69442C

Nice to see we share the same opinion on these "politically correct" matters.

What....restored back in 1986! Standards have changed quite a bit since then. Sounds like's it's ready for a good freshening up!! Hmmm, seems like a restoration thread may be in your future! So what do you say....how 'bout it..come on...you know you want to! Just think of all you have learned since then, especially from CO!

69442C

Got a little out of sequence here but here are a few photos of the side glass installed and adjusted. Adjusting the side glass to make it fit is a real PITA!

Allan R

Yup I'd love to do that if I thought I could get away with it. But $$ is a little on the tight side right now.
LOL so ya think my trunk may need freshening? Have a look....

scrappie

What a great resto! Where did you get the restoration stickers for the chassis and type and info for locations?

69442C

Looks like the trunk is just doubling as a storage space for now. What I think I'm seeing here is the beginning stage of a future restoration. It usually begins with collecting parts!! I just think you are in denial about what's really going on.

69442C

Thanks. I purchased the stickers from InLine Tube but they are available from several sources. I think Fusick also sells the same ones. The stickers are identified as to what they are for but the location is random as the factory parts were apparently stickered randomly.

Allan R

No fooling you Brian. Yes it's definitely a collection of great parts. Ha ha, you should see what's in the shed... I don't know whether it will be called an upgrade or resto. There's no way the car will ever be the same as when it left the factory. My goal (as you might remember) is to make it one of the most heavily optioned cars I can (sans AC and 4 speed). The body and frame have no rust - which is a great starting place, and the paint right now? Only thing I would do to it is wet sand. It is BC/CC

scrappie

Hey Brian,

If you don't mind me asking, How much money in parts, rebuild costs and labor do you estimate is invested in this vehicle?
I'm trying to budget a similar restoration.

69442C

This isn't my car and thus it's not my money that is being spent to restore it. Because of this, I don't want to mention numbers. I will say there has been a LOT spent on that car and it's probably more than most of us would spend.

69442C

When it came time to get the engine running, I was feeling like I was on a roll. Unfortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel that I was seeing was really a freight train coming at me. I'll keep this short but the engine just wouldn't run correctly and acted like it had a vacuum leak. I tried everything including replacing the intake gasket/tray, tried another intake, richened up the carb per the carb rebuilder and I even pressurized the intake (all intake rockers removed) to confirm no leak, which there was not. Held a steady 9 PSI for a day. Nothing I tried worked. The engine builder said to bring the engine back and he would look it over. Turns out with all the screwing around, the rings got washed out which involved going through the engine again. The engine had a Mondello JM20-22 cam so it was decided to go a little more mild. In speaking to Comp Cams, they suggested their W30 factory grind cam. Upon starting the engine after this work, it just wouldn't make any vacuum at idle. The engine builder came down to the house and brought another builder with him. After 5 hours of trying everything, there were 3 people looking stupid as we couldn't figure it out. Back to the engine shop it went again. They installed Perfect Circle rings, a new set of custom pistons and everything was put at almost the tightest tolerences. Back in the car again, still the same issue. This was really getting old. The engine builder decided to call Comp and this time he got a guy who told him they were having issues with that W30 grind. It wouldn't make vacuum, had poor tunability and wouldn't idle below 1000 RPM. WTH!!! Yet they continue to sell it!!! Now the cam needed to be changed. I decided to pull the engine again to do the cam change since I was going to need to do more painting on the engine. A Mondello JM20-18 was now used and after the 4th install, it finally was running close to the way it should. I ended up buying a couple of quadrajet books and modified the idle circuit and it runs pretty good now. This set me back on time quite a bit. At one point I gave thought to using velcro to install the engine.

Beob

WOW, what a nightmare. And I thought my resto was a horror. Having to tear down a new engine was one of my biggest fears and you did it several times! You guys must have a lot of patience.
It looks like you're doing an incredible job and glad to see you decided to start this thread.
I haven't been on much lately but will definitely be following this build. Keep up the great work!
Rob

442craig

Wow Brian, IS it "Miller time" yet????

