32' Oldsmobile Deluxe Convertible Roadster

[rickton]

Nice project! I like what you did on the hubcaps. Looking forward to seeing more updates and pics.

[Gary W]

Great work on the running boards!  Are you going to have the rubber vulcanized onto your sheet metal, or simply bond the rubber mat that Steele sells?

 

Keep it up....  Beautiful

[chistech]

Hi Gary,

if you look at my first post dealing with the running boards, in one picture you’ll see a rubber running board cover sitting on top of the metal board. A NIB pair of 32' Oldsmobile Northfield Ltd. rubber covers were with the car in the barn it was stored in. They are an earlier set as the metal backing with bolts is molded in. I have to drill holes in the boards to mount them. The latest version Northfield make comes in two pieces and you have to glue the rubber to the sheet metal piece that has the bolts. I’ve had some people tell me that the early version boards dried up and got hard cracking almost immediately. These rubber boards have been around for 20+ yrs and are still soft and subtle. Possibly it’s the ultraviolet light that raises hell with them but time will tell. I’m not running out to get new ones without using these first. I also had some tell me that the problem was corrected on the later ones produced with with the vulcanized backing plate. As we all know there’s many stories that about our cars and we can only believe a few at the most in many cases.

Edited February 21, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Been super busy doing some remodeling to our bedroom so I’ve been spending all my free time finishing that up. I did start to make up a painting rack for the wheels so I wouldn’t hold up the paint shop. I moved off the running boards for now to get the rack done. Using a hole saw, I bored so plugs out of 2x6 pieces. Put a long 1/4-20 bolt through the center and put some washers and a nut to hold it. Chucked each one in the lathe and turned them to the proper diameter to fit just snug in the hub. I cut a relief in the plug so the inside of the hub would get painted. Cut out 6- 7” circles out of 1/2” ply and bored a 1/4” hole in the center. Using a 1/4” bolt to center the ply circle on turned plug, I then screwed the ply down to the back of the plug. Fitting the plug in the back of the wheel hub, I drilled 1/8” holes through the ply in the center of three lug nut holes. Turned some dowels down to match the lug hole diameter and screwed them to the ply. The plug with the plate and dowels securely holds the wheels but still allows for all the areas that need to be painted without any issues. The wheels are evenly spaced, every other, so the backs of the wheels are easily accessed for painting and the wheels never need to be touched until dry. Of course they rotate on the EMT tubing so painting all six wheels at one time should be easy. The rack frame was made a while back by me for hanging parts I was painting here in my own garage. I just added a couple 2x4s and drilled through them to secure the EMT. Will finish the rack up tomorrow and drop it off at the paint shop.

Edited February 26, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Finished up the wheel painting rack today. Cut some 3/4 EMT unions in half to secure the wooden hubs in place on the tubing. A washer on each side allows them to revolve smoothly. I installed a single sheet rock screw in one dowel pin so the wheel can be rotated by the painter and the wheel won’t have to be touched. Also made up my front exhaust hanger out of 3/4 x1/8 steel. Using pictures provided me by my buddy Joe of his original hanger, I bent it up using a large socket and my even larger vise. Happy with the results. Just another little thing done. Got all my chrome back last Friday and started reassembling the two folding roof irons. Lots and lots of work in this car but it’s coming along. The original step rivets in the irons got ground off on the back side, then they got tapped for screws, then driven out and sent for chroming. The screws allow for the special rivets to be used yet the whole assembly can be tightened securely. 

