Nailheadcanuck

So I finally got out to look at my 53 Olds and secure it's storage for the winter and I managed to shoot a couple of pictures of it.
Yes, it's a sedan, and yes, it doesn't look like much right now, but it is a very solid car. It was abandoned to a field in 1969 and has been a parts car to a 2 door hardtop since about 1980. Luckily, only 2 parts were ever removed from it, and I've already replaced one of them. I got it running for the first time in 40 years back in 2008. It's pretty smoky and wheezy, but it did do 100 mph.
It does currently run, albeit badly. I'm intending on rebuilding the original 303 and Hydramatic, and I'm looking for a power steering and a Treadle vac set-up for it. Right now the car has "manual" steering and brakes. The only customization I'm going to do would be to put in a removeable aftermarket A/C and I'm going to get the radio gutted and the guts replaced with AM/FM and a MP3 player set up. The rest will be stock. It's going to be Navy blue with a white roof, I thought about doing the Fiesta style 2-tone, but I don't know how it would work out on a sedan, it'll probably look too out of place. And then I intend to drive it, daily in the summer, parked in the winter.

So...If anyone knows where I can find a power steering column and box and the proper Treadle-Vac I'd really appreciate it!

Tedd Thompson

For the treadle vac and steering column try 2blu442 on this site he dismantled a 54 and a 55 awhile back and may still have your parts. He is a great guy to do business with. Be sure to take pictures as you put it all together those rough stages you go through will mean a lot more later than now ... Luck on your build, let us know if we can help anytime there are a bunch of good vintage wrenches here that enjoy helping.... Tedd

Charlie Jones

The Hollander says that '53 Olds power steering units were all by themselves .
So '54 & '55 won't fit . I would seek out a complete car as you will need the entire steering column , as well as the steering gear .
In addition you will need the steering arms (known in parts book jargon as the "plain arm ") .from the P/S car .
The inner tie rod ends were also different with P/S .

With all the problems with Tredle -Vacs , I would think it might be easier to install a Hydrovac unit if you want power brakes .
A unit from a '57 Cadillac should work fine . It could be mounted under the hood and hooked up to the stock brake system .

Nailheadcanuck

That's what I was afraid of, that 53 would be unique onto itself. We ran into that on my buddy's 53 hardtop, there were some bits that were unique to the 53 model and that's it. So I'm going to have to hunt down a whole front end...yeah, that'll take a while. That also explains why Fusicks and the others don't carry any parts to it, it's too unique to make re-popping them worthwhile. Now it becomes painfully clear. Oh well, I've hunted down wierd Buick stuff, so this shouldn't be much different except that they built more Oldsmobiles than Buicks in 1953. Does the 1953 Buick Special or Super interchange with the Olds? I know where I can get that crap. And if the original tredle-vac set ups weren't any good, then I just might load a more modern dual reservoir in. Going to have to re-think this I see. I'm going to have a look at the 57 Caddy design that you mentioned, that has me intrigued. Thanks for the info!

therobski

Here's a pic of my 53 back in 65. My brother bought it for me to work on for $50.00. Blown engine...My first Olds!

Nailheadcanuck

That's kinda the same colour combination I want to do with mine; - and I'll do one better on the price, - I'm getting this one for free. I rebuilt my buddy's 303 and he decided I should have this for my troubles.
Not a bad looking car with a white roof!

BangScreech4-4-2

Is it winter there already?

therobski

It was that green metallic paint with a white roof they had in 53.

Charlie Jones

Nope , sorry . The Hollander says that Olds is by itself , no Buick interchange in '53 .

Allan R

That's easy - just leave it outside and in a few weeks it'll have snow on it too!

Nailheadcanuck

No kidding, it's cold today and one weather service is actually predicting snow on Thursday.

So there's your answer as to whether it's winter here yet, winter was only mildly interrupted and inconvenienced by 4 months where the temps actually stayed above freezing. I think we're in for a dilly this year, with all that climate change and what...

Nailheadcanuck

That's just great...is it because 53 was the last year they used knee-actions up front? I'm wondering how tough it would be to retrofit a 54-55 front suspension in, there are a lot more of them around then there are 53s. Physically they looked about the same, I think the major difference was that the later sets no longer had knee actions in them which necessitated a different upper control arm.

Allan R

Wouldn't that in effect also change the frame design?

okie88

54 still used knee action. Olds changed to tube shocks in 55.

Charlie Jones

Maybe it's time to re-think this .
This is only going to be an "occasional use " car , right ? Not a "daily driver" .
I would think it might be better to get it running and driving . Then drive it a while , and determine if power steering and brakes are really necessary .
Sounds like a lot of trouble and expense to save a little effort .

Allan R

From post 1 From another post he also intends this to be a father/son project with it going to his son to drive when he turns 16. It needs to be PS/PB car.

BangScreech4-4-2

Why? My first car was a '64 Impala that had a 4-speed manual with neither power steering nor power brakes. I don't recall any problems.

