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After receiving some advice I decided to start a thread of the moderate restoration on my car.
Here are a few photos of it when I first got it.
The only thing not original to it is the seats and wheels, the seats were reupholstered with the original materials and design. They didn't do a very good job because the seams are letting go and the front seat isn't able to be adjusted (missing hardware). They took the carpet out and washed it and pretty much ruined it.
The paint is original but in poor condition and more than likely will stay that way because I can't afford the price shops want to repaint it and I don't have room in my garage to try and do it myself. It's a shame too because there is no rot anywhere on it. It must have been stored in a damp place with boxes and stuff stored on top of it and when the boxes were lifted up the paint stuck to the bottom and now it has blotches on the larger surfaces. If you zoom in you can see the spots of rust. Someone made an attempt at spraying some of the spots but just made matters worse.
I dig it. Wheels look good on there. I love the unusual rarely seen cars. Looks like a great starting place. Good luck with your plans. I for one will be watching your thread.
I dig it. Wheels look good on there. I love the unusual rarely seen cars. Looks like a great starting place. Good luck with your plans. I for one will be watching your thread.
My first intention of buying it was to just enjoy driving it around occasionally and going to some local car shows. I knew when I bought it it would need some work but the longer I own it the more I'm finding wrong and should be repaired.
I don't have a lot of patience and I'm finding what is driving me nuts is finding and waiting for replacement parts. What started was fixing some simple things but those would uncover more things wrong and now I'm going down the rabbit hole, lol. I've got to give a lot of credit to you folks that do full restorations and it took years to get it done. I really don't know how you do it. It's hard for me to learn to slow down and take my time because I've always been the kind of person who is in high gear trying to get as much done in the shortest amount of time possible.
I've already screwed a couple of things up from being impatient and some of it was not having the knowledge and resource and money. I'm glad I found this site and from what I read there is a ton of knowledge here and hopefully I can learn how to do something before I plow ahead and screw it up.
There are no records with the car of what upkeep has been done. The seller claimed it only has 38,000 miles on it but I'm finding things that are worn out that would only have happened on a car with much higher mileage. I also found the housing for the speedometer was pushed in on one side and was missing the nut that holds it in place. It's right where the speedometer cable goes into the housing and it makes me wonder if the odometer has been rolled back.
The very first things I fixed was the glovebox door. It was all crooked and when I would shut it I'd have to slam it to stay closed. I found one of the hinges behind the dashboard was missing it's fasteners and the other one only had one. I found the missing fasteners inside the lip on the bottom of the dash. I put them back in and adjusted the hinges a little and tweeked the other end that goes into the door. Then when I closed it the latch on the lock would get stuck so I put a couple of small washers as spacers which lowered the catch and it worked great after that.
While I was in the glovebox I found the light and it's bracket just laying there and not working. I couldn't figure out how it was supposed to mount and even after buying the repair manual I didn't figure it out till later (the manual didn't show it). I noticed the hole in the bracket had a flat spot in the circle and remembered from past experience those slide over a switch. I took the nut off the switch and sure enough that's where it went. The light still wasn't working and there were many other interior lights not working and that started me down my first rabbit hole.
There are two screws per hinge, they only show one.
Right above the hinge is where the light would attach to the back of the switch, they don't show it.
That is a really nice car. It will take a bit of work but you could bring that original lacquer back to really nice shape and get some touchup paint for the few bad areas.
That is a really nice car. It will take a bit of work but you could bring that original lacquer back to really nice shape and get some touchup paint for the few bad areas.
Thanks.
I did give it the compound treatment, glazed and waxed and that did put a shine back into it. It'll look good until you get up close, lol. It took sixty years to get into this poor condition so I imagine it's going to take some time to get it back to looking and running nice.
I got an auto paint supply store to match up the paint but I haven't gotten to try and apply it yet. They made me up a couple of touch-up jars and a couple of spray cans.
I sure do miss the 'old' Simonize wax. I remember it would draw all the debris in the paint to the surface and the wax job would last along time. While doing the compound and after I could feel a lot of stuff still there.
Try paint cleaning clay to remove surface contaminants. Try it in a test area first as I have not used it on lacquer but have had great results on other paint.
