79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...

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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!

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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.

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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.



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.

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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.

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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?

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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!



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!



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.



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.