Funny! I missed it to a degree. I think I was so excited to wrench in the new garage that I went a little overboard on initial teardown of this one. Taking the shifter and seats out has made it a bit of a pain to move around. Have you started on your Rallye 350, yet?!

 

It always makes me feel good to see older cars get love again. No matter how little or how great. Progress is progress. Thanks as always for sharing the adventure with us all. 👍

 

Picked up a few interior parts from Ross in PA. I had him send me factory burlwood for the dash, glovebox, and console as well as a factory walnut automatic shifter ****.

The wood on the **** was incredibly dull. I started with a bit of soap and toothbrush, progressed to a wood cleaner, and finished with a butcher block oil on a soft towel. The final finish is dry and the oil really soaked in to the wood to brighten the finish. I may give it another coat before it goes back on the shifter.

 

Unfortunately I haven't worked on anything in almost 2yrs. Everything is in storage as I was building a house. Now waiting on the shop/garage to go up so I can bring it all home and get to work!

 

Needed to move the car around the garage so I slammed the shifter back together quick. I can’t decide what I want to do about all the painted bare metal pieces. It would be a ton of work to blast each part, and I don’t think I have it in me. I know restoring a car is tough but I just don’t get the painting of bare metal interior parts like that.

I managed to roll the car in to the sun earlier in the week and most of the top wrinkles came out. The top now latches BUT the “guide pin” is maybe a 1/4” off from where it should go. I am hoping that the power top maybe pushes the frame out a bit so the top fits better. We shall see.

I hope to get the new cylinders and pump in this week.

Had the garage open yesterday for chrome and coffee and the pace car attracted a bit of attention.

 

I removed the Fusick reproduction console insert for the auto shifter. It had the H&H woodgrain stuck to it, and although their products are nice, I wanted original burlwood. I cleaned an original metal backed piece and glued it to the repop chrome insert. The thin edges on the side really don’t want to fit so I used a metal credit card to push them in to the grooves. The factory piece isn’t perfect, but it’ll play for the pace car. Next will be the glovebox and dash, but first I need to remove the reproduction woodgrain.

To clean the woodgrain, I use soap and toothpaste on a toothbrush. To finish, I wipe with the mineral oil and buff.










Tried a new adhesive spray. I picked this up from Joanne’s.

 

Jimmy you did a great job on the wood trim. Seems like you found a nice process to bring back a nice luster.

 

Worked on the powered top hoses a bit tonight. Admittedly, I am moving at a snail's pace. While having the shop is nice, it’s also not as easy to get a few minutes of wrenching in here or there versus if the car were at the house.

I installed the pump tonight. I may have mentioned this in a prior post—I ordered the pump from Ames and they sent the pump from Convertible Specialists in Florida. I put a little dish soap on the three rubber nipples of the pump and pushed them in to the metal “shelf” in the trunk. While moving the wires, the eyelet for the ground wire actually snapped off. #quality

The hoses are from the same shop as the cylinders. Hindsight, I maybe should have ordered the hoses from Convertible Specialists. These hoses don’t want to tighten the flare all the way as the hose wants to “rotate” even when tightened to the pump. I'm going to put a wrench on the fitting to prevent it from wanting to turn. Is this normal?

If I sound a bit frustrated that’s because I am. Not sure if I’m just still burnt out from the previous project and not ready for another project or just disgusted by another person’s attempt at a restoration. At this point, I'm not sure how much more patience I have for this car before ultimately deciding to kick it down the road. We’ll see. I wanted to have the inside back together before Homecoming, but I am going to have to really kick it up a notch to make that happen.

I am assuming I shouldn’t be able to turn that fitting when tight, correct? I used a 1/2” wrench and it barely fit—I would not be shocked if it’s metric.



Can anyone tell me if that hose that connects to the bottom of the pump (trunk side) goes to the top or bottom of the cylinder?



I know clips hold the hoses on each side. I have them but haven’t installed them, yet.



Ground wire snapped off. Brand new, too. SMH



On a positive, I ordered two 42” flag poles for the brackets. The brackets are 16" long, the flag is 24" in height, so I should be good. The pictures from 1970 show the yellow caution flags just hitting the bracket.

 

I found this old post with a picture of how the lines are routed. Hope it helps.