I sure appreciate your efforts. I am (way) behind you on my build but am using your info as pit fall avoidance! So know that your efforts are helping!

Hang in there!

Your pix are a great "how to" for me! Thanks!

Craig

69442C

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your comments and nice to see you are still out there. Your 69 turned out nice and it looks great with the blue/white.
On the positive side, I'm pretty good at pulling the engine in this car. Can almost do it with my eyes closed. Not sure about the patience thing....there were several times that the lights were turned off and I just walked away from it. I was starting to contemplate sacrificing chickens in the garage to see if that would help as I was starting to think this car was cursed. Good thing it didn't come to that.

69442C

Yeah, how 'bout it! I think I'll have a nice big drink when this one is done.

lil_no

What a nightmare?????! I would have been more than POed. You have a great deal of patiences my friend to install and remove the engine 4 times to no fault of your own I must say. Glad to hear it finally got figured out and to bad there wasn't a caution label on the cam warning you of the hell you were about to experience. Good luck with the rest of the build.

69442C

Thanks. It had to get corrected so I did what needed to be done. But I didn't like it. I was at the engine shop when the call was made to Comp Cams regarding their cam. It's a good thing there was a phone line between them and my engine builder and me.

69442C

It was time to start working on installing the front end for the car. The inner wheelhouses are new repros and they fit very well. I was a little worried about how good they would be but I was pleased with them. There was a small variation in the cut out for the upper control arm which required that the splash guards be placed carefully but it turned out fine.

69442C

A few more.

I also installed the cleaned and painted cowl screen and weatherstrip.

scrappie

That is one beautiful car and an outstanding job on the resto. What was your method for getting the fenders on without scratching or chipping the paint? Are the 69 fender gaps a bear like the 70-72?

69442C

I had been having problems with the back drive assembly on the car as I wasn't able to adjust it anywhere close to allow it work correctly. The best adjustment for P-D would not allow me to manually pull the floor shifter down into 2 or 1. When the back drive was disconnected, I was able to shift into all the gears. In the end, I figured out that the arm coming out of the column base was not correct as it was too short, thus throwing off the geometry. I also saw in the 69 assembly manual that Olds had an early back drive set up that did not use the "equalizing bar" which connects between the frame and the transmission arm. Instead, the arm on the trans was different and it had a hole to accept the rod that ran up to the column. I looked at photos of my former 69 442 HT I restored and saw the arm at the base of the column was different than what I had on this car. Fortunately, I still had the parts car column laying around and it had the correct arm. The arm is welded to a tube that goes up in the column and the tube engages the piece on the coumn below the lock bowl that rotates when the shifter is moved or that would have the shift lever for a column shift car. The parts car was a column shift car and the tubes are the same. To fix it I had to remove the column and swap out the tube/arm. The incorrect tube/arm is shown out of the column and the correct one is in the column. Problem solved. The biggest hassle was doing the R&R on the column.

69442C

Thanks.

I spent a lot of time fitting all of the body panels back when I was doing the body work and primer. I also made the gaps just slightly tighter than stock. The assembly manual calls for a 1/4" gap and I knocked them down to to 3/16" as I thought it looked a little better. As part of doing all of the panel fitment, I made notes upon disassembly and taped the shims and marked each grouping as to where they were so I could put it back together the same way. When I installed the painted fenders, I put 3 layers of 2" blue painters tape (not as sticky as regular body tape) along the edge of the door and back edge of the fender and took my time. Knowing what shims went where made for an easier install. In fact, I had the fender bolted in place in about 20 minutes. I had a 71 442 many years ago that I restored and I definitely feel fitting those fenders were much harder than the 69 model. If I recall correctly, I don't think I could ever fit the 71 fenders exactly as I wanted.

69442C

Same process was done for the driver's side fender.

