Bloo

Hudson Jet?

What is your gear ratio and tire size?

I hope so. I have never seen windshield washer fluid branded "windex", but it may exist.

Windex is Ammonia based.

Not long enough. I am not doubting the guy who had a metal one fall out, but I do think it is extremely rare. I have never seen that or heard of it. I *have* seen the rubber ones fall out...... I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. It might beat pulling the engine though.

Those brakes are manually adjusted. Adjustment directly affects pedal height. Check the reservoir and make sure you can see some fluid in there. Also, if the fluid is over 2 years old, I would go ahead and change it. It may need to be bled anyway because the pedal is low. To change fluid, suck the fluid out of the reservoir and replace with new, then just keep bleeding until the fluid comes out clean. Start at the brake furthest from the master cylinder and work your way closer. If the system has been converted to silicone then you probably don't need to change fluid. If the fluid is conventional or synthetic it needs to be changed periodically to avoid corrosion damage to the system. Leaks can occur that do not drip on the floor. A master cylinder can leak internally. The fluid goes back into the reservoir. A sinking pedal is the usual symptom. Also, any cylinder can leak a tiny amount. This usually causes the brakes to stop working right away, because if fluid can go out, air can come in, and it only takes the tiniest amount of air to disable the system. To check a wheel cylinder for leakage, with the drum off, peel back the dust boot on the cylinder. Don't take it clear off, just lift it a little bit at the bottom. do both dust boots. No fluid should drip out of there. If any fluid drips out, that cylinder needs to be rebuilt.

What exactly did that sticker on the master cylinder say? Traditional DOT3 and DOT4 are made from glycol, which is a synthetic product. In very recent times, the manufacturers have been labeling it synthetic. They did not do so in the past. This is causing massive confusion (in this thread too!) with DOT5 fluid, which is silicone. It is incredibly difficult to figure out for sure from manufacturers websites if the formula of DOT3 and DOT4 has changed, but it apparently has not. Just to create even more confusion, there is now DOT5.1 fluid, that is a glycol fluid like DOT3 and DOT4. It has anti-boil performance similar to DOT5 silicone, but is not chemically similar. Long ago, the British seals were rumored to be incompatible with DOT5 silicone fluid. This was probably true at the time. I doubt it is true now, but who knows how many old seals could still be in circulation. I wonder, like Bush Mechanic, if the two types of fluid got mixed. This is inadvisable, but wont really hurt anything in most cars. On the other hand, maybe the seals are old and incompatible with the silicone.

Frankly, it didn't sound like any of that to me, the noise didn't sound in sync with the engine. It is so hard to tell from a video. That said, if it IS a valvetrain problem, I am guessing that rocker bridge problem Joe mentioned is a lot more likely than a flat cam in that engine. A lot easier to fix. too..

If that is an exhaust lobe, you were very close to needing a tow truck. I doubt it happened slowly. When the lifter can no longer spin and is just dragging across the top of the lobe, things get bad in a hurry. The symptom of a flat exhaust lobe is a rhythmic snapping in the intake or carb. When it makes the final transition from "barely opening" to "not opening" the effect is pretty sudden and dramatic. It changes from a snapping noise to undriveable within a few feet. 70s Chevrolets were prone to flat lobes even before the oil formulations changed. Oldsmobile, not so much.

A 1936 Pontiac (USA) firewall looks like this:

I have never heard of one of these falling out from age or any thermal cycling that did not involve freezing. If you have sufficient antifreeze, its fine.

Could the fan blade be touching something? When a fan clutch fails, often it seizes. When it seizes, often the fan is no longer straight with regards to the water pump shaft. This opens up the possibility that the fan could touch something, like the balancer or another pulley or the shroud, depending on how close things are. Assuming it has a fan clutch, turn the fan and make sure that it will turn without turning the pulley. Also check the water pump for slop by rocking the fan front to rear.

Wow. That sounds like exactly none of the problems we have been discussing. Ive got nothing. It sounds external from the videos. It is probably time to find somewhere to get it up on a hoist and look around while it is making the noise.

The windscreen bothered me too. It would for sure have a vee windscreen if it were an American Pontiac with a Fisher body. I just looked at the Australian Pontiac in the PDF again, and there is a divider. The Olds has a divider too, but it doesn't look like much "vee". Maybe it is a vee windshield on the mystery car. It looks flat, but the angle is such that it would be hard to tell. I am not arguing for Pontiac over Olds, just pointing it out. The boot latches on that Australian Pontiac bother me. I have always wondered if they are original. Are latches of that sort used on Australian cars of the period? If it were a FIsher body, the ribs in the side of the body might give it away. I understand they are all just different enough that you can't interchange doors. Did the Australian coachbuilder (Holden?) make such a distinction? If not, it is going to be hard to nail down. The Australian 36 Olds and 36 Pontiac linked above both have front suicide doors. Fisher bodies had that in 35, but not 36.

