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79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...
Hey guys, just wanted to start a thread of my project. Meet "The Pumkinator", my 1979 Olds Cutlass Cruiser that I picked up about 5 years ago. After a bit of tweaking and wrenching I've been daily driving it as my business hauler since that time, and decided recently it's time for a major overhaulin'. Hope you enjoy, as usual any comments/suggestions land on open ears...
Here's the car right after purchasing. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Begin72.jpg Factory Options- 140 hp 305 Chevy V8 TH250 2.41 gears in the 7.5" rear Rally gauge pack, no tach Olds Rally wheels Rear air deflector Light Blue vinyl interior 8-track AM/FM stereo (still works!) http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../Interior1.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...riorgauges.jpg The car ran terrible, had absolutely no power despite the 305 had been rebuilt about 36,000 miles prior. The previous owner's wife bumping a truck in the snow sealed it's fate, and for $300 I drove it home. First order of business after getting it home was pull out the G-tech. A whopping 21.79 @ 59 mph! The 0-60 time didn't even have a chance to register! :sick: Checked the timing and found it WAAAAAAY retarded, in every sense of the word. Bumped it up and magically I felt some ponies again. Checked the carb and saw that the factory Q-jet's choke had been paper-clip wired open. Noticed in the process of doing that they blocked the secondaries from opening! :doh: Fixed that and with no other changes, the second G-tech run yielded an 18.67 at 74 mph. This is at 4500ft altitude up here in the Rockies, so I figured this was good enough to drive for the time being. Next on the list was new front end to pass our state's safety inspection. After a few days of searching I found a '78 Cutlass Cruiser in a farmer's field just a few miles from my place. Body was rusty, interior was hammered, but it had a transplanted Chevy 350/TH350 and a good front nose section. The guy told me they quit driving it because the trans was slipping. "How much you want for it?" I asked, "Oh... I'll take $75." Wasn't long before it was on a tow dolly on the way home. I Installed a battery and some gas in the carb and it fired right up! Ran o.k. but was clearly a high mile motor. Pulled and sold it, kept the trans as a core, and yanked the front clip and every other usable part off it before hauling it to the wrecking yard. Got a bunch of parts and made $300 cash off it, not a bad deal. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...weedsdside.jpg |
After a couple months the TH250 started having issues so next in order was a new trans and some hp upgrades. I picked up a decent used TH350 from a friend and pulled a small block 406 from storage that I used to have in my Suburban. It had about 60,000 miles on the rebuild-
Stock 400 bottom end with ARP rod bolts .030 8.7:1 eutectic pistons Factory 400 smogger heads Crane 266 cam, lifters, springs Ebrock Performer and 750 Q-jet. I swapped the cam for a Comp XE268 and the Performer for a Proform air gap dual plane intake and painted it GM corporate blue before slipping it and the TH350 with a stock converter into the engine bay. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...gon4066572.jpg Not a tremendous hp killer but it made decent torque and was a great daily driver motor. I installed it with Hedman shorty headers and a 3" single exhaust through a Flowmaster 40 series. On the dyno it made a little bit disappointing 221 hp and 282 ft lbs. The a/f ratio was pretty rich at the time and I think the altitude, low compression and junk heads were limiting it quite a bit. Dyno Day 1 Taking it to the track it ran pretty consistent 15.70's at 87mph. Consistent enough for me to win first place in points for the year in the Club Racing Series street tire class at Rocky Mountain Raceway. Overall our Utah Muscle Car Association club took 2nd place in street tire class. (Way to go boys!) My 60ft times were 2.4s, limited by the grandpa gears and stock converter. I've learned to live with it as it puts down 21 mpg highway without overdrive, but that's all changing soon. |
Here are some more videos. You can see in these how I used some vinyl dye and changed the dash to black from light blue. Also covered the fakie wood grain with brushed aluminum vinyl.
