No action today. We left Dallas this afternoon to take our daughter back to Norman OK. for school, and only made it to Ardmore before the ice made the trip too hazardous to continue.

 

I had the one on my Jetfire in an ultrasonic cleaner. It turned out PERFECT! Never seen one as nice as it without being NOS. My buddy's ultrasonic cleaner is not big enough for the W-30 intake but I would recommend that if you can find one big enough. I will see if I can post a couple pictures tonight so you can see the difference.

 

Hey costpenn if u are in need of a set of the 4 rubber vibration insulators that go on the a/c cond. Brackets i have a set with the correct nuts. I will let u have them for 28.00 + 2.50 shipping. YOU CAN SEE PICS. AT THIS POST
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ounts-new.html
THANKS RAY

 

The 62 turbo intake is ultrasonic cleaned and the 70 350 intake was glass bead blasted. I would like to find someone wit a big one that would fit the 455 intake.

 

Thanks for the pic and process idea. I don't like the way that W-31 manifold looks.

 

Short session tonight (1 1/2 hours)

Surprise - Bolts and more bolts

Did 9 baggies tonight - to give you a recap of each:

1) Crank pulley to balancer bolts - wire wheeled and painted Zinc phosphate
2) Brake dist. Block bracket to frame bolt - wire wheeled and cleared
3) Evap case to firewall bolts & speed nuts - wire wheeled, lacquer cleared and straightened speed nuts, wire wheeled all bolts, painted 7 phosphate, cleared 1
4) Antenna lead to cowl screws - wire wheeled, matte cleared
5) Blower motor ground wire to firewall and screw - carb cleaned the wire insulation, Dremel tooled the eyelets, wire wheeled the screw and lacquer cleared
6) Center cowl hood bumper and screw - brake cleaned the rubber bumper, wire wheeled the Phillips head screw and phosphate painted
7) Wiper transmission to cowl bolts - wire wheeled and lacquer cleared the 4 small bolts, and matte cleared the one big one.

and two more baggies I can't remember now.

 

Today's update (2 1/2 hours of work)

Received goodies from all over. The AMK order came in, as well as some other parts from CO members. (Thanks Joe & Brian) Also found out today that the wiper motor is on its way back from Wiper Restore, and my plating of items such as hockey sticks, eyebrow moldings, dual gate bezel and door handles is ready for pick up along with the trim polishing I am having Al's do. I had getter get it in gear!!

Spent most of tonight comparing what AMK sent me against my original fasteners. Overall not too bad, but some stuff is not exactly like the original, much less has the same head markings as my old parts (example evap case to firewall bolts - washers are slightly different than OE, back drive fasteners are a different finish than what was on the car, and the horn to rad support bolts are completely wrong. But aside from that, Kudos to AMK. Nice little company.

Cleaned up the three original U strap things that hold the cabling to the fenderwell on the driver's side along with those batt cable holders with the olive metal finish and the rubber coated channel. They all came out nice and new looking with a little Purple Power and a toothbrush.

Tomorrow, without fail, finish all the rest of the engine and underhood bolts - 14 baggies worth.

 

Take your bumper up to the chrome shop in Gainesville off 35 north of Denton. Jackie is the guys name and he has been doing chrome work for over 30 years. Does nothing but true triple plate show chrome. I had him do some motorcycle parts and they were gorgeous plus his pricing is fair. He knows how to chrome any metal and gets work from all over the country. He may even be able to do plastichrome.

 

Thanks for the tip. If it is the same guy I'm thinking of he did a great job on the shifter blade of my 72 4 spd. 442. I don't know why I didn't think of him for the bumper.

 

Was wanting to do more but too cold in the garage 2 1/4 hours)

Finally finished up the engine, underhood, and undercar bolts tonight. Still have a few various more to do (have not disassembled condenser mounting brackets, fuel & brake line clips are still on the frame, and trans mount to trans bolts are still on the tranny along with the mount) but can now move on to the next box which will be the body bolts. Will probably wind up buying the Tamraz kit for all the wheel well fasteners if I can't find good replacements in my spare bolt box. Also all the wheel opening molding screws are junk as well.

Spoke with Tim at Tabco about rear quarter skins and a LH front fender heel patch panel. He's checking inventory, and also checking the gauge of the metal he has in stock. He says the proper gauge should be about.038. The vert I did that I bought the quarter skins from Brothers (I will never buy another thing from those clowns) was about .030, and it will warp or dent if you look at it wrong.

Painter sent me a pic of the car after stripping and application of the DP90 primer. It is exciting to see the progress.

 

Worked inside tonight (2 hours)

Today received valve springs and intake valves from SBI (Melling has discontinued carrying the springs with dampers and the large valves) and the push rods, oil pump driveshaft, and exhaust valves from Melling. Also received the door handle push buttons bought on Ebay - nice pieces, but have to cut the rod to the right length.

Ordered from Tabco the fender heel patch panel I need - he's still working on finding some nice quarter skins.

Carb Junky's says my carb will be shipping back to me next week.