Try paint cleaning clay to remove surface contaminants. Try it in a test area first as I have not used it on lacquer but have had great results on other paint.
NICE car, enjoy it!!!
Thank you, I'll give that a try on the next waxing.
The starter seemed to be on its' way out. When I turned it over I got the clank miss and after a couple of clicks it would start up. It did it for a couple of days when I was moving it in and out of the garage. After awhile it stopped doing it and has been starting fine since. I think the bendix spring was getting stuck from not having been used for a long time and eventually freed itself up. I still might give it a good spraying with brake cleaner and clean all the connections.
The second day I had the car my neighbor came over to check it out and when I opened the hood to show and hear the engine the wipers started working on their own and wouldn't shut off, I had to pull the fuse to get them to stop. (I'm not really good with auto electric especially when it comes to tracking down a problem but I'm learning real quick with owning this car.) I went on the web and researched to try and figure out what was wrong with it. I found a couple of videos that showed how to test everything and downloaded a diagram of the electrical system. The **** on the switch came off in my hand when I turned it and saw what was broken, I tried to fix it with some JB Weld but it wouldn't hold so I ended up getting another switch.
After doing all the testing of the wires and motor it looked like I was going to have to get a new one because the motor failed the test. I took it out and did a bench test and it failed that too. I wanted to exhaust all possibilities before I gave up on it so I took it to an armature place that fixes motors. The guy asked me what it was and as soon as I said it was from a 61 olds he said "forget it, I don't work on that old stuff anymore". I thought it was strange because I looked around the shop and all I saw was motors on shelves, alternators, generators, starters etc.. The replacements are pretty costly even for a rebuilt one as many of you know, so I took it home and took it apart figuring maybe I'll get lucky and figure out what was wrong with it and if I couldn't oh well at least I gave it a try.
There was nothing jammed up in it and the solenoid worked when I put power to it. I dug in further and took the motor case apart and discovered one of the springs that hold the brush in position had split in half and one half was floating around inside. And that's all it was. I replaced the spring and gave everything a good cleaning while I was in there, cleaned out all the old grease, put in new grease and oiled the mechanisms. If you remove the plastic gear inside the motor housing for cleaning or whatever be sure to make note of its' position.
I didn't have good luck with the washer pump though, the bellow was shot and a replacement was nowhere to be found. Rather than go nuts trying to find one I decided to go with an electric one. I removed the spring and bellows and closed it back up.
I put everything back together, painted it and reinstalled it in the car. Later when the electric washer pump showed up I installed it and wired it into the wiring for the washer in the wiper motor. (the instructions that came with the pump weren't helpful) I replaced all the hoses. When I tried it out it was so powerful that the nozzles were shooting the fluid up and over the back of the car. I discovered the tips of the nozzles can be turned to change the location of where they hit on the windshield. A helpful tip if someone needs to take there's out, the vent cover slides out from under the stainless trim, there's no need to remove the trim. The mounting screws might be covered over with undercoating so you might have to poke around to find them.
I was going to upload some photos but it seems that my computer is throwing my pictures away or I did by accident. There's a photo of the motor opened up on the web but I didn't want to place it here in case of copyrights. Some diagrams a guy made for testing the motor and he said feel free to copy them.
Different motors for different models.
Wiring for bench testing with a switch. Although for a chevy it's basically the same for Olds. When I wired the electric pump I spliced the red wire into the yellow wire and the black into the purple wire.
He made a jumper wire as shown to the right and has it connected to the motor in this position to test for low speed. Leads are on #1 & #3
He made a jumper wire as shown to the right and has it connected to the motor in this position to test for high speed. Removed the lead from #3
He made a jumper wire as shown to the right and has it connected to the motor in this position to test for park (bringing the wipers to their stop position). Put lead back on #3 and remove it from #1
Last edited by Supernice88; July 13th, 2021 at 07:34 PM.
Sorry I haven't been doing updates. I come on here and end up reading all the new and old posts and before I know it the days gone by. I have managed to get a few things done on it since last update.