1st try at the road course. Only got to run one lap because of troubles with the car. First off I had just installed a new Hurst ratchet shifter for the TH350 earlier that day and it wasn't quite adjusted right. You can hear in the video a couple unexpected downshifts into 1st instead of 2nd at curves and a couple times it went from 1st to 3rd. Then the cracked valve spring thing happened. When I get into the pits at the end you can hear a pretty gnarly tapping of the rocker on the stuck valve. While it was idling and I was trying to figure it out the valve dropped but I was able to shut it down before any major damage to the short block. The wind was blowing on the camera so don't turn the sound too high. Road Course Day 1 Next video was my first attempt at autocross. Kind of a wimpy course but a good way to get my feet wet. This was like my 4th or 5th run of the day. This was after pulling the 400 and putting the factory 305 back in with a Crane 266 cam and the rest of the bolt-ons from the 400. It's pretty slow off the line but gets going eventually. :sleeping: AutoX Day 1 inside car Next is the same day from outside the car with a no sound digital camera. Woohoo! Look at the rear body roll near the end of the course. Needed a rear sway bar pretty bad at the time. AutoX Day 1 outside car |
After about a year of driving it was developing a bad case of loose front suspension and it was also time for a cosmetic upgrade. I picked up new ball joints, tie rod ends and a 12:1 ratio AGR steering box.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ringbox001.jpg I also scored a set of Trans Am GTA wheels off ebay for a great price and after a little rattle can semi-gloss black effort threw on a set of 225-50 and 255-50-16 BFG G-Force Sport tires. Because of the funky F-body offsets, I had to put the rear wheels on the front of the car with a 3/4" spacer and extended studs and the front wheels on the back. Photo from the ebay ad, anybody on here? http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/2fb8_11.jpg While I was in there I cut the factory springs to get a feel for the look of it lowered, and added a little more rattle can semi-gloss to hide some paint chips on the lower panels and hood. Here's the end result. It's dropped about 3" out back and almost 4" up front. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tSide6572b.jpg Last summer I got a taste of road course and autocross when I attended an open track "Wide Open Wednesday" at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT. I ran the autocross several times and the road course once. Unfortunately part way through the run on the road course unknown to me a valve spring cracked. Luckily the valve got stuck in the guide and it wasn't until I got in the pits at idle the valve let go and tagged a piston. Fortunately I shut it down fast enough that all it did was scuff the carbon on the piston and bent the valve slightly. No major damage to the short block. Whew! Time for a refreshing! That about gets us caught up on the car's history. |
I should probably intro myself a little here. I've grown up around muscle cars and drag racing and started drawing cars after I read my first "Cartoons" mag around age 12. After some time in automotive retail I got out and put my artistic skills to work and became a graphic designer. When the economy tanked the company I was working for went into the toilet and I found myself along with about 1.7 billion other graphic designers looking for work, a real joke to even get a foot in the door for an interview. At that point I started pushing my side business, Street Rod Designs, to keep $ coming in. In the process of drawing cars of course I've drawn mine. The wagon has gone through 3 different styling changes, but I think I'm finally pretty well sold on the last.
This first concept quick sketch was a pretty simple idea based on the mid 80's Hurst/Olds Cutlass. 17" Torque Thrusts and a low stance made it shout a bit. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/HO65.jpg After a while of looking at it I felt the wagon needed a look that was a little less overdone and a little more aggressive. I really like this style stripe and a med-dark charcoal grey with some carbon fiber accents. I liked this theme but this stripe seemed like it had been done several times and I felt some flash was missing. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/Grey65.jpg During this time of exploring ideas for the wagon I finally gave up on the graphic design gig and felt it was time to get back to my roots and passion for employment. After a lot of research in schools I decided to attend a "Collision Repair, Street Rod Emphasis" program at a Utah Valley University, only about 20 miles from where I live. Turns out the street rod instructor Cris Bogges and his program have been called by many "the best in the west". I talked with him several times before deciding to hit the books again, and had no idea about his reputation until I started asking around. A real down to earth humble guy with mad fabricating skills. Since I needed a project to work on at school and the wagon needed a facelift things fell right into place. Ultimately I'd like to work in a shop building killer pro-touring and low-rod style machines so this car is the perfect practice project. Although the grey wagon theme was cool I figured I needed something a little more loud for two reasons- 1. to draw attention to my side business and design skills and 2. to catch the attention of shop owners/ possible employers after graduation. I've always dug the look of old school Mercs and such with a satin sheen but I don't like to see newer cars painted entirely that way. To me it looks a little too much like it isn't finished, just my opinion. Gotta have at least some shiny paint on a nice pro-touring car so I combined the two ideas. I narrowed it down to two colors, new Camaro green and Avalanche orange. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...WagonGreen.jpg After comparing them the orange stuck and the name Pumkinator seemed a natural. In this rendering I kept details fairly simple, I just wanted to compare colors. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...agonOrange.jpg This is the base art for the car, more concept sketches coming soon... |
This past April I completed my first year of collision repair classes. We learned all the basics about body work and paint. During open lab time I was able to bring the wagon into the shop. Unfortunately it had gotten a cheap re-paint along the way, which included a poorly done filler hack. A lot of the areas around the rear wheels have been forming rust behind the bondo and by last year I had up to fist sized rust holes. Replacement sheet metal for wagons seems hard to come by, let alone a 79 Cutlass so I had to fab patch panels from sheet metal. Some photos...
