Hello, I’ve come to learn about and explore the great Oldsmobiles of the past. My father and I purchased a ’64 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 last December. It had been sitting in a barn for 15 years, and we picked it up for $450 bucks! The body has a little rusting along the door panels and fenders. It needs a back bumper too. The interior is in fantastic condition though! This car, my baby, is a 394 cubic inch 2 barrel and runs smooth as butter down the road. It took quite a bit of work to get it into this condition though. She even bit my dad! He received third degree burns. We worked out most of the kinks in the engine. I’d like to share my experiences from beginning to end of this car, and just share the progress of Ol’ Dyna. Currently we’re working on getting a stereo in, cleaning and painting under the hood, and in the future I’m going to be sanding and painting the body.
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Nice Car !

 

looks nice. keep us posted on the progress.

 

Welcome, very nice car!

 

Hey everyone, this is my baby’s first car. She has really grown attached to it. I love the fact that she can see the beauty in this old relic. When I was her age, if my old man tried pushing a tank like this off on me, I would have scoffed in his face. As a punk, I was into Mustangs. I saw this car for the first time last summer when the owner had pulled it out of the barn to use the trailer it had been sitting on for fifteen years. At first I thought it was kind of ugly. This thing is definitely an old man car. Now I really like it. I bought it without even knowing if the engine was going to turn over. Jeromy, J(Chicago) stopped up and we tried to get it fired up. I did a complete tune up on it and ran a fuel line into a small gas can directly to the fuel pump. Still couldn’t get it to fire up. The diaphragms in the fuel pump were rock hard. I put some gas into a spray can lid and poured some into the carb. It fired up and ran for twenty or thirty seconds than backfired and shut down. That’s when the trouble started. I went to dump some more fuel in and there must have been a flame down in the carb or intake that I didn’t see. It blew up on me and some gas splashed on my arm, jacket, leg and ignited. I stopped dropped and rolled twice but my arm didn’t stop burning until I pulled my jacket off and smothered the flame. This all happened right after I got off work on New Years eve. I did not have a drop to drink. I went to the emergency room and they told me I had 2nd & 3rd degree burns. I will never poor gas directly into the carb again. If I was thinking I would have got an oil can and used it to fill the float bowl through the vent. Now this car and I have a special bond.

 

HOLY $HIT! You are one lucky guy! It must hurt like heck. Sorry, I can't look at that pic much more. Get better ok?

 

wow , that's the biggest blister I ever saw ! I should of been burned bad one time with a 68 RR I use to own many years ago . I took the radiator cap off when it was scorching hot and it shot up like a cannon and hit the underside of the hood , but I never got hit with a drop ! To this day I can't figure out how I escaped that one .

 

Did we REALLY need that photo?

 

Looks Like a handful of Bratwursts!!! Thank God it wasn't worse!!! as said that looks too painful to look at!! but also thanks for sharing to add to lessons learned, I hope there is no muscle or tendon damage.

As for the car , what a nice save!!! good luck with her, and keep us posted on the progress once you heal up...

 

Great looking old boat,I had a Holiday 63 once upon a time, loved the car hated the transmission.If it were mine I would get it drivable before I fixed anything cosmetic and check out that transmission out. The Slim Jim Roto 10 hydromatic will either work OK or will drive you nuts trying to get it to shift correctly, few shops will work on them and a conversion is very expensive. That rear bumper also is a rare bird keep your eyes out for a used one from out of the rust belt because they all rust out in the same place, probably why yours is missing. I'm not trying to scare you out of a restore but just a few things that might be a common problem that you are not aware of.

You know I have done the same thing, dumping gas down a carburetor, probably fifty times in the last fifty years with no problems, but I use a oil squirt can to apply the gas(most of the time) just lucky I guess... Lost in the fifties....Tedd

PS. keep us posted on your progress.

 

Whenever possible I leave the air cleaner on and just loosen the hold down wing nut. Then pore a little gas into the depression in the top of the air cleaner and let it run down into the carb.

 

Sorry guys. It's hard for me to look at it too. You'll all be happy to know that everything healed up fine in one month. No permanent damage, no scarring and even the hair grew back. I am a mechanic and I must have a pretty high threshold of pain 'cause I didn't even miss any work. I was very lucky that it was on my left hand. Other than the first day, it really didn't hurt too bad.
Tedd, you and I are on the same page. The trans shifts real nice. I had to put a master cylinder in it along with a couple of brake lines. We rebuilt the carb and fuel pump. I replaced the belts and the radiator. It had a ticking noise coming from the top end. I found two bad rockers and replaced them. I also had to replace the rear coil springs. My daughter is going to start another thread showing our progress on the car. The body work is going to be our last priority. This car drives real nice though. Next I'm gonna throw some tunes in it for her.
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The interior looks amazing! Aside from some accumulated dirt on the seats and carpets, it's survived very well! Looking forward to your daughters thread. Glad you are ok and back in one piece. I guess in a way your bad luck just reinforces my desire to stay safe when I'm wrenching on my car, because I'm not a mechanic and may not have a clue what to expect.

 

The fuel pump started leaking that I just rebuilt. I'm buyin' a fire extinguisher for this thing tomorow.

 

You hand looks really scary...
I hope you get well soon!

And the car is certainly something special!

 

ya know , bacon blisters up like that in the frying pan