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I'm a bit late posting this, having been working on-and-off on the car for about a year now, but I figured it's time to share my progress on my 1970 3 seat vista cruiser.
I've been in the car scene quite a while, I grew up around car guys and when I was younger right up until my late teens my Grandfather owned and maintained one of if not the largest private collection of restored collector cars in Canada. I've owned a 1967 Beetle for 9 years now which I had purchased already semi-restored so I was able to get my hands dirty without having to worry about paint or upholstery. In that car I restored the drive-line as well as meticulously sourced, restored and installed correct original German parts to replace any reproductions. 67 had a lot of on-year parts on it and my car was imported by the first ownder from Europe making it an even more rare and requiring even more specific parts. So I've learned what is involved in a good restoration and have already experienced most of the growing pains that comes with getting into restorations.
Around January of 2016 I decided I wanted a Vista-Cruiser, I can't remember specifically why I chose this car. But at the time I was considering either a 1987 Suburban to do a diesel swap into, but I couldn't find one optioned the way I wanted that hadn't been distastfully modified. Eventually I fully set my sights on the Oldsmobile. I had decided that I wanted a 70-72 because I wanted the dual-action tailgate and it was standard by this time, I also preffered the look of the front end (the reason I didn't buy a SportWagon, even as a huge Buick Fan). For me it had to be a 3-seater and have A/C. I spent a long time searching, fully prepared on buying one from anywhere in Canada or the US, as many here know, pickings are very slim for good vistas. I would find one that might look good but then see excessive rust bubbles in the fenders, or another that might look perfect but then the dash and doors had been hacked for a radio.
Eventually I found a post on stationwagonforums.com where someone shared a Craigslist ad in Alabama for a 70 Vista cruiser.
Many phone calls back and forth, I had the owner send a couple of iPhone shots of the underside of the car and I decided to pull the trigger and bought the car over the phone for $9500 in July of '16, it took until early October till Passport delivered it to me in Bellingham. The car was driven across the line into Canada and that was that. It's pretty wet here in Canada so I only got about 3 days in October of driving it, it handled really well for a 50 year old wagon. I had no concerns that the car was worn out or beat-up in anyway, I did identify that the carb desperately needed a rebuild and that the battery wiring needed replacing.
There was a tear in the front seat which prevents me from getting collector automobile insurance. This is pretty significant as it almost doubles my insurance costs if I were to insure it under normal plates. So I pulled the seats out and dropped them off at my upholsterer with some new vinyl from SMS. Then I decided I didn't like the carpet so I ordered a new carpet kit from ACC. Then I decided I had to replace the vinyl cause the original stuff was too faded, then I didn't like the respray the original owners did and though I would just do a sand and spray paint job.Well if I have the fenders off for paint, might as well detail the engine bay and front frame?
And now we're here, where I am a few weeks away from pulling the body off the frame and getting them blasted.
The plan with the car is to do a solid restoration, at the same time I will be adding power windows/locks and a 8-track deck. I found one or two metal bits in the transmission pan so I might have that gone through, the engine I will likely just re-seal and detail. Once I begin re-assembly I will add about 200 lbs of sound deadening material that I purchased from Second Skin, so I might consider #5 heads and a cam just to compensate for the added weight. One area where I am pretty certain I am going non-stock is the exhaust. I am somewhat obsessed with having a quiet car to cruise around in and the stock exhaust is a little too loud for me, especially with the choke on. So I will have to do a lot of research into what can be done in that area as I don't want to trade quiet for a loss of power. I am considering attempting use exhaust components for a modern production car to achieve this, but I might end up installing a factory style exhaust if I can't make this work.
I have read on the boards that a 2.5" exhaust can be squeezed into the car without much trouble so I do plan on at least doing that.
Now, if you're like me, you skip over the text and look at all the pictures first and then read later, so below I'll be sure to post a lot of them!
I saved the original C-List photos, here is what the car looked in the add.
The front end looks pretty good here, but I will be needing to replace the grills and headlight bezels with reproductions as the originals have cracked and broken in some places. I could get by with the originals but that's just cheap and lazy.
The rear tailgate is actually really faded. I think the car was stored in a car port its entire life as the rear as some serious sun damage.
Everything is present, just hasn't had much attention.
The bottom of the seat was reupholstered at some time. The color is an almost perfect match and it is very hard to tell that it's incorrect, but it has just slightly too much blue in it. What made me notice that it was wrong was that the grain actually doesn't match.
This tear is too gone to be patched up, so I had the seats re done.
