calicanuck66

Well, I FINALLY bit the bullet after reading these posts for awhile now & signed up. So, a newbie yes, but really no. I've had an Olds since 1987 when I bought my first one from my Uncle (an orange '71 Cultass SX with a halo white vinyl roof) when I lived in Calgary, Canada. It was sitting in his yard, not in running condition, sitting up against a fence, with biege overspray paint flecks all over it from a nieghboring fence repaint. Half the top half of the motor was in the trunk & I managed to get it going. Had fun with it for a couple of years, then moved to Calif. in that same car back in '92. I enrolled in a junior college auto repair program & rebuilt the mechanicals (engine, tarns. & all 4 corners of suspension) while studying all things automotive. Got the thing pretty nice looking, then sadly, that orange one was wrecked/totalled while parked by a DUI driver in '95. **cue sad music here**

However, believe it or not, I found another '71 Cutlass SX parked behind a bank here in SoCal. A really cute bank teller owned it (married bank teller unfortuneatly-I only thing I got out of here was her car-LOL !!) Yep, this is the one here. It didn't look like this when I owned it. (It was a puky yellow/greenish color w/ the white halo vinyl roof option) It needed help, but body was rust free & straight & so I started in on where I would've gone with the orange one if I had still owned it. I always loved the 442 look & I kinda went that direction with it. It got a color change & I even used parts from my wrecked one to speed up the process (complete interior swap from old car) this maroon one does have it's #'s matching block.

So people, this is what I have now. I'm actually in process of replacing my brake master & booster right as I type this, as the brake master rear compartment was found to be leaking brake fluid into the booster very slowly over time & has been filling the booster up w/ brake fluid. I'm also doing an upgrade to the new dual piston front Wilwood brake calipers (which DO fit a factory '15 ralley wheel BTW) I just read about an install/road test that one of my car mags just did. They loved those calipers ! It does have a TH400 (as all SX's had) & the engine is a #'s matching 455-0.60 over w/ Edlebrock alumin heads, intake & carb.

I could go on & on, but I just really wanted to say hi. If you any questions, drop me a line on here. I'll be glad to answer any questions. i've been Oldsmobiling since '87.

oldcutlass

Welcome, cool story, and beautiful car.

Allan R

Welcome to CO!
A transplanted Calgarian huh? You left when Ralph Klein and Dave Branconnier were at their peak! You know 'king' Ralph just recently passed?

Very nice looking CS; looks like you're having fun with it. You planning to stay in Kally four nya or make the jump back to the land of cold and ice some day? Calgary has such nice weather compared to Edmonton, and I love how close it is to the mountains and recreation areas. I still have snow..... working on throwing it out onto the road to get rid of it faster.

I had a problem with my brake booster and master cylinder blowout about 2 years ago. Since then I've had my front and back end apart doing a rebuild of the suspension/brakes/axles/steering and cosmetic stuff. Still have to tackle the cooling system. Need to drive it this year for a bit before I can justify taking out the engine/trans for rebuild.

tru-blue 442

Welcome. Very nice ride!

henryk8398

Welcome! Beautiful `71!

calicanuck66

Yes, i heard that. That is too bad. He was a great mayor !! He was really instrumental in getting us those '88 Winter Olympics

well, I heard that Calgary just had a couple of snow dumps the last couple of weeks. *sucks !* I'm in a T-shirt down here right now & we've already got car show season going on down here. I am still a green card holder (just renewed green card last year in fact) & have no plans as of yet to convert to an American

yes, when I came down here originally from Calgary with the orange SX, it only had the simple Canuck cooling package which consited of a non-A/C car cooling setup. Only a 2 row rad, no factory shroud, finger guard & 4 blade "X" type fixed fan. Ya, that didn't do very well in the SoCal summer heat. I had alot of trouble with it the first summer i was here trying to figure out how to keep it cool. Had a couple of overheats, (no head/engine damage or warpage THANK GOD !!) but got it solved. Then it got wrecked. However, as I stated before, I transferred all usable pieces from the wrecked orange SX to this one. Funny how having "Year One" on speed dial gets you a clutch fan & factory fan shroud setup. But when I had the engine redone the 3rd time, I'm now running a twin elec setup w/ a 4 row BeCool rad & 160 thermostat. No probs thus far in last 5 yrs. since this setup has existed & runs between 165 -180 degrees. (I did have another twin elec fan in it once before & it STILL overheated) which led me to get the 4500 CFM flo one I got from "Summit" for motorhomes. Hey, I figured if it was good for motorhomes, then it's good for mine. Besides the older GM tandem rear axle motorhomes back in the late 70's & early 80's ran 455 Olds engines in them !!

