Project Olds

[Gs dewd]

I just bought a 80' Olds Cutlass supreme about 2 weeks ago. The car is in pretty good condition for the year. It was sitting for over 3 yrs. in a field at a tow yard. I tried to start it and after pumping the hell put of it it started and ran decent. I Towed it back to my garage and changed the oil and did a complete mechanical inspection on it and everything looks good. Last week I started on the body work to get it ready for paint. It had some seriuos rust in one spot on the passengers side under the trim for vinyl top. I cut out all the rust and welded in new metal and primed the area. The rest of the car is rust free. The roof and trunk have some small dents from what looks like the car was in a hale storm which I will be taking care of next week. The car should be in full primer by next weekend and ready for final block sanding and paint. I will post pics of my progress with the car and keep everyone up to date. More on the car. It has a 260 v8 and a th350 trans. I am plannung on building a 383 Chev sb and chevy 350 turbo trans for the car. The interior is white and light brown ( buckets/ console floor shifter). The exterior is a pale yellow with white vinyl top. Yes the car is going to recieve a very due color change. I have not yet decided totally on what color I am going to go with. Thoughts? I am thinking either a Medium blue with a slighty darker blue vinyl top (it has what I guess is considered the Landau top or 1/4 top) Or maybe a paint scheme I used on one of my other cars I had which was Met. Bugandy main paint with black and silver stripes that wraped the trunk and went down the side with a grey vinyl 1/4 top. Here is a pic of the second choice the Dodge Aspen I had in high school. And Yes I painted it myself.



What do you guys think for the paint? I need opinions.
The car is going to be a street / strip car. I am planning on it running it the low 12's to high 11's in the 1/4. 500 hp ought to put me there with room to spare. Haulin-ss I may need some of your expertise on the g-body cars when it comes time for the engine swap. I know it is pretty straight forward but I may need some info on what motor mounts and acc. brackets I need to pull this off. Will Keep you all posted on this.

[Mike]

1980 olds cutlass for those like me who have no idea what one looks like:



i'm thinking a deep red/burgundy with a little flake in it.

[Gs dewd]

Okay so far for this week I got tags and drove it from C'ville to my house in Crimora. And drove it for a couple of hours yesterday. THe car drives great. Not the best thing to look at right now but runs good. I also installed a new radio ( a old radio shack am/fm cassette player I had left over from my truck when I put a cd player in it) as the factory one bit the dust. My girlfriend frowned upon the car when I told her I bought it and she said "you'll never catch me riding in it" well hmmm she drove it last night night and said " when are you painting it, I like it". So the quest for paint moves to the top of the list and the drivetrain moves down to like 4 th. So in order 1st is paint then wheels and tires then the exhaust. I will drive this thing with it's baby v-8 for a while ( poor thing couldn't get out of it's own way if you pushed it over a cliff) and enjoy some gas milage out of it. I am kinda wanting to pull the engine a rip the heads off of it and confirm my suspicions, which are that my riding lawn mower has a bigger bore then this thing has. Will post pics very soon and will make weekly reports on the progress on the Old Olds. Bannana Boat as my girlfriend calls it. Hey I wonder if they would frown upon me if I took it down to summit point when it's finished. Heh

[HAULN-SS]

My buddy has a 79 just like that. His is copper colored with a...coppery looking interior. It looks pretty nice. He swapped a 350 in a while back with a th350 so I can ping him for exact parts you'd need and such, but it's a pretty easy swap. I know they make AC blockoff plates if you're pulling that out. I know when I did my swap, the only part I had to make was a new bracket for the throttle cable. You're probably going to put a new rear in it too, right? I think those things have a 2.52 or sometihng in them stock?

[Gs dewd]

Oh yeah the rear is going to go bye bye before the motor goes in or at the very least be built up with a Aurburn posi unit and either 3.73 or 4.10 gears. I think I may start looking for a mcss rear tomorrow. And if you can get me the info on the a/c block plate that would be great. I think, which I could be wrong here but I believe the only thing I will need for the motor swap will be the motor and frame mounts from a Monte Carlo. My transmission cross member should work. I am going to make a cutout in it to make room for true dauls. If you can check on the mounts with your buddy that will be cool. And if there is anything I need to know on the swap let me know. Thanks. The wiring is a no brainer for it. Also if you can find out what headers and mounts he used that would be good. I know some headers don't fit right with some mounts used.

[HAULN-SS]

Buy one of the g-force cross bars, and it'll make a lot nice job for the true duals. I know the MCSS mounts work for swaps in MCSS's, but I am not sure if they work in an olds. Probably do. I'll check on some of that other stuff.

[Gs dewd]

This is a long time coming, an update. First here are some pics of the car shortly after I got it.







