Should I Street Rod my Olds or keep it original?

[nifty 6]

I have a 56 Olds also and have thought of doing a restro-mod rod with it but also thoght it would be better to sell it to someone who would keep it original and buy something already done, an Olds or?

[keiser31]

it would be better to sell it to someone who would keep it original and buy something already done,

[olds88]

Ok, I agree with keeping it original but with maybe adding options that could have come with the 1956 olds 88. My idea on adding discs brakes is on hold in that it sounds too complicated, or if even possible, if I could do it I would want to use my original wheels. But Power brakes would be nice! So do you suggest buying set up from 56 olds and how much trouble would it be to put it on? Right now my brakes pull to the left (just started doing this). Power steering would also be nice as well as air conditioning. Maybe just a add-on unit. More power from the 324ci would be nice too. Can I just get a olds 4 barrel and put it on or do I need to change the manifold? How about an Edelbrock? I've decided that anything I do I will do it such that it can be undone later. I looked at putting one of those spin on adapters on for using a modern oil filter but decided it wasnt all that necessary since oil changes arent that big of a deal even with the old canister type. Wish I could figure how to post some pics.

[Guest]

I have a 56 Olds also and have thought of doing a restro-mod rod with it but also thoght it would be better to sell it to someone who would keep it original and buy something already done, an Olds or?

Gee Nifty 6, Thanks for making my day by seeing three favorite and rare cars mutilated. The 57 4dr hardtop Fiesta is really rare these days and I don't even want to comment on the 49 sedanette.

Oh what fun making respectible cars into low-riders.

Don

[poci1957]

Why Don, I cannot believe you are not impressed with a 1957 Fiesta that looks like a cartoon. What is wrong with you? Todd C

[Guest]

Ok, I agree with keeping it original but with maybe adding options that could have come with the 1956 olds 88. My idea on adding discs brakes is on hold in that it sounds too complicated, or if even possible, if I could do it I would want to use my original wheels. But Power brakes would be nice! So do you suggest buying set up from 56 olds and how much trouble would it be to put it on? Right now my brakes pull to the left (just started doing this). Power steering would also be nice as well as air conditioning. Maybe just a add-on unit. More power from the 324ci would be nice too. Can I just get a olds 4 barrel and put it on or do I need to change the manifold? How about an Edelbrock? I've decided that anything I do I will do it such that it can be undone later. I looked at putting one of those spin on adapters on for using a modern oil filter but decided it wasnt all that necessary since oil changes arent that big of a deal even with the old canister type. Wish I could figure how to post some pics.

You are trying to make your Olds into something it never was. Can't you enjoy and appreciate a car the way it came from the factory? Try to sit in it and drive it and think "this is 1956", not 2010. The time capsule of 56 or any old cars year IS what this is all about......experience 1956 the way your car was made. If you wanted power this or that or A/C you should have been looking for a 56 that was born that way. Converting a non A/C car to factory A/C is VERY expensive and putting a new type of A/C unit just put your car into a modified catagory, and blows the value right out the window.

They are only original once!

Don

[Guest]

Why Don, I cannot believe you are not impressed with a 1957 Fiesta that looks like a cartoon. What is wrong with you? Todd C

What is wrong with ME??? ME??? I just thought I would never have to see those type of cars or people talking about changing cars around on this site. Thanks for the Todd, a little bit of humor helps............I get carried away at times.

Don

[olds88]

I reallly appreciate everyone's opinion and support for keeping cars original and enjoying them as they are.

[1939_Buick]

Wish I could figure how to post some pics.

To add images on the bottom of the screen

1) Click on 'Go Advanced'

2) On the top row of your reply box you will see a paper clip. Click on it or on “attach files manage attachments" down the screen-.

3) The 'Manage Attachments' window will appear.

4) Click on the 'Browse' button for that window.

5) A browse dialog will appear. Browse to the location of the file on your computer.

6) Click on the file

7) From the 'Manage Attachments' window click on 'Upload'.

8) Close the 'Manage Attachments' window.

