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Fantastic build. Love this very rare body style. Nice craftsmanship with all the mods. That junkyard makes me cry. Just find this thread and saw it was started in 2008. I'm sure all those cars are gone. ??
JT
Nope, Hess brothers still has some of it left. I was going to make a trip there last weekend, made it to Corning but ran flat out of time before I could do a visit.
When I do make it again I'll take a series of pictures and post them here. I go through Corning about once a month this time of the year...Tedd
Got a really nice tank from a friend of mine, it came out of a car I parted out about 10 years ago. Also checked my sending unit and it works. Spent all day on the car, installing new rubber lines in the frame, digging dirt out of the frame, removing the rear shocks, reinstalling the rear shocks (hey did you know they are totally obsolete locally?)installing the tank, installing the grille script and hood latch, putting gas in it.
Great Thread. Wonderful job on the car.
Just thought I'd ask what you used for a gasket between the sending unit and the tank. My 62 Super 88 has nothing left of the gasket, and I need to either find one, or fabricate one. If you've got any tips on where to find a gasket, or what type of material to fabricate one out of, or where to source it, please let me know.
My 62 tank looks like yours -- the hole for the sending unit sits about mid-height on the front side of the tank, and has the 6 equally spaced holes that are 3.0" OC across from one to another on the opposite sides. I took some measurements of the sending unit, and it looks like the gasket's measurements would be about 2.50" ID and 3.75" OD, with the 6 holes that are 3.0" center-to-center.
I used thin cork gasket material that comes in the gasket variety pack from the auto parts store. And i also used a very thin layer of RTV. Make sure you let it cure for a day after evenly torquing all the screws by hand. Rubber material will work also if it's really thin. the thicker stuff tends to squish out the sides when you torque it down. I have a hand hole puncher for the screw holes. Good Luck
Thanks. I checked out my local NAPA parts store and all they had was a 12-foot roll of some sort of tan colored polymer by Fel-Pro. Not cork, and not really marked well enough to know what it was. And 12' was way more than I needed. Believe it or not, I've had no luck finding simple cork gasket material around here.
I did find Discs of Gasket Material at McMaster-Carr -- I'm looking at the 4" Viton discs in either 1/16" or 1/8" thickness. Viton should be perfect for resistance to gasoline, the big question is whether I can compress it well enough to get a good seal. I'm not sure what you meant by "thin". In your experience does 1/8" or 1/16" would work better? I was thinking 1/16" would probably be OK.
I also found these Cork Gasket Materials at McMaster, though I'm not sure whether or not these are suitable for a fuel application. Some appear to be just cork, some are cork and rubber. What kind of specifications is a cork fuel gasket supposed to have?
I'll have to look into RTV -- I wasn't aware that I could get a fuel-proof adhesive like that. It sounds like it would definitely help seal gasket to tank and gasket to sending unit to prevent a leak.
Update: Although I had no luck at NAPA, I was able to find Fel-Pro cork gasket material for fuel systems in a sample pack at O'Reilley's Auto Parts. It's not on display so you have to ask for it.
2 questions...
bob p: ever looked at a similar year Impala gas tank? They can be had brandy new for like $150. Wonder if it would work in 62-64 Olds, with slight modification???
Just did a close examination of the 2 gas tanks. Appears thast the Olds tank has a slight indentation, to allow for rear axle housing clearance. Next time, I am in Titusville, gonna go to Ecklars and look at one.
I would be very interested to know if the Chebby fuel tank can work. I took a few images of the tank while my 62 is on the lift, I pulled the starter for repair.
I also talked to an Impala guy/local welder about modding one to fit, just because the Impala tanks and senders are available and cheap.
IIRC the Impala used an X-frame while my S88 uses a box frame, which makes the tank requirements different. The Impala tank is also fat along it's full length, while the S88 tank is more slender and has an indentation on the front side to accommodate the rear diff.
I happen to have my tank out of the car right now, so I'll take some pictures and get some measurements and post them to the Impala tank thread. I thought that I had pictures already, and I know that I previously took measurements, hoping that someone could compare them to an Impala tank measurements. But I can't find that info now.
therobski -- on my 62 S88 the trunk is full depth, and the fuel tank sits in front of it. Many cars have a shallow trunk, with the tank located beneath it. My S88 isn't one of them. On my car the tank sits between the trunk and rear axle.
