Hello,

Librarian by day, car enthusiast by night. I have had my 55 Olds Super 88 for about a month now! I am pretty new to cars, not totally clueless, but close. I am ready to learn! I intend on learning as I go, have a great group of guys here locally willing to teach and support. This forum is great to have too! I have a gas leak and vacuum wipers that don't work. So, that's project 1 and 2 already. Here she is; this is Jezebel (and me):



--Jen

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Welcome to our site! What made you decide to get an old Olds??

 

Welcome to CO, nice car!

 

Welcome to CO, dont hesitate to ask any questions, all the folks on this forum are really helpful.

Cheers,

Tony

 

Welcome fellow new member! Hope you enjoy your stay you will find tons of advice and helpful people here I just joined a couple days ago and I can already see that

 

Welcome Jen and that Jezebel! Looking good!

 

Sweet ride. Great to see another gal join our group. Lots of 55-57 Olds enthusiasts on the site. We will give you a hand with the Olds issues. If the gas leak is coming from the fuel pump that might also be part of the wiper problem. The fuel pump supplies back up vacuum for the wipers.

 

Welcome, Jen!

Librarians get less respect than Dangerfield, and deserve more than most other professionals.

Thanks for clearing that up .

- Eric

 

Welcome. Everybody here is glad to help. Love those 54-56's.

 

I am always looking...saw this right down the road from my house. On the road already and lookin pretty!

The gas leak is coming from the top of the tank. So maybe it isn't the actual tank.....I will drop it on Friday, since the fuel gauge doesn't work, thought it'd be a good time to check that out too.

 

Beautiful car! Welcome to the forums!

 

Welcome leak is probably an old fuel line if it is coming from the top. Hopefully

Larry

 

Welcome Jen Looks like a very nice car . Looks like you two were made for each other . And pure TROUBLE! You
and culassgal will be bring all the chrome home now.

 

Welcome. That's a nice car. I like that your bumper is painted. I have tossed about doing that to my 56

 

Welcome Jen, love the 50 era Olds

I also have a 55 which gives me grief with the the wipers.Everything is new,wiper motor, fuel pump, vac lines so these cars can come with unique problems. The wipers weren't that strong when new.Keep us posted as how your repairs are coming along.....Tedd

 

WELCOME ABOARD JEN! (AND 'Jezibel' of course! ) GOOD luck tracking down that fuel leak...most important; wipers?? Who really needs 'em...slather on the "Rain-X" and call it good! That's what I do on my '55 &
56! BEST of luck and glad to see you into the Classic Iron! (With your "Day Job" maybe you can help us track down some of the out of print reference books about our Olds'???....)

 

No one seems to think wipers are important! I did the rain-x thing the other day!

I can definitely help track down out-of-print reference books and manuals, I have great contacts for that!

I hope it is just an old hose. I am seeing that these tanks are hard to find...

 

WOW, JEN! Super 88, and Super Librarian!!! Love the car, and that ain't a bad picture of the two of you!!! Welcome to CO!!! You and CutlassGal should just drive everyone crazy!
Aron

 

yeah, screw 'em! Those tiny ol' wipers never worked that great anyway! GOOD job on the Rain-X!

Hey, I'll get ya some titles I'm lookin' for then. Thanks Jen!

We all hope it's just an old shot hose on that tank too! Keep us posted. (IF it turns out you need a tank we'll all find you one!)

 

Send any titles my way, I'll see what I can do!

 

Welcome Jen

I have had wiper issues in my 56 ever since I got it. You have a nice car!

Rick

 

Welcome aboard, nice car and hope the problems are easy to fix so you can fully enjoy your car!

 

Wow - Super 88 2 door post? Awesome - don't see many of those (only made about 12,800 of them) - great car. Ask away - through baptism-by-fire I've learned a lot about the '55s over the last couple of years...

If you haven't already, download a pdf of Fusick's catalog.

https://www.fusick.com/catfile/Catal...Layout%202.pdf

Ask away -

 

Thanks! Fusick has heard from me already. I got a new radiator cap, but can't get it to turn...maybe I need to bend the little tabs a pinch?

 

press down on the cap, then turn. nice car also

 

Haha, while I am known for doing really silly things, I did press and try to turn. That's the problem, press with all I have and that thing wont' press and turn.

