1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe -Parts 1 and 2
August 5th, 2013, 09:30 PM
#1
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 110
1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe -Parts 1 and 2
Classic Oldsmobile Folks -
Brand new to the forum, and very glad to be here. There's a 49 year history with me and this car. A few times the prospect of restoring it very nearly got away from me. For now, I will just hit the highest spots and save the "saga" for another day.
My car is a 1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe, 4 barrel Rochester, Jetaway transmission. Originally beige with a white top, and saddle interior. I remember when my dad brought it home for Mother's Day in 1964. We had been to a few car shows, and from all the new cars that year they liked the Cutlass best. I was in the fifth grade at Annandale Elementary, in Virginia. After that, my sister and I basically grew up in that car, including family trips to South Dakota, Alabama, Florida, and like that.
Here is something I did not really appreciate or understand about the car until actually pretty recently. My dad is Norwegian from South Dakota, which explains more about the man than any other single fact. His Guard unit was called up in 1942, and he went into the Army Air Corps, and became a bomber pilot, stationed in Britain, flying missions into France and Germany. After the war, the Air Force put him through a B.S. in Engineering, from Purdue, which is a pretty serious engineering program. Then they put him through the M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering program at Cranfield University, UK. At Wright Paterson he was a design engineer, but still flying enough to keep his wings. There he was one of the SAC engineers on the B-58 Hustler, America's first and only super-sonic jet bomber. It's design purpose was to payload nuclear armaments into the USSR. So he was, in fact, a serious mechanical jet engineer and pilot. In 1964 he was at the Pentagon. That is the background of the man who in 1964 chose the Cutlass Holiday Coupe over every other car in America. The car was air conditioned, yes, and auto trans, and a family car, but the radio was the simple am radio, with only the dash speaker, to check the weather. A pilot has to check the weather, obviously, but that's about all he wanted or expected from it. In 1964, that man chose the Cutlass. My mom chose the colors.
In 1966, we moved to Europe, Paris in fact, and the car came there too. We had it at our modest home there, and my dad's drive to work went through the Bois de Bologne, to his office at Place de la Concorde. He was USAF attached to NATO. He and I alone drove the Cutlass to Normandy, about 24 years after he flew a B-17 before, during, and after the invasion. As a family we drove to Florence, and Rome, all over Switzerland, and ferried the Cutlass from Calais to Dover, and drove on the wrong side of the road all over England, including downtown London. We drove in post war Germany a lot as a family, but it was just me and my dad who drove to Berchtesgaden, and from there to the Eagle's Nest. Later we moved to Brussels when De Gaulle kicked out NATO, and the Cutlass was there too.
My mother was rear-ended by a truck in Paris, probably 1967, and that old-style body work (gas welded and loads of lead) truly came back to haunt me decades later.
We returned to Annandale in late 1969, and the "Dream Boat" then was mainly my mother's car, as my dad bought a 1966 Beetle for his daily drive to Andrews AFB.
In about 1976 I bought it from my dad for $100.00. He didn't particularly want to sell it, but I needed a car, and that was the price. When he signed over the title he looked straight in my face and said, "Don't ever sell it. It's a classic." I drove that car, and for a while even slept in it, until 1991.
From 1975 through about 1985 I was mainly a welder, part-time outlaw, and sometimes a college student. The Cutlass was my daily driver, and I took it up to about 188 thousand miles. In 1988 I moved to Charlottesville, to study at Mr. Jefferson’s University. By about 1989, the Cutlass was truly needful. That was the first time I took a shot at getting a restoration started.
I bought NOS stuff pretty voraciously in those days, from Hemmings, and OCA members, and paper lists from retired geezers, typed letters, mailed paper checks, and made a lot of telephone calls. There was no Internet back then. I was pretty-well Olds connected at the time, however, and actually went with a friend to the 90th anniversary in Lansing, driving his 1964 88 open car, pulling a trailer with his 1904 curved dash Runabout. And yes, he and his buddies climbed the capital building stairs that year.
