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This is cool. Like Frisbee_K9, my dad purchased an economy car in '74 because of that gas crisis. His choice was a 4-door Pontiac Ventura with the 250-L6, AT, PS, PB, AM radio and rubber flooring. The "Blue Jewel" was her name. Wheels were the moonie dog-dishes on body-color steel 14" rims. It was so stripped down he had to special order it. Both my younger twin sisters and I learned to drive in that car (mom's gently used '68 Cutlass -- in my sig -- that he purchased from his neighbor 6 months after this Ventura arrived was off limits!), and in the ensuing years we rode that car hard and put 'er away wet. I remember racing a work buddy in his 2-door '74 Ventura w/ 250-L6 and 3-on-the-tree, also on moonies w/ body color rims (I won due to the 3-on-tree disadvantage he had), and doing doughnuts in the church parking lot packed with friends with that car. Dad even bolted a bumper hitch to the Blue Jewel and used it to tow his ~16' tri-hull boat.
I've always hae a soft spot for these X-bodies, Nova, Ventura, Omega, Apollo. Sharing the front suspension w/ the F-bodies made them handle quite decently. I love where you are heading with this project, and being in Austria is the cherry on top. Will be following this thread for sure.
due to the defect Chevy 250 motor block and the either expensive replacement with shipping from US or not successful searching for one in AT/EU the project develops in a different direction!
I found another thrilling machine - a Pontiac 230 OHC sprint will be the future power plant of the Omega!
due to the defect Chevy 250 motor block and the either expensive replacement with shipping from US or not successful searching for one in AT/EU the project develops in a different direction!
I found another thrilling machine - a Pontiac 230 OHC sprint will be the future power plant of the Omega!
That is an awesome upgrade, good score. I saw one of those for sale locally as well.
I can hardly wait to see this come together. I was tempted to pick up a 230 OHC despite the $1000 price tag. The frame looks good. I like any unique, non sheep mentality powerplant and build.
Both your quality of work and progress are impressive!!!
Have you considered dual exhaust? In-line six cylinder engines with dual exhaust can sound good and the exhaust manifolds on the engine make it look doable.
Interesting choice on the Pontiac OHC L6. This will make it unique for sure. Curious though, I'm not that familiar w/ how these OHC motors go together, but the thermostat housing appears to be built into the cam cover. Is the cam cover part of the water jacket (can't imagine so.....this would mix coolant and lube for the cam, no?)? There must be alot more going on under that cam cover than meets the eye.
maybe a bit too early compared to the status of the rest of the car, but Slavko, my mate from the upholstery shop has same time and started with the work on the bench seats!
the additional wire will/shall improve the stability
both seats will get more lateral guidance
front bench seat:
rear bench seat:
He is doing a lot of jobs for vintage Porsches and therefor he has access to original Porsche fabrics. So we decided to use Porsche Pepita for the middle section and black leatherette for the rest - will almost look like new from Willow Run delivered
as all mounting points were broken, I will fabricate a new part for my dash bezel myself with fiberglas. Gauges will be most likely the 1967 series from New Vintage USA as the use the same font and red pointer as the original gauges.
between I'll add a 3.5" TFT display with wifi mirroring to display navigation and music - with is playing over bluetooth and the old AM radio - from android and ios devices.
Nice work on the rear seat, looks terrific! I like the choice in engine, the Pontiac I6 is going to make many folks double take when they see your hood open! Going to be a cool car for sure!
It's a good thing that they were exported without those heavy ugly 5 mile per hour bumpers. The weight saving alone should make your Olds even more fun to drive
Good looking Omega, my best friend in high school had a 73' or 74' with a I6. It wasn't at all fast but the Olds Ralley's made it look great, just like that red car.
