jaunty75

Yes, the sellers are just 90 miles from me. Well worth the drive to get the needed pieces, and they don't have to ship anything.

jaunty75

First nice day in about 40 years today. Got the radiator and cooling system all put back together and had it out for an about 10 mile run today. Then washed it, finally. Yes, it still needs the front bumper put back on, yes, it still needs the roof rack reinstalled, and yes I've got to get the hood aligned, but, still, it LOOKS GOOD! The front bumper is next.

citcapp

First nice day in forty years, sounds like you're ready to have winter over with. What a sweetheart that wagon is. Will be nice to take on trips.

jeffreyalman

looks great!

jaunty75

Took most of the day, but it was a very nice day, and I even had time to put the top down on the '67 Delta and go for a spin. Nothing like a day of 50 degrees after months of 20 degrees to make it feel like 80. You can catch a glimpse of the '67 in the background.

This is the first time the front bumper has been on this car since 2004. It was sent out to be re-chromed at that time and has been sitting in the packaging it came back from the plating shop in ever since.

By the way, that little stain on the driveway by the front tire is nothing car-related. I spilled a can of Coke there.

jaunty75

Got the roof rack on and the hood, for the most part, adjusted. Adjusting it is a bit of a pain because you loosen the bolts, close the hood most of the way, rock it and slide it around to get it the way you want it, and then you have to open the hood again to tighten the bolts. Well, it always wants to slide again as you're opening it. I try to do it carefully. I try to loosen the bolts only enough so that the hood can move with a good shove, and after enough iterations of this process, it finally got pretty good, so I'm stopping and moving on with my life.

I got it away from the house and driveway and out onto a cul-de-sac for these photos. Even though it got to 65 degrees today, that's still a bit of snow in the background.

citcapp

She's a real lady, What you gonna name her has to be something classy

jaunty75

I don't know. I haven't generally named my cars. (My wife would probably think I had finally gone off the deep end if I did! )

elwood565

What a peach! As if you didn't know it already Jaunty, you have quite the nice CC there. One to be proud of for sure! All the sprucing up you've been doing makes the big girl look like she's itchin' to be out on the road!

-Bob

jeffreyalman

that car looks like it's moving when it's standing still! love that 73 front end

jaunty75

Thanks. Actually, I had a good head start as the former owner had had it painted, and it's just been a matter of reattaching exterior pieces and aligning doors and the hood. Needs some work on the interior, though.

jaunty75

You know, I think all of the '71-'76 era full-sized Olds' look good, and I know I'll sound biased, but I always thought that the front end of the '73s looked the best. There's a more rounded, softer, swept forward look to it. It cuts a lower profile. The other years, particularly the '72, are much more upright and angular. I may try to collect up photos of front ends of all six years and put them in one spot.

jaunty75

I collected photos of '71-'76 full size Olds front ends to compare them.


First up, 1971. Headlight trim is one solid piece. Turn signals are low and in the bumper. Bumper follows the contours of the grille, rather than passing in front of it. No rubber edging.





1972. Most angular of the bunch. Very protruding, body-colored trim between the high- and low-beams on each side. Turn signals are in the body above the bumper. Bumper passes in front of, rather than going around, the grille on each side. A bit more body trim between the two halves of the grille.




1973. Softer curvers around the headlights, which are once again backed by a single piece of chrome trim on each side as in 1971. First year for the vertical pieces on the bumper (I think, and I think these were optional), these aligned with outer edge of the grille on each side and having the larger half upward. The two grille halves themselves are wider. Turn signals below the bumper.




1974. Not a lot different from 1973 as far as the headlights and their trim. Grille extends rearward at the top, giving a sort of "water-fall" effect (only year for this). Turn signals are in the bumper but low as in 1971. Verticle bumper pieces are more widely set than in 1973 and extend more below the bumper than above.





