rocketraider

Try Joe Ledford in Wendell NC. He's done several sets for me including a very rare Virginia Civil War Centennial plate. E-mail me privately and I'll give you his info as I don't like publishing someone's address or phone in a public forum.

I believe they could be ordered on any 2-door Regal. Around 1976, there was a special S/R package that included the Hurst/Hatch roof, console, heavy duty suspension, road wheels and white letter tires. Anyone else remember those?

All non-computer HEI exc 77-78 Toronado are compatible with 1964-90 Olds V8s. An HEI from a mid 70s 350 or 403 will work well in your 330 as they have a moderate advance curve. Factory 455 units have a rather lazy advance curve and 260s have too much for a street driven hi-compression 330, which is what you have. It's a simple install and sounds like you have enough mechanical background to drop it in and fire it up. Use a switched constant 12v power source- do NOT use the factory points distributor power wire as it is a resistance wire that drops voltage to 7-9 V at the coil + and an HEI will not function right. There should be a spare IGN terminal on the fuse block. Junkyard unit or parts store rebuilt is your choice. Another option is a Mallory Unilite conversion or a Pertronix Ignitor. I've got both and like both. The Pertronix can be a little slow starting sometimes- you can't just hop in and turn the key. I turn the switch on, count 5, and then it starts right up. Something about having to charge up the module, Pertronix addresses it in the installation instructions. A 200-4R will bolt right up to the 330 but may be a bit longer than the Jetaway, and the yoke splines are different- no problem for a good driveshaft shop. I doubt it would work with the switch-pitch converter. With the deeper 1st gear and OD, you probably wouldn't miss it. Get the TV cable and carb bracket from any 307 OD junker. A 200 OD will live for a while behind a 330. Best cores are from 85-87 442, GN and Monte Carlo SS. A buddy has one behind a 389/TriPower in a 64 GP and it works good. Oldsmobiles like Performer and Torker intakes and head work. Higher ratio rocker arms wake them up. They respond to headers but they're a lot of aggravation to install and keep sealed (not as bad as certain Mopars though). They don't like too much carburetion and run better slightly lean- an 850 is the upper end for a street 455. Split profile cams work well, with more exhaust duration.

May I assume that "kammbackspirit" refers to a Spirit of America Vega wagon? Cool piece if it does. E-bay is a good place to look for the service manuals. There are 3 1979 Olds Chassis Service Manuals and 2 1979 Fisher Body manuals on it this morning. Search "1979 Olds*", "79 Olds*" and "Fisher Body". Also found a 79 factory color chip brochure. There are plenty of literature vendors around who will also have these books. I'd pay about $40 tops for one in extra nice condition. Other factory issue sales and service lit are: the 901 New Product Information Manual that came out every year before the new cars were introduced; the Service Guild and Technical Bulletin binder (which are getting expensive- low-supply and high-demand item); the Color & Fabric and Product Selling Info binders (some years combined as simply "Sales Handbook") which have paint chips and fabric samples, and tech specs; and the showroom sales catalogs- Prestige, full-line, accessories, trailer packages- a few years there was even a flyer aimed at Realtors. We traveled thru Cape May on our way to the 2000 OCA National Meet in Parsippany. Came across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, up the Eastern Shore, rode the Lewes-Cape May ferry and all- thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It kept us off the Interstate and we got to see some country.

Happy "Holidays" to our Buick brethren from their Oldsmobile friends! (Somehow, "Happy Rivieras" just didn't work here ) May you all receive something for your old iron and remember why we celebrate these holidays.

Happy "Holidays" to everyone on the DF! Sorry, sometimes we Oldsmobile types can't resist this pun . May you all receive something for your aged iron, and may we all remember the reasons for the holiday season. It's not all about "gimme".

There's other sites that attract different types of Olds enthusiasts too, so we're out there, we're just scattered all over the Web. Like most DFs this one has its regulars and share of unregistereds. I'll take some of the blame for not getting word out about the site, but when the Olds Club website has a link to it and people still don't take advantage of it, well... all you can do is all you can do. I don't think the decision to do away with the marque has affected too many of the collector Olds crowd. Where they were hurting was new car sales. I never saw why GM got so damn bent out of shape about that either as Olds was performing along its traditional lines of building 400,000 cars a year. What did 'em in was those few years when they sold a million or more, and raised their own bar. Then GM expected that kind of sales peformance even when Corporate was literally giving them junk to sell- junk that didn't fit in the traditional Oldsmobile sales lineup. Junk like the J-car Omega. Junk like the underpowered early-80s full-size cars powered by corporate V6s. Junk that Corporate was bound and determined to amortize the cost of by spreading it from Chevy to Cadillac (very nearly destroying Caddy, and then in the late 80s money that should have gone to B-O-P went to Cadillac in a last ditch effort to save it). And junk like Saturn Division that after 14 years still has not made a profit, while Olds, which was making <span style="font-style: italic">some</span> money, got axed. I honestly think the bloodletting isn't over yet. I expect Buick or Pontiac to get the same thing in a few years, and for General Motors North America to eventually be Chevrolet, Cadillac and GM truck. Hey, you asked.