9) Submit your reply when the message text is complete

Be sure to check on the upload screen they are attached by scrolling down

Have also read there is a limit of 2000 pixels when posted as an attachment

You can also add images to a gallery. Check your User CP (Control Panel)

For graphics software to resize images (and much more) try IrfanView - Homepage - one of the most popular viewers worldwide. Free to download with many features. Easy to use.

Edited October 2, 2010 by 1939_buick (see edit history)

[joe_padavano]

Why Don, I cannot believe you are not impressed with a 1957 Fiesta that looks like a cartoon. What is wrong with you? Todd C

I have seen that 57 Fiesta. The car is absolutely beautiful. It has a 371 Olds with J2 setup. Workmanship is phenomenal. Sorry if you don't care for the style, but it is one of those cars that the more you look at it, the more cool little details you find.

[PONTIAC1953]

hi ron green and helfen, i've already seen pictures of a quad headlight 1957 pontiac bonneville, it sure did look strange,lol. mr green, pontiac had started working on the V8 development in 1946, in a L head configuration and 269 cubic inches, pontiac L head engine reliability was well known to new car buyers. in 1949, pontiac tested the 269 verus the olds rocket V8 after pontiac had downsized the olds V8 from 303 to 270 cubic inches, the testing showed pontiac that the 269 couldn't complete with the overhead valve engine. so in 1949, the L head engine development program was stopped, and the overhead valve engine program began. the car bodies that we know as 53-54 pontiacs and chevys were to be 1951 and 1952 models, because of the korean war, GM pushed the body change to 1953, ron, it was olds and buick going to GM's board of directors, asking them to stop pontiac from bringing the 287 strato-streak V8 to the buying public in 1953 is the reason why the engine change didn't take place, not because it wasn't ready, everything in that engine was tripled check for durability and reliability, the 287 had over 100,000 hours of testing on test stands before the 23 1953 pontiac V8 production prototypes were built and tested for 3,000,000 miles in 1951-52, that's an average mileage per test vehicle of 130,435 miles, or 10,870 miles per car, per month for one year. i drive over the road semi, i average 12,000 miles a month, and i'm just one driver. the engine was ready, the 1953 pontiacs were designed to have the V8, this wasn't the last time that GM's board of directors treated pontiac like a red headed stepchild, to play favors for other GM divisions. charles l. coker, 1953 pontiac tech advisor, poci, past poci's club historian

Edited October 3, 2010 by pontiac1953
changed one word (see edit history)

[Guest]

I have seen that 57 Fiesta. The car is absolutely beautiful. It has a 371 Olds with J2 setup. Workmanship is phenomenal. Sorry if you don't care for the style, but it is one of those cars that the more you look at it, the more cool little details you find.

Sorry Joe, Slamming a car to the ground, and putting oversized wheels ( which the designers never intended to put into those wheelhouses) make the car look like it's on steroids, more destined to be shrunk down and put into a HOT Wheels box. A slap in the face to the designers. Would you do that to a Dutch Masters painting.

Don

[Guest]

hi ron green and helfen, . the engine was ready, the 1953 pontiacs were designed to have the V8, this wasn't the last time that GM's board of directors treated pontiac like a red headed stepchild, to play favors for other GM divisions. charles l. coker, 1953 pontiac tech advisor, poci, past poci's club historian

Charles, If you have read any of the other post I have chimed in on you will know the phrase "If only they would have left Pontiac alone" meaning corporate favoratism against Pontiac. Remember Pontiac's two seat 421" sports car in 1966 that was pulled at the very last minute off it's stage at the Waldorf Astoria by Corporate brass. Ed Cole wasn't going to let Pontiac's John DeLorean introduce a sports car to upstage his personal baby (Corvette). Or that in 1966 corporate brass led by Cole eliminated one of Pontiac's famous engine options that started in 1957 and ran through the 1966 model year known by the name of Tri-Power, although Ed let Chevy retain it in the Corvette. How about the GTO story, a car that would have never been if Pontiac hadn't circumvented corporate policy and snuck it out. Pete Estes (Pontiac General manager (late 61-65) put his career on the line for that one.

