32' Oldsmobile Deluxe Convertible Roadster

[Laughing Coyote]

Love the workmanship and attention to detail. Going to be a beautiful car when it's done.

[chistech]

Been doing some last minute work on the two door windows trying to get them to work a little easier. My frames are the aftermarket SS ones and they are a little thick so my neighbor sanded them down and polished them up. The drivers door works good but the passenger door was still tight. After a few hours of this and that (Cabriolet doors are a PITA), I finally figured out the issue. The wood in that door has a slight warp and it makes the center of the rubber channel bind the window. What’s crazy is the passenger door is all original and the drivers door is the one I scarfed in the lower end of the latch side and that door gives me no problem! I finally got it straightened out and the window is working great. Not loose, not tight. 

     I got the manifold back from the machine shop and installed it back on the motor. It was warped pretty bad and he had to take off almost 3/32” to get it true. No wonder the exhaust leaked when I started it up. Can’t figure how the hell I missed that one!

     Worked on the mid bow iron by installing a new blind nut where one was rusted out (they’re welded on) and the sand blasted all the nooks to get it ready to prime. I also got in a glass scratch removal kit I bought off eBay to try and remove all the scratches from my headlight lenses. 32’ Olds use a special lens and they are hard to find. When you do find nice ones, the price is usually in the hundreds. Both my lenses are scratched pretty badly but I have to say the kit works really well. Problem is the kit only has enough discs for about 1 1/2 lenses so I need to order more. It will end up costing about $50 to do both. Not bad and very decent results. It’s hard to see how bad it was scratched in the picture (I’m holding it up to the light coming in my door) but the result is easy to see in the other  two pictures. Took about two hours to do one lens letting my batteries for my drill charge. 

[chistech]

Got my chassis all set to test drive tonight. Bolted up a test body that I’ve been using on all the cars I work on. An old Chevy blazer seat finishes it of. Started the engine back up tonight, first time since the manifold was surfaced. It ran super nice and it’s ready to be test driven. The problem is starting tomorrow, New England is supposed to have heavy rain for the next few days but I’ll try and fit my little driveway gaunt in. Made up a new video of the car running but it’s too long to post here.

[chistech]

My good RC plane buddy came over Friday with his high coverage air brush and a mixture of gloss black epoxy enamel and harder. After wiping down my repaired steering wheel and horn button, he shot both with a few coats of the black. The paint used is the same paint we use on our nitromethane powered models and not only is it a hard wearing paint, but it’s resistant to most solvents making it the ideal paint for the steering wheel. I installed the wheel on my spare spider (the good one is at the paint shop), installed the chromed center cup, horn button contacts, and the horn button to test the assembly for full ground. All worked properly. One more step done. Wheel will now come off and be put away until final assembly.

[chistech]

Put a coat of varnish on my front roof bow today. I purchased this hard to make part from one of the better wood parts suppliers but even this bow, as good as it was, wasn’t completely correct. The ends had been milled to deep where the chrome corner brackets mount which means if left as is, the corner brackets would not have been even with the metal piece and gasket that runs the length of the bow. One end was worse than the other so I cut some ash pieces up and glued them in. Some hand chisel workand sanding finished the job. It will get a few more coats of varnish to seal it up and it will be ready for assembly when the time comes.

[chistech]

I can only enter a few pictures because m6 iPad takes them in too large of a format. Here’s the rest.

[chistech]

With the body, all the sheet metal, and all the wheels at the paint shop, the shop got a good cleaning. I needed to make up some side mount down rods because at one time mine were replaced with aluminum rods. Got some 1/2” steel rod and cut 1/2-20 threads on each end about 3” up. One end on each rod gets rounded so I turned them on the lathe. After, they both got sanded and then polished on the lathe before sending them out today for chrome.

      The 6 body mount bolts have heavy domed washers under them and most of mine were too rusted out to use so I purchased some ogee washers and turned them on the lathe to the correct shape. They don’t have the square holes that the originals do but with the carriage bolts in place, no one will be able to tell the difference.

