gearheads78

Looks like a nice project. Keep the progress coming.

On the rusted doors I see that a lot. Is from water trapped under that seal.

JCMC64

Intake \ Carb discussion for this build.
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...questions.html

JCMC64

Yeah, I got a thread up her somewhere on this, and that was the conclusion. I got one salvagable door - the Driver side. The other one has rot on the bottom of door where all the water pooled.

JCMC64

Latest pics.

JCMC64

More...oops.

JCMC64

Carb - 1978 Q-Jet.

JCMC64

Finally got to the cowl tag. 45 minutes using stripper got her good as new. Have at decoding it!

Allan R

Nice job Jim!
Your cowl tag reads as follows

ST-71 - 1971 production
3 - Olds division
36 - V8 Cutlass
87 - 2 door hardtop - Cutlass S
R - Build plant - Arlington TX
15609 - Body number (supplied by fisher body)
TR 940 - Black
43 43 - Paint codes (lime green upper/lower) That's radically different than the yellow on your car.
06B - Built on the second week of June 1971 ?? Most likely, what is your VIN? I don't believe there was really as high Cutlass production at Arlington compared to Lansing/Freemont/Framingham
477 - internal fisher option numbers - no records found

JCMC64

Hey Alan,
The guy I got it off was way into a Rallye 350 clone. Had bumpers stripped and primed and was going to finish the doors and bumpers when the mis-fortune happened and couldnt finish it.
THx for the decode!

JCMC64

New video of the car (not that great quality though). It was taken 3 weeks ago. I Forgot to take more of it before I stripped the Intake and carb:

Also the 72' Q-Jet I got:

Allan R

Sounds really healthy

JCMC64

My son took the vid, ever the goof ball. He was supposed to take it longer, and focus on the exhaust. But he had to put camera on the trumpets and fog the camera for kicks.
It sounds pretty good in person too...or did till I took it apart.

stormsgrizzly

any chance anybody knows what the measurement of the notch is in the oil slinger on a 71 -455ci motor would be

JCMC64

I'm in research phase for the intake/ Carb setup... And collecting necessary parts and missing parts. So I hit a lag in this project for the time being. I did end up going with the Champion brand alum radiator due to issues with the top plate of the orig Harrison , and tube damage. The Champion 4 core rad has bigger tubes -5/8 tubes for whopping 2.5 inch cooling tube area. Not bad ( will post pics soon)

But I still haven't made up my mind on the intake fully yet.

JCMC64

New Rad pics
4 Core - 5\8" rows = 2.5" total cooling tubes!
Just checking fitment.

JCMC64

#2

oldsguybry

holy crap! Now that's a radiator ! I'm going to do a 350 to 455 swap hopefully next summer ( if i'm still breathing ) and I was wondering what it cost you for the alum radiator .

JCMC64

Hey Olds guy. Its a Champion MC-161. $279 + free ship. All tig welded.
If you go after one, go to Radiators 4 less on Ebay. They are great people who really stand by their products. Really went out of the way too help me on several issues. Lifetime guarantee too for owner of the Rad. (obviously as long as Champion stays viable co, which so far seems good. They tell me they cant keep these in stock).
JC

oldsguybry

cool and thanks , that's like a $100 cheaper then the local speed shop quoted me here in milwaukee

JCMC64

Well Well. Lookie what I found.
As Im moving along, checking fitment of Rad\Shroud\alignment etc, I stumbled across this little issue -

The fan was rubbing on the bottom of shroud, AND is way off centered.
I immediately went to the motor mounts and wa la.

Driver side mount is collapsed approx 3\8 inch. #2261 it is.

I ordered both sides, but can I get away with just doing the one side?
The Passenger side looks much fresher and obviously taller.
Its possible, as Im finding ALL over this car, that it was done half right (one mount replaced) as everything on this car has half the things done real well, some things slapped together.

I measured at the frame and side of oil pan on each side to get a plumb line measurement. Obviously driver side was 3\8 inch closer to frame. And looking at mount bolts as a reference, the driver side mount bolts are much closer together than the other nice and tall side - Tilting the whole motor to that side.

My gut says replace both since they were only $4 bucks a piece. But Im starting to mount up the projects! And Each one starts another one... Kind of starting to make me ill. Oh know...here comes MAWS galore!

gearheads78

I have always called it the snowball effect but around here its well known as MAW .

JCMC64

Oh yeah, I know MAW well! Might as well....

This car is too funny. I can guarantee as one thing gets fixed, two other issues will spring up! Car was definitely rushed together at the very end, and all sorts of shortcuts were taken.

Case in point, I get the 2261 mounts and install them yesterday. Brought the engine up ALOT. Old mounts were really bad, and I guess guy couldnt get new ones and was in hurry as he rigged old ones by putting small screws and bolts through the mount holding it together!! (wait to you see the pics!)

At least the fan doesent scrape on shroud anymore. Hoorah! Except now I sprung a leak in the rear seal of transmission. WTF?!! SO now that means I have a motor oil pan leak, tran pan leak, rear tran seal leak, and a rear diff seal leak. YEAH!! WOO HOO!!
All obtained from lifting and lowering the car fixing crap. (Motor oil pan leak was a gift from orig owner though).