[chistech]

Doing my research earlier, it was my understanding that the Harrison company made two different heaters in 32' for GM cars. One was the brand labeled "Chevrolet" heater which was a small unit and the other was a larger unit with the Harrison name tag on the front. Later on, Harrison labeled the heaters with the different makes of automobiles, but I believe that wasn't until 33' or 34'. Prior GM cars all got the Harrison heater with the Chevrolet the only GM division to have a specific brand labeled heater. So with that research, I searched for and located an original, NOS, 1932 Harrison Senior heater to put in my Olds. Much to my surprise, my friend Joe, while looking for information on another 32' Olds subject, sent me what he had found in his original factory documents. Joe sent me the original 32' Olds technical bulletin showing the mounting and complete installation of the Harrison Sr. heater. This is a great find as it gives me 100% documentation of my heater installation as being a dealer installed option for the 32' model year. Using the measurements on the bulletins, I fabricated a simple cardboard template to see how the heater would fit and sure enough, it will clear the special decarbonizer unit that's mounted on the engine side of the firewall. The two hoses will basically sandwich the unit but is will be 100% correct. So I not only have the correct heater, but I have the documentation to show it's correct. Got to love this stuff!

1932 Oldsmobile Harrison Heater Installation.pdf

[chistech]

The wheel rack got dropped off at the body shop last week and hopefully we can start painting wheels this coming week. I completely stripped all the old paint off the splash aprons and prepped them for welding. Using the jigs I made up for the first board, I was able to bend the second one up in little time. I’ve ordered a new TIG welder but it won’t be delivered until April so I used the mig to stitch weld the seam for now making sure the seam is even and flat. Spot welded the end support irons to the boards. Now it will be just a matter of welding up the long seam with the new TIG. The boards were the last big fabrication job left to my restoration. When I bought the car, all the fenders had been primed and sanded but I didn’t know the condition of the rears as I never unwrapped them out of the plastic. Someone started to restore this car back in the late eighties and all that got done was the fenders. Turns out, when I unwrapped them they look absolutely perfect with just some dirt and streaks on them.lots of prep hours are going to be saved for sure. The insides are perfect just like the tops. These fenders basically look new with primer on them. Who ever did the work on the fendewas one hell of a body man!

[chistech]

My mid bow was missing both escutcheon plates for the wing bolts that hold the horizontal bows over the tops of the windows. As far as I know, no one makes a reproduction of this plate and many who own GM cabriolets don’t even know they are supposed to be on the car. Like I did with my missing freewheeling lever, I made up a wood pattern to send for casting. Once they’re cast and polished, they’ll go for chrome. First pictures are of an original. The rest are of my wooden pattern. The bolt goes through the plate and into the roof iron at an angle so that angle is incorporated into the escutcheon.

[chistech]

Sent the wood escutcheon plate pattern off for casting. As always, I wait for paint. No need to explain why as I have before but it’s really holding me up now. Without my wheels, I couldn’t assemble the chassis any further, the body is waiting to go to paint, I’m waiting on the welder to finish up the running boards which will then be ready for paint, and the fenders are ready to go to paint. I’ve been prepping the hood pieces which are almost done, they too will be ready for paint. So you can see, it’s the painting that stops my progress. 

      Thinking about how I could keep working, I ordered the interior and roof so once that gets here, though it’s still a few months out, I can upholster the seats at least. I then started looking for wheels that would fit my chassis. Ended up with 5 x 5 1/2” to 6 x 5 1/2” adapters and installed my spare set of military blazer wheels on my Olds. No, I’m not making a sand rail out of the Olds! I had the wheels/tires already and the four adapters with lugs cost $98. How could I go wrong for that price plus the additional 2” of width on the adapters keeps the big wheels away from all the vitals on the chassis. Went by my moms house on Friday night to put everything on so I could pick the chassis up Saturday morning to bring home. It sure rolls around easy and they will work for the initial test drive of the chassis in the yard.

     Started bending up a new steel gas line and installed it down the drivers side rail. Not an easy thing to do and not scratch the paint but got it done. Test fit the tacked up running boards along with the front fenders and all seems to be aligning up correctly which is a relief. When I got this car, the fenders and running boards had been pulled as a restoration had been started in the late eighties but only the fenders had been touched. Because of the disassembly, I had a few coffee cans of hardware that I did not know where it went. With the help of my friend Joe, and a long phone conversation to CO, I got it all pretty much figured out. Lots of chassis isolation pads, rubber sheets, and body/sheet metal mounts to figure proper locations of!

