I've got an A-pillar gauge pod for your mustang that I'd let go for cheap. Shoot me a PM if you're interested. I may have some other stuff for sale as well, I'd have to check.

 

Cool, PM sent

 

I love the '69 cutlass, probably my favorite Oldsmobile. This reminds me of my first project, a '69 Pontiac lemans that was sitting since '89. Lets just say I bit off waayy more than I could chew. Hope you are way more car-savvy than I am!!

 

Thanks! Yeah I think the 69 is my favorite Olds too, but I may be a bit biased haha.

As an update, haven't made much of any progress since before Christmas. Been too cold, too snowy, and I have a really crappy gravel driveway/yard to work in. I need to finish transfering the interior out of my parts car into this car, and clean up the engine bay a little bit. Also belts and get tires on my set of front cragars. I never saw myself as the guy who puts his cars away for winter until I moved up north, lemme tell ya its killing me

 

It does suck. I have a semi heated garage and at 45 degrees it's still too cold for me to get out there and work on my car. Waiting for a nice day or spring.

 

I'd love to have a semi heated garage. Compared to our current weather 45 would be like a summer day. I'm jealous. I'd even like to have a flat paved driveway here like I did in NC, I never really appreciated how nice that was until my work area was a soggy gravel driveway and grassy/muddy yard. I can't do this anymore I need a REAL workspace.

 

I realize I'm spoiled. When I was younger I was out working on my car in the snow. I choose not to do that anymore.

 

Could you do a storage unit for a couple months? I think they're like $60/month or so.

 

Aye, if I had the money I'd have a garage too, can't blame ya

We do have a storage unit in a barn not too far away, its slightly smaller than a 2 car garage BUT its completely full of house related crap. My dad said hes gonna rent the other unit behind it (theres a door that connects them) and move all the house related crap into it and we'll put the car in the 1st unit but its one of those things that probably won't end up happeneing atleast for a few months.

 

Hey guys, if anyones been wondering, this is why I haven't made any progress on the car
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The weather has been an absolute nightmare. Those pictures were taken over a week ago and not much has melted, we've still got most of that snow. I have shoveled the car off to make myself feel better but other than that nothing much has happened. It hasn't been started in 2 or 3 months, but I sold the mustang and have a fat stack of cash to start dumping into the Cutlass so once it warms up a bit, plan to see some updates! A lot of you guys probably won't agree with what I'm planning (LSX swap) but hey, my car right? lol. More updates and pics to come.

 

Seeing pictures like that makes me miss living in Florida. We got an (uncharacteristic) 12 inches over a couple weeks here this winter. It was fun playing in for a bit, then it just got old.

I'm not a purist, but why the engine swap?

 

You have what is called "A diamond in the rough!" Do you have the documents with the car? Mine was in similar condition so hang in there and good luck. Pictures as you progress would be great!
Alex in Idaho USA

 

Ugh I know exactly what you mean, I lived in NC most of my life so at first the snow was great. Now I never wanna see it again

I'm going to build a street car, but I don't want to rip apart the olds motor and start changing it out with tons of aluminum parts and whatnot, its a bone stock 60k numbers matching motor, so that will be set aside. It would cost me a phenomenal amount of money to get 500+ horsepower out of the olds smallblock anyway, and at that point my driveability, reliability, and fuel mileage would be affected quite a bit. Its actually pretty common practice to take a Vortec 5.3 (based on LS1, but found in trucks and can be had for under $500), slap a turbo on it, tune it and push out 500 WHP with nothing more than new valve springs. Obviously theres a lot more too it, and its very interesting to read about. I've been researching for 3 or 4 months now and I've gotten a price list out, for everything I need in order to have the conversion done and finished and making 500 HP It'll cost me a calculated $2780, we all know how that goes so I'm assuming it'll be around $3000-$3500 by then. $3000 to have a dead reliable 500WHP daily driver that gets 20 MPG highway, and if you pop the motor you can get another one for under $500? Yes please

My father was the last registered owner so we've got to file for a lost title. However NY won't issue titles to a car over 25 or 35 years old so they'll give me/him a transferable registration and then I'll get it plated. She is definitely a diamond in the rough, luckily I like fixing things Most of what needs to be done, is done other than bolting in nicer parts, which is just a matter of stripping the parts car for the parts I need. Rust repair and paint are the other two things I don't have covered. I may try to tackle the rust repair myself but I'll probably let a pro handle the roof skin for me.

