Cutlass 81' Brougham

[prime]

Hey guys. Took some pictures of my cutlass, I'll throw in some of the engine and engine bay later on, but everything in there is in pretty good shape.

I've got a few plans for this car. The interior isn't in great shape, and I haven't been able to find the origional seats, so I'll probably replace the whole interior. Needs new carpeting anyways, and I don't like the color. I was thinking cool blue and silver. And besides, the seats hurt my back, odd positioning or something. Not the best thing in the world when driving.

As you'll see later, the car has a 2bbl carb and manifold bolted on it, and the 305 smallblock is suppost to take a 2bbl manifold and carb. So the car bogs up when you put your foot down. It has a decent transmission, good exhaust system, probably needs new spark plugs and the rear shock springs need to be replaced. There's a whole list of minor things to do, that don't really affect the car's running condition. I just hate having to drive something so beastly, with such a tame hand. All it does when you put your foot down, at the moment, is sound bloody evil, eat gas, bog up, and provide little more acceleration than a Civic.

I'd also like to switch the column shifter to a floor shifter, and the foot enguaged e-brade to a handbrake, if anyone has any advice on how to do that, it'd be appericiated. Also, anyone who has a floor shifter for a 700r4 (I believe,) transmission, I could really use one of those two. I have automatic shifting columns, but they aren't for this transmission, and the previous owners suggestion that I switch out the transmission to fit the shifters he provided is somewhat laughable...

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

For the hand E-Brake, you could probably adapt the system from a 3rd gen F body. They both use the same rear brakes, so adapting it should be relatively painless. Likewise, the seats from a 3rd or 4th gen F body will adapt to the tracks of the Cutlass Brougham and are pretty much a bolt on from what I have heard. If you do not have the original seat tracks, you will need to get them to make it all work together right.

 

[prime]

Sadly, I don't have the old seat tracks. The seat thats bolted on now is using an adapted seat track, thats bolted down with an adapted piece of sheet metal. One of the reasons I want to put new seats in there, it doesn't feel secure enough for my taste. The seat belt position is also rather irritating, going right over my collar bone.

Thanks for the tip about the e-brake though, when I head down to the wreckers in a few days, I'll have a look around and see what I can find. Do you know where I might be able to find a floor shifter that would work with a 700r4 transmission?

As for the seats, since I was planning on rebuilding the interior to my tastes, and I have a few buddies who can help me affect this, I was actually planning on replacing them with some seats in a cool blue color, preferably leather. But my biggest concern for that is the rear bench seat. I don't know how I'd go about getting a new one in the size and style I want, short of welding on together myself. Any suggestions?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

No matter what seats you use, the horrible seatbelt position will remain. It comes right around my neck, so I just lock it a little loose with the door shut. That is what those little levers in the door frame let you do (they may be broken off in your car as they commonly fail). They only retract the belt fully when the door is opened. I guess that was GM's rather unsafe solution to the belt swivel being mounted too high rather than actually dropping it an inch or two. My ultimate solution would be to use a set of Nissan variable height brackets for the belts. Why Nissan? They are very narrow and I feel they would be the easiest to adapt. Next time you are in a junk yard, look at a 90's Sentra or Frontier and you will see what I am talking about. The seat belt is by far the worst ergonomic flaw in these cars, but a close second is the dash design. The radio and HVAC controls are too far away to safely operate while driving.