      

[chistech]

Got the motor,trans, and drive shaft installed yesterday along with the exhaust. Amazing how quickly things can progress when all the components are done and waiting. I have the radiator all set and the radiator shell all rechromed. Of course I can assemble the two together because I’m waiting on the radiator shutters to be.................., yup, painted! Next thing I’m looking into is some sort of paint booth. It is so frustrating. Here’s how it stands as of right now. Starting to look like a drive train.

[13CADDY]

Chris, have you decided on a body color yet ??   Tom

[chistech]

Hi Tom. Black sheet metal including body and fenders. Brown leather and vinyl interior, tan roof with with interior contrasting trim, and the natural wood wheels. Cream white saddles on the door tops and all pinstriping. Lots of chrome that this car has should really make everything pop.

[chistech]

Got more small stuff done tonight. Finished up the gas line and added my clutch pedal spring bracket and spring. Made up the freewheeling interlock rod that runs from the clutch pedal to the interlock cam on the top of the freewheeling unit. My rod was missing as my original freewheeling unit was disabled so it was removed at one time. Working off of a factory bulletin and pictures from joe I was able to bend and thread it up. Made the brake spring bracket up that also mounts on the top of the freewheeling unit because I was also removed when the FW unit was disabled. 

 

Because the wife wanted heat, I had to remove the 3/8” pipe plug that was in the back of the water pump unit. Well, it snapped off so out came the drill and tap. With the plug cleanly out, it was evident there was no way to screw in the new brass shutoff valve. The spout would hit the oil cooler cover when I tried to thread it in. A look at my spare pump and it appears they also had the same problem years back. They simply cut the spout short leaving just about 1/2” and no more lip to help keep the heater hose on. I bought a brass nipple and an elbow but didn’t like the look. I ended up milling a piece of 1” hexagon brass down to 3/4”. I chucked it in the lathe, then bored it, tapped one end for the shutoff, and threaded the other to screw into the pump housing. A walk over to my neighbor, and just a few minutes in his hands gave me a nicely polished valve and hex extension. Put some Teflon paste on the threads and mounted it to the pump.

 

Finished mounting up the exhaust system. Using the special grommets joe had cast from one of the molds I made, I fitted the hexagon mounting washers in each of the two hanger bracket holes. With a couple of fillister head bolts and nuts and the exhaust is mounted as it was originally delivered. Olds actually had not only a rubber mounted engine, but also had rubber mounted exhaust and engine torque rod. Olds was way ahead of many other brands.

 

Tommorow night I’ll continue prepping the hood panels to go to paint. The radiator apron had a few dents on the sides and the lower edge had a couple spots bent up. Tin knocked all those areas and now it will get blasted. Once done I’ll fine tune the areas with the dolly and hammer. I cannot believe how hard I had to hit the apron with the body hammer to get the steel to move. This car has some heavy sheet metal on it,

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Found out from my buddy joe that it’s very common for the throttle return spring to break on the 32’ and most don’t have original springs in place. He was quite surprised when I told him mine was and working fine. Because of what he told me. I got out some .080 music wire from my RC airplanes parts boxes and tried making one up. After getting the first one done using round stock clamped in my vise, I made up a bending jig and now I make them up fairly quickly with the jig and a pair of vise grips. Now to contact the other 32’ 6 cylinder owners and see if they need one. One in the last picture has a short loop due to me running out of material, but it will still work. The black spring on the bottom right is the original.

Edited April 1, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[GARY F]

Great job. That is one hefty spring.

[chistech]

49 minutes ago, GARY F said:

Great job. That is one hefty spring.

I didn’t really think about but you’re right, it’s pretty stout. It is mounted on a shaft on the drivers side of the engine with the “L” shaped end sitting on a shelf cast into the engine block side. The hooked end pushes back on the lever directly connected to the gas pedal control rod. Part of the same mechanism is the starting throttle/idle speed linkage which the spring also pushes back on when the high throttle is lowered to idle. All this would explain the stoutness of the spring and probably why they broke over time. The picture just shows the spring mounted on the shaft and the gas pedal rod lever. I hadn’t installed the rest of the linkage in this picture. Will try and get a picture up of the whole assembly.

