Longtime 1972 442 owner, new to the site
July 22nd, 2010, 02:31 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 7
Longtime 1972 442 owner, new to the site
Hey all,
I'm new to the site within the last few weeks or so as I got my car back up and running after what turned out to be a hell of a lot longer than I expected. I've still got a few peripheral questions that I'll be posting in the correct forums as I get a little time over the next couple days, but I thought I'd say hi before I got to brass tacks.
I bought my car, a 72 442 in 1995 after falling in love with it on the roadside near my house. Didn't even haggle with the guy, as naive as I was. I just knew I wanted it.
It's a 455/TH400 numbers-matching car with ram air, the w-27 diff cover, a spoiler, and essentially every option except for the dual-gate shifter and the power driver's seat. For some reason, the cruise stalk was in the glove box and replaced with a standard turn signal stalk, but all of the guts of the cruise control were included underhood. (I elected not to reinstall them when I got the build finished, just to keep things cleaner in there. At 7mpg, I'm not really interested in long haul driving anyways.)
I drove the car every summer for 5 years until the motor ate a valve seal and started belching blue smoke out of the passenger side exhaust, and also developed a nasty coolant leak where somebody had not actually installed a gasket with the water pump.
I parked it in November of 2000, figuring it wouldn't be terribly long until it was back on the road. Cut to unemployment after 9/11, marriage, a daughter and a mortgage, and suddenly it was 2008 and I still hadn't made much headway.
I had pulled the heads in order to have them rebuilt in 2007 (i think.) and they sat on a shelf behind the car while I tried to figure out what to do. I really in good conscience couldn't just bolt them back on the motor and wait for some unknown issue in the bottom end to blow everything to hell, could I? Besides, in '72, as you're probably aware, 455's were more suited to powering trucks and slow-moving boats. 250hp for a 3900lb. car is really not as much as it felt like when I bought it. (it did have a .264 duration crane cam in it, I should probably mention.)
So, being a conscientious owner, I decided to have the motor freshened up. I pulled it and had it rebuilt by Motorsport Machine in Waukesha, WI. It's bored over to 468ci and has had the compression bumped up to 9.9:1. Then the engine sat on a stand next to the car for a couple years because I couldn't in good conscience leave the rotted rubber bushings in the front end, could I? I pulled everything off the front end, leaving just frame and firewall, and installed poly bushings all around. Then I chickened out.
I felt like I was in over my head (and I was, really.), so I did what any terrified adult would do: I screamed like a little girl and asked for help.
Lucky for me, my good friend Steve at Midnight Fabrication was in the neighborhood. He actually has things like knowledge and confidence in his abilities, two qualities that are in short supply in my neck of the woods.
He got the whole thing back together and working right in just a couple months. I would still be looking at bare firewall if it wasn't for him.
I've still got 375 miles to put on the engine to break it in, but so far, it's absolutely a dream to have my car back. It was a paperweight for so long.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the build in progress, though I haven't got all of the little kinks worked out quite yet, and I still need to get some quality photos of the final product. I'm thrilled to have it working again.
http://midnightfabrication.com/curre...oldsmobile-442
Also, I should note that I think it's great that there's finally a robust online community for Olds owners. For so long, 442.com was pretty much all there was, and a Yahoo! group that didn't really seem to contain many gearheads.
It was here that I got information on how to rebuild my power window switches, and here I'll be figuring out where to drill the holes in the passenger door panel to get the window motor out of there.
Glad to be here,
-J
I'm new to the site within the last few weeks or so as I got my car back up and running after what turned out to be a hell of a lot longer than I expected. I've still got a few peripheral questions that I'll be posting in the correct forums as I get a little time over the next couple days, but I thought I'd say hi before I got to brass tacks.
I bought my car, a 72 442 in 1995 after falling in love with it on the roadside near my house. Didn't even haggle with the guy, as naive as I was. I just knew I wanted it.
It's a 455/TH400 numbers-matching car with ram air, the w-27 diff cover, a spoiler, and essentially every option except for the dual-gate shifter and the power driver's seat. For some reason, the cruise stalk was in the glove box and replaced with a standard turn signal stalk, but all of the guts of the cruise control were included underhood. (I elected not to reinstall them when I got the build finished, just to keep things cleaner in there. At 7mpg, I'm not really interested in long haul driving anyways.)