It sounds like the previous owner didn't really know what he was doing with the car and just cobbled it together with no regard for safety, functionality or longevity. Sadly, many cheaper G bodies are like that. It won't be too hard to sort it, but it will take some time. If you stick around here, you will learn how to do so cheaply and in a way that will hold up pretty well. Many of us have built our cars on a fairly tight budget using lots of junkyard and used parts solutions. My car is one of the poster children of cheap but fairly good, so I am in no way knocking it. If you can post up what exactly you have and what you want from it, we will be happy to help you get there for as little cash as is possible. Just remember that when you go to a junkyard, you should look at everything and not just other Cutlasses. Trucks many times are the recipients of speed parts that can be adapted easily and cheaply to your car. My carburetor is a $30 piece out of an old van, and my Edelbrock intake came off a 75 Camaro for $15. My 3.23 rear axle was $50 and is out of a 4 door Regal. Aluminum hood? $25. Transmission? $35 from a Grand Prix. I have seen plenty of aftermarket intakes this year on various Chevy engined vehicles at the local self serve yards, so they are out there. By knowing what will interchange, you can save a lot of cash. I wrote a sticky on this very subject that you may want to look at in the How To's/ Knowledge base forum. The idea was to bring someone new to these cars up to speed on what is possible for cheap using junkyard goodies. Also, don't ignore the imports and late models. Many of them get upgraded speakers that can be bought cheaply to upgrade what you have.http://gbodyforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=13366

 

[prime]

Right, I have a much better overall idea of whats going on now, and I do know what needs to be done, and most of it is actually cosmetic.

This car was partially restored by the previous owned, who took it from a complete novice, and started fixing it up. Engines in good shape, new iron headers, two barrel manifold is non-standard and likely the previous owner again. No heater core, and the switch for the lights wasn't connected properly. I need the fix the light, I ordered a 2 barrel from an 83 monte carlo I believe, for a 302 smallblock, which should work theoretically, but I won't know till I put it on. The transmission on the car is good, exterior body is in great shape for its age, with one small rust hole I need to patch.

The interior dash is messed up, and, in my opinion, isn't worth fixing. It'd be simpler to find a new dash, but even then, finding a nice ralley dash with a colmn shift indicator doesn't seem like a whole lot of fun. Not to mention it won't be pretty when I put it in anyway.

So here's the plan.

Gonna have my buddy do a fitting for a custom dash, a few sheets of aluminum and a drill will clear up the mess of the dash. Mark some holes to cut, for individual gauges I plan to order for Speed, Fuil, already have RPMs, water pressure, oil pressure. I might go all out and replace the interior linings as well, the ones that are in there have been beaten to hell. Need to get an engine warning panel if anyone can tell me where to find one that'd fit into that setup.

So sadly, about 800 bucks to fix my dash, but it'll look super nice and be good n brand new.

Seats, I donno. I could go with cheap ones or spend a good 500 bucks on some leather ones, and I have to replace the lining on the top of the car, and the carpet. Not sure exactly what to do about the lining for the roof.

After I finish all that up, its sanding down the car and prepping or for painting, patch up the one rust hole. Either grind or sand off the rust, depending on how much it angers me when I try to get it off. Prime the car black, then paint the whole thing a dark metallic purple. I can either do that myself, for like 400 bucks, or pay for it professionally. Scary thought, you all know how much that'd run.

I might split the difference, and prime it myself, and take it in for a professional 'baked on' outer coat. Or whatever the process is, I'm not 100% on it yet.

But, theoretically, the car should drive fine once I get the right carb in. Its got everything performance from duel barrel exhaust to a good shift kit, its just the carb thats being evil and making it a pain to drive. I can only use about 1/4th of the gas petal at the moment, otherwise it bogs down.

Feel free to decry my ambitious project, or offer advice or encouragment. I like the car either way, so I think I'll keep it and do my best to restore it either way. It only needs one part to run well at this point anyways, so good eggs mate.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

There is no such thing as an 83 Chevy with a 302. Plus, ALL Chevy 302's came with a Holley 4 barrel and were only installed in 67-69 Z/28's. A Chevy 305 was available in that year, but only with a 4 barrel carb. The 2 barrel would have been on a 229 V6. Now for a dash, I do happen to have a good one for sale if you are in Florida. It's brown but could easily be dyed. For the headliner, I did a small writeup in my build thread on how to upholster one for around $50. I think it is on page 45, but it may be a little before or after that.

 

[79cuttycholo]

heres my 79 cutty with a chevy 305 limited slip rear end th350 flowtech headers