[chistech]

Got the gas tank back from repair and not super happy with the job. The tank has more dents and even a crease it didn’t have before? It actually looks like something fell on the tank. I decided to try and work the bottom with the dolly on a rod that I made up a while back to remove some dents before I sent the tank out. Well the one area with a crease easily popped out so I left it as is, buffed the whole tank clean, hung it in place, cut the fuel line and soldered the fitting on, then put about two gallons of gas into the tank. I figured before I go through the work of painting the tank, I better test it first. Well, no leaks so that’s a good thing. I decided to try and fire up the motor so with the help of my brother, roughly set the timing and spun it over a few times. Well, it came quickly to life and sounds great though it only ran for about 30 seconds as there’s no radiator yet. Still waiting on the shutters to be painted. No pictures or video of it running but with a quick idle air bleed adjustment it sounded real good for the short time it ran. Here’s a couple pictures of the throttle spring with the complete throttle shaft linkage. The linkage includes the accelerator rod, the starting high rpm control rod, and the linked rod to the starting speed adjustment in the steering column. 

     How the system works is when you step on the starter pedal and it travels enough to engage the starter button, the linkage to the pedal advances the throttle to an adjusted amount. That amount of travel is held in place by a friction device at the bottom of the steering column which is connected to the throttle linkage with a ball linked arm. The friction device is connected to a shaft up the center of the steering column and that shaft connects to a cup under the horn button with two balls on it. The car has an automatic choke so depressing the starter pedal sets the linkage to the carburetor on high idle while the choke sets itself. As the car warms, the thermospring releases the choke and the driver rotates the cup to bring the car down off of high idle. Again, this was another “first “ in the automotive market brought by Oldsmobile. 

[JustDave]

1. THEY MAKE A DOLLEY ON A LONG ROD FOR REPAIRING MOTORCYCLE TANKS,I BELIEVE THAT WOULD WORK FINE ON YOUR TANK IF YOU CANT FIND ONE I BELIEVE MICHAEL BREEDING IN NEW MEXICO REPRODUCED THEM,    DAVE

[chistech]

10 hours ago, JustDave said:

1. THEY MAKE A DOLLEY ON A LONG ROD FOR REPAIRING MOTORCYCLE TANKS,I BELIEVE THAT WOULD WORK FINE ON YOUR TANK IF YOU CANT FIND ONE I BELIEVE MICHAEL BREEDING IN NEW MEXICO REPRODUCED THEM,    DAVE

Hi Dave,

i actually made up a dolly on a rod a while back to knock dents out of the tank before I send it for repair. Because the tank was soldered and sealed with the real good red sealer I didn’t want to be doing any hammering on it. When I pushed the rodded dolly up against the crease, it popped down and a lot of the crease came out except at the area of the tank that curves up from the bottom. It stayed with a hard crease there but I didn’t want to damage the sealer so I left it as is. It’s not leaking and doesn’t look as bad as it did but definitely has many more dents than what it had before it went to the radiator shop. 

[chistech]

Made up another mold tonight for the mid bow anti-rattle wedge pads. It seems these were only used on Olds as the Chevy, pontiac, and Buick didn’t seem to have them or at least no one can tell me they were ever on those brands.  I machined the mold up out of aluminum on my vertical mill and made the screw pins on the lathe. The mold also has two countersunk pins on it so the wedges will readily accept a #6 wood screw like the originals had. Going to get the mold in the mail tomorrow and out to joe so he can cast some up. He has a pontiac Cabriolet and he is going to install the same wedges as the Olds has.

