Blending two '83 Cutlass Cruisers
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Judging from what I can see in your rear brake photo, you may have problems with the backing plate for the rear brakes. GM designed a setup for these cars and the earlier S10 trucks, where the wheel cylinder is clipped onto the rear backing plate, not bolted on, as in most cars. If the car was used in an area where corrosion is an issue, then the backing plates would start to rot out, and as they did, then the wheel cylinder would get loose on the backing plate, and eventually "spin" or "twist", the way it appears in your photo. GM did issue a recall for backing plate and wheel cylinder replacement on these vehicles, but that was many years ago, and I'm not sure that it applies anymore. I did a number of these recalls when I worked at the dealer back in the day. Another problem that you usually run into when you have to do this type of repair, is that brake lines are rotting out, and need to be replaced, and the same thing with the rear parking brake cables. GM only covered the backing plates and wheel cylinders. They would cover brake shoe replacement IF the wheel cylinders had leaked, and contaminated the brake friction material, but that was pretty much it. If the wheel cylinders are loose in the backing plates of your Cutlass Cruiser, then at the very least, I'd look at replacing the backing plates and wheel cylinders. I have seen replacement backing plates available from the aftermarket, and many of them are of a 2 piece design, so that you can replace the backing plate, without taking the rear axle shafts out of the axle. Hope it all works out for you. Good luck.
nice build thread man, I'm looking into getting an 81 cutlass custom cruiser and i plan on it being a project as well, I look forward to reading more about both of yours 
clean8485 said:
Thanks for the heads up about backing plates and rear cylinders. We use salt up here but surprisingly, the car is VERY solid. These G-bodies rust on the doors and the woodgrain stopped all that. That saved this car. The underside is also very clean and the frame is solid, I was unaware that there were rot issues. I know the frames on the 3rd gen Toronado's were poor as my brother is into those and we picked up a parts car that turned out to have the most rotted frame we had ever seen. As it was, everything was installed solidly but the RR had been leaking for a while. I don't think the piece had broken off all that long before as the scoring of the drum etc didn't show that it had been rattling around for miles and miles. I think it may have happened when I was testing the brakes. I had the dash light on and took the car up to speed to see if I had front and rear brakes. It turned out I did and until I took the rears apart, I thought I may be tracking down an electrical short, not a bad MC etc. The new cylinders (I replaced both sides) came with those clips and my backing plates were in great shape. Everything installed well (after I went back and smacked the parts guy upside the head for giving me basically all parts for a Custom Cruiser, not a Cultass Cruiser
) All the brake lines were/are solid and the flexible ones were great as well. Amazingly, the e-brake cables were in great shape on this one, and also on the one that had sat in a field for 10+ years. One thing I need to do is replace the axle seals as I have a leaky axle. Not bad but, but a job I would like to tackle in the spring.So far I have been driving the car and it's been performing flawlessly. Runs and shifts smoothly, I like that I have a passenger side mirror (didn't on the parts Cruiser as it was a stripper model) and also that I have a rearview mirror. :lol: The stripper CC had a badly cracked windsheild that I was going to replace. I held off on this when the engine trouble showed up. The first time I had it on the road I went to adjust the rearview mirror and it fell off the glass into my hand.
Oh well, I have learned so far that you have to be very careful when ordering parts. Everyone around here hears "Custom Cruiser" when you say "Cutlass Cruiser". I had one parts guy get mad at me when I returned parts as he claimed that there was "...no such thing..." as a Culass Cruiser, only the Custom Cruiser. I asked him why I had 2 in the shop side by side if they didn't exist? His parts program only listed "Cutlass" under Olds and if there was no Cruiser category or wagon notation, it didn't exist to him. What I found out is that thankfully, the rear brakes (all parts) are the same as the Cutlass sedan. I am used to VW's and when I went to do the rear brakes on a late '80's Fox wagon, I found out that they used a larger rear drum and different shoes and cylinders than their sedan Fox.
Finally managed to download some of the pictures I took of the Brougham when I went to purchase it.
I had an 83 Cruiser. It was bought new by my parents and I got the car after my sister wrecked it in the front when the car was 15 years old. Thats why the front clip is a different color. I drove it for another 5 years after that. It was stolen from me and recovered. I fixed it again and drove it another 2 years then drove it to the junk yard after 260,000 miles. The Ohio rust was too severe to save it. I would love to get another some day.
These pics were taken back around 2005
These pics were taken back around 2005
O. D. Showtime said:
I saw that. It's too bad it isn't here, I would love to rob parts off of it. What's the rust/interior like? I thought about swapping the front seat out of this one for the one in my parts wagon. The problem is that this one is a 60/40 split and the one I would swap in, while in much better shape, is a full bench which I am not really wanting. Also, the seat heater installed in this one is GOLD during the winter.
classic gbody said:I had an 83 Cruiser. It was bought new by my parents and I got the car after my sister wrecked it in the front when the car was 15 years old. Thats why the front clip is a different color. I drove it for another 5 years after that. It was stolen from me and recovered. I fixed it again and drove it another 2 years then drove it to the junk yard after 260,000 miles. The Ohio rust was too severe to save it. I would love to get another some day.
These pics were taken back around 2005
Don't you think these cars look so much better with the stamped steel wheels on them rather than the wire spoke hub caps? I specifically went to the wrecker to find a set. The first CC had the basic hub caps on it (I like the look of them better than wire wheel) but I only had 3. The Brougham had the wire wheel caps but again, only 3! Swapping the wheels and tires was the first thing I did.
Door seals. Where do you get them without being robbed? The ones on the Brougham are in terrible shape. I was thinking about swapping them from the parts wagon but thought that if I could buy a new set for reasonable money, I would do that instead. Mine are dry and crumbly and there are big gaps missing which makes it sound like the door isn't fully closed when driving along.
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