H i all, I am new at the but have a question for anyone who might be able to help me out. I have the Olds Rocket emblem that goes on the trunk of a 56 olds. Does anyone have a template as to where to drill the screw holes. Or might have a 56 Olds parts car and could measure off the holes. Any help would be awesome. Thanks, Dennis


My 56 Olds Holiday 88. The Olds Rocket emblem goes on the left side of the trunk emblem.

 

Welcome. Very nice car! I've never seen a Holiday with the rocket 88 emblem on the trunk, but I suppose anything is possible.

 

Here is a picture of one if that helps, mines a 55 and and a convertible and trunk dimensions are different or I would measure mine.

 

OK, so maybe I was wrong about never seeing Rocket 88's on the trunks of Holidays. But I know I have seen Holidays without the Rocket 88.....

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the trunk of my '56:

 

I don't really think they are but when I bought the car there was a new one in the trunk. I like lots of chrome so I was kind of wanting to put it on the car. It doesn't have the original motor or tranny. Some had already changed it. It has a 65 425 in it with a late model Turbo 400 in it. Just fun to drive. It is an older resto. It's a driver and that's what I wanted it for. Thanks for your time and have a good day, Dennis

 

I am not sure about 56 but in 54 the Super 88 had the rocket on the trunk while the basic 88 did not.

 

Correct as usual Glenn. The 88 Holiday and the 98 Holiday did not have the rocket on the trunk. Only the Super 88's. The OP has a 88 Holiday.

I think I knew that once, but I forgot.

 

It'a a beautiful car Dennis. Have fun with it.

Let me know if you need additional measurements for the trunk chrome.

 

I have a 56 super 88 post car. Post up some more pics of your car.

 

Thanks for the pictures, they will really help. Is your a Holliday? If you could email me the pic's to dbrown2@marktwain.net I could enlarge them so I could get a better reading. Thanks, Dennis

 

Let me ask you a question, if this was your car, would you add the 88 rocket on it. The more chrome the better I like it. Thanks Dennis

 

If you like it and you have the emblem, by all means put it on the car. It is your car so do it like you like it. I doubt anybody will ever come up to you and tell you it is not supposed to be on the car. Beware of one thing and that is the possibility of rust developing around the holes you drill for the emblem. I would take a small artist brush and paint the inside of the holes.

 

I like shiny but doubtful if I would ever add a shiny part that didn't come with the car, that's just me. If you like it go for it.

And as far as someone not noticing different parts on a pretty correct car I once put a set of almost new 56 hubcaps on my 55, they looked nice and the second person that walked up said why do you have 56 hubcaps on your 55? That was the only time my shiny parts weren't original. This was at a huge show with only about 4 Oldsmobile's entered, who would have thought....Tedd

 

Tedd, you got the only person at the show who "knew".
I was at a car show Friday. Red interior and lower body color, white top '64 F-85 with 442 emblems, for sale ($19,900). But it had the chrome Cutlass tail piece on it. I looked under the hood and the engine was the wrong color. It had disk brakes. It shined like "a new nickel", but later he told me he bought it that way.

 

Actually Dennis, I want my car to be as stock as possible. I even spent time researching the correct whitewall width for a '56.

Having said that, I did have some fun last year with the hood ornament, but I didn't destroy the original and I can put it back on whenever I want to.

 

 

II changed the headlight rims on my 54 because I think the 54 looked bug eyed. They 55 had really pretty headlights. The headlight rims on my 54 are from a 57 Pontiac. I bought them on ebay and had them chromed. In the years I have had them on the car, only two people have mentioned them to me. I think it looks a lot better and I could always claim they are after market. I also have a rocket afterburner light like Frank has but only one on the 54.
Tedd I included a picture of a 55 that one of our club members has. Another member restored it and the current owner has continued to improve it. It is a lot nicer car than mine.

 

Sure good to see those fifties convertibles. Good color combos.... Tedd

 

All I could see was a beautiful '56 Super 88 more-door over there in the shade. I think it has '55 hubcaps though.

 

Good eye Frank. The owner of that car was brought home from the hospital in that car when he was born. Extremely nice car. The guys mother's name was Fifi. If that name is not familiar with you it is the name of the B29 the CAF owns. He dad make a large donation when they were restoring that airplane back in the 70's. He is one of nine pilots qualified to fly it and the B24 the CAF has. Nice guy. The car is a recent restoration. The young guy that did the restoration was with him at the show. This was the NAOC/NTOC joint show we had here in June. We only had a little over 60 cars but we had two 53 Fiestas and two 1950 Woody wagons.
Maybe we should refer Dennis to our thread about the afterburner lights since he likes bling. Can you find the thread?

 

Here is the scene of the crime that started out innocent enough, but ended up with me putting afterburners on my hood ornament!

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-88-a-126197/

 

Aside: Glenn, my father was an aircraft mechanic in WW2 on a Martin B-26 Marauder, through North Africa, Italy, and France. This was his plane:

 

I love those old warbirds. I guess it goes with old cars. The CAF has their big show here next month. The USAF took the B26's during Viet Nam and converted them into A26's. Thanks for finding the afterburner thread Frank.

 

Hey, I love the Olds rocket on the hood, did you put the lights on it. Nice touch.

 

Dennis, it was easy, and I was laughing all the time!

The hood ornament is pot metal so drilling holes in it was fast. I stuck them in with clear RTV silicone. That way if one fails, I can just pull it out. I ran the wires through an existing hole in the hood, under the hood insulation, and tapped into the underhood light. I turn the lights on and they're on.

I've thought about Glenn's suggestion of wiring them to the directionals, and I might still do that. As I said, I can put the original ornament back on, so there's no harm in what I did.

 

You know wiring them to the turn signals they would be so much more visible than those quit green blinker that I miss whether or not they are on or blinking the direction I wan't to go. I'll have to rethink this.... Tedd

 

That is so cool!! By all means, should be directional.

 

Update on an old thread. Yesterday I rewired the afterburner lights on my hood ornament and they are now directionals! I don't think there's any need to post pictures, but it's pretty cool!!!

 

How is your back today after spending time under the dash.

 

Actually Glenn, I did everything from under the hood. The wires for the afterburner lights came through a preexisting hole in the hood and then I just tucked them under the hood insulation and I snaked the wires along the left fender. The only problem was that the wires were so "crisp" after all those years the car spent in the California desert that I had to use three way splice connectors to get good contacts.

I told my wife it was easy peasy but she said that 72 year olds shouldn't say " easy peasy" , but it was.

I reminded her that easy peasy dates back to the 40's. She was not impressed.......

 

Good thing I wasn't doing that because I was thinking of the indicator lights under the dash. Duh. Glad you did that Frank. If the rocket on the 54 was dual engine I would do that for sure. It is pretty doggone cool.

 

No matter what you do, that’s a sharp looking Olds!

 

Thanks. Mine just has a single afterburner light that comes on the the headlights.