Last edited by bob p; August 6th, 2015 at 11:16 AM.
Reason: added link
Wow these 88's are becoming more interesting all the time. So in at least 62 they made 2 different trunk pans for the 88 line? FYI-there's a old radiator-gas tank shop in Dallas that's been there forever and they have been"grandfathered in" as far as OSHA etc that shut alot of these places down, and they still boil, repair, seal the old gas tanks. Most places I hear ship them to Mexico for repair. I have used them before outstanding work. They even have international customers.
Wow these 88's are becoming more interesting all the time. So in at least 62 they made 2 different trunk pans for the 88 line?
I don't think so. I think that the fuel tank on your car is like mine. It'd be on the top/right of your second photo, and that part on the bottom/left should be the trunk pan.
As an update on the gas tank gasket materials -- I saw rolls of both the Fel-Pro 3018 1/16" cork-rubber and the Fel-Pro 1/16" Karropack synthetic material at Advance today. They also had the 3018 at my local OReilly. I posted to another thread some comments from Fel-Pro about the suitability of their gasket materials:
Thanks for pointing that out. This is my first Big Olds, been working and building the A-body's for three decades and did not think twice when I took the pictures.
Another question for NAS Backyard -- What did you do to replace the rubber gaskets on the six 10-24 bolts that hold the sending unit onto the tank? Anything?
My rubber gaskets for those things are absolutely trashed. Only one of six is still left, and it is split. I'm just wondering if you might have found some little viton gaskets or o-rings for the job? Or did you just fabricate your own? I ended up making 6 little gaskets out of the sheet of cork-rubber gasket material, but I'd prefer to just buy some little round viton rubber washers or o-rings if they're the kind of thing that can be found in the stores.
Last edited by bob p; August 6th, 2015 at 08:45 PM.
I've been busy, I got married on Dec 4th so the car was on the back burner for awhile. But after spending all my money on the wedding , my wife said why don't you buy some parts. That was a no brainer, I ordered up www.spohn.net rear control arms , a Pontiac rear sway bar from www.fabcraftmetalworks.cool that i made work. The engine has about 2000 miles on it and is still running great. Only issue was a busted valve spring that i replaced. The vendor I got it from didn't replace it, I had to buy one from Fusicks. The gas gauge stopped working and I noticed one of my shock mounts (upper left) broke off from a previous poor repair job. So I got the control arms and sway bar installed, I'm going to run a piece of angle iron across the body mounts to relocate the upper shock mounts and will also move the bottom ones. I also got a 3:42 one legger rear diff i was going to try out and possibly make it a posi or go with maybe a 3:64. My wife want to paint the car but I told her it has alot of body work to do. She suggested buying a parts car so I can blast and powder coat a new frame, and then strip and dip the body for a complete frame of restoration. But for now I'm just going to repair and upgrade the stuff that needs it. I also installed another set of ebag seat covers since my old ones were getting pretty ragged. All I could find were green ones. Overall , there is so much more to do but I will continue to chip away at it one job at a time. I'm in no hurry but It will definitely see a roadtrip this summer.. I'll post some pictures.
Made a pretty good parts car score today after putting a want ad on CL 3 days ago. 61 OLDS Dynamic 884 door rolling body, no engine or trans, total rust bucket except for both lower quarter "skegs" (absolutely the only sheet metal on the car that I really need is not rusty! ,It was optioned out nice with AC, tinted glass,Auto Tronic head light dimmer,Vacuum trunk release, power windows, courtesy lamps ,clock, AM radio with *****, 6 way power seat,2 speed wipers,rear power antenna,dealer installed seat belts,rear trunk light. This is what is still on it and decent: Front and rear bumper cores, grille and head light surrounds original wiper arms, turn signal switch, plastic washer container,rear deck lid and decent trim,all glass but windshield, door pulls and *****, window stainless trim, Nice clean frame, gas tank and sender, 3:08 rear end, nice brake drums and 4 original wheels, speedo cluster and wiring harness not cut up. The car looks like its out of a horror movie. I'll post pics later. THIS IS NOT A PARTING OUT AD, Just boasting! OH, 350.00 delivered to my house.