The list goes on and on.

Thanks Charles for posting for all to see early Pontiac V-8 development.

Don

[joe_padavano]

Sorry Joe, Slamming a car to the ground, and putting oversized wheels ( which the designers never intended to put into those wheelhouses) make the car look like it's on steroids, more destined to be shrunk down and put into a HOT Wheels box. A slap in the face to the designers. Would you do that to a Dutch Masters painting.

Don

Don,

I'm not a big fan of slamming a car either, but that car has air bags, so you can set the ride height to whatever you want. Personally, I don't get the frame-dragging look either. Most cars look better when lowered a little, but not anywhere near that much. Wheel and tire choice is a matter of personal opinion, but that's a bolt-on change in any case. All I can say is that it was hard not to be impressed by the workmanship in that particular car.

[poci1957]

I have seen that 57 Fiesta. The car is absolutely beautiful. It has a 371 Olds with J2 setup. Workmanship is phenomenal. Sorry if you don't care for the style, but it is one of those cars that the more you look at it, the more cool little details you find.

Hi Joe, I am sure that is probably the case, my (somewhat snarky) remark was aimed as a little joke with my friend Don, as we both take issue with street rodding.

It sounds like even you agree that in the photo the car DOES look like a Hot Wheels car though. Todd

[Dave Mellor NJ]

Charles, If you have read any of the other post I have chimed in on you will know the phrase "If only they would have left Pontiac alone" meaning corporate favoratism against Pontiac. Remember Pontiac's two seat 421" sports car in 1966 that was pulled at the very last minute off it's stage at the Waldorf Astoria by Corporate brass. Ed Cole wasn't going to let Pontiac's John DeLorean introduce a sports car to upstage his personal baby (Corvette). Or that in 1966 corporate brass led by Cole eliminated one of Pontiac's famous engine options that started in 1957 and ran through the 1966 model year known by the name of Tri-Power, although Ed let Chevy retain it in the Corvette. How about the GTO story, a car that would have never been if Pontiac hadn't circumvented corporate policy and snuck it out. Pete Estes (Pontiac General manager (late 61-65) put his career on the line for that one.

The list goes on and on.

Thanks Charles for posting for all to see early Pontiac V-8 development.

Don

While it's true that there are many cars might have been a success, there are also cars that shouldn't have been,like the Fiero and the Aztec.Even the Astro which was a rebadged Vega.

[Larry Schramm]

The Astro was not a rebadged Vega. Maybe Astra? The Chevrolet Astro van and GMC Safari vans are twins.

[Richard Lichtfel]

Things haven't changed. Back in the teens you could buy speed equipment for the Model T, even bodies, wire wheels, radiators. Wasn't that Hot Roding?

Years ago you could find a lot of cars where the bodies were very bad and you could buy them for $25. They weren't worth restoring so you got the chassis restored and then built your own body, speedster or depot hack. They weren't factory made but were custom cars or hot rods. And today you see a lot of these at shows. They are fun and no one complains about them. No different than todays hot rods and customs.

RHL

[Guest]

While it's true that there are many cars might have been a success, there are also cars that shouldn't have been,like the Fiero and the Aztec.Even the Astro which was a rebadged Vega.

Dave, The rebadged Pontiac Vega was called the Astre, The Pontiac version of the Chevette was called the T-1000. Those two cars and possibly Chevy based 3rd & 4th generation Nova, Pontiac Ventura II-Phoenix, Olds Omega, Buick Apollo-Skylark were, and all other cars to follow Astec, Fiero ect. spelled the beginning of the end for divisions as we knew them to be different from one another. Most Pontiac people don't consider any Pontiac built after 1980 to be a Pontiac. Today those cars are mearly called corporate cars. Many Olds people feel the same way too. Remember the Olds owners that went to court because their Rocket Olds engine was a Chevy?

IMO it took along time for those marks to go away-too long because after the 70's they all were rebadged whatevers. It was one huge reason I stopped buying GM products, they didn't realize the magic was in the individuality of each division. The problem is GM thought that brand loyalty was loyalty to GM and not to a specific divisions mark.

