1963 Oldsmobile Starfire

Another week gone, I'm still making progress but a few obstacles have popped up. I found out last Tuesday that the radiator I ordered came in - severely damaged in transit. The dealer sent it back so it will be another couple of weeks for them to make a new one. The good news is I may get a partial credit, we'll see. With my sails partially de-winded I started to reassemble what I had removed to do the cleaning and painting. I upgraded the heater hoses to NAPA Gold Stripe which is Semi truck stuff, long life but thicker than normal so a bit harder to route. Getting the new Powermaster alternator in was fun, there is JUST enough room for it to slide past the fragile original A/C hoses and I had to tape it so the sharp edges of the pulley fan wouldn't cut anything. After I got all the wiring back on and the ignition hooked up yesterday I wanted to start it to be sure there were no fuel leaks where I had fiddled with the fuel pump hoses. It started and ran fine but DumbA** forgot to connect the trans cooler lines together so I pumped about a quart of trans fluid on the floor! And, true to form, I do have a fuel leak from the return hose. I wrapped it up at that point and will take a couple days off as the weather has deteriorated. Nothing is ever simple...

Let's see how many other 63 Starfire owners are following this, I need some help from the experts out there. As part of cleaning up my engine compartment I would like to add any decals or labels that would have been factory original. I already have replacement aluminum air cleaner signs but I do not know what else is correct. Can anyone post photos showing the location of any labels and also advise where they are available as reproductions?

Today I buttoned up the front of the engine, installed the rebuilt steering pump, fan, shroud, and all the new belts. I used my ancient belt adjusting tool, one of the best cheap tools I have ever owned, although I had to use a bit of duct tape to hold a loose end in place. I finally got a call that the new radiator arrived for the second time, this time in undamaged condition! I picked it up on Thursday and am very pleased, it a virtual duplicate of the original. The only difference is the high efficiency core which has more cooling tubes than the stocker. I transferred the drain petcock and trans cooler fittings and will finish up the install tomorrow. I bought new rubber spacers for the lower radiator brackets from Steele as the old ones were all but gone.

Great looking car! Nice work...I've always loved the side trim on Starfires.

I have finally got the car back together and driveable. The new radiator is great, it fits perfectly and once in the only way you can tell it's not original is that it does not have "Harrison" embossed on the tank. I'm happy with the appearance of the detailing but now the areas I DIDN"T do such as the hood underside and inside fender edges really look bad. I still have to install the new "Starfire" pieplate on the air cleaner but the rest will have to wait.

As per everything I do with cars I had some challenges - big surprise. When I first started and drove the car the transmission didn't want to shift properly and was slipping. I had added fluid after the spill I had but apparently did not wait long enough for everything to circulate - turned out it was almost two quarts low! Once the fluid was up it ran fine. Next I found out the alternator was not charging, and it's brand new! After checking all the connections and running voltmeter checks I found that the metal field connector at the regulator had popped out of the housing and there was no contact - easy fix and now it's charging fine. There was no improvement to my brakes from the o-ring installation, I'm wondering if my booster may have given up the ghost. I'm going to experiment by removing the vacuum source and seeing if there is any difference, we'll see. Here are some before and after photos:

Nice job, Don. I wish I had your patience, I did learn some cool masking tips from your engine detailing, which I will be using when I do the engine compartment on the Avanti (whenever that turns out to be!).

Nice job, Don. I wish I had your patience, I did learn some cool masking tips from your engine detailing, which I will be using when I do the engine compartment on the Avanti (whenever that turns out to be!).

Thanks Chris, unfortunately my patience wears thin too easily when things don't work. I'm lucky that I have the luxury of time to walk away and let it sit, amazing how things usually work out when you come back.

How true, how true...

The car looks great Don! Nice work.

We are finally having decent weather so I got off my butt and am working on my Starfire. One of the major projects is cleaning up the interior and installing new weatherstripping, it is all original and falling apart. When I go for a ride I can't enjoy the sound of the car due to all the whistling wind noise! In addition the rear windows are very reluctant to lower to the point I never put them down, so I decided to start in the back. I pulled out the rear seat and upholstery panels on both sides along with some of the hard trim.

The rear window metal access panels are covered with sound deadener and have never been removed, I had to scrape some off to find the screws. I used 50W oil and white grease to lube up all the tracks and rollers, running the windows up and down many times to free everything up. One interesting thing, the curved part of the quarter windows at the back is unique to the Starfire but I always assumed they used the same squared off window like the Pontiac Grand Prix and covered it with trim. WRONG! It is actually a unique frame and glass with the curve.

Once I got the rear windows working right, I started on the weatherstripping. I actually purchased a full set from Fusick when I got the car, everything except the vent window rubber. The door seals are A&M Soffseal and everything else is from Steele Rubber. I replaced the seals at the front edges of the quarter windows, the U-shaped seals at the top of the quarter panels, and the roof rail seals. The old seals literally crumbled as I pulled them out and went right in the garbage can. The new ones were all very easy to install and fit perfectly, I recommend Steele products highly.