The back seats were in good condition, the stiching looked like it was just starting to pull a little bit. However the bottom of the middle seat was so dried out. When you sat on it it was like sitting on one sheet of hard plastic, there was no suppleness at all.
This shot was taken in Bellingham just before the border, right after the car came off of the truck. It was certainly relieving that the car was as advertized and not some awful junker that was just sprayed up.
Included in the car was the original order sheet, as well as protecto-plate, manual, accessory brochure and more. I also found the build sheet attached underneat one of the seats when removing them. I played around on google with inflation adjuters and whatnot and I bought this car for less than it was sold new. So you're certainly not making any money owning a Vista!
Engine looked pretty decent, not much has been done to it except for an air filter, plug leads and cap. It's bone stock which I exactly as I wanted it
Currently the majority of the interior is out, for now I've left the wiring harness, carpet and headliner, plus a few plastic pieces. I'm almost running out of storage space at the shop! I snapped a photo when I just had the seats out.
In about Feburary of '17 my father sends me a Craigslist ad where a person in Kamloops, BC was parting out two vista cruisers. Mine is pretty complete so I am mostly looking for green interior pieces to h̶o̶a̶r̶d̶ have just in case. In the corner of one photo I saw a power window button. The guy actually didn't respond to my email, I feared it got caught in his spam filter. As crazy as it sounds, I looked closely at the background of all the photos and found where the cars were on google earth. It was an old transmission shop, called the place up and got the number for the guy. He wasn't interested in my offer to buy the car as a whole but we made a deal for $940 Canadian for all 4 doors, the associated wiring, the power bench, tilt colum and the front vista window.
I waited until late April for the roads to clear and drove up, pulled all the parts and took them home.
Fortunately I can transplant the guts from the doors and the seat into my car without having to use the parts car's parts. The column I will have to paint and swap to my ignition.
The parts car was originally gold which would have been a beautiful color, It was also fully loaded (although a 350), with rear seat speaker, roof rack, AC, power and remote mirror. No 8 track though. It was really a shame it got in this state. It along with it's mate the 72 were apperently used in filming the TV series Arrow, the set guys painted them this awful beige/cream and removed the rack from the 71 so the cars would match.
Two weeks ago I took a week long vacation and spent the weekend plus two weekdays getting the front end apart and removing the engine and trans.
Everything went really well, The car is extremely solid and aside from some tar/undercoat all bolts came undone without much worry at all.
The fenders are almost perfect, there is a tiny bit of rust pitting on the brace of one of them, but I think I can either buy a brace online or have my body guy fix that up. The radiator was pretty gross, I am going to look into either having it recored or buy a new one.
I knew from the previous owner that the A/C didnt work, but when I was disconnecting the condensor I heard a long and pretty loud hiss of R12 escapting (sorry atmosphere ) So the system could still hold pressure. As such, I've decided to have the compressor restored, replace all the lines and o-rings and such and then clean everything out and recharge with R12 rather than replace the system with an r134a system.
Right now I have removed all the trim and windlace from around the Vista windows and am trying to track down a good glass guy to remove them for me. I will likely end up re-using them but I have found someone who said they can reproduce them, it's just a matter of if they can match the tint or not that will decide that for me.
The work is slow on the car. I don't get an opporunity after work to do anything on the car as I opted not to do the restoration work in my home garage. I usually get about 5 or so hours on a weekend maybe more.
Right now the plan is to get the vista windows out safely and then fully gut the interior so I can get ready to seperate the body and put it on the rotisserie.
Ask for help if you run into any problems. A number of members on this site have extensive stashes of Vista Cruiser parts.
Appreciate the kind words. Yes I've already purchased quite a few odds and ends for the car from users on the classifieds here. It's really comforting knowing that while most parts aren't reproduced, there's a good chance I can get an original within 1-2 months. I prefer original parts anyways!
The seats came back from the Upholsterer. He does a fantastic job and I've seen him do Packards and 6 figure cars before. I bought some carpet by the yard from ACC when I ordered the carpet kit as it didn't include enough for the hump to the 3rd seat - I had some extra for the back bottom of the driver seat and the door pannels. Hopefully I still have enough for the hump!
Door pannels are currently getting the carpeted parts replaced and a few minor touch ups. They're near perfect except there is some staining on the fronts by the arm rests - I actually think its from people's arms, maybe skin oils? But since they are in such good shape I have no reason to replace them fully.
Nice car Garrett. i have a 1972 Vista with 3 bench seats. I'm trying to figure out how much extra carpet I will need to buy to cover the area behind the rear bench and the cargo area, plus all four lower door panel carpet pieces. Is one yard enough or do I need two?