Talked with Greg at Phoenix Transmissions in Weatherford Texas about going through my OW. It would be about 1K to do it - I'm on the fence about doing it or just resealing it back up.

Steve Gregoire from Brake Boosters called and said my front case on my booster needs to be polished due to pits before it can be plated. He said a lot of the upside down Delco stamp has worn off. Going to cost 475.00 for rebuilding/replating the booster/bail/MC lid, hood hinge and latch replating, disc brake prop valve rebuilding, and bumper jack shaft column replating.

Got the piece of wood out of the dipstick tube by using coat hanger wire. The wood got stuck in there when I used a block of wood to remove the tube from the block. Also, cleaned and detailed the used, but very nice rear side marker lights I got on ebay, and pieced together a front LH from a nice pit free housing and a good unscratched lens I took out of one that had a badly pitted housing. I am still going to have to buy a front RH unit to complete the set.

 

If it is pitted very bad I would find another front cover. The date is on a tab that is attached to the back so the front cover could be replaced and still be correct. Mine had some pitting and turned out terrible. I found another booster with the correct date and no pitting. I am sending it in and going to use it.

I must be lucky here in Indiana. I have a top quality transmission guy and if I remember correct it was only $680 to rebuild the transmission and torque converter.

 

Agree Eric. It sounds a little high to me as well. Any local CO'ers have any other recommendations on a local trans shop?

 

This afternoon's work (about one hour)

STILL too cold to work in the garage, so I worked on various interior pieces inside in the kitchen - I have a very understanding wife. I cleaned and detailed various items such as the headlight switch bezel/****/retaining ****, the cigarette lighter assy, the horn button (polished the emblem, toothbrush cleaned the pad), polished the one good sun visor support, and best of all had the turn signal stalk come out almost NOS after gently cleaning the grooves.

Went to the machine shop where the work is going on. The block measures 4.126 to 4.127 so no boring required. Block wasn't nearly as internally corroded as I thought, but crank is going .010/.010. Had a broken valve spring on an exhaust valve.

 

I had Dennon Behel,of Killen Alabama,rebuild all my automatics,including the OW's that I had. A total rebuild & dyno test was about $700.00. For the OW's,he was also able to rebuild the original converter. He also explained to me that there are different levels of aggressiveness for clutches,with different colors. You always hear about the red ones. Well,there are also blue,green,& black,which are all above the red,so if anyone tries to say that the red ones are the best,or the only ones....nope.The reds will be great for a resto trans,and most performance applications anyway. I have always liked the TransGo shift kits,which are the same as the TCI kits,just different colored parts. B&M can keep there parts.

 

Plano Transmission does quality work, talk to Jeff/owner.

 

X2

My guy had his jaw hit the floor when I told him it was an OW. He knew exactly what it was. Sure makes you feel better when they know there codes off the top of there heads.

 

Dennon knew exactly what the OW was. He is one of us Oldsmobile enthusiasts.

 

I hope most of that 475 bucks is going for the rebuild. My local plater does parts for hardly nothing. Had 4 brake backing plates done for 50 bucks.

If you are worried about the look of it, buy a new one and put the old one on the shelf. An old original pitted booster will never look like a brand new one.

 

I just might wind up getting a repro booster if in fact the the original booster doesn't clean up well. It is a 1344 on one side of the tab, and 22 (the date code which is correct for a late Jan vehicle build date) on the other. Steve wanted 250.00 for just the front half of the case alone with the stamp in unpitted condition - I passed on that.

 

Brian, if I don't get a warm fuzzy from Lance's suggestion of Plano Transmission, my tranny might be Alabama bound.....

 

Today's work product (1 1/2 hours)

Stripped and prepared for plating the hood to hinge and hinge to fender fasteners. Had only one "fat" rear hood hinge shim. The other had two thinner conventional different thickness shims. Is this correct?

Most of my time was devoted to trying to save the original radiator support hood bumpers. The OAI hoods have three and though I don't know what the differences are I'm sure somehow the repos aren't exactly like the originals. Since the rubber parts were not cracked or missing, I thought I'd try to save them. Here's what I did - pics of the finished below:

First, wire wheeled the threaded shafts and jam nuts

Second, used a kabob stuck to dig the gunk out of the well where the Phillips head screw sits

Third, sprayed carb cleaner on the complete unit cleaning the rubber to almost like new condition

Fourth, used a Dremel tool with a tiny wire brush attachment to detail the top of the Phillips head screw and the rubber sides of the well.

Fifth, masked off the rubber and shot a tiny bit of matte clear into the well on top of the Phillips head.

Sixth, masked close the well hole and shot the threaded shaft with Eastwood's Zinc Phosphorous paint.

Seventh, ran a tap through the jam nuts to make sure they spin freely on the shafts and not tear up the paint.

Eighth, shot the shafts again from the other direction.

Ninth, shot the jam nuts with matte clear

Let the parts dry, removed masking tape and ran the jam nuts up the shaft to see if it would mess up the paint - no problem.

I know it would have been easier to get new, but it is interesting to try to save everything original if possible. There's just something cool about giving a 44 year old part a new lease on life.

