I've been meaning to post on here for a while about some of the progress of my oldsmobile. I have a '72 cutlass S. Silver Pewter with a 350 rocket. I have been doing a light restoration and I wanted to post some pics.

 

The first thing I wanted to attack was the interior. The car runs and drives well so i figured I would start with the inside.

I started by gutting the interior and seeing what I had to work with. The floors were better than I expected and the only rust was the typical A body driver floor area. As I removed the seats and carpet it seemed like someone may have removed the carpet before. Half of the seat belts said '71 on them. The carpet was glued down pretty well and required hours of scraping and removing of the glued on matting.

 

nice, the car looks like its in pretty good shape overall !!!

 

Looks like the car was apart once before to install that shifter. Overall looks really nice; keep up the good work and post more pics as you go. Did you find any broadcast cards under the seats or carpet? Your PNT code on the cowl tag should be 14 B

 

I did not find any broadcast sheets under the seats and carpet. I'm sure the carpet and everything was pulled out in the past at some point.

Allen, the cowl does show 14 b for silver pewter and black vinyl top. I was hoping you would chime in since I know you also have a silver pewter car. The car was repainted at some point, I'm guessing around 1992 when the engine was rebuilt. The front bench is in pretty rough shape, but the rear seats and armrest area are really nice still. I ended up recovering the rear seats and having the front bench rebuilt with new foam and recovered.


Once the floor was cleaned off I cut out the driver floor pan. I have a new floor pan that is going in.

 

After getting the new floor pan in I worked on putting in the new package tray put in. I also removed and replaced both door panels with new ones from the parts place. Once that was done I started POR15 on the floor and let that dry. Next is new carpet and headliner.

 

Well I had some help with the headliner, what a PITA. I'm glad I didn't try doing that one myself on the first try. After letting the floor dry for a few days I started working on the carpet. I glued down the sound deading material and then started laying the carpet. I got the carpet through OPGI. The fit and quality was good. While doing that I decided to replace the brake petal cover and the gas pedal. I also put in a neutral safety switch on the shifter since it did not have one, and got the reverse lights hooked up to it.
I also started working on putting in the 4 spoke steering wheel and replaced the rear view mirror.

 

More pictures..........

 

Here it is with a new interior. Sorry for the bad quality pictures I got a new phone so the pictures will be better after these. I got the seats back in and worked on all the little things. Its all back together now and it turned out great. Next is pulling the 350 to regasket, paint and clean up the engine bay.

 

Nice work!
Who did the rebuild on your front seats? They did a really nice job recessing the stitching and making the panels look OEM.

I have plans to redo the headliner in my car too, but I've also got to run the wire up front for the lighted map light. Isn't this a great hobby?

So now that you have a new interior do you have that 'new car smell'?

 

Hey Allen,

The seats were rebuilt by "Mr Trim" in Downers Grove IL. He does really nice work. He shaped the seat foam himself also. I'm really happy how the interior turned out. And yes it definitely has a newish smell to it. much better than before. Here is a before pic also.

 

Before interior...

 

Hey since your looking... Here is my VIN. 3G87H2R157709

What can you tell me about it? It looks like 2 barrel 350? Built in Arlington TX ? --- if i have that right, that part is cool because I was born in Arlington TX.

I do know that the 350 Rocket in it is not original to the car. It is a '76 motor with #8 heads.

 

Oh oh...
What happened with your steering column?? Looks like it's not bolted in place like it's supposed to be.

Was going to ask you if you plan to transfer the "S" from the original doors over to the new panels from PP.

re: Mr. Trim?? Looks like he did a fantastic job! Were his rates reasonable?

I'll reply via PM so we don't hijack this thread, ok?

 

Year: 1972
Division: Oldsmobile
Series: Cutlass S
Body: Holiday Hardtop (2 door)
Engine: 350 (5.7) V8 2BBL
Plant: Arlington, Texas
Serial Number: 157709

http://v8cars.hu/oldsvin/decode.php

 

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.

Its funny about the steering column, I've actually never noticed until you pointed it out. I'm going to check that out asap. I am wondering if it just the picture making it look that way. I would love to swap the column for one with tilt steering. Might be a good excuse to do that sooner than later.

 

So next order of business was to pull the anemic 350 rocket and fix all of the leaking seals and maybe give it a little pep in its step. I also had a severely leaking power steering gear box and radiator.


