Joshua Mollet

Finally started the teardown. it's been a couple years, but I finally have some free time after getting my associates and having three babies (my wife, not me). Anyway, excited to finally get to work. Just wanna say this site is awesome. Been doing research for the past couple of months and there is just so much info here. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!

Joshua Mollet

Here are a few pictures[IMG]http://imgur.com/qd9wDLW
*http://imgur.com/P8CYeIh
*http://imgur.com/RhudysH
*http://imgur.com/UipoJuy
*http://imgur.com/7wxR0KJ
*http://imgur.com/ixqDXju
*http://imgur.com/nqbL1OL
*http://imgur.com/XQdiC5y

rocketraider

Your wife will find that she can have as much fun with car people as you do. I know that's true in AACA and both of the big Oldsmobile Clubs.

'Course with 3 younguns she has her hands full. You shoulda been gettin' busy with the car instead of her!

Joshua Mollet

Rocketraider, I've always been told happy wife, happy life. It's true, I get to work on my car now!
This thing is gonna be a long project, I'm still shuffling kids around like a blackjack dealer in Vegas all day long.
but I am able to find a few free hours through the week to tinker nowdays.

don71

Thanks for stopping in and giving us an update. Nice to know how its going.

Now for getting busy, you might want to work on the car, because you have obviously been busy elsewhere. As it should be.

Good luck on your car!

oldcutlass

I moved the above posts and started a build thread so others will follow along.

therobski

Nice "post" car project. You may want to check out my thread in this section under update progress on 64 post. I have a lot of images and dialog on my 64 F-85.

Joshua Mollet

Thanks! I think I've seen it as I was browsing around through the site. I'll check it out again and probably be asking for advice and so on. I'm missing a lot of pieces and gonna need some replacement parts in the next few years as I build this thing. This site seems like it's full of a bunch of good people that are willing to help out.

oldstata

Nice 64 ! Yes therobski build is truly insane.

You can surly get this thing built on a budget, I did. I am not into mine that much and it's not a show car a few flaws, but a good cruzer.

Most of your rust looks to be surface? If not the body panels are not made and sourcing good used ones can be hard to find but doable I made mine and they turned out okay a few flaws that I could have prevented, but didn't know what I was doing

Any how good luck and looking forward to the build

Joshua Mollet

So, a little background as I didn't really do it much on my neeewbie thread. I'm in Terre Haute, IN. I've worked on tons of cars in my life. I have never done body work, rebuilt an engine, or a transmission. I have done all the basics stuff and have torn down engines and put them together, not including crank, cam, pistons, or internals. That being said, I am a technician by tade and enjoy tearing stuff apart, fixing and putting it all back together. So I'm pretty confident in working on it.
I've always wanted to build an old muscle car and this one fell in my lap, along with a saginaw 4 speed to go with it on a trade deal. The more and more I research, the more I fall in love with this car. It needs a lot of work, but I have few years left in me to get it done. Thanks for showing interest and for the support!

Joshua Mollet

Birthday gift from the wife, fel-pro engine gasket set for the 330. Sweet!
Now I know there's some difference in the head gasket thickness, correct? Maybe, lose a little compression or Anything else I should be concerned about?

Joshua Mollet

6VFeUeJ.jpg

stan 65 cutlass

cool, thats a great looking shop for it too. as for the engine clean everything and repaint it, at least quick sand over the old paint on the valvecovers and mounting brackets, it will look alot nicer once you put new paint on it. take pics even on your phone to help put things back together like power steering pump brackets. whats with the huge circletrack tires on the front?

Joshua Mollet

Thanks! I've taken TONS of pictures! Those are the wheels it came with. Also have a set of chrome ralleys that I'll put on it.
I love my shop, but the wife been talking about moving. Not unless I have an equal shop or better though.
Going to pull the engine apart to check it out, clean it, pain't it, then just put it back together and focus on the body, then total rebuild of the engine at a later time.

therobski

Josh you have a nice car to start with and it's a "post" car. Those have become hard to find. Looks like for now your main goal is to clean up and repair whats needed to get the 330 fired up and in the street. Those 330's are great early motors-built proof! Not knowing at the time what I was going to do with mine and how far I wanted to go, however since then I fell down and hit my head on a rock and totally got into a nut and bolt Pro-Touring F-85 build, I have some misc. 64 parts and a bunch of new stuff laying on the shelf. So before you go out and order or need something, let me know.

Joshua Mollet

Thanks robski, I'll keep that in mind. I know I'll need a rear deck filler panel. It'll probably be my next purchase along with all new bushings, ball joints, and that good stuff.
Curious as to what spindles would work on it for disc brakes. It has drums all around and I might gather the things for a conversion when I can here and there.
I'm not sure what exactly I'm doing with it yet myself. It ran and drove before I tore it apart but never had it on the road. I guess that's my goal at the moment, to get it on the road again. Lol

oldstata

67-72 a body disk brakes kits
Rob did a B body brake conversion, he can tell you what you need. from talking with him it was about 100.00 cheaper then buying the kit, but you had gather all the correct parts to make it work there are some advantages from my understanding

Looking good keep plugging away

Joshua Mollet

So pretty much anything GM with disc brakes from 67-72 will work? I kinda thought that, but wanted to be sure. I figured if I could find some parts along the way in the next year or two I'd pick em up. Hopefully Itll be close to drivable again around then.

oldstata

Gm A body's from 67-72 will work B body can work but it's a modification and I would talk to rob (therobski ) about it before buying parts

Joshua Mollet

Cool. I'm not in a hurry anyway. I'll find out what mods robski had to do and weigh my options. Thanks oldstata

therobski

X2-Oldsdata, I put a GM 68-72 on up (maybe) Cutlass front dics on my 67 442 Clone. On re-built calipers you get at the parts house, I was specific, told them to let me know when a pair of rebuilt GM-AC Delco calipers came in, otherwise you may get whatever. And few weeks later a pair showed up. A-body spindles are easy from 68-72, verify maybe good to 77.