Nice car Garrett. i have a 1972 Vista with 3 bench seats. I'm trying to figure out how much extra carpet I will need to buy to cover the area behind the rear bench and the cargo area, plus all four lower door panel carpet pieces. Is one yard enough or do I need two?
Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom, I'll have to get back to you on that one. I did order a little extra when I bought some by the yard because I knew I would use some for the front seat and the door pannels. When my upholsterer is done with the door pannels I will have to check if there is enough left. I need to find my invoice and see how much yardage I ordered.
Firewall is cleaned off. I still have a few bits on the interior side to remove though, but mostly there. I'm still trying to find a good place to send my Frigidaire compressor to be restored though...
Windows came out today (forgot pictures though - ugh!). The front vista window was actually really good underneath, no rot or concerning areas. The window itself does have a small crack it in that was pre-existing, but it came out without any further damage. I already have a spare from the parts car. The side vista windows also came out and didn't reveal any significant rust. The actual side windows is where I found some rust - but I knew it was there. The bottoms of the windows weren't even properly glued in anymore, and theres some rot in those areas.
However, these spots are pretty much the only rust on the entire vehicle and they will not be too much of a challenge to repair.
I'm taking the front Vista window to a glass shop tomorrow afternoon to get some opinions on it. My biggest concern is matching the tint of the original glass. I had exchanged some emails and photos with this shop and they had given me a soft-quote of 3000 CAD for making brand new Vista glass (all 3). Hopefully they can do the job - it would be fantastic to not have to install delaminating glass on a fully restored car.
One other small detail that I need to research too is etching the original logos onto the new glass, but I think that shouldn't be too difficult. I've seen someone do it on the VW forums using a template and sand blasting. It's also something I could live without
Anyways, I'll update with some photos this weekend. The body should be off the frame in the next week or two and onto the rotissiere. I had been waiting until the windows were out cause I was worried that if the body flexed it would break them!
That's great attention to detail Garrett. I've also heard of acid etching glass although I'm not sure how the "artwork" is transferred onto the glass. Good for you for not having a lot of rust around the glass. I thought I had quite little on mine and I've still spent the last few months welding in patch panels. I can send more pictures if if would help you any. Some were on the bottom and rear corner of the side glass like yours and that was the easiest part to repair. The compound curves of the triple layered roof structure was a major pain and the rusty channel around much of the center glass as well.
As far as the carpet goes, I think you already answered one of my questions. It sounds like there IS carpet along the bottom edge of the front bench seat? If you can shoot a few pictures of that seat back, it would be much appreciated... I think I have confirmed that the "missing" carpet from the back edge of the molded carpet kits you buy, to the top of the cargo bay would only need about 18 by 46 inches maximum, so I think 3 to 4 feet of extra material (at 76" width) should be plenty to cover that and the door panels and the bottom of the front seat too. The second row seat back doesn't have carpet because the folding cargo floor is attached to it...
p.s. I wonder if your glass people could bring the price down substantially if they made several sets at the same time? From being on this site for two years now, I think there would easily be enough interest for 5 sets if the price was around $1000 to $1500 for the set.
...One other small detail that I need to research too is etching the original logos onto the new glass, but I think that shouldn't be too difficult...
I thought that too, so I opted for the vendor to do the date coding. Wrong choice. They sandblasted so heavily that it undercut some of the stencil. The worst part was, they put the logo on the wrong side of the glass.
p.s. I wonder if your glass people could bring the price down substantially if they made several sets at the same time? From being on this site for two years now, I think there would easily be enough interest for 5 sets if the price was around $1000 to $1500 for the set.
This is something I had initially considered, but I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bring the price down low enough for me to be able to make my money back fast enough.
The other concern is that I'd like to see the finished product before comitting to multiple sets - maybe I'll order the one set for my car and then see if they can make me more at a good cost. I'll investigate it.
I thought that too, so I opted for the vendor to do the date coding. Wrong choice. They sandblasted so heavily that it undercut some of the stencil. The worst part was, they put the logo on the wrong side of the glass.
That's my concern too. I'm looking into acid and other chemical methods and will use some scrap glass for tests. If anything it's a detail that I am comfortable with not having, no sense in doing it poorly or ruining new glass.
As far as the carpet goes, I think you already answered one of my questions. It sounds like there IS carpet along the bottom edge of the front bench seat? If you can shoot a few pictures of that seat back, it would be much appreciated... I think I have confirmed that the "missing" carpet from the back edge of the molded carpet kits you buy, to the top of the cargo bay would only need about 18 by 46 inches maximum, so I think 3 to 4 feet of extra material (at 76" width) should be plenty to cover that and the door panels and the bottom of the front seat too. The second row seat back doesn't have carpet because the folding cargo floor is attached to it...
