sticking that LS engine and trans in there is not going to be as simple as you think.

You better go ahead and source a 63-64 long wheelbase Pontiac to get the floors out of it.

BradyB

Here's a successful install as a reference:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1960-...item337c8e033b

As for transmission sizes:


Hydramatic
A 25 23/64, B 20 9/16, C 16 5/16, D 3 3/4, E 19
4L60E
A 30 3/4, B 23 3/8, C 22 1/2, D 3 3/4, E 20
4L80E
A 32 11/16, B 30 3/8, C 26 D 4 1/4, E 20