I drove the car every summer for 5 years until the motor ate a valve seal and started belching blue smoke out of the passenger side exhaust, and also developed a nasty coolant leak where somebody had not actually installed a gasket with the water pump.
I parked it in November of 2000, figuring it wouldn't be terribly long until it was back on the road. Cut to unemployment after 9/11, marriage, a daughter and a mortgage, and suddenly it was 2008 and I still hadn't made much headway.
I had pulled the heads in order to have them rebuilt in 2007 (i think.) and they sat on a shelf behind the car while I tried to figure out what to do. I really in good conscience couldn't just bolt them back on the motor and wait for some unknown issue in the bottom end to blow everything to hell, could I? Besides, in '72, as you're probably aware, 455's were more suited to powering trucks and slow-moving boats. 250hp for a 3900lb. car is really not as much as it felt like when I bought it. (it did have a .264 duration crane cam in it, I should probably mention.)
So, being a conscientious owner, I decided to have the motor freshened up. I pulled it and had it rebuilt by Motorsport Machine in Waukesha, WI. It's bored over to 468ci and has had the compression bumped up to 9.9:1. Then the engine sat on a stand next to the car for a couple years because I couldn't in good conscience leave the rotted rubber bushings in the front end, could I? I pulled everything off the front end, leaving just frame and firewall, and installed poly bushings all around. Then I chickened out.
I felt like I was in over my head (and I was, really.), so I did what any terrified adult would do: I screamed like a little girl and asked for help.
Lucky for me, my good friend Steve at Midnight Fabrication was in the neighborhood. He actually has things like knowledge and confidence in his abilities, two qualities that are in short supply in my neck of the woods.
He got the whole thing back together and working right in just a couple months. I would still be looking at bare firewall if it wasn't for him.
I've still got 375 miles to put on the engine to break it in, but so far, it's absolutely a dream to have my car back. It was a paperweight for so long.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the build in progress, though I haven't got all of the little kinks worked out quite yet, and I still need to get some quality photos of the final product. I'm thrilled to have it working again.
http://midnightfabrication.com/curre...oldsmobile-442
Also, I should note that I think it's great that there's finally a robust online community for Olds owners. For so long, 442.com was pretty much all there was, and a Yahoo! group that didn't really seem to contain many gearheads.
It was here that I got information on how to rebuild my power window switches, and here I'll be figuring out where to drill the holes in the passenger door panel to get the window motor out of there.
Glad to be here,
-J
July 26th, 2010, 07:57 AM
#6
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 7
pics
Here are a few shots my wife took this weekend.
Still need to get the front parking/turn signal lights wired up and covered.
Had some coolant in the passenger compartment after I "re-tightened" a hose clamp on one of the heater box hoses, but otherwise things are working pretty well.
Cheers,
Still need to get the front parking/turn signal lights wired up and covered.
Had some coolant in the passenger compartment after I "re-tightened" a hose clamp on one of the heater box hoses, but otherwise things are working pretty well.
Cheers,
Welcome to our site!! She's lookin good!! Thanks for the pics.
July 30th, 2010, 04:17 AM
#8
...should get a life....
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Orangeville, NSW, Australia
Posts: 717
Welcome. Don't worry about hooking up the cruise control. They were vastly different contraptions in 1972 and they have their own way of doing things. I turn mine on if I want a laugh. Hit the button at 50mph it cuts in at 45 (or there abouts) then backs off, then accelerates, then backs off.....
7mpg...is that what I'm getting?? Holy Cow.
FOR SALE. 1972 OLDSMOBILE 442 CONVERTIBLE. 455/ Dual Gate/ Cruise/ Economical.
7mpg...is that what I'm getting?? Holy Cow.
FOR SALE. 1972 OLDSMOBILE 442 CONVERTIBLE. 455/ Dual Gate/ Cruise/ Economical.
July 30th, 2010, 06:49 AM
#9
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 7
as i realize the folly of mentioning fuel "economy" far too late.
i only did the math once, and it made me sad enough that i never tried again.
i prefer to have my foot in it all the time anyways, so cruise is useless.
cheers,
i only did the math once, and it made me sad enough that i never tried again.
i prefer to have my foot in it all the time anyways, so cruise is useless.
cheers,
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