Just curious, Donovan, are you going to replace the rocket badges on the fenders and Cutlass Calais scripts on the sail panels?
BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
The more I look at your car the more I see what my plan for my Malibu was. Subtle mods that just tighten the car up. The only thing you didn’t do was narrow the bumpers. If I ever finish my project there’s going to be quite a bit of parallel thinking.Trying to stick to my promise of more frequent updates, another fairly quick one for y’all.
I spent the last couple nights doing the steering box swap with the good condition original one out of The Juggernaut. I got sidelined early Monday night due to the fact that I had forgotten that I’d modified my Pitman arm puller, and it no longer worked for actually pulling Pitman arms.
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Got all of it completed last night after borrowing a friend’s puller, but was unfortunately denied the sense of completion and subsequent road test due to running out of power steering fluid.
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Picked up a quart of Lucas power steering fluid today, and after bleeding the system and topping it up a couple of times, I was finally rewarded with the end result:
No more loose, sloppy and unpredictable steering, everything is nice and tight and very responsive. Just as I remembered it being when I pulled it out of The Juggernaut. The old box in this car was most definitely worn out and in dire need of replacement.
In other news, the instrument cluster swap was also a resounding success. All the gauges now function perfectly and are also more accurate. No more wildly bouncing temp gauge and no more voltmeter ticking back and forth with the signals. Speedometer still isn’t working, but I’ve pretty much diagnosed it as being broken somewhere in the cable, and have another one en route from Rock Auto. (Thanks Mike!) I’ve also got all new steering components from wheel to wheel coming with the cable. They should be here next Tuesday.
At the end of the road test, I found myself at pretty much the right place and the right time for a nice photo op against the backdrop of the setting sun. Here’s some shameless glamour shots for your enjoyment.
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That’s it for now guys, I’ll update again once I’ve got a little more done on her.
✌🏻
D.
He did that on Juggernaut.
Meh....looks fair.....
That, ladies and gentlemen, is how every paint job should turn out.
Thank you Mike, most kind of you to say!
My pleasure Jack!
After all of the work I’ve put into it up to this point and of all the zillions of pictures I’ve taken, I still didn’t really have any decent pictures of the car that weren’t in the garage, up too close, etc etc.
I just happened to find myself at the right place and the right time for what I thought might make for some nice overall shots and from different angles.
Thanks Mike! I am proud of it (in a modest way of course), and appreciate the compliment. Thank you.
Wow, quite the praise, much appreciated!
While I can’t guarantee it’ll never see rain (surprise showers happen), I can definitely guarantee it’ll never see snow again as long as I’m the caretaker of it. Nope, it’s turning out just exactly as I wanted, a nice clean summer cruiser to enjoy while I get back to work on The Juggernaut.
Thanks Kevin! It’s not quite there just yet, but getting closer all the time. I still have a small list of things to do on it, but like you said, at least it’s to where I can start to enjoy it a bit finally.
Comments like yours are what makes it all worthwhile for me, thank you so very much!
I realize I don’t always contribute to the collective knowledge base on the forum here in the same way that most of the other guys do, but I like to think that the experiences I share in my build threads help guys like you that face the same or similar challenges.
I’m glad I and this thread have inspired you to gain the confidence to tackle what you might not have otherwise. Feel free to message me anytime if you have problems or need any assistance. I’d be happy to help.
🙂
Yep, and it should be returning soon gents! I’m stoked to be getting back on it!
Yes on the rocket emblems, undecided on the Cutlass Calais ones. I haven’t put the rocket ones back on yet because I’m waiting until the paint correction is done on the last panel (passenger door), and I have a chance to protect all that hard work with a coat of wax or ceramic treatment. I also wanna redo the red and black inside the emblems, the model paint I was using at the time was old, lumpy and sketchy, so it kinda looks like a 3 year old did it now.
😔
I’d welcome input on the Cutlass Calais badges from anyone, in stock form they went on top of the vinyl roof down low by the mouldings on the sides of the sail panels. The 442’s like what the paint scheme is styled after, placed the “442” badges up in the center middle of the sail panels.
Should I install the Calais badges where the 442 ones would normally go, install them in the factory location (my least favourite idea), or keep them eliminated all together? I’ve been thinking that it almost needs something in that area, but I don’t know what.
It also bothers me a little that it currently says “Cutlass” absolutely no where on the car. Don’t wanna have to go through that whole “is that a Monte Carlo???” scenario every time!
Yep, that was the plan on this one from the start. No crazy body mods, no deviating too far from stock. Just a nice clean relatively simple build using mostly only what GM provided. When The Juggernaut is done (my real passion), the idea is to line both Olds Cool and The Juggernaut up side by side at shows so people can see a basically stock car next to the heavily modified one.
So that being said, that ruled out narrowing the bumpers on this build, a common pet peeve of most people on these cars. It’s exaggerated a little more than usual on the front of the car right now due to it still missing the filler panels. I think you’ll find it a lot less noticeable once they’re painted and installed.