      I also made up a couple gas pedal ball top standoff’s on the lathe. Most of the originals have rotted away but I was able to locate a decent original so I could copy it. A bunch more of small stuff done just waiting for final assembly to come. 

[chistech]

Some more pictures 

Edited May 31, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

*Finally!!!!!!!!! Worked on the wheels tonight at the paint shop. I had them all prepped as far as clean of all varnish on the metal and everything metal scotchbright padded. Of the six wheels, four are in as excellent condition as anyone could hope for 86 years old wheels with the hub and rim virtually pit free and smooth steel. Two others however have a fairly pitted surface requiring the surface to be glazed over and sanded then repeated a few times to get them right. It took 2 1/2 hrs to get the worst wheel done for priming! Moe started with the worst wheel first and will go over one of the best wheels tomorrow so he’ll be two wheels ahead of me. I’ll be masking them on Monday to get the ready to shoot the gray urethane primer. Once all six are primed they’ll all be wet sanded and prepped for final color painting. Between the stripping of the original finish, sand blasting of the metal, bleaching of the wood, varnishing of the wood, prepping of the metal, masking,  priming, wet sanding, final painting, and pin-striping, it would not surprise me if each wheel will have 40-60 hours of work into them! The amount of work is just incredible for a single wheel if you want to do them right. The two wheels requiring the most work will be my spares and the four that are like new will be my service wheels. While any pits and marks from damage have been filled, any factory seam and forming lines have been left. Leaving those original areas also makes for even more tedious finger sanding! You can see the electro-weld line across the rim at about 2:30 in the bottom picture. This weld is prominent in all six wheels and has to be visible in the finished wheel.

Edited June 16, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[13CADDY]

just got to add my 2 cents worth--isn't that dolphin glaze good stuff--I've great results with it--used it on my 13 caddy wheels,which I painted--car's looking good--Tom

[chistech]

My paint guy, Moses says it’s the most expensive but by far the best he’s ever used. He applied it with a rubber gloved finger and put on just barely enough to do the job. I told him to glaze another up and he just said “no”, you’ll remove too much material and I’ll just have to do it over again! He’s probably right and that’s why he’s my body and paint guy.

[13CADDY]

it sands so easy too--being someone who built totals for years that really didn't care what the final result looked like or how long it lasted--Tom

[chistech]

This glaze holds up great, especially when put on thin. Even though it sands easy, it doesn’t chip off easy at all. The problem is how people use it. They put it on thick and expect it to be like epoxy rather than using it as glaze is intended to be used.

[chistech]

Realized I posted this in a wrong forum so I’m posting it again in the correct area.

 

 

Got my newly aluminized headlight reflectors back from  Uvira yesterday. Today I assembled them back into the buckets. Bill at Uvira recommends running a ground directly to the bulb socket. Not sure if this is because of the new aluminum coating or the probability that many don’t have good grounds on their cars and then probably complain that their recoated reflectors aren’t that bright. Anyway, I soldered a wire directly to the bucket sockets and drilled and tapped the reflector sockets for attaching the wire terminal after the sockets and wiring is assembled into the buckets. I will run a ground wire inside the flexible conduit soldering one end to the inside of the twist lock plug and attaching the other end to the frame under the hood. 

    Installed new cork gaskets into the reflectors then installed the reflectors into bucket with the two perimeter screws. With the new reflectors and the nicely polished lenses, the headlights look crystal clear and brilliant.

[chistech]

Couple more pictures of the finished assembled headlights.

[keiser31]

VERY nice!

[MCHinson]

Just got through skimming through all of your posts in this discussion. Nice work. I guess I now have another one that I have to read daily. I will especially be looking forward to your post in about 3 or 4 days, but I won't spill the beans on why.    

[Gary W]

I did the same thing with my '37....  UVIRA coated reflectors and a dedicated ground wire to each socket.  They look fantastic when lit, and I kept the original 6V bulbs.  I did not use halogen bulbs.

