Can't you do anything right?🤣
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Impressive as always Donovan! Congrats, you deserve to go out and enjoy the fruits of your labor !
Donovan, since you seem to frequently come up with stylish and innovative trim ideas I've got a question. What are your plans for the top rear corner trim for the fenders and the rear of the hood? Looks good without them, but wondering if you have something more planned?
Thank you Shawn! I’m going to continue to pick away at the ever shrinking list of work to be done, annoyances and upgrades, but it’s almost there. At least it’s finally to a point where I can start to enjoy it a little bit!
Yes and no, the ones in the pictures were the ones I thought photo worthy, others had already left, and some were just plain old hoopties, no doubt about it.
First off, thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it!
There are no further plans for those pieces, I’ve expressed before my severe disdain for those fender pieces. They were horrible IMO from the start. They didn’t match the shape of the fender in that area, always came loose or fell off/were crooked or didn’t align to the rest of the trim and generally looked like an afterthought to me.
I couldn’t get rid of them soon enough.
Also, to me these cars look cleaner the less trim and decorative crap they have on them. That’s why I eliminated the wide lower fender, door and quarter panel pieces too. So it doesn’t bother me one bit to leave the trim off of the back of the hood either.
The front of the door belt moulding trim terminates in a visually pleasing way, so I’m ok with leaving it at that and not adding anything else.
I got a few little issues addressed tonight that I found in the last couple days cruising, mainly small electrical stuff.
I had noticed Friday night as the sun went down that the left front fender marker light wasn’t working. After doing a little troubleshooting with a test light, I found the bulb was fine and the socket had power, so I knew the issue was somewhere on the ground side. I had cleaned up and redone all the front end grounds shortly after I had bought the car, so I knew the ground screws weren’t the problem.
Instead, I removed the terminals from their housings and sanded 40 years worth of oxidation off them and put them back together. Presto! Light bulb moment! (Pun fully intended)
Then I went after the horns. When I went to honk the horn at the G body guys from the cruise on my way out, I was rewarded with what can only be described as a dying cat. Or maybe a wounded duck. Definitely not the authoritative sound I know these cars are supposed to have.
Talk about humiliating.
I thought it might be another ground issue with the fresh paint keeping them from grounding properly, but it turned out the horns themselves were kaput. I swapped them out with the set I still had from The Brown Bomber a zillion years ago, and bam! I can finally blow my own horn! (Yep, you guessed it, pun still intended)
After that, I replaced the dome light fuse which I knew was blown, and got not only the dome lights back, but the power locks and dash clock back as well. Will small miracles never cease.
Feeling on a roll, next I swapped out the original Rallye Pac instrument cluster for the one out of the ‘84 Cutlass I recently scrapped. The volt meter would tick back and forth in unison with the signals when they were applied, and the temp gauge would bounce wildly over bumps and sometimes not work at all intermittently. I also discovered that the speedometer was all of a sudden not working either when it was working perfectly 3 years ago. Grrr.
However, I’m somewhat pleased to report, post cluster swap, all of the gauges are now working properly and rock solid. The only one I’m not sure of yet is the speedometer, because I didn’t get a chance to drive it, and I suspect it might actually be broken. I was able to pull the insert out of the sheath a little bit and I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.
Anybody got a part number for a one piece Cutlass speedometer cable on a 200R4??
To finish off the night, I set the dash clock to the correct time, and also finally remembered how to set the one in the GM radio too. (You gotta do it with the power to it, but with the radio shut off).
The only problem I wasn’t able to solve tonight was the cornering lamps in the fenders. They aren’t lighting up anymore when I hit the signals. Absolutely no power going to them, zip, zero, nada. Yet all the fuses are fine and I haven’t disturbed anything else. FSM narrows it down to half a dozen possible culprits, none of which are easily accessed or tested. That might just go “unfixed” for a while.
Tomorrow night I’m gonna have a look at swapping out the steering box with the one originally from The Juggernaut (it has an aftermarket quick ratio one in it now), but I know it was still in excellent condition when I pulled it. The one in this car is really loose and sloppy, it requires quite a bit of input to make any corrections which makes for staying in your lane an interesting adventure. I think it’s just like the rest of the car was, plain old tired and worn out.
That’s it for now gents, thanks for reading my ramblings. Till next time,
D.