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ouring-140622/

 

Thanks, Greg. I just had the realization that in order to install the dash piece, I have to remove the switches. I'm not going to go through all of that so the H&H wood will stay and I'll revert back to the H&H piece for the console.

 

Super helpful and just what I was looking for. Thank you!

 

Good news! The top goes up on its own now! Little bit of air in the lines I want to get out.

The top doesn’t go up far enough black vinyl on the top of the windshield exposed a bit. Maybe it needs more time in the sun. The “guiding pin” can’t find the hole on the LH side. The black vinyl on the front should be covered by the top and it is not. How do I fix that?

There's also something trying to poke out the LH side of the white vinyl. Feels almost like a staple.

Is it possible that a little air in the lines is preventing this from going up further? Maybe more baking in the sun will help.

The vinyl is more covered on the RH side and more exposed on the LH side as shown below.



When I put the top down, I can feel in this area and there is something poking. It almost feels like a staple but not sure.



Something is preventing the top from going up further. That guide pin isn’t finding its home, yet, I can still “close” the latches.

 

Came up with a solution to bleed the top pump and feeling much better about the progress of the project now!

The manual shows the tip of the rubber plug cut off and a metal shaft inserted through the middle of the plug with a hose. I used the old plug, cut the tip and shaved the rubber a bit so it would fit in the pump, and ran a plastic fitting connected to a hose from my brake bleed kit. This did the trick in terms of removing air from the lines and pulled the proper amount of fluid. I included a diagram from the Fisher Body book as a reference—makes total sense.

I tackled the loose staple next. It looks like it pulled out of wherever it needed to go so I removed it with pliers.

As I worked the power top switch on the dash, I could see the fluid drawing from the reservoir through the back seat divider.





Here is what Fisher Body calls out in the manual.







May not look pretty from the inside but rather that than a tear in the white vinyl top.

 

I cannot seem to figure out where the adjustment needs to be in the top frame in order to get the pin on the LH side to seat. I had the car in 107 degree heat today in direct sun for 10+ hours, and while it helped the RH side, the LH side is still off. I did find a loose bolt in the back of the frame that appears to slide up and down. I tightened it, tried ti adjust it, etc. but that didn’t make a difference. At this point, I am going to turn it over to a professional and let them work the top and the frame. The vinyl for the top is starting to pull away a bit on the LH side towards the back which has me worried as well.

Kinda quiet on this site lately—any suggestions?

The pin is so close. Pushing on the frame doesn’t bring it in.



The LH side just won’t come up far enough.



The RH side is decent. I can live with this.



The top on the LH side here is pulling apart.



Again, the RH side looks good.



Different angle of the LH side.



RH side.



The bolt was loose. It appears to slide. Where leverage needs to be applied to slide it up or down is a mystery to me. Would an adjustment here get it done?

 

Just for grins, I looked at what the glass would look like with the top up. The alignment is a f*cking joke. Had I know the glass was this messed up, I may have held off on the purchase. None of the glass seals to the top. The overlap of the glass hurts my brain on the RH side.

The top fitment has to be dialed in before I can focus on the glass.

The LH front glass can probably be explained as the top isn’t coming down properly.





LH back side glass doesn’t go all the way up.





RH side is just as bad.



Overlap and the chrome isn’t even in place. Yikes.



Hope it doesn’t rain! Lol.

 

Wow, I just looked at the last 2 posts on your thread. I can't remember what the history of your car is and don't have time now to look at your whole thread. But what I think I would first do is start a separate thread with title asking about top fitment or similar. Put pics in it you have put in this thread. I think lots of guys just look thru CO quickly like I do and find interesting threads and answer up with suggestions if they have one. My top on my 71 Cutlass becomes tight if left down for a couple months or so, but just leaving it in hot sun a while works. If you don't get some good answers on here, you may need to get some help- luckily all GM A bodies are the same so a older top guy should have experience with the problem you are having. Good luck, I'm sure you will get it.

 

Jimmy -
I have almost the same issues with my top and window alignment. I was about to start digging into everything I had to find proper window alignment adjustments. I know when I originally got this car everything lined up fine (in 1982...). Since at least one new top has been installed since then, things are cockeyed. I note on your driver side top latch that the threaded hook piece on yours is about the same distance out as mine. It seems your whole frame attachment is too far rearward on the left. I have to put my body weight onto the frame and pull forwards to get my pin situated in the hole, then grab the latch handle and snap it closed, but it latches with the pin and hook in the same proximity to each other as yours are. Where you show the exposed black vinyl on the top of the windshield, that's how mine is all the way across. I guess I never thought that the top was supposed to cover up to the stainless trim. If you figure out anything before Homecoming, I'll be interested to hear. I plan on being there at least Saturday and will look for you.