Passenger side. That's 3" pipe so you can see the size of the hole. This side was pretty much limited to this area. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/RRhole.jpg Driver's side had smaller holes but was in a lot worse shape. Rust was everywhere and you can see how thick the bondo was. Looks like they just slopped it on even in the drilled holes used to pull a dent. Not welding in these areas was just asking for rust to form. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/LRrust.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/LRrust2.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/LFrust.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/LFrust2.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/LFrust3.jpg Here's the driver side after cutting out the rust and applying Por-15 to the inner panels. Also the fabricated patch panel. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/LRcut.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/LRpatch.jpg I patched all other holes in a similar manner, welding new metal in and then applying Por-15 to hold them over until I can get back to them in when school starts up again in August. |
Most of the guys in the first year classes are headed towards a career as a collision repair technician and focused on fixing dings and dents on their cars during open lab times. I took a little different route and started hacking, cutting and welding instead. :unibrow:
When the 406 was running well I could get it up to about 127mph and then it felt like the suspension started to loosen up and the car would rock around. Not sure if it was the wind getting under the car or funky aerodynamics but it definitely wasn't a smooth ride, more like driving a boat on choppy seas. First order of business to smooth things over a bit was narrowing the bumpers. I looked on the net for ideas and saw several rear pans or narrowed bumpers that were tucked smooth with the rear 1/4. With as much real estate that a wagon has out back I didn't think it looked quite right, I think it looks better on the El Caminos I suppose. I also wanted to keep a somewhat factory look with some subtle changes so after measuring I hacked 3" out of the center with the plasma cutter. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/Bumper.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Bumper4.jpg Prior to this I had been welding a lot of thin sheet metal. Probably could've stood to crank up the machine for a little deeper penetration, so to be safe I welded the back side too. Here's some comparison shots... http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Bumper7.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Bumper6.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Bumper3.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Bumper5.jpg |
To add to the smooth look I wanted to ditch the generic boxy door handles.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...doorhandle.jpg I think shaved handles are cool on the right car, but not on a daily driver. I'm also trying to do this car on a student's budget so I trudged around a local wrecking yard for ideas where I stumbled upon this 92 Geo prism. I want to keep the car all "GM" and these handles have a nice slope in them that sort of matches the hood line of my car. $10 for all 4. No key with them so I have to buy a new lock set but that's cool. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...rismhandle.jpg Using the door from the parts car I started hacking. I had to patch the original key lock hole and open up a hole to fit the new handle. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...handlehole.jpg While at the junk yard I also spotted an 84 Regal with a factory rear sway bar. Grabbed it with the lower control arms still attached for $15. I brought them to the shop and found some scrap sheet metal that I trimmed to fit so I could box the arms. Took me two hours to knock it out, just in time to get the car back on the ground right before my professor closed the shop for the day. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...inator/rca.jpg Most of the welding done... http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/rca2.jpg Bolted in. What a difference I felt in quick sharp autoX type cornering! http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/swaybar.jpg |
Another body mod I wanted to do was some fender vents. This Nova was a great motivation for the idea.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/Novavent.jpg I looked and looked for a factory vent that I could stick in there like the second gen Trans Am or late model Escalade. Nothing was the right size or looked like it belonged on the car. Then I stumbled across this photo of an Mercedes AMG CLK and fell in love. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...cedesvent-.jpg I took the spare fenders from the parts car and after welding up some trim holes I started cutting and came up with this. I basically made a 3 sided rectangular cut in the fender, bent it inward, then welded in sheet metal to fill the gaps. I got all the metal work done on both fenders and that was about the end of the semester. I'll continue with getting the fenders prepped as school rolls around again. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Lfendb4.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/Lfendaft.jpg These will be fully functional to help relieve some engine compartment heat. I wanted some nice metal mesh to cover the holes but had a hard time finding what I wanted online or at the local metal suppliers. I ended up grabbing a couple old 6x9 speaker grilles and cut out the mesh from these. Perfect size holes and easily shaped! Also had to do a little more rust patching and trim hole filling while in there... http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../Lfendrust.jpg |
Some new parts came in...
When I first lowered the car I simply cut the springs. This works for a good visual reference and it helped handling because of the slightly better spring rate and lower CG, but really it's a terrible way to lower a car. After a time the springs settled and sagged and dropped almost another inch from where it started. I like a slight rake but right now it's about 1 1/2" difference front to rear and I'd rather have it closer to 1/2". As low as it is now it sits on the snubbers and it's got my suspension geometry all goofed up. Bumpsteer on hard turns like turning into a parking space is out of control. To remedy the issue 2" drop spindles are in order. I did some research on g-body forums and found that folks had great success with both DJM and Bell Tech, and not so much with some of the cheaper off name brands. The DJMs were a better deal so keeping the budget tight I ordered them from Summit Racing. DJM doesn't list a part # for G-body cars but we share front suspension with 1st gen S-10's, part # DS2031-2, $149.95 + shipping. I'll be getting 1" lowered springs soon too, I'll post info on that when I get them. The goal is 5.5" of clearance at the frame just behind the front wheel, 6" of clearance just in front of the rear wheel. I currently have 4.5" / 6". G-bodies were built to be an economy mid size car with a goal of halfway decent gas mileage amongst other cars in their class. Several things were engineered into them to keep them "light" including some cars having aluminum rear drums, light weight (i.e. crappy, like my worn out original) steering boxes, etc. If I have my facts right the smallish 10.5" front brakes were also intended to save weight. As a result braking is definitely not that of a sports car. There are many brake upgrades available out there but again keeping the cost down means being creative. I saw a trend on g-body forums to put on either 2nd gen Camaro or 90's Caprice spindles, milling down the g-body rotors to become a hub, and using LTI late model Camaro drop off rotors and calipers. Problem with this is it creates geometry problems because of the taller spindles and tends to increase bumpsteer. To compensate you have to purchase high dollar aftermarket offset upper control arms. After doing research on S10 forums I found that a lot of those guys have come up with a better idea- keep the G-body spindles- maintaining stock geometry, have the g-body rotors milled to a hub, and with a simple bracket and some slight mods to the spindle you can mount 98+ LS1 Camaro calipers and 12" rotors. You can even re-use the factory g-body brake hoses with the F-body banjo fittings. Simple as that. There are a few different companies that make the caliper adapter brackets, but I found an engineer/machinist on one S10 forum that water jetted a bunch of sets for forum friends. Several folks said they worked great so I bought a set from him for less than half the price of buying them from these companies. I also scored a good pair of rotors free from a friend in our local muscle car club who upgraded to slotted and drilled rotors on his T/A. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/spindles.jpg |
I like your write up I will be subscribing, I also like the "shoe string" budget approach!!