Eddie Hansen

Brian outstanding what more to say? Wow

69442C

Thank you sir.

Allan R

Brian
Got a question for you. You know I did my air dam and I just went back and looked at the A arm seals I installed on my inner liners. Surprise! They are stapled from the inside. (meaning that the staple tangs are bent into the masticated rubber instead of the plastic. I thought the process was to have them the opposite of this to give better holding power on the staples. Can you please tell me in what direction the staple tangs on the 69 are facing? I hate the thought of redoing the A arms but I'd rather do it right. BTW I used the same staple pattern as the factory did on the inner liner and do not know whether it was just slapped together wrong, or whether there is even a right or wrong way to do them? Thx

69442C

Wow Allan, you are really paying attention. So much so that you forced me to go back and look what I did as I got a little worried I may have screwed up. The staples on the A arm seals are stapled from the inside like yours so the ends of the staples were installed pointing toward the tire and then folded over on the rubber. The back set of 4 staples you see where the tangs are folded over against the plastic is for the small rubber baffle that is installed on the inner side of the wheelhouse. I suspect when these were set up to be stapled that all of the staples were installed in the same direction. As a result, the small rear baffles did have the staples applied differently than the A arm seals. I looked at an original wheelhouse I have just to double check myself and this is how they were done originally. Good question.
Brian

Allan R

Thanks Brian, nice to have that confirmation. I'm a little confused about the back set of staples you mentioned. I don't think that's part of the 72 inner liner construction? I'm still torn between leaving well enough alone, or redoing the staples so they are more evenly spaced out. Some are 8 inches apart and some are as close as 3 inches. Really erratic. Your opinion - leave as is from factory or re space them for better holding functionality?

69442C

The rear staples hold a separate rubber baffle that fits along the inside rear section of the wheelhouse. Not sure they really do anything but they are there.

As for your staple spacing, I would leave well enough alone. That's a lot of work to pull the wheelhouses back out just to move the staple spacing around. All you did was duplicate what was there originally and let's face it, that installation stayed in place for 40 years. I'm starting to get a little concerned about you Allan as it seems the restoration disease may have bit you. Once it takes hold, it's a nasty little bugger! Better treat that quickly as one of the side effects is a rapidly diminishing bank account.
Brian

69442C

Here are a few photos of the hood light that I restored. I tore down the original and sent the body of the light out to be plated when other items were plated. The body had some pitting on it but since this light isn't seen very much, I decided to use it again. The original wire was chewed up so I found another wire from an old harness that had the correct spade end on it. I removed the other brass flat terminal from the original wire and soldered it to the new ire...but after I installed the round plastic piece. The small glass cylinder is the mercury switch so don't break that or you'll have mercury to deal with. That mercury switch fits inside the plastic cylinder and it can only go in from one end. Make sure the end that the swicth is inserted into is the end that goes into the light first. If you do it backwards, the cylinder can come out when the bulb is removed. The bulb in the assembly was not correct but it was fine for testing the light function. Worked perfectly. If you are looking closely, you'll see that I had the wrong plastic terminal housing in the disassembled photos but the correct one on the finished assembly. The other plastic housing is what this light plugs into. I showed the original one and a replacement taken from an old interior harness which is in much nicer shape.

Eddie Hansen

Heck can you remember all this stuff? I am ecstatic that your sharing it but I must say I feel like a complete newb mine also has the optional light group but I couldn't tell you if it is original or repo. . Thanks for sharing your knowledge Brian it is much appreciated...

69442C

The front fender fillers, as I will call them, had the small holes stripped out from past people tightening the screws too much. These fillers go in behind the front edge of the fender and a screw goes in through a hole in the fender and pulls the filler up against the back of the fender. The chrome eyebrow molding studs also fits through this filler. The filler also has 2 holes where bolts pass through to attach it to the edge of the radiator support. I bead blasted the fillers, mig welded the holes a little to close them up, drilled them to the correct size and then painted them. They were first sprayed with black epoxy primer and then the fronts were painted silver to match the grilles.