In Charlottesville the 330 engine came out and was re-machined. Steering and suspension was replaced. There was rust in the quarters, so I bought and had shipped to Charlottesville solid quarters from Arizona. I tore down probably 20 of these cars collecting parts, particularly from "Leon's Auto Parts" south of Culpepper. (Leon, Jr. remains a friend to this day. If you've never been to that yard, maybe you've truly never been hard-core-junk-yarding.)
I collected an enormous amount of stuff, for instance two clocks, vacuum trunk system (with the correct lock stem), bumpers, floor mats, clips, trim, and on and on. I cut off the rear section from a rust-free sedan, plus got its deck lid, fenders, and hood. I had a lot of stuff, and tools, and skills, just no place or time or money to do the "body off" job it needed.
Then, kind of suddenly, I had to move with own little family to Dallas Texas, in 1991, for a job. I packed up all my parts, moved them here, and put them in Public Storage. I drove the car to a friend's farm in Virginia and parked it there, on the open ground under a tree. It was supposed to be there for a year, maybe two, but not more. That turned into seventeen years, with a lot of mountain rain, fog, snow, mud, and rust. The Cutlass sank down to its axles, and became habitat for generations of squirrels, racoons, and snakes. Every part of it (inside the dash, and the rocker panels, and every other nook-and-cranny) was filled up with poopers, and hickory nuts, and nesting materials, and like that. I visited the Cutlass a few times over the years, but was not in any position to bring it to Texas. And for the longest time there was no point to it anyway.
What happened is this. I was in Dallas about a year when I went to Public Storage one day and found that all of my NOS was gone! Stolen, all of it. A lifetime of tools were gone too. My used stuff, and my sheet metal, was still there, however, including my drum-to-drum restored differential. It was an inside job, the crook cut through an interior wall to get to it. I was crushed, to put it lightly. That was the end. I could never replace what was lost. It was over. I ran a reward ad in Hemmings, but nothing came of it. Slowly and painfully I put the whole thing out of heart, and let it go, or tried to anyway. I was living in an apartment, working 80 hours a week, and there was just no way I could start over. I sort of let it die. I did, however, sue the sh*t out of Public Storage and took a pretty fat check from them. Not nearly enough, and that did not fill the void in me. (Some years later I figured out that the guy who stole my stuff went to prison on drug charges and was murdered there. That's a good thing I suppose.)
Maybe two years after the theft, a very odd thing happened. I got a call from a guy over near Fort Worth. He owned a cherry 64 442 that he inherited from his dad. Plus he was a fellow OCA member. Turns out he bought a giant cache of 1964 parts out at the big flea market in Canton. As he was going through this amazing treasure trove, it slowly occurred to him that there was no way anyone would sell this stuff. It was a complete collection of NOS, from the eye brows, to new fender scripts, the full set of long moldings, a crack-free steering wheel, all four wheel trims, a complete interior from Fusick, everything. He knew something was very wrong with that picture. He figured out that it must have been stolen. So he set out to find me. My address in Charlottesville was all over the boxes, so that is where he started. Now mind you, this was around 1993, and there was no Google. He did it all by telephone, and that was not easy because I do not leave a lot of tracks. But he found me, and called me at home one evening. After some very apprehensive preliminaries, on both sides, he proposed to sell the whole cache back to me for what he paid for it. That was fair to me, so I bought it all back, and about 95% of what was lost came back to me. Gotta like Olds people. (I found out just last year that this good man died very suddenly about five years afterwards. Yet, I do know people now who knew him well back then, and they even knew the story about my NOS years before I met them.)
From the time of the theft until 2007 I flatly refused to own so much as a crescent wrench. I figured, "If I don't have it, you can't steal it!" I was that dead inside about it.
When I got my stuff back (not the tools, however, I never saw them again) I put it all in secure container storage, and there it stayed until 2007 when I finally was able to buy a house. That was two divorces later. Once I bought my house I re-stashed it all here. But the car was still on a farm in Virginia. Once along the way I almost let someone buy it off the farm, as I had no plan for it, just the heart strings.