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Nice project and great write up. I like where you are headed. I have a soft spot for those wagons since I have a '82 olds cutlass cruiser. No one understands why I love that car. Looking forward to seeing more.
Chris |
Cool little project! :thumbsup:
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More parts and art...
For the car's interior I definitely want to get rid of the bench seat. During hard cornering it doesn't give much support, the cover is pretty banged up, and it doesn't match the rest of the build at all. I considered getting some seats from Summit Racing, they have the Summit brand seat for $149 and the lower line Procar for $156, but I was concerned that the lower end seats may not be fantastic quality and I wanted something unique. With having worked last year as an apprentice in an upholstery shop I decided to find a used seat I like and customize the covers. I'd love to keep my car all GM, but as I went through the local wrecking yards it's difficult to find a GM with a real performance type seat. Seems a lot of the seats are made to compensate for big Americans and my somewhat smallish 5'-10" and 160 lb size didn't fit snug in anything. Then I stumbled upon a '98 Mazda MX3 in the import section. After sitting in the seat I knew these were the ones. They fit me like a glove, have great supports to keep me planted while cornering and I like the hole under the headrest so I can run a 5-point harness through for seat belts. The driver's side foam is beat up just a little but that's very easy to fix. Other than that they're in decent shape and a great base to start with. Not bad for $50 for the pair. The plan is I will remove the covers, take all the seams apart, using the old panels as a pattern cut out the new material and then have my old boss sew it all together. He offered to let me run the machine but I want perfect lines and curves so I'd rather the guy with 25+ years experience do the sewing. When he's done I'll assemble them back together and build custom mounts to bolt them into my floor pan. Doing a lot of the work myself I should be able to have the front and back seats done for about the same cost or less than the pair of Summit seats. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seats.jpg Here are the materials I'm considering. I took a paint chip book with GM 2008 Avalanche orange over to the upholstery shop and we found that his British Tan was a fairly close match. I also looked at some black vinyl with the same grain as the tan, as well as some "carbon fiber" pattern vinyl. These are all high quality products and will last for years to come. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/Brtan1.jpghttp://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../blackcarb.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...silvercarb.jpg Here are some design ideas I was toying with. So far I think I'm liking A, B, E, & F the best. I like A & B because they're mostly black and have a bit more aggressive look. The outer perimeter will be smooth vinyl and the center black area will be carbon fiber pattern. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seat1.jpg C & D- a couple more mostly black variations. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seat2.jpg E & F I like because they would really brighten up the interior. I need to do a paint spray out card first before deciding on these, if the tan didn't actually match the orange very well it would be a big mess. If that were the case having just a small accent strip like A would be a better choice. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seat3.jpg Another variation of mostly tan center. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seat4.jpg Finally a different color combo. With the car being black and orange I will be using brushed aluminum and silver as my accent color. In this variation I'd use smooth on the perimeter and both silver and black carbon vinyl on the inserts. After seeing this one I decided I'd rather stick with the tan to tie it into the exterior a little more. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Seat5.jpg Feel free to let me know what you all think. :) |
Nice to have this kind of school! Working on Your own car helps alot when on a budget. We dont have something like that over here...
For the seats i would prefer a simple design like F to match with the exterior. But with accents in brushed aluminum, design I would be nice too. You can stitch a logo in the silver stripe to make it more pretty. |
Took my 2 boys up to the mountains camping a couple weeks ago. We drove through a few small towns on the way and I came across this little gem, an old Sinclair gas station. Pretty cool find- I love old gas stations and diners, and we had a great time camping.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...sinclair01.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...Sinclair02.jpg |
My goal is to be able to eventually get the car into the 140mph club. I've been wanting to upgrade my 85 speedo to something more accurate to the car's abilities and I recently scored this from Ebay, just under $17 dollars including shipping, new and never used! You guys remember Mallory selling gauges back in the 80s and 90s?