1975. Headlights are once again backed by two separate trim pieces ("doors") on each side with a bit of body-colored trim between the high and low beams. Grille is now broken into two parts on each side, and no waterfall effect as in 1974. Turn signals low and in the bumper. Vertical bumper pieces are wide-set and have the larger part below, both similar to 1974. Shown is a Delta 88. For 1975, the 98 came with rectangular headlights.




1976. All bets are off. Rectangular headlights as was done with the 98 last year. Turn signals above the bumper. Four-piece grille which is completely above the bumper, unlike 1972-1975. No vertical pieces on bumper, but these were optional I think (for several model years, actually.) Rectangular headlights set side-by-side, rather than stacked, on each side make for a very wide looking front end.

jaunty75

Finally had a chance to tackle some of the electrical problems on the '73 Custom Cruiser.

I've mentioned before the non-working tailgate and the taillights that keep blowing fuses. There are actually more electrical problems than this, including non-working instrument panel lights, non-working parking lights, radio didn't work, and the driver's side lower courtesy light didn't come on when a door was opened which changing the bulb didn't fix.

I decided to try to tackle these in a more thorough, more systematic way, beginning with the radio. Along the way, I found some surprises.

With the radio, the former owner had installed back in the mid-70s one of those devices that would allow you to hear CB radio audio through the car's radio speakers. You connected the antenna lead to this thing, and then another lead went to the radio's antenna. Whenever a CB message was received, the radio would be interrupted, and you would hear the CB instead. I think it worked even if the radio was off because the device was wired directly to one of the speakers.

Anyway, to get this thing off and get at its wiring, I had to remove the lower dashboard on the right side, which, after removing about 10 screws and the glove box light, came off pretty easily. I disconnected the CB device, re-spliced the right side speaker wire, reattached the antenna lead, turned the radio on, and, lo and behold, sound. But only from the right-side speaker.

The car has an AM-only radio, but it does have two front speakers, one on each side facing upward under the dash. It figures that it would be the left one that wasn't working. There's so much room around the right side speaker that you could hold a convention under there, so getting at it was easy. To get at the left side, though, you have to remove the left side upper dash, and it has all sorts of stuff attached on that side including the wiper switch, headlight switch, and climate control system. But I could loosen it and pull it out enough to get at the speaker, which still required me to be able to bend my arm in ways I didn't think possible.

Well, when that left side speaker came out, I was shocked at its appearance. I removed both speakers because I went ahead and replaced them both, anyway, so pictured below are the left one (on the left) and the right one, with a portion of the wiring that had been attached to the left speaker.




While the right side speaker looks practically new, the left one looks as thought it has been through two wars and lost them both. The wiring right at the point of attachment, which is what's there in the middle, was melted a little bit. The speaker itself looks like it has either been wet, or burned, or both. Anyone want to comment on what would make a speaker, or anything for that matter, look like this?

As I said, I put in two new speakers (found a nice pair of drop-in replacements from a local auto sound shop for $45), so now I have booming AM sound.


Moving on to the left side courtesy light, since I had the right lower dash removed, removing the left lower dash was a snap, and I found another surprise. There are two wires going to the light, and they pass through a single connector. What I found though, was that the connector was partially melted, and one of the wires had been bypassed. Below is a photo of that connector. I had actually pulled it apart and then it back together for the photo, so it was actually more tightly fused than is shown.



The orange wire is supposed to pass through the connector like the white one, and those are the vestiges of the old orange wire sticking out of each end.

Even though the connection was intact, in spite of being melted, the courtesy light still did not work, and the problem turned out to be a bad ground. The white wire is supposed to be the ground, and it doesn't ground to anything. It goes from the lamp socket through the burned connector and into the wiring harness under the dash, so I quickly lose the ability to trace it. I can just bypass it and ground the socket another way, but I would be happier if I could find the other end of this white wire to see where it should be grounded, because if it's not grounded, there might be other ground wires coming to the same attaching point that aren't well grounded or grounded at all, either. I haven't looked closely at the wiring diagrams in the service manual to see if I can trace it. That's a job for the very near future.


