Hello all. I joined and introduced myself in June but didn't have pics. Now I do and have somewhat of a plan. My project is a 59 Super 88 I bought in May. It seems to be in very nice shape. Runs pretty well but needs a lot of detail work, some rewiring, replace/connect vacuum lines/hoses, etc. I also want to go through everything and clean/repair/replace/paint. I started working on it a couple weeks ago and plan to make it my winter project. The pics are from when I bought it.

I have a tiny one car garage that the car barely fits in but I also have a basement shop where a lot of the work can be done. I also have a restored 46 Ford to sell next spring which will finance (after the fact) the Olds. This is my second olds. Had a 66 Cutlass S in 1968 which I wrapped around a tree during a period of youthful intoxication.

Anyways, I'll be looking for lots of advice as I nurture this beauty back to glory!

 

Here's a couple more.

 

The upholstery was not the best but looks good and I may put it back in. Unfortunately, the po didn't deal with the rust on the floor or in the doors. The paint job is a 40 footer. Bumpers need rechromed as does most of the dash chrome. It had a left front fender bender, Grille is wrinkled but have another. More pics as I go!

 

You've certainly got a nice, restorable vehicle there. I'm guessing that red paint treatment on the rear spears is not original, although it looks well enough done that it could be mistaken for that.

The trunk, though, is obviously not original.

Why is the dash all pushed in? Did you do that to get at things, or did the PO leave it that way?

 

Man wish my 72 was in half as good shape as yours good luck with her

 

Thanks Jaunty and 72cutlass. You're correct on the red paint and the trunk. The whole dash is the way the PO left it. I also got many boxes of parts and some extra trim from him. I have three speedo's for example. Not sure if any work. Only one has the printed circuit board on the back and it looks to have been repaired several times,

I'm not going to be a purist on this car, don't have the money or time. This will be my daily driver mostly. I'm retired so I don't drive that much anyway. I want to repair/stop the rust, repair the body with metal and make the whole car look great. That said, I'm not sure how I'll have it painted or how much rechroming I'll have done. All bodywork will be done by a pro. I'll do the dirty work and wrenching.

 

Looks like a cool project. Always have liked the big Olds

 

Nice interior, welcome to CO.

 

Is it possible to move this thread to Major Projects. I have more progress and photos but don't want to put them in the wrong place

 

Thread re-located to Major build. will expire here in one week

 

I've stripped the interior and trunk upholstery and was pleasantly surprised. Not much rust on the floor and what is there is surface rust. I expect to wire brush that and use rust converter. Trunk looks good except for the spare tire well which has some small holes in the bottom. I think the PO used OSPHO here and there because of the black areas in the trunk and under the back seat. I'd like to treat everything, then prime and paint.

 

A little uglier behind the panels. Heavier surface rust and maybe deeper in some places. I'd like to clean inside the doors and treat and paint but not sure how. Maybe media blast? Also see some worms in the drivers side door. The bodyman will remove all the filler and re-repair. But, again, how to clean and treat inside the panels and doors

 

I'm trying to add pictures but keep getting this message when I upload in Manage Attachments. I sent the message to the administrator a few days ago but no reply yet. Anybody have a solution??

"Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error."

 

i got that one time a while back , but dont remember the resolve

 

John, that 59 is one one of my all time favorite Olds. Finish it and I'll trade you my 65 442 for it. Ha Ha. Funny because I got alot of love in mine and made alot of friends on the way to building it.

 

John, I'm so happy to have seen your topic here. I'll drop you a private message. We recently held our first Pacific Northwest 1959 General Motors cruise in the Tacoma area, and we're already planning another gathering for next August. We have connected with other owners from Portland and other locations in Oregon. One of my friends shot this brief video of our recent event, giving you a taste of the cars we hosted for this first event. We'd love to extend an invitation to you for our future get-togethers.

http://youtu.be/9NLA3mC4f-c

 

John, that 59 is one one of my all time favorite Olds. Finish it and I'll trade you my 65 442 for it. Ha Ha. Funny because I got alot of love in mine and made alot of friends on the way to building it.

Grandpa - Do I HAFTA finish it?

 

Finally back at posting. Had to resize a bunch of pics.

Have taken the front and back bumpers off. Both need help. Really could use a new front bumper. Back can be rechromed, maybe in sections.

 

Left front was wrecked. Grille crinkled ( I have another one that's straight ), fender repaired but must be done again.

 

Nice lookin' car, John!

By the way, that "expired token" message means you're taking too long - you only get a certain number of minutes to have a reply page open, then the cookie expires. If you start to post something, walk away for a while, then come back to it later, you'll get that message.

- Eric

 

Took the interior out. Mostly surface rust. Some repair was done to drivers door. Can see worms coming through! Going to be hard to clean and treat inside of doors and rear panels. Trunk looks pretty good. Hole in bottom of spare tire well. Body guys will repair.