Its been the #$%& story of this car so far, fix one thing, something else happens.
I get the mounts on, and then discover lower pulley has bolt broken off.

Im sooooooo over this crap!!

While I had car jacked up, took off the beat up and dented\rusted tran pan, and will replace it with a tranny cooler pan I have.
Pics to come.

JCMC64

Heres my thread for anyone that wants to do this in the future, and is curious how to :

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post401561

oldsguybry

HA ! I bet my car has been a bigger PITA then yours has !

I get the " fix one thing and something else happens X 10 " lol

JCMC64

I almost want to take that bet! There is no way I could lose!

Allan R

I'm thinking you're wrong....Each of us has probably been through some sort of Oldsmobile hell doing a build. Anyway it's not about the bad times, it's the good times and accomplishment that counts more!

JCMC64

I hear ya, but Im not kidding. This isnt just "some sort" of issue here and there, its everything I do for past couple months now! Everything I do, I find at least one other issue, even if small. But most projects have been multiple layers of issues. After the first couple weeks of a string of succesful projects completed, every single thing Ive done has ended up with at least one other issue found, or series of issues found.

Im tounge in cheek complaining here- I restore guitars for 20 years and now and know how MAW goes. I know the drill. Ive restored a couple cars too in past 30 years.

But this is totally on another level!!! I love fixing and tinkering, but Im in the phase right now of undoing too many rig jobs and it runs into allot of failures initially, delays, got to fix two other things before I can fix the thing I started on...etc.

I havent even put most of this stuff into the thread. Frustrating enough working\wrenching through it much less then writing about it!

I will just post end results with the tag 2STRBPITA - 2 shots of Tequilla Royal Bloody Pain in the A$$ !!!!!

JCMC64

PS..I keep my Tequilla in freezer for icy chilled shots...

oldsguybry

ahhh guitar restoration , cool ... I don't play much anymore , but would like to piece together a nice fender strat set up for myself someday . I got a couple of guitars now , but they were kinda cheapos to begin with . Maybe we can work out a guitar deal some day .

and from the sounds of it , maybe you do got me beat on the car problem snowball issue .

JCMC64

No prob on the guitar front! Im always messing with axes, their always laying around the house, or in parts all over the house! Its a passion.

Yeah, I get the gold medal for "if it can go wrong...." with this car!
But it will be even more worth it in the end.

JCMC64

Lots of updates to come. Ive got allot done in the past 2 weeks, still mostly in the disassembly phase, but also started to install some new stuff. Updates with tons of photos to come this week.

JCMC64

Finally got the pics downloaded...almost 300 hundred pics. Going to start resizing them, just as grueling a process as restoring car! The MAW's have completely taken over, check it out!

One of many small projects I did while waiting on parts to come in...nasty brake booster cleaned up.
Going to list pics in order of the MAW's

Before -


After -

JCMC64

Another small job- driving me nuts, all the rattle can black the PO did-

Before-

JCMC64

After - (Stripper, 400, 800 wet sand)




Ahh, much better-

JCMC64

Lets pull those nasty headers, check the exhaust ports surface to see if we can tell why they passenger side leaking-

Skank city


This doesnt help-

JCMC64

This doesnt help either, Both sides were nasty with rtv, old gasket remnants, and surface rust buildup, but passenger side was considerably worse -



I used some 400 sand paper, and it came out Bueno. I did notice some pitting in center ports area. Will add some pics later when header time comes as its all Taped up for now. Some Hooker Comp or SC's down the road.

JCMC64

Now lets look at those rear drums, see what MAW's develop. I really want to upgrade to rear disc. Lets see what we got.

Ah, not so hot. Wheel Cyl shot. Looks like an old brake job. Also I believe the smaller shoe is supposed to be up front-minimumally a rear brake job in order. Hmmm Brake shoe rebuild or Disc brake upgrade....

JCMC64

Well I guess While Im sitting on the fence whether to upgrade rear shoes to disc, MAW check front rotors...

Checked the lines first, one side new, the other side not good...usual mix bag on this car -



Banjo washers both on one side!-



That was all I needed to see, took off rotors and checked bearings, etc. Rotors are fine, calipers can be salvaged, pads are good. New backing shields, bearings, paint calipers, new flex hoses, good to go. But since the rotors are off...MAW check the C.A. busings\ball joints... Also will go over all the brake lines front to back.

JCMC64

Lets dig into the Control Arms-
Spindles look good, (have sinced shined them up with wire wheel.)



Lower ball joints are tight, but not moving like they should and are no longer holding grease as boots are shot.



Upper ball joints are new-

JCMC64

Bushings look like original...MAW take control arms off and restore the suspension fully.

Used a jack to slowly lower LCA's and then springs just needed a little more nudging with pry bar. Here is a vid of the method I used-
http://youtu.be/c1akqSJE0ss


Then removed Lower Ball joints with a little sledge using edge of 2x6. Both came out pretty easily.



--look at the frame and UCA as a clue to whats coming around the corner. Started a test area.... THE MAWs are in full control







MAW do the Upper ones...