Thanks for appreciating! I like the blue more than I expected I would. You could go to the class, or you could just invite me over for free. Text or email me your address. I've been hoping to talk Oldsmobile stuff with someone from the club but that just hasn't happened yet. It's fun to stand around and listen though. When you don't know anybody, you don't know anybody.

I did the interior in my '68 GTO. It's won a best of show and was invited to stay 6 weeks in the National Corvette Museum for their "American Muscle" display, so it must be OK. (Sorry. no interior pics. It's up on the lift.)

 

Bob, I really appreciate the offer and will take you up on it as soon as I can carve out some time from work and other projects I have started.

 

I'm continuing to make progress in spite of the cold weather. Got these done today:



I started stripping the old vinyl off the rear arm rests and piston covers, but ran out of time for the day. With the temps getting over 50 tomorrow I'll probably switch to painting chassis components.

 

I did get some parts painted today. There were the ones I got primered before the weather turned cold:



I still had paint in the gun, so I hustled and got the rear end housing ready too:

 

In post #2 above, I mentioned my concern that my frame might have gotten bent at the sand blaster's, and that I needed to check it when the weather got better. Well, this morning I realized I could check it with my LAZER LEVEL while it was on the rotisserie, and with the dimensions I found on the Internet. I did that, and everything is well within 1/4". That's a big relief, but I'm still going to temporarily set the body on the frame/body mounts once the frame is back on the ground. It's an extra step, but well worth the time to do it.

 

I'm enjoying your posts. I know it's easier to just work and not pause to take pictures, share posts and comments, but I believe there's value in this. People looking for help or advice love to see this type of thing. Keep it up. I'm excited to see the finished product, even if it's not for a couple years. I'll still be here (God willing, as they say...)

 

Thanks, Dave. It's fun to see the reaction of others, and fun to help as well!

 

Two days ago I primered and painted the pile of sand blasted chassis parts:




Yesterday I got the brake drums blasted, primered and painted:



Thank you, P.O. for providing new drums, wheel cylinders and brake spring kits!

 

Nice work. I have been working on my 69 ragtop 442 for ten years now. Still a long way to go.

 

Amazing work and progress following from Northwest Ohio.

 

Thanks for the compliment! I spent 11 years working on my '55 Chevy truck, so don't despair. That's the last time I do a project with so many custom mods.

 

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't posted on my own thread since February, even though I've worked on the Cutlass almost every day. I finished the transmission today and will be marrying it to the engine tomorrow IF it doesn't rain. (I have to throw either the frame, the wife's Miata or the body out of the garage so I can break out the engine hoist.)

The rear end is built and installed, a-arms are on the frame, along with the brake lines, shocks, sway bar and steering. ...and it ROLLS again!





Tomorrow I should be able to marry the trans to the engine and install both. After that it's fuel lines and measure for the drive shaft. Then the real fun starts with serious rust repair.

 

Give Denny a shout for a high quality steel or aluminum shaft. https://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/
See the measuring chart along the left side menus.
I've dealt with him several times. Superior work.
Aluminum! Work of art.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

Yesterday was a great day. Got the trans married to the engine and they are sitting in the frame. One motor mount bolt went in easily, but the other still needs a little persuasion. If the rain stops I'll get the trans crossmember painted today. I'm also ready to fabricate the fuel line. I can't believe I was smart enough to install the starter and headers before I dropped the engine and transmission in.

 

Looking good Bob. You're making some good progress.

 

Thanks, Rick. Motor mounts are locked down now, and I'm working on a few details. I won't be able to paint the crossmember today though, because of the rain and temps in the low 60s.

 

Another good day today. I had about a half hour of sunlight between the raindrops this afternoon, so I got the crossmember painted. I had blasted and primered it with Kirker epoxy about 6 months ago so it had to be sanded, which I did this morning, I'll be able to use two existing holes in the frame but will have to drill the other two. (Remember, it's a 700-R4.)



I also found a set of Dorman metric (M10) flex plate-to-torque converter bolts (p/n 14040) at Advance Auto Parts this morning and got the plate and converter bolted together. To make life easier I installed the harmonic balancer, which made it a lot easier to turn the engine over. I even white-lined the timing mark and rotated to 10 degrees BTDC in preparation for installing the distributor down the road.

