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The tailgate hinge has been overhauled and the gate has been reinstalled. No sagging issues now. I've grown to appreciate the value of good quality chrome and decided to have my original hood moldings refinished rather than buy reproductions or even NOS. The quality is fantastic. My hood/fender moldings arrived home today..
I'd not considered redoing the plated pieces. But yours look incredible! Good job.
I had some trim on my 1970 Corvette replated when the car was only a few years old--the difference between stock and replate was as astounding as your example. That had slipped my mind until I saw your pictures.
Let's try those hood stripes again shall we? That's better!. The car is nearing completion at Jeff's, it won't be long before it will finally come home..
Unfortunately, I think the only reasonably priced thing in automotive restoration is my labor.. Quality chrome is more expensive than reproductions, but the fit and finish is much better in my opinion..
There is going to be a Zone Show next year at Tanglewood Resort on Lake Texoma. I believe it is going to be in April. Nice place.
I'm sure we would attend if there is a show, always a fun show with great people. I would bring the car if it were finished, I still need to reinstall the wire harness, ac, dash. We still have significant expenses as well with upholstery and tires.
Well, I was prepared to trailer the car home after three years at the painter's shop today, but alas my wait continues. I called Hagerty this morning to adjust the value of the car before I brought it home and ran into two major issues that prevented me from doing so. First, the highest value they would place on the vehicle was half of what it would take me to reproduce the car based on a 1970 Cutlass wagon with 455. I suppose I will have to do some shopping and calling to see if I can secure more adequate insurance. Secondly, due to hurricane Harvey hitting the gulf coast of Texas currently all Hagerty customers based in Texas have the value of their vehicles suspended until after the storms have passed. This applies to customers in north Texas as well... This means that even if I agreed to Hagerty's agreed total current value of the car, the current unammended policy value is what I would be compensated if the car were destroyed in the process of bringing it home. So until I can come to a resolution, it will sit in the shop a little while longer.. Bummer!!!!
An update, I finished speaking with another representative of Hagerty today at lunch. They have agreed to my insured value and just need to send some photos. I will have to wait out the storm before the coverage applies, but am grateful that we are not in danger like the gulf coast folks.
I brought the wagon home the Thursday before last. Now I have the task of searching for,organizing, fitting and ops/functional checking all of the associated systems to get it functional once again. The weather has been rather friendly for working, though I left today for a week out of town for work. Most folks who have seen it chastise me for the wheels that are currently on it. They don't realize that they are simply "rollers" until we are closer to putting it on the road.
Last edited by Funkwagon455; September 10th, 2017 at 05:43 PM.
As an update, I spent about a week on and off after work fitting the hood buttons and adjusting the hood for the best fit possible. The forward edge is even and I've found the best compromise for fitment possible for an OAI. After looking at the spindles, I've decided that the aftermarket booster/master combo just will not do on this car. Although this car is not intended to be judged, I'd like it to appear as factory as possible with some minor personal deviations. I purchased a different drop spindle that works with the factory disks/calipers and utilizes the factory master,proportioning valve,booster. Oldspackrat sent a correctly stamped booster to Steve Gregorian for reburbishment for me, and I've sent the rest of the original components to him for plating. Once finished I'll get it all installed, serviced and bled and I'll have brakes again. Anyone need a complete 2" McGaughys drop spindle/brake setup with stainless lines with zero miles???
I had Ogden do my bumpers some seven/eight years ago. Most of the rest of the replating was done by North Texas Quality Chrome in Gainsville Texas. Based on price, I cannot complain about Ogdens work, they look nice. North Texas Quality Chrome has really impressed me with their work though. Jackie Peebles finally retired last year as the founder, but I think he still stays close. He is a gentleman in person and only delivers a first rate product.
I've been working out some detail items under the hood more recently since bringing the car home. Proper hood alignment and fit, wheel well molding fitment, grille refurbishment ect. I had sent my windshield wiper motor to Steve Hackel with Restoration Services to be rejuvenated. Although I had sent a generic replacement as a core, Steve located a correct housing with a washer pump unit included for a very reasonable cost. I'd recommend him to anyone on the forum, and would definitely use him again. I've also received my EB stamped master cylinder from Devon (RocketDevo), very nice. I'll post photos once I get all of the other brake components back from Steve Gregori at Brakeboosters.com.. It should turn out spectacular based on his previous work.
Correct EB master with lid and stainless sleeve courtesy of RocketDevo (Devon). Correct brake booster sourced from Oldspackrat (Scott). Booster restoration by Steve Gregori. Thanks so much for your help!
Last edited by Funkwagon455; March 12th, 2018 at 05:19 AM.