Continued in Part 2 of 2
Brand new to the forum, and very glad to be here. There's a 49 year history with me and this car. A few times the prospect of restoring it very nearly got away from me. For now, I will just hit the highest spots and save the "saga" for another day.
My car is a 1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe, 4 barrel Rochester, Jetaway transmission. Originally beige with a white top, and saddle interior. I remember when my dad brought it home for Mother's Day in 1964. We had been to a few car shows, and from all the new cars that year they liked the Cutlass best. I was in the fifth grade at Annandale Elementary, in Virginia. After that, my sister and I basically grew up in that car, including family trips to South Dakota, Alabama, Florida, and like that.
Here is something I did not really appreciate or understand about the car until actually pretty recently. My dad is Norwegian from South Dakota, which explains more about the man than any other single fact. His Guard unit was called up in 1942, and he went into the Army Air Corps, and became a bomber pilot, stationed in Britain, flying missions into France and Germany. After the war, the Air Force put him through a B.S. in Engineering, from Purdue, which is a pretty serious engineering program. Then they put him through the M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering program at Cranfield University, UK. At Wright Paterson he was a design engineer, but still flying enough to keep his wings. There he was one of the SAC engineers on the B-58 Hustler, America's first and only super-sonic jet bomber. It's design purpose was to payload nuclear armaments into the USSR. So he was, in fact, a serious mechanical jet engineer and pilot. In 1964 he was at the Pentagon. That is the background of the man who in 1964 chose the Cutlass Holiday Coupe over every other car in America. The car was air conditioned, yes, and auto trans, and a family car, but the radio was the simple am radio, with only the dash speaker, to check the weather. A pilot has to check the weather, obviously, but that's about all he wanted or expected from it. In 1964, that man chose the Cutlass. My mom chose the colors.
In 1966, we moved to Europe, Paris in fact, and the car came there too. We had it at our modest home there, and my dad's drive to work went through the Bois de Bologne, to his office at Place de la Concorde. He was USAF attached to NATO. He and I alone drove the Cutlass to Normandy, about 24 years after he flew a B-17 before, during, and after the invasion. As a family we drove to Florence, and Rome, all over Switzerland, and ferried the Cutlass from Calais to Dover, and drove on the wrong side of the road all over England, including downtown London. We drove in post war Germany a lot as a family, but it was just me and my dad who drove to Berchtesgaden, and from there to the Eagle's Nest. Later we moved to Brussels when De Gaulle kicked out NATO, and the Cutlass was there too.
My mother was rear-ended by a truck in Paris, probably 1967, and that old-style body work (gas welded and loads of lead) truly came back to haunt me decades later.
We returned to Annandale in late 1969, and the "Dream Boat" then was mainly my mother's car, as my dad bought a 1966 Beetle for his daily drive to Andrews AFB.
In about 1976 I bought it from my dad for $100.00. He didn't particularly want to sell it, but I needed a car, and that was the price. When he signed over the title he looked straight in my face and said, "Don't ever sell it. It's a classic." I drove that car, and for a while even slept in it, until 1991.
From 1975 through about 1985 I was mainly a welder, part-time outlaw, and sometimes a college student. The Cutlass was my daily driver, and I took it up to about 188 thousand miles. In 1988 I moved to Charlottesville, to study at Mr. Jefferson’s University. By about 1989, the Cutlass was truly needful. That was the first time I took a shot at getting a restoration started.
I bought NOS stuff pretty voraciously in those days, from Hemmings, and OCA members, and paper lists from retired geezers, typed letters, mailed paper checks, and made a lot of telephone calls. There was no Internet back then. I was pretty-well Olds connected at the time, however, and actually went with a friend to the 90th anniversary in Lansing, driving his 1964 88 open car, pulling a trailer with his 1904 curved dash Runabout. And yes, he and his buddies climbed the capital building stairs that year.