 

Ahh, the joys of a convertible! Your frame is out of adjustment. No amount of keeping that in the sun is going to fix your problem. It's imperative you get yourself a Fisher body manual for '70 as it will show all of the adjustment points in the top frame. Note it's not just front to back (like your LH header), but also vertical adjustment to the glass. If you look closely at the top line of your front window glass you'll notice that your top has a bit of a 'crown' or arc whereas the glass is more flat. The top frame needs to be adjusted to pull the center down so the two lines mimic each other and the glass can seal at the top. I don't think any amount of glass adjustment will fix this problem. I'm not sure if a competent shop can get to all of the adjustment points with the top material in place but I guess you have nothing to lose in trying. Also, the material is glued to the frame at that rear section where it meets the back glass and body. I suspect yours can be repaired. An interesting thing you'll likely learn is that the '68-'72 GM A-bodies had a bit of a design flaw in the top mechanism at that rear header piece (where your staple was bent). If you look at original top cars, you'll see the joint in the material comes quite a bit down along the side. You can still install them that way for originality but it's discouraged by installers who know what they're doing. It ends up causing tears in the material near that location. It's recommended to have the seem much further up near the bend in the header (yours looks to be in the preferred location).
Before I had my top installed I made sure to study the Fisher manual closely and get the top frame and windows as close as possible before that material went on. Makes life a whole lot easier. Judging by your pictures, I'd say whoever put that top on paid zero attention to top adjustment and totally disregarded window alignment. That's probably why the top was left down for several years. Wouldn't want to take away from the nice new paint!
Looks to be a nice car. Don't give up on it - but study that top mechanism.

 

Spent time visiting with my local interior and top guy yesterday. He is the one that did the headliner and NOS vinyl on my blue car and I trust his work. I am going to leave the car with him to adjust the top so it fits properly and then let him adjust the side glass so it fits properly as well. I've asked that he finds a way to keep the vinyl top that is on there now, however, if he thinks a new top is also needed then we'll go that route. The car will need to be back by July 3rd for a local parade.

I've decided to hold off on bringing the car to Lansing for this year's Homecoming event. With the inside still ripped apart, and gas at $6/gallon, it just didn't make sense.

 

My second Goodyear Speedway tire arrived yesterday. I’m hoping to have a complete set of four to display on the car for MCACN this year. For those that aren’t aware, the Goodyear Speedway tires (and the Firestone Indy 500’s) were exclusively used on the 1970 pace cars.

I had the car out in the sun and took a few pictures. I’m going to swap rear springs so it sits lower.

The tire will get cleaned and polished as time permits this summer. It'll be displayed in the trunk as the designated spare until the set is complete.



Micro weight.



Correct short valve stem and cap still in place.



Rear flag holders in place. I have NOS tailpipes for the car as the exhaust system on there now isn't correct.



I'm working with a graphic designer to create the correct 'LITTLE 500' fender decals as the wings aren't technically correct. With that being said, I'll be applying the wings under the text. The festival decals also aren't correct as only the first 33 festival cars received those.



The front sits okay but the back is too high. Since the rear springs are easy to swap, that's what I'll do. I had good luck with a set of rear springs from ILT on my burnished gold W-31 so I'll try those again.

 

Appreciate the help from the both of you. I agree that the frame isn't square. Truthfully, I don't have the time to mess with the top frame nor the side glass. I turned the LH hook in a turn or two hoping it would pull everything in, but it's still missing the pin by a considerable amount. The top vinyl isn't supposed to cover up the top stainless, however, it should cover up the vinyl strip on top of the windshield.

 

One last comment regarding the top; no matter how well you get everything adjusted, I wouldn't have very high expectations for things to be water tight. These things didn't seal that great when they were new. Reproduction rubber (and other small parts) and tiny misalignments from the rebuild/restoration process would let a lot of water in under 'normal' conditions (car washes, rain storms, etc.). I saw your comment earlier regarding not washing your restored cars and I'm with you 100%. Even high dollar meticulous restorations won't make these older cars impervious to water damage.

