Sneak peak at my 66 Cutlass
 

I want to start on a complete build on my car but I am still buying parts a saving money right now. I have c6 brakes and a bunch of new goodies from Mark but I know when I start the snowball starts from the top of Mt Evererst. With Goodguys here next weekend I had to get the stance right so I chopped the stock springs until I get Eibachs in.

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sweet!!!!!!!! Let the Olds revolution begin.

Beautiful car!

I Love those cars, especially verts. Keep the updates coming!

Easily in my top 10 favorite cars. Keep us posted, this will be a very cool build and it's great to see something different!:thumbsup:

Thanks guys. Can't wait to really get started.

Sold the other wheels last year after Good Guys and have been driving it around like the first pic.

Today I finally got a chance to start working on it. Figured out what the new combo will look like at ride height. I also got the old suspension out from under the car.

I hope to have suspension and brakes mocked up Sunday so I can measure for wheels. I am running out of time. It will be on power tour come hell or high water.

measuring for front and rear wheel clearance

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made some brackets for the brake new emergency brake cables. Ready for refinish.

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I'm coining the phrase "JoeTouring" for us guys w/o the deep pockets but still building decent rides/drivers. It's coming along nicely.

Are you still planning to yank the body from the chassis?

JOE TOURING I think I like it

As for the body..Come on now who in thier right mind would pull the body off the frame with only 48 days till Power Tour :eek:

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But it's only a few more bolts! :D

Keep the pics coming... I like red Olds convertibles you know!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Rear bumper had a couple of pretty good dents so I dropped it off at the plater this morning.

Got the brackets for the rear brake lines made up and welded today. Also got the housing stripped down ready to go to the powder coater.
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6...ires023ej8.jpg


Lots more dissasmebly only 42 days
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Who did you decide on for the powder-coating?

probably Quality or the place you were telling me Stoked Out used. Trying to have everything ready by late Saturday. As of tonight the frame in now bare. Now its time to start taking apart sub assemblies. To save time everything but the motor is getting white or black zinc plated or powder coated. I'll clean up and regasket and detail the motor while everything is out getting done. Then if I still have time I'll buff out the original laquer to get it looking as best as it can untill I have the money to take it back apart and paint it.

Looks like a bunch of progress. Don't hesitate to give a shout if you need a hand w/something.

Almost 1/2 way there. Just about everything thats coming apart is now apart. I dropped off lots of stuff to the plater late Saturday. Going to do lots of parts in white and black zinc for an OEM look to everything even though its all custom.

I already told my boss I will be in late on Monday. I hope to have this stuff at the powder coaters when they open.

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I picked up my slightly modified C6 Corvette calipers tonight after work. What do you think? I don't know if I am the first to do this but I have never seen it done.


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JoeTouring.. I like it.. I notice a few of you guys are in DFW. I am about two hrs east. We have a company here that powdercoats frames for about 300 bucks.

I am definately one of the JoeTouring guys... Big dreams, little budget.

Joe Touring. I love it. OLDSMOBILE is a lot of letters on that caliper. Maybe just OLDS. Too late now though. Still looks good.

That's me!

Sweet!!! Where did you get that done?

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

"Corvette" was only 2 less letters and the I in Oldsmobile does not take up much space so I think its looks better than just "Olds" would have.

Thanks
Its an idea I have had in my head for a while. I finally found a local machine shop that was willing to take such a small job and not have to take a second on my house for setup fees.

Sweet... I may have a set of calipers to have done if you wouldn't mind someone else with "Oldsmobile" calipers.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

PM me for my paypal address so you can send my royalty check. :lol:


Little bit of progress this weekend. Still a few days before I get the cad/zinc plating and the powder coated stuff back. I worked of prepping some of the stuff I still have here.

455 won't be built for a while so the orginal 330 will go back in for now. The motor was pulled down to a bare long block and scaped, chisled, and wire brushed 42 years worth of grease and grime. Also resealed everything back up with new gaskets. Little bit more cleaning and motor will be ready for a fresh coat of Oldsmobile gold.

The rest of the time was spent cleaning, sand blasting and painting lots of misc parts.

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you're not putting Toyota parts in the engine are you?:_paranoid

Of course...It makes it run a very rong rime :D

Two phone calls today. One was from the machine shop the other from the plater.

Since I am using LS1 F-body rear brakes on a stock 72 rear there is nothing to hold in the factory bolt in axles tight. I had these spacers made to take care of that. I also had them cut down the front hubs to clear the C6 Corvette front rotors. the last thing I had them do was cut the stud holes to .503 to get the correct interference fit with my aftermarket ARP metric studs. I cut them down to 2.200 so they will still be long but stay under the closed end lug nuts.

The plating I am extreemly happy with. I had old greasy rusty original parts and new gold cad after market parts parts. I did not like the look of either. Anything that did not go to the powder coater went to the plater. After this I don't think I will ever clean a rusty bolt again. Below is just some of the stuff.

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I got some high heat primer and Fusicks gold on the motor tonight. I should have waited till a daytime I could do it. The bugs and trash were getting in it like crazy. The intake and block still look great because the rough cast iron hides the imperfections. The pan and valve cover don't look to good up close. I will probably redo the valve covers since they are so visible.

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Well its over a week later than quoted but I finally got my pieces back from the coater tonight. Do these things come with instructions ? :D

23 days left. Oh Shhhhh**

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more

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wow that must feel good to drop off ugly rusty parts and get back nice shiny stuff!

