71 OLDS

Stock worn out clutch rods replaced with kit by speed direct:

http://www.speeddirect.com/index.php...ucts/rod-links


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71 OLDS

slowly but surely:

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hidden in fake battery box:

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New black fuel lines are routed w/regulator mounted behind passenger side headlight:
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71 OLDS

Video of motor running and car:
3" X pipe and mufflers - REALLY tucked up now and coated. Frank and his brother got the exhaust tucked up about an inch higher so it allowed the car to be lowered about an inch:
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Richmond 5 speed, Hooker super comp 1 7/8 headers (will be cleaned up!!), Global West tubular coil over lower control arms, Canton Racing 15-502 baffled 6 qt pan with 15-503 pick-up, won’t uncover the pick-up - During hard cornering. – 8.25” deep, 8” long sump 9.5” wide, not installed is Hotckis 1 3/8 hallow sway bar:
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Rear wheel:

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front wheel:
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HWYSTR455

Which relay/fuse assembly is that?

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71 OLDS

If you mean in the fake battery shell - that's for the electric fans - it has a thermostat for each fan

HWYSTR455

Yeah, who's the manufacturer? Is that a Ron Francis?

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71 OLDS

Yes it is. Purchased years ago so not sure which model # but it's similar to the AR-88 and AR - 99 but I think mine is from about 10 years ago so a much older version.

71 OLDS

The car went for it's first test drive today.
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Power felt incredible, clutch felt perfect (dual disk updated by McLeod and new correct pilot bearing installed), trans was shifting like butter through the gears (new aftermarket linkage kit to eliminate the slop), new hydroboost system is amazing - feels like pwr brakes and will throw you back in the seat.

....uh and then the ujoint broke and the drive shaft hit the street. Had driveshaft loop so thankfully no damage or issues. We were planning on upgrading the driveshaft and u joints anyway but unfortunately it cut the test drive way short.....and if you notice in the pic - almost lost the "2" in 442 on the fender.

Still VERY HAPPY with the test drive. Can't wait for all the little things to get worked out and get the car (as the original title said) back home again!!

-Joe

71 OLDS

Beefy new driveshaft and yoke ready to go back in:

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71 OLDS

Trying to get the stock breather to fit under the ram air hood with a Torker intake. Started with the drop base for the 4150 Holley carb:

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then the drop base was welded into the stock air cleaner:
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Could only go so far down because of the fuel lines. It's going to be close. We'll see if it fits with the stock breather on there. Will update.

QMaster

Very nice build!

jstrits

I have a similar issue with one of my cars. By dropping the base like you did there, the ram air top-flapper will not fit now correct? Or at least the flap will always be closed so to speak and not able to fall in the housing?

71 OLDS

Actually it still opens a litte over 1/2 way before it hits but you are correct it does NOT open all the way. However when the vacuum line is connected to the flapper and you give it gas the flapper only opens about an inch. When you shut the motor off and the flapper falls all the way open it drops all to way to about 3" open but it serves no purpose at that point. So when the motor is off it now only drop open about 1.5" but it doesn't hit anything if you hit the throttle with the vacuum line connected. It just opens about an inch and is good to go so I believe it's OK. Still some testing to do and of course need to make sure the hood can close. It's going to be close.

jstrits

Did you measure the before and after? What did you get as a final drop? I put a camera under my hood at one time and if I remember it was an inch that was needed.

71 OLDS

If you mean the total drop needed with the Torker I think it's around 1.5" to 2" depending on your setup. My breather is a repro from The Parts Place and when you take the rubber piece out of the bottom of the breather where it connects to the lip on the air cleaner you get about a 1/2" "free" drop. My Dad had an original breather and for some reason even with that rubber piece removed it sat about a 1/4" higher. So I'm hoping the additional 1.5" drop with the drop base will do it. It's all mocked up but the hood needs to be fully mounted to confirm if it will fit. I think a stock QJ might actually sit a little higher than the Holley and I'm not sure what drop bases are available for it so I can only go off what it is for my Holley with the repro breather and the rubber piece removed.

Jaybird

Your project is really looking great! I am enjoying watching the progress of your build.
I read that you wanted to shave a lot of weight off your car which is a good thing but I still have a question for you. Your car looks so clean and nice under the hood, I fear that it won't look that way for long once you start driving it without inner fenders. Are you prepared for that outcome?
Thanks for keeping us on your progress.

71 OLDS

Thanks Jaybird. The inner fenderwells are all cleaned up and ready to go back in pretty soon. Will show pics when they are all installed.