 

Good call out. The less water these cars see the better, IMO.

 

I'ts all about personal taste, but remember, you still have the weight of Linda Vaughn, platform, and the Hurst Shifter to deal with, so it may not be too high! :wink:

 

LOL. Now that you mention it, I should have an adult or two sit in the back to see how low the rear goes. Knowing my luck, I'll have the top fixed, someone will sit on the frame, and I'll be back to square one.

 

My wife was so kind to sew new pockets on the caution flags I picked up. The flags now sit upright without sliding all the way down.

I am going to put the interior back this week so the car will be presentable for the 4th of July parade. I now know what I’m working with so it’ll be easy to remove everything again after the parade. The car is scheduled to go to the convertible shop July 18th to adjust the top and rework the side glass.

I used the new shop vac with a bristle attachment to get as much dust and dirt off the top. It’s looking slightly better. It was important to get the dust off so I can move on to the top cleaner and soap.

Finally, I picked up a used floor shifter at Homecoming last weekend. It is rusty as hell but it will clean up nicely. I just couldn’t deal with the painted bare metal on the factory shifter, and I was having a helluva time getting the paint off. Problem solved. I dismantled the shifter this evening and the pieces are in a nice new 5 gallon bath of Evaporust.

24” x 30” caution flags on 42” marine flagpoles.





I feel pretty good about the pole length and flag size. I don’t know the original dimensions, though.



Vacuumed the top. Wash and scrub later this week.





Rebuilding a shifter for the car. This one even has the screw (and part of a broken console!) for the console to the shifter.



Nothing Evaporust can’t cure.



So much factory hardware still affixed, too.



I can know tell the guy who restored the car took some liberties in terms of finish on the nuts of the shifter. I will use these phosphated nuts.

 

I backed the car out of the garage and used the hose spigot I had installed by the garage door to clean the top. I used the hose to wet the top and then the convertible top cleaner along with a special brush for the top. Outside of one spot, the top cleaned up quite nicely! It was a bit dicey running the hose on the car since the glass is so poorly fit, but I knew that the inside was going to get a bit wet, which is why I didn’t put the interior back in.

After 48 hours in a bucket of Evaporust, the shifter is starting to look rust free! I say it every time I use this stuff but it really is amazing. The black stuff on the bare metal is just dirt and will rinse off once all the rust has been removed.

For now, I’ll throw the inside back in for the parade this weekend and rip it back apart for the top and glass adjustment on the 18th.

The products I used on the top were RaggTopp cleaners and their unique convertible top brush.







Car would really look sharp with Polyglas tires and correct springs to lower the rear.





World of difference! Once the shifter is rust free, I’ll wash the metal and soak it with oil.

 

The top cleaned up nice.

 

It really did! Thank you!

 

Put most of the interior back tonight. As mentioned in a prior post, it’ll come back out after the parade for the glass alignment. I tried my best at vacuuming the carpet with the new shop vac so it’s presentable but sadly it's starting to really fray to come apart.

After having the interior out, I surveyed the condition of all the parts and it’s really not too bad! The back seats are original as is all the vinyl on the panels. They're not perfect but it has a nice patina to it. I'm still surprised how nice the interior was maintained considering how rotted parts of the body were. If I could score some NOS black vinyl, I’d recover the rear top cylinder panels (or whatever they’re called!). Anyone have a source? Assuming SMS again.

Speaking of those rear panels, did they use two screws to hold it against the back metal divider or just one? A pic from an original convertible would help (Jim?!?). The panel has two holes but it looks like maybe the “new” rear back material is covering the top factory hole.

Swapped out the yellow caution flags for the 24x36 American flags, too. I’m using the flag clips that came with the poles instead of sewing pockets. Might be on to something here.

Have a great 4th!

 

One more thing I forgot to mention on the rear seats. The two bolts with the large flat washers that hold the rear seat back in place have a tendency to strip. Don’t try to crank the two bolts down! Be careful and just get them nice and snug and then a 1/4 turn.

 

Spent another hour at the garage putting the interior back. Things went back together really well. I will need to get console screws to attach the lower and upper pieces together. I did manage to get the neutral safety switch back together but not confident it will stay together.

