BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

[Opie Knievel]

Sounds like your luck went like mine usually does. 2 steps forward and 1 step back. The end result turned out really well though. I think the wheels look great the way they are. I'm kind of picky about white letter tires. They look good on certain wheels on certain cars. These wheels on this car is one of times that the white letters look good. I think you nailed it.

Looking great as always Donovan. I can't wait for the next update.

 

[Clutch]

Lol
Those aren't his wheels, they're mine. But thank you!




Sure, I don't mind at all, but I'm not sure it'll help you much. Oklahoma is a long ways away from here!
Lol
I sourced them from a local supplier here in my city, called Canadian Wheel.

http://www.canadianwheel.com/

I'm not sure if they ship or not, but it may be worth a try.
If all else fails and you can't find them local to you, PM me with your details and I could pick up another set and ship em to ya. Just an option.

Sorry for that confusion I just don't want anyone else to wast money on the lugs I did they almost look painted silver very disposing

 

[Injectedcutty]

Well done D!!! I really like how they turned out. I see what you're saying about them looking dark, however i feel they fit the car perfectly, especially with the white letter rubber.

No joke, you have more attention to detail in just the wheels that most have in their whole car! But what hasn't been said yet....WOW look at that scenery!!! The bluegrass state several of us call home is nice, but the great white north has some seriously beautiful scenery worthy of pic ops!!!!

Again, great job buddy...I'm sure the wheels will grow on you!

Scott

 

[Texas82GP]

I promised y'all an update with pics of the wheels and tires completed and on the car this weekend.
Since it's a long weekend for us up here north of the 49th, it's still technically the weekend. So here we go!

This weekend was filled with highs and lows in respect to the wheels. I was up bright and early Saturday morning, and had the rims and tires dropped off at the tire shop shortly after 10am.

After a little blunder on the tire shops' behalf where they mounted the tires blackwall out (low point), they corrected their mistake, flipped them around, and remounted them RWL out like I had originally requested.
Bit of a low point there. Little did I know it was a sign of things to come...

Fortunately, they were able to adequately balance each wheel using stick on weights on the insides of the rims, rather than the clamp-on lead ones that had caused all the pitting in the aluminum underneath previously.
Bonus, high point there!
Upon going to pay, I was told to have a nice day, they were done all for the low low price of $Free.99!
DEFINITE high point there!
(Guess it pays to take good care of your compressor customers!)


Once back home, I began the process of swapping out the old rims for the new. With the back of the car jacked up and the rear wheels removed, I test fit the new wheel and tire combination with the existing 2" wheel adapters (I had previously installed to help out the look).

This was a no-go.

After confirming with a tape measure what my eyes were telling me, I found that the new combo overlapped the wheel well flange by a solid inch. On a lowered vehicle like Olds Cool, this is just asking for trouble, usually in the form of cut sidewalls.
Low point...

Removing the adapter and bolting up the wheel against the brake drum wasn't the right answer either. Even with the wider tires, the whole thing still sat too far inboard for my liking. Yet another low point.
Time to jump in the truck, and head for the speed shop.

A high speed run there and back, and about an hour later, I had a set of 1" adapters to replace the 2" ones. Placing the 1" adapters over the wheel studs was rewarded with a disheartening reality:
The axel flange studs were 1/8-3/16" too long, protruding past the adapter. DEFINITE low point there.
Out came the cutoff wheel on the die grinder, and all 10 studs were carefully shortened. Finally, everything fit as desired.

All this nonsense finally behind me, I could finally move on with getting the damn wheels on. All the proper lug nuts I had sourced out fit and functioned as intended, with the exception of one. Something in the threads was screwed up or damaged, and it would not for the life of me go on. A look through my tap and die set was unsuccessful as well, I did not have the proper pitch and diameter tap to repair the nut.
Low point yet again!

Instead, I improvised and used one of the straight shank lug nuts and double washer deals I had used previously. Good enough until I can repair or replace the bad nut.

Front wheels went on without a hitch, and I was finally able to get the car down on all fours again. Made a quick trip to the car wash to get everything cleaned up and looking good, and finally got my first good look at the end result.

