1980 cutlass longterm project

[axisg]

Your original 1980 looks like my 1980 that is also my first car. Seeing yours all smashed like that made me depressed. I hope mine never ends up like that!

p.s. What shenanigans caused a wreck that terrible!? That looks like you and your friends were LUCKY to walk away from. Or did they?

we were 15, and drinking and driving. i grew up in central ohio out in the country, and there was a small road with a hill on it you could catch air on. we got the "bright" idea to jump it, my friend was driving on the last jump, and lost control of the car on the landing. we ended up hitting a grove of medium sized trees, snapped 3 of them off about a foot above the ground, the 4th tree flipped the car and then it fell on the car. there were 4 of us in it, and there were 4 life flights and 3 countys worth of emergency personell at the site. they had the entire road shut down for hours. and as far as "walking away' , thats a relative term. they found me walking about a 1/4 mile from the scene of the wreck going for help, we were in the middle of nowhere. i had broken every bone ( theres 26 bones in a foot btw ) in my left foot, shattered left ankle and leg, and ended up having surgery on both knees. also took about 400 stitches in the face to sew it back together, practically had to reattache my nose and left eyelid. still missing a small piece of my right ear to this day . my friends werent as "lucky", i managed to pull one of them out of the wreckage, the other two were trapped. im not going to list the long list of injurys they all suffered, just suffice it to say, 22 yrs later we all still bear the scars. and were all lucky to be alive. my son is 17 and just got his license , and im so grateful that he isnt like his old man, he actually has some common sense at that age , hes a dam good kid . my cutty project is on hold for a minute while i buy him a car, thats where all my extra cash is going this month and next. i gave his mom money for a car already, somehow he got no car and she got new carpet so im just gonna buy the kid a car. trying to find him something a.s.a.p. so i can get back on my cutty.

wow that's quite the story to still be alive and tell it is a miracle. I have lost too many friends and family to stupid stuff like that

 

[anthonychacon80]

its amazing they lived! yes you were all lucky.

In high school most of my friends were drunk drivers and would go do burns outs all over town and try to get air on the hills. The year I graduated three of my classmates died after hitting a tree. The next year two of their siblings got drunk and committed suicide by ramming the same tree. In 1976 My mom was 19 when she was hit by a drunk driver in SE Michigan on her way home from work. They thought she was dead so the on scene responders just put a sheet over her.

Just last month my 19 year old cousin got wasted and went driving on US23 and got pulled over at 3 times the legal limit. He got a huge fine and probation and community service and a restricted license. We about clobbered him for being so dumb with so many stories in our family. It is a good thing your son has a brain about booze and cars, hopefully your accident helped him learn from your mistake.

Its sad a perfectly nice 1980 Cutlass had to die though! 🙁 You hardly knew it! Any chance that car is still around in a junk yard? Maybe you can find some parts from it and transplant them in commemoration of its rebirth. Then you can name it The Phoenix.

 

[anthonychacon80]

As for that SBC 350... Sounds like a good base to start from. I used one of those crate motors for my rebuild last summer. Here is the link to the build project and pictures.

http://www.gbodyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19432

 

[njRegal86]

nice ride

 

[lesbaldridge]

thanks njregal. at least its a nice start to a nice ride .

anthony, nope, no chance its still hanging out in the yard. that was in 90, 22 yrs ago. fortunately i dont drink anymore, and on the rare occasion i do i dont drive. hell, i dont drive at all, im under suspension till november ( long story involving something id rather not get into , but not even a driving related issue ) so im hoping i might have the cutlass done around that time. its friggin amazing all the ways they can snatch your license these days. here in forida, some of the stranger ones are assault , drug posession ( not even in a car, you could be walking down the street with a joint in your pocket ) , late child support just to name a few.

 

[Oldsmoletick]

:shock: All I can say is wow, lucky to be walking today is an understatement...

 

[lesbaldridge]

As for that SBC 350... Sounds like a good base to start from. I used one of those crate motors for my rebuild last summer. Here is the link to the build project and pictures.

http://www.gbodyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19432

i read your thread, pretty nice build. i think im gonna do a mild build with my 350 now, and move onto a olds motor later, probably a 68-69 455 olds. but for now i been talking to the local machine shop guy, and between him and online research i think im getting an idea which way to head with it. my big sticking point right now is whether i want to do any cutting on the block or keep it stock. i know the heads i have are 1.94/1.50 w/64cc chambers. they flow somewhere around 231 cfm, but with a good port and polish theyre supposed to easily make 260 cfm. i already have that shiny edelbrock airgap intake so i suppose ill use it i looked online, the polished model goes for around $340. and i have an edelbrock carb that came with it that im gonna rebuild. im thinking ill have the heads ( port, polish, valves) done and convert over to roller rockers. the machine shop guy says i can use some 69'ish flat top pistons and make around 9:1 compression. im kind of torn on whether to bore it .30 over or not. i dunno . and i havent even gotten to cams yet . oh well, plenty of time to decide all that while im coming up with the cash for this part of the project.

 

[anthonychacon80]

nothing wrong with putting a "GM Goodwrech" in a GM car, even if it is a SBC. Better to learn and make your mistakes with your practically free block and then do it all again when you have the money and more time after with the Olds. SBC parts ARE cheaper afterall.

I had my Gm Goodwrech block bored over so now its a 355 (according to the machine shop). The bore, polish of the crank, hone, bottom rebuild, bearings, install timing chain, cover, oil new oil pump, gaskets and putting the Vortec heads on cost me $700 i think. Well worth it. I did the rockers and pushrods myself (seriously not hard for someone that spent years building Legos). I used the 1406 Edelbrock carb for a while, but I was not happy with the milage. It was easy to set up and they are almost dummy proof.

Are you going to use serpentine belts? Do those heads have all the holes?

 

[lesbaldridge]

i believe the heads have 3 holes each. im not sure if thats "all" the holes or not . a friend just gave me a couple of billet aluminum pulleys he said were supposed to be for a small block. he had a set of the older style mickey tompson valve covers i was gonna snag up to untill i realized that they were for the older style heads that bolt down around the flanges, and i need the ones that use the center bolt. that was a total friggin bummer. right now my main area of concentration is trying to figure out exactly what parts i need to get to finish the soft top to hard top conversion. im hoping i can still use my original rear valance panel. i am pretty sure i need new rear quarter window trim for the top of the window and the pillar that seperates it from the door window. i think i also need new rear window trim. im getting ready to cut the little mounting posts for the soft top off with a dremel tool. im figuring i can probably sell all the wheel well trim, and the chrome strips that go around the bottom of the car to cover whatever it cost me to locate and buy the correct trim for the hardtop conversion. heres a a few pics of my trim around the bottom, if anyones interested hit me up. i havent officially put it up for sale yet, when i do ill make a sale post, but if someone see's this and needs it im sure we can work out something. it all looks this good all the way around, as long as i can get it off without mangling it :shock:

P.S. i also have a set of really clean 260 heads that supposedly just came out of the machine shop just before i got the car. they look that clean and were rapped in plastic so i tend to believe it. they also came with the car, and were off the original motor i suspect. i dont know where the hell the block went though. eventually these will be posted in the sale forums to if no one steps up on them.

 

[anthonychacon80]

you know there are adapter plates for using old style valve covers on new center bolt heads? A lot of CAlifornia guys use them to get away with switching to Vortec heads and hiding them.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/50120/10002/-1?CT=999