After pulling the motor you can see how it was originally blue, which is how they came from '73-'76. Which makes sense since it has #8 heads on it. The previous owner told me the engine had been rebuilt when he bought it about 16 years ago. It ran well but had a bad intake vacuum leak and was leaking every fluid out of almost every seal. It has an old edelbrock 1405 carb and old rusty hooker headers.

 

Once the engine was on the stand I started taking it apart. Upon taking off the oil pan the bottem end looked very clean. In fact the whole motor was really clean inside. It has a double roller timing chain and the pistons looked brand new. They are dated june of 1992. Which means the guy I bought it from was right and the motor was rebuilt. I went ahead and replaced the timing chain and put in a new oil pump.

I decided I wanted to put a new cam in the motor since it was apart. A friend of mine had a thumpr cam for oldsmobile. So while it was apart I removed the old cam and installed the thumpr with new lifters, pushrods, and roller rockers. I got it cheap and I figured it would make an improvement over the stock cam. Well I was wrong about that. It basically makes the same seat of the pants power, it just makes it higher in the rpm range. It has a nice idle to it, but was very hard to tune and has low vacuum which sucks with power brakes. It runs pretty well now, but was not easy to get there, so live and learn.

I buttoned everything up after that. I had to get a new intake because the old one was warped causing the vacuum leak. I also had to get new headers, some how while they were out they became warped at the flanges and would not seal again. Once I put new ones on it sealed perfectly.

 

Here is the motor all buttoned up and painted. The headers in the picture are the old ones, I am also running a new Edelbrock 650 AVS.

While the engine was out I cleaned the engine bay and painted everything a nice semi gloss black. I had a very leaky and loose steering gearbox, so I replaced that with a new one. While I had easy access I also slipped on a new 2400 stall converter.

My clutch for the fan had leaked out its internal lube. I also had a leaky radiator. I replaced the radiator, clutch, and fan shroud. I also did some tidying up of wires and other things.

 

Here is the motor going back in. As soon I got the motor running I maybe had about 20 miles on it and my brakes went out completely. I had a blown master cylinder and a host of other brake issues once I had them apart. I now have a new master cyl. and new brake lines and wheel cylinders all the way around. ( 4 wheel drum) I got it back on the road and now I need a vacuum canister, because the thumpr cam doesn't pull enough vacuum for power brakes.

Well it runs great now, and it will tie me over until I can get a big block put in it. One thing i learned for sure is my next motor will have a cam made for low end torque on the street, and not just for sound. I'll get a video posted real quick so you can see how she runs.

 

That looks great. Hope mine comes out as well as that.

Do you know if they left the factory with the water pump painted gold or left natural?

 

Thank you.

As far as I know GM painted everything gold including water pump and intake manifold. I chose to put on an aluminum water pump, I thought I would leave it unpainted.

 

Looking good, thanks for sharing the pics and info!
Jeff

 

Looks great, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for posting the link to the decoder. But I don't see where the engine is specified in the VIN (as you have in your list). The decoder only indicates digits for Division, Series, Body type, Year, Plant, and serial number. (I'm trying to determine if indeed my 1971 Cutlass SX is a true SX, born with the 455.)

 

In 72, the 5th position is the engine code...in this case, the 'H' meant a 350, 2 bbl, single exhaust as stated. Not the same for 71. From everything I've read, a real 'SX' can only be 100% substantiated with a build sheet, broadcast card or some other indisputable documentation.

 

Ah, thanks. I'll be pulling out the seats (if spring ever arrives) to install a new carpet. Here's hoping the build sheet is still there. I do have some comfort: I bought it from a guy who owned it since 1983 or so--long before anyone thought of "cloning" an SX. Heck, no one was even cloning 442s at that point, they were so plentiful

 

If it were me, I would just assume that it is real unless you discover evidence to the contrary. In any event, "SX" are cool cars. You might also want to check out http://www.sx455.com/ if you haven't already.

Did you happen to buy this from Brad in Ohio? I only ask because he had a green/brown SX listed on ebay not too long ago that I talked to him about buying. Sounded like a nice car.

 

1972 was a transitional year in VIN coding for GM.

The SX models were produced with the 455 2bbl, dual exhaust with cutout rear bumper and trumpet exhausts, and SX emblems. As far as documentation I'll have to ask someone I know who has one. It's still original without modification.

 

I have the application for the SX Registry right here in front of me! He does a good job with that site, considering it's a one-man operation. My SX is white with a green vinyl roof (love the look of the "halo" roof) and green interior. It came from a guy named Erick in Petersburgh, PA.