I had noticed Friday night as the sun went down that the left front fender marker light wasn’t working. After doing a little troubleshooting with a test light, I found the bulb was fine and the socket had power, so I knew the issue was somewhere on the ground side. I had cleaned up and redone all the front end grounds shortly after I had bought the car, so I knew the ground screws weren’t the problem.
Instead, I removed the terminals from their housings and sanded 40 years worth of oxidation off them and put them back together. Presto! Light bulb moment! (Pun fully intended)
Then I went after the horns. When I went to honk the horn at the G body guys from the cruise on my way out, I was rewarded with what can only be described as a dying cat. Or maybe a wounded duck. Definitely not the authoritative sound I know these cars are supposed to have.
Talk about humiliating.
I thought it might be another ground issue with the fresh paint keeping them from grounding properly, but it turned out the horns themselves were kaput. I swapped them out with the set I still had from The Brown Bomber a zillion years ago, and bam! I can finally blow my own horn! (Yep, you guessed it, pun still intended)
After that, I replaced the dome light fuse which I knew was blown, and got not only the dome lights back, but the power locks and dash clock back as well. Will small miracles never cease.
Feeling on a roll, next I swapped out the original Rallye Pac instrument cluster for the one out of the ‘84 Cutlass I recently scrapped. The volt meter would tick back and forth in unison with the signals when they were applied, and the temp gauge would bounce wildly over bumps and sometimes not work at all intermittently. I also discovered that the speedometer was all of a sudden not working either when it was working perfectly 3 years ago. Grrr.
However, I’m somewhat pleased to report, post cluster swap, all of the gauges are now working properly and rock solid. The only one I’m not sure of yet is the speedometer, because I didn’t get a chance to drive it, and I suspect it might actually be broken. I was able to pull the insert out of the sheath a little bit and I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.
Anybody got a part number for a one piece Cutlass speedometer cable on a 200R4??
To finish off the night, I set the dash clock to the correct time, and also finally remembered how to set the one in the GM radio too. (You gotta do it with the power to it, but with the radio shut off).
The only problem I wasn’t able to solve tonight was the cornering lamps in the fenders. They aren’t lighting up anymore when I hit the signals. Absolutely no power going to them, zip, zero, nada. Yet all the fuses are fine and I haven’t disturbed anything else. FSM narrows it down to half a dozen possible culprits, none of which are easily accessed or tested. That might just go “unfixed” for a while.
Tomorrow night I’m gonna have a look at swapping out the steering box with the one originally from The Juggernaut (it has an aftermarket quick ratio one in it now), but I know it was still in excellent condition when I pulled it. The one in this car is really loose and sloppy, it requires quite a bit of input to make any corrections which makes for staying in your lane an interesting adventure. I think it’s just like the rest of the car was, plain old tired and worn out.
That’s it for now gents, thanks for reading my ramblings. Till next time,
D.
Having the 200-4R, you essentially have an 84 Cutlass with MW9 (200-4R)
Thusly, for a single piece speedometer cable-
ACDelco p/n CC1120 or 25033563
Superseded to CC1066 or 25033391 and then the part number was superseded again to 88959481 ($28.79 at rockauto.com). It says it's 100.91" long, or 2563.11 mm.
Or aftermarket equivalent. ATP Y816, Pioneer CA3003, about 100" long each.
Thusly, for a single piece speedometer cable-
ACDelco p/n CC1120 or 25033563
Superseded to CC1066 or 25033391 and then the part number was superseded again to 88959481 ($28.79 at rockauto.com). It says it's 100.91" long, or 2563.11 mm.
Or aftermarket equivalent. ATP Y816, Pioneer CA3003, about 100" long each.
Awesome as always Mike, thank you! I’m sure I would’ve found it eventually, but you just saved me a whole pile of research and digging. RA seems to be the way to go, so I’m thinking I’ll order up all the steering parts at the same time; center link, tie rod ends, adjusters and idler arm. That should all but rule out any further possible play in the front end steering.
Keep in mind these are replacement parts. I have a sneaky suspicion they'll be a bit longer than needed as the original set up was a little less than 100". But you shouldn't have much of an issue moving it to where the slack is taken up. Recall there should be a cable retainer bolted on the crossmember to help support that stretch from the frame rail to the trans. I don't think they even list that in the parts book. I can't seem to find it anyway.