Joshua Mollet

So was there any actual modifications ?

therobski

None that I can remember.

oldstata

Rob correct me if I am wrong here

A body disk brake no major mods needed booster mast cylinder porportion valve and swap spindles on early years the tire rod part that mounts to spindles needs to be modified ( bolt holes enlarged ) or new/ used one and brake lines from my understanding

B body swap ball joint is different not sure but on robs 64 he got the lower control arm with the b body ball joint for the B body spindles ? Or did you machine the ball joint ?

I have not done the B body swap but from my research it helps with steering.

I bought the "Right Stuff " A body kit but haven't installed yet

Joshua Mollet

so the shafts on the end links are larger pre 67, so the holes need drilled out larger on the 67-72 spindles to accommodate. Or just buy ends links with correct sized shafts? Correct?

Joshua Mollet

So I got a little impatient and started messing with my windshield this morning. CRACKED IT. Krft8ai.jpg I keep telling myself it was de laminating really bad and would need replaced anyway, but still. Damnit, lol

oldstata

From my understanding correct

Joshua Mollet

Well that sounds easy enough.

I've heard that some of the complete conversion kits have a tendency to alter how wide the wheels are apart stance wise and cause some unwanted steering issues. Unless you buy the more expensive kits that is, I think I'll take my chances piecing it together.

therobski

Oldsdata is right about my 64 Pro-touring build and a B-spindle upgrade, but the above info and recent picture is a standard disc brake upgrade I did on my 67. The other thing to consider when you are ready to source the parts is get a dual master cylinder, 67 and up had one. There is no other modifications, its a bolt on.

therobski

The B-spindle upgrade takes the under-steer out of these A-body cars. I sourced my B-spindles, dust plates from a 87 Buick estate wagon, got calipers from a Caprice police car had them rebult, and 90 IROC-1LE rotors and 87 Buick GN tie rod ends from Rock Auto. That's all bolted up to a complete Hotchkis suspension and Lee steering box. Once the suspension is tuned with the correct tires, it will turn like a slot car.

Joshua Mollet

That's pretty sweet looking. Would some stock control arms work with that or do they need to be changed as well?
These parts would probably be a lot easier to find in the yards and behind garages around here than A body stuff. I'll get stuff off of Ebay if I have to, but I always like looking at the product first.
Thanks for the info! It'll be a while till I'm at this point but it's always good to have it bouncing around my head in case I find something.

Oldsmaniac

In case you arent aware the glass must be cut out with a wire and welding wire does work. Never pry up on the glass or else...well I guess you know that now.

Joshua Mollet

Yeah I've used guitar strings before too. I was using a tool with a blade on it that is actually made to cut the seal but, it was still a little cool in the garage and I guess I got too agressive. The glass is de laminating and there are little bubbles between the glass about an inch in all the way around the windshield so it could have been weak anyway.(Another thing I tell myself to shrug it off) I'll just have to find a replacement. They aren't as expensive as I thought they were anyway actually.
The rear glass has the same issue with delamintation so ill have to get a replacement for it too eventually. I got it seperated with no problems though. Mostly because the seal was pretty weak most of the way around.

therobski

Josh, when your ready there are step by step articles on how to upgrade with B-body spindles and 12 inch IROC rotors. Not sure about stock control arms, but if I recall you can use them but there is some work involved adapting B-body ball joints to the A -body control arms-they have a different tapper, need different bearings for IROC 1LE rotors and so on. What I would do right now to ensure that the car will stop well is to contact Porterfield Brakes and tell them you want there racing brake shoes front and rear, for the low cost I heard these are really great. In addition if you are going to change out the rear brake shoes, may as well get a few Vista Cruiser wheel cylinders, the bore is a little bigger over the std. Cutlass-cheap upgrade.

TK-65

A brand new windshield is cheap compared to the rear glass. Windshields are less than 150 bucks and are easy to get.

Joshua Mollet

sounds like a good brake hack! Nice tip thanks!

Joshua Mollet

So, just an update, not that I've done much more yet. Haven't had a ton of free time now that the weather is getting warm. I have taken out the jetaway, driveshaft, cut out the exaust, vacuumed* some more of the crap from the inside, and the other night, I pulled the dash out.
I latched on to a cache of 65 chevelle parts for a good price and included was the heater box for under the hood (mine is rusted out pretty good) and the box that goes inside the dash (not sure it's actual name) that is also in better shape that the one I have now.
Still have a ton of parts for a 4 door 65 chevelle in case any one is interested. All glass but the windshield is good and I have the dash, instrument cluster, wiring harness etc. Anything I sell go for parts for my 64 so I thought of it as an investment lol.
Anyway, it's slow going but making progress a little at a time.
*q50LvwV.jpg
*zOy37W3.jpg

Napoleon Solo

Looks like you're off to a great start. keep plugging away at it! It's going to be reallll niiiice...

Joshua Mollet

Thanks!

Joshua Mollet

So as I'm tearing this car apart, I'm trying to decide how to put it back together. I'm having a hard time deciding on the tranny.
I don't plan on racing this car it is just going to be a cruiser for the weekends and stuff.
I have the original jetaway, I have a TH400 out of a 68 wildcat, or I have a saginaw 4 speed from a 70s camaro I could switch to.
If I converted to manual I could always find a muncie later if the saggy dont hold out.
Has anybody done this conversion? A 330 with a saginaw 4 speed?
Just wondering about opinions. Ive been told they're like a$$holes so I'm sure some of you guys have em. Lol