But all this burned stuff got me to thinking more about what this car has gone through. I know that it has been in more that one accident in its life, including one back in the 1980s severe enough to require the replacement of the windshield and two doors. The repair doesn't say which doors, but perhaps it was the left side, and the accident caused a fire which was sprayed with water.

Some other evidence supports some of this. When I removed the left side lower and upper dash, I found a lot of aftermarket connectors in the wiring. The job looked professional and all, but it certainly didn't look like a factory installation. It's as though electrical components like switches and so forth were cut out of the system and new ones spliced in.

Another piece of evidence for this is the appearance of the left side upper dash relative to the right side. I had noticed from the very beginning that the sheen on the wood-grain veneer on the left side was faded and more gray-brown looking than on the right side, and I had attributed this to nothing more than the car's age.

But after seeing the other evidence of accident damage, I'm wondering now if what I'm looking at in the case of the left-side dash isn't a part from a junkyard car that was obtained to replace the one that had been damaged in the accident.

Below are photos of the left and right side dashes. The headlight switch has been removed because I'm getting a new one (another story related below).





There's a bit of glare from the flash in the second photo, but I think you can see what I mean when looking at the differences in the brightness and clarity of the finish between the two sides. The left side one is so faded it has lost the wood-grain look and is almost just gray in color.



As far as the headlight switch, I had never been happy with the operation of it. It didn't have the satisfying click when you pulled it out half-way for the parking lights (which don't work, anyway), and, as I said, the dashboard lights do not work at all. Since the taillights and parking lights are also controlled by the headlight switch, I thought that maybe it was the cause of several of my problems. So I thought I'd get a new one. They're not much money at about $10 to $20 depending on where you go or which website you're looking at.

After taking the old one out, I immediately saw that the rheostat coil was broken at one end. So, even if the dash lights worked, they couldn't be dimmed. Either on at full brightness or off all the way.

Autozone had one on the shelf that was supposed to be a direct replacement, but it didn't work when I hooked it up, even though the pin configuration is identical. Pulling it out did not turn the headlights on. I've since discovered that there are apparently several versions of headlight switches for this era, and I need to track down the correct one.

I returned the switch to Autozone and ordered one from the Bumper to Bumper store down the street. That comes in Monday. If it doesn't work, I've got some other ideas and leads, including buying an AC-Delco brand unit. Rock Auto has it for $21.79 (a bit more money), while Autoparts Giant has it for $33.63 and Advance Auto Parts has it for $27.99. All this variation for the exact same unit.


So how's that for a day and a half of fun and excitement? All with the NCAAs on TV in the background. How 'bout that Northern Iowa!

ent72olds

Great score on the car....keep up the improvements! Probably rides like a cloud too!

jaunty75

Got the new switch this afternoon, stuck it in, and, of course, it didn't work. It would have been too perfect if it had.

OK, so the headlights worked just fine when I pulled the old switch out. To my knowledge, I had done nothing other than pull off the connector for the old switch and put in not one, but TWO new switches, and neither worked. So what the aich-ee-double hockey sticks is going on?

Time for a little troubleshooting, always keeping in mind that nothing is ever as it seems. At this point, the chassis service manual and the electrical wiring diagram therein proved invaluabe.

First thought: is the switch getting 12 volts? I figured that it must be because the new switches DID turn on the dome lights. But I'll check, anyway. Get voltmeter out, attach one lead to ground, and touch the other to the red lead on the connector. The reading is just over 12 volts. Excellent, but I expected that.

So now, which of the six remaining wires coming off of the switch actually goes to the headlights (as opposed to the taillights, parking lights, dome lights, courtesy lights, and instrument panel lights)? The manual says it's the light blue one. That wire actually goes from the headlight switch to the dimmer switch on the floor, and from there wires go to the headlights.

Well, the dimmer switch is just right there on the floor, easy enough to get at, although you have to unscrew it from the floor if you want to remove the connector as the screws go through the switch and the connector to the floor. This way, the connector can't come loose or be kicked off during regular use as it's down there by your feet. Leave it to GM to think of everything.

