nightmare

for the last 6 years ive had a 61 dynamic 88 and am just now getting the funds to begin fixing it
here it is in all its faded glory. my family named it old coral

Nilsson

Sweet, is that the original paint?

cutlassgal

Welcome to our site! What a cool car!!

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

nightmare

most of it is however the paint behind the back window has been re-sprayed and it does have some cancer on the roof.

its actual color however isnt pink its orange but its oxidized that color over time. when it rains it turns this light orange metallic color which can be red or pink or orange depending on what the lighting is like

72 cutlass455

Welcome

Centurion

nightmare, very cool car! My friends in Kent, WA own a fine, all original '61 Dynamic 88 4-door sedan. When you get yours on the road, let us know. It would be fun to get the two cars together for a photo session!

Aron Nance

Welcome to CO, Nightmare! That will be one great looking Oldsmobile, and somewhat unusual, when you get her finished. My Grandson (and his parents, of course) live in the Magnolia area of Seattle. Beautiful!

nightmare

yeah in all my searching ive only seen 2 others with the same back window so i think it might be fairly rare

Nilsson

I will be visiting Olympia next summer. My father retired there about 15 years ago. I was born in Spokane.

spiderjason

Welcome!!!! Looks like a solid car to work on!!!!

citcapp

Nice to see another web footed Washingtonian on the site. There is starting to be enough of us to put together quite a cruise in next summer. Anyone interested?

Great looking more door

nightmare

well many months and a lot of time and money later it should be road worthy again soon (sort of). so far I have put a new alternator in it and fabricated a new belt tensioner and some adapter plates to make the alternator fit. many years ago when I first got the car my parents paid someone to do electrical work and fix the broken window mechanisms. he did an ok job on the windows but had no business trying to replace the generator with an alternator. Im still trying to get the new one to function properly (it drains the battery when the engine is off)

after dealing with that i noticed the exhaust smelled terrible so i gave the engine some new oil and plugs. the oil smelled like half burned fuel when i drained the pan out.

A big issue for me was the DMV since they required a scale weight to register it. that means i had to get it weighed which was no easy task since the tabs expired in 2005 and it wasnt exactly road legal what with no turn signals or tail lights. thankfully i know someone with a flatbed big enough to drag the old monster over to a weigh station and finally get that done. (4161 lbs if you were wondering)

After tinkering with the fuse box by cleaning the contacts with the smallest dremmel wire brush i could buy and putting in new fuses the ac unit decided it wanted to function again...... one less thing i need to fix. one day i was playing with the horn buttons and realized i could hear the horn relay was trying to work. after a little more tinkering i heard the horns for the first time. they made a lovely squealing/half dead motor sound so it looks like i will need a new set. easy fix. however i did have a great time dissecting one of them afterwards

next up was putting a new hose on the radiator and putting new coolant mix in. first attempt was an all out failure due to me going to autozone and buying what i thought was a close match. after i collected what i could from the radiator to keep every animal in the known universe from being poisoned. later on i went to oreily's and found out they had the exact hose i needed (score!!!!) that night i looked closer at the rad and realized the fitting itself was covered in pinholes and was half crushed. 2 days and a trip to the radiator shop later it was fixed however the shop owner warned me to check my engine out because when he soldered the new fitting on flames shot out of my radiator (ugh). so far it is finally holding water again

with that fixed i could finally limp it over to a mechanic to get the electrical harness looked at. it was kind of sketchy the first few blocks of driving it (it hadn't left my driveway in 7 years) but after a while the engine sounded better and better and it shifted more smoothly.

on a side note i DEFINITELY need to have the brakes adjusted. i practically needed to throw an anchor out the window when i needed to stop. i also noticed the steering is very loose but since ive never driven a car that doesnt have power steering before i cant really make that call just yet.

turns out most of the cars electrical problems stemmed from the following:

a heavily corroded fuse box which will eventually need replaced but i will deal with it later

every light in the dash was burned out and the sockets were rusted to hell

the headlight switch was loose/damaged

the turn signal switch was DOA

I am honestly surprised it needed as little work as it did but I sure as hell would not have figured it out (electricity and I are not friends)

as of now the electrical work is nearly done at the garage hopefully i can take it out on the freeway next week although my wallet will be crying for a long time once I pay the mechanic.........

I plan on taking it to the burien car show as soon as i can. though i may need to clean the mold off the chrome first

next up will be taking a closer look at that engine to see what kind of mess i have on my hands as well as getting the cowl fixed (cringes in pain) and replacing the rotten out floor pans which shouldn't take too long (unlike the cowl)

Mr65Cutlass

Glad its up and running...almost!

nightmare

well it looks like i have a new issue on my hands. im pretty sure my head gasket is blown since water is magically disappearing from the radiator and it sounds like a steam kettle when i turn the engine off. i wont know for sure until i get it back from the electrician but i will check the oil and rad once its home. I wont be taking it for a drive just yet

marxpups

i have motors ,transmissions,rearends that work if u need a good used one,i think u called me on a turn signal switch but never came and got it mark 425 742 1520 lynnwood wa, also do auto repair on these old cars for $45.00 per hour

marxpups

also have complete p/s conversion for your car

nightmare

i never called about a turn signal switch unless the mechanic doing the electrical work did. as for the steering i will probably leave it stock and just have it tightened up a little so there is less play in the wheel

nightmare

Well i have finally taken the car to its first car show. the Classy chassis car club meet in Burien. also i finally got a working camera again (last one died at a convention) so now i can post some long overdue pictures

this is after 3 hours washing the years of gunk and grime and mold that has accumulated on the car and another 3 hours waxing/buffing the old paint. its still in bad shape but at least it doesnt look pink anymore


here is the "before" shot for comparison:






and now for the traditional picture of the giant engine. never you mind the fact that is cant go more than 2 miles at a a time in this heat





here is what i did to shoehorn in a new alternator. this is the result from me using a vertical belt sander, an angle grinder, a blacksmithing anvil, and my 110 volt mig welder





a shot of my "lovely" interior. that sun-visor is broken by the way



and here is my fred flinstone floor as many of you are accustomed to seeing. and no the other pan isnt any better. the back is in decent shape though as i managed to sand and prime them in time




and now for the fun part. the car show. the car has now reached the "20 by 20" stage. at 20 feet and 20 mph it looks like a decent car again