 

IMHO I'd take your optimistic figure of $3500 and more than double it by the time your done.

 

Nope . Do some reading, you haven't read much on budget/junkyard builds have you? look up Denmah on LS1tech and see, he built a 550WHP ford fairmont with an LM7 turbo motor for under $4000 including the car. He's also done various other builds, some cheaper than others. Not everyones enough of a goober to blindly drop more money on a motor than the car is worth

 

Ok, we'll see when it's all said and done. I assure you it will cost more than $3500.

 

No need to act all condescending about it, If thats what you think then no offense but I am more informed on the topic than you. I'll be hitting the drag strip and show you what a junkyard 5.3 with ebay turbo's can do when I'm done. I get it if you guys get mad that I'm putting a chevy in an Olds but progress is progress and GM Gen 3/4's are the future, I'm not a purist, I just like fast cars. I figured this'd be the place I'd get ridiculed, I'll probably post up the turbo 5.3 portion on another site and update here with everything else (IE interior, exterior, ect).

Heres a 3rd gen camaro with a 5.3, bone stock even stock cam and intake, just valve springs to hold up to the boost. He's running twin 57mm ebay turbos on homemade manifolds running 9 second quarter mile times

 

A Chevy in an Olds does not upset me as mine is BBC powered. I'm not being condescending at all nor am I giving you a hard time. I believe whoever foots the bill decides what gets done on a car. Don't shoot the messenger.


We have a non Olds powered section, so you can post your mod there, ridicule free. There are also some people that have been very successful with doing what you want to do on this site. Not a lot of twin turbo's but LS conversions.

 

I appreciate the info, I'll check out that section. I put a lot of time into researching how/what/when/where/why, and how much $$$$ with this swap so I took your comment a bit offensively. Seriously though, if your ever browsing the web for some interesting reading, check out sloppymechanics.com and the youtube channel, and on LS1tech, "denmah" (matt) has some really good build threads, its really interesting stuff. I'm just waiting on on a place to swap the motors, I can do most of the work in my gravel driveway but engine hoists don't work in gravel

 

I look forward to your thread. I've been on those sites as well as others.

 

Well, I bought another car
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So right now my focus is mainly on that one, getting it set up for a good daily driver, BUT I haven't forgotten the olds. Infact, soon I'll be prepping it for a 650 mile each-way road trip, so I'll be updating the thread with progress on that soon. Plans are, finish swapping the interior from the parts car to the white car, same with the new gas tank, change the rear diff oil and gasket, put some good, more sensible sized tires on the back and put a couple hundred miles of reliability testing on it. Then, off to a warmer climate for a beach trip with a friend of mine. Now that the snow is mostly melted (like a month later) hopefully I'll be making some progress soon.

 

Yesterday we had some pretty nice weather so I uncovered the 69 and let her air out and gave her a bit of TLC. Took off the cowl screen and cleaned all the crap out of there and did a few other little things, and took note of what little parts I need to pick up before I drive it long distance. Today I tried to fire it up but all the gas drained back into the tank and she didn't want to fire on carb cleaner. Tomorrow I'll grab a bottle with some gas and fill the float bowl and get it running. Hasn't been started since november, or maybe early december? We'll see what happens tomorrow

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A bit more progress on the interior. Yanked out the cavalier seats. They were too low for me (I'm a short guy) so pulled em and swapped in the bench seat out of my parts car and bolted it in with all new hardware. Much better. I also started swapping other interior parts. Door panels, armrests, A pillar covers and visors. Little stuff like that. Tomorrow I've gotta run to my storage unit and pick up the rest of the black interior panels and the rear seat. Soon, it'll be all black except the dashboard and some seat belts

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More pics and progress tomorrow!

 

Did some more interior work yesterday. I need one more interior panel, put the back seat bottom in, and change the driver side kick panel for it to be an almost complete blue-to-black transition. Of course the dash, steering wheel and column, and remainder of the headliner are still blue but I need a new headliner and carpet anyway. So far, so good.

