This will likely take several years. I am starting this thread a little early. This car is part of the barn find from early this year i bought out. I plan to restore this car and keep it. from what i understand, this car sit since he got it in 1981. I plan to ask him more details about it soon. I will start with the pictures of it in the pole barn and getting it out of the barn. I don't know where it sit before it was put in this barn but it was in this spot for at least 12 years.

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i had to get it out of the garage tonight to clean a place for the wife's van for the winter. i have almost all the original parts. the only thing i don't have is the original distributor, carburetor and engine block. i have a correct carburetor but it is a newer date code. the F heads, intake and exhaust manifolds are correct date codes. It is a very solid car.

 

My first question is about body mount bushings. did they tape them on before setting the body on? it looks like this was tape or something?

 

You can do it

 

Looks like a great project. I am sure it will turn out beautiful. As you can see I have her twin sister minus the W30 option.

 

Looks like a great starting point for a frame off. Nice and solid, looks like there is very little rust, which is always a great thing.

 

Things are looking good for this car. I will get to start on it sooner than i thought but that may not change the completion time. It will be done when it's done, I am in no hurry. I learned that the hard way. I got some quotes for many things for this car and today the body man came by to look at it and come up with a plan. His quote is exactly on the dollar of what i had hoped to not go over. I had described the condition on the phone but after he looked at it i think he was surprised that it really was as solid as i said it was. He did find a small amount of rust on the passenger side quarter that i didn't know was there but it still is not even close to needing a new quarter installed. The only panel that i have to replace is the passenger front fender. It had been in a fender bender at some point and It will be to much to try and fix. I have another nice 70 fender i will use.

Found that it does have the original carpet. I knew it did but this confirms it.... Also found a Burger Chef salt packet. Everything I find in this car is right out of the 70s
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cool good luck, remember that the normal warning is expect to pay 1.5 to 2 times what the shop tells you. Most of us have found it to be 2 -4 times. Never sign a contract for work that is time and materials - unless you want to, and have unlimited funds

 

This body guy is the son of the guy that painted my Rallye 350. He is better than his dad but cost twice the price. They are very accurate on pricing so i hope that don't happen. He don't do contracts. This guys best friend is as good or better as he is but has a collision shop and quit doing restorations. That is ok because i can't afford his friend at $75 per hour. These two guys are the best in the entire area.

 

That's a very nostalgic barn find! I love the factory eight track. Good luck on your build/restoration.

 

Good luck with your restoration. Looks like fun.......and expensive!

 

I am very excited right now. I was digging around in the car today and found a home made name tag with a business on it. I came inside and started looking up the name, business and city that was on the tag. I couldn't find anything on the net so i tried the old fashioned 411. I was shocked to find that the name was listed. I found a girl that said She thinks this was here dads car. She said she remembers seeing an old blue hot rod in a picture from when here mom and dad got married. Her dad has passed on but her mom will be home later today. I will call back and see where it goes. I desperately hope i can get a copy of the pictures they have. Would be even better if i can get the car done and drive it there to let here mom see it some day.

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I talked to the lady. Her husband is the original owner. She said it is very possible that she has the original paper work for the car! She said she does have pictures of the car. She was married in 1971 and if i understood right, there are pictures of it then. She is going to try and find anything she can for it and let me know. I told here when i get the car done i would drive down so they could see it. They are 6 hours south of me.

 

How cool. Hopefully you can learn a lot of history about the car.

 

wow, you just keep hitting pay dirt, congrats!

 

I guess you have to start somewhere. As it turns out, I started with the A/C condenser. As i get time i am going to restore parts and pieces and then when they are needed or i have the money to take on higher priced parts of the project I will at least have some stuff done.

This condenser leak checked good at 300 lbs of nitrogen. I have another nice one i thought about doing to sell but not sure what these OEM R12 condensers would go for or if it would be worth my time. Anyone know what a reworked condenser would go for?

 

The wife to the original owner still has not found a picture of the car but did send me a picture of her husband in 1970 and a letter. As it turns out his grandmother got him the car as a graduation gift. He had health problems in 84 and was partly handicapped till he passed on in December 2011. We have talked several times in emails and it is amazing how much alike her husband and i are. I am printing all the emails and keeping all of it with the documents from the car.

I started on a couple little details for the car but mostly just preparing. I should start on it real hard in early May.

 

She found the pictures. They don't show much but still LOVE having them. From what i can tell, It don't have stripes like she said, Hard to see in the pics. I have also sanded down the paint to the original paint and i can not find any color other than the original blue. I do believe now that this car did not have stripes. I also found a document in the car just tonight that is from 1971. It is a state inspection report and has her husbands name on it. She has included details about each picture she send. There are others she sent also. Even sent a picture of his grandparents that bought him the car.