[chistech]

Got my new made rear roof bow back from Penn Dutch Restoration a couple weeks ago. Put on a few coats of spar varnish and took it out to the garage to mount the lower hinge irons to it. Each leg of the hinge iron has four counter sunk holes in it. The top three are for 1” #12 wood screws and the bottom hole originally had a split head forged rivet in it. The special split head of the rivet encompasses the outside of the bow, I presume to keep it from splitting with the shaft of the rivet passing through the bow then flattened into the counter sink in the bottom hole of the bow hinge iron. Not sure if these special rivets are available but when I removed the bow, I basically pressed the rivet through leaving a substantial amount of the rivet’s shaft intact. Rather than trying to heat the rivet and flattening it again, I ground the shaft shorter, clamped it in my miller vise, then drilled it just over 1/8” in diameter, 1/2” deep. I then tapped the shaft with a 10-24 tap. Installed the rear bow irons with screws and my hybrid rivets. Put the rear bow and mid bow together and put it on the car for a test fit then added my rechromed landau bars. Everything fit properly and looked good. Another piece of the puzzle done for later.

[chistech]

As I’ve mentioned before, Olds made many changes through the model  year and often those changes had no rhyme or reason. One of the things that seems to have no reason why is the copper plated plates for the high idle device at the bottom of the steering tube. While the horn wire runs through a hole in these plates,  it makes no contact with it and there are no electrical contacts with these copper plates. The plates have two functions but none are electrical. First, the plate screwed to the steering box bottom holds in the lower oil seal for the steering box and the outer plate simply sandwiches the spring loaded arm that connects to the high throttle linkage. So why is it copper plated? Evidently Olds asked themselves the same question later in the production year and stop plating them. I have two steering boxes, the one from my car and the other from a very late production car. The plates from the late production car show just plain steel with no copper at all. Because my original plates were plated with copper, I had the redone. Today I installed the plates along with a new rubber center shaft seal made up by my friend Joe. First two pictures how the copper plates in plain the steering box and the other set from the late production car that were just plain steel. It does seem the softer copper finish has more drag on the on the high idle mechanism and possibly that is why it was added.

[Gary W]

Beautiful, smart and impressive work.  

[chistech]

Thank you Gary for those kind words and your own work deserves the same recognition too.

[chistech]

Ordered a new Tig welder about 4-5 weeks ago. I searched all over the internet looking at reviews on a good machine. I didn't need a super high quality machine for everyday use but did want a higher end, hobbyist, type machine. Well, all the reviews are rating this machine better than the Lincoln, Miller, and Hobart machines. Because it wasn't in stock they took $70 off the cost. Delivered to my door with a 4yr warranty the cost was $700. 

    Had Argon gas on hand and had ordered tungstens to get prepared for delivery which happened yesterday. I set the machine up in just a few minutes and started practicing. After about an hour of practice on similar thickness sheet metal, I attempted to weld one of my running boards. Pretty happy with the end result and only had a slight warp in one area that I had to fill because I had burnt a hole when tacking it with the mig welder. A little tapping with the body hammer and dolly fixed it. Went over the whole length with a 4" shrinking disc and it's pretty damn straight and warp free. My body man will be happy when he goes to paint it. Sorry for the lousy pictures. I cracked the camera lense in my phone with off all things, the zipper in my coat pocket. Leaned on a machine and the metal pocket zipper lined up perfectly with the camera lense. I heard crackling and sure enough, broke the lense!

[chistech]