It's old and had a little surface rust on the back side, but it's perfect and brand new inside. I will be incorporating it into the factory gauge layout to make it look factory stock. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...60speedo01.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...60speedo02.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...riorgauges.jpg |
I went to the local track's open track day this past Wednesday to try out the new rear sway bar and get one last set of runs in before I tear into the suspension and change things around.
Unfortunately I had two problems with the car, the alternator quit charging on the way to the track and for some reason the right front caliper was grabbing harder than the left. You'll see in both videos how that caused the right front wheel to lock up and slide under hard braking. Got kinda scary at one point on the road course. I have a flat spot on the right front tire now, kinda sucks but at least I planned on upgrading to 17s in the near future. After the 406 broke a valve spring I yanked it and slipped the factory 305 back in so I could keep the car drivable while I build the 406. I put in a mild Crane 266 cam (.440 lift) and all the intake and exhaust accessories from the 406. Here's a shot of the engine as it is now. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/engine03.jpg The motor runs great and lays down 21 mpg with a TH350 (no overdrive) but my guess is that the stock 140 hp is prolly only up to 170-180. Backed by factory 2.41 gears you can see it's lengthy acceleration on the track and I am so looking forward to the torquey TPI 406 I'm putting together! The cones on the course are to keep the newbies and stock handling cars from going too fast. Kinda lame but it keeps everyone safe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTx6MJpiIc4 Because the alternator went south I decided to head over to the autocross course where the lines are usually short rather than having to keep asking for jump starts in the road course line. I got in line and the officials decided to take about 10 minutes to discuss something while we all waited in line. I kept the motor running and the electric fan and such were running the battery down. Finally after they started racing us again and I was on deck the battery was low enough that the fan quit working and the car started to heat up. It was at 240 degrees when it was my turn so knowing this would probably be my only run I went all out. Because I wasn't familiar with the course and I was stressed about the run I saw the cones in the background of the first hard turn and got disorientated. Completely blew the run but it was fun. I spent the rest of the evening fiddling with the alternator and found a wire in the harness that came loose from the connection. Got it repaired and headed home. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r63fAbSKPo&NR=1 Despite the problems, I had a good time and felt a definite improvement in stability with the sway bar outback. |
I'm back in school and I finally have some updates on the wagon project. Mostly been project planning and price shopping over the summer and just before school started I was informed I was awarded a full tuition scholarship for the 2011-2012 year. Hard work and straight A's finally pays off! That fortunately freed up a little extra $ I can slide towards the car.
Biggest project news over the summer was landing a 5.3 from a 2006 4x4 truck with just over 40,000 miles on it. A friend of a friend set the deal up and I'm getting it for $500 for the motor, accessories, computer, and wiring harness. To keep costs down I have to pull the motor out of the truck, but that's a good thing so I can see how everything hooks up and make sure I get all the parts I need. I don't have it home yet but will be posting photos when I do. The truck intake manifolds are just plain hideous, so keeping it under a cover is critical. I'm not a big fan of the truck engine covers, they're just a bit bulky and look like they belong on a truck, so I considered making one. I got on the web to see if anyone else has done a custom cover when I ran across a photo the 2010 Camaro SS cover. It really caught my eye as it's a little different than the average LSX cover and the color scheme fit my car perfectly. I'm not a fan of the center runner bumps, but otherwise I liked it. I checked ebay and scored a nice used one with mounting bracket for only $42.00 shipped. I'm considering a custom insert for the center portion with rounded "tubes" rather than the squared off ones and will shave the Chevrolet script and add on Oldsmobile script instead. Here's a shot of the cover and a mock up of it on my small block minus the carb to see what it will look like. Man that engine bay needs a face lift! Coming soon... http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ginecover1.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ginecover2.jpg |
Over the summer I took a couple opportunities to raid the local junkyard for a few parts. Unfortunately useable old car parts around here are rare so I have to get a little creative. :)
One of my favorite scores- Part of next semester's chassis class is narrowing rears. The 7.5" is a weak link in the G-body cars and for a long time I had planned on a late model disc Mustang 8.8". After considering the near bullet proof 31 spline large bearing 9" and the fact that I can swap centers to change gear ratios I decided to grab one of those and use it as a narrow guinea pig. A trac loc center is a real bonus, so I checked every Ford truck rear axle tag in the yard on two different occasions. The second time I found a 78 4x4 Bronco that was missing the tag so I turned the drum on one side and with a big grin I watched the other side move in the same direction. Out of about 40-50 trucks I checked this was the only one with a track loc, so after an hour and a half of wrenching on rusted bolts I had it in the back of the wagon. Because the tag is missing and I haven't cracked it open yet I don't know what gears are in it, but I found most of the trucks had 3.50's and that'll be perfect for autocross. I also have a set of 2.75 gears I will be transplanting into another center for daily driving. I will be keeping my TH350 so the highway gears will help get the fuel mileage up there without overdrive. A third center with 4.10s would be nice for the drag strip, but that's on the back burner for now. I suppose for a 5.3 that I will be setting up for somewhere around 400 hp at the flywheel a 9" is a bit overkill but the potential of a 5.3 with a pair of hairdryers on the exhaust is pretty intriguing. That'll have to wait until after I graduate but is on the future plans. By then I should be able to afford a larger cube motor too so hp options are wide open, no pun intended, lol! http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/Ferd9.jpg |
Here's another great score. Through my research I found that 82-90 something Camaros have a direct swap sway bar with G-bodys. There are currently two Camaros of that vintage in the yard so I checked both. One Camaro's bar was smaller than the wagon's stock 1" bar. The other was a '90 RS with a V8, and when I looked under it again the big grin spread wide as It had a 36mm (1 3/8") bar on it. Score for $15! I can probably order a larger aftermarket bar but I'd rather use this one for now and spend the cost savings elsewhere. I also grabbed some firewall to radiator support bars from a '75 El Camino (long ones in the photo) and from an '84 Regal I grabbed the radiator opening support bars (thin ones in the photo). I also grabbed a power steering cooler from a '96 Caddy.