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I've had this intake for a while and I've decided to go ahead and install it to this car before I pour fluids into it. It is a real deal Oldsmobile W455 intake dated 9/9/69. This intake had a temperature sending unit in it that was badly seized, and had clearly been hammered in pretty hard once upon a time ago. In the process of removing the intake cracked on two axis'. I sat on this problem for over a year as although do a good amount of welding, cast aluminum welding is not my forte'. The intake was stop drilled and gouged for penetration but that was the extent of my progress. I finally got proactive and took it to a local machinist,welder and Mustang builder that my neighbor had recommended. He texted the welded photos two hours after I left his house and the blended photo forty minutes later. The following night I brought over a tap and we drilled and threaded the hole. I only wish that I could take credit for the repair, it is fantastic. He charged me a whole $225 to make that intake whole again. I dropped it into a decarbonizing bath today and have been thoroughly cleaning it. Once I get it looking right, I'll swap out the Performer in favor of this one.
Nice job on the intake! I have a 70 W-31 intake that needs repair where the choke tubes go down into the intake! Does he work on intakes often or was this an individual job for you?
Great work. I'm lucky enough to live in a town where we still have skilled people for all sorts of engineering and machining which may be needed for car restos. And if you can rely on them and they are good to get on with the work and not charge a fortune, that's priceless.
That manifold is going to be like the icing on the engine cake
Nice job on the intake! I have a 70 W-31 intake that needs repair where the choke tubes go down into the intake! Does he work on intakes often or was this an individual job for you?
This was his first Olds intake but not his first intake. He had remarked that thankfully the metal had not been soaked in oils/grease as it penetrates the cast and makes for a dirty weld. There are loads of guys that know how to do this, it's just a matter of finding one that does it reasonably and preferably local to avoid shipping costs and the risk of loss/damage in transit. He was thirty minutes from my driveway.
Nothing too recent, I had started to get the wiring layed out to assemble the dash and discovered corrosion on the contacts in the fuse block amongst other wiring issues. I've decided to replace the dash/main harness with a factory duplicated one from M&H. I figure that after going to all of the trouble and expense to get the car to this point, the last thing that I would want to be frugal with is the primary electrical. I can just imagine how sick I'd be if were to go up in flames over a $500 harness. Since the expense at the painter's and the polishing, I've gotten to the point where I am reluctant to let this project have any further impact on our normal finances which forces me to use money from extracurricular funding (selling parts, gift monies, work travel funds). I have almost got enough put together to call M&H to place the order though and will be making forward progress once it arrives. Kind of sad to watch it collect dust in the garage. Thanks for your interest and apologies for my lack of progress. Please be patient
Well, of course I realize it’s been a bit since my last update, and I have been busy with different areas of this project without updates. I apologize if anyone has felt left out, I am not seeking “likes” and work as my schedule and budget allows. I had a conversation with Bill Szelag at the NAOC Nationals last year, and had described the wheel combination that I had fabricated for this car. He reminded me that the wheels would have only been available in Argent Grey for SS II’s in 1970 which got my mental gears turning. As a result, I ultimately decided to refinish the wheels without trim rings in a ‘69 Hurst motif. I torched off the polyurethane and powder coating, blasted and saved the money to chrome plate the hoops. Special thanks to Tom Bilse for help with the business referral and additional inspiration from his ‘69 Hurst restoration, his thread can be found on this forum as well. A true gentleman and pleasure to have a discussion with if you have the opportunity. When I took the wheels over to east Dallas, the plater informed me the he would be unable to properly plate the deep 10” wheels without separating them. This was another crushing piece of information as it meant I’d need to reassemble and re-true the wheels. But alas, I spent this morning tacking them up and preparing to put onto the lathe to verify the runout for burning in hard followed by Argent Grey over the etch primer. As a side benefit, I was also able to double check my wheel offset and was safely able to bring the hoops in 0.5” to get better clearance to the outer wheel well lip. Lots of work, lots of money, but hopefully this will be the last wheel change I’ll ever make to this project. I hope to be getting more active soon on this project and hope some of you can appreciate the effort I’ve invested into making this a fun and unique idea of what the factory might have done.
Last edited by Funkwagon455; August 30th, 2020 at 06:41 PM.
I didn't want to say anything but I am very glad to see that the wheels that are currently on the car are being replaced. Good choice. Great build all around, nice ride.
No, it would be very hard now anyway. I left on 48 hour notice for 44 days in South America last Wednesday. Sitting in the hotel for a mandatory 14 day quarantine before I can even get to the hangar. A good opportunity for doing research, reading and binge watching Netflix though..
I was able to acquire a clean dash pad from Johnwrolds2018, and recently stripped off the gold dye back to black. I reapplied a fresh coat of SEM landau black this week and am going to make a nice indoor summer project of reassembly, detail and wire the dash to move forward for going live again. I am still waiting for my new door panels from SMS (eight plus months) and placed an order for bucket seats with a matching rear seat for the wagon a couple of months back with a projected lead time of six months. Just a little update of some actual progress
June 2nd, 2017, 05:01 PM
