rocketraider

I agree with the dealer. Couldn't have been many 5-speeds built, and the International is high-line enough that it will someday be collectible. My advice is if you plan to do any restoration, start getting parts now before GM discontinues them.

Sky, there are two different GM-built 307 cid engines- a Chevrolet version built from 1968 to around 1974-5, and an Olds version built from 1981-90. These engines are very different and components do not interchange.

Those used to be pretty common. Try J.C.Whitney, or a dealer may even have some old stock left.

Dave, contact Chip Woyner at Power Steering Services Inc, www.powersteering.com . You might also try Lares Manufacturing as they are a high-volume rebuilder of steering components.

I'd like to have one here at the house too, but setbacks get me anywhere I could try to put it on this narrow city lot. The concrete driveway/patio beside the house needs some work, but it is riding right on the property line and if I bust it up to repour, then it is no longer grandfathered (1959) and the damn setbacks get me again <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. So I watch the cracks grow and dab some more sealer in them... I'd have had to jump thru hoops even to put up a metal carport on the existing driveway. Zoning is not always a good thing...

As late as 1974 Oldsmobile still listed "Control Pkg., Dual Hydraulic Brake" for 1962-66 Oldsmobiles (except 1962 Starfires for whatever unknown reason) in the parts books. Grp 4.650, pn 381466. List price was $72.25. It included a dual master cylinder, metering block and brake line tubing to install it on cars originally equipped with single braking. Based on that kit's availability, I have never deducted points for a dual master cylinder setup on cars not originally equipped with it in OCA National Judging. AACA would do well to heed it on pre-1967 cars also.

Power relay and dimmer switch, and all associated wiring from the eye to those components. It has to be levelled and aimed properly too. Shame you're on the other side of the country. I have a Guidematic/Autronic Eye tester that's set up for the small photocell head.

A contact on an Olds board put it this way about life in Southern California. "If we ain't shakin' we're burnin'." The fire was only a couple miles from his home this morning. Don't know if he's had to leave yet, it was going away from him, but the Santa Ana winds can change everything. As good as life is, I sometimes wonder if there's anywhere on Earth to live without Nature trying to destroy what you've worked for. Here we have to deal with hurricanes and ice storms, but those don't compare to fire. Fire takes everything. Keep the folks in Cali in your thoughts and prayers. They need them.

PM me with a mailing address and I'll Xerox the shop manual stuff for you.

Randall, see if your local community college has an auto-tech program and if they do any evening or summer session classes. The one here does and I take advantage of it for all my airconditioning and suspension work. At about $150 for ten work sessions, it's cheap enough considering I have access to all their equipement.

Was it JJBest? If you have a good track record with your bank, they'll usually finance yer collector purchases. Maybe mine's different since it's locally owned and not part of a mega-bank, where somebody 500 miles away says yea or nay on loans.

There is an extra link that fits between the vacuum cylinder and the lock cylinder. Make sure it's installed right, it may be binding. You can try some WD40 or graphite in the lock cylinder too. It's supposed to work without the key.

