Im starting this build journal to keep the progress on my cutlass in one place and hopefully to keep me motivated to finish restoring this forgotten body style...

My name is Grant, and I have been wrenching, modifying, and fabricating on cars and trucks since i was 16 and had my first truck. i have skills in MIG/Wire welding, manual/cnc machining, carpentry, electrical/plumbing, just about anything useful. Built 4x4 trucks and jeeps mostly, new to classic cars, but they all have a frame riiiight? I've been walking past this 1976 Olds Cutlass Supreme 4 door for about a year and finally got the owner to agree on a price....$500 running and driving, albeit sluggishly and with a gimpy trans.

The story was it had been sitting forever as a grandma grocery getter, mostly garaged til a year or 2 ago. The grandparents gave it to their grandson with 68k, it has 69,xxxk on the clock right now. he drove it until the SBO 350 engine went, where he pulled it out, diassembled and sent out to be machined. looks like he bit off more than he can chew, cause the engine is still in machine bags needing a rebuild kit to go back together, but a $400 machine shop bill and sealed block + heads are a good sign....in its place he put a 76-78 buick SBB 350 out of an Olds Omega with no power steering, ac, or cruise hooked up...disc brakes up front atleast!

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the day I bought her. after a wash and detail:

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immaculate interior. good vinyl top. little to no rust. I know it has 2 doors too many, and too new to be a real muscle car, but I love the styling, the bench seat for the lady and I, as well as the body lines got me hooked. so Im goin with a stanced out cruiser with a lil growl under the hood.

Rebuilt the Rochester 2gv carb and went out to tune the idle mix screws.....well one burn out later all the forward gears were gone...tranny replacement sooner than later.

Plans:

-Dodged the "455 fever" and deciding to rebuild the SBO 350 with stock intake + 4 barrel Q-jet, stock intake, shaved heads, mild cam (searched rv-can and 204/214, still not sure what to do), HEI, stock exhaust manifolds, and the brand new manifold-back cat-deleted 2.5" single outlet exhaust. CURRENTLY ACCEPTING ENGINE BUILDING ADVICE!! lookin to run premium pump gas with decent street power.

-Replace the TH350 i killed layin one last burn out! have a rebuilt shortshaft TH350 with transgo shift kit going back in, along with a new torque convertor going in as soon as I have a spare weekend.

-20x10" American racing Torque 2s and maybe some new gears/lsd out back eventually. what rear end do these have?

-under dash mount headunit to retain the stock look and replace the speakers in the dash and tray.

-charcoal paint with a pearl in it and new red vinyl on the top. last on the list for sure!

already learned alot here and im sure ill learn more. I love old GM muscle and the fact that oldsmobile isnt as popular as others makes it even better to me.

 

They were a nice body style. I'm glad that you have a 350--my younger brother had a 77 with a V-6 and it was very slow.

Good luck!

Chris

 

Welcome Grant, sounds like a great plan.

 

Im very excited that all the chrome trim and little pieces are here and intact, as I havent been able to find another 4 door cutlass around, so most everything will be rebuilding and TLC.

Great forum, has alot of information I've been able to pull out thanks to the search button. very soon here I will be swapping out the stock th350 with a rebuilt th350 with trans go shift kit and rebuilt converter. will be removed thru the bottom via jacking her up off the floor as higfh as i can get her.........any tips from someone else thats swapped trans? Im thinking the hardest part will be the top bellhousing bolts?

 

Good luck. Its cool to see something different.

 

finally have enough time and $$$ to drop the th350/converter out and get them rebuilt. any tips for removing the transmission? seems pretty straight forward but you never know!

 

Grant,

Nice to see another one saved and put in the hands of someone who cares. I can't imagine too many of those are left so you have a nice rare car.

Not sure how fast you want to go, so my only advice on the engine is set it up so it has as much low end torque as possible. It's a big car that needs to pull off the line and I have seen too many times where people build powerful engines, but they make power over 3500 rpm. Slow off the line unless you're always punching it.

My 71 has the original 350, stock ignition system, a rejetted 4bbl carb and a 2.56 rear and dual exhaust. Pretty much stock, but it will smoke'em at will and pulls really well off the line. If I had the money, I would put in a 200R4 and a 3.73 rear. That would really wake it up.

Look forward to your progress.

 

this wont be a race car being as its a 70's 4 door almost 19 feet long, but i do want to do some upgrades if im rebuilding the motor...

need stock heads machined down (.xxx"?) to get them to work with modern gaskets
RV type of cam (is the one im looking for .204/.214"?)
already have the block and crank machined and balanced
needs a distributer/plugs/wires, so HEI set
stock intake (dont see a benefit from a edelbrock performer here)
4-bbl qjet
i have the stock pistons and rods....rering the pistons and reuse the rods or...?
stock exhaust manifolds
has a brand new 2.5" manifold back, cat delete, flowmaster, single outlet I'll keep

keepin the th350 with transgo shift kit unless sometime down the line i go built 455/th400. less modification to stay stock for now.

 

I have always thought a Colonnade sedan tricked out with good wheels and rubber, lowered a bit with suspension set up for handling, and no vinyl roof would make an exceptional cruiser.

If you're not on 73-77olds.com join up over there too. The Colonnade guys will probably have any parts you're missing. Some of that crowd would kill for that dash.

For whatever reason the 1976 transmissions in all series seemed to be weak. The one in my 76 Regency had been replaced years ago with a 1971 unit and I've heard of many 1976 cars that had premature trans failure, some in as little as 40k miles. Another one of them times the General decided to cut costs...

