32' Oldsmobile Deluxe Convertible Roadster

[chistech]

Went to my moms house today to mount my front fenders. Had to pull the radiator and the shell to make it easier. Found I had to reroute my fuel line at the front passenger side motor mount area. It was hitting the inside edge of the fender so a little bending and maneuvering and I got it all set. My brother and my wife helped out today so I had a couple extra sets of hands. Mounted the headlight bars with headlights and horns. Starting to look like something now. With my 31’ Chevy parked next to my Olds it’s easy to see just how much bigger and grander the Olds will be. 7 1/2” of wheelbase is a big difference.

[John S.]

Ted, i was just going to send a text to you ,asking about any new post on the Oldsmobile. It looks spectacular! Thanks for the updates. John

[Laughing Coyote]

Oh my.  Very nice!  It's going to look classy.

[chistech]

My time has been at a premium lately as my job is super busy and I’m remodeling my kitchen while I keep putting time in on a 34’ Chevy pickup for a customer. So I have little extra time and haven’t touched the Dauntless in over a week either. I did squeeze out about 45 minutes the other night to square out the mold ribbed piece I will be using for the Olds mold. I then took the extra from that piece and did some testing with the 1/8” ball mill. Coming in .080 from the edge, I milled all four sides to the same depth, or height as the mold is really made in mirror image of the part. I will bore a hole in the center then turn up a plug with a 1/8” bead turned around the outside to simulate the shifter plate. The test piece will be a lot smaller with a much smaller hole but it’s the process and the look of the cast rubber that will tell us if we’re getting the look we want. With the test piece we can change the depth of theplug together the right height of the beaded edge around the hole and the right height of bead edge around the outside edge. This test piece won’t have rounded corners nor will it be set in a surround mold with the tapered edge, again like the shifter plate has. Once the testing is done with the piece to satisfactory results, then I’ll move on to rounded corners and making the angled surround with radius corners. 

   Doing a little bit at a time and testing as we go. Second picture is of the squared piece that will be used for the actual mold. The other pictures show the test piece with all 1/8” bead filed and polished of tool marks. Now to bore the center hole and make up the plug.

[chistech]

Got another small project done tonight. The Olds headlights use a small diameter dual contact twist lock plug. The problem is, and there’s always a problem with parts for the Olds, is no one make a plug for them and my original headlights had been switched out with Chevy ones. I did find the correct diameter, dual contact plugs but the two twist lock pins were in the wrong position to allow the contacts to align with the socket housing in the headlight. I flattened the two pins and using a pointed punch, put in two locking pings in the correct position. The pins aren’t even at 180 to each other but are about 170d so the plug can’t be put in wrong. The Olds also used a very small diameter conduit so I was able to purchase German silver .330 diameter conduit from restoration supply. I purchased the German silver instead of SS for one main reason, the ability to solder it. The plug housings were reamed to allow the conduit to just pass through the rear. I then took some 7/16” brass tubing and cut off a couple thin rings from it. The rings were soldered to the very end conduit with silver solder and now the metal housing cannot be pulled off the conduit yet can turn without turning the conduit. I used the same tubing to make the two special ferrules that hold the ends of the short conduits to horns. Again I soldered the conduit to the inside of the brass ferrules. The conduit will now be polished bright and the brass ferrules with the two steel plug housings will go for chrome. Very happy with the results as it yielded almost an original look to the whole headlight and horn conduits. As you can see, the plug and the conduit is of very small diameter compared to most headlight connections. The brass horn conduit shown is the one original piece I have. It was originally chrome over the brass and steel ferrules. Some glass beading revealed the  brass conduit. I couldn’t get the exact type of coil look but it is what it is.

Edited March 25, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Got an hour squeezed out last night on the test mold. Got out to the garage about 9:00 pm and fired up the heat as it’s still cold here along the ocean. Ground up a special 1/8” round cutter bit for my lathe and turned a plug out of 1” aluminum down to .752 on about 5/8” of the end. With the cutter, I was able to cut in the area to replicate the raised beaded edge around the hole for the shifter. Drilled a hole undersized and used a ream for a friction fit.  Again, this is all undersized and just for testing purposes to determine the heights we will be setting between the different component pieces of the mold.