 

Keep up the great work!  Always look forward to your posts!

 

[chistech]

As most in this hobby know, it’s more than less, we’re always waiting for something. Whether its the machine shop, the paint shop, the chrome plater, the interior manufacturer, wiring harness company, etc., we always are waiting for something for our cars and many times, the wait can be from weeks to months. 

     Just a couple weeks ago I was very surprised when my headlight reflectors came back in the mail after being away for just nine days total! Now that’s service and something I’m just not used to in this hobby. I also figured it couldn’t get any better than that. Well, I was wrong. One of the very first projects I tackled on my Olds was machining a new lock cylinder and dust cover for my golf bag door. The originals often deteriorate because they were made of white metal so I had to make my own. While my lock cylinder and dust cover looked very close to the original, it lacked the BASCO logo on the dust cover. I thought that possibly I could find someone, some day, that could engrave the logo on the cover for me. I also needed to get my new sill data plate numbers engraved because the font Oldsmobile used in 32’ doesn’t come close to any number stamp set I can find. I wanted both these items as OEM correct as possible.

     While reading other restoration threads here in this forum, I read a post from our own Matt Hinson in his Buick thread stating that he had been doing some engraving. DING, DING, immediately the bell went off and I PM’d Matt. After a couple emails, we agreed on attempting the project and I mailed the lock cylinder with the data plate to him this past Monday. The package arrived with Matt on Wednesday and later that day, I received an email with images of my FINISHED data plate and lock cylinder dust cover! Matt shipped them out on Thursday and they arrived today. So just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than Ulvira’s service, along comes Matt and blows it out of the water. I’m pretty sure things can’t get any better! 

Edited June 24, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[MCHinson]

Thanks for the kind words. I like to be able to help out other hobbyists and I enjoy a challenge.  As you know, after you sent me the photo of the BASCO logo, I created it from scratch on the computer using my engraving software to create the diamond shape. I then simply created 5 separate individual text sections which I could then manually enlarge as needed and place in the right location to create the correct effect, which while certainly not a perfect copy of the original, looks convincing in the small logo. 

 

For the data plate it was a bit more involved than a "regular" engraving job. Most of the text just required typing in the correct font. Unforunately none of the fonts that I use have quite the correct "I" for the "1" so I used a standard "I" and used software's shape creation capability and created the top and bottom lines manually. The "6" is probably the strangest element of the whole design. I used my software to create a vertical line and then used it to create a couple of arcs that I could position to form the bottom loop of the "6".  The line spacing was a bit odd, so I did each line individually and repositioned the data plate on the engraving machine and taped it down in the correct position to engrave each line separately. If anybody else needs a similar job I now have all of that information saved so I can more easily do another similar one in the future. While a bit time consuming, it was a fun deviation from my normal day to day engraving jobs.  Thanks again!

[John S.]

Love your work. Car is going to be a stunner!

[chistech]

Thanks John, I’m hoping it is after all this work! 

 

Starting to mask off the wheels for urethane priming. Those who’ve  done wood wheels can feel my pain. LOL I hope I never have to redo these wheels in my lifetime. Already fully masking the wheels so after priming and light wet sanding, they can be painted black without having to re-mask them. The aluminum sprocket template will be traced with an exacto knife and the tape removed so the sprocket pattern can be painted black along with the hub and rim. 3 down, three to go.

Edited June 27, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

uh-oh, don't cut the varnish with that knife! Extreme care required?

[chistech]

I’ve been building RC scale aircraft for 30+ years with painted finishes and insignias over .5oz glass cloth or fabric, open bay surfaces. Artists Frisket paper is used for the insignia paint pattern work and cutting the Frisket on top of that delicate surface with an exacto is how it’s done. Imagine the results of cutting too deep on that. Not my first rodeo on cutting masking patterns for sure.

