I just picked up this 69 Convertible that I will be repairing. I think most people would have used this car for parts and scraped the rest but I guess I have hit my head one too many times along the way. I called it repairing because I do not plan to "restore" it to factory new but make it a nice driver.

The frame is broken so that will need to be replaced, the floors and trunk are also shot. Strangely enough the rockers, most of the rear quarters and the front fenders besides a few inches at the bottom is good, the drivers door is trashed and the passengers might be salvageable. It's green with a gold interior or at least it was. I am not sure why someone would pick that color combination, but to each their own. It was originally a bucket/console car which are now long gone along with most of the interior. It does have power windows but no idea if they work or not. The engine is a 350 2-bbl with an auto. It looks to be the original engine but I have not run the numbers yet. Lastly, the nose is just sitting on the car as the previous owner had started to sand them down and the hood hinges are in the trunk or box of parts I got with it.

This is the 5th cutlass I have owned throughout the years and 4 of those was A-bodies and the last was an 86 442. I have had a 69 convertible, 72 supreme and a 71 hardtop.

If anyone has a repairable frame that is somewhat close by let me know.

It will be a while before I can start this project as I need to sell another project car first. I'll update as things progress


- Glenn

 

Good luck! That's a hell of a project.

FWIW the rockers are galvanized steel and that's why that aren't rusted

 

Thank you, that makes sense to me. I haven't decided if I will go with full floors with the inner rocker piece or not. I'll probably also look for a 1-piece trunk.

Like anything, one step at a time.

 

What parts came with it?

 

• Most of the interior minus the seats, console and dash was in the trunk. Doubt any of that is usable now though
• 3 tail lights
• Front bumper
• Two rear bumpers - one without cutouts and one 442 style - both need some work and re-chroming
• Two sets of hood hinges
• Dash wiring harness - not sure how good it is yet
• 3 of the oldsmobile trunk plaques - the one that goes across the entire trunk
• original AM radio
• A second convertible top frame (rusty) - I will be selling that

There are lots of other odds and ends but I am not sure how much of that is useable.

 

You are a brave man. Good luck with your car. Start a rebuild thread so we can follow your progress.

 

Not sure if I am brave or crazy. The jury is still out on that one.

The plan was to continue with the rebuild on this thread, unless this is not the correct section? Once I get rid of the other car then the first step is full disassembly and then work on replacing the rust/rotted/damaged panels on the body while looking for another frame.

 

This is the right place for the thread and you're right most would not mess with that car.

 

Be sure you get a convertible frame and if you can't get one, get a hardtop frame and box it.

 

Definitely not a project for the faint of heart, but always great to see another one saved!

I may be wrong, but I think the '69 Convertibles were Cutlass Supremes, not Cutlass S? Also, you can quickly establish whether the engine is original to the car by comparing the last 6 numbers of the VIN derivative on the block (pad under the head, front left side) to your VIN...if they match, it's original.

 

You might want to reach out to

68cutlasssss he picked up a 68 convertible 442 for parts he might let go of the frame , idk worth a shot, btw 69 was a cutlass S in a vert mine was/is anyway:-) great car , I also read where a member bought the side rails from a Grand Prix which also has a box frame it’s detailed in the thread by 69442c ( his rest his soul)

 

I hope your young and have a lot of time on this earth, what color are you gonna paint it?

 

Thanks, I was thinking that I could take a hardtop frame and convert it but after doing some reading its better to just get the right frame and fix it as needed.

I may be wrong, but I think the '69 Convertibles were Cutlass Supremes, not Cutlass S? Also, you can quickly establish whether the engine is original to the car by comparing the last 6 numbers of the VIN derivative on the block (pad under the head, front left side) to your VIN...if they match, it's original.[/QUOTE]

I will check it out this weekend if it doesnt rain or snow for no other reason but curiosity at this point.


This project doesn't scare me. I have rebuild jeeps that were more rotted than this and also built a couple of exotic replicas including a couple tube chassis. - not professionally of course but as a hobby I am not sure on the colors yet. Triple black always looks nice, maybe white with a black top and interior. Definitely not the green and gold combo!!!

 

68 and 69 Cutlass convertibles were only available with the S trim package. They were not offered in the Supreme or F85 trim.

 

I have a set of frame horns in CT if that helps.

 

Thanks for the offer. The one good section of my frame is the front section. Mine is rotten and broken just below the drivers door. I think the passengers side is close behind it.

 

Been there done that.... saved the front section

 

Looks like a great project to learn and have fun with. Good to see I am not the only one that gets projects that shouldn't be done. My 65 project is about the same shape.


Good luck

 

https://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/pts/7566776933.html

Methuen MA ask for Peter
He has more parts than you can imagine including a 69 Vert Frame

Oldsmobile 442 Cutlass - (Methuen)

© craigslist - Map data © OpenStreetMapFenders,doors,bumpers,chrome and stainless body trim, hoods, rear wings, rims,tires, trim rings, wire harnesses, lots of small interior and exterior parts.mirrors, nuts bolts all oem. Frames hardtop and convertible, disc brakes, transmissions, 425 Oldsmobile motor, consoles and parts, bucket seats and rear seats ( HT and conv) window glass, rear glass. Engine brackets and much more I take cash and trades....I'm always looking for Oldsmobile collectibles. show contact info
a lot of these parts fit all gm 1968-1972 gm a body cars, Pontiac, Buick. Olds 442

 

Good luck with the 65 project. Glad to see there are more crazy people out there.