 

tried joining over there but registration is closed right now. looked around had some good info!

took me an afternoon to leisurely pull the TH350.

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here's my Buick 350, with the culprit for the blown trans on top, my freshly rebuilt and tuned rochester 2 barrel. dont ask me why the previous owners put it in, i give myself a headache every time i think about it. replaced in time...

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top two bolts were easy to get to, those being the trickiest when swapping the trans on my 93 nissan pathfinder.

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threw her in the air like super b&^%$ she is onto some 12 ton stands and started pullin the dip stick, unbolted the axle side yoke straps and broke the drive shaft free keeping the slip yoke/trans side in to prevent lake o' atf. disco'd the kickdown cable on the trans side, speedo cable, gear shift linkage, and vacuum line, dropped the crossover pipe, junked the parking brake system that was mangled and nonoperational from the last owners. car didnt come with a lower trans cover so i guess one less thing to take off and one more thing to buy...unbolted the 5/6 bolts that mated the trans to engine. guess they just gave up at the end haha! busted the 3 flywheel/converter bolts loose, disco'd the cooler lines and got the jack up under the pan on a couple 4x4s. took out the tranny xmember (PITA) and wiggled the trans loose and dropped her down safely with my helper buddy.

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look what I got. and no mess, seperated the driveshaft and trans, drained out the tail shaft into a 5gal bucket. drained the converter as well and its off to the shop over the weekend to be hot tanked and a full rebuild with TransGo shift kit and new converter.

currently it has 215/75/15 tires and stock gears. i was thinkin about puttin on some 225/60/15 tires and keepin stock gears for now....will that mess with my cruisin rpm's too much?

brings me to my 2nd question....being an auto trans i have no dash tac. how would i go about wiring in a under dash or a-pillar tac?

 

oh yeah, ATF was dark brown, smelled burned (but i've smelled worse), and had fragments of clutch floating in it....leading me to guess since reverse worked, but 1-3 do no, i mustve grenaded my forward clutch pack? I guess i will find out soon

 

Personally I wouldn't go with 225 60 15's. Reason being I went with this size on my 77 442 and they just look to small in the back. I think you would be disappointed with the look. I'll try to find a pic of my car later with 225's so you can get an idea.

 

I had forgot 73-77 closed new registrations due to a bad spam attack. PM me with some details and I'll see if they'll let you in. With that car I'm pretty sure you ain't a spambot!

 

well speaking of wheels and tires.....guess what showed up today on my door

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a 9/10 full set of the correct 75-77 Cutlass wheel covers. couple dings but no curb scuffs and great chrome!

which leads me to my next situation to tackle after the trans: the tires. they are all mismatched with the newest ones being date stamped 1979. if im correct. the previous owner said they been on there since he could remember (30yr grandson of the owners). so being as im the second owner id like to give it a second chance haha.

225/70-15 or 245/60-15 will probably be my choice of tires then. seeing as I dont have plans on lowering it and fender gap and stance are major issues on this sedan, i think i will be acquiring 1.5" wheel spacers on all 4 corners. wide body car on narrower axles are throwing the look off. may eventually cut a coil off the the springs to give it a little firmer feel and a slight drop.

anyways....car looks great with the original wheel covers on there, i'll snap a picture when its back outside.

 

had an idea to declutter the front nose clip... move the bumper back 4" and up an 1" and do away with that crappy bumper filler nonsense.



shes got an ugly underbite...

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drilled the supports to relieve the gas pressure in there

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cut 4" out of the extentions, and have some 2.5" .120 wall tube to cut and sleeve the bracket supports. good ol american iron. must be what KIA stands for.....Krushed In Accident...

also pulled the front clip around and shimmed it to the proper gap. previous owners mustve bolted it straight onto the fenders after their engine swap, it had turned the front part of the fenders up! everything lines up great now, I got the body straight now just have to address the half a dozen dings and a scraped drivers door and it will be ready for primer

 

Pretty cool on the fr bumper work, that should look slick when it's back together

 

front bumper supports got 4" cut then sleeved, and ~1" up towards the grill, Im very pleased at how it came out.

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way less plastic up front, I think it came out lookin real clean. gave the turn signal housings a fresh coat of silver paint too

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MIG welds on the bumper support.

 

got the rebuilt TH350 and converter back the other day. Both got a full rebuild and coat of paint, Trans Go shift kit, everything bulletproof enough to run a 455 in front. pretty simple puttin it back in, I think it went better than pullin it out. Trans guy said the forward clutch packs were splinters, 1st and Rev planetaries were shot too.

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bolted up in to the flywheel. lower dust cover goin on the bottom of the bell housing after break in. Shifts firmly and quickly, burns out all thru the low gears if i want her to, this sbb 350 has alot of torque! left the kickdown cable unattached and like how it drives around town and the freeway so I think i'll leave her alone for now.

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out of the garage finally after a couple weeks. great day for a drive! took 4 hours to get the front coils, but I got them out and 1 coil lower in the front while the car was up on stands. wayyyyy less floaty on the road better handling as well with only about 1-2" drop which isnt too noticable. i'll be pulling the rear coils next, but heard its easier than doing the fronts, so I will table that for another weekend. it's too fun driving her right now!

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threw in an a-pillar tach utilizing the stock a-pillar screw and wired it up to the distributor in the last hours of daylight. needed one since the autos didnt come with one, and a lil hard to tune without...

 

good looking 4-door...so rare they have a cool all their own LOL...nice work on the front bumper just realize that if you get hit by or hit much of anything now you can kiss that header panel goodbye...