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The left corner of my front bumper is pretty rotted, a problem doubled because I plan on narrowing the bumper 3" like the I did to the rear bumper. I have yet to see a 78/9 Cutlass wagon appear in the yard, so I grabbed a donor from an '85 4 door Cutlass Supreme. When you compare the two there are some design differences, but I think I can make them work to my advantage. I don't like the top portion of the '85 bumper compared to the smooth top of mine, but I like the turn signal holes. What I will be doing is cut out the lower portions of either side of the '85 bumper and graft them into mine. I will be utilizing the turn signal holes for brake cooling ducts, so it'll have form and function. A little more than I'd hoped to have to spend but $50 scored the bumper.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/bumper1.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/bumper1a.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/bumper2.jpg |
Last semester when I started getting the doors ready for the low profile Geo Prism door handles I realized that I didn't like the handles bolted right to the outer skin of the doors, but I'd rather have them sunk in like on the Geos. While at the yard to be respectful of their business rather than hack nice doors I found a couple prisms that had banged up doors and grabbed the door handle sheet metal. Now that school has started and we've been getting familiar with the shop tools I realize I could have fabricated these fairly simply with a bead roller, but I guess these save me the time in the extra step. I'll be trimming these down and welding them into my doors.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...oorhandles.jpg Before I bought my wagon some kids had stolen it from the previous owner one night and took it for a small joy ride. The result was a broken rear hatch handle and a very hacked up steering column. It turned the wheels but not much else worked properly. I also don't like the headlight and wiper switch styling on the 78/9 cars which looks cheap and chintzy to me, not to mention not having wiper delay drove me absolutely nuts. From the '85 Cutlass 4 door I grabbed the tilt column with the wiper switch on the column, newer design delay wiper motor, and the correct dash parts to make the changeover. Wish I could've found a column for a floor shift car but I have yet to see one show up in the wrecking yard. I'll modify this one to delete the shifter arm bump. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/steering.jpg |
I put the word out on the local muscle car forum about my 5.3 and it wasn't long before someone offered a set of headers for $100 which I will be trading design work instead of cash. They're Flowtechs that he swapped for pacesetters on his late model F-body. I know Flowtechs are probably inferior to the Pacesetters but for basically free except for 2 hours of my time I'll take 'em and put the $300 elsewhere. I'm saving the stock manifolds for a future turbo build so the headers will only be on there for a couple years anyway.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../FTheaders.jpg |
While I was in there getting ready to tear down the front suspension I slipped on a 12" rotor from the LS F-body brakes I picked up. What a difference over stock! Notice particularly the space between the rotor and the upper control arm where the ball joint bolts in. WoW! am I excited to be able to stop quickly. I checked on Summit brand drilled and slotted rotors, $34 ea front and $49 ea for the rear. That's cheaper than replacement no name brand rotors form the local auto parts store. Anybody use these? They have the bling but I don't want total garbage either.
I've learned through experience that cheap usually means just that, but I'm unfamiliar with the difference between a cheap rotor and a spendy one. I won't be looking to be number one in brake tests, I figure just simply upgrading to larger brakes will make a huge difference than what I'm used to. Who knows, maybe they're fine for a nice weather driver, local car show and cruise-in duty, and a monthly autocross event car. Anyone have input from experience specifically with the Summit rotors? http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/10brakes.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/12brakes.jpg |
Finally for this round of updates is a couple shop photos. First is my car in it's new resting spot. I picked this space because I have the fence wall to hang my project white board and inspirational rendering. I also have a couple tables tucked behind the car for working on and laying out parts. On the right of me is a 65 Mustang which unfortunately needs a serious complete overhaul, it's pretty rough. Sad for her but lucky for me the student that owns this one won't spend much time working on it. Based on what I saw in the last 2 semesters it seems more like she uses the shop to store the car rather than work on it. That translates to no grinding particles embedded in my windows and no careless dents in my car caused by not paying attention while working. I'm figuring my spot is one of the "safest" spots in the shop, lol!