You're absolutely right about the missing section of carpet. When I ordered my kit from ACC they stated on the site that there isnt a section included for the rear hump.
I didn't get too great of photos of the back of the seat, I currently dont have the seat tracks mounted on mine so I had to tilt it with one hand and take photos awkwardly with the other!
I've also attached a photo of that 3rd piece of carpet with a tape over top for info.
It was Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, I got some work done but also had to use the long weekend to do some work at the lake - not to mention cooking the bird!
I grabbed some photos of the window areas. Like I said, the front vista window is great, the other two not so much - but nothing that can't be patched with some work. I didn't vacuum before I took the photos so they look a bit worse than it actually is.
Most of the headliner is out and wasn't damaged, I havent done the section over the drivers seat yet. I might have to replace it regardless as the original is getting pretty dry and stiff and I'm worried it won't last me another 50 years.
I also pulled all the carpet out as well as some odds and ends in the interior. I was feeling a little too lazy that day to finish removing all the ducts and whatnot left on the inside firewall though. Other than those bits, I'm almost ready to seperate the body - although the rotissiere is tied up temporarily.
Had a good meeting with the glass shop last week. I'll have to see if I can take some good photos showing the samples I got, but the tint match is very close. I feel like when you look out of the windows from the interior side there is a slight green tinge to it, with the new glass it's almost there but ever so slightly less. Regardless I think I am comforable with it, I just need to confirm a few more details and then I will drop the originals off when the glass shop has time for them. It was very cool walking around their shop and seeing all the curved glass projects they had going, it's really a rare process. From what I've been told, most architectural curved glass that we see on fancy buildings and whatnot often comes from Germany.
With the side trim off a bit of untouched woodgrain was exposed which finally gave me something good to match. Initially I had contacted Sharpline Converting Inc, because they had been mentioned here before as suppliers who had the original patterns. I got samples from them and they were awful! I sent an email back to them saying how the samples look like they were printed by an inkjet printer - turns out they are! They told me that the cost of the original style was getting too high so they opted to use normal vinyl and print the image on. Needless to say aside from looking poorly, it wouldn't survive a week outside.
Next I went to Metro Restyling and checked out their selection of 3M Di-Noc. It's worth noting that this Di-Noc isnt the Di-Noc of old. Now days they seem to use it as a brand name, but the material itself is very modern and high quality. It's a great product, it even has a stamped in grain to it, so it has a feel and texture to it. I ordered samples of every colour that looked close. The Walnut colour was practically an exact match.
I had a pretty busy month at work September, but am hoping to be spending a lot more time on the car now. Especially with Summer officially over, I don't have any boating or camping to distract me!
Nice work! I am especially interested in the roof glass and the wood grain. I also would be interested in new windows if they were cheaper with quantity discounts. I see you are in Vancouver. I wonder if coming across the border shipping would also be a hassle... Anyway it would be interesting to see how much interest there is for reproduced Vista windows. I'll bet if they set up the tooling or whatever it's called they could make a run of say 20 sets reasonably. I'm following along, let us know. Thanks, Greg
Great work! My Vista came from Arizona & all the rust on the whole car could fit inside a dollar bill +/-. The interior & paint were trashed but those are the easiest parts to replace of course. I did not take the body shell off the frame like you're going to do but pretty much every other part that could come off did. I bought a set of mirrored roof glass off of ebay & drove from Indianapolis to Tennessee to pick them up in person for safe transport.
When it was time for the woodgrain, I know of a business that does wraps for semis, work vans, Indy cars & Nascars. They had a catalog with a page of woodgrain & I just picked something that looked close. I hope you have the same success that I did & thanks for all the great pictures.
. I see you are in Vancouver. I wonder if coming across the border shipping would also be a hassle... Anyway it would be interesting to see how much interest there is for reproduced Vista windows. I'll bet if they set up the tooling or whatever it's called they could make a run of say 20 sets reasonably. I'm following along, let us know. Thanks, Greg
It's definitely something I am going to investigate. I live very close to the border and my family has some lake property just across the line so I am in Washington almost every weekend. Any time I sell or ship something to the US I always drive it across myself and ship via USPS or UPS/Fedex from the states. It's super easy for me and makes way more sense than shipping from Canada.
Thanks very much for the pictures of the carpet Garrett! I'm surprised that they have a seam on either end of thee seat back carpet? I'm sure that's how the factory did it, but I wonder why, since the carpet material comes 76" wide.
