The areas that are sorta satin black are just primed with black sealer. The roof skin and sides are clear coated. The clear I have on hand is pricy so it didn’t make sense to shoot everything with it. If and when I paint the whole car I’m going to sand the sealer to finish bodywork. The vinyl top can just be masked off with a plastic sheet. Up close, there’s nothing exciting to write about lol with all the imperfections showing through, but no more RUST!!

 

very impressive work!!! Kudos for saving one that many would not have!!!!

sure makes me miss my 66!

 

The 330 has a heat riser in the left exhaust manifold. Most have been welded open or removed as they tend to jamb sometimes in the closed or almost closed position when the bi metal spring gets weak.

 

Thank you guys. I’m going to need a little guidance once I get into the finer details. I’m a noob when it comes to 60’s Olds, it’s nothing like my 83 was.

Ive got some shocks, gear oil and diff gasket on the way from Summit. I like to do the rear end whenever I buy a car. That gives me a chance to look at things and also see if theres a worn out Posiand what the gear ratio is. I looked but couldn’t see where the stamp
is supposed to be on the tube.....

Anyway, here’s where I’m at with my plan of attack-Figure out my gearing, measure my tires, pull valve cover & measure cam specs, probably pull heads to see what pistons I have. The car sounds killer at idle with the dual exhaust, but the performance does not match it at all. I get that it’s a lowly 2 Speed auto, but my gut tells me maybe it has too big of cam for its compression. Now that I KNOW it’s a rebuilt engine, it’s time to figure out what is all in the car.

If it turns out I have a bigger than stock cam, maybe I should redo the heads and put an RPM manifold, possibly swap in a used TH350 trans and higher stall converter?

If the cam actually is stock, should I bother doing any other upgrades? It already has a nice exhaust and carb, should I just freshen up what needs to be done and tune my new carb to run it’s best? It has this Mallory distributor with no vacuum advance and I haven’t figured out if it’s the best for a stock engine? Or even where to set timing... I’m just wanting a nice cruiser but it seems like something is off. Hell, my 2017cc 4 cyl in my 60 VW truck with 140hp would smoke this Cutlass in a race lol

 

Mmmmm tasty floors
All I had to do was go over it with a wire brush and shop vac. Almost NO pitting! The rest of the car will be a breeze.
I like using this butyl sound mat because it seals all the metal from moisture. I’m not planning on a big stereo or anything, just want to do it right.

 

Link on the floor cover?
Nice to see it solid.

 

 

With all the pieces you’ve seen me use on the roof, rear deck and floors I’ve only used one box of this stuff. Better than the stuff in rolls from the hardware store made mostly of asphalt, but not as pricey as brand name stuff. It’s just generic Dynamat that the box says made in Russia... but for $65 free shipping I bought 2 boxes. I have enough to finish my 58 Bug trunk and a big part of the Cutlass trunk AND maybe doors. Great for budget builds.

My Bug has a nice stereo that really screams and I used one box on the floors and doors. It sounds incredible now. I layered 5 sheets where the sub box sits under the back window and it really hits!

It has an odor that you’ll notice when you first remove the backing paper, but since first using it a year ago, I don’t smell anything. Most people agree on the reviews.

 

 

 

Carpet installed-mostly to get it out of my way. Roof rail trims and seals need to go back on since I removed them for paint. Next up is shocks.

 

It looks like you are getting a lot accomplished... Looking forward to the end result...

 

Wow you are really getting after it! Keep up the good work.

 

I got these ancient shocks swapped out. They were totally dead and I think too long.

 

Also, I swapped in a new fuel sender. My gauge still isn’t working right, but I know they wear out anyway and the sock was completely rotten. Now, I have full filtration again.

I also removed the rear sway bar that was only held
in with 3 bolts on regular, non boxed control arms. I measured the height on all wheel wells and the right rear sits about 1 1-4” higher? 27 1-4” vs about 26” on all the rest.

Running those shocks and the sway bar messed up for awhile, do you guys think something else is messed up? Besides rear springs, what should I look at? Body bushings? That seems like a likely culprit for the banging noise.

 

Always a good idea to check the body bushings.

 

Installed one of these from Retrosound in the stock position behind the dash. 90% of the plastic surrounding the mounting holes needed to be trimmed and shorter screws. It’s a DVC(dual voice coil) with leftand right hookups for actual “stereo” function. I also used 600hz “bass blockers”, to filter out heavy bass. That will be handled by the rears and fader control.
A Sony deck I had that was only used for a year in my buddies truck.

 

Some basic Hifonics rear speakers. Since I cleaned up the hanging/hacked wires under the dash I felt I should just wire up the deck and speakers and call it good. I don’t feel the need to get high end speakers because the hot sun will be hard on them. The old ones crumbled like none I’ve ever seen before.

 

Roof rail trims and new seals installed. 3m strip caulk - once again very handy to have on hand! The windows no longer rattle when the doors are closed.

 

Stripped off the rattle can primer and bondo. It is surprisingly clean without any bodywork!
They did a good job stripping the original paint with a DA, but cheap primer will just soak up rust like a sponge, it was getting worse daily. All sealed up for now with 2K. I kinda like the Mopar color scheme... I haven’t made any for sure paint choices, but it will definitely be a period correct Olds color.

 

As I researched a little more about why it seems to have something holding it back for drivability, I discovered the trans fuse is missing and no clicks are heard for the switch pitch.... I’m happy to know I found something out, but I hope it’s an easy fix. I don’t mind redoing some electrical, but if it’s an internal problem and the trans needs to be pulled I will probably put in a TH350.

 

 

61?
oh cowl looks good too.

 

March of 60, close...

 

000 steel wool and some elbow grease to clean up the window trims. If I pull them off again for paint/body I think I will give them a ma home polish. Man they looked horrible before!

 

Here’s the worst body gaps on the car, passenger door sticks out
Looks pretty obvious the fender and hood need to be scooted toward the cowl
Lots of improvement can be done, but for now I’m not going to worry about it.

 

The original body bushings have all been swapped out. I was super lucky and none of the bolts or cage nuts broke. My banging noise is gone now, but there are still plenty of other squeaks coming from the rear to look into.

 

 

Top is looking great. Love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking good so far