I have a 76 Olds Omega. When I go to a OCA show Most of the Olds people accept it as a Olds even though it's got a Chevy engine, I myself know deep down it's a rebadged Nova and personally feel like the car is a stepchild. Pontiac people however are a little more outspoken. If I was at a POCI meet with a Phoenix I know some of the people would TELL me it's a rebadged Nova. BTW, the Omega which I bought new is still with me......it's the last GM car I have ever bought. It's also the first corporate car I ever bought.

Don

Edited October 5, 2010 by helfen (see edit history)

[junkyardjeff]

Speaking of the Chevette I read that its Opel based and possibly the first US GM to use a world wide platform,can anyone remember the Isuzu I mark which used the same chassis. The only reason I remember that Isuzu is I worked at a Chevy dealer that sold Izusu and they sold a couple,I think I can handle rebadged US built cars but I dont care for those that are foreign designed.

[Guest]

Speaking of the Chevette I read that its Opel based and possibly the first US GM to use a world wide platform,can anyone remember the Isuzu I mark which used the same chassis. The only reason I remember that Isuzu is I worked at a Chevy dealer that sold Izusu and they sold a couple,I think I can handle rebadged US built cars but I dont care for those that are foreign designed.

Correct on both accounts, but the story goes...... Buick tries an end-run around price inflation by replacing German Opels with a Japanese-built "Opel by Isuzu". How did this Chevy dealer you worked at sell Isuzu when Buick dealers carried the Isuzu franchise?

Don

[junkyardjeff]

I dont know but there was a Buick dealer up the street,98 percent of the Isuzus they sold were trucks and only a few cars. I do remember the Opel by Isuzu and was thinking at that time what is a Isuzu,I knew nothing about them when they were advertising those Opels.

Correct on both accounts, but the story goes...... Buick tries an end-run around price inflation by replacing German Opels with a Japanese-built "Opel by Isuzu". How did this Chevy dealer you worked at sell Isuzu when Buick dealers carried the Isuzu franchise?

Don

[poci1957]

How did this Chevy dealer you worked at sell Isuzu when Buick dealers carried the Isuzu franchise?

As I recall the Chevrolet/GEO Spectrum and the GEO Storm were both rebadged Isuzus. I worked at a large Chevy dealer at the time and do not know if they ever sold a Spectum, they certainly did not stock any. However, the Storm was something of a hit for us in 1990-92, a sporty little "secretary's car." Just a little trivia, Todd

[junkyardjeff]

I was done working at the dealer when the Spectrum/Storm came out and there was a RWD Isuzu impulse that also could of been based on the same Opel chassis as the chevette,I think the Spectrum/Storm was based on the FWD impulse chassis.

[poci1957]

I think the Spectrum/Storm was based on the FWD impulse chassis.

I think that is right, they were FWD.

[Guest]

I think that is right, they were FWD.

First, sorry to de-rail the original thread but I don't remember when Buick dropped the franchise because in 1991 my wife bought three ( one for herself and two for our son and daughter) Isuzu Impulses from a Ford-Isuzu dealership. They were badged as Lotus-Impulse. They were FWD 5 speeds with a DOCH transverse 1.8 engines with Lotus suspensions. They were very fast-out of the gate, even in first gear against a magazine prepped Sentra 2.4 SER dead even and would pull away from second on up. I had ours on the desert floor near Twenty Nine Palms Ca. ( absolutely flat with no wind ) in fifth gear on the rev limiter at 7,200 RPM at 137MPH. Plus with the Lotus suspension they were a dream on a road course. Very reliable and the only reason we got rid of it was parts were becoming more and more harder to find ( I had to replace the ECM under extended emission warranty and it took five weeks to get it) and because the car was so low my wife was always getting in near misses as large vehicle (especially large trucks) couldn't see her. They had the same body with a different nose and engine (single OHC) than the Geo Storm.

Don

Edited October 6, 2010 by helfen (see edit history)