Ok. I have just picked up this 59 Olds 98 4 door hardtop. I sold my 71 Plymouth Fury wagon to buy this one. Plans are for a 455/auto trans. Fresh paint, rust repair and all that... All new seals, at least carpeting and headliner. 4 wheel disk and who knows what else. Lol

 

Welcome to the "dark side"! You know we have quite a few 59s.

 

Yup.... You guys need to send me a whole honkin load of pics.... Cause I am going to be needing some parts.....

 

Cool project but an expensive one if you need to redo the chrome stuff....those 6 piece front bumpers alone will coast a G!! The rear aint much better and then there is some potmetal stuff.... Good Luck with it!

 

Welcome to the world of 59's! Your car appears to be in great shape! I'm envious. I hope it's that good all the way through. See my thread in the Major Projects forum. There's a number of pictures of my 59 Super 88 there. I have some extra parts too. Did you get any extras with your car?
John

 

I love this car. Cool that it has the Autronic Eye option! Beautiful body design and interior.

Why are you going with a 455 rather than re-doing the 394?

 

Nice color and power windows too!

 

I am going with the 455 because I found a fresh rebuilt one with the trans, all accessories and the driveshaft relatively inexpensive. That and the prior owner said it was running when parked in 87, but it used a quart of oil every 1000 miles.

The car is 100% complete with everything there that is supposed to be.... But no spares at all! So yeah, let me know what parts you got spare... Lol

 

A quart of oil every 1000 miles. Good god, that's considered acceptable oil consumption in about anyone's book. Course if it's been sitting that long odds are it won't do that now...

I'd also stick with the 394 and the 4-speed HydraMatic simply for cool factor, plus you won't have to do all that modification to make the 455/THM and all the auxiliary stuff fit. It ain't exactly a bolt-in.

Scarebird has the rear disc brakes; not sure if they've done 59 fronts yet.

 

They got both, so Scarebird is what I am going to do there. The engine and trans I am getting for 800$.... Just a good rebuild kit for the 394 runs 1700 bucks... Ouch! I figured the 394 would need oversize pistons with the amount of oil it was burning. None of my mopars ever burned that much oil before I redid them. Maybe my expectations are too high? But that 59 Plymouth got 20 to a gallon with the poly 318 and the 2-4's sitting on it. It only got 18 when I swapped the poly motor for a 400 Chrysler. I am hoping the 455 has enough power to move this olds without breaking the bank as well.

I am going to rewire the car anyway, so I am not too worried about all the accesories working. I will figure them all out when I rewire it. It will look cleaner that way. Might even get some nice motor bling..... I have been eyeing up those march setups they have for the 455, but I kinda wish they had a V-belt set. All I can find are the serpentine.

John, I did read through you thread. Lets just say I wish you were a little closer, but your thread helped me to understand how the front end goes together on these. Lots of little panels really threw me for a loop... Not what I am used to. Then again, it is like I am relearning everything.

My bumpers are trashed as well. They are relatively straight... relatively.... But yeah, they must have been so rusty, they put primer on both the front and the rear.

 

I took MANY pics as I took mine apart. If you need info on how it's put together, let me know. I suggest you get the service manual also. There's a bunch of them on ebay and they're excellent with tons of detail and drawings. Helps me plenty.
John

BTW - Where are you located?

 

I would stay away from the rebuild kits as they seem high to me. I prefer to get my parts individually from different vendors depending on what is needed. The 455 will be a little cheaper to do but not greatly if you need to rebuild that too. Bling is available for the 394 as far as chrome and multiple carb setups. But it will be cool to have the 455 there and a turbo 400 it would be much easier to keep the 394 and Jetaway. As said before these cars are by no means cheap to do!!

 

Yeah, I saw the manuals on Ebay. I have several Chrysler ones, but something tells me that won't help me with this one. I am going to try and hold off till the first local swap, which is around February 1, I think usually up by Menasha. There is always a manual guy there, and I like to see the condition of something up close and haggle in person. Lol

As to not being cheap to do, I am used to that! Ironically though, I have had harder times finding anything for the olds so far than my old mopars. Maybe I just don't know where to look? The 455 is already rebuilt, which is why I am going that route. 800$ wouldn't even touch the rebuild on the 394 I think. For those of you needing trim, I have been chatting with someone that has some... He sent me pics yesterday... Just tried to forward them to myself, but I don't know if my reception is good enough at my house here.

 

Trim is hard to find Fusick repops the Chevrons for the front fenders which are very difficult to find.

 

Mine doesn't even have the chevrons. Did they not always come with them?

 

Yes it should have....the super 88 and 98 had them.