Your rust issue doesn't look bad at all. I'm especially jealous of your lack of roof rust. (Even more jealous of Scott's. I'd gladly have taken 5 dollars worth of rust ;-) That took a lot of work on mine and my rust was barely visible when I first started. I recommend shooting a rust inhibitor in the hollows before you put the headliner back in. The roof skin is made of bare steel connected to a layer of moist sound deadener. :-)
Last edited by tcolt; October 12th, 2017 at 03:30 PM.
Thanks very much for the pictures of the carpet Garrett! I'm surprised that they have a seam on either end of thee seat back carpet? I'm sure that's how the factory did it, but I wonder why, since the carpet material comes 76" wide.
I recommend shooting a rust inhibitor in the hollows before you put the headliner back in. The roof skin is made of bare steel connected to a layer of moist sound deadener. :-)
I can try and take some better photos of the seat back carpet - maybe this weekend. The seam is because on the ends there the carpet wraps around the frame at that spot. It's kind of tucked in in that area basically, and then the large section on the back meets it there. Are you missing the original seat cover on your car?
Rust inhibitor might be a good idea. I'm going to have the painters paint the roof section inside, I've been looking at this "hydrophobic melamine foam" for sound deadening on the headliner area.
Painting inside the roof might work. Of course there is sound deadening material in most places. If yours is like mine was then that material could be falling apart anyway. I removed mine...
Yes, my seats had been reupholstered by the time I bought the car. I thought the seat back was still the original pieces, but there was no carpet material. I don't know if the 1970s were different than my 1972.
I think it’s great you guys are looking to get new glass custom made. That’s some serious dedication. Some might wonder why, but they will never make cars like these again. Fantastic and pretty hard core.
Body came off this weekend. It's about 99% completely bare, I think there are maybe less than 10 things to be removed from it now. I still have to get the gas tank out some how.
Being a wagon it was a little back heavy, so I put 40 Kg of sandblast sand, two buckets of used wheel weights and some 2" square solid steel in addition to the spare tire up front! I had to get some hardware and will need to make some brackets to fit it on the rotisierre.
I grabbed some photos of the window areas. Like I said, the front vista window is great, the other two not so much - but nothing that can't be patched with some work. I didn't vacuum before I took the photos so they look a bit worse than it actually is.
Garrett. I'm sure you did this. (I didn't). Make sure you note the position and type of clip that is used for all the stainless molding that goes around all the rear glass pieces. My 1972 Vista has three sizes of similar types of clips. Mostly large, about 8 t 10 small and only 2 medium size clips. I'm trying to figure to where the 2 medium size clips went.
Yesterday, I received a shipment with my long awaited replacement window sweeps. I will vouch that they are the best and most correct you can get anywhere. I worked with Mark at Repops who has now added the 1968 to 1972 Vista Cruiser sweeps to his line-up and uses all the correct original rubber and felt profiles and they do a really nice job of putting all the clips in the right places too. Even their inner and outer tailgate sweeps are excellent. I will do a separate write-up when I have a little more time....
Last edited by tcolt; January 20th, 2018 at 07:24 PM.
Being a wagon it was a little back heavy, so I put 40 Kg of sandblast sand, two buckets of used wheel weights and some 2" square solid steel in addition to the spare tire up front! I had to get some hardware and will need to make some brackets to fit it on the rotisierre.
Funkwagon... He's reached the "tipping point" so to speak ....
Other than that the front end is mostly torn down, One or two more weekends and the frame will be sent off to be blasted and powder coated. The steering box will be sent out to be gone over and rebuilt with a better ratio.
The project is moving along well, I've lost a few hours of work due to needing to build more shelving for all the parts! This vista takes up as much parts space as two convertibles!
Been making steady progress the last few weeks. Mainly sand-blasting components which is taking forever. Sitting on the stool working on the blasting cabinet kills my neck too!
The frame is currently at the powder coaters getting finished - should be home next week sometime. Loaded the body into the trailer today and will be dropping it off for blasting next week, then the body work can begin finally.
I also dropped my glass off to be re-made, I'll be sure to post updates on that front. As far as adding the original PPG logo and whatnot to the new glass, I think I can do it with a stick-on stencil and a chemical etching paste. One of the guys at the glass shop had a few ideas on that subject so I'll explore that further.
In the mean time I was trying to decipher what rims are on this car. Are these SSIIIs or SSIIs?
September 10th, 2017, 08:23 PM
) So the system could still hold pressure. As such, I've decided to have the compressor restored, replace all the lines and o-rings and such and then clean everything out and recharge with R12 rather than replace the system with an r134a system. 
....
