Napoleon Solo

Over the last few days I've been busy welding, painting and modifying a body dolly to drop the 64 on. Finished it up today and proceeded to hoist off the body and drop it on the dolly without real issue. I did forget one pair of body bolts at the rear stabilizer and shock tower. Once I solved the issue, the body popped off.

Over the next week I expect to disassemble the chassis, blast all of the components and send them out for powder. Which by the way I'm trading off blast time for.

Also,surprisingly, my paint supplier suggested swapping blast time for all of my paint and supplies. So that means once the chassis is at home getting reassembled, I can do the minimal mud work and sanding and hopefully paint the car over the Christmas shutdown at my shop.

Things are going to start happening quickly now - as quickly as my budget will allow...

Napoleon Solo

On Saturday I pulled the engine and trans off the chassis. Now I can finally start pulling it apart and prepping for powder coating. I did a preliminary degreasing blast to make it easier to wrench on. Everything will go back in for the final blast once disassebled. The powder colour will be a gunmetal grey as opposed to black. All of the engine bolt on bits and inner fenders will all be gunmetal.
I decided to preserve the floor pan as is with the factory original grease pencil marks intact. I should have the frame and suspension powdered by the end of the week.

stan 65 cutlass

coming along nicely, thats a clean body eh?

Napoleon Solo

Indeed it is, Stan. I am probably being over optimistic but I'd like to be spraying paint on the car over the Christmas break. My first round of parts are powder coated with hopefully the bulk of it to follow early next week. My inner fenders need a little tweaking before powder but I have time.
An auto restorer customer of mine noticed a small tag on my engine block. He told me that it is for warranty purposes on either a rebuilt or 'junkyard' engine - whatever the latter means. If the engine overheats, the tag changes colour and the warranty is voided. The car only had 40k miles on it so I'm guessing a dealer install? Anyway, another customer who is a fellow Olds freak said that the No.1 cast on the head was unusual. I don't know enough about Olds engines to verify.
On a side note, the exhaust manifolds came off with very little effort with no broken studs.

TK-65

If unusual means on every 64 330 produced then thats not unusual.

ent72olds

Yes, that is a rebuilt tag! Sometimes, the name of the rebuilder is stamped on the tag.

oldstata

Looking good

That tag could be from a machine shop as well does both heads and block have one or just the one head ?

My machine shop puts them on each head and block for a long block

stan 65 cutlass

yes technically all 64 330's would have 1 on the heads, 65's had 2 on the heads and so on, great luck on the exhaust bolts, i broke one off but took the engine to my neighbours to use his oxy/acetalene and it came rt out

Oldsclassics

Wow it will be amazing when completed don't make them like they used to

Napoleon Solo

You're kind of a d!ck. By the way, re-read your sentence, Einstein - you contrad!ckt yourself, 'bro'..

Napoleon Solo

Yeah, each head has one. Didn't see one on the block. I can't make out any name on the D.S. head - it just says 'warranty void if removed' I think. I'm going to the shop tomorrow to do some wrenching and I'll have a look at the other one.
I have my fingers crossed that since the engine was rebuilt presumably shortly prior to parking it for 22 years - I can get away with a freshening up as opposed to a rebuild. It was idling as smooth as glass before I dismantled the car. Of course loaded compression is another story but I have a buddy with a bench dyno so I can test run before I do anything major.

stan 65 cutlass

i wonder if if its rebuilt original??
or a dealer replaced block??
did you end up ordering a rear filler panel?

Oldsclassics

Yes of course, did not even think about how I wrote it!! You know I mean "they don't make these cars like they used to ". Thanks for correcting me. Your project will look amazing. Sorry Bro!!

stan 65 cutlass

i think you may be confused, he was in no way referring to your post, but the one highlighted above it by "TK" it has a box around it meaning a direct reply to that post only, granted yours was right before it

stan 65 cutlass

hey napoleon did you get the engine # off the one head? does it match your POP ?

therobski

Napoleon, your progress on the car in such a short time is awesome. You will have your 64 in the street before I'm done! I'm going on 4.5 years with the build. Now I'm going to restore and install all the window regulars and window glass and continue with the A/C system then I update my thread.

oldcutlass

Awesome work, your moving right along.