Looks like i am still on track to start taking it apart in May.

 

Good looking project. Eric. Cool stuff in finding pieces of its history

 

Awesome.......and Congrats.
I'm trying / been trying to guy an original owner 70 W-30 for years now - about time to stop and talk to the owner again.
I see a Red Olds in the garage pic - did you get that one also - looks like the same one you have lined up next to your Rallye 350.

 

I got 5 cars from that barn. I did get that red one and still have it. It will be for sale soon, It is a real W-30 but no documentation and non original engine and transmission. I tried to sell it last year and couldn't get what i needed out of it. I decided to pull out the red inner fenders and selling it as a regular 442.

 

Great to see you starting on this one.....it is cool how you can piece together a few tidbits of somebody's life by what we find in these cars.
I found a motel receipt in my 442 from 1971. Interesting thing was the motel was located only a couple of blocks from the owners home. It was for one night..........ummmmm

Ted

 

Great story so far.

 

Eric - that car is going to be awesome! Love the pics too. As nice as my green 442 was, I hated that I had zero history on the car. This one is different having bought from the original family. Somebody should start a thread about unusual items found in old cars! So, far, I've found a little packet of 'Love Drops' in the glove box and a garter belt in mine. And the original owner was supposedly a son of a preacher! Oh well, guess the women liked the 442! Good luck with your restoration and look forward to following the thread.

 

Well definitely no stripes in that picture, not even the standard 442 stripes so it looks like it was a stripe delete car,

 

2blu442 started one around a year ago but i can not find the thread.

I went out tonight and found more stuff. I have gathered many documents from 1971 with the original owners name on it. Only one with mileage. I also found drive in theater tickets. I am sure it is from the younger couple in the above pics. They were married in 71 and the tickets were dated at that time. She said his grandmother ran a grocery store till she was 95 and lived to 106. I found a couple receipts from that store also dated 1971.
I am looking forward to driving the car down and see her after it is done.

 

Hey eric what shade of black did u paint your cond. And what paint did u use, i have mine striped down but don't know what paint to use was thinking of just using a rattle can of satin black, can u advize me
thanks ray i also got the tracking #

 

Very nice project eric, it's good to be able to get the history of any car as u have done and to want to show the original owners the car as it was new will mean the world to her and i'am shore bring back many find mimories of there past. U should be able to find the built sheat on this one and as u said take your time restoring it as it will come out as u would like

supper storie ray

 

I used Eastwood radiator paint but any satin high temp engine paint would work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...9SIA1NW0F40083

 

jensenracing: the body mounts were not taped in place! The guys in the "body drop pit" had very little time to put the mounts in place, probably 20 or 30 seconds before body was placed on frame.

 

Thanks for the info. I am looking forward to seeing what it is because i found some on other bushings also. Could it be that the bushings came to the guys with the top and bottom bushing taped together as a set to where it was pulled apart before setting into place? This would likely leave some tape on some of the bushings if they were in a hurry? It may not be tape at all but whatever it is it's on at least 3 bushings.

 

is the car you referring too a Lansing "M" built or other Assembly Plant?

 

It is Lansing built. It is a W-30 so it had to be.

 

I took the certification decal off tonight. I had thought about putting this back on after the car is done but now I think I am going to put a reproduction on it and just keep this with my other documents.

 

Eric, you are the man!!! As to the blue door sticker---I was having thoughts of saving mine, but the jambs looked so good, I got a new one and display the original with all the other documents. That old sticker won't look "right" in a perfect door jamb.
Good luck on the resto. and keep us updated on any progress. PM me sometime, I have a good story for you involving a Yellow car.

 

Not to highjack this thread but since the subject came up...

For those of you who have removed these door jamb stickers during a restoration. I know they are available as reproductions but how would you reproduce the build date and vin #'s? I don't see how you could easily do it on a computer printer and old typewriters are not readily available any more. What would the correct font type and size be?

 

http://ecsautomotive.com/

 

I have a correct one done by someone who only offers this to his customers. You only pay for the decal(s). I got one for the car and two extras. It has the identical font and number/letter size used by Olds. So it can be done!

 

New toys came in today. These Wiseco pistons were back ordered for 3 months. I am not going to build the engine till late summer or fall but started ordering parts because I always hear of long back orders on Olds parts. I do not have the original engine block so I will be doing upgrades to the engine. It will still use the original intake, exhaust manifolds, heads, carb and distributor. Just lighter rotating assembly, all roller and a little hotter cam that will still work with A/C.

Looks like I am still on track to start taking the car apart in May. Big garage clean up this weekend to prepare.

 

Wasn't the door sticker reproducer Bob Reeve, CarShine automotive, in MI?

http://www.manta.com/c/mmgzmvp/car-s...mobile-rfnshng