That's not a bad idea, actually, to mimic the texture. Hmm, I'll see what I can do in that direction.

 

Great post! I'm inspired to tackle my vert. I'm not going as far as you, but then again I don't think I'll have to.
cutlass.jpg

 

That looks downright good from here - you sure it needs much of anything?

 

I really doesnt need much with 58k original miles. I've had it since 1984 and have only driven it a little over 2k miles. It's been sitting in my garage all this time and my kids have managed to put a few dings in the panels with their bikes over the years. So I mainly want to strip it and block the crap out of it to make it straight. I plan on re-covering the seats, new carpet, top, and some other minor things. I come up with about $1200 dollars in parts. I want to add factory air, since the original owner has a under dash unit installed when se bought it. I'm in the Air Force over here, so I want to get this done be fore I retire.
Cutlass-1.jpg

 

Sounds like you've taken pretty good care of it - mine's gonna be driven, and I'm sure I'll cry some bitter tears when I wear something out. Not a problem you seem to have faced yet. :P

 

Getting to work on it again this weekend - have been busy with women and booze, no good when you're working on a project. Expect updates.

EDIT: I forgot the camera at the workshop. >.>

 

Nearly done spackling, then it'll be off to the painter. Meantime will be used to get the motor and body off the second frame, so I can steal the rear off there. Has a rear sway bar, I noticed. Not bad. KPH speedo too, by the looks of it - no MPH speedo goes to 200, agreed? :P

 

Not likely for that vintage vehicle anyhow. Make sure to save BOTH of the gears off the speedometer cables that went into the transmission & mark them appropriately as to which one came off which car.

If you're going to use the rear end out of the donor car, it makes sense to use that speedo gear & head unit as well, so you shouldn't have any guesswork or calibration needed when it goes together.

-Jeff

 

Makes sense. If the rear isn't original, though, there's no guarantees that it's accurate anyway. The plan was to go for a ride with my dad in his car and have him radio/call me when we were doing 20-30-40 etc. kmh, and write down whatever the speedo read, then memorize.

 

Unrelated question: Is the trim on the parts car exclusive for the SX package?

 

Lo and behold, I forgot the damned camera again. Car's spackled as much as I could be arsed to do myself, put on a wagon, and being wheeled off to the paint shop this week. Sequoia Green with black stripes up the hood and black above the vinyl trim line.

 

Wow, and I thought my '72 Supreme was in bad shape when I got it. This must really be the car for you to put so much effort into it (which I think is great) Look forward to your further progress! Chumley

 

Oh, I'm in love. We don't see many V8s over here, so it's quite special.

 

Smokescreen! First from both exhausts, then from one of them after a bit of driving. I take comfort in the fact that it wasn't blue or black.




Spackling away! Put the body on a wagon for transport to the painter, where it can just sit on that for the duration. Really looking forward to it being put back together at this point.






Been taking the '71 apart while waiting for my spackle to set, and thus I noticed that the sway bar was attached in a weird way - is this normal? I've also noticed that it's thinner than the sway bar off the '72 (1" compared to 1 1/4" - 1 1/2"), anyone know why that could be?

 

I've finished spackling the body, dragging it down to the paint shop tomorrow afternoon. We'll see how fast he can get it fixed up.


Rudimentary means of taking cars apart means inventive thinking, and a good deal of redundancy. With enough time, anything's possible.


I'm getting an excess of car bodies floating in my workshop. >.>


Fancy suspension parts! Does this (sway bar and extra support arm thingies) have an option code?


What about the rust holes in the boxed arms, is that a feature as well? :P


This transmission is different from my other one (which I was told is a TH350 - then again, I was told THIS is a 350) - can anyone identify it?

 

Figured out it's a TH350 all on my own. The one that came with the '72 is a TH400, apparently. Seeing as I'm not going to get serious power out of either engine, I figure I'll sell the TH400. Seen 'em go for $900 over here, not to mention $1600 renovated and with a guarantee.

 

Straightened the frame today. That's THAT out of the way. :P

 

Painted her up and so forth, got the parts together - body's still at the painter.

I have more pictures of the assembled frame if you're REALLY dying to see them. Had to leave before I could attach the right front suspension. >.>

 

Dad fetched the car body itself from the painter today. Looking forward to seeing it in person.

 

Wow!!! Nice!

 

Just found this thread. Wow, you really did a lot of work! Really impressive stuff.

 

that's an AMAZING blue/green color. It's going to absolutely glow in the sunlight.

I still can't believe how fast you're moving on this build. Excellent work on all aspects of it.

-Jeff

 

Thanks, guys. Here's the kicker - I have less than two weeks before I have to leave for half a year, so I'm cramming as soon as I'm off from work again. We'll see if I can make it. D:

 

A proper picture of the color. I like it, thankfully.