[John S.]

Ted. great work, as always. John

[chistech]

Got the test piece all set to send to joe. Made up two sides out of some junk aluminum. First milled a .500 wide area .10 deep, then put the piece in the vice on a 60d angle to mill from the .10 on the outside down to .508 to match the height of the center rib/ groove section. The two pieces are at right angles to each other and .45 degrees were milled just to make the square corner to match the center section. I milled a hole then drilled and tapped for a cap screw to hold it together. The finished mold will be all radiused corners but wasn’t going to get that technical and waste time just for height testing. Put in a 1/4-20 set screw to hold the center plug at height so it can be adjusted up or down to our liking. Joe will just dam up the off sides with tape. He will make up test pieces and change the heights to our liking then take all measurements so the final mold will be set to go once assembled. If you look close in the pictures you can see how the bead will be formed at the edges of the ribbed piece and the side border pieces. Because of the nature of the beast so to say, the outside 1/8” beaded edge is round to the inside and straight sided to the border side. Trying to get it round on the outside edge gives a too thin of edge that becomes broken and jagged which would result in an ugly casting.

[John S.]

Ted, any new updates? Thanks. John

[chistech]

12 hours ago, John S. said:

Ted, any new updates? Thanks. John

Hi John,

have done very little and either has Gilly. His paint shop has been straight out and there has been no spare room for him to paint my stuff. I believe he is painting my doors, garnish moldings, luggage rack, and rack mounts this Thursday. Work has been very busy with big corporate changes and my spare time has been taken up by remodeling my kitchen. A complete strip of everything to bare walls, installing a much larger window, and doing the same in an attached half bath has kept me very busy. Window is in, solid hickory cabinets are all in but one, and the vanity has been installed in the half bath. Hours have been spent sourcing the sinks, faucets, tile, and appliances. A ton of work and I won’t even bring up the cost but I could have easily bought a decent classic car for sure. I don’t have an up to date photo with the new hickory island in but will post later. The kitchen used to be red oak. Funny how we went with the same wood as the spokes on the Olds wheels!

 

On a car note, joe cast the test mold and it came out really nice other than the rubber itself is bad so there was some lumps in places. I’ll take a picture and post it later.

Edited April 10, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[John S.]

Ted, I take my hat off to you. Restoring the Olds, or putting in a kitchen, you do top notch work. Thanks. John

[chistech]

LOL John, my wife is a much tougher “judge” of my work than any judge I might encounter at a car show. She walks around just looking for things so it’s got to be damn near perfect or I hear about it. I can’t even imagine doing a good job on a car and half assing something for her or our home! Here’s some more updated pictures including tonight’s work. Even with making drilling jigs, putting all the handles on took over two hours! Not much left to do finally. The counter top company is coming Monday to measure for all the quartz tops we’re installing. Have to be all done with my work for them to measure.

Edited April 11, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[chistech]

Took some pictures of the sample joe sent me from the test mold. Time to start working on the final mold. Now if I could just get done with this kitchen, 34’ Chevy pickup, yard clean up/mulching, finishing up my RC plane for an upcoming event,............. I need more time in my day!

[36 D2 Coupe]

Been there on the renovations! Your hickory cabinets look fantastic. I really like wood cabinets in a kitchen - no use for the modern sterile characterless white MDF stuff that looks like some kind of institution. Yes, it's not cheap but the warmth and beauty of your kitchen will reward you every day. The car will come in its own  time and is going to be just as lovely in its own way.

[chistech]

I totally agree about the wood look. My house is a colonial with full farmers porch. Dining room is done in colonial blue wainscoting and off white walls above it. Living room is 18’ high ceilings with cultured stone fireplace w/pellet stove. Whole downstairs of house is hardwood floors other than the kitchen and master bath. When we decided to do the kitchen over, most of my wife’s friends were telling her whit, gray, and black! They were all going with the recent trends and personal tastes rather than what fit our house. I like country and I like wood. It’s warm rather than the cold everyone is doing and that’s because people have become the same way, cold and hard. I also like firearms and much prefer fine shot guns, old lever actions, and wood gripped hand guns over the Glocks and ARs. That not saying that I don’t have any of those, it just means I appreciate the look of fine wood to metal craftsmanship.

