JCMC64

All straight forward stuff here...drill holes for the baseplate, then setup a pilot hole for the hole saw drill





Run the cable-

JCMC64

tranny side-


Good enough for now...just tweaked the shifter cable a bit. Then finish securing the baseplate very solid at the rear hump and front tunnel with sheet metal screws. Once I put the interior back together I will replace sheet metal screws with bolts and stover or lucking nuts.


Got to setup the bench seat. First some temp rails to push seat back to a place I can live with....about 6 inches . Mount rails to floor board and then decide exact spot to mount bench seat mounts

JCMC64

This is how far back I ended up mounting it. Its setup about 6 inches further back. Front bolt is where original front seat bolt should go. So now when I push the bench all the way towards rear position, its perfect cruising distance for real tall guys. This is all temporary until I hit the phase of aftermarket seats.
I can drive her now.


But I also cleaned up the seat tracks, rewired the adjust mechanism, respringed the track mechanism, etc and can now also move seat back and forth, adjust forward for even this guy to drive...this is how it all starts...


So seat moves all the way up to the shifter cover for shorter folks. But I cant find the pics right now.

I also replaced the header bolts I had on as the flange is just too thick for normal header bolts. So I got longer 1" ARP bolts...highly recommended.

JCMC64

Im not complaining...but just wanted to let you know that South Florida isn't always what its cracked up to be...this is me working in 90% humidity, soaking wet. That shirt is completely drenched. I cant even lean over the car...thus the plastic under me!


Just another normal day working on a muscle car....


Ive been harvesting parts off 2 Cutlass's in a local yard...found this amazingly nice TH400 flywheel cover off a 70'ish E body Olds, so I cleaned it up and installed it. Not bad for $4.




I ordered some SEM Satin black paint for the Dash plastic and glove box job, misc other stuff i'll be getting into over the remaining summer... I might use it down the road on the FW cover, not sure. Its pretty darn clean as is. It was no where near as nasty as...like Al's was

JCMC64

How about this beauty? One of the gals Ive been stripping.

JCMC64

Well, I finally took her out on the road for a spin. I really didn't want to until the exhaust is finished properly, but I couldn't help myself. Just a ride down the block a bit. She shifted fine, and will put you in the back of your seat alright. Didn't really open her up though, just a couple short hard pulls, and a real minor cruise. Next is getting the titanium collector reducers installed in the next week or so.




Got tons of little stuff to keep me busy in the meantime both in areas of body and interior stuff-- including body prep, polishing all the glass, painting all plastic Dash parts with the SEM dash paint I just got...then putting dash totally together and installing again, more tuning tweaking, continuing stripping all the door parts down to take doors and trunk lid to the media blaster, more parts painting, bolts reconditioning, etc. etc. etc etc etc....

JCMC64

My son took some great photos of the car on a perfect sunny day a few weeks ago. His Iphone photos were amazing, but got slightly degraded in transferring them to PC and then again big time in uploading them here. But they still came out awesome.
Its kind of sad that Ive got a thousand + hours on this car and it still looks like this! Still some fun shots--






The pics lost a lot of definition due to the upload limits of this site.
Those green doors will soon be history! Still fun to see it out in daylight

JCMC64

oldsguybry

Looking great !

jfb

hey buddie i feel the same way about mine and you recieved a fantastic deal! I have a 71 sx 2 barrel and they were meant to be modified by you not a factory custom 442! I had strange options on mine and i modified it to my taste go for it and i would like to suggest that performance would speak for it self think about it we all need this for tommorows youth!

stlbluesbrother

Great shots of the car with palm trees in the background. Man that is clean.

Allan R

Jim, it's all starting to come together. Now with fenders, hood and yellow doors it would be uber impressive! BTW I spent 4 hours under my car today and ended up looking like you in the soaked T shirt. Only I'm better looking... and OLDER....

Very nice work sir! Keep it up

JCMC64

Thank you kind sir!

Thx. Yeah, it was a beautiful day. I will take more pics in similar positions as the car progresses. Backdrop works!

Im with you bro! That's why I went with a car I could seriously modify without guilty conscious. I know my suspension and drive train way out performs a 442, and my engine is right there too HP wise...which will also be modified down the road and smoke a 442 w-30. I really wanted a real 442, but that would be an entirely different project. This one is great to get creative with any way I want. Thx for comment.