In Charlottesville the 330 engine came out and was re-machined. Steering and suspension was replaced. There was rust in the quarters, so I bought and had shipped to Charlottesville solid quarters from Arizona. I tore down probably 20 of these cars collecting parts, particularly from "Leon's Auto Parts" south of Culpepper. (Leon, Jr. remains a friend to this day. If you've never been to that yard, maybe you've truly never been hard-core-junk-yarding.)
I collected an enormous amount of stuff, for instance two clocks, vacuum trunk system (with the correct lock stem), bumpers, floor mats, clips, trim, and on and on. I cut off the rear section from a rust-free sedan, plus got its deck lid, fenders, and hood. I had a lot of stuff, and tools, and skills, just no place or time or money to do the "body off" job it needed.
Then, kind of suddenly, I had to move with own little family to Dallas Texas, in 1991, for a job. I packed up all my parts, moved them here, and put them in Public Storage. I drove the car to a friend's farm in Virginia and parked it there, on the open ground under a tree. It was supposed to be there for a year, maybe two, but not more. That turned into seventeen years, with a lot of mountain rain, fog, snow, mud, and rust. The Cutlass sank down to its axles, and became habitat for generations of squirrels, racoons, and snakes. Every part of it (inside the dash, and the rocker panels, and every other nook-and-cranny) was filled up with poopers, and hickory nuts, and nesting materials, and like that. I visited the Cutlass a few times over the years, but was not in any position to bring it to Texas. And for the longest time there was no point to it anyway.
What happened is this. I was in Dallas about a year when I went to Public Storage one day and found that all of my NOS was gone! Stolen, all of it. A lifetime of tools were gone too. My used stuff, and my sheet metal, was still there, however, including my drum-to-drum restored differential. It was an inside job, the crook cut through an interior wall to get to it. I was crushed, to put it lightly. That was the end. I could never replace what was lost. It was over. I ran a reward ad in Hemmings, but nothing came of it. Slowly and painfully I put the whole thing out of heart, and let it go, or tried to anyway. I was living in an apartment, working 80 hours a week, and there was just no way I could start over. I sort of let it die. I did, however, sue the sh*t out of Public Storage and took a pretty fat check from them. Not nearly enough, and that did not fill the void in me. (Some years later I figured out that the guy who stole my stuff went to prison on drug charges and was murdered there. That's a good thing I suppose.)
Maybe two years after the theft, a very odd thing happened. I got a call from a guy over near Fort Worth. He owned a cherry 64 442 that he inherited from his dad. Plus he was a fellow OCA member. Turns out he bought a giant cache of 1964 parts out at the big flea market in Canton. As he was going through this amazing treasure trove, it slowly occurred to him that there was no way anyone would sell this stuff. It was a complete collection of NOS, from the eye brows, to new fender scripts, the full set of long moldings, a crack-free steering wheel, all four wheel trims, a complete interior from Fusick, everything. He knew something was very wrong with that picture. He figured out that it must have been stolen. So he set out to find me. My address in Charlottesville was all over the boxes, so that is where he started. Now mind you, this was around 1993, and there was no Google. He did it all by telephone, and that was not easy because I do not leave a lot of tracks. But he found me, and called me at home one evening. After some very apprehensive preliminaries, on both sides, he proposed to sell the whole cache back to me for what he paid for it. That was fair to me, so I bought it all back, and about 95% of what was lost came back to me. Gotta like Olds people. (I found out just last year that this good man died very suddenly about five years afterwards. Yet, I do know people now who knew him well back then, and they even knew the story about my NOS years before I met them.)
From the time of the theft until 2007 I flatly refused to own so much as a crescent wrench. I figured, "If I don't have it, you can't steal it!" I was that dead inside about it.
When I got my stuff back (not the tools, however, I never saw them again) I put it all in secure container storage, and there it stayed until 2007 when I finally was able to buy a house. That was two divorces later. Once I bought my house I re-stashed it all here. But the car was still on a farm in Virginia. Once along the way I almost let someone buy it off the farm, as I had no plan for it, just the heart strings.