Finished tig welding up the other running board tonight gotten pretty god at it will clean it up and hit it with the shrinking disc to level any high spots. Put the radiator in place and attached all hoses. I filled the system with water and chased a few small leaks and loose fasteners. Fired up the motor and let it run. Adjusted the idle mixture and got it running real nice. All of a sudden it just shut off. Determined we had no špark. Took the cap off the distributor and found the points shorting out just below the insulator on the pin. A closer look showed me that the base plate of the points were bent up slightly where they go around the base of the pin and close enough to arc a spark up to the arm of the points that pivot on the pin. After I removed the point base plate and flattened it, I replaced it and the point arm. I turned on the switch and broke the points to check for spark and the craziest thing happened. The spark from the points jumped to the cap close by and fired a spark plug in a piston that had an exhaust valve open. The cylinder was wet because we had turned the motor over a few times testing for spark and it fired into the exhaust manifold. Thought nothing of it so buttoned up the distributor and fired it up. Well it turns out that loud pop was the exhaust gasket failing at the manifold. Guess who forgot to have the manifold decked? Yup, thought I’ve done everything and realized I never sent the manifold to the machine shop and sure enough, the center of the manifold appears to be leaving some gap. I never noticed it when I mounted it. This is the reason I always do a “shakedown” run of the motor and chassis before I go any farther. Going to pull the carburetor, automatic choke, and exhaust off the manifold then will pull it off the motor to take it to be decked. I guess it’s actually good I had that crazy spark issue as it let me know that I forgot to deck the manifold and saved me from having an issue with it once the car was finished. I took a video of the motor running and while it runs great, you can hear a ticking coming from the exhaust. The video doesn’t do the motor justice. It runs super nice and really quiet. Here is a link to my google photos album. At the very end there is a video in the last three pictures. There is a lot of sound distortion when I throttle up the motor so it doesn’t sound anywhere as good as it actually does. You’ll see the gauges showing 30lbs oil pressure and the water as it drops when I throttle up from idle. The stromberg automatic choke is also working great and as it heats up, the choke automatically opens the butterfly. I originally painted the manifold with a high temperature silver gray paint then painted the Olds green right over it. Well the green has already been peeling off with the heat leaving the silver gray looking great! LOL 

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TIJ5RICsAPXCLLkM2

Edited April 19, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Haven’t been able to work much on the car for the past week, lots of yard work cleaning up after this winters storms. Cutting up downed trees, burning the brush, edging beds, the driveway, and spreading 8 yards of mulch took much of the past weeks spare time. Got to spend some time on the car today. Fitted the rechromed windshield frame to the cowl to test fit everything before the body gets painted. In some areas I had to sand away some chrome, copper, nickel where it was too thick. The insides of the windshield posts where they rotate on the lower frame and the small tab on the top of each post where it slides into the top header over the glass were the areas needing all the sanding and fitting. 

       Steele rubber products sells a two piece windshield frame to cowl seal that fits a few different GM Cabriolet models including Cadillac, Chevy, pontiac, and Olds. Because it fits many models it needed to be trimmed to fit my DCR and I also got that done today. I also installed my latch strikers on the new pillars along with the door bumpers. Now the doors are closing and latching as they should. Will start working on the rumble seat wood to fit it to the lid better. All these things need to be done so I might as well get them done now while waiting for the body to go to paint. At least I can’t scratch any paint!

 

[chistech]

Been doing a fair amount of work on the car now. Went to the paint shop and helped prep some parts. Moses painted them and I picked them up yesterday. Spent about three hours at the paint shop last night and prepped up two wheels by cleaning up any varnish that was on the metal, sanding the etch primer with 600 to knock off any dust bunnies, then went over again with a red pad. Taped off the spokes so I wouldn’t do any damage to the varnish finish. Just 4 more to go then they’ll be just about ready for paint. 

     When I got home I assembled the tail lights up with the standoff’s, license plate bracket, emblem badge, and the nice rechromed rims. My wife thought it was crazy how happy I was about the super nice paint on taillights! Only guys like us understand those things! LOL ? installed the radiator shutters in the shell and put my dash panel up in the spare bedroom for safe keeping. That didn’t go over that good either so I explained when I do the seats for the interior those also will be going in the bedroom. Again, she wasn’t real happy but in reality she’ll be fine as I’ve done it before and she knows just how important it is to keep these parts safe.

