TexRiv_63

I need a drivers side front wheel lip molding for this car, NOS or excellent used with no dents or scratches. Thanks!

Flash, Welcome aboard! This is the best forum around for certified car nuts as you can find just about everything here. Post some photos of your car and consider documenting your work in the Restorations forum.

nada.com lists retail values from $4350 to $10,200, your car looks to be on the high end based on the photos.

Very nice raw material, that can't be a very common vehicle. Slow and easy is definitely the way to go, thanks for sharing.

This car has pretty nice driver quality black urethane paint which the previous owner rubbed out himself, but it has a few unfinished spots, fine scratches, and waterspots. I tried polishing it by hand but hardly made a dent. With the help of the local English Color store where I got the touchup paint for my Lincoln, I got a DeWalt variable speed buffer, Automagic Risk Free compound, polish, and wax and a foam pad for each. My only experience with machine buffing was in the dark ages doing lacquer with a wool bonnet so I was a little nervous. I started slowly with the trunk lid a few days ago and today I did the hood. This equipment works great, I'm using the lowest 600 RPM setting, it polishes very well without edge burning and I'm very happy with the results. I'm also removing some of the trim as I go and doing a little touchup where needed. One step at a time!

It's not what I did for my cars but rather what I did for my garage and myself. I learned many years ago that I couldn't handle the Texas heat like I used to so I installed a window air conditioner in my garage. It kind of worked but it was far too small and I had to let it run a long time to get the temperature down. When I recently retired and started spending a lot more time on my cars I knew I had to improve the situation so I got a larger unit and had it installed yesterday. It's a 230V 18,500 BTU unit with larger outlets and it even has a remote control. We are already well into summer here with temps the last two weeks in the mid 90s. I put it to the test today, it brought temperature down 10 degrees in about 2 1/2 hours and held it all afternoon with outside temps in the 90s - Much better! I am also going to insulate my garage door as it allows a lot of heat infiltration in the morning. The real test will come later when we get into the triple digits but I think this will do the trick.

Procrastination is a fine old tradition around here...

The Hydro - Stick was a race transmission, it made B & M famous and was used on a lot of the early Willys and roadster style gasser dragsters in the late 50s and 60s.

Warning, long post! The next in a series about my old project cars from years ago with newly scanned photos. This was the first car I actually bought and owned myself. I bought it as a non-running junker in 1966, but the body was pretty good and it was complete. It had a 272 Y-block, automatic and black and white two-tone paint, but no other options. I rebuilt the engine, added 11 to 1 pistons, cam, Holley 4-barrel, headers with straight glasspacks, and Mallory ignition. I also converted the car to stick, adding a non-synchro first gear three speed with Hurst linkage and a real heavy clutch, along with a 3.91 open rear end and traction bars. Most of the parts were bought from the Sears or J.C. Whitney / Warshawski’s catalogs but I actually found the ’57 4-barrel manifold and Holley in Dekalb where I was attending Northern Illinois University. I rebuilt the carburetor in my dorm room with help from my roommates and we all smelled like carburetor cleaner for almost a month. I also switched the electrical system to 12 volts and added a linkage type power steering system. The first time I took it to work, I had to teach myself how to drive stick – I had never used a clutch before. Later on, I fixed the rust with aluminum flashing, pop rivets and Bondo and had it painted Rangoon Red enamel at an Earl Scheib type place where they painted the wheels AND tires, then covered the paint with black tire dressing. The interior was sprayed black with black nylon seat covers, dash mounted tachometer, gauges, and a 12” wide red metalflake custom steering wheel. It would only run on Sunoco 260 100 octane premium and it vibrated like crazy because I never balanced the engine. I bought some used wheels from a friend, aluminum Mag Stars on the front and slotted chrome on the back with Wide Oval tires. To make them fit I had to use ¾ inch thick adapter spacers on the front – I’m lucky they never broke. I eventually burned up the clutch so I pulled out the three speed and put in a Sears catalog rebuilt ’55 Borg Warner three speed automatic that was air cooled and had a finned aluminum, bolt together torque converter. It normally started in second gear unless you manually started in low, shifted quickly into second and back into low, which held it in second gear, then another manual shift to high, a process I usually did with the accelerator pedal on the floor. I put in a cheap floor shifter and drove it this way until the transmission burned up, which didn’t take long, then the clutch and stick went back in. It started burning oil because the unbalanced pistons wore out the rings. The wheels and steering wheel were moved to my next car and I wound up selling the car for next to nothing. I did all the work on this car myself except for the engine machine work and paint, made a lot of mistakes but also learned a lot and used it as a daily driver for about three years. Coming up next: 1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL...

Thanks Billy, I'll give it a try.

Seagrave bought the tooling for the Pierce V12 after they went out of business in 1938 and used the design with some modification until the 60s, not sure if Pierce sold engines to anyone else before that.