Edited June 27, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

When I purchased my wiring harness I couldn’t buy from my normal supplier, Rhode Island Wiring, because they did not have a pattern harness for a 32’ Olds and mine was in too poor of a condition to be copied so I chose to purchase my harness from another very well known wiring company. I ordered the hidden, self canceling  directional switch so my harness would be slightly different from the OEM one. When I received my harness a quick look over showed me that it was very well made and of the correct type wiring but there was something that surprised me that was very incorrect. GM cars of the era used a metal twist bayonet type connector in places that they wanted the wires to easily come apart. On the Olds, the cowl harness could be detached from the frame using three of this connectors and removing the main power wire from the starter terminal, the wire at the generator cutout, and the wire to the stoplight switch. Removing the high and low beam wires at the dimmer switch would allow the body to removed frame the frame, splitting the harness leaving the chassi harness intact on the frame.

       On my new harness, in place of the bayonet connectors, modern bullet connectors are used on both wires with a Bakelite double female to plug them in to. My first thought was the bayonet connectors were no longer made but the last harness I received from RIW for a customer’s vehicle had them attached so I decided to call RIW as I needed to order another harness for another restoration. It turns out those connectors are still made so I ordered 8 of them to “fix” my $800+ harness. Because of the directional switch, I have a need for more connectors because there are more wires running to the rear and front fender lights. Looking at the remnants of my original harness I can see that the connectors are soldered on with the inside part of the connectors to the cowl harness to wires heading to the rear of the car. The one wire heading towards the front of the car is the horn power and it has the outside part of the connector on it. I will continue this pattern on all wires heading to rearand the front.

       The below picture shows the original harness alongside the new, the original bayonet connectors still on the wiring, the new bayonet connectors in the foreground, and the bullet connectors with the Bakelite double female connectors on the new harness. I will start  to solder the connectors on tomorrow. 

[chistech]

Went to Lebaron and Bonney/Hampton Coach last Thursday to pick up my interior kit. My roof isn't finished yet due to waiting on Haartz to have the material in stock. Nothing like the smell of new leather. I used to rodeo a fair amount and it brings back memories of putting a nice new saddle on my horse. The interior looks great and will just need need the normal trimming in areas like the corners and folds where too much material is bulked up. My passenger door has the ashtray and I had to request the panel be cut and stitched accordingly. If you look close, the stitching stops at the cutout area where on the non-ashtray panel, the stitching would continue up and across to meet at the corner. The door panels have the hidden nail strips already attached to make the panel installation much cleaner.  I will start upholstering the springs and front seat frame soon.

    Have the wheels just about ready for their final urethane priming. Worked with Moses to get them all skim coated where any pitting was and masked them all up. Should be getting primed later in the week.

[chistech]

A friend called me the other day and asked me to drop by his house, he had a surprise for me. Turns out he had a nice little 20’s golf bag with an iron, a driver, and a putter all from the same period. Should be a nice addition to the golf bag door area of the Olds when showing it.

[John S.]

Nice, nice, nice!!!!

[chistech]

Started doing some work on my seat frames today. My original springs were either bad or missing so I needed to order all four spring sets and decided or order at the same time all the wood frames. I could have made them but the cost worked out to being about the same. Well, while the cost was decent, the quality could have been much better and I know I would have made them much nicer than what I got. The rumble seat back rest frame was broken at the middle glue joint and most the mounting hardware, while close, was out of the proper positions. I ended up doing a lot of fixing to the frame to correct everything and the when I was done, I attached the seat back springs to the polyurethaned frame using screws at top and bottom with mechanics wire in the middle to get the right curve of the springs to the wood frame.