71 OLDS

New update - front sway bar issue: So this one is interesting. I've never heard of anyone else with a 70 -72 442/Cutlass have this issue so I thought I would put some details here in case it comes up for someone else. I have the Hotchkis front sway bar on both my 71 442 and my 70 Supreme. The 442 has tubuluar upper and lower control arms with the coil over setup on the front and B-body spindles and it's lowered as you can see in the pics. Here's the issue. The "made for stock" Hotchkis sway bar no longer fits on the 442 with my setup. Not sure if it's the taller spindles or that it's lowered or some combo of everything but the sway bar hits the frame on both sides right where it "V's" up. Said another way the sway bar is no longer wide enough or long enough to fit. So we had a choice to try to go with a custom sway bar or let Frank work is metal skills and fabricate the Hotchkis bar to fit. So I asked Frank to give it a try. It was decided the "safest" way to do this was to cut the sway bar in the exact middle and weld in about a 1" piece of metal. This lengthens the bar just enough where the V's clear the frame and the bar ends up fitting perfectly. The sway bar is hollow but has a 1/4" wall. The piece Frank added is press fit into each tube about an inch and a half. The welding is very tricky - the dangerous part is making it too hard and causing a crack. Frank pulled it off because he's the man with his metal work. Here are some pics:

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71 OLDS

Both sides fit perfect now. If you see in the first pic that rub area on the frame - that's the exact spot it was hitting before on both sides. Now with the car on the ground the sway bar doesn't hit the upper ball joint or or the frame. Plus you can fit a finger between the bar and the frame:
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71 OLDS

Air cleaner is painted and breather is mounted. Inner fender wells are in. Still don't have the hood mounted and not 100% sure it's going to fit with the breather. I can tell from the height of where it sits it's going to be close:
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71 OLDS

With the battery in the trunk - added the shut off switch for safety. Went with the black pull/off handle in the lower bumper hole:
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bigin1978

looks like things are coming together nicely. I really like the battery disconnect handle. very slick!

71 OLDS

Thanks - happy with how it turned out.

Great news on the breather - the hood is officially closed so the custom drop base worked with the Torker intake. The hood still has some issues sticking up a little in the back and with the chrome piece in the back sticking off too far but none of those issues have anything to do with the breather. They will be worked out when the body work is done. Here is a pic with the hood installed and closed:

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I'm actually picking up the car Tuesday after next (5/17) and driving it back home to enjoy for the summer. I will not be getting the paint and body work done until the winter or even 2017. Once I get the car home I will take some videos to show the close up details of the breather and how it works and how the drop base looks for anyone who wanted to see that.

71 OLDS

A few more pics and details on the airlcleaner/dropbase to get the breather to fit with the Torker intake:

Because the aircleaner was soooo low with the new drop base, the throttle bracket had to be modified to clear the aircleaner.

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The two pieces of the aluminum drop base had to be epoxied together and to the aircleaner:

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First coat of epoxy on and drying:

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Rocket North

Beautiful machine!
I would also like to use the speed direct clutch rod kit.
None listed for Olds, so did u use the Chevelle BB kit #7115?
Thanks
Derek

71 OLDS

Thanks Derek and yes 7115 is the correct part # - just confirmed on my receipt. It was unbelievable how much "slop" this took out of banging through the gears for my set up. Of course it should be noted both my stock upper and lower rods were really warn down and needed to be replaced so I'm guessing just replacing the stock ones would have made a difference too. But for $90 I thought this kit was pretty slick and was very happy with the results.

-Joe

71 OLDS

Got the car to a good stopping point on all the projects. Picking it up on Tuesday and driving it home from MD back to Virginia Beach. Hoping for a fun 4 hour drive and no issues. We'll see how it goes. Also plan on weighing the car at a scale in Falls Church, VA first then will head back to VB from there. Going to enjoy the car for the summer. Here's a pic of the motor today with the aircleaner all done, hood on and all working well with the breather and the Torker intake. Will take some videos when I get it back.

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71 OLDS

Rained the entire drive but made it safely back home....again. A few pics I took at the same rest stop as last time:
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I was able to get the weigh in done. With me and a 1/2 tank it was 4,060 and 3,850 car alone. Previous weigh in without fiberglass and aluminum parts plus Brian Trick's lightening of the core support was 4,370 so 310 lb drop!! Not too bad. Still heavy and was hoping to be under 4,000 with me in the car but still an huge difference.

AzMotorhead

Did you have to do any trans tunnel cutting to make the T56 fit?
Did you get a "kit" from somewhere or piece it together yourself?

71 OLDS

I have a Richmond 5 speed Road Race Trans

zkhan

Here are fuses for my '68 442

pacekar

where did you get the hood? are you happy with it ?

71 OLDS

• Quote:

  Originally Posted by pacekar

  where did you get the hood? are you happy with it ?

it's the Glasstek all fiberglass bolt on repro hood with the air box. Got it about 15 year ago. I have the same one on my Cutlass Supreme. I think they are pretty good for the price ($600 ish). Not perfect and don't have the metal frame's like the "real" ones or the Thorton hoods but you will pay a lot for one of those. Also the all glass hoods are lighter which is nice. I had the factory looking screen added to mine to make it look more like the real one and leave the "waffle" marks on the foam on the breather. Plus it does stop leaves from flying in.

