rocketraider

Add to the aggravation- the hold-down cables break after a couple years and the top develops an arc over the side windows. Had one that arched bad enough it started letting water in. Also- seems like the top material always pulls loose from the second bow. Then you have a lot of wind flap, and the top never stacks right on its own- you have to fumble and tuck to get it to lay down enough to install the boot.<P>The scissor-top wasn't one of the General's better ideas. Corvairs had them first, then in 71 somebody got the idea it would be great for the big cars. This frame is flimsy, and heavy, and after a while always kinda flops around in operation. Ever had to synchronise yer drive cables?<P>The scissor top was ostensibly to increase rear seat room. I think they used it to save a buck 'cause they could then use the same rear seat cushions and side panels in the convertibles and closed cars.<P>Just out of curiousity- what are fiberglass parade boots going for these days?

Umph. You're in the same city as the "Billions and trillions" guys, those good ol' boys from Tulsa, who have advertised in Hemmings as long as I can remember. Do they not cut it?<P>I'm partial to Tri-City in Elizabethton TN. "Very" good quality product with guarantee and reasonable price. We have a 64 Pontiac front bumper coming from there this weekend.<P>One I can recommend staying away from is Bumper Boyz. Everyone I know who has used them has had serious problems- pitting, peeling, premature rusting etc. They're one of the more expensive platers too.

My daily driver is an 83 Olds big wagon. I work with a crowd who are into, to be polite, conspicuous consumption. Meaning the parking lot is full of outsized Expeditions, Lincoln Navigators and Caddy Escalades (why GM thinks Cadillac needs a truck line is still beyond me), not to mention GM's grown-up Aztek, the Chevy Avalanche!<P>They say, "why do you keep driving that old station wagon? Station wagons are out of style!" And I just smile to myself as I watch them hop into their supersize station wagons. <P>Add to the SUV/minivan/cell phone rant, Volvos. I've been cut off, run out the road, nearly rear-ended by Volvos so many times I'm convinced they're the vehicle of choice for non-driving idiots. Must be something in Volvo advertising about safest car in the world that attracts them. And there's more than a few Volvos in the parking lot too...

1970-81 F-body suspension components are a near bolt-in for the 68-72 A-body cars. TransAM sway bars, polygraphite bushings (not polyurethane, they'll make it ride like a buckboard wagon), multi-rate springs and a mid 80s Monte Carlo SS/Grand National/442 steering gearbox will all improve handling without completely sacrificing ride quality. F-body spindles will also lower the car just a tad. In the past year, Popular Hot Rodding has gone over just about the entire handling thing with the Red Line Lubricants 1970 Chevelle, which has the same basic suspension as the Skylark.

The pieces you describe are the reflector section of the lens. Look at your outer lens and it's smooth. The inner lens has thousands of tiny prisms cut into it.<P>For your end, the taillights work just fine without them, but from a safety standard, they're needed so an oncoming driver can see your car if it's stopped with no rear lights. His headlights will hit those prisms and it'll look like the whole rear of the car lit up.<P>It's a salvage yard or swap meet item.

Fusick for the sail panel lenses. They're also common to other GM hardtops of that era.<P>Clock- first, try a light mist of WD-40 and you may have to file the points a bit to clean them up. If this doesn't work, if it's a Borg clock, you can send it back to Instrument Services in WI for factory authorised service, or have a quartz movement installed. H&H in SC, Ole Doc Clock in NC, and others can do this conversion invisibly. I occasionally see 65-6 big Olds clocks NOS.<P>You mention Climate Control head. Is this a Comfortron car (if so you have my sympathies) or a Four-Season CAC car? <P>I know someone who may have some 66-67 Comfortron parts if needed, don't know if he sold them yet or not. He doesn't have a control head. It was fairly common in Ninety Eights that year, so shouldn't be too hard to find a junkyard part. (Working may be another story!)<P>Sounds like you have a nicely equipped car. In addition to AACA, I recommend joining the Oldsmobile Club of America and the National Antique Olds Club for parts support. There is no OCA chapter in AL to my knowledge, but there are active ones in Atlanta and Nashville. <P>Glenn Williamson<BR>the Rocketraider<BR>1964 Starfire (and other assorted Ose)

James, e-mail me privately and we'll talk about 1976. I have a 76 Regency, all the manuals and factory literature, and have owned enough 71-76 big Olds that I am quite familiar with them.

