78 cutlass W-31 build
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So I went on a road trip today and got to visit my car 2 years later it's still on the lift and indoors. It's covered in overspray and body shop dust but I'm just going to call that preservative. Now that I have a road trip truck I'm making arrangements to get it back together
Here you we go I've got A1 hell of an update!
Friday night I needed a break from my day-to-day reality so spur of the moment and seated the pants, I made a couple phone calls took a shower jumped in my rusty GMT 800 and drove to Pennsylvania! It took about half the day Saturday but I dug out the corner where the car has been sitting in the air for 3 years and 4 months.
Once I had it dug out there was quite a bit of cleaning to do even just to walk across the floor there.
I then located the trans I had built for it so many years ago only to find I had the only multiple bolt pattern GM turbo 350 bellhousing I'd ever seen that was not drilled for BOP! Ok no problem I hammered the dowel pins out of a couple of 454s that were laying around the shop put them in the case and bolted the 2 transmissions face to face dialed in my polish eyecrometer and became my own Machinist lol
That was probably the only thing that went off without a hitch. In fact I ended up putting that trans in 7 times this weekend all of the problems were torque converter related. First it wouldn't go in all the way then when I thought it was in all the way and installed it it would bind up in the car like if I tightened it it would bend the flex plate after several times trying my cousin called a local transmission shop and the owner Pete heard what we were doing and came right over turns out my new converter was for a 700r4 so he went back to his shop and got us a used 2600 stall converter. Unfortunately that was not the last of the converter trouble. The used one had some damages to the front hub that goes in the crank so it bound up in the back of my crank. So we cleaned it up and got that worked out. The next problem was the weights on the flywheel interfering with the mount lugs on the converter. So we ended up pulling the flywheel putting it on the bench marking where the weights hit and notching the converter for clearance
That was the last time it came out and the 7th time it went back in and the last time. I worked into the night until about 1:30 am and finished installing all the new parts I bought so many years ago like the rad, carb, dip stick tube and tv cable I also reinstalled the freeze plug that had fallen out of the motor when I towed it up there and the water froze on the trailer. I was pretty beat after doing the starter and exhaust so I just went to sleep and got back at it around 8:00 am Sunday. I took a few pictures before I got rolling.
Sunday morning I figured it was time to fill it up with fluids that's when things started going south again. As I pored in fluid I heard something running on the ground and low and behold
The builder used the pan from the donor trans and it had a rot hole in it lol I figured no problem I just grab a bucket and catch the fluid......
Hole in the bucket! And I was to busy looking for another pan to notice. So buried deep in the corner of the shop where no one goes on the transmission bench that no one's used since my uncle retired I found the trans pan from my 77 k5 Blazer lol I don't know how long it took me to clean it but it took a lot of cleaning I installed it with the same gasket and continued filling the car with fluids. The night before I put the battery on the trickle charger not expecting it to be any good but to my surprise it took a charge! When we went into town that morning I got myself 5 gallon of super knowing that there probably wasn't muck 100 octane race gas left in it and knowing it was no longer 100 octane lol so I dumped it in primed the carb and gave it. She fired right up! Did a little timing adjustment and decided to go full send after running threw the gears on the lift. Out the door and down the road I went. I can't tell you in words how good it felt to drive that car and have it shift all 3 gears it runs pretty good to and drives like new!
She's sitting outside now waiting for me to come pick her up soon as I get a plate on my trailer again until then
Friday night I needed a break from my day-to-day reality so spur of the moment and seated the pants, I made a couple phone calls took a shower jumped in my rusty GMT 800 and drove to Pennsylvania! It took about half the day Saturday but I dug out the corner where the car has been sitting in the air for 3 years and 4 months.
Once I had it dug out there was quite a bit of cleaning to do even just to walk across the floor there.
I then located the trans I had built for it so many years ago only to find I had the only multiple bolt pattern GM turbo 350 bellhousing I'd ever seen that was not drilled for BOP! Ok no problem I hammered the dowel pins out of a couple of 454s that were laying around the shop put them in the case and bolted the 2 transmissions face to face dialed in my polish eyecrometer and became my own Machinist lol
That was probably the only thing that went off without a hitch. In fact I ended up putting that trans in 7 times this weekend all of the problems were torque converter related. First it wouldn't go in all the way then when I thought it was in all the way and installed it it would bind up in the car like if I tightened it it would bend the flex plate after several times trying my cousin called a local transmission shop and the owner Pete heard what we were doing and came right over turns out my new converter was for a 700r4 so he went back to his shop and got us a used 2600 stall converter. Unfortunately that was not the last of the converter trouble. The used one had some damages to the front hub that goes in the crank so it bound up in the back of my crank. So we cleaned it up and got that worked out. The next problem was the weights on the flywheel interfering with the mount lugs on the converter. So we ended up pulling the flywheel putting it on the bench marking where the weights hit and notching the converter for clearance
That was the last time it came out and the 7th time it went back in and the last time. I worked into the night until about 1:30 am and finished installing all the new parts I bought so many years ago like the rad, carb, dip stick tube and tv cable I also reinstalled the freeze plug that had fallen out of the motor when I towed it up there and the water froze on the trailer. I was pretty beat after doing the starter and exhaust so I just went to sleep and got back at it around 8:00 am Sunday. I took a few pictures before I got rolling.
Sunday morning I figured it was time to fill it up with fluids that's when things started going south again. As I pored in fluid I heard something running on the ground and low and behold
The builder used the pan from the donor trans and it had a rot hole in it lol I figured no problem I just grab a bucket and catch the fluid......
