'83 Cutlass Cruiser Build Thread

[Blake442]

I know, right?! lol
If I wasn't out of work right now, I probably would've pulled the trigger on yanking the motor and trans for some freshening...
I still have that Olds 455 I picked up a few years ago sitting in the corner.
But the Chevy runs good, even though it has no power lol so I guess it'll have to do for now...

Thursday I finished cleaning up my suspension pieces and all my goodies showed up from RockAuto on Friday.
I'll drop my control arms off at the machine shop on Monday to get the bushings and ball joints pressed out/in.

Still need to buy a steering box, pitman arm, sway bar bushings, starter, plugs and wires. An oil change wouldn't hurt either...
Poor thing hasn't been run in over two years now!

 

[Blake442]

Yesterday I dropped my stuff off at the machine shop.
Today I went thru all my new bits to make sure everything was there and was what it was supposed to be.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost all the steering parts we already painted.
The idler arm and one tie-rod were all I had to shoot.
After that I cleaned up all of my hardware with the wire wheel and got everything ready to reassemble.
I have a few parts coming and a few more I still need to buy...
Once I get my A-arms back I'll shoot some paint on them and hopefully get the front end put back together this week.

 

[81cutlass]

Waiting patiently to see the finished project!

I saw your selling the alum cutlass hood. I should buy that. :/

 

[Texas82GP]

I wire wheeled my driver's side control arms. I'm still scarred for life from all of the wire wheeling I did on my dad's 62 Galaxie when I was a teen. When I got to the passenger side I outsourced the stripping of both control arms, the spindle and the Grand Prix bar to a media blasting company near my work. They wouldn't have normally even fooled with me but they are hurting from the oil industry downturn. It was a little spendy but I enjoyed not running the wire wheel all day on those parts. I too am looking forward to the unveiling of your engine/chassis beautification/restoration project. I have really enjoyed following your build.

 

[Ribbedroof]

Rockauto FTW....seriously, HALF what O'Reilly gets for the same Moog stuff.

It pays to have friends with blast cabinets...I dread ever having to wire-wheel stuff again. Did my LCAs in about 10 min each, and came away with nice white metal.

Blake, bet you're getting antsy to drive it again, I know I would be. Going to look GREAT all together and rolling.

 

[Blake442]

I will admit I had been dreading this last portion of the project...
The flash-backs of all the messy work that went into the 442 was haunting me!
Might be why I'd been putting it off for the past 7 years lol!
Luckily the wagon is a lot less grungy than the 442 was...

I started to reassemble the suspension Saturday and got the drivers side together, then back apart, together, apart and then done.
The threaded rod portion of my spring compressor was hitting the upper shock mount, so I had to trim like 3" off to get it in place.
The big issue I ran into was that one of the upper fingers of the compressor kept getting pinched and I couldn't get it out.
I finally got it, but in the process of me getting frustrated, I wiped out the threads on the compressor so I couldn't do the passenger side.
Guess I'll buy another spring compressor and finish up the other side... I'd like to get it back on the ground this week.
Still have to get a steering box, pitman arm and starter... and a few other misc. bits...
My plugs and wires are here so I'll put them in and get the wiring harness all buttoned back up.

I'm getting SUPER anxious to finish and drive it... Still plenty to do!

 

[Texas82GP]

Blake, I got a coil spring compressor from O'Reilly on the loan a tool. I had good luck with it. It seems to work well on our cars. I did go back with 5660 springs though and they were a bit shorter than the stock diesel springs. Here is what it looks like...

 

[liquidh8]

OTC makes a really nice tool that I am buying. It uses 2 oblong plates instead of the fingers.

 

[Ribbedroof]

Yep, had to cut about an inch and a half off my compressor screw to get it in the pocket

Those 5660 springs are shorter, but wow are they hard to compress.

 

[Texas82GP]

Those 5660 springs are shorter, but wow are they hard to compress.

Once I had them compressed enough to get in the pocket, I put a jack under the lower ball joint and then looped a stout ratcheting strap under the jack and over the frame and compressed the spring the rest of the way with the jack. It worked really well.