Continued in Part 2 of 2
August 5th, 2013, 09:35 PM
#2
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 110
1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe -Part 2 of 2
Begin Part 2 of 2
In 2008, I almost accidentally I started working on cars again, just a little bit. Then about three years ago, sometime in 2010, my friends in Virginia called said the car had to go. They needed to build a house on that ground, and it truly was time anyway. I was in no position to do anything about it, however. But then I got lucky one more time. Another guy I knew simply volunteered to drive to Virginia with an open trailer and bring it to Texas if I could find a new place for it. He just loves to drive long trips. So, the Cutlass came to a friend's ranch not too far from Quitman, and there it stayed, up on the trailer, and off the ground for another three years. Being off the ground, and in Texas, basically stopped the rust, and that was a good thing. It wasn't my trailer, however, at least at the time. Turns out, the old man who brought it Texas for me went back to prison for robbing a bank up in St. Louis, fully intending to get caught. He just couldn’t handle the free world. That's a whole tale in itself, but the upshot is that trailer became mine, and it's pretty nice.
After three years on the ranch, it was time for the Cutlass finally to come home. That was about six months ago. From 2007 until now, I did a few "light" restorations (a couple of Acura Vigors and a 1988 F150 - I love my truck), re-learned welding, and paint, and built myself a very suitable welding barn/carport. Then I felt ready to re-start the Oldsmobile. It is a huge job. Were it not for my history with this car it would not be a good restoration candidate at all. But, I have the sheet metal, tools, and everything else, plus the skills, and a place to do it. So the project is underway. I spent several months, working pretty much only on weekends, preparing the Arizona quarter panels for use, after twenty years of storage, moving, and storage again. This past weekend was a milestone: The left quarter panel - which suffered from French body work back in the 60's anyway - was replaced with a sound Arizona quarter, and the Virginia sedan's rear piece was fitted too, along with a couple of the trunk pieces (from Fusick, circa 1990). For now they are just fitted and screwed. I will get all the body fitted together, and make sure everything else fits (deck lid, panel below the glass, like that), and then take it all apart again, do the final preparations, re-assemble, and weld it. That will structurally restore the body. It will then be ready to come off again so I can do the chassis, transmission, engine work, etc.
I'm thinking this is still a five-year project, but it is finally getting done. I expect to be MIG welding the body this fall, when it's cooler. And this being Texas, this time no one is going to stop me. You couldn't get me out of this house with explosives, or a judgment, and the homestead is pretty well - shall we say - defended, in a Second Amendment kind of way.
I did recently re-join OCA, and the North Texas Chapter, and made contact with just a few good folks so far. But, until I have something to take to a show or two, mainly I plan to keep my head down, and work on my car. So, I expect mainly to lurk here, at least for a while. One of these days I will post-up a photo series, but probably not anytime soon. I think I will wait until I actually have a presentable car. Then I can publish the complete series. That's when I can maybe offer-back something useful to the forum.
So, there's an overview. There are loads of side roads I skipped over in this introduction. But I figure Hitler’s Eagles Nest, the NOS theft and recovery, a murder, and a bank robbery are enough for now. In time, I'll try to fill in the story. It's a really nice forum you have here. Already I've found a few very useful data fragments. Much obliged.
By the way, both of my parents are still alive, and still married, and living in Virginia. Every time I talk with my dad these days, he's in his 90's now, he wants to know, "How goes it with the Oldsmobile restoration?" If they live long enough I will trailer the car to Virginia and take them for a drive. That would be nice.
docsteen
In 2008, I almost accidentally I started working on cars again, just a little bit. Then about three years ago, sometime in 2010, my friends in Virginia called said the car had to go. They needed to build a house on that ground, and it truly was time anyway. I was in no position to do anything about it, however. But then I got lucky one more time. Another guy I knew simply volunteered to drive to Virginia with an open trailer and bring it to Texas if I could find a new place for it. He just loves to drive long trips. So, the Cutlass came to a friend's ranch not too far from Quitman, and there it stayed, up on the trailer, and off the ground for another three years. Being off the ground, and in Texas, basically stopped the rust, and that was a good thing. It wasn't my trailer, however, at least at the time. Turns out, the old man who brought it Texas for me went back to prison for robbing a bank up in St. Louis, fully intending to get caught. He just couldn’t handle the free world. That's a whole tale in itself, but the upshot is that trailer became mine, and it's pretty nice.
