Awesome job,Joe!!! That's one clean car underneath! I wish I lived closer to Texas so I could see it in person! We have an all Olds show close to me(about 120 miles round trip)in Alliance Ohio in Aug. I've been going to it since '08 & have yet to see a '68 H/O show up.

 

Car looks great Joe! Awesome detail work!

Rob1960, this was probably the last 68 H/O to attend the Alliance show. Can't remember the last year I had it there......

Joe

 

Rear shot....

 

That is a perfect car. That paint absolutely glows - beautiful. What wax do you use on your Peruvian Silver?

 

Thanks, but you should have seen it in 99 when it was fresh. I'm thinking that next year I might pull the whole thing apart again to freshen everything up and get new paint applied. I'd like to find someone somewhere to shoot it in lacquer.

 

Thanks Joe! Maybe bragging, but at the time, I think it was one of the nicest 68s out there.

I sold it some time around 2008.

I had it painted with Glasurit. It was pretty nice.

I started using Zaino brothers products when I finished the 68 and have never used anything else on my cars.

My 72 W30 looks like a big piece of candy in the sun. I know waxes/polishes are such a personal thing with people, but if you can get the finish buffed nice, this stuff will make it so shiny people stare at it then ask how you make it look that way. It's got to be nice to start with though.......it doesn't "fix" problems.

It's all I use on my daily stuff as well. Once it's on the car, it's such and easy product to layer and looks better the more you apply. I sound like a commercial.

Keep up the good work!

 

Wow Joe,you're thinking of blowing that car apart right after that awesome W30 resto that you're finishing!! you've got way more energy than me!! I want to do a frame off on mine but I've got 7 more years to go at Ford, it's going have to wait 'til I retire! To jozw30,that is one gorgeous H/O!!(& your '72 also!) It was in '09 not '08 when I started going to the Alliance show,sorry I missed it!!! Is that a 52/Medina county sticker on the front plate???

 

Lived in Medina County (West Salem and Wadsworth) up until we moved to Phoenix a couple of years ago.

 

Hood installed today. Chris came over, and we played with it for some time trying to get it adjusted in. Was worth the work since we got the rear of the hood to set down a little more, but no matter what you do, the hood length is about 3/16" too short lengthwise compared to the fenders.

 

The overall fit on our hoods is pretty awful. They don't have the best gaps at the frt over the "hockey stick" moldings either!! And those terrible '68 only hood hinges!!! The guy that designed them must have been under 5 ft tall!!! I see your car doesn't have the underhood blanket. Is that the way the H/Os came? I don't know if my 442 had one originally but I added one on mine only because the foam sealer stuff that they used to bond the inner & outer hood panels had let go & the hood rattled. They were soft foam blobs every few inches or so. I added some sealer between the panels to bond them again & it didn't look factory so the blanket easily covered that. The assembly manual page showing the hood pad shows all getting one except 3100(F85 6cyl)-3200 (F85 8cyl) models.

 

See below thread I started a while back on the hood insulation topic. I am still looking for some documentation, but to date nothing. If Olds thought enough to call out in the PIM to not install the hot air adaptor nor the RH OAI clamp on A/C cars and not install the door sill plates you would have thought there would be something about deleting the insulation. Maybe they did it at Demmer, but if you think about it, there was no reason at Demmer to even lift the hoods for any mechanical mods.
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...on-delete.html

 

Shoot, responded in your older insulation thread.....

My 68 didn't appear to have ever had insulation glued to the bottom, I also had the legendary "X" chalk mark that was supposed to alert line workers to skip the pad.

I can dig up up the photo of it if anyonoe is interested.

 

Started to clean the interior. The lore on my car is that one of the previous owners replaced the front seat covers, but looking at them closely they seem to exactly match the rears which I know are the originals. Short of disassembly does anyone know how to differentiate the OE from the repos? I am sure they are not PUI quality. If they are in fact are OE it would mean the only things that have been changed on the interior is the carpet, dash wood grain, striping and package tray.

 

Looks magnificent under the hood now! I have a thought about the hood. were the fenders ever replaced? I haven't read your whole thread(s).

 

Joe,I'm sure enjoying following along on as you freshen up your beautiful H/O!! My seat covers are still original. I know that the drivers cushion had some seam repair but the others were untouched. I know you wouldn't want to open them up at this point but there are date codes on the underside of the covers. My rear cushion was coming apart at the middle seams,the vinyl was fine just the thread had let go. I peeled back the cover & hand stitched it back together. It had a date code of 8-25-67 on it. I thought it was pretty cool that the date of the Alliance show that I was getting the car ready for was on 8-25-13. I was hoping to find the illusive Lansing build sheet but no such luck. I sent a pic I took at a car show of a convert that had PUI covers in it. Wow, they're awful!!!

 

Thanks! It has been a lot of fun getting to know this car again after a lot of time working on my others. Nice save on your rear cover - it would have been so much easier to replace it. Man, those PUI covers are just awful looking.

 

I am pretty sure they are the originals to the car. I got to see this car in the 90's when the second owner had just bought it out of storage from the original owner, and the fenders then were in excellent shape - no rust in the heels -aside from the paint being badly faded. It has spent it's entire life in the Dallas Ft. Worth area and really since about 1975 been indoors under cover - that is why the red wells still have so much color. They have not been painted or surface coated in any way.