[chistech]

Finally, so major Olds stuff. Doors were painted black. Will get the cigarette cream white added to the tops of the doors tomorrow then everything will get cleared.

[chistech]

Getting ready to paint in my shop in my inflatable booth. Inflated the booth. Man, it takes up a lot of the garage! Made a framework out of PVC to support the booth once the blower is shut off. Tested it last night and it worked perfectly. Also put a tarp down on the garage floor to keep the booth bottom clean. Now I just need some more lights. 

Edited April 15, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[John_Mereness]

Sidenote:  If your ventilation is not be the best, use a little extra care = chemically burnt lungs are not a good thing. 

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:

Sidenote:  If your ventilation is not be the best, use a little extra care = chemically burnt lungs are not a good thing.

Worse than 40 years of smoking a pipe.  Don't ask how I know.

[jan arnett (2)]

nice

 

[chistech]

Added more LED lighting on the outside and a household sq. Fan on one of the charcoal filters. My garage is 30x60 with garage doors at each end. Simply opening the doors about  1’ each makes a huge draft through the building that will actually sweep the floor clean of dust. The garage is situated north/south and with the ocean about 1.5 miles away, the breeze blows right through better than having an exhaust fan do it.

[John S.]

Ted,  getting closer, That is a nice setup. How big is the spray booth? John

[chistech]

2 hours ago, John S. said:

Ted,  getting closer, That is a nice setup. How big is the spray booth? John

It's 26 long, 13 wide, 10 high. It's plenty big enough for these prewar cars for sure.  There is room in the front to set up a table for your or to move items into after they're painted. I feel it was well worth the $1,400 I paid for it. Inflates in minutes and takes about a half hour to deflate and fold up into it's storage bag. The PVC pipes are just friction fitted so they will come apart easy enough. With this booth I don't have to worry about sweeping down my whole shop and blowing down all the walls and ceiling too. I figure if I get 5-6 cars painted out of the booth that's $250 per car in cost. Cheap enough if you think about it. Possibly it will last longer but I don't know how the plastic windows will hold up to any overspray. Time will tell.

[chistech]

Tops of both doors painted “cigarette cream” on the top saddle area. Garnishes got the cigarette cream treatment too. Supposed to be painting the majority of the car tomorrow night in my inflatable booth. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

Edited April 22, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[John S.]

Ted, I love the amount of the  detail work that's being done on the Oldsmobile. I look forward to watching each and every post, and seeing the Olds come together. Great  job from everyone involved working  on this restoration. John

[chistech]

Thanks John. I haven’t been doing much for the past two weeks because I had something a little strange happen to me. After putting up all the cabinets and working like a crazy man screwing all kinds of things together using both my right and left hands, I woke up one morning in severe pain in my left shoulder and my left triceps. I could feel a huge knot in my shoulder blade area and it was all swollen. My wife works as a physical rehab assistant and at work the therapist gave her a small hard rubber ball for me to roll on to work the knot out. So on Thursday night I did just that and it felt better. On Friday I woke up in even more severe pain and had lost strength in my left thumb and forefinger. I couldn’t even open my hand completely and had a very hard time working on my laptop for my job. Needless to say I got very worried but I was in too much pain to even worry that much. There was nothing to ease the pain which was the worse pain I have ever felt and I’ve damaged my body pretty severely in many ways. There was nothing I could do to relieve the pain and it was constant, 24/7. I started icing and Advil’s, hot showers, more ice, and nothing, no pain relief. I actually hurt to much to even want to eat and have lost a few pounds.(actually a good thing!) I decided to go to my chiropractor to see if he could help me. That was last Friday. When he checked me out he said my shoulder was bad and it would take a few visits to get right. After my visit I felt better but Saturday morning the severe pain was back, this time even in my armpit area and left lat. Sunday again was murder and waking this morning it was still there, painful as ever. My chiropractor appointment was 8:00am this morning and when I told him how much pain I was in he said he expected that to happen because of everything he moved around. When he worked on me this morning, my neck really cracked more so than it ever has and myuppback cracked well. I got home and started working. Within a couple hours after my visit, the majority of my pain is gone and some strength has come back to my hand. Tonight making the battery plates, I can feel my hand is getting more normal. It’s still far from 100% but it’s better and that makes me feel a lot better. 

