78-80 Cutlass Budget Build

I decided to purchase another G-body project about a month ago. I picked up a 1980 Cutlass Calais with an olds 350 and th350 trans. The price was right and it runs/drives. The body looks decent driving down the road but is plagued with body filler, painted alluminum wheels, homemade paint job and missing all kinds of trim. The interior is a disaster-previous owner put pass seat on drivers side and vise versa and car was a bench seat model so they hacked the seats in as well. There was 1 and 1/2 beat up door panels in it, a filthy red carpet, a sagging headliner, a busted up dash equipt with tach mounted through it and mix match seat belts. The rear seat and misc plastics were in pretty good shape but the rest of the interior was trash including a busted up tilt column. About 2 weeks ago I purchased a 79 cutlass supreme donor car with good floor shift interior, good body trim, and all kinds of other stuff. My plans are to sitch the doghouse, trim, interior and wheels from the 79 car over to my 80. I am also waiting on a set of 78 tail lights with the rocket emblems to get here. Well without further delay here are some pics of the calais when I brought it home.

Here are some pics of the parts car. This guy has a rotted frame. I pulled him out of a guys yard with 4 flats. I almost shed a tear for this one....you can tell it was a decent car when parked.




last time car was tagged....

Some photos of the interior from donor car. Got a decent B&M Megashifter with it.....

Dennyboy said:

doesn't look to bad. what are your plans?

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I am planning on an old school look. Car is just a toy to drive in dry weather and do a little bracket racing in.

Here are some pics from the dragstrip. This was only a few days after I bought it. Changed the oil and took it to the track. LOL

Centerline wheels I got off donor car. They were pitted bad but don't look too bad and sold the old ones for $80.

DoubleV said:

So what did it run and what's your setup?

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My setup is a 68-72 ols 350 with late 70's heads, edelbrock intake, small cam, holley carb and headers. It has a stock th350 trans and a non posi rear end with highway gear so about 16's in the quarter-lol. However thats not tunned, foot brake and only shifting from 2nd-3rd. The column is so beat up and wore out that the gears are real close together. I did make it to the third round but red-lit and went home.

So here is the 1980 after I took the seats out-yuck! Notice the baseball bat that was under the seat....never a good sign. lol I also re-mounted tach & shift light and installed a set of guages. The guage location is temporary...I just don't like running anything hard without guages in it.