Although they look really good (and a substantial improvement over the old rally's), I was a bit upset to find that the clearcoat I had applied had dulled down the bright silver finish of the raw aluminum areas.
Another disheartening low.
They still look good, they're just quite dark now is all.

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Not sure if I'm going to redo the silver areas just yet or not, I might give it a bit and see if it grows on me. Thoughts from the members on this?

Probably most importantly of all tho, the car now finally rides, tracks, and handles much better than before. It's firm, stable, and doesn't require as much corrective input nearly as much as before. That right there was reward enough for going through all the work.
High point finally!

Anyways, enough with the commentary.
Today I made a trip out of town, and stopped for a photo op. My apologies, they're not the greatest. The sun was so bright I couldn't see the screen on my phone to tell if it was gonna be a decent picture or not. The car looked a lot better in person to be honest.

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So that's it. There they are, done and on the car.
Thanks for checking back everyone, and please, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions!

D.

Donovan, I'm not seeing what you are seeing. The wheels look great! The car looks great. The wheels are a huge upgrade for the car. The wheel in the close up picture looks brand new. Really nice work. Now get back on that keyboard and tell us something about that drivetrain swap or about that vinyl top!

 

[Clutch]

If my 78 comes out half as nice I'll be ecstatic! That's a sharp looking car

 

[sportriderOK]

I personally love the darker silver on the wheels. Gives them a nice custom look while maintaining the classic style of the wheel. Happy accident in my book!

 

[Longroof79]

D-man,
The car looks absolutely incredible with those wheels. Despite how you look at them, I think they look great. As they say, you're your own worst critic. We're all guilty of that in one sense or another.

Sorry to hear about all the annoyances that have had you at wits end, but again you persevered and got it done.

Btw, I love the back drop. The scenery is quite breath taking.

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Wheels and tires look great on the car Donovan! Glad you got past the little hurdles in getting them on. I think they look good as is.

Are the scenery pics out towards Banff or South of Calgary....we try and get a drive through the mountains every time we come out...love the scenery!

When we were out last summer took a drive through Kananaskis, stopped for beers in Longview, supper in Black Diamond and back to Cochrane...was a great day!

 

[Rktpwrd]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

My sincere apologies for the lengthy delay in responding, I had a crazy busy week last week with work and very little of my own time. By the time I did have a little to myself on Sunday, I found myself embroiled in the great vinyl roof debacle. But more on that in a bit...

Those wheels look really nice. I hope they are well made unlike a lot of the SSIIIs [that I am replacing in my build]. I literally have 27 oz of weight on one because of the wheel. My new wheels required 4 1/2, just over 2, just less than 2, and just 1/2 oz on one with the RE760s mounted. Now that is well made even if they were NOT well polished before they left US Mags. Don't get me started . . .
And, you have the satisfaction of knowing you didn't spend $3K on yours too . . .

Great work!

Thanks Canon. The wheels are factory aluminum 1980 442 pieces, and are very well made, aside from the occasional casting flaw.
They balanced out very well, requiring no more than 2oz across all 4 wheels.

That sucks about the poor polishing finish they left you with, especially considering the hefty price they charge. They look great tho, I'll be continuing to check back on your progress with them.
Good luck!

Wheels are sick. If I spend as much detail oriented effort on my car collectively as you have on those wheels I'll be golden.

Thank you! That's quite the compliment, I appreciate it.

Sounds like your luck went like mine usually does. 2 steps forward and 1 step back. The end result turned out really well though. I think the wheels look great the way they are. I'm kind of picky about white letter tires. They look good on certain wheels on certain cars. These wheels on this car is one of times that the white letters look good. I think you nailed it.

Looking great as always Donovan. I can't wait for the next update.

Thank you Opie!
Yes, for such a simple job, it certainly tested my patience.
Like you said, it was 2 steps forward and one step back. Glad you like the end result, so do I. I'm still a bit uncertain about the darkness of the silver, but I can live with it for now. I'm also relieved to hear it passes your criteria for the right wheels/car to suit the RWL's!
Lol
I wasn't too worried about it, I figured they'd look "right" on the car, and suit the theme.
Thanks again for the support.