I second this. To find out, open the hood and power brake it. Do this far away from anything in case your foot slips off the brake. Open the hood and have a friend watch from the side. Hold the brake pedal down hard, and slowly roll on a little throttle. Try this in both Drive (or low) and reverse. The engine will normally come up a bit under load, but what you are looking for is a sudden jump up as the engine tries to come up and bang the air cleaner on the hood. A sudden jump means a broken mount, and it is time to get the car on a hoist and confirm. And if it still has one of these it needs to be replaced right now. This is something that never should have happened in the first place. Oldsmobile and Cadillac are not the only guilty parties. Ford and Chrysler did it too. It is supposed to be quieter. As Joe mentioned, they are a guaranteed failure at about 80K miles. You will be walking home, or calling the tow truck. Nylon is fairly soft when new, but by the time it fails it is hard like little rocks. On Ford FE engines, you are playing with fire if one of these nylon sprockets fails, and you do not remove and clean out the oil pan and replace the oil pickup. One of those little nylon "rocks" will get in the oil pump and stop it, twisting off the oil pump drive and causing a catastrophic failure of the engine. I have never yet had to clean up a mess like that on an Olds 350, and I don't know if it is common, but I sure wouldn't risk it. Get that plastic sprocket out of there before it fails. Keep in mind that it has probably been dumping those little pieces of nylon in the oil for a while when the timing finally jumps and it leaves you stranded.

Just for fun, have a look at the Australian 1936 Pontiac on page 12 of this pdf. http://www.earlytimeschapter.org/1936_restoration_guidebook_updated_2017.pdf What on earth is that opening below the bootlid? Did they just separate the spare tire compartment completely?

I wonder how he thought people got around in 1956....

More info here:

BUIKC ??!

You know, its a funny thing. Today, every core seems to be bad, doesn't it? They have had more years to rot. Maybe they are all just bad. It could happen, right? On the other hand, maybe it is easier to sell a core than to fix one. It may be time for a second opinion.

Spokane? Salt? Probably now, but I would bet those cars were all in the junkyard before the salt arrived. In the 80s, it was comical how little Spokane did to the roads. Sand was the usual treatment for a slippery road in Washington. Not Spokane. A plow or sand truck was a rare sight in the city. The freezing fog would move in in the morning, and I would slide down the South Hill on the black ice. Maybe by the afternoon it would melt. By the way, those cars are not in Spokane, they are in Hayden, Idaho more or less. I saw that junkyard along Idaho 95 when driving north from Coeur d'Alene. IIRC it is actually north of Hayden, but before you get to Athol. Hayden is fairly close to Spokane and the climate is about the same, dry. They do get snow.

1912Staver: I think RiKi5156b's plate is a special case. It is a YOM plate, and in WA, if you register one of those it is limited use but does not expire. In the original post, the plate was stolen and someone used this historic 1955 plate in the same state (WA) where it had just been in use and registered with this special registration that does not expire every year. It started tripping toll cameras. It was also a bold thing to do, because that plate looks radically different than a current plate in WA, and any patrolman who saw it would know at a glance that it is NOT a valid registration on a 90s Range Rover. A 90s Range Rover does not qualify for any sort of YOM plate in WA, 30 years being the current limit. When it finally does qualify, It will qualify for a plate that is a different shape and color than a 1955 WA plate. WA has no sense of humor about false registrations, and if a trooper had seen this Range Rover on the road, I am fairly sure the driver would have gone directly to jail, never mind the toll cameras. I believe 99.9 percent of those plates at swap meets would be long expired.

As Durant Mike pointed out, you don't get the real estimate until they see it. That would involve shipping 2 ways. It is not only expensive, but risks losing or damaging irreplaceable parts, and just for an estimate. Last year I hauled a couple of bundles of chrome to shops for another restorer. The first bunch came back horrible looking, with scratches visible under the plating. A few pieces were already peeling. I hauled another similar pile to a different shop, and though he did not request pebble beach quality, what he got back did look that good. The difference between the two is astounding. Looking a the two piles unwrapped on the table, it looks like about the same square footage. The price was about the same, slightly more for the second shop, but really not enough to mention. Was it really about the same cost? I think so but I don't know, and there is no way to really compare, since they weren't the same parts, and also much of the labor is restoration of the parts. If you were restoring multiple copies of the same model car, you would have a better idea, but you still wouldn't really know, because the condition of the parts plays such a role. The condition wont be the same even if you send identical parts. Part of that first pile has already been redone. Likely more of it will need to be redone. Another thing to consider is that sometimes detail is lost during polishing. The plater has to get the pits out, Will he add a bunch of copper and sand that back down? Or, will he just sand to the bottom of the pits? Maybe he will do some combination of the two? If you lose detail on a casting you wont get it back in a redo. Find another restorer with parts you can hold in your hand that look terrific, and I don't mean the samples laying on the desk at the chrome shop. I mean something another restorer paid for. When you see something you like, use that shop. IMHO any potential savings from price shopping will get eaten up in shipping and the re-do at the shop you should have gone to in the first place. Good luck!

I don't think you are picking at straws. A good description would explain what the car is and what it isn't.

Not sure why paper would be better for a daily driver. They clog. Is it a major inconvenience where you are to rinse the element and/or dispose of 1/2 quart of old oil? If so then maybe paper. You can take it out and toss it. If you drive a lot it an oil bath will need rinsing out. If you don't change the oil, eventually water will collect under it and cause rust pinholes in the bottom. I am wondering what paper possibly could have won at compared to oil bath. Flow? Oil bath generally has some restriction because of the air reversion that makes them work. Usually in air cleaner tests oiled fibers (cotton? like k&n) win by a landslide.