After three years on the ranch, it was time for the Cutlass finally to come home. That was about six months ago. From 2007 until now, I did a few "light" restorations (a couple of Acura Vigors and a 1988 F150 - I love my truck), re-learned welding, and paint, and built myself a very suitable welding barn/carport. Then I felt ready to re-start the Oldsmobile. It is a huge job. Were it not for my history with this car it would not be a good restoration candidate at all. But, I have the sheet metal, tools, and everything else, plus the skills, and a place to do it. So the project is underway. I spent several months, working pretty much only on weekends, preparing the Arizona quarter panels for use, after twenty years of storage, moving, and storage again. This past weekend was a milestone: The left quarter panel - which suffered from French body work back in the 60's anyway - was replaced with a sound Arizona quarter, and the Virginia sedan's rear piece was fitted too, along with a couple of the trunk pieces (from Fusick, circa 1990). For now they are just fitted and screwed. I will get all the body fitted together, and make sure everything else fits (deck lid, panel below the glass, like that), and then take it all apart again, do the final preparations, re-assemble, and weld it. That will structurally restore the body. It will then be ready to come off again so I can do the chassis, transmission, engine work, etc.
I'm thinking this is still a five-year project, but it is finally getting done. I expect to be MIG welding the body this fall, when it's cooler. And this being Texas, this time no one is going to stop me. You couldn't get me out of this house with explosives, or a judgment, and the homestead is pretty well - shall we say - defended, in a Second Amendment kind of way.
I did recently re-join OCA, and the North Texas Chapter, and made contact with just a few good folks so far. But, until I have something to take to a show or two, mainly I plan to keep my head down, and work on my car. So, I expect mainly to lurk here, at least for a while. One of these days I will post-up a photo series, but probably not anytime soon. I think I will wait until I actually have a presentable car. Then I can publish the complete series. That's when I can maybe offer-back something useful to the forum.
So, there's an overview. There are loads of side roads I skipped over in this introduction. But I figure Hitler’s Eagles Nest, the NOS theft and recovery, a murder, and a bank robbery are enough for now. In time, I'll try to fill in the story. It's a really nice forum you have here. Already I've found a few very useful data fragments. Much obliged.
By the way, both of my parents are still alive, and still married, and living in Virginia. Every time I talk with my dad these days, he's in his 90's now, he wants to know, "How goes it with the Oldsmobile restoration?" If they live long enough I will trailer the car to Virginia and take them for a drive. That would be nice.
docsteen
December 7th, 2015, 01:23 PM
#4
Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Sequim, WA
Posts: 23
I just came upon your story and really enjoyed the read. Your history with your car is nothing less than remarkable. No pressure but I'm sure I and others would like to hear about your progress. Hope all is well with you and your project.
June 27th, 2016, 06:16 PM
#6
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 110
1964 Cutlass Holiday Coupe
Hey all! Yes, the progress has been constant since I re-started the work back in August 2013. (Don't know what happened to "Part 1 of 2 as I can't find it in the forum. Will repost the tale anew soon.)
I spent almost two years welding the body, getting it really sound, smooth, and clean. Then I trailered it to NC to be dipped and baked. Right now it is on roller skates at Carrollton Paint & Body in DP90 primer. Solid, rust free, and pretty to see from the cowl to the tail panel. Fenders, hood, wheel housings, core support, doors, and deck lid all the same way, and primed with DP90. Correct steel wheels finished too.
The frame got a huge amount of work. I de-rusted it inside and out with Evaporust and a recirculating pump I rigged up. Went over it from front to rear, dug out all the welding that was porous or spattered, and re-welded pretty much everything. Used heat, chains, jacks, and so forth to get the whole thing flat, straight and square. Also 100% DP90 inside and out.