At first I had trouble closing the doors against the new seals, no surprise since the old ones didn't even make contact. I went back and wiped them down with liquid silicone plus cleaned up the window frames and it worked much better. After leaving all the windows up and doors shut overnight it all works great.

The rear seats in my car were redone in vinyl by the previous owner to match the front buckets that were recovered earlier. He also replaced the rear package tray mesh style trim. Unfortunately he never touched the door panels and rear side panels and they were just filthy. I scrubbed everything good with Fantastik and a brush and they cleaned up pretty good. You can see the difference against the front door panel which I have yet to do. There is some color variation in the side panel vinyl but it won't show with the seats back in.

Now you have to go for a ride to test the lack of wind noise.

Yes Pat, looking forward to that. I did move the car around after doing just one side and noticed an improvement! I will also be doing the doors as a separate project so won't know the full result until then.

I cleaned and reinstalled the passenger side panels today, hope to get the seats back in tomorrow. While they are out I removed the cardboard panel to access the trunk, my rear window defogger had come apart due to me trying to fit too large a tire up on the spare tire shelf. I was able to get the flex ducts back on the pipes but the fabric/rubber is pretty dried out. I had to cheat with some duct tape but it's all in place and works now.

I finished up the back last Friday, got the rear seat back in and finished cleaning everything, looks pretty good. The next project will be the doors and door weatherstrip and a detail cleanup of the carpet and front seats. I took the car for some rides, much better! Still some noise from the passenger side if the wind is blowing from that direction but a vast improvement from the howling I had before. I'll test the weatherstrip seal when I get to the door project.

Yesterday I bowed to "industry recommendation" and replaced the two BFG Radial T/A tires on the rear of my Starfire. When I originally put the Chevy cop wheels on the car, these tires were mounted on them and looked to be in great shape, so I bought two new tires to match and bolted them up. I recently found out that these two tires were 10 years old or more and I also remembered I bought them at Sam's Club and was told by BFG that they were "Walmart Spec" tires, similar but not the same as "regular" BFG T/A's. I am driving this car more on the freeways now so even though they still looked great I succumbed to the scare articles and horror stories and replaced them. In partial kickback I wanted to reuse one of them as a spare to replace a very bald and crusty old cop tire, so I asked Discount Tire to include that in the work. I was very surprised and pissed when they told me they could not mount a tire more than 8 years old due to liability concerns! They did remove the old cop tire but I had to go to a local tire store to get the old BFG mounted. Has anyone else run into this?

Wow, Don -- that interior is looking great! You really did a fine job cleaning it up.

As for the issue of the shop not wanting to mount a tire more than 8 years old......I'm sure that is due to liability concerns, and are being directed by their legal department. I have not run into that, but still try to take my business to local tire shops; unfortunately, they are fewer and far between these days.

My wife and I recently sold our second daily driver car and tried living with one car. We are both retired so we thought it might work but it really didn't because we are both used to being able to jump in a car and go. I seriously considered turning my Starfire into a (semi) daily driver to the point of making a list of things needed and even considering a front disc brake conversion. In the end it all felt wrong and I just couldn't do it. I lucked out and found what I consider to be the perfect beater, a 1996 Chevy Caprice 9C1 LT1 ex-Santa Clara County, CA unmarked police car. Just out of service, under 95,000 miles and in great shape. I had a 95 9C1 many years ago and have a lot of experience with these plus I still have a set of Impala SS alloy wheels that will bolt right on... So my Starfire will remain safe in the garage and (mostly) stock.

Nice find, Don.

Ben

Very nice! Fun car to drive too.

More than a year since I posted here, I need to catch up. My latest project was the addition of a coolant recovery system. Now that the summer heat is back I'm using the A/C all the time. The car started puking coolant and I found out my old radiator cap was shot, see the picture. If you haven't checked your cap lately do it now, I should have done mine a long time ago! Along with the cap I decided to add the recovery system.

I chose to remove the old cracked windshield washer tank on the front of the core support and put the recovery tank there. I found a nicely sized universal tank at NAPA and also bought a new 16 lb. vented cap. I threw away the old flimsy overflow hose and replaced it with 3/8" fuel hose. I used a Greenlee knockout punch to make a hole under the tank inlet and routed the hose to that point. By the way, if you do not have a set of these punches get some, they make perfect holes in sheet metal and can be found cheaply on Ebay.

I connected the hose, added a piece of heater hose at the hole to protect it, and zip-tied everything in place. One of the tank brackets even lined up with the old washer tank mounting hole. I filled the radiator all the way to the top then added about an inch of coolant to the tank. I took it for a ride this morning with the A/C on and the coolant level went up about 1 1/2" then went back down as it cooled so it appears to be working. This location works for me since I don't use my windshield washers but a different tank location would be needed to retain them.