Thx AL as always...

Better looking huh?? Is that why we NEVER see any pics of you in your thread?? You got a face made for radio eh?!

Re doors, Unfortunately at first the doors will have to by primer gray for a while. Pass side door is probably going to have to get replaced...too much to restore right. (Ive started on the body a bit over past couple months...pics to come) Ive done a lot of little stuff since those pics my son took, so it will look a lot better next set of sunshine photos I take. Going to throw the rear bumper back on too temporarily. Undecided about hood and Fenders back on or not yet, both already painted...all this will depend on how long it will be in temp mode body wise while funding complete paint job. If Im going to have to wait more than 6 months, I might put them back on. I really want to only assemble once.

Allan R

Jim,
Take your time, do it right. I agree with the one time assembly concept. The reason you never see my face on my thread is I'm the only one in the garage taking pictures....Just bustin on ya about better looking, I just have nicer gray hair !!!

I don't think I could take that FL heat and humidity. But then you'd probably hate our snow and ice season too.

No question that whatever your time frame is to get something done, rule of thumb seems to be double or triple it.

How did all that blue stuff come into the thread in your quote box??

JCMC64

That happens when I copy text off sometimes. Not sure why exactly. I remember that happening last time I did a parts for sale ad too, when I copied info from another ad of mine and pasted into new ad. You then got to go back and re-edit it to remove it and save again. Strange.

Just like you have "bad time of year" periods for work -your winters , ours are summers. They are brutal. We get heat and humidity. Makes it just miserable to work in. Try this stuff at junkyards where the concrete and metal jungle raises temps another 15-20 degrees! I try to go on cloudy days, after peak hours, etc to help with the sun beat down.

As for car, that's why all the body parts are still off. I just don't want to reassemble partially, just to do it all over again. BUT, paint jobs are big $$ to do it right and there are so many crooks down here it might be a while just to find an honest, fair, good shop. So we'll see. I might not have a choice if its going to take too much time. I want to drive the darn thing!!

cdrod

Hey Jim:
I've been following your project and taking notes for my own pending project. What did you end up doing about the header fitment problem? Did you find a brand that would fit without hitting the LCA mount? Thanks, and keep up the good work! Your car is gonna be amazing!
Rodney

oldsguybry

I wish I could be on that program .

JCMC64

Rodney - Not totally happy with the Hooker header fitment. But the ceramic is very nice. The angle of your egine can effect the distance at the bad spot if you think about...but not much. In putting drive train all back together it gave me a mm or two. But its going to eventually be some kind of issue. Its got to rub at some point. Im not going to worry about for now...list is too long! ONWARD soldier!

Lot of things to update...update at 11

Allan R

Jim, a mm or 2 is not enough. Especially when you stand on it that engine is going to torque over and the exhaust will move with it. LOL I have the same problem right now on my rear sway bar, but I might be able to solve that with different shims. Are these Hooker's custom for your 70??

1971cutlas

Keep at it Jim!!,
Get the body assembled and painted .My 71 has fresh paint on it ,but still
a ways to be driven!!!

cheers.
Juve

JCMC64

Allan, if you remember we discussed this earlier in the thread. They are "desingned" for A bodies, including Cutlass. But are not custom to Olds 455s at all. Just generic A bodies. The only thing I could do is to have them custom fabbed, or just dent the tube at the spot it hits, something even Hooker techs said should be done. I could also nick the control arm mount with grinder to give it some more room (probably what I would try first.)

As it is now, they don't touch, and no spot yet on the down pipe there. But it will be issue. For now Im not going to worry about it. Too much to do. I will peel back later to deal with it.

Juve -- Nice ride!! C'mon bro, lend me 5 grand and I will get it painted FAST!!

Ive been taking car out on small drives at least once a week. She is a torque monster. Half throttle and tires spin through to 3rd gear. All the weight off this car is phenomenal effect. No I see why guys go so far out of their way in weight reduction. Its kind of a bug you get, and Ive been effected with it too, looking for ways to shave weight wherever I can. I read one thread where guy had Glass fenders and Rad Core made for his Cutlass, and then drilled out the rad core on top of it!