Hole in the bucket! And I was to busy looking for another pan to notice. So buried deep in the corner of the shop where no one goes on the transmission bench that no one's used since my uncle retired I found the trans pan from my 77 k5 Blazer lol I don't know how long it took me to clean it but it took a lot of cleaning I installed it with the same gasket and continued filling the car with fluids. The night before I put the battery on the trickle charger not expecting it to be any good but to my surprise it took a charge! When we went into town that morning I got myself 5 gallon of super knowing that there probably wasn't muck 100 octane race gas left in it and knowing it was no longer 100 octane lol so I dumped it in primed the carb and gave it. She fired right up! Did a little timing adjustment and decided to go full send after running threw the gears on the lift. Out the door and down the road I went. I can't tell you in words how good it felt to drive that car and have it shift all 3 gears it runs pretty good to and drives like new!
She's sitting outside now waiting for me to come pick her up soon as I get a plate on my trailer again until then
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I haven't had a chance to post in a while. There is some very good news but there's been some stressful weekends involved. The weekend I went up and did the transmission my GMT 800 suffered from the jersey salt termites and the frame broke at the front crossmember so the gas tank kinda got loose. Not to worry my cousins and I are all body men and fabricated new cross members and gas tank brackets so I got to work on Tuesday that week. 3 weeks later I needed to move my parts car from where I've had it stored by the first. So on the first after spending the morning at DMV to get a new plate for my trailer Lauren and I went to the farm and loaded up the parts car and headed to PA.
The trip was supposed to be a turn and burn bring one up and bring one back. .... The GMT 800 had a different idea. When we got there my cousin had some explicit words as a description for my state of mental health towing with my truck bent In half. It wasn't bent in half when we left. So needless to say another weekend of fixing the frame in the daily. But it's fixed now and tows again we even replaced the bed back bumper and hitch with parts from another truck the same color. And Lauren and I got home 3am Monday morning with the car! That's right the car finally got back to jersey. My boss is letting me keep it at work so I can work on it weekends and today I got it inside.
I drove it up on the old data liner because my bay has no lift and replaced the right rear wheel cylinder. Then I turned my attention to unfinished work on the car from years ago before it went to PA like the passenger door panel that's been off for as long as I can remember. When I first started on this car I was re-dying all the plastic interior parts and I found a full can in the trunk so I did the lower before I installed it.
It's really hard to believe that was once blue
So I gave her a quicky!
Just as before it's not an exact match but it's good enough the panels are pretty trashed anyway so I think it's one hell of an improvement.
I left it on the machine with the battery charging so I'll need to go back before Monday and get it out of the shop. Maybe I'll do a little more work on it.
I definitely have the itch back but I can't stop thinking about mom when I work on it. It's like I'm still putting it together for her even though she's long gone.
I drove it up on the old data liner because my bay has no lift and replaced the right rear wheel cylinder. Then I turned my attention to unfinished work on the car from years ago before it went to PA like the passenger door panel that's been off for as long as I can remember. When I first started on this car I was re-dying all the plastic interior parts and I found a full can in the trunk so I did the lower before I installed it.
It's really hard to believe that was once blue
So I gave her a quicky!
Just as before it's not an exact match but it's good enough the panels are pretty trashed anyway so I think it's one hell of an improvement.
I left it on the machine with the battery charging so I'll need to go back before Monday and get it out of the shop. Maybe I'll do a little more work on it.
I definitely have the itch back but I can't stop thinking about mom when I work on it. It's like I'm still putting it together for her even though she's long gone.
Very sad. I am sorry for your loss. You had the right idea.
Bump!
Work has been a mess and way too busy to get it in but as soon as I can I'm going to spend a weekend revisiting the engine trouble once I have it running correctly it's going to be a worldwide of bodywork and paint. Someplace in there it's going to get a posi and gears but not to much gear it needs to still do highway traveling
Work has been a mess and way too busy to get it in but as soon as I can I'm going to spend a weekend revisiting the engine trouble once I have it running correctly it's going to be a worldwide of bodywork and paint. Someplace in there it's going to get a posi and gears but not to much gear it needs to still do highway traveling
I've been thinking about this car and this thread a lot lately. Even did some light messing with it at work. I finally know exactly what I'm going to do with it now. In light of the fact that I don't have time for everything I want to do like finish my 87, or even work on Laurens H/O I've decided with her being 15 now and her H/O needing way to much for me to get it done In a year and a half I should finish this one and give it to her when she gets her license. So I got it running again the other day to try and figure out what the deal is with the valve train noise and realized it's also missing. If you remember way back when the motor went in I had nothing but problems. Well I think what happened was all that cranking to start it for break-in probably wiped all the assembly lube off the cam and lifters. Then when I figured it out and got it going it overheated during the break in. Print sure it wiped the cam or a lifter or 2. So I got an old stock 69 442 400 4 speed cam from a guy in the olds club. Because it's a bit more tame then the one in it and it's going to a teenager. Then I hit Rock Auto for the gaskets my buddy Eric said he probably has a new old stock set of lifters for it so we are going to look tomorrow. I'm going to try and get it done and running right in the next few weeks. I'm more than likely spending my last winter in a body shop this year so if it runs right I'll take advantage of it and probably fix and paint it one panel at a time this winter. Come spring I'll give it a good shake down. Take Lauren to a few shows in it and nonchalantly find out what she would want to do to it. So I can before she gets it. Anyway I think it will make a great surprise for a great kid and if she wants to make it faster or customize it she can because it's just a cutlass. But it is a cutlass with a connection to both her grandma and her Dad. Mushy sh*t aside guys your going to finally get some updates on this thing.
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