I've finally got my priorities straight and I'm looking at getting my 1941 Oldsmobile the much needed love she deserves.


Here she is in her former glory with me as a high school punk
The car was originally my my scoutmaster's car when I was growing up. He didn't know much about cars, and for a "wax job" and other maintenance tasks he would let us drive the car to the high school dances. After I graduated from High school, I remained good friends with my old scoutmaster, and he started having bigger and bigger problems with the car. I ended up rebuilding the brakes, the suspension, and fixing a leaky head gasket for him. One day he got tired of the hassle and offered to sell me the car. With my dad loaning me the $$ I bought it on the spot.

Since then, I've graduated college with an engineering degree, got married, had 2 kids, and finally find myself on a good financial footing, with a steady job to tackle the ol 41.

I recently resurected her from the dead, put her on the insurance, bought a new battery and drove her to work a couple of times last week. My immediate squawks are:

1. leaking thermostat housing
2. replace hi-low beam headlight switch (short)
3. sandblast/powedercoat original rims (had one of the radials fail on the freeway and the bias ply spare was flat)
4. rewire everything under the dash

I have a good head start on all these items except I can't find a thermostat housing for the original 238 straight 6. If anyone knows of a replacement, or swappable part, or a source for an original I'm anxious to get one on order.

The car is original drivetrain, with the original hydramatic and 6v system. I'm still working out the long term plans on what to do with the car, but for the short term I'm thinking make her reliable and go through her systems and then fix the paint and finish one piece at a time keeping the car nearly drivable through out her resto/mod. Right now my long term plan is to upgrade the drivetrain with a Vortec 4200 with matching transmission and rear end, while keeping as much as the rest of the car original looking/ style, but with a 12v power and modern wheels and brakes. Here are some more pics of her current state:

After the flat


Original (Flat Spare)


Front end


Engine


Interior


Big Rear End


Needed Rotting/leaking thermostat housing

I'm super excited to have found this forum and hope to become a very regular participant!

 

Welcome. What a great car and what a neat story. I love this car.

 

Welcome to CO. Nice fat-fender car you have there. You will enjoy working on it, good luck.

 

Welcome aboard

Love the car and the story.

I'm gonna let some of the fat fender guys help ya out.

 

Very nice looking car, and looks to be an easy restoration based on the current condition and completeness. You have to be thanking yourself for having the insight to purchase the car when you did, had you not, you would have always had regrets. Thanks for sharing your photos and please continue to give updates on your progress. Oh yeah.....Welcome to CO!!!

 

Beautiful car! And you had the good sense to keep it. I've sold some really neat cars to raise money for the "next" really neat car in my youth. I pine for all of them!

 

Awesome...my father had a '41 "76" Series when I was growing up...got sold before it was ever finished, but I've always loved the lines of the '41s. Keep us posted no matter what you decide to do. Great car

 

www.antiqueolds.com then look for the 1941 advisor. He has a long family history with 41's and is likely to have or know where to find some spare parts.

The AACA is another good option for you www.aaca.org . Membership in AACA or NAOC is always a help finding parts and advice on pre-war cars.

Your car, your money, your time, but a Ninety Six is an unusual car. 1941 is the only year it was made and only 2176 Series 90 six cylinder coupes were produced, so after 70 years you can figure not many left. That would be enough for me to keep the car and especially drivetrain as original as possible.

A guy in Charlotte NC area is doing a 42 rod on a 1969 Delta 88 chassis, so he can probably help you with hard spots if you do go thru with the resto-mod. 'Course he just bought a 57 Olds so his new toy is consuming him right now...

 

Welcome to the site. Sweet looking ride and cool back story.

 

I like a good story!!! Great car and welcome!!

 

Great looking car - I wish there were more of these on the road today!
I especially like those wire wheel covers.
Glad you are able to keep your old memories alive by buying the car and restoring it.

Put in a parts wanted ad on this site for the t-stat housing - someone is bound to have one.
Post the progress on the resto!

 

Love the story, love the car, glad you are going to put it back together! Wow, where did you get those threads??? I'm guessing that's sometime in the 50's-60's time frame. Those look like "real" wire rims, not wire hub caps. Oh, and YES, Welcome to CO!

 

Very cool old coupe. I'm a big fan of the 41's. I like the idea of leaving it as original as possible also ! Check with Fusick for the thermostat housing. They carry some NOS parts and if they don't have one they can probably point you in the right direction.

 

You are right those are real true spokes.

 

Rocketraider, thanks for the info, but the antiqueolds.com url is no longer up and working, any chance to find the guy elsewhere?

I'm really torn on this myself, because I recognize that the car is rare, but I also want to drive the crap out out of it, and I'm worried that if I restore her to her original Detroit glory, I'll never drive her far and wide like I currently fantasize about. My current thinking is to minimize the updating, and try to do it in such a way that if I'm ever inspired after putting thousands of miles on her, I can get her back to original without knowing the difference. So no cutting or clipping of the frame, no major chop or gut jobs in mind, but I would like to drive her all over the country with my boys at 80mph and not worry about old bearings, and rare water pumps. I know this isn't always practical, but that is my current goal. I plan on keeping and storing pickling the original drive train as I'm not really planning on ever parting with the car.

Do you know where I can find this guys' build? Does he have a thread going on CO? I don't think this is my route, but I would love to see what he has done and how much chop shop he had to pull off.

 

Called Fusick, no dice on the Thermostat housing... I'll keep on the hunt though. I've been watching a lot of the 40ish Olds on ebay for the last couple of years and I've noticed that a lot of the 8 and 6 flathead originals that are listed have some newish looking Thermostat housing that looks like a big globe (round) unit. I asked the Fusick guy if he new what I was talking about and he said if I figure it out to let him know. I'm betting there is a common housing that fits the original if I can identify what it is.

 

If that's the case, then they are REALLY worth keeping on that car! Sporty and classy at the same time - fitting for that car.

 

My bad- should be www.antiqueolds.org .

There's been some 1941 traffic on the AACA forums the last week or so if you wanna look over there.

You have a PM on the 42 rod.