BUILD THREAD Project Olds Cool (Recognition!!)

[Rktpwrd]

Jared that picture was immensely helpful, thank you so much.

I used it as a reference to my car several times, and several things became perfectly clear almost immediately - the trunk braces, mounting points and attachment methods are quite different between my “A” body and the “G” bodies even though they look similar.

The attachment point on the trunk brace on your GP is noticeably lower than on mine...

...which causes an interference issue with how the front of the jack sits up against it. (It just won’t sit right no matter how you position it or which hole you use)

I’ll be able to work around this by orienting the jack the same way but spinning it around 180 degrees on its axis and installing the bottom of it flat against the brace, but it’s going to require a much shorter stud/wingnut fastener than the stock one, because the stock one is way too long when used that way and isn’t threaded all the way up.

On the other end, my bumper jack has the end of the stem open on it...

...which is designed to hook into this bracket in the trunk:

The newer style jack has this closed off bracket on the end of it which prevents it from attaching the same way...

...but I’m thinking if I remove the bracket it might work the same as the original.

Thanks again for your help.
D.

 

[Clutch]

Jared that picture was immensely helpful, thank you so much.

I used it as a reference to my car several times, and several things became perfectly clear almost immediately - the trunk braces, mounting points and attachment methods are quite different between my “A” body and the “G” bodies even though they look similar.

The attachment point on the trunk brace on your GP is noticeably lower than on mine...

View attachment 88247

...which causes an interference issue with how the front of the jack sits up against it. (It just won’t sit right no matter how you position it or which hole you use)

I’ll be able to work around this by orienting the jack the same way but spinning it around 180 degrees on its axis and installing the bottom of it flat against the brace, but it’s going to require a much shorter stud/wingnut fastener than the stock one, because the stock one is way too long when used that way and isn’t threaded all the way up.

On the other end, my bumper jack has the end of the stem open on it...

View attachment 88249

...which is designed to hook into this bracket in the trunk:

View attachment 88248

The newer style jack has this closed off bracket on the end of it which prevents it from attaching the same way...

View attachment 88250

...but I’m thinking if I remove the bracket it might work the same as the original.

Thanks again for your help.
D.

If I remember correctly the "G" cars have a bracket there also but it's an open square to accept the jack? It's been so long and my 87 isn't here to look at

 

[Blake442]

You should've just painted it while you had it masked for primer!

 

[Texas82GP]

Jared that picture was immensely helpful, thank you so much.

I used it as a reference to my car several times, and several things became perfectly clear almost immediately - the trunk braces, mounting points and attachment methods are quite different between my “A” body and the “G” bodies even though they look similar.

The attachment point on the trunk brace on your GP is noticeably lower than on mine...

View attachment 88247

...which causes an interference issue with how the front of the jack sits up against it. (It just won’t sit right no matter how you position it or which hole you use)

I’ll be able to work around this by orienting the jack the same way but spinning it around 180 degrees on its axis and installing the bottom of it flat against the brace, but it’s going to require a much shorter stud/wingnut fastener than the stock one, because the stock one is way too long when used that way and isn’t threaded all the way up.

On the other end, my bumper jack has the end of the stem open on it...

View attachment 88249

...which is designed to hook into this bracket in the trunk:

View attachment 88248

The newer style jack has this closed off bracket on the end of it which prevents it from attaching the same way...

View attachment 88250

...but I’m thinking if I remove the bracket it might work the same as the original.

Thanks again for your help.
D.

I'm glad I could help a little Donovan. Watch out on turning the jack around. I think you will find it will want to 'open up when you have it hanging in the opposite direction (flat base against the brace). With your fabrication talent, I have no doubt you will have the jack in there very well in no time.

 

[Rktpwrd]

I'm glad I could help a little Donovan. Watch out on turning the jack around. I think you will find it will want to 'open up when you have it hanging in the opposite direction (flat base against the brace). With your fabrication talent, I have no doubt you will have the jack in there very well in no time.

Thanks for your faith in my abilities Jared. You’re absolutely right, with the jack spun the other way ‘round, the mechanism wants to “open up” as you said. I’m sure it’s possible to work around, but I’ve changed directions...

After experimenting and playing around with several configurations the last couple days, I’ve decided that I’d pretty much have to reinvent the wheel to get the newer style jack mounted in there. If it was only for the jack at this point, I might consider pursuing it further but utilizing the newer style jack would mean that I no longer would need the bumper jack base which holds the spare in place.

As you can see it would snowball on me very quickly and that’s not a road I’m choosing to go down at this point. I’ve got all the stuff now to restore the inside of the trunk to the way it came out of the factory in 1980, so I’m just going to do that for now. I might revisit that in the future when I’m looking for a small project, but I’ve got enough other things to keep me busy for now.

Thanks for the help and encouragement, be sure to check out the finished product in the following update, coming up next.

D.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Alrighty gents, let’s get y’all up to speed.

The trunk is done, assembled with all the correct jacking equipment, space saver spare, and original trunk mat.

After the last update I had the front of the spare masked off and painted satin black, and was getting ready to do the same for the backside. That got done last night.

After unmasking it and detailing the tire with some Mother’s “Back to Black”, I thoroughly vacuumed out the trunk and sprayed the tire well and surrounding areas with some rocker panel coating and flat black spray paint. Once that was dry, I installed the OE jack, tire, jack base, and original wing nuts.

I mentioned earlier that all the spare tire equipment and trunk components in The Brown Bomber parts car were all present and in exceptional condition, so when I parted that car out I took multiple reference pictures and saved all the parts.
These parts even included the unobtainium and always missing cardboard filler pieces, so last night I dug through my parts stash until I found them.

After a little clean up and referencing the ‘Bomber’s pics, I installed them into Olds Cool. Olds Cool had the original trunk mat when I bought it, so it just got a vigorous scrubbing, cleaning and vacuuming before getting reinstalled. It had a stubborn crease in it that I couldn’t get to sit flat in the transition from above the axel to the trunk floor, but a little 3M spray adhesive took care of that.

To finish out things, I wiped down the inside of the quarter panels and detailed the trunk weatherstrip.

Here’s the finished product, minty fresh!
Welcome to 1980...

Note the unobtainium cardboard filler panel...

...and here’s the other one. It sits between the trunk floor and quarter panel underneath the mat:

That’s all for now fellas, next up is gonna be getting the “B” pillars and side window openings done.

Till then,

D.

 

[Texas82GP]

I totally get it Donovan, and even I felt that it was somewhat of a shame not to leave the bumper jack in it since it looks to be in such nice shape and you have all the right stuff.

Sean's 78 Z28 came originally with a bumper jack. We didn't have a stock jack and there is no way in hell we are going to pick up the car with one so we settled on putting an aftermarket floor jack in a blown plastic case in the trunk in case of emergencies.

 

[Wraith]

That's it. Your OCD exceeds mine. I quit. Random car fire ensuing......

 

[Longroof79]

D,
The trunk came out amazing. It looks absolutely awesome.

 

[O. D. Showtime]

Looks great Donovan!