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71 OLDS

Been doing lots of little projects since the car has been back home. Already put 800 miles on the car in about 2 weeks That includes the drive home from MD but been doing LOTS of test driving and tuning/tweaks over the last week. Had perfect weather Wed, Thurs, Fri, & Sat (yesterday). I had the top down with the boot on:
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and put about 350 miles on the car just driving around over those 4 days.

Some updates. Had to raise the front coil overs about an inch because the top of the drivers side front tire was hitting the fender well on pot holes, bumps, and entering driveways. I think I have it in a good spot now where it won't hit anymore.

Unfortunately the alignment was done w/o the steering box centered so right now it will let me turn 1.8 turns to the left but only 1.2 to the right. Need to get it redone for 1.5 each way (AGR steering box) The box is leaking a little from the shaft seal too so will hopefully get both those issues fixed next week.

The AC is not able to be used right now which is disappointing - having idle issues with the carb and fan set up. The idle can go up or down about 400 RPM (600 to 1000 RPM) from cold start up to fully hot. When the electric fans come on, the idle drops. As the motor and heats up the idle goes up. If I turn on the AC on the car will stall if idling. Will need to add an idle solenoid to the street avenger 770 carb to raise the idle when the AC is on and try to dial in the idle issues on the carb itself. Also having some issues with the throttle being a little too tight. Only an issue when leaving from a dead stop. A "soft" granny leave off the line from a dead stop is hard because the throttle "sticks" and doesn't want to go smoothly off the line. Going to try softer springs to see if that helps. It's not so bad when everything is cold but as the clutch and motor heats up it gets worse. I can leave the line hard = tire spin or "jerky" as I try to ease it and the throttle sticks.

Anyway lots of little issue like that to get worked out but banging through the gears has been a blast over the last few days. The throttle response and power feels incredible. Massive tire spin all through first gear even with the big 18" 305 drag radials. Even a rolling start is hard not to spin. Been enjoying hitting the corners and even a little drifting sideways action too Doing this caused the big tires in the rear with very little space between the frame and the 3" tail pipes to start to rub/hit. So I took the car to a Midas had them heat up the areas of the tail pipe where it was hitting and put a "flat spot" there for added clearance. No more rubbing or hitting. Took a few pics of that:
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you can also see the shiny part in that last pic where it was hitting the inner well in that one spot. Did some "massaging" there then coated everything in some high heat flat black and I can now get as sideways as I want and no more rubbing. Probably gained about 1/2" on each side which did the trick.

71 OLDS

Upgraded the old Alpine deck to a new Sony MEX-GS610BT Bluetooth/IPOD/2 way voice w/mic above steering column

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It is Bluetooth connected to by cell phone now (no wires) so all my songs, directions on the phone, and incoming and outgoing calls are hands free and wireless through the stereo. There's a small mic mounted above the steering column and below the speedo and tach. So cool to have all that technology now in my 71 car!! Can press the button on my Iphone and ask for directions into the mic and it cuts the music and gives me step by step directions through the speakers. Can answer the phone and talk hands free while driving. I had no idea what the newer car stereos could do!!

HWYSTR455

How did you choose to cover the radio post holes in the dash?

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71 OLDS

I had the new stereo mounted so the top of the deck case is against the silver plastic part of the dash at the top. This eliminates needing to add wood grain above the stereo.

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My wood grain below was good so I didn't have to worry about that. Then it was mounted so the hole to the right is covered. Then I bought the dash wood grain with the metal backing (not just the sticker). I used the glove box piece and tried to find a square section that matched ok with the wood grain pattern between the AC/Heater unit and the left side of the new deck case. This leaves 3 seams one at the bottom of the deck on the right and above and below the AC/Heater unit but I still think it looks pretty good. You have to look close (or take a close-up pic like this ) to see the seams.

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71 OLDS

I purchased the set of the factory original floor mats with the OLDSMOBILE on them in the front. I love the factory original look of these:

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71 OLDS

Finally got around to doing the video. You can see the working breather installed with the Torker intake and ram air hood here:

71 OLDS

Got my alarm system installed today. Went with the Python system that's the same as the Viper. Will activate off door pins, console pin, and had a pin added under the ram air hood and in the trunk. Blinking blue light box stays on dash in the driver's side corner of the window. Key fab turns everything on/off with or w/o beeps. Also got the tracking device installed. Plus I still use my old school steering wheel lock. Since I'm driving it about 5k miles per year (anytime it's not raining or snowing) the alarm will give me added comfort when I park it. I also upped the insurance coverage to $70k. Took it to the gym today and left it with the top down all locked down and alarmed up Will post some pics later.