I've done all 4 corners as well. i have the Global West upper & lower front control arms (non lowered kit) & their front sway bar. I have the Hotchkiss upper & lower boxed rear control arms & rear sway bar on the rear corners. My rear end is the next thing I'm gonna tackle one day. It's still the original one to the car. i still have the A/C rear end gear ratio (open diff 2.73:1 ??) Great on freeway, but not fantastic off line, altho it does get up & go well enough mind you) I plan on going overdrive at some point in time via gear vendors unit. Converting to Fuel inj is also in the back of my mind using one of the new systems that are coming onto the market now (Atomic EFI, Holley's new one etc.)

The brake master i'm replacing right now, is not the original one to the car. i replaced the original one about 10 yrs. ago but it wasn't the original style that was with car originally. It was just a repop that worked with the car. Prob some cheap chinese rip off, but now I have the original style one that was designed for the car from "Year One" soon to be installed. I'm also going to use a smaller new brake booster from earlier mid 60's Cutlass model due to fact that I have roller rockers & need a little extra clearance for valve covers

Allan R

Is your car by any chance an SX? Looking at the wheel moldings that only come down to the mid point of the wheel suggests at one time the car had SX trim?
The interior color of your car looks like "Sienna".

Is the engine a 455 2bbl?

EDIT: Ah, questions answered in above post. You and I were both typing at the same time but you posted first.

calicanuck66

HAHA, yes it is an SX. It was a 4bbl from factory, as was the orange car I had. Yes, the very rare Sienna interior. A '71 only interior color option by the way (at least that's what my interior expert had told me-he only does Pontiac, Olds, Buick & Caddy interiors here in Anahiem Hills, Calif.) apparently, when I redid the interior back in '93 on the old car, (which eventually got transferred to this one) I used his last bucket seat kit that he had in stock. He said it was real hard to get & only had 2 front bench seat kits left.

try & find that sienna color swath in any of the catalogues....good luck !! When I finally had the headliner redone, i had to have it dyed first, then installed.

Oh, I forgot to mention before, that BOTH SX's I had, were both front bench seat car interiors originally. Ya, i kinda changed that too. Found the well worn out buckets in a Calgary salvage yard before I moved & traded some other parts for the sienna bucket seat backs & lower side panels to have everything match (also in Calgary) The center console is out of a '70 & had it dyed to match as well. I had it all recovered after I moved here. I drove down here for 3 days with a busted seat spring poking my *** for 30+ hrs. of road trip time. Eventually pulled into a little parts store on way & got a little seat cushion to help..LOL !

calicanuck66

thought I'd share some before pics of both my '71 SX cars. My original one I had I Calgary that I eventually moved down here in & the one I have now just after I bought it & transformed it

BEWARE !!...the orange SX met a horrible fate. Pics not for faint of heart !!

calicanuck66

HAHA, my pics got seperated. The former ones are of my wrecked SX. These ones are of the maroon one I have now when I first bought it from that cute bank teller, before the transformation began, using a bunch of parts left from wrecked orange car..

I'm sure most of us have been in, or are in, various stages of our own cars, between what these pics show. i know i'm not done yet...are we ever ??...LOL !

ziff396

Nice looking SX! I like all of the upgrades done.

calicanuck66

Thanks all for your input. I appreciated all your good works on here. i've been reading for awhile. alanr & oldcutlass & a couple of other guys sure know their sh*t !!...It's because of the posts on here, that I found out that an older mid 60's Cutlass smaller brake booster will fit a '71 Cutlass. Glad I found that out, as I was gonna get a more expensive chrome booster/master cyl set up from an online speed shop, but I liked the "look" of a stock one better. My last master cyl was painted body color & has been complimented on that choice at more than one car show that it's been at. Also, I have out a few other trick things that I didn't know about by reading these posts. Glad I'm a part of it now.

Thanks all !!