When I first got in the car I noticed it had a sour musty smell to it. The seats had been done over by the previous owner and the carpet had been taken out and cleaned. When I had the panel off to work on the wiper switch I noticed the dash board vinyl cover was brittle and when I lifted it up I found the source of the odor. It was the padding, it was damp and rotting so I undid the moldings and rolled the vinyl back and removed all the old padding and cleaned the deck surface. It only helped a little because the vinyl had absorbed the odor. I tried to take the vinyl off but discovered it was going to be allot more complicated than I thought. It requires removing the dashboard face to get it off and there were other electrical issues going on and the condition of the paint on the dash could use a refresh. Reluctantly I took the dash out. More on that later.
One electrical problem I was having was trying to figure out why the light in the engine bay wasn't working. I followed the electrical diagram and could see there was an inline fuse but no matter how I contorted my body I couldn't get both hands on the connection in order to twist it to replace the fuse. Once I had the dash out it made easy work of it. The diagram shows it operates from a switch but I can't find any. It is wired into the glove box light and I think the glove box needs to be open along with the courtesy/headlights on for it to work.
It's above the heater vent. Feed some wire back through the firewall to make it easier to work on.
I repaired the clock too while I was at it. A solder point had broke away from the solenoid and I cleaned the points to get it running.
Had to replace the door jam light switches in the front doors. Repaired the dome light replaced the cover and the cover on one of the side lights.
Well you say you don't have the patience to fix this old car, but I think you're doing great! Especially the way you found the broken spring and replaced it after taking apart the wiper motor! Well Done!!! Keep it up, I love that car- so cool and sixties looking, space age!
Well you say you don't have the patience to fix this old car, but I think you're doing great! Especially the way you found the broken spring and replaced it after taking apart the wiper motor! Well Done!!! Keep it up, I love that car- so cool and sixties looking, space age!
Thanks for the comment and checking it out.
I don't think that fix was of patience but rather determination lol.
Glad things are moving along. On this 63 Starfire got the back seating area out, Glen and I rebuilt 1 of the electric window motors-works fine now have to figure out how to put the regulator and all else back together. I was on vacation and did not take any pictures! Will have to use the other side to figure things out. The old shop manual will help but should have taken notes. Patience grasshopper...
The courtesy lights weren’t working. Tried to repair the door jam switches and got them to work but they would intermittently work. I finally bought new ones from Fusick and replaced one of the light bulbs. The rear door jam switches were working intermittently and only needed a little lube and ground properly to get them to work. I tackled the electric first because I wouldn’t want something to short out and burn the car to the ground.
The ignition key would jam up when in the start position and was really stiff turning and it was loose in the dash. Took it apart and cleaned it and lubed it then it worked fine.
The head light switch was causing the lights to flicker and the brightness of the dash lights wouldn’t stay even. I took that apart and cleaned it and filed the connector plate contacts and the leads then lubed it and that’s working great now.
I haven’t driven it a lot and only found out recently that I had been driving around without any brake lights. After testing everything and everything was showing it should be working I did notice that when the directionals would blink they weren’t blinking at a steady rate even though none of the bulbs were out. I pulled the flasher and the brake lights came on. I replaced the flasher and now the lights blink steadily and the brake light still work.
Thought I’d mention it in case someone out there has experienced this.
The summer ventilation buttons wouldn’t push in except the off position. Later when I had the dash apart I found where the vacuum hoses go into it and the mechanism was frozen. I pried on it a little and it freed it up. There is a felt pad held in by a clip that is I believe is supposed to be oiled. It’s the first oil that thing has seen ever. I did the same thing to the heater side and it made that work much better.
Routing vacuum tubes.
I replaced all the vacuum lines just to be sure there will be no leaks.
Last edited by Supernice88; September 30th, 2021 at 05:08 PM.
Reason: added a word
Glad you're giving this Space Age Oldsmobile the love and respect it deserves.
The underhood light along with glovebox and trunk lights are wired thru the parking light circuit. Idea being they wouldn't be accidentally left on and kill the battery. You shouldn't have to have the glovebox light on for it to work. Just the parking/head lights.
If the under hood and trunk lights come on with the parking/head lights turned on are they lit up while the hoods are closed? I'll have to take a look at that and see.