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...onatschool.jpg Our class has 15 students, 9 are younger and 6 are older retired guys from the community that take the class so they have a shop to work in and can tap into my professor's expertise. As a result we have a pretty good variety of project cars in the shop. These two are younger student's projects. The '53 Chevy 4-door was purchased with the top chop done and the owner is going to finish the body work, shave the door handles, french the lights, and spruce up the interior a bit. The plans for the bug keep changing, but it's for sure getting some sort of top modification, will be fenderless and have 17" wheels. This student expects that it'll take him 3 years to complete. Makes me think I'm nuts for wanting to do a complete rebuild on my car, exterior, interior, drive train and suspension in the 6 remaining months I have until graduation. I'm pretty focused, determined and had the whole project mapped out before school began so I think I can do it. Let the thrash begin! http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/Jaychevy.jpg This old guy project is very cool, a 64 Fairlane that has been back halved with a disc 9", a full roll cage, rack and pinion and a healthy fox body 5.0. He'll be putting a lot of street miles on it so he opted for a 26-10.50 rear tire but wanted a deep offset on the rear rims. There's room for bigger meats later on if he decides to go that route. Behind him is another old guy straightening out a '40 Ford with street rod plans. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...64fairlane.jpg Some other projects include a young guy 62 Impala 2 door post restoration, an old guy trike with a VW rear half and a custom made chopper front half, and an old guy 53 Chevy pick-up street rod. I thought I should share this one because of it's uniqueness. It's a young guy project, a '37 Hudson Terraplane. Yeah, I never heard of it either and didn't have a clue that it's one of 500 two doors produced that year. He found it for a cost of next to nothing in someone's back yard with a surprisingly straight body and is currently working on a top chop, after which it will get a full street rod treatment. He bought a 6.0 LS motor a while back but isn't sure yet if he's up to the task of converting it and is considering a traditional small block Chevy. Either way he said not to put where the school is located for fear that the hard core Hudson freaks will find out and steal it from the shop to prevent it from being hacked up, lol! Too late though, the roof has already been cut off and the posts sectioned since this photo. Should make a REALLY unique street rod. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/hudson2.jpg |
Great story man,your doing a great job :thumbsup:
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Thanks! :D
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First off, you'll have to excuse the quality of the cell phone photos...
When I was looking for a wheel and tire combo I really spent some time researching how big a tire you can fit on a G-body. I so wanted to run a 315-30-17 out back but just couldn't find an 11" wheel price (including spacers if needed) that fit my budget of $1200 for wheels and tires. I finally settled on MB "Old School" wheels, a great price and nice looking. Tony had another g-body Malibu wagon that he put 'em on, with a 285-40-17 on 17x9.5 out back and 245-45-17 on 17x8 up front. I liked his car, but the fronts looked too skinny, maybe it was just the illusion created by stock height suspension. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...Tonyswagon.jpg I also read a lot of g-body debates about how wide a tire can fit up front. The consensus seemed to be an 8" wheel with a 245 width was about maxed out. Well, I like taking things to the extreme so I decided I would make something wider work, whatever it took. I decided on 275-40-17 on 17x9.5s out back and 255-40-17 on 17x9.5s up front. The kid with the Hudson in my class works at Discount Tire so his manager swung me a smokin' deal on the wheels and Nitto 555 tires, $1164, mounted and balanced not including sales tax. Pictured here is the 255 on 9.5 compared to a 225-50-16 on my 16x8 GTA wheels. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Wheels1.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Wheels2.jpg Remember the front of my car has been lowered and has sagged to about 4.5" in the front and the rear is about a 3" drop. When I first bolted on the wheels things were waaaaay tight and the fenders were resting on the tires. It reminded me of a lowered import with deep offset rims and I didn't like it at all. The manager told me if they didn't fit up front he'd swap me for the 17x8s and I was seriously considering that. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels3.jpg I have had on my to-do list to raise the front suspension anyway so I built some small 6" tall stands from 2x4s and set them under the frame just behind the front tires o raise the car to where I wanted it. Right there it gave me some better clearance and the tires could turn without touching. Here is a picture of stock height, 27" at the top of the wheel opening, and a 3" drop- 24" at the same spot. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels5.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels6.jpg Since these fenders won't be used on the car we decided to use a large slide hammer and moved the fender eyebrow out 1/4 inch and that was even better for clearance. I really think this will work, especially after a little more massaging of the fender lip. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels11.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels10.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels13.jpg |
So to answer the question, yes you can run a 9.5" wheel and 255's up front on a g-body. BUT there are some issues that need to be addressed. This 9.5" wheel has 5.5" back spacing, that's pretty deep, and obviously that makes 4" width from the rotor outward. As you see them I have a 3/4" spacer behind them. This is a definite necessity, notice how close the rim is to the tie rod. It doesn't contact the wheel but it would probably knock off clip on weights.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels4.jpg Another problem area is that the tires would hit the rear side of the plastic inner fender wells in the area where the arrow is and would not allow them to turn all the way. Simply removing and/or modifying them will give the necessary clearance. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels7.jpg Here's the passenger side with the inner fender well removed and the wheels at full lock. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/wheels8.jpg |
Here are a few more reference photos. Notice also with the 3/4" spacer and the wide wheels the front track is now wider than the rear, even with the 275-40s back there. Tony used 1" spacers on his car to kick the rear wheels outward.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...Tonyswagon.jpg Since I'm narrowing the 9" rear anyway, I'll simply make it 1" wider than the factory wagon rear on each side. This should give the whole car a bit more of a wide stance. Overall I think the wheels look great and will work out fine even with the car being lowered 3". I plan on painting the centers that are now grey to black to better match the car. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels15.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels13.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels12.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/wheels14.jpg |
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Whats the biggest wheel/tire you can fit out back without having to tub the car/narrow the frame?