 

Don't know if you have seen this, but on the 1969's, and I'd imagine the 68's were similar... on the 'Broadcast Sheet' it stated that the Hood Insulation should be deleted, 1969 example attached...

 

Thanks for your post. That definately would make sense to spell the deletion out on the broadcast card for a 69 since obviously it woud be in the way of the hood mounted OAI system, but I don't think there is the same need on a '68.

 

Joe, Those Legendary covers that "rktdoc" used on his red '69 post do look great. I'm going to have to do something about my drivers cushion in the near future as it has some tiny cracks at the front in the diamond pattern vinyl. As long as I don't wear my cheaters I can't see 'em!!! No doubt I'll spend the extra $$ for Legendary covers!

 

Oy, right... wasn't thinking, no hole in the hood of the '68

 

Dang Joe, every time I look in here I drool. Nice work, and as always, thanks for sharing the pics.

I have the Legendary covers sitting here for my '68, they look really nice. The seats are currently going through spring repair, once they are complete with that I'll get pics up of the whole process. Saw some PUI covers 2 months ago on a '68, immediately identifiable, pretty poor in comparison.

 

Well, reaching the end if the refreshening. Have applied 4 coats now of hand rubbed Mother's Braziliam Carnuba wax, but next time I'm going to try using Zaino. Some habits are hard to break, but I did the furniture polish thing for the first time on the seating surfaces and really like the way it looks.

Things changed out or improved this go around - thanks to all of you for your help and observations:

Replaced the heater hose insulation with a longer length piece

Replaced the Radiator cap with the big ear version

Replaced the radiator side flap push in fasteners with olive green metal type

Rerouted the speedo cable

Rerouted the washer tank to pump hose

Replaced the OAI care and oil fill tube stickers

Remounted the window and Hurst stickers

Added a center cap to the spare.

Lastly I replaced the oil pressure sending unit with the correct OE "acorn" type - man this thing is so cool looking! Work on it consisted of gently rubbing the exterior with a soft pencil eraser, wire wheeling the connector, nuts, and mounting studs, polishing the plastic washer, and then giving the main body two very light coats of clear lacquer to revive the remaining plating.

Now, back to the blue car.

Joe

 

Thanks for sharing,Joe!! This was a fun one to follow!!,glad I could help with some of the small details. I had one of those original op senders but I tossed it because it was so crusty. I'm at least still going to try to find a Delco replacement like you had. Looking forward to the rest of your W30 resto! Is that phone # you gave me your cell or home #,I've tried calling a couple of times?

 

You're welcome. I have learned a lot here on CO and hopefully others can learn from what I've done, or at least not to do as I have done!

I'll try giving you a buzz later on today.

 

Further 68 H/O work on the way. Brian Vastine, the guy who painted my '70 W30 BOC winner at the Nats this year, has agreed to paint the Hurst. Not blowing the cat apart - he came over and looked at it and thinks it can just be scuffed, block sanded and painted after I pull all the trim off it. I'm really stoked since the paint on the car had a lot of orange peel in it. Looking forward to taking it to Kingsport next year!

 

De-trimmed car on the trailer en route to the paint shop. Took me 11 hours total to get it to this point including pulling a fair amount of the interior. Red wells will be going to Patton to have the splash sheilds properly installed.

 

Did you get a new trailer?

 

Looking good Joe!
Great chatting today - ill be in touch so we can get you the pictures of the details that you need for the car.

Cheers,
Sam

 

Paul, that's the painter guy's trailer. Sorry you couldn't make MCACN. Say hi to Henry for me.

 

Thanks Sam!

 

You have an illness, Joe, lol. Wish I could get stuff done at your pace!

Looking forward to seeing the progress, now I definitely have to try to make Kingsport.

 

Car in paint booth. First couple of sanding passes down, next will be to set up to do the black patches correctly, then do the silver and finish with the white hand applied pin striping.

 

Just curious, was the car super straight from the last paint job or will your painter still give it a guide coat and blocking to see if there are any areas that need attention. Time to do it is now....?

This coming from someone that just spent two months blocking a 55 88 body for a "driver".....miserable job. I now have a better appreciation for the work these guys do and the money they charge.

Can't wait to see it painted. I remember how nervous I was at this stage when finishing mine.

 

Went to go see the progress on the paint job. Pics are just after the first coat of clear was sprayed. The corrected stripe widths really help capture the "Executive Hot Rod" vibe these cars have.

 

oh....... my........ gaaaaaaaaaawd........

I'm gonna start mopping up the drool on my keyboard now.

 

Wowzaa!!

Joe you are a machine. Love to see it at Kingsport. You too Luke.

As for me, I m stuck in painters purgatory waiting for the call that he is ready.

Troy

 

Almost ready to come home. It is worth every penny - the paint positively glows!

 

Wow. Simply amazing. Congrats Joe, looking forward to seeing it all together.

 

Got my carb back today. Had never been rebuilt, but someone had messed up the fuel filter housing threads so a new housing and thread repair had to be performed in addition to the resto and rebuild.