     My buddy joe had sent enough 14 gauge steel, all cut to size , to make up two battery plates (one for me and one for him) and my passenger side floor board plate. Feeling better tonight I decided to make them up. I used my tig welder to weld a 3/8” rim around the oval hole after I made the hole using a 4” hole saw and reciprocating saw. I then drilled all the holes where they needed to be and then used the finishing washer die with my 30 ton hydraulic press to form the washers. It worked well even on the heavy 14ga steel and another project for the Olds is done.

[chistech]

We’ve had nothing but rainy, cold, and damp weather for weeks so no painting had been done. I was away for a week plus I’ve been slowly recovering from a pinched nerve in my neck that’s left my left hand, especially my thumb and forefinger, very weak. I was virtually  unable to grasp anything or put any pressure between my two hands. So of course, doing mechanical or precision work was out the door. Have to admit, I was a little scared no knowing what the outcome might be. Finally, the majority of the pain has gone with just some aching in my triceps and forearm in the morning which wears off by noon with use of my arm. Thankfully, the strength is coming back but very slowly. Slowly is better than not at all s how I look at it.

       Well getting back to the Olds, today we had a 60+ degree day with sunshine so Gilly decided to paint the body. He admitted to me after he was done that he was somewhat apprehensive not knowing how the booth would perform. He put on four coats of black while I was away at a meeting and when I got home at 9:00 tonight he was all finished. When I walked into the garage he was pretty excited saying how good the booth worked, how good the lighting was, and how straight the car is. He told me he put on the heat and warmed up the garage while the booth was inflated and the makeup blower was running. The inside of the booth immediately warmed up to the point he said it got too warm and he shut the heater down. He had the front garage door at 8” open and the rear at 12” with the doors set, he started spraying and said the booth stayed clear with just a slight “fog” while he was spraying but it quickly cleared when he stopped applying paint. He was very impressed with the whole setup and the car is virtually clear of any dust bunnies. 🤩

       He is coming tomorrow, will roll the body out, and will block the whole car down with 1000grit to make it, in his words, “perfect “. Once it’s body washed and is rolled back into the booth, his plan is another few coats of black then clear. Finally, some color on the body.

      What amazed me is there is very little overspray on the sides or floor of the booth. While I could smell paint in the air in my yard, it was not strong. The best thing was the wind was blowing SE carrying any odor into the deep woods behind my house and not towards any neighboring homes. 

[chistech]

Ok, we have some shine!!! After a 1000 sanding and a quick spot repair of an previously unseen ding, the Olds got shot with 3 more coats of black and three coats of clear. The small odds and ends parts were also sprayed and cleared. It was about 72 degrees here with little humidity so it was a perfect day to paint. Between the two painting sessions, install the inner and outer side mount support brackets that are bolted to the cowl at the left and right side edges. With the 32’ Olds, these brackets were always black no matter what color the car body was painted and would have to normally be installed after the body was painted except in one case. That case is if the car was black which mine is so the brackets along with their hardware got painted in place meaning there will be no touch up of the fasteners needed. The black and clear quickly dried today so tonight I carefully installed the freshly painted golf bag door hinges on the freshly painted golf bag door. I then carefully installed the door on the car and installed the lock. Because the striker of the lock will hit the jamb unless the key is in the lock and fully rotated to the open detent position, I will very rarely open this door and risk damaging the jamb. I guess back in 32’ no one really cared or even thought about it. The goal is to have all the remaining parts painted within the next 10-14 days and the booth completely disassembled and stored. This will allow for the body to be installed on the chassis using my overhead chain hoist. Until that happens, I’ll store the body in my enclosed trailer while the chassis remains at my moms garage. Starting to get a little excited again. Also heard from the finishing touch that my instrument panel should be done by next week. It is the last part that is “out of house” for this car. Once it’s back, it’s mainly assembly left. 

