Radius

Hi Everyone!

New member here.

I inherited a '64 Dynamic 88 from my uncle, who in turn inherited it from my grandmother when she passed away.

My grandfather purchased this car from a local doctor when it was only 2 years old. It's been in the family all that time. It's an original 394 car with 2 barrel carb.

Back in the day my Uncle overhauled the motor and installed a factory 4 barrel intake with a Carter AFB. If the sticker on the firewall is to be believed, he also installed a Chet Herbert cam in it and had the trans shop but a Trans-go shift kit in the old Roto-Hydramatic. I remember my granddad always complaining about the firms shifts in the car after that was installed.

The real bummer about this car is my uncle left it outside for many many years. Although the car was in the inland empire in SoCal, that took it's toll. Dirt eventually built up around the truck seal, causing the trunk seal to rot and fail leading to standing water in the trunk. So while there are not holes, the entire trunk area is rusted and the pinch seam around the weatherstrip is particularly bad. Plus the standing water in the trunk area caused some rust through behind the rear wheels. This is not going to be easy to cheap to fix, but fix it I must.

The interior is also in really good shape, but the vinyl/fabric upholstery is very hard and stiff. I am afraid of it cracking with use. I posted a question in the interior section about any products I might be able to use to re-soften the upholstery.

Mechanically the car is pretty sound. It needs new rubber fuel hoses and a fuel pump for sure. I also want to rebuilt the front end with new bushings, ball joints, etc. I will also need a set of tires for it. The Remington XT-120 bias ply tires currently on the car are complete junk.

Anyway, I am sure I will be visiting the 88 section of the forum frequently and asking lots of questions. My plan is to get this car back to it's former glory. Repair what is needed, get the body work done and painted, re-do whatever I need for the interior and then and drive it on weekends, etc.

Thanks and look forward to being on this forum.

Michael

D. Yaros

Michael,

Welcome to CO. There a bunch of good folk here willing to assist in whatever ways are possible.

'64 was the last year for the 394 engine, a very good/strong engine in my opinion.

It does sound as though you have your work cut out for you. However, it is a good project worth your efforts.

As everyone is quick to say, we do like pics! Shoot and upload some.

Radius

Thanks..

Pics will be forthcoming. I need to find some time to get the beast running, then I will shoot a ton of pics and upload.

The mechanical stuff is no big deal. Well.. Except for the rubber fuel line that runs through the rear portion of the frame from the top of the tank down in front of the rear wheel. Why they did that I will never know, but it is what it is.

The cosmetic (rust) issues are what I am most worried about.

Speaking of, I found a trunk seal on ebay for like $16.00. Are these the correct seals? Will it work?

Thanks,
Michael

navvet

Great to have you. Have the same car. Been a member for 3years. This group will help you out. My car too sat for a while...lucky it had only one owner. I replaced my fuel line...easy to do on a lift. Plan on replacing valve cover gaskets, fuel pump gaskets , hoses etc. They will fail with time I can assure you...same with break lines and connections. 394 great engine I am always stunned by how well it moves almost 4K lbs to easily. Parts are easy to find and this group has great experience and can lead you to answers. If you google Hemmings news/ Dynamic 88 it will give you a great outline of pro/cons of the engine and model.
So how many miles...how does tranny look photo.
Good luck

D. Yaros

Without a link, part #, something, impossible to tell whether trunk seal is correct. Look up the seal on Steele Rubber Products or Fusick, and see what they say, charge. That will give you an idea of what a correct one is.

http://www.steelerubber.com/
http://www.fusick.com

jaunty75

You can get weatherstripping for trunks, doors, etc. from a variety of sources, Fusick among them. But Fusick tends to be pricey, and rubber weatherstripping tends to be pretty similar from vendor to vendor as there are only a handful of manufacturers who supply the many vendors who sell it.

Fusick sells it by the foot at $2.00 per, and 18 feet are needed for a full-size '64 Oldsmobile. So that's $36 plus shipping.


I recently purchased trunk weatherstripping for my '67 Delta 88 from this source and had no problems. Their price is very similar to what you see on ebay for your car and much less than Fusick.

http://www.rubbertherightway.com/#lo...r_id_61=61|110



Steele has it, too, and they want even more than Fusick.

http://www.steelerubber.com/search?y...rip-70-0773-84


Going the other way, rockauto.com has weatherstrip for your car for all of $12.00 plus shipping, and what they sell is made by Metro Moulded Parts, one of the actual manufacturers of weatherstripping that is then sold by many different vendors. If you go to their site, search for part number TK4618.

Interestingly, if you go directly to the Metro Moulded site (www.metrommp.com) and search, they have the exact thing that rockauto has (same part number) for twice the price at about $24 plus shipping.

It definitely pays to shop around.

Radius

You're right. I completely forgot to paste the link. Here it is:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...m=310649601983

I looked through the fusick catalog a bit yesterday. They seemed a bit expensive for my blood. rockauto.com also listed a bunch of rubber items for my car. At some point I will ask for opinions on these when I am ready to buy.