This. ^^^
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I know, but the plan for my car is a clean semi modify factory car, which is what Oldschool is. Straight body work, tight gaps, and extreme attention to detail. The juggernaut is pretty much full custom and way out of where I would be able to be with my project.
As a body and paint guy when I go through a car show the things that he’s accomplished with this car catch my eye more than flashy paint, because the paint is the easy part.
Hey, bro, could you post a link or a page number to the bumper tuck? I've been eyeballing it on the 78 and wondering why it wasn't done on this.
I'm not going to gush it out all over the forum like Bonnie Rotten, but I think you know i got mad respect for your skills and patience. It's just not my bag. If it looks good at 80+mph, SEND IT! Love ya,D!
I'm not going to gush it out all over the forum like Bonnie Rotten, but I think you know i got mad respect for your skills and patience. It's just not my bag. If it looks good at 80+mph, SEND IT! Love ya,D!
TBH and fair Bruce, I don’t think there is any coverage on the bumper tuck in The Juggernaut’s thread. I think had done it back before I had a smart phone with a decent camera and before I joined the forum. I know there’s a little bit of coverage on building and attaching coves to the fenders around the sides of the bumper, but that’s about it. When I have a bit of spare time, I’ll go back and have a look to make sure tho.
If you can be patient, I plan on revisiting the front bumper narrow/tuck and recess with a new bumper as I’m not 100% happy with it as it sits now.
I keep looking at the rear bumper, and thinking how much better it would look without the filler and tucked tighter on my 78. Just looking for tips. I can always just cut, and figure it out later! 🤣
Well, I got my delivery of steering parts a couple days early from Rock Auto. Friday after work they were sitting on the porch instead of Tuesday as originally promised. WTF, that never happens!
All new AC Delco replacement steering parts, center link, idler arm, inner and outer tie rod ends, adjusting sleeves, plus a new speedometer cable.
So early this afternoon I decided to start pre-assembling everything on the bench in preparation for it all to go in:
Disconnected the idler arm from the frame and the pitman arm from the center link, then popped the outer tie rod ends from the spindles and dropped the whole old assembly out:
I measured up the old tie rod assemblies and set the new ones to the same length, then installed and torqued everything but the adjusting sleeves. These I just snugged up temporarily. The steering wheel in the car had previously been cocked slightly to the right when travelling straight, so I lengthened the right hand side by two turns and shortened the left hand side by the same amount. Then took it for a short road test to see what further adjustments it might need.
The wheel was definitely more centered but still needed a little more bias to the left, so I quickly raised the front end, made one more full turn on each and road tested it again. Almost perfect now. I readjusted them one last time, only a quarter turn each (this time to the right) then set up some straight edges on the wheels and set the toe-in. Once I had my 1/16” (give or take) toe-in, I locked down the adjusting sleeves permanently.
The car steers and tracks quite nicely now, and is definitely tighter and more responsive than before I swapped out the box. I might make a slight adjustment to the sector shaft in the steering box, it seems just a hair too tight to move off center, but that’s a super easy adjustment.
Speedometer cable is next, quite possibly tomorrow night. Other than a lil bit of futzing around with the routing, that should be pretty straightforward.
And here you guys thought all I I knew how to do was sand shjt!
D.
All new AC Delco replacement steering parts, center link, idler arm, inner and outer tie rod ends, adjusting sleeves, plus a new speedometer cable.
So early this afternoon I decided to start pre-assembling everything on the bench in preparation for it all to go in:
Disconnected the idler arm from the frame and the pitman arm from the center link, then popped the outer tie rod ends from the spindles and dropped the whole old assembly out:
I measured up the old tie rod assemblies and set the new ones to the same length, then installed and torqued everything but the adjusting sleeves. These I just snugged up temporarily. The steering wheel in the car had previously been cocked slightly to the right when travelling straight, so I lengthened the right hand side by two turns and shortened the left hand side by the same amount. Then took it for a short road test to see what further adjustments it might need.
The wheel was definitely more centered but still needed a little more bias to the left, so I quickly raised the front end, made one more full turn on each and road tested it again. Almost perfect now. I readjusted them one last time, only a quarter turn each (this time to the right) then set up some straight edges on the wheels and set the toe-in. Once I had my 1/16” (give or take) toe-in, I locked down the adjusting sleeves permanently.
The car steers and tracks quite nicely now, and is definitely tighter and more responsive than before I swapped out the box. I might make a slight adjustment to the sector shaft in the steering box, it seems just a hair too tight to move off center, but that’s a super easy adjustment.
Speedometer cable is next, quite possibly tomorrow night. Other than a lil bit of futzing around with the routing, that should be pretty straightforward.
And here you guys thought all I I knew how to do was sand shjt!
D.
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To be fair, its been a while since you've done something other than sand shjt. 😝
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