OK, so I should have a complete circuit (continuity) from the blue lead at the headlight switch to the blue lead at the dimmer switch. Hook up my ohm meter, which has a nice feature in that it will make an audible beep when continuity is present so you don't actually have to be looking at the readout to see if it displays zero ohms. Guess what? No continuity. Hmmm.

This wire is one of the many under the dash that has an aftermarket connector between the headlight switch connector and where the wire enters the wiring harness. I'm guessing that this car got a new wiring harness after the accident, but they reused the old connectors for the headlight switch, wiper switch, and anything else under the dash on that side.

So I jiggled the connector for this blue wire, and I start hearing intermittent beeps from the ohm meter. Aha, I say, an intermittent connection that I must have loosened without realizing it when I was removing the connector from the old headlight switch.

I remove the aftermarket connector and remake the splice. I then attach the new headlights switch, reattach the dimmer switch connector to the dimmer switch, reattach the battery, cross my fingers, and pull on the headlight switch.

Alleluia chorus! You can hear them in the background. We have light!

So I put everything properly back together, try the switch again, and it still works. Then I call my wife so she can witness the event and remember where she was when she's asked one day five years from now where she was when light returned to the front end of my Custom Cruiser, and it still works.

Then, to put a sad ending onto this otherwise happy story, I say to myself, "gee, I wonder if the taillights might work now. After all, THEY'RE controlled by the headlight switch, too, and if the old switch was bad, mabye that's why the taillight circuit kept blowing fuses."

Well, I have 10 spare fuses plus a 20-amp circuit breaker that I had planned to use to troubleshoot this problem, so I stuck one of the fuses in, pulled on the switch, and bam, the fuse blows the moment power is applied.

So we still have that problem to tackle.

But we're just happy that we can solve a problem once in a while.

One other puzzle is why the instrument panel lights don't work. They get power from a separate wire and a separate fuse, and that fuse isn't blown. Yet none of the lights work. Suggests another bad aftermarket connector? After all, if one can be bad, so can two. Something to look at.

jaunty75

With the seats and carpet finally out, I did more investigating of the tailgate motor lack-of-power problem. I traced the wires from the rear through to the area up under the dash by the parking brake pedal, and I can find no problems. The problem has to be in getting power TO the switches that control the tailgate, either on the dash or the key-operated switch at the rear.

I did remove the tailgate dash switch and tested it with the ohmmeter, and it appears to be fine. One of the three leads to the switch is the power lead, and I tested for the presence of 12 volts at this lead with the ignition on. Nothing, which isn't surprising.

Below is a photo of what I think is the "accessory block connector." It's up under the dash on the left side near the parking brake pedal. It shows signs (drippings of melted plastic, sort of like candle wax) of the same fire that appeared on the left side speaker and other things that I talked about a few weeks ago.



According to the service manual, the accessory block connector serves several power accessories, including the tailgate, power seats, power windows, and power locks. This car has only the first two, and those are served, I believe, by the two thick, orange-with-black-stripe wires coming off the lower right. I know that one of them is the power seat lead (the one coming toward us with the black tape wrapped around it) because I traced it. The power seats DO work, and 12 volts is present at this lead both where it connects to the block and at the other end, where it would plug into the seat wiring. I'm assuming the other one is for the tailgate. It also has 12 volts at the accessory block end. My question is, where does the other end of this wire go? To the dash switch? It seems that it would have to split somewhere as there also has to be a way for power to get to the tailgate switch at the rear. Where does this split take place? I hope it's not up under the dash somewhere wrapped in black tape. I'd have to start disassembling the dash to find it. I'm thinking that this lead is the source of my problems.

The service manual is not helpful here as the wiring diagram shows only the connection from the 40 amp circuit breaker on the fuse block to the accessory block, but then nothing more. I see no diagram of power windows, power seats, power locks, or tailgate motor.