Edelbrock website says their Q-Jet won't work with B-O-P-Cad throttle linkage. I know two people who bolted them onto 68 442s. Chevy used the same throttle cable as the other GM divisions, so I think it could be adapted easy enough. Holley is showing a full line of reman carbs for Olds apps- whether they're truthfully any better than other rebuilders, who knows, but they are a carb manufacturer. <P>Is anything preventing you from having your existing Q-Jet rebuilt? Don't underestimate them- I set a track class record with a 66 442 in 1974, running a mildly built Toronado 425 with a blueprinted Quadrajet. They are a fine carb set up right, trouble is most people don't have a clue about how they work and get them all buggered up, then blame the QuadraJet.<p>[ 03-05-2002: Message edited by: rocketraider ]

Steve, although I wasn't at Denver I've also heard many good comments about that show. They really had their act together. I didn't see letting people continue dancing on the backs of the bruised, so I opted out. First National Meet I'd missed since 1988.<P>Like another past board member told me about the editor mess a couple months ago, "the s**t never ends". I'm glad to be rid of it, though I have sadly watched my Zone start a downhill slide . No leadership. Hopefully this year's elections will change that.<P>GW

QuadraJets come in two cfm ratings: 750 which is standard, and 800 which was used on some early 70s big-block cars. The 800s are a smog carb so you don't really get the performance benefit you might think.

Edelbrock and Holley both make QuadraJet replacements. They're side fuel inlet since they're mainly designed for Chevy and pre-68 apps, but one of these should work OK on yer car. Order a 66-67 Olds fuel line from one of the Olds vendors and you're set. You can get the carbs from Jeg's, Summit etc, think even Advance Auto might can get them.

The brown wire connects to the coil (-) post. There's also a fuse inside the case on these 60s GM tachs.

Thanks for all the recommendations, it seems that getting a pre-65 transmission serviced is a universal problem- hey, I had to have a THM400 done last year and the youngun in the shop had only done one, all he'd worked on was electronic OD trannys. And I realised, they haven't made Turbo 400s in nearly 20 years. Who'd have ever thought those would be considered obsolete !<P>I have a lead on a guy in IL who is very good with HydraMatics, and probably DynaFlows too, but I was sure hoping I could find someone close by to do it, within a couple hundred miles anyway.<P>Guess Loren is right- we have to learn how to do this ourselves. I rebuilt one transmission in my life, a Powerglide, to satisfy auto tech school graduation requirements, and decided better to leave that job to a specialist.

It helps to have a reasonably complete V8 parts car. <P>First thing to remember is that "everything" on the Busix is on the opposite side of the car from the Olds V8. Fuel pump and lines, starter, the engine wiring harness, it's all different.<P>Helped a buddy do this swap once. Never again. You're about as well off to get a reman Buick 6, since a 307 ain't noted for power. A 350 or 403 might make this swap worth the effort.

Well- I was hoping some of you might know a shop that does DynaFlows, figuring that such a shop could do an old HydraMatic too. Most current shops have never heard of one, and the two I've found that have worked on them want nothing to do with it.<P>Anyways, tx for input!<P>Glenn Williamson<BR>the Rocketraider<BR>past Director, ASE Zone (1990-2000)<BR>Oldsmobile Club of America

And my daddy always said that even a fish would stay out of trouble if he'd keep his mouth shut! It took me years to realise it, but he was a pretty wise old man.<P>Anyway- I can say that the good experiences have outweighed the bad in my car activities, and I have tried to shrug off the bad. Right now I'm in a holding pattern on my own stuff, but I'm helping a Pontiac friend with some interior and wiring work on a 64 GP, and I am having a large time with it! It's great to see where you've improved something at the end of a work session. And that can make all the aggravation go away...