The underhood and trunk lamps have mercury switches that make contact when the hood or trunk are raised. When either is raised at around a 30 degree angle light should come on, and go out at about the same spot when closing.
Very carefully. There are 3 tabs around the outer edge of the sail panel lens. Use a small screwdriver or pick to go between lens and the housing and disengage one of the tabs. Lens should come out.
And the great thing is that if the lens breaks (and odds are good it will) they're available reproduction thru www.fusick.com or about any GM parts supplier. They're used on Chevy, Buick, Olds and Pontiac.
I think the sail panel lamps use a double contact bulb. Make sure no one put in the wrong bulbs over the past 60 yrs.
What body style? Some of the 2 door hardtops have a slide switch on the driver side rear armrest for the rear courtesy lights that can cause rear light issues. Make sure it slides freely and if it doesn't, disconnect the battery, take the switch out and spray some contact cleaner into it till it operates smoothly.
I think the sail panel lamps use a double contact bulb. Make sure no one put in the wrong bulbs over the past 60 yrs.
What body style? Some of the 2 door hardtops have a slide switch on the driver side rear armrest for the rear courtesy lights that can cause rear light issues. Make sure it slides freely and if it doesn't, disconnect the battery, take the switch out and spray some contact cleaner into it till it operates smoothly.
All good. There working with new bulbs. Thanks again for the tip on getting those lenses off.
The weather stripping from the area above the windows was missing from the driver’s side and the piece on the passenger side was a real mess. I got those replaced. The sealing strips on the doors were deteriorated or missing and a few of the door bumpers were missing too. The trunk rubber seal was shot too. Surprisingly the door weather seals are in good condition. They aren’t perfect but they’ll do for now. A couple of the window sweeps have pieces of rubber missing. I plan on replacing them at a later date. Does anyone know where to buy them?
Door Lock Pillar Bumper
Front Door Body Pillar Sealing Strip
Rear Door Body Pillar Sealing Strip
I got all the replacement pieces from Fusick. I know I probably could have gotten them elsewhere for less money but I don’t mind helping a company that is reproducing parts for these old cars.
All the door jams were filthy dirty with years of grease and grime and there were some areas of rust spots. I got them all cleaned up and treated the rust with a rust converter. Later down the road I’ll get those areas touched up with paint but it’ll be good enough for now and the rust shouldn’t spread anymore until I get to it (I don’t plan on driving the car in the rain which will help). Door Jam Cleaned Up
I did the same thing to the engine bay and the trunk.
In the trunk I removed all the factory cloth liner and washed it and glued it back in. I got a good look at the condition of the steel all around inside the trunk while I had it out. It looks to be in great condition with small spots of rust here and there where the lid closes. The wheel wells are solid. The channel where the weather strip goes has quite a bit of rust but is still solid and doesn't leak.
Condition of trunk - cloth and cardboard removed. The brown is the factory glue. Condition of trunk Condition of trunk Condition of trunk
There was no spare tire or jack. I got a used rim and tire at the junk yard and found a used jack on ebay.
What color is the jack supposed to be painted? Condition of trunk after cleaning etc. Condition of trunk Condition of trunk - The rust stains wouldn't come out.
That turned out very good. I just got in trunk weather strip, original type key blanks, rubber door and trunk bumpers, various correct hose clamps from Ames Performance-Pontiac people. Save some $$$.
Here's where knowing GM body platforms comes in handy.
Your S88 is a GM B-body, as are Chevy Impala, Pontiac Catalina/Bonneville, and Buick LeSabre/Wildcat.
1961-64 B-body cars share weatherstripping and rubber parts as well as basic body structure on the same body style. So if something is available for, say, an Impala 4-door hardtop, odds are very good it will work on your Olds 4-door hardtop.
GM body style designation for a 4-door hardtop is 39. Your body data plate should indicate 61-3539. 1961 Super 88 (35) Holiday Sedan (39 4-door hardtop).
Hope this makes things easier. I too like to stick with the people who have supported us when no one else did, but common stuff like weatherstripping and rubber details are almost always made by the same company for all the vendors.
Last edited by rocketraider; October 8th, 2021 at 07:39 AM.
July 11th, 2021, 08:59 PM
