1987 Olds Pro-touring project build - Now with paint

[Bernhard]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Andrew the 87 looks good do you have any more pictures of it? If I lower a stock G body 2" there will be know more suspension travel thats not good? Andrew how much have you lowerd your car? I think I will only drop mine a inch then.How much do most drop there cars? I do not like driving cars with to much bumpsteer. I had friends with 510s that had no suspension travel, and they would change lanes on there own on roads that were poor, and could be a hand full and dangerous to drive. How much can you drop a g body before the handling turns bad. Does every one use drop spindle? So if you lower a g body and take out the suspension travel. Then run the new style of tires with out side wall, are you not adding to the problems of having little or no suspension travel? Whats a good set up for street strip car? In the past I did not care how bad the car would handle on the street, as I have gotten older I like my cars to go were I point them with out constant steering input

 

[dogsht]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Andrew one thing you might want to look at is what tire sizes are available in what rims. As well as width I am always looking at tire height to go with gearing and well at least in the drag radials for my gearing I like what is available in 18s better than 17s.

When you had 245/60/14s on it was that just in the back? I never thought they would work in the front and would be leary of trying to run that on a 14x6 up front even if it did fit. What did you run on the front? I know 205/70/14s 25.4 tall with 245/60/14s 25.6 tall look good.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Vern, I ran 245/60R14's all around. Had a set of Goodyear Eagle ST's for years and a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A's as well. In fact the BF Goodrich tires are on my brother's '81 right now.

Never had a problem with them.

 

[WIKD CUT]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Car is looking great. Many of the things that you have done are exactly what I was planning for my 87 (minus the clone theme). If you could pm me some more info on the frame notch and the T56 installation I would appreciate it.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Thanks. PM sent.

Took a few pics today of my body work. Been working on shaving the door handles and trunk lock. Actually, what I've been working on is getting the panels straight AFTER welding on them. 🙁 Even though I took my time welding in the door handle patches, I still had a bit of warpage in the door panel. Borrowed a friends stud gun and slide hammer and managed to pull and pound it back out pretty close. Then spread on a thin amount of body filler and started the initial block sanding.
So far so good. However next I am going to have to align all of the body panels properly so that I can spread the body filler over the gaps and block sand over them to get the entire car laser straight. Going for that look where it appears the whole car was just carved out of one chunk of metal.

Doors:

Something I hadn't really paid attention to on the trunklid until a few weeks ago was that the patch that was welded in was flat across. However there is the body line that runs vertically right down the center that you normally don't have to worry about since the decorative lock plate covers that area.
So I've been using small amounts of body filler to build up my body line.

Definitely have a LONG way to go. I'll probably be at this all summer long.

Oh and not sure if I posted pics of this in this thread but here's a close up of my engine crossmember on the frame.

Notice anything missing? 😉

 

[3XBrownCutty]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

chevy and buick holes 8)

 

[Bernhard]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Andrew. after you are done with the body work. Spray the car with a high sold primer then spray a guide coat block the car till you take care of the low spots. I'm not a fan of over filled cars were you loose the factory body lines. You no you have over filled when the car has the monolithique look. I find the over restored muscle cars have this look to many coats of high sold primer or to much body filler. I have done show cars and hot rods like this in the past,I don't think the paint looks as good either looks kind of heavy. I like it when the car is straight but not over the top,to me all the factory waves do not have to be removed and the paint does not have to many coats of clear. Good luck car looks great, going to look awesone in black .

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Thanks Bernhard. That is essentially the plan. I'm going by the HOK recommendations and doing my body filler directly on the metal and then will spray 2-3 coats of their KD2000 epoxy primer over that. Then my 2k urethane high build.

I guess I'm one of those that likes the monolithic look of the straight body panels. I'm trying to strive for the look this Camaro has:

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

chevy and buick holes 8)

Bingo. 😉

 

[Bernhard]

Re: 1987 Olds Pro-touring project build *LONG*

Andrew the camaro has the monolithic look it is trend and the car does look sharp. I have seen it when they had too much mill thickness and when the car flexed the primer and paint did not. Are they telling you to skim the whole car in plastic filler and then block it? What are you sanding with. On cars that were flat I liked to use my long board that was made of plastic and if the panel is real flat I would use my wood long board that had a alum base.I also liked the hard plastic blocks the long one and short one they are good too. Thanks for the correct spelling of monolithic 🙂 Are you using the x pattern when you sand followed by a straight pull when leveling your filler? I also use the X when blocking.