Thanks,
Michael

Radius

Thanks for the info. I missed this before I replied above. Knowing this information, I will just skip the ebay route for the trunk weatherstrip.

I am in a quandary, I really want to buy as many of these parts as I can before they are NLA, but I lack the funds to do so now. Maybe they will be around for a while. I hope.

In any case, I am going to have to spend some considerable time researching this issue. ALL of the rubber on the car needs to be replaced and I am not sure if it's all available or not.

Now that the car is living in Washington state it will be imperative to make it weatherproof again.

Thanks,
Michael

oldcutlass

Welcome, sounds like you will be busy for a while.

jaunty75

I'm sure that weatherstripping will be available for your car and cars of that era for many years to come, so I wouldn't worry about something like this suddenly becoming unavailable any time soon. Also, pretty much all the weatherstripping you might need (doors, roofrail, trunk, cowl, convertible if you have one) plus other rubber parts like hood, trunk, and door bumpers are available.

As far as vendor reputation, Fusick has been around forever and is one of the foremost vendors of Oldsmobile parts. You'll never go wrong ordering from them. As noted, though, they tend to be pricey.

rockauto.com also has a good reputation, and many on this site, including me, have ordered from them without a problem.

Other vendors are good, too, and you might even try your local auto parts store for things as well. You'd be surprised what you can still get for your car at the local NAPA or Autozone. When you buy local, you generally save money because you pay sales tax, if your locality has it, instead of shipping, and you have the ability to easily return the part if it turns out not to be right. All of the parts store companies (Advance, Autozone, O'Reilly, NAPA, Carquest, etc.) can be searched online, so you can do all of your comparison shopping without ever leaving the house or making a phone call.

Radius

Thank you all so much for the info. It is really appreciated. I had the feeling a ton of parts could still be had through conventional auto parts sources. Especially tune up items, brakes parts, etc.

I am wondering about front end parts though. Control arm bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends, etc. Did not see much when searching but admittedly I haven't looked that hard. Other than the Fusick catalog.

You are probably right in that the rubber parts will be available for a long time. Still, I worry. It would be really cool if someone offered a "master kit" for convertibles, hardtops, etc, that included everything a guy would need to completely re-rubber a car. That way a lot of mistakes on the right parts could be avoided.

Thanks,
Michael

jaunty75

You're right. These sorts of parts are getting more difficult to find for the older cars. One good source is Kanter Auto Products (www.kanter.com). Go there and search on your car, and you'll find pretty much all the front end parts you would need, along with brake parts and more.

It can get expensive quickly buying all of these parts (a center link for your car, for example, costs $280), but they're not something you have to replace often, and if you need one, you need one.


Actually, this sort of thing IS available. Again, shop around. One thing I've learned, though, is that it can sometimes be cheaper to order piece by piece from different vendors. Just because vendor A has door weatherstrip that is cheaper than vendor B doesn't mean that vendor B won't have cheaper trunk weatherstrip than vendor A. Sometimes the differences can be substantial, and even though you'd have to pay a second set of shipping charges to order from a second vendor, you might still save money.

That's what I did when I bought for my '67 Delta, which is a convertible, last fall. I ordered rubber parts from three different vendors.

Radius

Again thanks for the link. I find Kanter's site a little confusing as they use generic pics for everything.

Speaking of center links, I got lucky. While digging through my Uncle's parts stash looking for the original factory 2 barrel intake and carb I found a spare set of heads but not only that, a NOS Saginaw center link in the cardboard tube.

You are absolutely correct. Although I have found that sometimes it is worth it to pay a little extra for a "kit" when someone had done the work and research to make sure that everything is correct.

Thanks again,
Michael

D. Yaros

Good info added by others on rubber seals. l have dealt with Rubber the Right Way in the past, and should have mentioned them. I had no complaints with them re my dealings. I do believe they also sell on ebay?

As for front end parts, can't speak to the '64, but would caution you that in 1962 Olds used Saginaw and TRW as front suspension suppliers. This is significant because the 2 do not mix! For '62, and maybe for '64 also, one has to determine which type of front end is installed on the car.

Radius

I think you are correct in that the '64 also used both types. I have seen parts listings for Saginaw and "alternate."

When it come time I will figure out which one my car has and order the appropriate parts. My uncle may have figured this out already for me though, as the NOS center link came in a cardboard tube with "'64 olds Saginaw" written on it in ball point pen.

Michael

Don R.

Welcome to the forum, the first Olds I ever owned was a 64 Dynamic. I've already gone through some of your issues on my 63, here are some opinions: Fusick is great to deal with, pay their price to get their service. Kanter is OK but do not buy their brake drums! Their lack of specialization affects their service. Check your motor mounts and replace if they are at all loose. Good luck!

navvet

My 64 used the saginaw. I measured twice (very hard to do) I went and ordered a TRW WRONG!!!
Huge difference after install