Well done D!!! I really like how they turned out. I see what you're saying about them looking dark, however i feel they fit the car perfectly, especially with the white letter rubber.

No joke, you have more attention to detail in just the wheels that most have in their whole car! But what hasn't been said yet....WOW look at that scenery!!! The bluegrass state several of us call home is nice, but the great white north has some seriously beautiful scenery worthy of pic ops!!!!

Again, great job buddy...I'm sure the wheels will grow on you!

Scott

Thanks Scott!

Yes, I'm fortunate enough to live pretty close to some world class scenery. Those pics were taken just outside a little hamlet called Bragg Creek in the foothills of Alberta, just on the doorstep of The Rocky Mountains. As you can probably see by the color of the water, it's frigid cold, being almost direct runoff from the mountains.
This location is a mere 40 minute drive from my front door, 20 minutes to the outskirts of the city, and another 20 minutes there.
Makes for a great road trip!

Donovan

 

[Rktpwrd]

Donovan, I'm not seeing what you are seeing. The wheels look great! The car looks great. The wheels are a huge upgrade for the car. The wheel in the close up picture looks brand new. Really nice work. Now get back on that keyboard and tell us something about that drivetrain swap or about that vinyl top!

Thanks Jared.
I guess it's more apparent (to me anyways), that the silver looks darker now than it appears in the pictures. At least as compared to pre-clear coat. Don't get me wrong, I don't think they look bad. I'm still very happy with them. I guess it's just different than what I had pictured in my head.

As far as spending some time behind the keyboard, that's been pretty tough to accommodate lately. It seems that my free time is getting smaller and smaller for some reason. But I'll continue to try. I'm something like 20 pages behind in keeping up to date with the posts on here! So disappointing...


I know the drivetrain still needs to be covered on here, and I promise I will get to it... eventually.
Lol
As of right now tho, I've got my hands full of a fairly major repair project with the roof, which addresses your other comment about the vinyl top...

If my 78 comes out half as nice I'll be ecstatic! That's a sharp looking car

Thanks Clutch. It's still definitely a work in progress, but it's coming along fairly well so far.

I personally love the darker silver on the wheels. Gives them a nice custom look while maintaining the classic style of the wheel. Happy accident in my book!

Thank you! It's slowly growing on me, in fact it might be contributing to an idea for a new theme for the car that's slowly forming in my head...
But that's a discussion for another time!

D-man,
The car looks absolutely incredible with those wheels. Despite how you look at them, I think they look great. As they say, you're your own worst critic. We're all guilty of that in one sense or another.

Sorry to hear about all the annoyances that have had you at wits end, but again you persevered and got it done.

Btw, I love the back drop. The scenery is quite breath taking.

Thanks Jack! You always have the nicest things to say sir.
You're right, I am my own harshest critic, always have been. I guess that's why everyone thinks I'm so detail oriented. I can't help it. It just isn't finished until it looks how I've envisioned it! Insane, I know...

The annoyances are all part of the process. We tend to have selective memory regarding these sometimes tho.
Lol
I did get one of the last outstanding annoyances dealt with last week tho, the bum lug nut I had, I took back to the retailer and they replaced it for free. I pulled off the temporary one, and threaded the new one on, no problem. So that was nice.

Glad you liked the backdrop. It seemed like a good place to go for a decent cruise out of the city, and get some good pics.

Wheels and tires look great on the car Donovan! Glad you got past the little hurdles in getting them on. I think they look good as is.

Are the scenery pics out towards Banff or South of Calgary....we try and get a drive through the mountains every time we come out...love the scenery!

When we were out last summer took a drive through Kananaskis, stopped for beers in Longview, supper in Black Diamond and back to Cochrane...was a great day!

Thanks Kevin.

Glad you like the wheels as I do.

You're close with your guesses, but not quite. They were taken west of Calgary, in Bragg Creek. Fairly close to Longview and Black Diamond, just a bit further north if you've never been there.

Thanks for all the comments, praise, and feedback everyone. I truly value ALL your input!

Donovan