Thank you Shawn! I’m going to continue to pick away at the ever shrinking list of work to be done, annoyances and upgrades, but it’s almost there. At least it’s finally to a point where I can start to enjoy it a little bit!
Yes and no, the ones in the pictures were the ones I thought photo worthy, others had already left, and some were just plain old hoopties, no doubt about it.
First off, thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it!
There are no further plans for those pieces, I’ve expressed before my severe disdain for those fender pieces. They were horrible IMO from the start. They didn’t match the shape of the fender in that area, always came loose or fell off/were crooked or didn’t align to the rest of the trim and generally looked like an afterthought to me.
I couldn’t get rid of them soon enough.
Also, to me these cars look cleaner the less trim and decorative crap they have on them. That’s why I eliminated the wide lower fender, door and quarter panel pieces too. So it doesn’t bother me one bit to leave the trim off of the back of the hood either.
The front of the door belt moulding trim terminates in a visually pleasing way, so I’m ok with leaving it at that and not adding anything else.
[/QUOTE
I looked closer at my fender trim tonight. The passenger side is ok-ish, the drivers side looks like a seventh grade shop class project, and the hood rear trim has always looked cheap (foil wrapped, clear coated plastic?). It's a shame with all the stainless and anodized trim these cars had that GM couldn't follow through with those two or three little pieces. Maybe nothing is BETTER than mediocre.I got a few little issues addressed tonight that I found in the last couple days cruising, mainly small electrical stuff.
I had noticed Friday night as the sun went down that the left front fender marker light wasn’t working. After doing a little troubleshooting with a test light, I found the bulb was fine and the socket had power, so I knew the issue was somewhere on the ground side. I had cleaned up and redone all the front end grounds shortly after I had bought the car, so I knew the ground screws weren’t the problem.
Instead, I removed the terminals from their housings and sanded 40 years worth of oxidation off them and put them back together. Presto! Light bulb moment! (Pun fully intended)
Then I went after the horns. When I went to honk the horn at the G body guys from the cruise on my way out, I was rewarded with what can only be described as a dying cat. Or maybe a wounded duck. Definitely not the authoritative sound I know these cars are supposed to have.
Talk about humiliating.
I thought it might be another ground issue with the fresh paint keeping them from grounding properly, but it turned out the horns themselves were kaput. I swapped them out with the set I still had from The Brown Bomber a zillion years ago, and bam! I can finally blow my own horn! (Yep, you guessed it, pun still intended)
After that, I replaced the dome light fuse which I knew was blown, and got not only the dome lights back, but the power locks and dash clock back as well. Will small miracles never cease.
Feeling on a roll, next I swapped out the original Rallye Pac instrument cluster for the one out of the ‘84 Cutlass I recently scrapped. The volt meter would tick back and forth in unison with the signals when they were applied, and the temp gauge would bounce wildly over bumps and sometimes not work at all intermittently. I also discovered that the speedometer was all of a sudden not working either when it was working perfectly 3 years ago. Grrr.
However, I’m somewhat pleased to report, post cluster swap, all of the gauges are now working properly and rock solid. The only one I’m not sure of yet is the speedometer, because I didn’t get a chance to drive it, and I suspect it might actually be broken. I was able to pull the insert out of the sheath a little bit and I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen.
Anybody got a part number for a one piece Cutlass speedometer cable on a 200R4??
To finish off the night, I set the dash clock to the correct time, and also finally remembered how to set the one in the GM radio too. (You gotta do it with the power to it, but with the radio shut off).
The only problem I wasn’t able to solve tonight was the cornering lamps in the fenders. They aren’t lighting up anymore when I hit the signals. Absolutely no power going to them, zip, zero, nada. Yet all the fuses are fine and I haven’t disturbed anything else. FSM narrows it down to half a dozen possible culprits, none of which are easily accessed or tested. That might just go “unfixed” for a while.
Tomorrow night I’m gonna have a look at swapping out the steering box with the one originally from The Juggernaut (it has an aftermarket quick ratio one in it now), but I know it was still in excellent condition when I pulled it. The one in this car is really loose and sloppy, it requires quite a bit of input to make any corrections which makes for staying in your lane an interesting adventure. I think it’s just like the rest of the car was, plain old tired and worn out.
That’s it for now gents, thanks for reading my ramblings. Till next time,
D.
Similar threads