      The drivers seat cushion wood frame also had issues. My original frame was 20 1/8” and my new frame was 19 1/2” wide! The new frame also didn’t have the upholstery rabbet along the bottom edge. I ended up attaching a piece of ash along the back, leaving it thinner than the seat frame, matching the depth of the upholstery rabbet. I used my router and put the rabbet all the way around the bottom edge. I also altered just slightly from original and rabbeted in the two cushion frame  stops then riveted them to the frame. Those two stops were originally mounted proud of the frame which caused them to wear heavily into the main seat frame wood. Again, the whole frame got a coat of polyurethane. Once the poly dried, I attached the cushion spring to the wood frame. Because these are new made springs, some have a aluminum flange frame so I simply drilled holes in the flange and screwed the spring to the wood frame rather than use loops of fabric around the spring then stapled or tacked to the wood as originally done. I checked alignment and all looks correct even though a little strange as the Cabriolet front seat cushion is shaped a little different than it appears it should be. The front corners of the spring seems to not come out to the shape of the wood frame as much as it should but this is how the original cushion also was. Will start upholstering the main seat frame and springs soon.

[chistech]

Front cushion spring set mounted to wood frame.

[chistech]

Springs set in main seat frame and checked for look. 

[chistech]

Rumble seat backrest springs attached to wood frame ready to cover.

[chistech]

Got a call today from my friend restoring a 32’ Olds rumble seat coupe. He told me his rear rumble seat interior panels didn’t fit correctly (his panels are duplicates of mine) and thought I should check my new panels that I just got from Lebaron Bonney/Hampton Coach. His interior was purchased a few years back and because LB/HC doesn’t offer a coupe interior for a 32’, he purchased one for a 31’. The general belief among Olds owners and restorers is that the 31-32’ RS coupes are the same and that the rumble area along with the golf bag door are also also the same as the convertible roadster. It is for this reason he recommended I check my panels for fit. Another consensus among the Olds guys is the 31-32 Chevy Cabriolets are the basically the same using the same interiors but with the addition of the golf bag door panels.  Today I took my new interior panels to the body shop to check the fit in the body. Well my panels all appeared to fit very well with only one panel needed a tad of custom fitting when the time comes. Even my parcel tray liner fit perfectly which was a relief as my whole tray with supports were completely missing and I had to make it up by using old photos and measurements.

    So based on how my panels fit, we learned that the coupes are not the same as the convertible roadster and the 31’ Olds coupe is different than the 32’. The LB/HC olds convertible roadster interior kit is exactly the same (other than the golf bag door) as the 31-32 Chevy Cabriolet kit so that information appears 100% correct. This Olds roadster has been a practice in old car forensics.

[chistech]

Few more pictures 

[chistech]

Worked on the front seat today. Covered the springs with burlap then put them aside. Padded the ends of the seat frame with foam then applied and stapled on the two vinyl end covers. Got the front valance glued and stapled on. When I put on my burlap I’m particular how it lays because it helps support the side padding so I hog ring, staple, and sew the corners so there’s no baggy areas. The vinyl end covers need a little care when installing to make sure the sewn seam lays flat along the edge of the frame and doesn’t get twisted. I also trim some of the material at the corners so it will lay flatter with less material to bulk up on the inside of the curves. The seam should lay to the inside on each side as it allows for a flatter edge to be had. 

   Tomorrow I’ll start covering the springs. Went to the paint shop to tape up the last two wheels as Moses finished glazing them all up. I mounted them on the wood hubs I made up for the paint rack. Moe is going to try and get them primed up tomorrow. Coming along a little bit at a time.

[chistech]

Some more pics. So far, this Hampton Coach kit has been right on and fitting very well. Love the saddle brown and the seat leather is super nice.

[chistech]