 

Jen,

Maybe a picture would help with what's going on? I've known on my car (72 Cutlass) When stuff sits for too long it tends to seize up..

For instance, sometimes a little tap here and there from a rubber mallot really helps thing along.

I realize we're talking about a prestone cap here, but just food for thought when you're working on other stuff too. Like that blasted oil-fill tube.. :P

cheers,

tony

 

Jen,

Should you decide to opt for a electric wiper motor a 55 56 57 Chevy motor will be a near bolt in adaptation. I'm looking in to this myself when I quit showing my car in point judged events. My car is getting to long of tooth(12 years after restoring) to be competive, does fine at the local show a shine type show though.....Tedd

 

I'd give my right leg for that "long of tooth" car of yours!...ok, maybe my left so I could drive it

 

I definitely want to do an electric motor, just not yet....well, maybe not yet? How difficult is that? If I switch, do I have to do anything to all the crazy stuff going on in my glovebox going to the wipers? By crazy stuff, I am referring to the multitude of cables and wires.

 

Thanks Gorden, But it's all about the tiny little details that kill you in a points show as you know. Besides my car is a driver, built as a driver will always be a driver as long as I own it.... Tedd

 

All the stuff under the dash would stay the same - wipers are cable driven from the center "wheel" (under the dash, behind the motor) to each left and right side. The electric would only replace what's on the firewall...just a note - the electrics are a couple hundred dollars, the rebuild of the vacuum is ~100 bucks - my vacuum ones are fine for most situations outside of a downpour.

 

Jen , I have been told ( this is a disclaimer) that the electric motor connects just like the vac motor,that is hooks into the yoke that attachés to the wiper transmission. No change needs to be made to any wires or pulleys and such. You will have to wire a hot lead to the electric motor and install a on- off switch to the dash. Then possibly one anchor bolt through the firewall to hold the motor ( not sure about this). Others on this board have completed this conversion and said that it was a piece of cake, Hopefully they will chime in.

There are a bunch of guys that hang around on the vintage Olds forum that have a ton of experience on modifying 50's Oldsmobiles,You might drop in there and make a post on that conversion. I would hate to steer you in to a job that is over your head with hear say info although I have heard of this conversion for years...Tedd

 

Gorden you beat me to it.

Jen do you still have the original fuel pump or has it been changed to an electric pump ? If changed, electric wipers would also be cheaper than buying a new fuel pump and having to have your vac pump rebuilt. Just a thought...Tedd

 

Welcome!!! Nice car!!!!!

 

Check with "Newport Engineering" they do a lot of wiper conversion's .
Gene

 

It does have an electric fuel pump now. We discovered that when dropping the tank Friday. Found that the gas tank does have a hole. It is being repaired, get it back Monday. Ordered a sending unit from Fusick, the float was gone off mine and it looked rather deteriorated. Great experienced, learned a lot from it! Only got yelled at once (careful with those drain plugs). Otherwise, I did quite well!

 

Anytime you can drop a tank without getting a bath, you've done well!

- Eric

 

Oh, we got a shower of gasoline thanks to me. Quite a fun day.... Here is an experpt from my blog about my first day in the garage with my first project:


I was told to drive as much gas out as possible of course. I thought I did; without a fuel gauge I relied on hearing the sloshing from the tank. What sounds like a single gallon could also be 15 gallons. OOOOOps. So, first minor failure on my part, really long time draining the 15 gallons through the drain plug. Since we couldn’t take the plug all the way out or it would go everywhere, a slow and steady stream had to do. Until I got impatient and tried to unscrew the drain just a pinch more, all went well. I thought a slight turn would allow a larger stream to flow; instead, I accidentally completely unscrewed it causing gas to come spewing out, which in turn made me drop the plug into the funnel that was going in the gas can. My reaction??? Start screaming oh my gosh!!! reapeatedly while gas went everywhere….. not the best reaction. After being yelled at to put my f***** finger in the hole (hehehehe) all was back under control. Next lesson learned: wear your glasses when absorber is being put on the gas you just spilled especially when doing so in front of a giant fan. Yup, in my eyes along with gas that I then rubbed in trying to get the absorber out. Whew! After I caused all that chaos, and managed not to get thrown out of the garage, everything went smoothly. And now we wait to continue…..