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Still have a lot more to do, but its wayyy better than it used to be:
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If it's not too late you might consider a little insulation behind those panels/seat.

 

Eventually when I re-do the interior with new panels and I pull these ones (they look alright but their pretty warped and the boards are damaged in some spots) then I'll lay down some dyna mat or similar insulation. For now though they'll be alright. I don't even have carpet or a head liner in the car so I'm not too worried about insulation

 

So today its nice, sunny, and warm so I'm working on the car. Theres what appears to be a vacuum tree here on the intake, but on the other side with a similar size port in the intake is the water temp sender so I just wanted to verify this isn't some vacuum activated switch or temp activated vacuum switch or something weird like that, and that its okay that i plug it off like this until I can run and get barb caps from autozone.
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In the late sixties GM went to a controlled spark advance system. The vacuum switch at the front of the manifold directed ported carb vacuum to the vacuum advance only when the engine was warmed up. The sole purpose was to reduce emissions.
The other "tree" at the rear of the manifold provided manifold vacuum to other emission systems, including the vapor recovery system.
It looks as though most of the emissions systems have been disconnected and that the distributor and carb are hooked up directly. The car will probably run OK the way it is. However, don't try to run it through a state emission inspection if your state has one.

 

Thanks for all the info, thats exactly what I needed to know. I'll leave the barbs capped off like they are until I can run to the parts store and buy barb caps, upper/lower/bypass radiator hoses, belts, wires, cap, and a few other tune-up things that I need now that its being put on the road. Also, I am required to go thru a safety inspection but no emissions testing since its over 25 years old. I do have to get around to putting a new muffler on it before any sort of inspection though, the straight pipe dumping under the middle of the car is pretty obnoxious

 

Been working on my other car (and current daily driver now) my 67 Baja Bug so I haven't spent too much more time on the 69, and registering it has been put on hold. We sold our house in NC and are currently looking for one in NY so we will be moving stuff, AKA most stuff has been put on hold in anticipation of moving out of the rental house. I'll post updates as they happen now that the weather is warm.

 

I hear that those days are long gone!!!

 

Wow its been a while! Not much has happened with the car until the last couple days. I replaced all the belts and the bypass hose because it leaked, and replaced all the plug wires. I have points to install to. I have the top rad hose but Autozone forgot to order the lower hose so I'll deal with that later. Today I yanked the carb off and bought a rebuild kit. Its all dissasembled and old gaskets scraped off but it was dark and I didn't feel like going outside the shop and spraying ether so that waits until tomorrow. Tomorrows plan is to finish the rebuild, slap the carb back on and charge the battery then try to fire it up again and tune it a little better.

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Wow, I've been slacking on updates. Well, this one is good one. BTW, can any of the mods change my thread title? Something more generic like 1969 Cutlass S build.

Anyway, so the other day I rebuilt the carb and slapped that back on. New plug wires, bypass hose, upper rad hose, drained most of the old coolant with a little hand siphon pump and filled it back up with water to flush some remaining gunk before I pop the new bottom hose on. Its running great now with no coolant leaks anymore, took it for a little test drive around the driveway and it seems to be doing well. I've picked up a gauge kit for it too but haven't gotten around to installing it. So, I've got a few more things to do to get it inspectable (wiper blades, horn, ect) but its just about roadworthy. Here are some pics and a youtube video

One freshly rebuilt carbonator that still looks like junk
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I'm no photographer lol
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phat
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And heres a vid

 

Sounds damn good.
Your getting there, good job.
I still have your 69 S rear bumper.