Charlie Jones

OK strike the second sentence about the car's use .
My advice still stands as written . The OP needs to drive the car " as is " first , then decide whether it really needs power steering or power brakes .
His 16 year old son would do well to learn to drive without power steering / brakes . At least he would be able to handle the situation better if he ever lost power on steering or brakes suddenly .
I'm also one of those who learned to drive without power steering or brakes .

Allan R

Marc, I see on the Fusick website that there's an 'insert' for power steering on the steering wheel. You have any idea what's up with that?

Allan R

The car has an AT, not a manual transmission. Granted i like shifting gears too and they can be darn handy to help stop a car faster too. Only thing to consider is a 16 year old who may be used to technology and need that extra bit of safety factor. I know if it was my car and my son, it would be a restomod. On the plus side it does have 11" drums on front/rear. Shocker though - this car is rated for Premium fuel, not regular even though it's only an 8.0:1 CR.

Charlie Jones

Not a shocker at all . In 1953 an 8 to 1 compression ratio was high . Probably the highest in the industry .
" Regular gas " was less than 80 octane at that time . "Premium " was 80 or slightly higher .
Fast forward 15 years and "regular " was 89 octane and "premium " was 90 or better .

Jamesbo

IMHO, teach him [or her] how to roll up windows and start there

Nailheadcanuck

Ok; - before it gets too heated here, I will drive the car first to see how it works out. The last time I drove it, it actually wasn't that bad, but then again I'm used to "manual" steering and I'm also 6'8" and 300lbs. I wanted the PS and PB for ease so the wife and the boy would like to eventually drive it. But, if it isn't going to happen, then so be it.
Now, the 54 also has knee actions; didn't know that, I knew the 55 was tube shocks - so the frame should be pretty much the same in 54 as it was in 53, so maybe it might be a case of just taking the whole steering gear out of one. I'm going to rethink this, I've got time before my boy is ready to learn how to drive.

I've taught a lot of kids to drive on "armstrong" steering and manual shift cars. My philosophy is that if they can learn to drive a 50s vintage car then they can drive anything on 4 wheels built today. I taught my wife how to drive a standard on a 49 Chevy that didn't even have enough power to get out of it's own way. Drove that thing for years too. So the point is, standard running gear or steering isn't going to be an issue, I'd just like to see if I can find a PS and PB set, I had no idea 53 was the first year for it in Olds, I thought that they introduced it in 52 along with Buick. Guess not...and that's probably why it's unique. So I'm going to study a 54 set.

redoldsman

In my opinion a set of radial tires will do more for this car than power steering. Now you still have to stop the thing. I have driven a 1950 model without power steering and brakes (not available in 1950) and it drove like a truck. I don't know how little ladies ever drove these cars. Since this is a 4 door sedan I doubt you are concerned with keeping it 100% original. I would probably to a firewall mounted dual master cylinder. I look forward to watching your progress on this car Marc. Based on the condition of your Buicks I know it will turn our nice. Do you have any idea of color? Several years ago there was a guy on here that had a 52 or 53 ninety-eight that he painted bright green with a white top. He bagged it and made a real cruiser out of it. It wasn't to my taste but it was pretty cool.

Nailheadcanuck

The car currently has a lousy old set of radials on it. It didn't handle half-bad. Stopping? Who needs to do that? That will be one thing I'm going to look into improving, either through the use of a Treadle vac or maybe something modern. Haven't explored the options yet.
The car won't be 100% stock, no...it'll have aftermarket A/C in it, and the radio will be modified. The rest will be as close to stock as i can get it. Oh yeah, I'll modernize the ignition, I think it was the ballast resistor that quit on me anyway. Carburation, I'm keeping the Rochester 4GC that's on it, I had just rebuilt it before it was stored.. I hate those things, but this one is the proper early one and it works well enough. I will update the electronics, it'll get a faux-generator that's actually and alternator, I want to try and keep the look as stock as possible. The vacuum wipers have to go, no two ways about it. I'm tired of trying to get them to work.
The colour of the car will be navy blue with a white roof, it currently is navy blue all the way through. The interior will be reupholstered stock, so two-tone dark blue with grey fabric. It will get full carpets instead of the 1/2 mat that's currently in it. Not sure where I'm going to source that stuff yet.
Glenn, I'd love to do a two-tone like on your convertible, but I don't think the effect would work as well on a sedan. I know Olds made the trim for that combination in 54, and it is tempting, all I'd need is about 2 inches of chrome strip. I'm going to photoshop some pictures next spring, see what that would look like.
The whole idea with this thing is to make it completely reliable and serviceable again, and then drive it. I figure with modern ignition and proper parts, it should be as fuel efficient as a modern pickup. If I was smart I'd go with a modern transmission, but that's too much work to try and modify, the Hydramatic will do just fine. I might explore beefing up the rear-end to something a little taller so it'll do highway better. First I have to figure out what's in there.
The car is Canadian built, in Oshawa. It has a solid body, and the only rust through I've found is in the driver's floor. The rest is solid. It doesn't appear that the car was ever hit. It has less than 100,000 miles on it, and the knee actions were working once we filled them up. Even the rear shocks have something left.
This car is screaming to survive, and it's been through 3 owners that I know of who wanted to slaughter it out for parts. The first guy was going to butcher it for a Fiesta, and then he figured out that nothing is the same or will fit. He picked up this sedan and a coupe as a package deal ostensibly as parts for his 53 Fiesta. He should have bought a 98, not a pair of 88s. The last two guys have wanted to use it to get a coupe that came as part of the original package deal with it back on the road. (My avatar is the engine from that coupe, another one of my rebuilds.) Luckily the coupe has most of what it needs, there were only two bits stolen from this car. You guys already made it possible for one of those pieces to be replaced.
So now it's up to me to rescue it and put it back on the road. I anticipate it'll take me a few years to get it to look good, as I'll probably end up doing most of the work myself and I'm no spring chicken anymore. .