Don't feel quite so bad- I'm paying $90 a month for 10x30 unheated in a self-storage facility with 24 hr access. Rentable garage space is at a premium here because people didn't build them due to the reasonably mild climate. Some older neighborhoods have small ones, but they're no longer good neighborhoods and not the kind of areas you'd want to be in at night. The other alternative is warehouses, but there's no after hours access if you need it. I also don't like the idea of anyone in the warehouse being able to look at my stuff or mess with it. A few years back I had the basement of a restaurant rented for $175/month, lights, water, space for 3 cars and parts, and it stayed pretty much room temp all year from the restaurant's HVAC. It was excellent storage... until the night I got the 1 AM phone call saying the restaurant was on fire. When I got there, the roof was falling in. I lucked up and only had some minor water/soot damage that the detail shop cleaned off. The building was originally a motorcycle dealership with the shop in the basement. It had 12" I-beams supporting the upstairs, and asbestos tile floor under the restaurant's carpeting. I think that combination is what saved my stuff, because everything in the restaurant was vaporised. The fire marshal said they couldn't even determine exactly where it started. I aged 5 years that night.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Edited for Wayne...</span> An otolaryngologist here (ear, nose and throat doctor) has "BGR PKR" on a big Mercedes. <span style="font-weight: bold">Booger Picker</span> Kid down the street has a VW Beetle cabrio with "SPDR FUD". <span style="font-weight: bold">Spider Food</span> Pontiac bud has a lot of fun with Tin Indian themed plates-"NDNUPRZG" <span style="font-weight: bold">"Indian Uprising"</span> on a TransAM, "WARWHOOP" on a tri-power Grand Prix and "HEAP BIG" on a Bonneville. His wife's Aurora has "NTRNLGTS" <span style="font-weight: bold">"Northern Lights" (Aurora Borealis)</span> since somebody already had "BOREALIS". The Hurst/Olds wears "58THNDY" <span style="font-weight: bold">"58th Indy (500) <span style="font-weight: bold">"</span> </span> as it was a 1974 Indy 500 festival car, and I had "I8JAPAN" <span style="font-weight: bold">"I ate Japan"</span> on the Godzilla-sized 76 Ninety-Eight for several years. Wagon has "TBCORD" (Tobacco Road) on a Tobacco Heritage plate. The Bravada has... what else? "RKTRDR"! <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <span style="font-weight: bold">"Rocketraider"!</span> And as bad as I hate to admit it, these ricer kids have some good ones. "FLUBYU", "WDETR" <span style="font-weight: bold">("Flew by you' and "Weedeater")</span> and "ZIPBANG" are all here, and one has an egg-yolk yellow Mazda with "CORNPOP".

If Buick did it like Olds/Pontiac, the trunk liner on the higher-line cars was color-coordinated to either exterior or interior color. I've seen Ninety-Eight and Starfire with black, red, turquoise and blue trunk lining, and Pontiac Ventura/GP/Bonneville with blue, black and red. Olds liked felt floors and solid-colored cardboard sides; Pontiacs had a tweed-looking pattern for the floor vinyl and side cardboards. Lower-line cars (Dynamic 88, Catalina) used the tan tweed liner on floors only, with no side trim. Based on Jerry's description, I'm fairly sure it was the original stuff. I believe the cardboard came gray or neutral and was painted to match the trunk lining.

A nicely matted certificate like you describe would be really nice, but framing isn't cheap. For the 1995 Olds Club National Meet, we used marbleized wooden plaques (yah they were chipboard underneath, but they looked really nice) with different color and size for each award. 3rd place was 8x10 dark green, 2nd was 9x12 dark green, 1st was 9x12 red, best of class was 10x14 black, and the special awards were 10x14 pink granite texture. Black brass engraved plaques and OCA logo on all. They were only slightly more expensive than plastic trophies and looked much nicer. These went over really well and several mentioned it was the only car show award they had ever put in the house- face it, trophies take up too damn much room and are often relegated to the garage or attic. Other Olds Nats have used laser-engraved wood or plastic. Our local chapter had a bunch of Lucite paperweights engraved with our chapter logo made for use as local show awards, and we use a small metal adhesive tab to designate place or specialty award. The local Mustang club awards clocks mounted in a nice wooden plaque. I agree, quality of affordable trophies looks cheap. I'd much rather have a plaque or paperweight that looks classy than a cheap plastic trophy.

The manuals are often on ebay, and most lit vendors have them. One of my favorites is Paul Politis of Ft. Littleton PA, 1-800-526-7099. Another good one is Dans Auto Literature in NJ, dansautolit@aol.com . Both reasonably priced and good quality books. If you need it now, pm me with mailing address and I'll xerox you the dash removal stuff and wiring diagram from the 72 manual. Offhand I'd lay money on the printed circuit being the culprit.

1974 parts book lists 230493 as 1968 front, LH, 35, 36, 44 series 2 doors and 1969 front, LH, 35, 36, 44 series all which are Cutlass and 442. 230510 is 1968-69 rear, RH, 35, 36, 44 series all. Don't know what the difference in 1968 2-door/4-door is. The fenders are supposedly the same.

