1966olds88

I'm so excited to have found this site. A little history about my car... it is a 1966 Delta 88 that has been in my family since it was new. My great aunt bought it new and when she died it passed to her brother and then to my grandpa and then to me. I got it when I was 19 years old and drove it as my main mode of transportation for a couple of years. I probably shouldn't have been given it until much later because I did a LOT of stupid things that caused unnecessary damage.

I won't go into everything this car has been through (mostly to save myself from embarrassment) but the final nail in the coffin came in the form of a collision when a lady fell asleep while driving to work and ran into it while it was parked in front of my house. She hit the drivers side rear bumper and it ripped the quarter panel pretty good as well as demolishing the tail light, bumper and most of the trim pieces on that side. The trunk lid managed to come through unscathed but the trunk pan is crumpled up. I'm not sure how much damage the actual frame sustained. My only consolation was that it totalled her brand new Mustang.

Since then it has been sitting (roughly 10 years) and getting plenty of weather damage because I haven't had a garage to store it in. I finally decided that I am in a position to start working on it and I have begun to clean it out to see what I'm up against. I've actually been pleasantly surprised as I've gone through everything. I had forgotten how cool this car is and that I still have almost all the original parts.

Right now my goal is to reupholster the interior, fix the body damage, repaint and then begin rebuilding the original engine (if it can be). Although I'm pretty mechanical and have tinkered with auto repair for a long time I probably just know enough to get myself in trouble. I'm going to be leaning heavily on the experience and knowledge of others through this process.

Well, there it is in a nutshell. I'll post more specific requests and questions in other forums.

salvaged88

welcome to the forum let me be the first to say throw up some pictures as about 20 other people will lol

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

Glad you decided to join us.

Yep, Please post sum pics pronto.

We love pics

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO. We are here to help you out all along the way. Hope the project turns out well.

1969w3155

Welcome, always help and parts available here.

OLD SKL 69

Welcome to the forum. Look forward to seeing your pics!

1966olds88

Here are pictures as requested. I'm having a hard time deciding on what to start with so I'm just going to start pulling damaged parts off. I figure I can hurt what's already ruined.

jaunty75

Wow. If this car didn't have so much family attachment, I'd say you'd be better off finding another '66 88 in need of restoration and using this car as a parts car. That's pretty nasty damage to the rear, and, as you say, there could be frame damage as well. But, given that it's family, you need to find another one like it for parts. I don't believe there's any aftermarket sheetmetal available for the 88s, so you're going to have to rebuild the whole rear end out of the parts from another car or cars.

With the car having sat outside for so long, you're going to need to check the frame anyway, bent or not, to make sure there's enough of it left to rebuild the car on.

That interior doesn't look too bad, and the front end looks good, too, so there are some positives.

1966olds88

Yeah, I've debated whether to get rid of it or not for years especially since most of the work is outside of the scope of my abilities. But something keeps me from doing it so maybe I'll just take a crack at fixing it up and hope for the best. I have a replacement bumper and taillight already so I just (big emphasis on just) need the quarter panel. Anybody have a spare one lying around? There are smaller parts that I can find later but the quarter panel and the trunk pan are much more crucial to being able to move forward.

jaunty75

But by doing the job, the work becomes INSIDE the scope of your abilities! That's the fun.

This car, in the condition it's in, might be worth $500. That's for a complete parts car. This car isn't a complete parts car because the rear is damaged, so it's a partial parts car. Anything you do to it will increase its value dramatically, and you will enjoy the satisfaction that comes with having done it yourself. You've already got a start on the replacement parts. Time to atone for all those youthful indiscretions you only alluded to but haven't given us the juicy details on!

Oldsmaniac

As said body damage is pretty extensive for an novice. Not only quarter is damaged but trunk area as well and rear panel between tailights. Nothing lasts forever. Make this one your parts car and look for a better one. It will save you so much hassle. You will be enjoying the car rather than stressing over it. I recently parted a 66 Conv that I had since 1974. I have no regrets and as much as I wanted to keep it time had taken its toll and was not save-able.

1966olds88

As for my noviceness, there is one saving grace and that is that my father-in-law is a welder/engineer/genius and might be willing to help me refabricate the parts. But, yeah, I know I'm up against some pretty big issues.