[chistech]

One thing I’ve come to realize is coil spring metallurgy wasn’t that good 80+ years ago. I’ve had many of the original springs on this car broken when I got it or had them break when I started flexing them. Of course with the number of 32’ Olds produced so low, aftermarket parts or NOS parts are virtually nonexistent or in many cases, just never produced. In an earlier post, I made up some new accelerator rod springs as the originals always break. Today, I tackled my broken starter pedal spring. When I got my car it was broken and although the spare chassis I picked up had one, it too quickly broke when I flexed the starter pedal. I was a little leary of being able to bend one up as it’s made out of .156 (5/32) music wire and that stuff is not easy to bend, never mind tight coils with hooked ends. I luckily was able to use the same jig I made up for the other springs by just modifying it with a couple of pins to form over. The springs I made up came out great, installed one on the linkage, and it functioned the pedal perfectly with no failure as of 25 or so full motion cycles. The starter pedal spring is absolutely necessary as the starter uses no bendix spring and instead simply engages the bendix manually with the pedal through the linkage. The spring returns the pedal to the up position and disengages the bendix. Without the spring the weight of the pedal would simply keep the bendix engaged after the motor starts. Of course, I made up extras just in case!

Edited May 2, 2018 by chistech
Pictures wouldn’t add at first (see edit history)

[chistech]

Put some time in on the bigger items today. I completely tin knocked one of the running boards on the very ends where the mats don’t cover and the welded seam. Lots of hammer and dolly work along with a lot of hand filing. The beaded edge of the outside of the board had saw teeth like serrations from being formed so all those had to be filed out. Cleaned the whole board up with wire wheel and a DA sander then primed it. It’s ready to go to the paint shop. Also did the same to the front radiator apron. The gas tank apron had the two sheet metal tabs that go over the chassis ends and the bumper bolts go through broken off. My spare apron while in bad condition, has both tabs. Out came the welder and I welded on new tabs the using a large step bit, bored the hole. Tin knocked a few dents out of the apron and primed up the new tabs. Another piece ready to go to paint. 

    Removed the window frames out of the doors because they need more sanding and are too thick. My frames are the aftermarket SS one piece frames that are really nice but just a tad too thick. We sanded them some already and polished them back up but they need more. While I was working on the doors I fitted the two garnishes in place. 

[chistech]

Even just primer makes you realize you’re getting closer and parts look so much better.

Edited May 3, 2018 by chistech (see edit history)

[John S.]

Chistech, Wonderful work. This Olds  is going to be spectacular. 

[chistech]

Thank you John. Sometimes it feels like I’m making headway, other times it feels like I’ll never get done. Worked on the other running board tonight. Lots of work getting it flat enough to send to paint. My hands and arms are killing me from all the filing and blocking to find the high spots. Not too much more metal work to go and it will be completely finished on my end of the body work.

[13CADDY]

thanks for the update--thought of you the other day, hadn't seen any progress--i'm still fighting mine, the final assembly takes longer than the body & paint work--got the Potter Trunk finished & installed--went to install the inside door handles,but guess what the plater did the face & the back--so sent 2 down to Advance Plating--seems like I do everything twice---Tom

[chistech]

My plater didn’t get the chrome into the bell of the horns good enough so I sent them back. They did a great job the second time but didn’t tape off the threads of the trumpets and chromed the threads and the jamb nuts all together. They won’t even think about screwing into the horn motors so back to the plater a third time! What the hell were they thinking ?.

[chistech]

Got a call today that I’ve been hoping to get and waiting a while for. My buddy from the paint shop called to tell me to get the Olds ready as he wants me to bring it down in a few days. Been working to finish up a last few things on the body including getting all remaining sheet metal stripped and primed, repairing the two rumble seat mounting holes in the rumble lid, and putting the drain groove in the top wood rail of the golf bag door. Also drilled the mounting holes for the heater and the two holes for the heater core tubes. Loaded all the hood panels, the pair of running boards, and the lower radiator apron inside the car for the trip. 

[Pluto]

Considering the amount of work you've done on this, and done very well, the paint phase came up quick. You've rounded second, headed for third and home is in sight.

[chistech]

Drilled the holes to mount the running board moldings. I’m lucky as many 32’ Olds out there today are missing the board moldings. Had the rechromed and they came out nice. Test fit the moldings to the boards and they look really good. Used my small trim router and a half round bit to make the drain groove on the top of the golf bag door.

[John S.]

Chistech, just wonderful work. Just beautiful work.

[chistech]

Thank you for those kind words John. 

 

Ted