Napoleon Solo

Your '64 is killer. I was considering putting the rally stripe on mine too - white on the midnight mist. I'm moving fairly quickly right now but - the expensive stuff is still coming - rechroming bumpers, trim restoration, engine and trans work etc. I'm in a position where I can trade off work for work so I can accelerate certain missions. All of my powder coating costs me nothing out of pocket as well as all of my paint, primer, filler etc. Otherwise I'd be a few grand behind.

By the way Stan, thanks for clearing up the miscommunication above with OldsClassics and an apology to OldsClassics if he did think I was referring to his post. And, no I didn't get an opportunity to look at my engine today but I'm going back to the shop tomorrow.

More pictures shortly.

oldsmobiledave

Looking good. Keep up the good work.


Question on the Rallye stripe. I thought this was a 1965 trim option only. Was it available on the 1964 cars or are you just adopting it?

Napoleon Solo

Just adopting it. You're right - it was only available on '65 and '66 models, although I've never seen a '66 with one.
Well, off to the shop to finish what I started.

oldsmobiledave

When I thinned out my collection 5-6 years ago I sold off a very nice 1964 Cutlass project. It is pictured below. Also pictured is the car as it appears today. The current owner changed the color to black & added the 65 442 Rallye stripe. Perhaps these will help you envision your car finished.

Napoleon Solo

Dave, I've seen that car for sale - had no idea it was yours to start with. It was super clean when you had it - awesome now.

Today I finished stripping the suspension from the frame. Tomorrow I will finish dismantling the parts, blast them up and have them powder coated on Tuesday. This week I will have the frame re-blasted and pc'd as well. Reassembly should begin next weekend. As I mentioned previously I'm going with a gunmetal grey for everything instead of black. Hard to make out the colour but have a look below.

Napoleon Solo

Well, I'm not where I wanted to be right now but I can catch up quickly. All that is left for powder coating are my two inner fenders, core support and frame. The inners and core support need a little attention so they'll have to wait a bit in order to finish with the welding. My powder coat guy is too busy this week anyway.
By next week I should be able to finish stripping the little bits off the body and prep it for walnut shell stripping. Concurrently at home I can start reassembling the chassis and suspension.

A few pictures of the last of the small parts powdered:

Eddie Hansen

Very nice work and a great thread....

Napoleon Solo

Thanks, Eddie. I'm having fun.
I forgot to post this when I found it a week ago. It's similar to the tag I found under the rear seat but I discovered this one stuck to the frame inside the DS rear coil spring mount! It was mashed between the spring and frame. How it survived to even this condition external to the car befuddles me.
I have no idea what the numbers mean but it looks like the line supervisor signed off on the tag. Neat stuff.

stan 65 cutlass

t86 back up lamps,u29 courtesy lamps

Napoleon Solo

Yesterday I sent out my frame and crossmember to get powder coated. I do a lot of work with this shop and the owner is a friend of ours so we're swapping work. He did a primer coat and the top coat of the gunmetal grey I did my other parts with. I am very pleased with the result. It should easily last another fifty years...
Focus will now shift to cleaning up the 330 and stripping the body. That should happen in the next two weeks.

Now I just have to get everyone's junk out of my garage again for reassembly.

FMB42

Yep, great thread. The interesting markings and tags, etc, that you're finding really add something to the build (at least for me anyway). Thanks for posting.

Napoleon Solo

I got my springs back from my other friend's powder coat shop this afternoon. They are double coated with an epoxy based powder coat so it will flex with the spring and last forever. I went with red for the WHAM factor against the gunmetal grey. Besides, red is my favourite colour..
Next week a friend will be lending me his rotisserie for the next phase of the job. Stripping the body and doing the little bit of metal work required. Looking forward to that.

Napoleon Solo

Still intending to be turn key by April 1st, I'm feeling a little pressure now. I am trying to do as much as possible myself to mitigate the cost but this tends to push out completion dates. I've decided to get a home plating kit from a company called Caswell in New York. Around these parts, plating anything is simply outrageous at the pro shops. For say, half a bucket of hardware the charge is $200! If you want them separated it's $200 per load - whether it's 5 bolts or 50!
So, I need to get the kit to plate my hardware before I can start re-assembling the chassis.
There should be a lot more happening this week.