Since there's a wealth of GM knowledge here, hoping someone can recommend a transmission shop in southern VA- central NC area that is competent with the Slim Jim. It was used 1961-64 Olds all w/394 engine. 1961-64 Pontiac Catalina/Grand Prix.<P>And shouldn't have been used at all!

Anyone know of a transmission shop in southern VA- central NC that is competent with these transmissions? Used 1961-64 all Olds w/394 engine, 1961-64 Pontiac Catalina and Grand Prix.

Can anyone recommend a transmission shop in southern VA- central NC area that is competent with these transmissions? Usage is 1961-64 all Oldsmobile w/394 engine, 1961-64 Pontiac Catalina/Grand Prix.

The W36 stripe was actually an extra cost option instead of a delete option. On a Willow Gold/white vinyl combination, I think you'll have to go with either a black or white stripe. It was usually color matched to the interior or VT.<P>I don't think I've ever seen a Willow Gold car with the stripe, so I can't picture what it should be.

Novaman, you and I live close enough together that we probably know some of the same people involved in these debacles.<P>We tried working with other clubs. They wanted ours to do all the work while they sat back and got their financial cut. Then one of those clubs imploded and split into three different groups, none of whom have any use for the others.<P>What was it Ben Franklin said when they were drafting the Declaration? "We must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately"

It never ceases to amaze me, the crass stuff that adults sharing a common interest will do to each other. I have many positive experiences in my years fooling with old cars, and like everyone else, a few really bad negatives. Best? when, after 15 years of waiting for an incompetent Olds Club Zone Director to get the ball rolling in the Southeast, we were able to get him out of office and get chapters organised down here. Another best? when the Oldsmobile Grand Nationals were finally held in the Southeast two years running and were both successful beyond any of our hopes.<P>Bad? For legal reasons I won't go into details, but it has to do with a financial scandal at the top of a car club, and a vindictive newly elected national president who used his position to destroy several long-time directors and officers whose only sin was that they were on the board when his predecessor was in office.

Tony, the one I have is the only one I've ever seen in nearly 20 years of literature collecting. I have a 74 Hurst/Olds and even though ACRS was never offered on the midsize cars, I like to have every piece of paper the factory put out for my cars' year of manufacture.<P>I found it at one of the Metrolina Fairgrounds swap meets in Charlotte NC, 5,6 years ago? <P>Next weekend is a swap meet in Raleigh NC and I buy a lot of paper from a guy in NJ who's always there. I'll see if he has one or get him to look out for it.

I have a copy of Oldsmobile's 1974 ACRS dealer brochure with picture of the dash and steering wheel. The lower dash is different, has a larger padded shelf from extreme left side to the area under the radio. Ashtray is moved to the upper section of dash and took up part of what was normally glovebox. Steering wheel is a four-spoke soft vinyl piece with an "Air Cushion Restraint System" emblem at lower right of the pad.<P>The advertising push was that you didn't have to mess with the seat belt/starter interlock or shoulder harness, which y'all may recall was quite unpopular and was quickly discontinued, with a government approved factory issued procedure to disable it. Guess public outcry and rage could influence the Federal nannies then. <P>Ballyhoo? "ACRS... a space age engineered passive restraint system"<P>The brochure seems to validate the 1000 experimental Chevys also- "one thousand ACRS equipped cars have also been driven nearly 40 million miles in actual on-the-road service". That may be where the 1000 cars produced figure came from.<P>Seems like I have a copy of the 1976 ACRS service manual supplement too, but I can't start it here at the house. Probably in the Regency. If I find it I'll post more.

Your friend should be able to get an international driver's license when he enters the country, or before he leaves home. I'm not sure about American car insurance requirements for foreign visitors, but Mexico requires drivers to purchase a temporary liability policy issued by a Mexican insurer upon entering the country.<P>Subaru sells RHD outbacks in US, they're popular with rural mail carriers, and most of the AM General mail vans are RHD. RHD British collectibles can be legally registered over here too, so I don't think that would be an issue. I can understand his concerns since Australia requires vehicles imported for permanent registration to be converted to RHD.<P>Best advice? Check with US Customs for current requirements.<p>[ 03-02-2002: Message edited by: rocketraider ]