Your best bet is a locally owned exhaust shop that does good custom work. The money will be about the same. On a small-block Olds, the manifolds are the same for dual or single exhaust. The factory did duals by eliminating the crossover pipe and using a block-off plate on the RH manifold crossover port. Then the LH pipe connects to the LH manifold. The RH exhaust is the same setup for single or dual exhaust. The block-off plate has been obsolete for years, but a good exhaust man can make one that looks and functions right. Just make sure he doesn't cut the crossover pipe long and crimp and weld the open end. That looks like hell, and will eventually rust out due to condensation collecting in the bottom of it.

The doors may interchange, but the 68 front end is quite different. Henry, do you know more about this, since it's in your years? You talking about the round switch, four wires, in the throttle linkage? That serves two purposes- 1)it's the transmission kickdown switch, and 2) it operates the switch-pitch torque converter. If you eliminate it or jumper it, the transmission won't perform properly.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">My dad has a '48 Frazer Sedan that's restored. The current "project" is a '50 Kaiser Vagabond (the original hatchback for those who may not know). We have 2 more of these cars sitting in the shed. I have never been around a "normal" old car.</div></div> <span style="font-style: italic">Collectible Automobile</span> December 2003 issue has a neat spread on the Kaiser Traveler and Vagabond. Neat cars, ahead of their time. A local junkyard had a couple of them about 15 years ago, but they're gone now. The Kaiser Frazer Club is usually next to Oldsmobiles at Charlotte AutoFair, and I drool a lot over a Dragon that always shows up. If K-F had had an OHV V8 for the Manhattan and Dragon, I think they could have decimated Lincoln and put a dent in Cadillac sales. Those cars are REALLY nice, but a flathead six, no matter how capable, simply wasn't gonna sell hot in the early 1950s. Not with Rockets and Hemis on the streets.

Even when a forum administrator starts the thread? <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

You're the 2nd first series Toro owner who has had this problem recently. Since you've got juice at the sockets, the only thing I can come up with is bad bulbs or wrong bulbs. 1157 (double filament/double contact bulbs) should work fine. You may be losing ground at the sockets. Those no-good GM taillight sockets from the 60s were notorious for doing stuff like this, though it's been a while since I heard of all going out at once. They can drive you nuts sometimes. If all else fails, get later-style replacement sockets that have a ground wire in addition to the stop and taillight leads. Install them, put a ring terminal on the ground lead and then screw it to the car body. That should eliminate any grounding issues. Good luck!

www.442.com and go to the FAQ and tech pages. The 394548 sounds like a 455 head casting #. BTW, 394 and 455 are two very different engines. About the only thing they have in common are timing chains and oil pumps, and then only certain years.

Cincinnati was bit of a fluke Toro-wise. There's usually 15-20 66 on display at a National Meet, with 67-70 being the rarities. Usually a bunch of 2nd series too. I don't know why they didn't come out this year. I know I left mine home because (1) A/C is dead and (2) I'd have gone over my insurance mileage limit had I taken it. Mark, I take mine out for the same reason. It blows people slap out of the water when they see the big-block FWD setup. It's won a wall full of trophies but most mean nothing to me- the National wins, a couple of Olds show Long Distance awards, a ten-year attendance award at a local show that benefits a foundation in memory of my nephew who died at 19- those are special. The rest, I could not care less about. They're dustcatchers, and I ought to donate them to Special Olympics or something else worthwhile. I used to judge some local shows and a guy with a fairly ordinary 67 Chevelle always showed up with a back seat and trunk full of trophies which he displayed in front of the car. You couldn't even see the car for them. He was a real trophy hound and would get visibly upset at anything less than a first place. I pissed him off badly several years ago when I told him I was there to judge a car, not a trophy display, and he needed to move them out of the way if he wanted me to judge the car. But do you know the last two years, the car always shows up sans trophies? I think one reason Toro don't come out is because they've gotten fairly difficult to find parts for and the owners don't want to risk getting smacked. It's not like they're not roadworthy in modern traffic. As long as there's a young guy who appreciates them, though, they'll still show up. I was 30 when I bought my 69, and have had it 17 years. Four as a daily driver and then it's been cosmetically restored twice. Needs it again, but there's a 1974 Pace Car that has to be finished first.