Eddie Hansen

Caswell isgreat theyhaveexcellentpolishing supplies etc... remeberwhenyouneed to strip the chrome you reverse the polarity , youmY alsoneed the copper kit. You cant just plate steel or metal,

Napoleon Solo

A lot will be getting done this week while my shop is shut. Right now I have begun dash reassembly but before Christmas I went and picked up some goodies at my P.O. box in Washington. Small but expensive - rubber bits, air cleaner decals and a rebuild kit for the 4GC Rochester carb. Also picked up my rear deck pan. It arrived in perfect shape
The fun stuff will be happening shortly...

Eddie Hansen

Looking good looking forward to your progress

BangScreech4-4-2

Where'd you get that car, Dave? It looks suspiciously familiar ...


Oh, and great work, Nap. Can't wait to see what you post next.

oldsmobiledave

I bought that car in the Lower Mainland then stored it at a friend's place in Abbotsford for 6 months prior to hauling it back to AB. When I sold my acreage I owned 13 cars and some had to go. This one ended up in Winnipeg where it underwent a very thorough and expensive resto-mod.

BangScreech4-4-2

Interesting. Reason I ask is, I sold one remarkably similar to that in 2002 or '03. I bought it in Richmond from the original little old lady owner in 1984. It had about 39,000 original miles on it and I used it as a well-preserved driver until the early 90s when I discovered I had too many cars and not enough space and so gave it to my mother, who pretty much ran it into the ground, despite my best efforts to keep it presentable for her.


By '02 or '03, it was pretty much used up, so I sold it for her -- to a guy from Burnaby who (get this) arrived to check it out in an '86 Hyundai Pony he'd done a meticulous nut-and-bolt restoration on. I figured if he'd gone to that much effort on a Hyundai, he'd probably take pretty good care of the Olds so I gave him a pretty good deal and used the proceeds to buy Mom a ten-year-old Mustang from my uncle. Don't know what Mr. Hyundai ended up doing with it.


During the time I owned it, I did several "upgrades" -- hey, it was the 80's and I was young -- rear swaybar, meaty radial T/As, Jetaway swapped for a Turbo 350, aftermarket audio, dual exhaust ... etc. It had come with a 330/260 hp 4V, which I thankfully left alone, and a mint blue vinyl bucket seat interior (with console and tach) which was also largely unmolested. The car was mint and rustfree when I got it, but the original paint was quite oxidized, so I had it re-sprayed in the (more-or-less) original blue, but by the time my Ma was through with it, it was definitely beginning to show the ravages of the moist and salty Vancouver winters.


Any of this sound familiar?

oldsmobiledave

Different car although I did purchase it in Burnaby. The car pictured above has a white bucket seat interior. It did have a T350 and 3.08 posi as well the rear sway bar. Would have loved to keep her but I had to let some cars go and that was one of them. Any chance you are mistaken on the interior color?

BangScreech4-4-2

Nope, I'm real clear about that and now that I look a little closer, I can definitely make out some white seat tops. Odd that the rest of the car seems to match up so well, though, isn't it? Oh well, I guess there are still more than a couple of 'em out there, right?

Napoleon Solo

A little bit of forward momentum this week. Not as far as I'd like but life happens. Yesterday we got the car onto the rotisserie at least. My buddy I borrowed it from schooled me on a couple of areas of concern that I figured would be a fairly easy fix but it's more involved than what I expected.
I have two body mount bolts at the forward trunk brace that are just spinning with the cage nuts. There is some rust there so I will likely cut out the brace and go from there. Unexpected. Aside from that, the two fender-to-body bolts are doing the same - spinning inside the body. It'll be tough to get at them.
I still need to pull off the deck lid and the doors and get the window glass out and finally the trim pieces then I can go at blasting it.
All of that happens at the shop, at home I am restoring/reassembling the dash, swapping over to a console shift dash panel. I have it apart, taped up and ready to repaint.
The 4GC is a little more tedious. So many little parts. I am photographing every little step but that never stopped me from screwing things up in the past....no promises!

Napoleon Solo

A few more pictures. Should I leave the dash green?