 

Thanks! 2 minutes with the sawzall and I yanked that gross rotted mouse nest muffler off. I might not bother putting another on. I've been working on the lack of a horn issue today, not getting power to the horn. I tried the horn in my other car and it worked but sounded pretty worn out. Luckily I have a couple nice ones from my parts car. I checked with a multimeter and theres no power to the wire when the horn button is pressed. I'm probably gonna identify the wires in the steering column harness and tap into them with a momentary switch on the dash like in my baja bug. We'll see, hopefully after that it'll pass inspection. Due to NC laws and me only buying/driving ancient cars I've never had to get a car inspected, now that I'm in NY and do have to get an inspection I'm a tad worried

 

Wow, been a LONG time since an update. Since the last update we bought a house, moved in, I brought my Datsun from NC to NY, traded the Baja Bug for my latest daily driver, a 94 Trans Am, and as far as Cutlass specific I pulled all the rest of the interior out of the parts car including carpet and swapped it over to this car. I also pulled the front and rear bumpers on both cars and am in the process of painting the grill and headlight surrounds and then putting it back together. The car is now garaged and dry, safe for the winter so thats a huge relief. The biggest problem I'm fighting now is that the two bolts that hold the rear bumper bracket to the frame are all sorts of rusted solid, and they don't have heads, just those stupid *** round-headed peg bolts with the square at the top of the threads so you can't get a wrench on em. Anywhere, heres a few random update pics.

Here it is on its journey to the new house
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Some interior shots
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I still have to swap the steering column/steering wheel and the dash and gauges over from the parts car but for now its fine as is

Also, now that the interior is stripped in the parts car, I decided to have a bit of fun with the car. I tossed in those Cavalier seats, ripped open the crushed in door using a come along and the trailer hitch of our van, unbolted the other door and set it in storage to avoid dents/damage in the woods, bolted on the 20+ year old brand new snow tires, I also pulled the carb off and cleaned it up a bit and tuned it. Took it on a bit of an offroad expidition checking out some trails near the new house, didn't get too far before I started running out of gas and had to dash back I'll link a vid at the end of this post. In these pics I hadn't cleaned it out and ripped the back package tray carboard out so its a bit cleaner and more open now, but here it is the day of the first offroad test.

White trashin' up the new neighborhood
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both doors off!
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mud tires on
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Out in the trail
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Did a little bodywork when I got home
Before
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professional tools for a professional job
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Like a brand new car
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Heres a short clip from the entry into the trail

 

Alright, another update. Theres a local drag strip, Lebanon Valley Dragway. I'm guessing a lot of you fellow NY guys have heard of it. They put on a show/swap meet/race today and I was just walking around seeing whats out there, not planning on buying much and I came across these 15x10 Bart wheels, I got them for a great deal and they look almost exactly like the front wheels I have on the Cutlass now. I need to pick up some drag radials at some point, mount em, and toss em on. Anyway, pics!
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Stored safe and sound till I can get some tires
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Heres an old pic of the fronts on the cutlass, for reference. Biggest difference between the fronts and the new 15x10s I picked up are that there are no fake bolt heads on the Bart 15x10s and there are on the fronts, however I can live with that lol.

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Not much to update on the car. Poor thing is still sitting in the garage, no bumpers or grill pieces. I just picked up an air tool set including an air chisel which I will make use of in getting the last bumper bracket bolt out of the back so I can install my fancy new rear bumper. I also have to finish painting the front grill pieces before it gets too cold and put the car back together. Then I'll pull it out, check for vacuum leaks and tweak the carb a wee bit and go for a test drive, see if it shifts like it should. When I get the title for my trans am in the mail from the NYS DMV (what a sh*tshow) I'm gonna sell that and get some fundage for the Cutlass. I'm not really sure what I want to do with it, mild cam/carb 350 Olds with a 4 speed or just use the money to build a turbo/twin turbo setup with a blow thru Holley 650 on the Olds engine. Or, turbo LS swap it. Or, nitrous big block swap it. Dunno yet, either way it'll be one hell of a fun winter project.

 

Well damn, winters back again. This time around, though, I have a garage! Lots of work will be getting done on the car this winter. Its getting a Turbo LS swap which I've started gathering parts for, nothing too major yet. Just a TH350 Transmission with a Chevy pattern to fit the LS motor and a cheap intercooler. Hoping to pick up a hoist this weekend and then pick up a $200 4.8 LS engine out of a truck. I will be starting a new build thread though, 1. I don't really like the title of this thread as it was just basically an intro post and didn't expect it to be 7 pages long lol and 2. I'd just like a fresh start at a thread considering the significant amount of work and changes that'll be getting done to the car. I sold my Trans Am and have some money to put into this car (finally) so hopefully you'll be seeing a new thread with some new updates from me soon.

 

Look forward to it.