I finally identified this with help from a you-tube video, it is a radiator mounted emblem from a 1935 American LaFrance V12 Fire Truck. The internet is a wonderful thing. 1935 American La France V12 Firetruck - SDA 518521 - YouTube

Thanks, this is an inside car driven only on nice days and never in the wet. I wash it rarely as you describe and use a Califonia Duster to keep the dust off in between. When you refer to "quick detailer" what is that exactly?

The black paint on my Olds looks pretty good but always had some issues with a less than ideal rubout job plus it got waterspotted so I finally got a good buffer and have started to work on it. I did the trunk lid today with compound, polish, and wax and it came out really nice. My question is how do I keep it that way? It's a driver but I also want to show it, what do you all use to keep your vehicles looking show-ready?

The Switch Pitch has to hooked up, working, and properly adjusted per the shop manual. Make sure the carb to manifold bolts are tight and cap off your leaking accessory lines for NO vacuum leaks. Look for healthy accelerator pump squirt in both primary barrels from first move of throttle. If you still get hesitation after all the above are checked, try tightening up the secondary air valve spring slightly, if the valve opens too fast it can cause a bog.

John, I have no idea if this correponds with your Jag situation but I installed the same type of visible fuel filter on my Lincoln running horizontally like yours. I have never seen it more than half full and usually is about 1/3 full when idling. A thought on that NOS German pump, does it use a rubber diaphragm? If so, will you have trouble with ethanol fuel?

Latest update - the last few weeks I started cleaning up this car. I began with the interior but I'll save that until I take pictures, this installment is about the trunk and rear end. I knew from the beginning I would need to get some touchup paint, the paint is pretty nice but has plenty of nicks and some areas that were not repainted need help. I called my usual auto paint supplier (English Color) about getting some matching acrylic enamel only to find that the DAR Delstar I have used in the past is no longer carried by all their stores. On top of that the photo match process thay used to use no longer applies to that type of paint so they have to do a trial and error match to an actual paint sample. They needed a painted part from the car that they could keep for 24 hours or more. Unfortunately there are no small removeable parts on this car so I had to remove the trunk lid and take that in. That is one big and heavy trunk lid, my wife and I got it off and into my truck but it was no fun! It was worth the effort though as they were able to do a very good match. With the trunk off the car, I cleaned up and repainted the flanges around the trunk area, and polished all the rear panel trim and rear bumper. The rear panel trim is diecast chrome on each side with two stainless panels across the back on either side of the fuel filler. These are decorated with 1/4" raised chrome strips with black painted infill between, I masked and repainted all of that - it took an hour and a half to mask and 2 minutes to paint! It came out pretty nice but there is a bit of surface rust on the bottom of the bumper that I couldn't do much with. I'm going to leave the trunk off until I get the inside of it cleaned up then will get my son to help put it back on, not looking forward to that.

I did find a NOS valve from a poster on Classic Oldsmobiles but have not installed it yet. The old one doesn't leak unless I turn the heat on and that won't be happening for awhile...

I'm no expert but I'd be surprised if a 2 door sedan was low production in 57. The problem with any mid fifties car today that isn't a Ford or Chevy is that most of the parts are hard to find, but not impossible, take your time. Try to keep it stock if you can, you really don't want to mention Hot rod or Rat Rod on this forum.

That is a gorgeous car, wish I had the room and the $$$...

Welcome aboard, always glad to meet another Oldsmobile owner. Check out the Olds - specific forums below, you should also check out the Classic Oldsmobile forum. Post some more pics and keep us up to date on your project.

This is definitely not made with a plasma cutter. It is a nicely chrome plated casting with finished sides and top. The back is unpolished cast that has been painted black. A scratch at the bottom of the V shows either brass or bronze under the plating. It weighs about 13 ounces. This was definitely used on some type of vehicle or stationary engine. Come on experts, don't fail me now!

I definitely agree with John, I spend the majority of my online time on this forum and it is by far the most consistently and professionally run that I have seen. I currently follow or participate in a number of other forums and have dealt with many others over past years both club - based and special interest. I entered each one to get educated and gain contacts, usually for whatever car I was working on at the time. Through daily participation and use of the search mode I crammed as much info as I needed. But after a while most of them filtered down to about six guys that had way too much time on their hands and no shortage of ego about their level of knowledge. One of those guys was the owner/moderator who ruled with an iron fist. At least two of those guys had very strong political, social, or racial opinions which they always had to inject into whatever car-related post they commented on. And at least one guy apparently had no purpose other than starting nasty personal flame wars with everyone, your typical cyber bully. Many of these sites self - destructed due to all this BS. The AACA forums like the AACA itself have an amazing scope covering so many marques and such a long time span that they have to be carefully controlled to avoid this type of self destruction. I realize that censorship is abhorrent in any form to some but I think the Mods here have done a very good job maintaining a balance and keeping things on track and civil. I am a total car guy and I come here to read and talk about cars, if I want to get into confrontation, arguments, politics, religion, or personal attacks I can pick from thousands of other forums to do that. We are definitely fortunate to have these forums and I thank all the folks who work to maintain them.

Anyone?

Mark, Welcome aboard, something for everyone here. Be sure to check out all the subforums.