I'll assume that the Electra was equipped similarly to a Ninety Eight. If so, the convertible had 2-way (fore-and-aft adjustment only) power bench seat as standard equipment. The no-cost power bucket seat option would also have been 2-way. Optional equipment would have been either 4-way or 6-way power bench seat or 4-way power bucket. The Strato-Bench seat was first available in 1966 on the higher-line junior GM cars- Caprice, Bonneville Brougham/Grand Prix, Toronado/Starfire/98, Electra/Riviera/Wildcat. Cadillac did not use it to my knowledge and it is not mentioned for Cadillac in the 66 Fisher Body manual. To convert a 2-way seat or non-power seat to 4 or 6-way you will need the seat motor, transmission, drive cables and tracks from a 4 or 6-way seat. Since Electra and Ninety Eight usually had the power seat controls on the armrest, you will also need the switch and associated wiring.

Wishing all of you on the DF a Rocketing good holiday and a prosperous New Year!

1964 full size Olds deluxe wheel. Somebody had an NOS red one on ebay awhile back. Nice piece and should make an interesting piece in your rod. I'm tired of billet and LeCarra wheels. Everybody uses those. This shows imagination and originality, which definitely increase the cool factor by several hundred percent !

I'm beginning to think current gasoline formulations are causing this problem because I hear a lot of people complaining about it. Every so often my Toronado and Regency will pull this flaky stunt and the needle will disappear completely into the dash for several minutes before reappearing. Check the ground wire connection at the gas tank to make sure it's clean and tight, and all associated wiring for breaks or grounds. If the gage and wiring test good, it has to be the fuel tank sending unit. Good news is that they can be rebuilt and several companies offer this service.

Welcome aboard. I know of a couple guys who have made bitchin street machines out of late 70s 88s. One of them will possibly be at the 2003 Nationals in Cincinnati this July. We'll help as we can here.

Other than being a little expensive, Kanter is a very reputable supplier to the old car hobby. I recommend taking the engine apart and checking all tolerances before ordering the engine kit. That way you're sure to get the correct parts for a quality rebuild. The engines were painted on the engine assembly line with everything installed except the chrome valve covers and the accesssory brackets. The correct color red paint is available from Fusick Automotive www.fusick.com and they are one of the oldest and best known Oldsmobile parts suppliers. If you have painted valve covers instead of chrome those and the aircleaner are painted silver. You can find rebuilt rocker arm shafts. I think Kanter has them. Good luck with your engine, Pertti! *** Just thought of something- if this is an original export market car, it probably has a low-compression (9.0:1 compression ratio) engine which would be painted light green. What color is the engine now?

Very "timely" post anonymous! The 1975 dash speakers are 3-1/2 round. www.crutchfield.com will show you a nice assortment of quality replacements. Be careful prying the grilles up. Those dash covers are bad for cracking. Two ribbed studs hold them in and the speakers can be removed from the top. Simply pull them and the wiring up thru the opening and unplug them from the radio harness, then solder the wires from the old speakers to the new ones. Reconnect to the radio wiring, screw them down, replace the grilles and let it rock. If you have a Tempmatic car you'll need to work with the aspirator tube that is attached to the RH speaker grille. It can be a little tricky to get back in just right, but nothing impossible.

Can't blame you. My hobby cars will probably remain GM though there's a few 60s Ford/Chrysler that interest me, but a new car would be a Chrysler or Ford. Don't have much confidence in General Motors management. They've got their heads so far up their arses they'll never see daylight again.

Sometimes a 455 crank is drilled for a pilot bearing, sometimes not. If yours isn't, you'll need a competent machinist. Emphasis competent.

I don't care whether hotrods are allowed on an AACA showfield. I like them. But you still have that 25 year cutoff in the class wording, and that opens up a can of worms. That says a car constructed in 1977 is now eligible for this class, which defeats your own definition of an historic hotrod. Change the eligibility cutoff to 1965 or even 1970 and I think all the controversy will go away. Until such time as you've taken steps to eliminate any possibility of a modern constructed car being in Class 37, you're going to hear negative feedback.