While I've got all your attention, can you help me with what that other connector is on the accessory block? I'm referring to the purple wire that's on the lower left next to one of the orange/black leads and goes to a connector that's connected to what looks like a relay in the back to the right of the accessory block. What is that thing that it's connected to? I notice that, at the top of the accessory block, are TWO wires. One is the thick orange/black that brings power from the circuit breaker. Is the other one just a return/ground?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for any help!

jaunty75

I was thinking more about that thing that looks like a relay, and I'm wondering if it isn't part of the tailgate motor circuit. I looked in the owner's manual, and a feature on these Custom Cruisers prevented the tailgate motor from working if the car was not in park or neutral. Could that relay in this photo be the thing that senses whether or not the car is in park? Maybe that's been my problem all along. Maybe that relay has failed and is preventing power from getting to the dash or rear-of-car switch because it failed in the car-is-not-in-park mode.

If that relay, whether this is it or not, has failed, I could just bypass it. That would cause the tailgate to work all the time, not just when the car is in park. But I could trust myself not to open the tailgate when the car is moving!

jaunty75

You are now looking at (sort of) a person whose tailgate can now be operated from the dashboard switch, and not because I did any extracurricular wiring, but because the wiring is working the way God and Oldsmobile intended it to!

So what was the problem, you say? The tailgate motor is not working? No. I eliminated that as a possibility weeks ago.

Bad wiring from the back of the car to the front? Well, I had suspected that, but really getting at that wiring required waiting until I had a chance to remove the seats and carpet in anticipation of renewing those. I finally did that last weekend, but my inspection of the wiring revealed no problems.

Closer inspection of the Fisher Body service manual revealed that a relay might be the culprit. I could find only one relay coming immediately off the accessory block, but that one turned out to be for the rear window, and it was working fine.

I was getting close to just running my own 12V power lead from the accessory block to the dash switch, but I wanted to take one last look at the wiring coming from the switch and try to see where the power lead that terminates there terminates on its other end. So off came the lower dash to the right of the steering column. I still couldn't see a whole lot because the radio is in the way, but I could pull on the wiring and see what wiggled under there.

It turns out that the dash switch wiring for both the tailgate and rear window emerge from their wiring harnesses right there in plain view just above the brake pedal, and they terminate at....you guessed it....a relay.

Now THIS relay also has a story. I noticed it some weeks ago when I removed the left lower dash to get at the radio wiring. It was a little odd because, while it looked perfectly fine with the plug connector firmly attached and all wires looking fine, it was held in place by a cable tie wrapped around the lower dash support bracket. It was NOT held in place with any screws. I didn't give this much thought at the time. I figured it was for sure another of the aftermarket wiring jobs I've come across, but, since I didn't know what it did, I didn't connect it in any way with the tailgate or rear window.

Below is a photo of the relay. I apologize for the slight out of focus, but it's difficult to close-ups in focus in dark spaces.




There are four wires connected to the relay. One orange/black looking like the wire that goes to the tailgate dash switch, TWO red/white wires, one of which goes to the rear window dash switch and the other I know not where, and the fourth a purple wire that I also didn't know what it did.

I pulled off the connector and checked for continuity between the orange/black lead connected to the relay and the orange/black lead connected to the back of the tailgate dash switch. It was fine. No problem in the wiring from the dash switch to the relay. I checked the two red/white wires for 12 V, and, with the battery hooked up and the key ON, both had 12 V present. The purple wire had nothing.

I figured it as follows. One red/white wire brings power to the relay for the tailgate dash switch, and it should connect to the orange/black wire if the relay is working properly. The other red/white wire provides power to the rear window switch, and the purple wire functions the way the purple wire did in that other relay I was fooling with last week. It's connected to the ignition coil and is energized when the key is on. That closes the relay and allows power to go to the tailgate switch.

So, I figured, THIS relay was the one that was no longer working, and it was off to the auto parts store to order another one.

But wait! I was about 1/3 of the way to the store when I suddenly remembered something. What had to be true for the FIRST relay I was playing with to work? It had to be grounded. What was wrong with the arrangement with the relay I was working with today? By being held in place with a plastic cable tie, it was NOT grounded!

