Project 85 Black 442 frame off restoration

[hurst1979olds]

Frame work has begun and is nearly finished. This has taken nearly 2 entire evenings to get it ready for the body. All that is left will be to clean up the air shocks and put the body on.

Your car is coming along great. But why would you go through all this work with a frame off but put old used air shocks on? I know you said your going to clean them but I would put new on. But thats just me.....Overall your car is awesome.

 

[tobyp]

THanks for the compliments!

Yea, I thought about that as well. But I wanted to keep certain things especially out in the open original for points factors. To make a long story short the shocks had some holes after cleaning rust on them so I have a new pair of AC Delco Air shocks to put back on

 

[clean8485]

I wasn't aware that GM installed air shocks on any G body as a factory option. Did they?

 

[Blake442]

Air shocks, or "load-leveler" shocks as the General liked to call them, were a part of the 442 package.
All '85-'87 442's left the factory with them. Not sure about H/O's...

They were optional on other models... Both of the El Caminos I owned had them from the factory.

 

[GT_80]

My Cutty has Gabriel 'Hi-Jackers' in the back of it- IMO they are the best box parts store ones on the market- Munroe ones do not have a steel sleeve over the expandable bladder, so when they are well used, you inflate them, and the airbags go out not up- The gabriels have a steel dust boot over the air bag, so as the bag fills up, it hits the inside of the steel sleeve then always lift the car up. I have had great luck with the Gabiriel ones. The old school ones just to have a mean looking jack rabbit on them too 🙂

 

[tobyp]

installed the door shells and am working on getting them lined up. Also finished the rad support as well as the other inner fender. Now to assemble the clip and get the gaps set correctly and get them marked.













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[1evilregal]

still wish I had that much patience...

beautiful work so far toby!

 

[tobyp]

Actually patience is wearing pretty thin. I have put stupid amounts of time in this car for the doors to be fitted. I am thinking of a sabbatical for a few days!!!

 

[1evilregal]

Actually patience is wearing pretty thin. I have put stupid amounts of time in this car for the doors to be fitted. I am thinking of a sabbatical for a few days!!!

as nice as it's looking, I'd say it's time well earned!
remember this: rome wasn't built in a day... it was however, destroyed in a day... :wink:

 

[clean8485]

Toby, I have a couple of questions. Are you going to use the new reproduction doors on this car? If so, are you going to try to save the stickers that came on the original doors that have the VIN and production date information on them? They're usually on the rear door jamb area of the driver's side door. To me, that would be an important step in preserving the originality of the car during the restoration. I've got an '86 GP 2+2 here, and there is both rust and some minor damage on the driver's side door, and I thought that if I ever decide to restore the car, I'd need to figure out a way to preserve those stickers on the door, in order to keep all of the original production information for the car intact. Just curious, because you've gone to great lengths to try to keep that car as original as possible.