 

I would also find an original if yours don't work out. I can spot a repop from 20' away at a car show. I don't know if all repops are the same but the one I got for a 72 Cutlass was not stamped even close to the look of the original. I don't know if I have any more pit free ones but if I do I would give it to you for the price of shipping.

 

Eric, if you do gave one, let me know. I'll gladly pay you for it and maybe I could get it to the guy before get starts on mine.

 

If you end up needing a booster,I have one or two from 1970.

 

I just looked and I do not have a real nice one. I have more at my parents house but will be a week or two till I get there.

 

Did a little inside work today so as to have time to watch the Olympic curling coverage - I am hooked. ( 2 hours)

Work on things like the sport wheel hub, door windlaces which came out especially nice

The LH mirror face came out really well, but the passenger side is borderline. I broke the glass in the rear view mirror trying to get it out to send off for resilvering. Does anyome have a good loose glass for sale? My original "Guide" housing is in excellent shape. Even the lever on the bottom is good and hasn't started chalking.

Alsk got my replating and trim polishing back. The eyebrows, hockey sticks peak moldings, door handles, and Dual Gate bezel were rechromed, and the windos and drip rail moldings were polished. Really nice work and all for 525.00

 

Looks very good. I can't decide where to send my chrome and trim. How does your front lip on the hood trim look. I am told that some will lose the crispness of the front edge. Also, How long ago did you send it to them and where? If you are happy I may just send mine there.

 

The polishing and chrome look excellent, I hope someone had an solution on your rear view mirror, mine needs resilvering.

 

Joe, I haven't hard a lot of luck, at least around here having any glass cut. The work is awful. I tried to have one made for the Hurst outside mirror - looked like someone used a chisel to cut it. I'm going to put a parts wanted thread up for a few things needed.

 

Lance, I've got the guys name that I used for the vert. I got the referral here on CO - he did great work and was very reasonable. The difficult part is getting you old one out without damaging the rubber edging, or not chipping/breaking the glass.

 

I'm really happy with the work they did. The shop is called Al's Plating in Fort Worth Texas. I learned about them by reading some Corvette message boards about quality platers that are reasonable in their pricing. I also liked that I could drop off and pick up the parts. The risk of freight damage is so huge for the longer trim items no matter how well packaged.

 

No work today on the W-30, but spent about three hours detailling the '72 for the Autorama. If any North a Texas CO'ers make it out, I'll be parked next to my good friend's 1965 Bonneville 421 4spd. vert which has just finished a 25 year resto. It is an amazing car.

 

If you are still looking for a trans guy I have a great guy that moonlights out of the shop behind his house. He has done anything from stock builds for me to the glide thats now in my buddies 950 hp Camaro. Its in Nevada not far from where your paint guy is. Sasche Rod shop even uses him for some or thier stuff. If interested let me know and I can get you in touch.

 

No work today on the 70. The 72 drove well to the show. Hopefully tomorrow will get back to fasteners.

 

Back To Work!! (4 hours)

Thanks to Joe for coming up to the Autorama all the way from Houston. Pleasure meeting you and your family. I think I know what you're going to say, but that red W-30 beat both Larry's Bamboo car and mine, but we still won something.

Bought new unissued 70 license plates and 70 Texas inspection sticker at the show. Those things have gone up a lot since the last time I needed one.

Today I filled in with semi flat black the 1 2 3 depressions on the Dual Gate plate, the ring in the end of the turn signal ****, and the ring in the remote control mirror ****. Painted with ultra flat black the light diffuser housing thing that goes in the dash.

Then back to the drudgery of bolts. Random items done were the trunk lock and hardware, a thousand (it seems like) rear bumper bolts, front park light bolts, license plate light and holder bolts, all front and rear lens screws, headlamp buckets to support, and a bunch more. I'm proud of the fact that I'm reusing just about every bolt came on the car, and the few that are too far gone I'm replacing with AMK sourced items or correct mark matching used bolts from my stash.

Below see the wire wheel I had to break down and replace today. I think I got my use out of the one on the right

 

Short work session today (1 hour)

Received my wiper motor back from wiperrestore.com. Very nice work, but the rubber in the isolation grommets - bushings seem to be turning a light yellow. Tried to clean and they started getting gummy. Will replace with some aftermarket bushings except for the one with the ground strap. I also felt the need to remove the black OE cover and paint the white part of the pump (that shows) bright white to match the color of the new nozzle manifold they installed.

Three more baggies of bolts/fasteners completed. Did the hood release bell crank bolt and nut along with the three rod locking clips, cleaned and detailed that tiny white hard plastic grommet that goes through the center core support, and the white plastic washer that goes on the grille crank pivot.

 

Just got my carb back from Carb Junkys. Excellent work. Last major components still not back are the P/S gearbox and pump, and P/B booster and misc. plating

 

wow costpen your carb. looks n. o. s. (no correction better than n. o. s.) could u post some pics of your wiper motor
ray

 

Here you are Ray. Note I have not yet installed the foil P/N label, and haven't switched out the bushings to new ones