Then the real fun began. When I installed the anti-sway bar last week I couldn't get the nut on the end of the long screw. I managed to do that today, but when I tightened it, it hit the upper ball joint:



...so I chopped a 1/2" off of the screw and 3/4" off the spacer to give me this:



For about 40% more money, Amazon also carries a Mevotech GK6629 kit. Both are supposed to fit a '69 Cutlass, but one obviously doesn't.

 

Apologies for being gone from this thread for 6 months, but I HAVE been working on the car some almost every day.


All body sheet metal work done. Undercarriage complete.


Masked off to paint firewall and dash.


Used up the last of the Raptor (bed liner) in the trunk.


Firewall done in primer, then sealer.


Used some leftover paint to seal the floor.


Dash ready to paint.

I did paint the firewall and dash near the end of the day yesterday but the dark blue paint wouldn't photograph well after dark or in artificial light. 54 degrees, but I managed to get the body ready to go back on the chassis before winter. Next up will be outer wheel wells and quarters, then bodywork on the rest of the panels, then panel gaps. Should be a fun winter!

 

I removed the body from the rotisserie today and started to mount it onto the chassis.



Unfortunately, I ran into problems with the cheap ($58.99) body mount kit that I bought from Jegs. Too good to be true. It didn't come with lock washers. When I added the lock washers, the 2-3/4" bolts were too short to easily use. I ordered some 3" bolts from Amazon, but that cost me $20, and they have a 2-day delivery. Rather than being held up, I'll set the body on the chassis tomorrow and start the install of the outer rear wheel wells and quarter panel skins.

 

Haven't you got a local hardware, NAPA, or farm supply with Grade 5 or 8 bolts in stock ?

 

I'm glad to see you're making progress Bob. Very nice work as usual.

 

Thanks for responding, Ralph! Yes, we have supply stores here, but this continues to be a budget build (whatever that is in 2025):
Home Depot has them for $3.62 ea. No SAE grade listed. - none in stock.
Lowes has them for $1.78 ea. No SAE grade listed - 3 in stock.
Rural King has them for $4.76 EA!. Grade 8 - in stock.
Tractor Supply has them for $5.29 EA! Grade 8 - in stock.
I bought 25 grade 8s for $20.49 on Prime. I'll put the other 15 in my stock.

Your avatar brings back memories! We raced a '68 442 back in the '70s in E Stock.

 

Good to hear from you, Rick. I can't believe I beat the weather and got enough painted to get the body back on the chassis. Now I've got work for the winter. Can't wait to tear into the quarters!

 

I started to cut into the passenger side quarter panel today but ran into a dilemma. Right in front of the rear wheel, the lower part of the replacement skin isn't like the original. It actually is bent to cover the aft part of the rocker, which is unacceptable That confused me as to where to cut the old quarter panel. That led me to YouTube, where I watched a couple of quarter panel replacement videos. That, in turn, led me to wanting to hang the doors to insure good alignment with the quarters, so I started to restore the door hinges. The bushings actually feel pretty good, but I will be replacing them. The rollers on the lower hinges are good. If I get some time tomorrow, I'll finish sand blasting the hinges and maybe primer them too.

Tomorrow the body mount bolts also arrive, so I might have time to work on that too. I've made and appointment to determine the extent of my ADHD.

 

That's funny right there!

 

😂🤣..I don’t think there is a chart to determine the extent of my ADHD..lol.. hey we do things in an unconventional way but we get em done. Congratulations..awesome progress.

 

Thanks, Andy! (Sorry to be late, but this one got by me...)

 

The body mount bolts are now torqued down, but not without a little more drama. I couldn't get the driver's trunk floor support bolt in, so I had to tear into the finished trunk floor to move the cage nut. The floor support bracket looks like it's installed correctly, but I might have been a little off, or the part was a little off. Don't know. Other than that, things went pretty smoothly.: (BTW, I mentioned lock washers on the bolts in an earlier post. These didn't come from the factory, but I wanted them.)


Moving the left trunk support cage nut.