Congrats on getting married! (I think)
Sounds like you made off like a bandit on the complete parts car, very nice.
Now let the fun begin swapping frames.
Steve
Got the upper shock mount re welded, had to remove the coil spring. Sway bar is in, lower shock mounts relocated. There's about 1/4" of clearance around all of the mods. It's pretty tight. Only got to test drive it around the block because I had to come back to bleed out my hydraulic clutch. Don't think the gas gauge is working though. Over all I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. After I rob some front body mount hardware from the parts car I'm going to give it a good shake down, then back in the garage to switch diff. carrier and it looks like I'm going to have to have a new drive shaft made. After the engine and transmission settled forward in the car I only have about 1 1/2" of yoke in the OD. I tried lifting the engine and pushing everything back to no avail.
Put my 3:42's in last night,took about 3 hours. WOW! what a difference it made. Way more street able than the 3:08's . I will run it like this for awhile and see if i want to try out some 4:10's later just for fun.
Really enjoyed this build thread! Been thinking about ditching my Slim Jim for a manual as well. Any updates?
I do not know what all is involved in going from an auto to manual tranny. I believe a different flywheel is required? Would also check on different drive shaft lengths.
Here is what I do no. I was privileged to own a 1960 Super 88 Holiday SceniCoupe with a factory 3-on-the -tree set up coupled to a 394 c.i. with a 4 bbl. Rochester carb. Put her in 2nd gear and she would quickly crank to 95 mph without breaking a sweat! So quick in fact that very few rides ever got past her!
Hello fellow Olds guys. A lot has redirected my life recently but it has also gave me an opportunity to finally see what all my work resulted in.
Lots of torque! 4500 RPM hydraulic clutch dumps leaves long patches of rubber in at least 3 gears. Chirps tires in all 4 gears, haven't tried anything with the overdrive. That Q-Jet is one serious carb! Will do smokey burnouts from dead stop or rolling, need to get a posi back under it. I had to sell my 3:08 awhile back. My sway bar engineering kind of worked out, the relocated shock brackets at bent a little and I have to drop the links to get the rear tires off. I almost got the brakes dialed in after installing the rebuilt booster. I can easily pull a small trailer with my motorcycle if needed. I was thinking of just wrapping up all of the mechanicals and taking it on a little 1000 mile roadtrip possibly this . Anyway for a 4400 lb car loaded with a souped up obsolete engine and a 4 speed OD trans, it is what it is....a blast to ride around in
Pardon my talk-to-text Finally got a new workshop space in a warehouse,my hydraulic release bearing shims wer maxed out so when I was at SEMA last year I bought a new upgraded McLeod hydraulic release bearing. SEMA was awesome by the way. My driver side Starfire exhaust manifold also had a hole in it from hitting the steering box caused by the rear mounts moving , so after a failed repair attempt by the welding shop I went back to a regular manifold and I currently carved out some new rear mounts out of solid 3/16 angle that I will add gussets to I'm also fixing a few other things I'm going to have to Cobble together a modified exhaust from the stock manifold and also weld up the rest of my exhaust I had to cut to get the transmission out. The transmission went back in real smooth and now I'm finishing the mounts I tried to post some pictures on here from my phone but the phone couldn't attach them at this time I will post some pictures later with an update I have a new theme in store for the car I'm not going to Powderpuff restore it like I did my last two vehicles this one's going to be sort of a stock car replica That Never Was with removable magnetic decals and numbers. I also scored some Buick Riviera Wheels that I used to run on my 61 Olds Starfire and I'm going to use them on this car but I'm going to Black them out and run White letter tires anyway I'll be updating now that I'm back online there's a lot of great post on here and I can't wait to go through some more of them
Yeah I was using tinypic and I guess they don't keep them very long but I do have all the pictures on my laptop in folders. Anyway I got my cool hydraulic release bearing Kool hydraulic release bearing bled Out and am buttoning up a bunch of loose ends should be ready for a test drive soon does anyone have any suggestions on how to post pictures on here easier? I think now I can just do it from my phone that's how I did that one with the transmission but the connection wasn't real strong I'll try that again when I have something to post thank you New seat covers well actually NOS aftermarket that Actually match the interior
July 5th, 2015, 09:26 AM