Now Since I gotten the car I have replaced the belts, radiator (due to leaky core) and a tune up. I have the interior pulled now and having it redone. I have got the door jambs, under the hood and in the trunk painted. Got new wheels and tires and a few other odds and ends. A couple weeks ago I purshed a 4 bolt main 74' 350 sbc and have it pulled apart and ready to go to the machine shop for boring (.030 over), decking, and cam bearings installed. I will be ordering a eagle 383 stroker kit for it which will finish up the short block. Cam I am undecided on exactly which one I am going to go with. It will be a comp cam. As far as heads I am going with the brodix alum track 1's and a Edelbrock rpm air gap intake topped with a Holley 770 cfm carb. I have a built th350 trans with a manual valve body already to go. I have a Aurburn gear posi unit with Richmond 3.73 gears and moser axels for the rear. Heres some updated pics showing some of the progress. Will take more pics this weekend and post them up as I am working on the interior.









For some reason the paint looks alot brighter in the pics then it really is. It actually looks more like this.



So theres the progress so far. Paint and vinyl top are next.

[PDenbigh]

Nice man! Looks like you have a more workable paint booth than we did for the XR huh? ;-).

[WRXtranceformed]

That's going to be a really cool project when all is said and done. I didn't see anything there but are you planning to cage it? It might be a good idea now while you've got the car apart so you can plan for the future if you ever decide to get it going that quick in the 1/4. IIRC most tracks require a cage at 11.49?

[Gs dewd]

Nice man! Looks like you have a more workable paint booth than we did for the XR huh? ;-).

Heh yeah. I got a gigantic booth. Heh The whole back yard. Nah the car is going to a regular booth when I paint and clear the outside and clear the jams. I figured paint the jams outside won't hurt anything and actually didn't get anything in the paint.

[Gs dewd]

That's going to be a really cool project when all is said and done. I didn't see anything there but are you planning to cage it? It might be a good idea now while you've got the car apart so you can plan for the future if you ever decide to get it going that quick in the 1/4. IIRC most tracks require a cage at 11.49?

Actually I didn't even think of that guess I do need to make the plan on the cage. I just need to plane out how I want it done due to this car will be living most it's life on the street.g The car already got a pretty tight schedule from about mid april to christmas. I already signed up for about 5 carshows, about 10 cruise ins, a christmas parade and a week in Tenn. for my honeymoon. I am thinking of dialing the motor down to around 350 to 400 hp so it will be a more realistic street car. Even at that hp the car will be a blast to drive.

[WRXtranceformed]

Adding cage = good idea. Dialing motor down = bad!!

[Steve85]

I don't know what is driving your choice of head, Brodix are definitely great heads, but for out of the box performance have you considered AFR's Eliminator series? The comp ported 195s are perfect for a 383.

Here are a couple examples that sort of bookend the area between all out HP and drivability.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engin...index.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techar...ngine.html

[Gs dewd]

I don't know what is driving your choice of head, Brodix are definitely great heads, but for out of the box performance have you considered AFR's Eliminator series? The comp ported 195s are perfect for a 383.

Here are a couple examples that sort of bookend the area between all out HP and drivability.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engin...index.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techar...ngine.html

Oh that will be easy. Price Price. The brodix are around $1100 for the set. I am also looking at Summit's aluminum heads also. I would love to get a set of afr's but my budget I don't think will allow it.

[Gs dewd]

Well finally got some more done on the Cutlass this weekend. Been a little busy with getting married and having twin baby boys. But I am at a point now to pick up working on it again. Started Thursday afternoon and went into a 3 day all out thrash session. Now the exterior and interior are almost completly done except for a few minor finishing touches. Next up is the build up of the motor, ttrans and rear. Finale decision on the engine is it will be a stroked 350 (383) with a lil over 400hp. Backed by a built manual valve bodied 350th trans with a 2800 to 3000 stall conv., and the rear will have a auburn pro diff., moser axles, and richmond 3.42 gears. But enough of that for now here are the newest pics









Also I picked this up as my new dd. It's completely stock, has 90k miles and is in very good condition. It's a 84' MCSS.

[HAULN-SS]

damn, you've been busy. Cutlass looks good! Nice pickup on the MCSS too..i havent looked around for any of those lately too much, have any problem finding a stock one in good shape?

[Gs dewd]

Actually I found that one about 3 miles from my house. We went to look at another one in H'burg but they wanted 8k for it and I didn't feel it was worth it. On the way back home we saw the guy putting it out in front of his house with a for sale sign on it. We stopped and looked it over. I drove it and when I got back the guy said he would take 500 less then asking price and I said sold and went back the next day with 2500 cash and bought it. Got talking to the guy and he was the second owner. The first owner lives in Verona and drove it 25 miles a day to work and back. The guy I bought it from got it last year and only put 200 miles on it. THe car has extensive service records and the guy was thingking of giving it a fresh coat of paint so he even bought all the new decals and they where in the trunk. The car has now rust and drives great. I have had it about 2 months now and have put about 1k miles on it. My next step is I am going to give it a complete tune up and change all fluids. I have already been through the brakes, belts and hoses. It has the stock 5.0 HO in it with a 350c trans and 3.42 gears. Now running the interstate at 65mph it's taching 3k rpms so that is about the fastest I want to turn it for any length of time. So no long crusies for it.

[ScottyB]

paint looks great!

[Steve85]

Wow, you have been busy. Congrats on the wedding and twins. Nice work on the paint.

BTW, interested in a 408 long block with AFR 210's?

[Gs dewd]

What kind of price on it and what are the specs?