Anyways, started allot of interior work, installed a temporary fuel gauge and speedo, tightened up all sorts of littler issues over whole car, put temp rear bumper and lights on to get it to muffler shop (been going back and forth on whether to install cut outs after the headers), redid my starter again and figured out problem why starter brace wouldn't line up, tons of tweaking. Im setting up car with a lot of temp setups so Im not having to put new, or restored stuff back on only to take off again when I paint it. (used second set of gauges I had, original rear bumper instead of new one, etc). This way Im not worried about nicking up all the new stuff, but yet make car functional temporary for the road.

I also got a $15 71' OEM starter at the Yard. Bench tested it and it works great. Using Allan R as motivation, Ive stripped the starter down all the way and will fully restore it, including brushes.

SO here we go:
Painted to Dash\ Gauge insert and glove box with SEM paint

Glove box-Before




Finished- cleaned up **** and Cutlass script, hinge was blasted and powder coated.


Gauge insert - Too bad about the radio cutout, but Im not going stock here anyway so it will workout well. (Ive since found a better dash insert at the Yard, not sure yet which one I will use)
Stage 1 - fresh SEM painted

JCMC64

I removed the metal ash tray insert on top and had it blasted and powder coated too. Reinstalled with rivets like OEM was done. Here you can see insert not installed yet.

JCMC64

Here is the paint I used...great stuff.


I got a repop wiper insert and swapped it out:


Leaving the plastic protector on for now...that is what is scratched in the pics, not the insert itself.

Here is that P\C ash tray upper insert that I previously spoke about. Its actually a pretty easy job, if you want to go the extra mile.

JCMC64

Sanded down the ashtray and gave it fresh coat of Satin black. The side rails on these are usually cracked to some degree. I would love to have it blasted and p\c. But cant due to the plastic rails. The rails on this one were ok. Couple of nicer ash trays I got at my local yard were in great shape metal wise, but plastic rails were crap.


Finished product:

JCMC64

Had these horns blasted after carefully covering up the front horn holes.
Primed, sanded, then 6 coats of Satin black. Had one small pin hole in one of them, so I epoxied it, sanded it before top coats.

They weren't working very well, so I did the adjustment trick on them. One wouldn't work at all though. I got a rubber mallet and hit a few times with solid whacks, and wa la, started working again. Adjustment got them tuned in and they are installed and working great.

JCMC64

I found tiny specs of rust starting on the new M\C. One day the car was out in the fresh air, a very light mist rain started and I immediately moved car back in garage. But I guess that was all it took even though I immediately wiped entire engine bay down. So I painted the M\C.
LESSON- Must paint or clear coat everything on car if it isn't coated already in some manner, or it will eventually rust again.




Bumper that came with car was originally primed as PO was doing a Rallye 350 clone car. So I stripped primer off to make a temporary bumper for the street until I get car painted (primer was terrible looking). Im not going to install any permanent bling until car is painted. Also setup a second set of tail lights I had picked up at the yard off a 72' 442. Not going to put my restored ones on till the very end. Also got a great deal on a set of original NOS 71' t\l lenses. For now, im going to use 72' lenses on t\l because who really gives a crap right now. (PS notice the rust in tail pipe! I steel wooled all that out, so its nice and shiny again. Originally car came from a slightly colder area in winter months and had condensation issue first month I had the car. No longer an issue down here in sunny So. Florida.)


Now I can drive car around legally to take to different shops that I will need to.

JCMC64

I hated to do this, but had to...these original panels were in such amazingly nice shape, but had to paint them with same SEM satin black paint to match rest of car interior. I think I should of sold them to someone who needed original minty white door panels, and took money from them and get something else. Oh well...



Came out very nice:

JCMC64

Since I was working on the door panels, I also took care of something Ive been wanting to do with rear panels. The front of them look great, just some Black Magic on them and shined them up very nice. But the backs were needing attention so I sanded them real good and por15 them then reglued the edges of all the panels on the back side. I also used some 3M tack spray under the vinyl where the vinyl was slightly lifting near the bottom of the panels. You couldn't really tell when rear seats were in, but what the heck, do it now anyways.

