79 Olds Cutlass Wagon school project...

[SRD Art]

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.



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.

[SRD Art]

What a difference!

[bonecrrusher]

Whats the biggest wheel/tire you can fit out back without having to tub the car/narrow the frame?

[SRD Art]

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.

[SRD Art]

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!



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:







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.



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!



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...

[SRD Art]

Originally Posted by bonecrrusher

Whats the biggest wheel/tire you can fit out back without having to tub the car/narrow the frame?

You really have to play with offsets to get bigger meats in there but on his Malibu wagon at stock ride height Tony has a 285-40-17 out back with the same wheels I have, 17x9.5 w/5.5" bs. He used 1" spacers to keep them away from the frame rails. Right now with no spacers my 275s are touching the frame, but I have nearly 1.5" I can push them outward if I roll the wheel opening lip. Most guys say 275 is the safe wide tire. Lots of GN Regals run 26x10.50x15 or 26X11.50 slicks. I found 2 folks that have 315-30-17's out back and they had to notch the frame. I will be notching the frame for future changes. Hope that helps.

[SRD Art]

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.

[SRD Art]

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.



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.



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.

[SRD Art]

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!

[SRD Art]

Finally got the motor and trans out.



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.





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.



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.