Rebuilt the differential from bearing to bearing, along with control arms, and mounted it to the frame, with correct spiral shocks, and restored brakes. Drive shaft too, of course.
Then did the front steering, from wheel-nut-to-wheel nut, and brake assemblies. Rebuilt all the steering, including the steering grear (with a slightly newer one with closer ratio.)
The engine was machined, and Jetaway trans rebuilt. Everything is being done with two guiding principles: (1) originality, with much better workmanship; and (2) insane attention to detail. January 1, 2016 the tranny was bucked up to the engine and both mounted onto the frame. Most all the engine bolt-on stuff also is done, from rebuilding the A6 AC compressor, to the fuel pump, Rochester 4GC carb (with tag), ps pump, rebuilt the alternator, all the brackets, and like that. I got a powder coating system for Christmas, so the fan, pulley, ps pump, and all the various mounting brackets are gloss black.
Used my old door shells as fixtures to rebuild the vent windows, roller tracks, locks, like that. So all the door internals are done, gorgeous, and stashed, ready to be transferred into the restored doors after paint.
Most recently I started tearing down the seats to frames. Using two back seats and four bucket seats to make one full set of frames. Also de-rusted and primed with DP90. I just received a bunch of upholstery "soft" products, and already had a full ICP Crown interior (from Fusick, long ago, still in boxes and stored inside).
I took tons of photos, but have not organized them for posting. Just spending all my non-work time working on the car. Will put it all together one day and write a dedicated web page for it all.
Keepin' the front wheels turning and the rear wheels burning,
docsteen
I spent almost two years welding the body, getting it really sound, smooth, and clean. Then I trailered it to NC to be dipped and baked. Right now it is on roller skates at Carrollton Paint & Body in DP90 primer. Solid, rust free, and pretty to see from the cowl to the tail panel. Fenders, hood, wheel housings, core support, doors, and deck lid all the same way, and primed with DP90. Correct steel wheels finished too.
The frame got a huge amount of work. I de-rusted it inside and out with Evaporust and a recirculating pump I rigged up. Went over it from front to rear, dug out all the welding that was porous or spattered, and re-welded pretty much everything. Used heat, chains, jacks, and so forth to get the whole thing flat, straight and square. Also 100% DP90 inside and out.
Rebuilt the differential from bearing to bearing, along with control arms, and mounted it to the frame, with correct spiral shocks, and restored brakes. Drive shaft too, of course.
Then did the front steering, from wheel-nut-to-wheel nut, and brake assemblies. Rebuilt all the steering, including the steering grear (with a slightly newer one with closer ratio.)
The engine was machined, and Jetaway trans rebuilt. Everything is being done with two guiding principles: (1) originality, with much better workmanship; and (2) insane attention to detail. January 1, 2016 the tranny was bucked up to the engine and both mounted onto the frame. Most all the engine bolt-on stuff also is done, from rebuilding the A6 AC compressor, to the fuel pump, Rochester 4GC carb (with tag), ps pump, rebuilt the alternator, all the brackets, and like that. I got a powder coating system for Christmas, so the fan, pulley, ps pump, and all the various mounting brackets are gloss black.
Used my old door shells as fixtures to rebuild the vent windows, roller tracks, locks, like that. So all the door internals are done, gorgeous, and stashed, ready to be transferred into the restored doors after paint.
Most recently I started tearing down the seats to frames. Using two back seats and four bucket seats to make one full set of frames. Also de-rusted and primed with DP90. I just received a bunch of upholstery "soft" products, and already had a full ICP Crown interior (from Fusick, long ago, still in boxes and stored inside).
I took tons of photos, but have not organized them for posting. Just spending all my non-work time working on the car. Will put it all together one day and write a dedicated web page for it all.
Keepin' the front wheels turning and the rear wheels burning,
docsteen
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February 17th, 2018 07:08 PM
lemoldsnut
General Discussion
21
July 10th, 2016 12:12 PM