 

Check out this link for lots of detailed '59 Ninety Eight Holiday Sport Sedan photos. This is an excellent original that bid to $55,000 on Ebay a few years back, then sold privately for significantly more -- probably over $70,000.

http://kingoftheroad.net/59olds/olds-1.html

 

Well, I have the front end apart now. I don't have the final shots of how it ended yesterday, but here is what I have. The driver's fender is toast the bottom 2 inches in the back, but there is only one 50 cent piece hole in the very bottom of the rockers. I knew if I didn't tear into this one now, it would go downhill fast. I am going to stop all the rust with POR 15, and then build it back up. Next will be to get the passenger fender off. Turning colder here today though, and I don't have propane for my heater. Engine is just CAKED in black. Maybe half that oil issue were some huge leaks... We will see soon, if I can stand the cold.

 

If I didn't get this car, and it were to sit much longer, this would not be the same story. The carpet was soaked. A huge mouse nest filled the whole area under the seat. The floor, while rusty is still solid. Much more time like that, and the floor boards would have been gone most likely. I also got the other fender off now, and the rockers look to be as good as the driver's side. POR 15 is going to be my friend on this car... Big time!

 

Well, I now have the intake and valve covers off. The heads on the top side look really clean. It did have one bent and one bending pushrod though, so that may have been why it was parked. The 18 degree temps got to me though, probably done for the day, with that and the bad back.

 

That is an AWSOME car! IMHO, 59 was one of the best years for the 98. I think your idea to go with a 455 and TH 400 is the way to go. Good luck.

 

Not sure now if that is the direction I will go. Depends on what the motor looks like with the heads off....

 

Teardown continues. Engine is out....

 

Forgot the pics

 

Ok... Well, today, I found rust. I finished taking the roof rail trim off from around the flat top, and guess what. It was pretty rotten underneath. The driver's side is the worst. Then, when the lower rear window trim came off, there was extensive rust underneath. Someone help me out, my guess is there is a patch panel made for that one. As far as the roof, since there really is just 4 posts holding it up. I am thinking the easiest way to fix it is to weld on a new one that isn't rusty. Thoughts? Anyone done it?

 

Wow is it not amazing what chrome trim can hide... I do not think there are any vintage replacement patch panels but if there are it would be for a Chevy. On my 59 I got the front floors repro for the 59 chevy. The rear floor pans needed to be made longer cause mine was a 98. I think you will have to fab up some patch parts or grab em from a donor car. Need not be perfect if the chrome covers it...

 

I think I will swap out the roof to fix most of it. The part then that will be tough will be the rear window. I was thinking there had to be a similar panel made for a chevy though.

 

Hmmm, I am no body man but that is a job! If you mean cutting the roof supports, everything gets out of alignment. I would be scared!

 

I haven't had much luck finding panels for my 59 other than rockers and trunk and floor pans. Tried chevy quarters and they were too different even though everyone said they were the same.

I had similar rust as what you have (though not as much) on the bottom of the rear window. My body guy made new pieces and welded them in. Tedious but doable.

The 59 olds in Red Bluff Ca. is a 2 door post but the area under the rear window, though different may provide you with pieces that would be workable.

I agree with you on the roof replacement and I think it could be done very well. The guys who chop tops on hot rods and customs know how to do it. Finding the roof might be tough though.
John

 

I have connections... The problem is getting it here... but tax time will likely provide that means for me.

 

Mike, this looks like an awesome build! I will be rooting you on here! My advice would be to find a donor roof from the southwest somewhere. Yours could be fixed, but time wise, quicker and cleaner to replace. Money... you can get more of that, time you can't! Check into seeing if a buick roof or caddy roof would be the same. Someone somewhere is bound to have one.

 

Well, I am officially on the search for a roof. Needs to be caddy or 98 or possibly Electra... It is 3 inches longer than the Chevy, Pontiac/small olds version.

 

There's a roof (attached to a car) across the river from me in Vancouver Washington. I've seen the car a few times and I think it's roof may be better than yours. I think it's a Dynamic 88 4 door hardtop. The pics here only show a little of the roof bur it gives an idea of the shape of the car. I wasn't looking for a roof when I took the pics but if you really want me to, I can go back and take the hood off the roof and check it out better.

 

You'll notice there's no rust under the trim at the bottom of the back window.

 

I don't think I can use a dymanic roof. Has to be the longer style.

 

I'll call tomorrow and see if it's a dynamic. All the markings were gone so I'm not SURE what it is

 

There is a point on the drip rail that it ends up towards the front. If you measure from that point to the angled rear pillar, it should be around 46 inches. The wrong roof will be around 43.

 

If that's the hood sitting on the roof that came from the car, it looks like a Dynamic 88. They used the '88' chrome hood emblem, while Super 88 and 98's used a different style emblem with a rocketship in it

 

Well, this is what the car looks like now...... Almost torn down and ready to start getting cleaned up.

 

Sorry so long getting back to you. As 59 pointed out, the car I saw is a Dynamic.

Looks like you've made lots of progress on the teardown. Do you plan to lift the body off the frame?