 

Overall, I'm happy. Rust in many places but not through except in a very few places. Hopefully won't find much more when media blasted. Even the door bottoms look decent.

BTW, thanks for the tip MDchanic! Had gone to bed. BTW, what are you doing up at 4am on a Sunday??

 

Great tread , I just bought a 59 Olds 2 dr post down here in Texas, it doesn't have any engine and trans , its a project car, but it doesn't have much rust and its mostly complete.

 

4AM your time is 7AM my time, and I'm leaving for work!



You're welcome.

- Eric

 

Well, the media blast revealed more rust and after sanding, still more! With the motor and transmission out and the body pretty much apart, the car is now at Jazzman Customs here in Portland. They have sanded the entire car and identified all the areas that need to be repaired. There was way more rust than I knew about but Rick (Jazzman's owner) tells me the car is a relative virgin. Anyways, the repairs are being made and they are being done right.

I also made the decision to make this a frame off restoration. My reason for a "frame on" was that I didn't have room in my Model T sized garage for a frame and a body. In January, I'll tow the frame home for cleaning and painting while Jazzman keeps and continues to work on the body.

Here are some current pics of the body work.

 

That's going to be one nice car when you're done!

 

I am jealous! A pict of my "turd in waiting" I may have some front bumper pieces let me know what ya might need.

 

Oldsmaniac: Your "turd" could use some polishing but it will be amazing when done!

Thanks for the offer on bumper pieces. I have a complete front bumper but some parts are pretty rusty and I won't be able to afford replating for a long while based on what the body repairs are costing. In order of priority, I need the bottom section, the right end piece and the left end piece. I've attached pictures of what I have. If yours are better I would be interested in them.

The first 4 pics show the rust all along the bottom section. It's pretty bad. The third and fourth pic show the right end piece and the left end piece. The fifth pic shows the right end piece of the rear bumper, just in case ya got one of those collecting dust.

All of my stainless needs some work but I have some extras if you need. The only stainless I'm seriously in need of is the drivers side rocker trim. I have a workable pass side but can't locate any driver's side. Have some other stuff too. Let me know what you need!
John

 

yikes! the underside of the bumpers on my'60 88 look pretty much like that too! whats weird is the top half of the bumpers look nearly perfect but underneath they are rusty :/ hard to find for a car body style they only made for 1 year!

 

I agree. Tops on mine are not perfect but OK.

 

I only came up with one end that is better than yours. No dents nice shine still for a driver but a small rust spot or 2 underside. some white specks if you look close.... 25 bucks plus shipping if interested.

 

Oldsmaniac: Thanks for checking, I'll take it. Will PM you Friday.
Thanks,
John

 

I've heard or read messages referring to a "breather tube" located around the back of a 394 engine. There is no such animal outside the engine on my car other that the oil fill tube. Closest thing I have is what is shown in the pics below. Should there be more?

BTW, I finally wrestled the dist out based on advice given here. My pickle fork fit perfectly. I put a small block of wood on the edge of the block for a fulcrum and it popped out.

This is the motor after one coat of Bill Hirsch paint. It covered pretty well but I went back and did a second coat to get places where I had left brush marks. Anyways - "breather tube"?

Thanks,
John

 

Thats it but the down pipe is missing....I think I have a pict of one... if interested.

 

Oldsmaniac - I'm interested. a PIC would be great!

 

Its nothing more then a piece of bent pipe wil 45 degree cuts on eack end and a bracket that holds it to the rear of engine. I sold the top piece from this one and am not sure what attaches this to the part that is on your engine.

 

Hmm. Guess I'll have to research this a bit. Assuming the size is right, I can see where that pipe might go in the silver thing on my motor but what would keep it tight and seal it. Is that what the top part you're referring to does?

 

Great project John...one of the prettiest hardtops ever designed! Keep up the good work!

 

Been awhile since I've posted and there have been a few changes. It's now a frame off resto because the folks at the custom shop (Jazzman's here in Portland) have a cart to keep the body on and are still able to keep working without the frame.

As I started on the motor I soon discovered it had been rebuilt not many miles ago. I took off the valve covers, manifolds and valley pan and everything looked really good. Normal wear in normal places but nothing even close to excessive. So, I decided to let it go and put it back together. Replaced the choke heater tube in the intake manifold and reassembled what I took apart with new gaskets, etc.

I did rebuild the distributor, generator, fuel pump, starter, PS gearbox and PS pump. Still have to rebuild the PB master cylinder. It ran well before I started this project so I'm going to leave the carb alone unless I have problems later. It has a rebuild tag on it anyway so it has had attention.

The motor and trans were cleaned up and painted and look pretty good now. I decided to go with the original engine color from Bill Hirsch but I also decided I'm not going for an exact restoration. So, the components under the hood will be glossy black or cad silver. Cleaned up the transmission and painted the pan and cast parts black. I cleaned the aluminum and simply "cleared" it.

 

If you need any parts, let me know.... Decided to part mine out.