So I hit the emergency Bat-turn switch, out came the parachutes, I stopped immediately, turned the car around on a dime, and went back home to test my theory. (I notified Batmobile Parachute Pick-Up on my way back.)

I reattached the connector plug to the relay, hooked a wire with an alligator clip on each end to the relay housing and a good ground, reattached the battery, turned the ignition on, crossed my fingers harder than I've every crossed them, and pushed the tailgate dash switch.

TA DA! It moved! Both ways! I was so excited, I did cartwheels in the driveway.

So, yes, yet again, an electrical problem in an automobile can ultimately be traced to a bad ground, or, in this case, no ground. I'm sure that the rewiring that was done to this car after its accident resulted in this relay being reconnected but no realization on the part of whoever did the rewiring that it was important that the relay be grounded. So he just hung it out of the way with a cable tie, never realizing the problem he was causing and dooming whoever ultimately tried to fix the problem to weeks of hair pulling.

I still can't control the tailgate from the rear key switch (what do I want, everything?), but that's the next job. At least I solved the front-of-car problem, and at least I can now open and close both the tailgate and the window. What a feeling!

citcapp

Great detective work Sherlock, and you didn't even need Watson. It's the little victory's that keep us going on these cars we love so much

jaunty75

Thanks. Yep, it's one down and about 100 to go!

jaunty75

Yesterday it was the dash tailgate switch, today it's the rear key switch. Who knows what tomorrow might bring!

Yes, boys, the rear keyswitch that operates the window and tailgate that USED to only open the window, now (as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday, April 18, 2010) opens BOTH the window and tailgate just as GM and God (or God and GM) intended it to.

So what was the problem? Yesterday, it was a completely unexpected missing ground. Today, the problem wasn't electrical at all!

No, the problem was mechanical. I removed the rear window regulator so I could get at the back of the keyswitch to remove the connector and check it for 12 volts at the appropriate leads as I had long been planning to do. But before I could even get that far, I noticed that the keyswitch was barely attached to the lock cylinder at all. I found that if I held the switch up tight to the cylinder, turning the key WOULD operate both the tailgate and window. (It helps to have arms that are 10 feet long and bend in all kinds of weird ways.)

I discovered that the keyswitch actually wasn't physically attached to the lock cylinder at all. All that was holding it in place was that it was resting against the back side of the window regulator. A clip was missing.


Look at the figure below to see what I'm talking about.



Item #2 was being held against item #1 by resting against the backside of the window regulator (not shown) because item #3 was missing. I fashioned a serviceable replacement out of a piece of coat hanger wire, and, voila, a nicely functioning rear tailgate, and the lock cylinder is tighter in the back of the car now, too.


Now, it's off to the taillights!

jeffreyalman

how's it going up there???

jaunty75

It's going in fits and starts. I didn't do a whole lot to the wagon this weekend. I did the three step (Marine Clean/Metal Ready/POR-15) treatment to the rusty areas of the floor, and it's now coated with POR-15. I can go ahead and lay in the new front and center section carpet pieces any time, but the third piece that goes up under the third seat is over at the same shop that is doing the reupholstery of the front seat. I gave him the old third piece, which auto carpet sites don't sell as a pre-molded item, to use as a pattern to cut and sew the new third piece.

I won't have the seat or third carpet piece back for another couple of weeks, so things are kind of in a go-slow pattern at the moment. I could work on tracking down the short circuit in the taillight wiring, but I actually spent more time this weekend working on the other car, the '67 Delta 88 convertible, getting a radio into it. Can't cruise around with the top down without tunes!

I'm a firm believer in cheapskate-ness in some areas. Maintaining complete originality is not a goal with the convertible, so, instead of spending some ungodly amount of money to get a proper, functioning 1967 Olds radio in it, I'm perfectly happy to go with something aftermarket. So I have a late '90s era Radio Shack (Optimus) AM/FM/Cassette radio, that I got for FREE from a guy who didn't have use for it any more, wired in to the speakers and power, and I actually held my breath and drilled a hole in the front fender for an antenna.