JCMC64

....you get the idea.

JCMC64

I replaced my tranny cross-member with a better condition one that I had blasted and powder coated. The original one I stripped and painted myself as a temporary (already documented earlier in thread). I had wanted to do this for a while and just bit the bullet and did it. Went in fairly easy after I learned the trick when I first went through this last year. Also installed the SS e-brake system.



New one

JCMC64

E-brake, ILT brand Stainless Steel:

Since I went with aftermarket rear disc upgrade, Im using different type rear disc e-brake cables. Got to use the Right Stuff ones that are an inch longer.
Then have to adjust the ebrakes on the rear caliper which is a MAJOR pita.
Still not working totally right. I will have to call RS tech support since I am modeling their setup for 71' Cutlass rear disc upgrade (they use 79' Eldorado calipers with their mfg mount brackets...works great except for e-brake part)

PS...had to take e-brake pedal off to get cable in. No other way with the spring loaded tension on the cable.

JCMC64

e-brake 2

JCMC64

While I was under car, I installed the tranny kickdown harness and plastic harness hold down bracket.




While I was under car, the starter brace issue I had was nagging the crap out of me, so I bit the bullet again and took it down to figure out what was going on. Although its definitely an early Delco Remy it isn't designed for a Olds starter brace (wrong hole location drilled in starter for the brace, different front cover bolt too I think.) So not one to be defeated, I measured starter brace hole while up in proper spot, installing the brace at engine block...marked spot on starter where hole should be...dropped starter again and drilled out hole then tapped proper thread. So now I will replace the one odd starter front cover bolt with proper one and now it is an Olds braceable starter!

(Funny thing is a week later, I found an original working 71-72' Olds starter at the junkyard and Im in the middle of a complete restore of it.)


Above is the hole I had to tap.

All painted and looking good, for the second time now!



The starter brace lined up perfect and it is now installed the right way- with the brace...only to be removed again to install original 71-72' Olds version im restoring (probably going to sit on installing that one for a while though).

JCMC64

Here is the bolt that I mentioned, is designed for another model car Im guessing.

JCMC64

Been reading up on\ researching starters. The current one in the car now, from the starter codes 7 L4 , looks to be a 77' GM starter with multiple applications.



Decoding the numbers on the one I recently got in the yard (1 J22)makes it a Nov 71' 350 Olds low comp starter for the 72' year cars.



So I will keep an eye out for a proper coded xxxx387 hi torque starter. Why? I don't know, for kicks I guess. Both I have now will work fine. Also just might get a mini hi torque starter. Cool thing though is the full size starters I already have now clear the headers fine. So this isn't a priority at all. Like to learn though.

Allan R

Jim, I also found some information about that bolt. It's for starters that weren't equipped with a starter brace, so you're right that it wasn't designed for your car.

Allan R

Jim, not sure about whether it's 'low comp' starter or not. The 71/72 engines were identical right down to the valve hardened seats for unleaded gas and compression ratios. My starter is identical to yours except it was produced in March 72. Not sure what the numbers after the month code is though.

JCMC64

Hey Allan.
I did allot of research on all this and the original low compression starters for engines like the 350 end with xxxx386 (im sure there might be more info to the story than just this, but at least this much I believe is true.) the Hi comp ones end in xxxx387. Like this pic which comes from an ebay auction for a 72' Hi comp Olds 455 starter.


As for the number after month code, everything I've read indicates that is the day of the month...thus "1J 22" is - 1971 Oct 22.

Havent figured out the 12v and CW designations, CW for "clockwise" built into the numbers somewhere.

I guess hi comp must mean the 10.5 to 1 motors. That part I don't know yet.

My current 77' starter has no problem what so ever in starting my 455 btw.

1969w3155

What I think Allan was getting at is all '71 '72 Olds engines were low compression (8.5:1), there were no high compression engines available.

Allan R

I get the 22 part, what's the 3 after the 22 for? My starter shows it was built on March 1 of 72 but has an 8 after the 1.

I believe the position of the field coils will determine if it's CW or CCW

Good to hear. Why mess with success?

That's exactly what I was referring to Dan. 1970 was the last production that I'm aware of 10.25:1 or 10.5:1 compression in the stock engines.