Yes it does:thumbsup:

I was off today and worked in the shop most of the day. Lots of minor progress. A few steps forward and a step back :oops:

I started getting things ready for the manual conversion with the TKO600.
My first thisng to do was see if and how much I needed to drill the crank for input shaft clearance. In process of measuring I noticticed the pilot bearing I got was out of spec. I called Supercars and they are rushing another out.

I did need to bore the crank. I went to a local industrial machine tool surplus store and picked up a couple bits to drill the hard crank material. One was a 1/4" and the other .798 to give me plenty of clearance from the input shaft. I love that place $10.00 for both bits.

I knew it would never be perfect with a hand drill but I wanted to get as close as I could. To do this I set the motor on wood blocks and shimmed it up until it was level at the pan rails. I the drilled at a slow speed and used the bubble on the drill to keep it level up and down. I eyeballed the side to side by having a long bolt to the crank to reference to. About a full hour of drilling I'm sure glad that is over.

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Since I got powdercoating back. I also got my scatter shield from them. Luckily I had read the it would need clearanced for the lower pushrod. They had already blasted but I called before it was coated. I mocked it up and trimmed it off with a plasma cutter.

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The next thing I did was check the runout of the bellhousing. Its just a hair out of recommended specs but better safe than sorry I ordered some .007 off set dowel to correct it.

I tried to remove the dowels with vise grips and a little heat but all they would do is spin. I decided to make a makeshift puller by tacking a 1/2" nut on the dowels. I then took a 1/2" bolt and another nut and pull them right out by pressing against the back side of a larger socket. They came right out.

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continued from last post do to picture limits
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The last thing of the night was work on the front lower control arms. Iv'e done bushings and ball joints a few times but never with nice new finshed pieces. The ball joints worked out pretty good. I used duct tape and pieces of broken up paint sticks to push against. It worked out great with no damage to the finish.

I then went to the bushings and things didn't go quite as well. My first idea was to just put both bushings in and press against each other till they seat. WRONG!!! The arm started bending and when I released pressure it did not defect all the way back. Now I have to figure out a way to bend it back without damaging the finish. I've got an idea I will try Sunday when I am off again.

The next arm I did a different way and it worked great. I got a piece of 1/2" all thread to pull against. I then cut a piece of pipe to just smaller than the inside width cut it in half and wraped with tape. I then cut a piece of 3/8" plate in a circle and drilled a hole in the middle. I welded that to a 2" iron pipe coupler and wrapped with tape. Then slid the halves to keep the end of the arm from pushing together. Finally bolted it all together untill the shells were seated. Once I made the tool all 4 bushing were took less than 10 min total.

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No progress today but the parts pile did get 4 boxes bigger :cool:

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Just a question... when you checked the bell housing run out, did you rotate the crank to ensure that you were measuring the bell housing and not the hand drilled pilot bearing?

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

The runout was measured off a long 7/16 bolt in the crank flange. Pilot hole is not for the pilot bearing. Its to clear in the input shaft. There is an adapter bearing that slides into the large register and has a bearing in the center. I hear mixed revues about them. Some say they have lasted for years with one othes have said they lost on in less than 5000 miles. I don't have the time to remove the crank and have it machined for a factory bushing so this is the only way I can go for now. The 455 will be done right with a bushing.

Here is the adapter bearing. Thanks for taking interest in my project. Its nothing compared to a lot of builds around here but its being done on a very limited budget on what little night time and weekend time I can find. :cheers: http://supercarsunlimited.com/images//10070.jpg

Looks awsome! If you want to trade budgets with me Im game. (Im jealous of the powder and plating on yours) :thumbsup:


You still going to make your PowerTour deadline? Looks like its going to be close!


Chris:cool:

Thanks..As for PT I am trying like hell. Power coating being a week late sure did not help things.


I had to work Satuday but I was off today and got some stuff done.

The first order of business was to see if I could fix the front control arm that I bent in the press last week. My idea worked using a long piece of all thread. The nuts were able to bend it back in to place. It was a relief not to have to find another control arm.
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I was able to pick up my rear end housing on Friday night. I friend set up the new Eaton posi and a set of used GM 3.73's out of a late model Chevy truck. I made another press tool to get the upper bushings in. The LH side is so close that I had to hack off a large part of the circle to get it to clear.
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When you order SPC arms with screw in upper ball joints there come already assembled. I did not want the gold cad finish so I had them sent apart so I could get them plated silver. I found a socket but it only came in 3/4 drive so I asked the techs at my office if anyone had a rachet I could borrow. Well I got one. I am calling this the "GODZILLA" wrench.
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continued
from last post

It would be too much to ask for things to just bolt together. The upper Currie Trac arm would not get close to fitting on the LH side. I had to ruin thier nice powder coating and notch a bunch of material off the inside edge. Few coats of Semigloss spray paint and it was back in business.
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For the most part the rest of eveything went smooth. Got the new 3/8 fuel line to upgrade from the original 5/16 line so it will be ready for the future 455. All the rear suspension and part of the front suspension is now together. Also got the motor frame pads but on. Its starting to look like it might be a car again.
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Very nice! I was going to mention the "adapter" bearing, but wasn't sure if you were already using one.

Very nice project! I finally started working on mine again... maybe I'll even finish it while I am young enough to drive it! =-)

Shiny Side Up!
Bill