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One extreme ride height photo. Just for kicks I put the old "skinnier" rims on and let the car down. This is with 2" spindles and 2 3/4 coils cut off the springs. There was about 2.5" of clearance under the front cross member. That wood block is 5.5" tall. Wish I could drive this low all the time, but definitely not here in Utah, the land of lousy roads.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...inator/LOW.jpg |
Now back to the proposed ride height with the 17's bolted on. I figured this was a good reference point, maybe Powerade will sponsor me now, lol!
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/newlow3.jpg I spent today's spare lab time tearing the car down to get it ready to come off the frame. Just a few shots of the aftermath so far. How about those great seat covers! :barf: http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/stripped.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/newlow1.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/newlow2.jpg Nice granny blue carpet, Eeeeew! The new interior will match the theme of the car, mostly black with silver and orange accents. The factory carpet had a pretty thick layer of a flexible plastic backing, something I've never seen before. Much to my surprise the jute pad underneath looked almost brand new. I suspect the plastic backing saved it from dirt and grime and all the milk bottles spilled in the back. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/carpet.jpg Here's Grandpa's Oldsmobile driver's side portion of the split bench next to the Mazda seat. Looking forward to getting them in, I'll be building the mounts after the car is the rest of the way torn down. The Mazda seats will make a huge difference in keeping my backside planted in hard cornering. Woohoo! http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/seats1.jpg Finally a quick mock up of the driver's seat in place. I need to build custom mounts to raise them up about 3", more to come later on these... http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/seats2.jpg |
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Finished pulling doors and interior today.
Last ugly seat photo, I'm really glad to see these things hit the dumpster. On this passenger side I pulled out the foam which was in great shape so that I can fab a small jump seat that will fit in between the buckets so that I can still fit my wife and 4 kids in the car with me. When not in use the back will fold down and do double duty as an arm rest. I also pulled off the factory arm rest to save for another project. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/passseat.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...sketchjump.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...etchjumpdn.jpg |
Here's a shot of the passenger side floor. I knew this was there and screwed down a piece of sheet aluminum a couple years ago until I could get to this point to fix it. Funny, the parts car on page one had a large hole in exactly the same spot. My guess is that because this is right above the gynormis factory cat, I'm thinking that the cat got hot enough to cook off the under coating, and the salt they use on the roads here in winter just took it's toll over time. With the school shop tools handy I'll use the bead roller and brake to make another insert out of 16 ga sheet steel and weld it in properly.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../passfloor.jpg Unfortunately I didn't know this was here. The previous owner had filled the gap above the windshield between the roof and trim with clear silicone, a tell tale sign of a windshield leak. I'll bet that's what caused this. Luckily it hasn't rusted to the point that the floor integrity has been sacrificed so some cleaning with a wire wheel and some Por-15 should take care of it. I'll be pulling the windshield trim to patch up any problems around there. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../drivfloor.jpg The rest of the floor pan is luckily in great shape. Interesting how at the factory instead of gluing the jute pad to the floor they just slapped down some double stick squares and laid it down. Quick and simple. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../rearfloor.jpg |
And last for today, new goodies came in. I ordered 2 LS swap books from Joseph Potak and Shawn Henderson and Marcus Savitske's handling book from Amazon. Right around $50, free shipping. I glanced through Marcus' book so far and I like the way he writes. I'm artsie fartsie so when people talk to me like I'm an engineer at Boeing it goes over my head sometimes. From what I can see he spells things out in a way that even I can wrap my head around the concepts. Really looking forward to reading it. PS I see Tony has his Monte's photo in the g-body section! Coool!
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ator/books.jpg |
Finally got the motor and trans out.
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/nomotor.jpg Also finished up stripping the rest of the car. I find it fascinating to see how things were engineered and imagine how they put it together at the factory. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../stripped2.jpg http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/sripint.jpg Unfortunately I found this on the rear passenger side wheel well, rotted clear through. I'll be moving them inward slightly so I'll fix the hole when I extend the tubs. Driver's side was fine. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/passwell.jpg But with the bad comes the good, found this inside the rear seat. Looks like the car was built in Texas and delivered to an Olds dealership in Rapid City, South Dakota. Funny, that's where my wife is from too. http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...buildsheet.jpg |
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