Tedd Thompson

I'm not sure what rear end is in your car now but I believe you had a choice of about 5 different ratios. All of the early Old's were strong for there year and were used in many of the hotrods of that era.
I have no problem keeping up with traffic or passing a few with my stock engine ignition and rear end, eighty is kinda on the upper end for extended cruising but mine will do it for hours with out issues other than it eats gas like a log truck.

I concur about the vacuum wipers and though I 'm somewhat a purist I broke down and installed an electric Newport wiper motor. Best modification on the car bar none. It has saved my butt several times in thunder and snow storms hundreds of miles from home, you just can't trust Mother Nature..

I run a completely stock ignition and see no reason to change. There is no performance advantage in a electronic ignition and a stock system will talk to you and let you know when they have been ignored for too long and need adjusting or changed. Kind of like a grand baby, keep them full and dry and they will run you to death. On the other hand electronic ignition can puke and quit at the most opportune time with no recourse but to call a tow truck. Been there done that.

To each it's own just my experience, what ever you do it's good to see another one saved.... Lost in the fifties ....Tedd

Nailheadcanuck

I normally am a total purist, both of my Buicks still run points. And I agree Tedd, it tends to let you know when you should be paying attention. The nice thing about a Pertronix set up was the fact that it's an easy conversion and if it fails, it's easy to put back. A lot of the Buick guys I know keep a set of points in the glove box for that reason.
The advantage of electronic ignition is to get a better spark. Open the plug gap more and run a hotter coil, this helps with fuel burn and does increase efficiency. Exactly how much I'm not sure, at least on paper it should be impressive. Experience will tell though. I was going to experiment with this car; the 303 Rocket that's in it goes pretty good, I wanted to see if I could make it run a bit more reliably and better. It's running on the stock ignition, I got it all working again, but the wiring isn't in the best of shape anymore. I am concerned about the ballast resistor that's in it, I've never seen a design like that before, and have no idea with what I can replace it with, it's not stocked at any of the re-pop shops. Sure, I can go with the later version, but then I take it away from stock, so if that's the case, let's live dangerously and change it up a notch or two.
The other thing is that car will never be worth much. It's going to be a labour of love, and it certainly isn't an investment grade car. So, this time, I'm going to do some easy mods that could easily be removed or turned back if a future owner should prefer. I want a 50s vintage car that looks the part but also runs as reliably as something more modern. A tall order, I know, the technology and the metallurgy in those old cars does leave something to be desired. In the end, the car will be more or less stock, it'll may have radials but there will be hub caps, if it has power steering, it'll be as period correct as I can get it, same with power brakes. Appearance-wise, it'll be painted in a 53 colour combination, and the seats will be re-done in the proper fabric. The radio will still be there, there will be a modern stereo unit in the glove box with speakers hidden under the dash. I'm not cutting holes in door panels or sails; it has to look factory.
This one will be saved...

Nailheadcanuck

So I'm going to ask a dumb question; - does a J-2 package fit on the 1953 303 engine? If I remember right, the ports on the 322 were a different shape from the 303, so could a guy put a set of 322 heads on with a J-2? Would it be worth one's time?

Tedd Thompson

You run into a few problem. The deck height is much taller on a 371 J2 so the intake will not match up (to wide) on the 303, it will set too high in between the heads. Also the ports on a 303 are round and square on a 371 so massive port matching would have to be done. You are working with about 71/2 compression on the 303 and 10 + something on the 371 so you should get a decked head or different pistons, thin head gaskets, different cam and such. You will also need to mill the ports intake/ heads so they set at the right angle and are somewhat close to the ports you are going to match up.

Can it be done ,,,, Yes and has been done in the old hotrod world for years but a heck of a lot of machine work and expensive. You are better off finding a 2x2 or a log manifold set up from a old time after market speed equipment (which ain't cheap ether). Nothing is easy or cheap when you jump out of the box but it sure looks cool if you know what you are looking at...... Tedd