I re-built the hinges, then temporarily mounted the doors to check alignment. I appreciate this fixture more and more as I get older:


Home made door cradle on the floor jack.


First mounting of doors. Pretty good. I'll tune them in after the quarters are installed.

Had a little drunk-bump from the previous owner...:


Driver's side repair, near door latch.


Next came the repair of the outer wheel houses. I rough-cut the old quarters first to get the access I needed. Hardtop outer wheel houses came with the car, so I had to modify them to fit the convertible:


Installing the outer wheel house.

I then did the preliminary install of the new hardtop quarter skin. It lined up perfectly to the wheel opening, near the tail light, to the trunk floor drop, but not to the crease near the door. I had to move that crease down about an inch. I don't know if this misalignment was the fault of the panel stamping or the wheel well install, but it's going to work out. The apex of the well opening was 37-1/2" from the floor (on the jack stands) for both the new and old housing. I didn't have great tools to do this. I mostly used my "anvil" table, a two-pound hammer and the pipe in the picture: What little finesse there was so far has been done with a body hammer (I've been watching too much Motortrend TV, otherwise I wouldn't have attempted this.) Besides, the creases in the replacement weren't near crisp enough anyway. I'll tweak this considerably after the lower crease is in:


Top crease roughed in. More work to do. Lower crease will be on the scratched line.

That's it for now. I'll be butt welding the main panel in, leaving a gap between it and the original metal.

 

Nice work, love the fact you’re doing it..learning as you go. I am doing the same thing. My cage nut on passenger side did exact same thing after I had finished the trunk. I cut a 3 sided square, bent it back, put cage nut in then tapped it back down, welded, skim coated and touched up the floor. You won’t even see that when you are done. Once you do some hammer and dolly work on that lower you will get it pretty good..my anvil is a piece of I beam and a short 2’ piece of railroad track. Work great. Good on ya for taking this on. We are both in the throws of self induced auto resto..lol. Keep posting. You will find my thread on L69 resto

 

Thanks for the encouragement, Andy. I found your build thread, but I was in a hurry today to get out to the garage today. Can't wait to see all that you've done!

 

Started installing the quarter skins yesterday. These panel alignment clamps from Harbor Freight are worth the seven bucks (for 8 of them)!



Amazingly, I got the entire top and front welded today. Still have to weld inside, at the rocker, near the rear bumper, the wheel well and the trunk drop, but I ran out of argon CO2. Very little warpage, but I will tune it up with the shrink disc.

 

The temperature hit zero yesterday, so I'm in the basement workshop. I'm sure my metal fabrication work didn't impress anyone, so I better put up something at which I was more successful. The odometer has a thin plastic strip in it that holds the digits in alignment. Unfortunately, mine was broken in two, keeping the two most significant digits from turning:



Using the blister packaging from a saw blade, I re-made the piece by drawing it, then cutting it out with an exacto knife:



(I actually scrapped this piece and made a better one.)

I decided to return the odo to zero, but the wheels and gears wouldn't cooperate. Nothing left to do other than tear it all apart and re-assemble it:



Here's the new plastic piece in place. Earlier cars had these tabs align against a metal bar, but for some reason (cost? ) GM changed to this flimsy solution:




...and here's the assembly back in its bracket showing all nines:



After I put the worm gear, retainer, faceplate and needle back on, I ran the odo for a few minutes with a drill and a square-drive bit to verify that it worked. It turned over from all nines to zeroes, then went on to 10.2 miles:



Now I'm just waiting for the speedo faceplate without the "PRNDSL", then I can button her up. I'm waiting for the quartz movement from ISI, so the clock will be next. Tomorrow it's going up to 57 here, but I have a Christmas thing in the afternoon. Before long I'll be back in the garage.

 

Nice job

 

Getting these smaller projects out of the way now will pay off when you start assembling everything. Looks like the speedo is going to turn out great.

 

Thanks, guys! I repaired the driver's outer wheelhouse with a portion of a hardtop replacement part today. I rough-trimmed the quarter skin and temporarily hung it. Tomorrow I'll scribe it and bend the lip that is required to weld it to the rocker. The 194 bulbs for the turn signal indicators and the quartz clock conversion came in the mail today. Still waiting for the speedo face.