New member, new project Cutlass..

[deuce_454]

Originally Posted by tyoneal

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FWIW: I had a 85 Cutless a number of years ago, and a 455 olds will fit in that car, and if you attach the smog trees to the exhaust manifolds and hang the "Stock Airpump, a/c etc", on the front it is really hard to tell the difference between the two when looking at it. The width difference between the two is a 1.75 inches total, and the 455 hasn't been made in such a long time, many people wouldn't automatically realize that what they were looking at wasn't a stock oldsmobile.

I think the olds engine for that year is still flat across the top and wide just like the older ones were. I know in my old car, if you sat both engines side by side it was remarkable how similar they were. Paint them the same color and run the same air cleaner. That with the smog trees, the air pump etc. will give you a really neat sleeper of a car.

Ty

there was a guy in town when i lived in fergus falls MN that had a 455 powered 85 cutlass, called it the gutless... and it was anything but gutless, had the fortune of driving it a couple of timas and it was a awesome

anyway, the gauge panel is looking great, as is the rest of the build

cant wait to see it finished

[ElkyZO6]

Keep up the good work and keep the pic's coming

[LWillmann]

Well, last week I did a test fit on the gauges in the dash. I just sat them in there to see how they look and this is what I found.







So, I found that I should be able to see everything just fine once the spacers for the gauge plate are in and everything is wired up and screwed into place like it should be.

I also did a little work on the car this weekend...

Installed the transmission mount, new crossmember and driveshaft. I then modified my old LT1 dual electric fan shroud to work on the Cutty radiator and set the radiator in the car and test fir the fan shroud in the car to see how well it will work, and turns out that with the fan shroud turned right-side up the bottom fan (driver's side) hits the steering box, but if I flip it, it is fine because the other fan sets furter from the edge of the shroud. The only bummer at the moment is that the wiring is up top, but maybe I can flip the fans in the shroud and put the wiring back at the bottom again. I hope the mounting holes aren't at odd locations on the fans.



So that's what I got done yesterday in a few hours, wasn't much, but it was something. Here's a few pics of the crossmember and the beefiness.









It's a hefty sucker, that's for sure. The 'humps' for the exhaust tubes are made from 1/2" thick steel. It's certainly a serious crossmember!

After getting everything up and in place, I cleaned the floor plan up getting all that old oil and road grime out of there. It looks a lot better under there now.

Still a long way to go, but a little closer at least!