Need to get the arm rest bases back on each door along with the LH pillar post. I left the seat belts out. I suspect the original belts are long gone as these are from a non-Lansing manufacturer. I need to compare with other pace cars.

Overall, I am pleased with how the interior came together and it’ll be fun making subtle improvements to bring it to the next level.



Sticking with the H&H woodgrain. Jeff’s console piece is really nice quality.



LH bucket seat cover looks like maybe it had some scratches.

 

Finished the interior reassembly this morning. Gave her a galling or two of the VP racing fuel and off we went! Maybe it’s just the dual American flags out the back but this thing garners a lot of attention on the street! I drove the car a few minutes back to my house to take the family for a spin before the parade.

Needed a license plate so tossed on the one for the blue 31. The OCA plate frame is from the 100th anniversary, I believe. It has been hanging on the wall for years!



Flags really get moving at 40 mph.



I ordered a reproduction Indiana state inspection sticker for 1970. I tried to position as close to how the original sticker was placed. I used a black sharpie to color in April.



A few of the pace cars that were at the track had this Olds decal on the window or the rear bumper. I took creative liberty and placed it on the RH corner similarly to what I have seen in pictures.

Inspection sticker placement.



Not sure what pace car # this is but it had the OLDS decal so I copied it.



My buddy Tim Ventrice replicates the decal. He did a great job.

 

I found an original sticker (OLDS) like that a few years ago at a swap meet in Indy. That is the only one I have ever seen.

Don W

 

Well, just like she did in 1970 the pace car once again was parading around 52 years later. The kids and neighbors all had a blast in the 4th of July parade!

She started to overflow a bit but 100* heat cruising around at idle will do that.

After the parade, I put the car on the lift to make room in the garage. Overall, the underside isn’t bad and just needs a really detailed cleaning. I did notice someone spray painted the tailpipes and managed to get silver paint on the frame—ugh! My plan is to install new tailpipes before MCACN this fall.

Pretty cool experience to have my daughter in the parade with me. This parade is in the same neighborhood my wife and I grew up in.



Car #79 looking proud!



Worst. Exhaust. Ever.



Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th!



I picked this fob up at the Nationals this week. Bernie Karhoff was kind enough to hook me up with a couple of these recreation key fobs made to match the originals from 1970. Very cool!

 

Very nice.....

 

Moved the cars around at the garage to get the blue 31 back on the rack. When I lowered the pace car, I noticed a slight tear in the convertible top. Ugh! The material feels really soft on both sides in the area of the tear. I’m pretty devastated as the car was scheduled to go in Friday for minor top adjustment. Now, it’s looking like a new top needs to be ordered.



While the car was in the air, I tried removing the tailpipes to swap on the NOS set. The pipes won’t budge. Might order a new set.

 

We had some nice weather this week so I took the pace car to a local cruise. She needs a tune, and there is a trans leak somewhere, but we still had a great night cruising around with the top down. I had to replace the battery as the one that came with the car was shot.

Going to shift attention towards tuning the car. I sent the original distributor out for rebuild with NOS points, condenser, etc. I ordered new 1Q-70 plug wires as well.

 

I have been enjoying the convertible this summer and for the sake of keeping it on the road, I haven’t really dug in to it much.

One of the things that needed attention was the hood latch. When I would pull the secondary latch near the front bumper nothing really happened. A quick inspection showed that the longer rod was at an angle and the shorter “t-handle” was considerably longer than the handle on the other cars. Since the restorer opted to go with a bright clear / silver zinc on the entire latch, I grabbed a spare latch from the parts closet for an overnight bath in Evaporust.

You can see the handle length difference here. I need to also check the PIM as I don’t remember how the plastic bushing goes on the bolt and nut for the piece that joins the two rods together.

The hood was sitting a bit high on the RH side as well; the hood pin was difficult to turn in a locking position. A quick adjustment of the hood bumpers fixed that issue right away.

Lastly, I had a W-25 hood latch in the parts closet that I had phosphated from a recently parted car so I installed it on here, too.

Trying to get a few basic items ironed out before the car makes an appearance in Michigan September 16/17. New plugs, dated plug wires, and a few other minor mechanicals will be replaced this week and next. I still need to address the poorly fitting side glass and convertible top adjustments.

No clue what the longer handle is from. The top handle is an NOS part I had from a prior project.

 

J ~
I still argue that the stance of your Pace Car is perfect.