Moving the body required *****, to be honest. This'd be a rotten time to dent or scratch something. Went off the wagon flawlessly, as it were.



...And onto the frame was just as easy. :P Biggest hassle was getting to the mounting bolts under the trunk because of the wonky exhaust system on that thing.



The trim really helps the look of the two-tone job a lot. Cars need more chrome in general, I say.

 

wow , that really looks great ! its finally taking shape

 

Interior's in, front clip's on, one of the brown fenders is on, dash went in too, as did all the electrics.

So, I started her up, after filling her up with gas - only to have the oil filter puke, ostensibly because I either used the wrong one (PZ on a 350? It was a PH25 that came off, and I have a new PH5 lying around. The PH25 is dented like hell.) or didn't tighten it properly, so my car piddled on the floor, bigtime. Another newbie mistake. My father mentioned something about filling an oil filter before storing it, and I now wonder if that goes for attaching it as well.

 

Took her for a drive today, down to the car inspection place, where they told me my steering was loose (alignment was off after I'd put on the body and engine, go figure) and my front brakes worked with a 54% discrepancy - not good. I fixed it tonight and took it for a spin to test - the brakes and steering was still acting well when coming to a stop from about 160 kph, so I'm confident it'll pass tomorrow. All I otherwise need is to get the VIN number stricken on the frame, as there's a law that requires that both frame and body of a car has the VIN.

 

post more pictures of the car in its current status please :-)

 

This is the most recent thing I have - it now has windshields, doors, and a hood, so it's not really representative at all. :P

 

...Aaaand that's how far I got before I had to call it quits so I could rush my packing for A-stan. Need a million little things, including a fuel pump, apparently.

All the loose parts I had lying around have been moved up above the office and toilet in the workshop, where I've been granted permission to store it for now.


I'll see this baby either tomorrow morning... or in four months. We'll see.

 

Great thread Seff - just saw it. Nice progress, great paint and a shop I would die for!
Is it okay to pick up a body shell by roof like that? I figured it would warp it but what do I know....
Best of luck to you on your assignment!!

 

Looking at the windshield, it doesn't seem to have changed shape in the least bit. The rather strong profile of the edge fore and aft is what made me deem it safe. I WAS rather careful with it, but I'll freely admit that I'm more enthusiastic than careful at times.
Thanks, I'm looking forward to do what I've trained so much towards.

 

24 hour delay on the plane! Let's see what I can get done (apart from packing a bit more meticulously)!

 

I wish I had a 1/4 of the floor space you have in that shop. You've done more in a few months than I have been able to do in 5 years. Looks great! Chumley

 

That, and having no other obligations, has been the real advantage in this project.

The carb is getting fuel but it's spraying it when I pump the pedal, so I suspect it's time for a new fuel filter and a thorough carb cleaning. First on the list in four months. :P

 

Alright, I have three weeks of leave. Problems have been encountered:
- I tried to crank the car with a battery that turned out to be almost dead. This left the starter jammed, so I took the starter off and tightened the loose connection there was between the upper and lower part, while I was at it.
- Since I haven't been able to really crank the car, I've yet to find out if the carb is working as it should - I DID take it off and totally dismantle it, then put it back on and adjusted it per the chassis manual.
- Having turned the engine once by the front end of the crank, I've determined that the fuel pump has thrown at least a bit of fuel into the new fuelfilter (the mid-line glass bell type), so I'm hoping this isn't the problem I've been having with starting (back when the starter worked!). I put the trans in neutral when I turned the engine, but it still seemed like it needed a lot of effort to turn. Measured at 55 lb ft - is that normal for a 350?
- I had a revelation when I was looking at my intake when removing the carb - the Distributor Vacuum Advance thingy wasn't plugged up to anything, and the two wires going into the top of it were connected permanently. I unplugged it and wired it with hoses as per the chassis manual, though that leaves an unused outlet on the intake (which was plugged with a screw) - should I move the hose running down to the vacuum modulator so it has its own dedicated port, or leave it rigged as per the chassis manual?

Believe me, it's good to be back.

 

Update: Starter works wonderfully, so does the battery. Pouring fuel down the top of the carb nets me a few revolutions of the engine before it dies. The fuel filter glass never fills, though, and I really suspect that it should when the engine's gone a few rounds.

Two things: I've got the front end of the car parked on an incline of two pallets ( front wheels a foot higher than the rear wheels); is that enough to deprive the engine of fuel?
There are two screws on the forward-facing side of the carb, which I haven't touched. Could this be causing the problems I'm facing?

 

Wow that valley and lifters look pretty ruff I would def get it cleaned at a shop and see what they think.

 

opps way late on this one

 

Yeah. Solid advice all the same.



I got the car running once it came off the incline, so I have a date with the Vehicular Inspector tomorrow morning, and then I can start putting the properly colored parts on her.