69442C

I've seen other threads on CO where there was discussion on what type of silver paint is correct for the fender fillers or for the grilles/headlight housings/headlight bezels if someone were refinishing original pieces. I bought reproduction parts from Fusick so I called them to get their input. Like I had read elsewhere, they told me that Kyrlon Dull Aluminum was the closest they found. OK, sounds easy. But it wasn't. No one carried that color of paint around here and those that said they could get it told me I would need to but a case of 6 cans. I found some places on the Internet that said they sold it but I didn't want to pay a bunch of shipping (and handling) for a stinking can of spray paint, not to mention wait a few days for it to arrive. So I started digging around to see what I had that may work. I have quite a few cans of spray can paint from doing these restorations and there were various silvers. I had an old fender filler that I was using for testing and nothing was working out all that well. But I finally got one and I think it's a 100% perfect match. I used Duplicolor Silver Brake Caliper Paint #BCP103. The pictures show the painted fillers up against one of the new repro headlight bezels. I took a photo with and without the flash. To me, it's a perfect match. Even the amount of reflection on the paint is the same as the headlight bezel paint. This paint is thin so hold the can back about 14"-16" and just spray a light coat of paint. Let that coat dry for 10 minutes (per the instructions on the can) and repeat this 2-3 more times so you have 3 or 4 light coats that are sprayed. And this is what you'll get. Perfect match and readily available at most auto parts stores.

RetroRanger

Good info Brian

i looked around for the dull aluminum when I redid my tailights and finally bought it off amazon. In a strange twist the order was fulfilled by my local hardware store (who didnt carry it in the store but online) In the end I can vouch for the dull aluminum being a great match, but I am happy to have an availible alternative

thanks and thanks for sharing your fantastic work it inspires me and Im certain many others

69442C

Glad to offer what I can.

69442C

Thanks.

69442C

Here's a little tip for those who don't know how to deal with this issue. Many times when the front sheetmetal is installed, the fenders will not be level across the front and will droop toward the middle. If you look at these photos and look at the line on the fender where the chrome eyebrow moldings go, you see they are drooping down a little in photo 4. This means the radiator support needs to be raised slightly by installing shims between the support and the support bushings. InLIne Tube makes theses shims and there are 4 to a pack. Each is 1/8" thick and I installed 2 per side. If 1 per side works, that would be fine too. Photo 7 shows them leveled off althong the pass side look like it's still down, it wasn't. Just the way the photo was shot. The driver's side can be seen leveled off.

69442C

I forgot to attach the photo of the shims installed.

allyolds68

After looking at hundreds of pictures of 68's and trying to line my own for hours I'm convinced that 68 fenders and hoods weren't produced with particularily good QC because the passenger sides all line up perfect and the driver's side's have the "droop". I've tried everything (including shimming up the core support there) but if you disconnect the lower front brace and "sit" on the front driver's corner of the fender you can get the fender to "pop" out slightly over the wheel. This levels the horizontal place where the nose trim bolts. The only problem is there's no way to hold it in that position (unless you sit there forever )

69442C

The repop grilles, headlight housing and headlight bezels were installed. Had to play around with the fit of the headlight parts a little and they still aren't perfect. For now, they will stay that way as I want to keep things moving. When the car is almost done and before I install the bumper, I may see if I can adjust these any more. You can see how well the caliper paint on the center support matches the grilles.

I also installed the AC lines. I sent the originals down to Classic Auto Air and had them duplicate them using the new style barrier hose since 134A will be used. But I had them re-use the original fittings and the orignal muffler. The repop hoses are not an exact match and the muffler is not the same either. Since I wanted it to look like it was originally, this path was taken.

Eddie Hansen

I must say the grills and stance of a 69 442 look absolutely sinister. Love it I may be a bit biased lol.