Covered the seat back tonight. Marked my centers and padded the springs. Layed the seat cover over the spring and started worked the sides up to hog ringthem to the springs. The spring sets are aftermarket and the top is a little flat rather than arched like it should be so some extra padding was required in the mid section, feathering it towards each side. While the roadster/Cabriolet seats were not originally overstuffed like the closed models were, it was evident that more padding was going to be required on the sides, so I added some additional material. The bottom linen listing was not finished or hemmed so I marked a line at 6” from the leather then sprayed some adhesive just inside the line and folded the linen at the line. This gave me a nice straight doubled edge to tack through. Worked from the middle out and tacked it about every 2 1/2” with #6 tacks. It’s much easier to tack than staple in the area due to the angles. Pulled the seat cover up, over the upper frame back board, centered the seam on the mark, and staples it down. Then pulled up each side seam even with the side of the seat,, and stapled the seam tail to the seat back. Working from the middle of each side, the cover was pulled back to get an even shape to the top line then stapled to the back of he seat frame. Once it was all temporary stapled it place, I checked it all over for proper shape and fullness in all areas. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy with it the first time, nor the second, third, or forth. I pulled the cover off four times and put it on five, with the fifth being the charm. When doing these seats, one must have a staple puller handy and expect the experience to be somewhat trial and error if you really want your seats to look correct. Once it all got stapled up, I installed  upholstered board on the back of the seat frame finishing it all off. There is a wire-on edge to be nailed to the whole edge of the seat frame from one side, across the top, and down the other to the bottom. I haven’t nailed it on yet as there is a “bellows” of fabric that goes from the top front edge of the parcel tray to the top edge of the seat frame. The-seat frame gets moved all the way forward on the seat adjuster then the bellows material gets pulled tight from the tray to the seat back, then stapled to the seat back. The wire-on will then get tacked on to cover the cut edge and staples of the bellows material. I will be covering the seat cushion tomorrow and I expect the process to go much easier. The seat back in the seat frame is the hardest part of all the seats, that’s why I try to get it done first. 

[chistech]

Few more pics. Using a 2x8 on a blanket with a spare flywheel and pressure plate on top for weight, helps compress the springs so the bottom listing could be easily tacked in. The bottom picture shows the drivers side before the fifth and last time the seat cover was put on.you can clearly see some baggy ares and some looseness of the cover. Definitely not correct so off it came and additional padding was added.

Edited August 1, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Finished the front seat cushion today. The leather that Hampton Coach used is really nice. What I commonly see with the Cabriolet seat cushions that have been reupholstered is that the front corners are often scalloped in because the corners are not padded enough on the sides. The problem is compounded by the top of the seat spring front on the sides is narrower than the base is, so the corners want to cave in some. I applied the burlap as I always do and stitch the corners so the burlap is tight. Hampton Coach supplies a jute type padding to go over the burlap then a white cotton type padding goes over that. The jute overhangs the sides and front so I trimmed the side jute to-end just above the seat frame wood. At the corner, I cut in with my shears straight in on the jute that’s overhanging the front even where the spring starts to curve back to each side. This allows me to bring both sides, after the jute is folded down the side, around the corners to the front and onto the piece of jute folded down along the straight edge of the seat front. Using strong button thread, I sew the the edge of the jute to the burlap right around the corner to the front to hold It down. This gives a pocket between the jute and the burlap in which I carefully stuff with some pieces of cotton wadding. When I’m happy with the firmness of the jute all around the corner, I sew the vertical edge of the jute from the side to the face of the jute folded over the front. This done on both sides to add firmness to the corners, a proper shape to the corners, and to prevent the sides of the seat cover from caving in or scalloping. I then added some pieces of 1/8” foam over the front edge between the front corners feathering the layers from the middle of the seat forward to prevent bulk buildup. Because the jute gets doubled up in the front corners by folding the sides around over the front jute, the foam is added to keep a straight line to the front edge. All this extra padding work yielded a nicely shaped lower cushion. I finished and trimmed all the seat fabric even with the rabbet then stapled on a paper board staple strip to make a nice neat installation.

     The seat and frame is mostly done other than tidying up the back edge and putting the wire-on all along the seat frame edge. I will give the seat back some time to relax and if needed, I can remove the staples along the back seat frame and reposition the material. This is the reason I haven’t trimmed it yet. The wire-on doesn’t go on until the seat frame is put in the car and the close out material from the front of the parcel tray is tacked to the top edge of the seat frame. The wire on then covers the tacks in the material along the frame back.

[keiser31]

BEAUTIFUL!