Thanks for this lead, it is strange that my CL search yesterday did not pull up his post as I went all the way up to Maine... Thanks again. I sent him a text already!!!!

 

pm sent

 

Replied to.

Beautiful car you are selling. Wish I could afford it.

 

I just picked up a really nice convertible chassis from a 1970 GTO/Lemans. It as surface rust but still had some of the original paint on it and maybe 3, dime sized spots that needed welding. The only other area is where someone tried to tow the car using the rear crossover frame rail and bent it. That only needs to be bent back into position.

I stripped off the front end and the frame is now in my garage waiting for me to sell my other project first before I can start the cutlass project. Surprisingly, all of the suspension bolts came out easily except for the drivers side lower control arm bolt was frozen to the inner sleeve. A few minutes with my cut off wheel and I was able to get the control arm off. I did also have to cut off the drivers lower ball joint nut as the ball joint would just spin. I am guessing it was original.

Once the other project is gone the plan is to pull the cutlass into the garage, remove the 350 engine and auto trans, strip everything off the rotted chassis and then bolt the new frame onto the body so that I can add in some cross bracing before cutting off the bad panels. I am not sure yet if I will leave the frame in place while doing the floors, trunk and rear quarters or remove the frame and place the body on a set of 4x4's and jack stands. Any suggestions from those who have done this?

I am probably going to sell the control arms and spindles. Does anyone know if these drums are worth selling or should they just be scrapped?

 

Once the interior is stripped out there's no weight on it. You can pick a corner up by hand. The welded door braces certainly won't hurt, but they definitely aren't necessary unless you start cutting a major amount of steel out of the car. The rockers are the main structural member and usually those are in good shape. I have three supports shown in the pic below but I usually only had two in place. One in the front and one in the rear.

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your suggestion on using the 4x4's. I was hoping to do it this way as it gives me more room to move around and less things to try and avoid. I do like your custom jack stands. My car did not come with anything bolted inside the interior so that part is already been done for me.

 

Well this might be the shortest build project in history. Rhode Island does not title vehicles 2000 or older. The last time I registered an older vehicle all you needed was a bill of sale and all was good. Apparently, now you also need a copy of the previous registration. As we can all see, this car has not been registered from some time now and I do not have the previous registration or any idea who that might be.

Not sure where I will go from here. Maybe just part it out and sell what I can to recoup the sale cost and look for another project.. At least I discovered this before dumping a pile of money and time into this. As they say, live and learn....

 

Hey Glenn,

Maybe a long shot but since covid in CT they have various shops in addition to DMV are doing registration / vin verification, perhaps they have dealt with this issue.

Good luck
Tim

 

Tim, thanks for the suggestion. I think I have it all ironed out now. Vermont allows for out of state, BOS only registrations. I can then take that registration and convert it to a Rhode Island version. 6% sales tax versus 7% so that helps a little also.

so it looks like the build is back on.

 

Hey Glenn:
I did a full floorpan replacement on my '72 442 convertible. I chose a full pan from AMD with all the braces and the inner rockers; I drilled out all the spot welds that hold the inner and outer rockers together. I made sure the frame was level and bolted 10" long, 4x4 blocks to the frame mounting points to raise the body above the frame before plug welding the new pan in place. I did several trial fits to make sure everything was hitting and aligning to my satisfaction then set the body back on the blocks on the frame and welded everything back together. Make certain that replacement frame is straight before you do anything else. It's much easier to correct any problems with a bare frame. Here's a link to my build page, floor pan works starts at post #13.

Rodney

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ertible-57404/

 

Rodney,

Thanks for the link to your build. The floor pan post you provided give me a really good idea what I am in for. I subscribed to your build and need to finish reading through it all. I was looking at the AMD full floor panels. Did you go with AMD part number 400-3468? I have not crawled under the car to see what is meant by inner and outer rocker and also the difference between floor pans with and without the inner rocker. Whichever I go with will include the braces already welded in like you did.

 

Yes, the AMD 400-3468 is the part I used. The inner and outer rockers are spot welded together at a pinch weld point at the bottom of the rocker. The inner rocker is just flat sheetmetal, the outer rocker has the shape you see from the outside of the car. There is a lip on top where the floor pan overlaps the outer rocker that needs to be separated, and the floor pan will overlap the toe boards that are part of the cowl/firewall metal. You should also weld some braces across the door openings and another one across the body to keep everything from moving around once the old floor pan is removed.

I'll warn you now, there are alot of spot welds to drill out (probably like 300-400) so get some special drill bits for drilling out spot welds. These bits are designed to only remove the top layer of sheetmetal leaving the bottom layer intact, and get a set of spot weld vice grips that have a "U" shaped clamp. Plug welds need the 2 pieces of metal to be touching for a good connection.

Rodney

 

I had great luck with these cutter bits from Blair
Low speed with lube stick worked best.

 

Rodney,

Thank you for the explanation, that is what I thought but then I was reading through someone's build and they made it sound like there was something else happening. I have done floors in my 98 Jeep Wrangler by removing the spot welds using the harbor freight spot weld remover tool and it did not last very long at all. 300-400 welds to remove will definitely keep me busy for a while. Once I get started I will pick up a few of those HSS bits.

Tim,
Do you think this kit would last the 300-400 spot welds that need to be removed for the floors? I'll also need to remove more for the trunk and rear quarters.

 

I am still using the first cutter bit in that kit after several hundred spot welds, the trick was to use as slow a drill speed as possible with a well-lubricated bit.
I just kept the tube nearby and would coat the cutter tip for each weld.