Hopefully I can make this make sense. First, is the car's Transmission Controlled Spark system still intact? The TCS is tied into the thermo switch, and unless you're going for 100% concours resto or it's required to pass emissions visual inspection, I'd ditch the TCS. <span style="font-weight: bold">PART 1</span> On the ported vacuum switch itself: Bottom port goes to an intake manifold vacuum source, usually a tee in the trans modulator vacuum line on AT cars or an intake vacuum port on SMT cars. Middle port goes to the TCS solenoid on the intake. Top port goes to the distributor vacuum advance. The ported vacuum switch switches distributor vacuum between ported vacuum and manifold vacuum if the coolant temp gets up to about 220 degrees. Switching the vacuum source to manifold vacuum advances timing at idle to help cool the engine. <span style="font-weight: bold">PART 2</span> If you still have the TCS solenoid: The vacuum port on the end with the wiring plug connects to a ported vacuum nipple on the carb (above throttle plates). On the end with the right angle vacuum nipple, the port in line with the TCS solenoid body connects to a vent nipple at the top rear of the carb (there should be two nipples on a 1970 carb- one for TCS vent and one for choke clean air source). The port at right angles to the TCS solenoid body connects to the middle (TCS) port on the ported vacuum switch. The TCS solenoid delays vacuum advance to the distributor until the transmission is in high gear. Look for a round metal thing at RF of intake with wires and vacuum hoses going to it. It's notorious for failure and if it fails, you will never get any distributor vacuum advance. Meaning- rotten performance and gas mileage, and probable overheating. Meaning- your car's gonna idle funny when the PVS switches between ported and manifold vacuum trying to cool the engine. <span style="font-weight: bold">PART 3</span> If you elect to disable the TCS, simply connect the middle port of the ported vac switch to a ported vacuum source. The PVS will then function as described in Part 1.

Hardtop doesn't have metal frames around the door windows and when the side windows are down there is a continuous opening from windshield to the roof sail panels. Post car has frames, and also a B-pillar that goes between the front and rear doors.

Howard, it hasn't been that long, it's just that the record companies don't support vinyl, and now, cassettes. There's little if any market for a turntable and the things are rather expensive now when you find one. Professional club DJs still use them. The Technics SL-QD22 that I paid $180 for new in 1987 now sells for nearly $600. About the only electronic gadget I've found that the price went up instead of down. And modern stereo receivers no longer have phono inputs. You can plug the television into it, but you can't connect a turntable without an adapter. A Pontiac buddy also has this old-sound-equipment-itis and bought a Revox reel-to-reel on ebay about a year ago. We went in Radio Shack to get blank tape for it and the kid looked at us as if we had just arrived from Mars. The store manager finally found some in the back and Tim bought every reel he had. I've gotten to where when I go in and ask for something like that and they duh around and finally say "we don't have that" or "I don't know what that is", I say "Why not?". It's fun to watch 'em try to come back on that one.

1974 parts book says: Gr. 12.944 Panel, wheelhouse outer- 1973-74 all AF, AG, AJ 29-57 9830492 RH, 9830493 LH. This means it fits all 1973-74 Cutlass body styles. I would guess it works on 1975s, the wheel openings changed in 1976-77. Possible that a Chevelle/Lemans/Century will fit, but not guaranteed. Inner wheelhouse are more complicated as there's different p/n for Cutlass coupes and sedans, and Supreme coupes and sedans. I have those numbers if you need them.

Can't find the body width, but the wheelbase was 112", overall length was 207", front tread was 61.4", rear tread was 60.7", and curb weight was 3920 lbs. From the <span style="font-style: italic">Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile 1897-1997</span> .

Front or rear? The front is common to all 1974 88 and 98 if that makes the search easier.

Far as I know, nobody's making seat kits for these cars. Strictly a cut and sew job. SMS Auto Fabrics out in Oregon is good for the material, though it's common enough that most trim shops stock it- black and white anyway. I'd be skittish of seatcovers that attach to the frame with Velcro. I can about guarantee they'll pull loose. The cardboard for door panels is also a trim shop item. It's used for door panels, kick panels and package shelf. Describe these door panels again? Factory stuff was a plastic lower panel where the armrest and window controls attached, and a cardboard upper section with metal top edge, covered in vinyl to match the seat upholstery. Maybe someone made door panels sometime along the way?

DeSoto Frank- you ain't alone. I collect old A/V and stereo equipment- filmstrip projectors and the like. Even have a 1940s vintage 3M Wollensak reel-to-reel tape deck! It don't work, but that's beside the point. I've had kids ask what my Dual 1229 turntable is? They've never seen one... God help me if they ever see my 8-track deck.