Why did I have to put in an antenna on a car that already had a factory radio? Well, that's one of the interesting things about the '67. It HAS a power antenna switch on the dash, but there is no antenna anywhere on the car. A power antenna would have been located in the right rear quarter, and I'm guessing that this car, from other evidence, was hit in the right rear at some point in its life. A replacement fender was put in, and it apparently came from a car that did not have a power antenna, so there was no cutout for one. I'm guessing that whoever had the car at the time was probably planning to add the antenna later but never got around to it.

So here again my cheapness comes in. I could have bought a replacement power antenna for about $80. OR, I could buy a cheap manual antenna for $6. You do the math! If the car had a manual antenna, it would have been in the right front fender, and there is space if I just drill a hole, which I did. The antenna looks like it's always been there.

So for a grand total of $6.00, I have a decent radio. (Of course, last summer I put in new speakers both under the dash and in the middle of the rear seat to replace the old, dried out ones that were there, so there was that expense, too.) It even has an AUX jack so I can plug in my satellite radio receiver. Talk about mixing the old and the new!

My only issue now is how to mount the radio. I do not want to cut into the dash where the old one was, and I don't have room to mount it under the dash as I have some aftermarket gauges there. I don't like the idea of putting it in the glovebox, so I'm thinking of mounting it on the center hump under the dash on one of those cheap (again!) floor console/organizer things if I can find one with a large enough flat space to hold a radio that measures about 7" by 8". If I can't find something, I may try to fabricate something out of an old rectangular Tupperware container. Yes, I spare no expense on this car, and, man, how good will an upside down Tupperware container look! My friends are drooling at the mere mention of it!

jeffreyalman

are you serious??? that car looks outstanding! but I hear ya. I listen to the factory radio in all 3 of mine with satellite and MP3 over the FM factory stereo and it's fine. All 3 have their noise issues, but c'est la vie.

I take it you will leave the original in the dash... what about one of those 8 track mounts for the aftermarket radio? very cool that it has AUX jack!

jaunty75

The interior looks good. The exterior could stand to be repainted. It looks good from 30 feet, much less so from 30 inches.

Actually, what's in the dash now is a Potemkin Village (look that one up!)

It's just the front portion of a non-working radio I stuck into the dash to have something that looks decent covering the hole. If you look closely at any of the photos of the dash I've posted elsewhere, you'll notice that there are no buttons.

jeffreyalman

it's all about the props!

sdrake

The old wagon is looking great! I shared a few pics with the family and they are thrilled it found a new home.

They never dreamed the car would be getting a new interior in its life!

If you feel like a little road trip this fall, bring her back down to Charleston for our big car show. Usually 700 to 800 cars of all types. Link below.

http://www.charlestonwvcarshow.com/2010schedule.html

The only catch is that you would have to take my mother-in-law for a ride!

jaunty75

Ah, no problem on taking your mother-in-law for a jaunt!

Here's some photos of the interior with the seats and carpet out. The carpet really had to go as it was stained, faded, had an oily odor, and generally showed all of its 37 years. Besides, there was some kind of a large hole (6-inch diameter) in it right on top of the transmission hump right behind the front seat. It went right through the padding underneath to the metal floor. You can see the hole in the first photo, just left of the center of the photo, which was taken looking through the left rear door. You can see where the padding was cut away.

The front seat had to come out, anyway, to get it reupholstered, and, if the seat is out, it's not much more effort to get the carpet out. The lower cushion of the smaller of the split second seat needed new upholstery also, so the second seat was going to come out as well. Being in two parts, it's actually quite easy to remove, and having it out made it easier to remove the large, single-piece front bench seat out through the passenger side front door.







Other than the rust in the front footwells, the floor is really in quite good shape. I've since sealed and painted the rust areas but just haven't taken a picture yet. I'll do that just before I put the new carpet in. And then I'll take pictures of that, too!

jaunty75

OK, here's the rust areas seen in the photo above coated with POR-15.




