6inarow

My wife and I purchased it back in 1990 from the original owners estate. Her daughter had told us she drove it year round at first and then it became a summer car. Unfortunately, road salt was already working the car over. At some point she was hit in the drivers side front fender. The fender was replaced (they never put an emblem back on) and the rest of the car received a bondo job and some fresh paint. When we purchased the car in 1990 it had about 44k miles. We replaced the 14" wheels with wire hubcaps (still have them) with a set of 15" wheels and radial T/As. I found a guy in Columbus who sold me a really clean rear bumper and a sport steering wheel. The only trouble the car ever gave us was the 2 barrel carb needed a rebuild. Since Jegs was a stones throw from where we lived in Columbus I picked up an Edelbrock manifold and carb and woke it up a bit. I also put an HEI distributor on it. My wife and I drove it back and forth to school (yeah year round) until we moved to Florida in the fall of 1991. We drove it everywhere and had the top down as much as possible.

Over the last few years I have collected some body parts for the restoration. I have a very clean '70 passenger fender (no bumps) and a nice decklid. I also have some sport mirrors and a set of front disc brakes for it too. I have a very nice '71 fender but I am going to keep looking for a '70 fender.

I finally had a chance to dig my car out of storage. I removed what was left of the top, vacuumed it out and took it over to the car wash for a degriming before I start the disassembly. I had removed the door panels, carpet, most of the exterior trim and the back seat about 8 years ago.

This car is going to be restored as a Cutlass Supreme in it's original Aspen Green. Thanks for looking and thanks in advance to all you 1970 Olds gurus. I am going to have lots of questions!


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cutlassjoe

Good luck with the restoration. Take and post lots of pics of the progress. It is a long road. I am just finishing a frame off of my 72'. It has taken about a year and 9 months. Once you start you just can't stop. It will look nice when it's done though. Great choice staying with the original color!

6inarow

Thanks Joe. Your car looks really good. Those under carriage shots that you have in your build are what I look forward to with this car. I had a '70 442 Holiday Coupe that I built from a parts car back in high school that was almost the exact same color as your '72. I'll have to find some pictures and put 'em up here.

stlbluesbrother

Cool - a 1970 Cutlass Supreme convertible Looking forward to following your restoration process.

Side note: I almost bought an Aspen Green 1970 442 last year. Here are some pics for comparison.
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O's_Car

Yeah man, Aspen Green Cutlasses are the kings of the road! Good luck and enjoy the restoration; I've been having a blast with mine (so far).

6inarow

Good looking coupe you got there Oskar! I am glad I didn't restore it 10 years ago. I would have painted it red or something crazy like that. Original colors are where it's at for me. I am going to start removing sheet metal tomorrow. Pictures to follow. I am so excited this is finally happening!

don71

Glad to hear your'e keeping it the original color. With my car having a pearl interior, I could have gone red...or Viking blue during my restoration. It was tempting. Glad I went back to Sienna. You just don't see 'em everyday. Enjoy.

I might mention that converting to disc brakes was the best swap I did, if you don't allready have them. Also, an Hei swap works well.

Keep us posted.

Eric Anderson

Aspen green rocks good luck with the resto.

6inarow

I just got home from disassembling my car some more. PB Blaster is the greatest invention ever! At least at this moment for someone who is taking apart a car from Ohio. I have been emptying cans of this stuff on every nut and bolt I could get at for the last few weeks and it really helped. I still had to use a nut buster (ouch!) a few times. I took a boat load of pictures and spent a lot of time putting every little thing into a ziplock freezer bags. I had the opportunity to use a corner in a warehouse to get started on this project so I jumped on it. Especially since I am trying to get this project started at night and I can run air tools and generally make as much noise as necessary without disturbing the peace. I probably only have a few weeks in there before I have to bring it back home so my goal is to get the body off the frame before then.

I left the camera over there but I did snap a few pics with my phone so I have uploaded those and here they are. I won't be back over there til Friday but I feel pretty good about the progress so far. My car looks like crap after being in storage for so long but that should all change soon enough.

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6inarow

Some more pics of the teardown. You can see where the car was hit at some point. The front part of the drivers door has a pretty good layer of filler on it. If anyone has any advice on removing the damaged/rusted area of the cowl I would appreciate it.

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6inarow

The cowl on the passenger side is better but still rusted at the bottom. I cut open the floor above the cage nuts to soak them with PB blaster. I'm hoping to have some time this week to get back over there and remove the dash and everything behind it. My biggest question right now is about removing the parking brake cable where it goes from the body to the frame. Any tips?

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ent72olds

Ryan, nice work so far, persistence can be your best ally! Not sure if the cowl sections are repro'd, I would check for used cut-offs from either John(2blu442) or Eric(jensenracing77). It would be the same pieces from a 4 dr wagon, vista, etc...Someone on here may be able to verify years and also if other GM A-bodies were the same...Joe Padavano would know that part! Also, one other piece of advice...invest in some heavier jackstands!

6inarow

Erik, that's funny that you noticed the gigantic jackstands. I wasn't going to pull the tires off yet but I needed some more elbow room and a guy in a neighboring building game this to me. I think he must have been nervous about them too. I am bringing the car back home next weekend and I will have the tools I need but zero space to use them. Sound familiar to anyone?

6inarow

I was able to take my car apart some more before I bring it home. I removed the dash and everything behind it. This took me all day. The weather has finally backed off from oppressively hot and humid so I should be able to pick up the pace a bit. Having fun!

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ziff396

Firewall outer cowl panels from the lower fender mounting area to the top of the firewall are available at the parts place.

OLD SKL 69

Nice work and great progress in a short period of time. Keep the updates coming!

Oldsguy

You are really making good progress, good work!

O's_Car

Did you get that cable out? I'm trying to do the same thing and can't figure out how to disconnect it from the body.

6inarow

I haven't pulled the body off yet Oskar. I just moved the car back to my house and I hope to have the body off the frame before next weekend. I'll post some pics of what I end up doing to remove the parking brake cable.

djallen

Ryan,
I've used a couple techniques to get the parking brake cable out. I've used a small hose clamp around the fingers that hold it to the floorpan so that as you tighten it pulls them in and allows you to push it through from the interior. I've also had better luck with two pair of needle nose vice grips. It does try your patience and may require some twisting, but it will come out.

m455sx

how is the resto going?

Eddie Hansen

I believe you can slip a small socket over the end it will collapse the fingers.

Be watching the progress