Now, here's a shot looking forward before I removed the old carpet. It was quite a mess, particularly in the front footwell areas, which isn't at all surprising given that it's a 37-year-old carpet.




Now here's a couple of photos of the new carpet just loosely laid in. It is a few inches larger in all dimensions, so some trimming will be necessary, but I really like that the rear carpet will be able to tuck several inches under the front carpet for a nice, clean seam between the two. With the old carpeting, the front and rear pieces just barely touched where they met. Of course, being under the seat, you never saw this, but I like the overlap just the same.






Now, yes, before anyone says anything, the new carpet is a little redder than the old. But it's not as much redder as you would think. The old carpet is very worn and faded, but if you look at areas that were protected all these years, such as under the sill plates, it's surprising how much more of a brown-red the old carpet was. It has faded to a dull green-brown now. I like the little extra touch of red, too. Livens things up a bit!

Homestar

That looks really good!
Nice job.

jaunty75

Got the reupholstered front seat back from the upholsterer on Thursday (two days ago), four weeks to the day that I brought it over to him. He did a great job. Photo below. He was able to re-use the five bar-shaped "buttons" that go across the seat back to keep the look consistent with the second and third seats, which were not in need of new upholstery. Everything else is new, including the headrests. Can't tell it from the original.




For comparison, here's the only photo I have of the front seat in the condition it was in when I acquired the car. This photo was actually taken by the former owners and was included among the ones posted when they were selling the car. Except for the big rip on the driver's side, it wasn't that bad, although the stitching was getting stretched, and problems would have cropped sooner rather than later once the car would start being driven more. So I went for an entirely new upholstery job. Well worth it.



Of course, now having the seat in my garage once again has motivated me to get the carpet, which I had loosely installed a few weeks ago, fully cut and trimmed. Here's photos of both the rear area and looking towards the front. Not a whole lot different from the earlier photos in this thread, but the sides have been trimmed and the holes cut for the seat belt bolts, underseat wiring, dimmer switch, and seat hold-down hardware. I haven't yet put in the "Body by Fisher" sill plates. I figure I'll do that last as some last-minute trimming might be needed once the seat belt bolts and all the rest are in.




One comment about the rear-most carpet. The front and center came pre-cut and molded, but I needed to buy a separate, plain piece for the third seat area. I took this yardage plus the old third-seat carpet to the same fellow who did the front seat, and he cut and sewed it using the original as a pattern, and he went further and gave it a bit of of a tiered look. I think it looks about 10 times better than the original.



Yes, I understand that the new carpet does not match the carpet trim low on the doors or the front kick panels. One of these days I'll buy a yard of this carpet and fix those areas.


I've reinstalled the underseat hardware for the front seat (it's a power seat), and tomorrow the seat will go in. Then, for the first time in about five weeks, I'll be able to start the engine and drive it.

jeffreyalman

3 thumbs up

jaunty75

Thanks! That must hurt.

jeffreyalman

only when I try to open a jar

ent72olds

Nice upholstery work! Sounds like you're having a great time with the old girl!

Aron Nance

You continue to do a great job, Januty! Keep it up. She's going to be a new Oldsmobile, very shortly.

jaunty75

Before I show the photos of the completed interior, I have to make just one comment. I hate seat belt bolts. I hate them with the white hot passion of 1000 burning suns.


There. That feels better.


Got the front seat bolted back in last night. Put the rear seats back in and reattached all the seat belts today.

Looks damn good.


Still have to put the rear of the interior back together, but that was taken apart by the previous owner, so that'll take a little figuring on where every part goes. At the least the front half is presentable, and the interior doesn't smell like old oil anymore.

jeffreyalman

I have a big smile on my face looking at that congrats! Looks fantastic!!!

jaunty75

Thanks. It's always very satisfying when you turn the corner and start putting things back together instead of taking them apart, whether it's remodeling your house or doing a project on your car. It's even more satisfying when the job is complete, and you know you did it yourself. (Except the reupholstering, of course.)