[keiser31]

GORGEOUS!

[Laughing Coyote]

Very Nice!

[John S.]

Ted, great work, as always. this is one Righteous Oldsmobile! Thanks for the post. John

[chistech]

 

Starting to look like a car now. It will get a full buffing this coming weekend. Right now I’m adding things where no buffing is needed. Added decarbonizer, cowl tag, center wiring grommet, shock adjustment linkage points, and other brackets to the cowl. Added the dash panel, complete windshield frame, wiper motor, wiring harness, light switch, and cigar lighter. The chrome windshield really looks good on the shiny black body.

[John S.]

Nice!!!!

[chistech]

Did some more work. Bent up and installed the 1/4” copper tubing that carries the vacuum from the side of the decarbonizer, through the firewall, and up around the formed channel in the firewall then over to wiper motor chrome tube. It’s a major PITA to bend this tubing up with the necessary bends so that it fits right yetnot look like some kinked up spaghetti. Had my neighbor polish it up for me. Still waiting for two special 1” grommets to finish off the two holes in the firewall. Also installed the rear wired hood lacing and the cowl band. On many of the GM cars I’ve done, the bottom of the lacing wire has been pulled taught through the cowl side then tacked fast to the top of the main sill with a U nail. The the wire get bent back over the nail. This is the technique I used to fasten my lacing wires. Installed the J bolts on each side and tightened them to snug the lacing to the cowl groove. Rolled it outside so the sun could work on the clear coat and harden it up some for tomorrow’s sanding and buffing.

Edited June 2, 2019 by chistech (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Awesome work! What is that chrome handle coming out of the dashboard on the driver's side?

[chistech]

11 minutes ago, keiser31 said:

Awesome work! What is that chrome handle coming out of the dashboard on the driver's side?

In 32’, the Auburn wasn’t the only one with cabin controlled ride. That handle is attached to some bell cranks and control rods that are attached to each shock valve. The escutcheon plate at that handle reads soft to the left, ride on the top middle, and firm on the right. The 32’ Olds had a lot of unique options that many others didn’t have. 

       The fully automatic choke was first offered on the Olds. By depressing the starter pedal, three things would happen. The choke would set, the high idle would set, and the starter motor would engage. Once started and warmed up, a dial in the center of the steering wheel is turned to bring the motor to low idle.  

[keiser31]

Interesting. Thank you very much for that information.

[Gary W]

That black pops when you get it out in the sun! 

Simply gorgeous!!  Keep it up

[chistech]

7 hours ago, Gary W said:

That black pops when you get it out in the sun! 

Simply gorgeous!!  Keep it up

Thanks Gary. While black was not my first choice because it’s so hard to keep looking good, black really does look good against the chrome, and this car has a ton of it. Like any Cabriolet, the windshield, roof deck supports, and landau irons add a lot of chrome to the top of the car but the Olds also has a long chrome center hood hinge that starts out about 1” wide at the cowl and ends up close to 3” wide at the radiator where it runs into the chrome radiator shroud which to me, resembles a Duesenberg shroud somewhat. The Olds dove ornament is also fairly large. Then there’s 5 chrome hood doors on each side along with the chrome center hood latch handles, plus the side mount brackets, bumpers, and pretty good size chrome hub caps. Really big chrome headlight buckets sit on double chrome bars along with a horn on each side. Even the horn trumpets differ with the bell being chrome but the tube being black, again showcasing the black to chrome contrast. I also had ulvira do the Aluminization of the reflectors so even inside the lense, sparkles. The  running boards have full length chrome Spears down them also. Add the natural wood wheels with WW tires, wheel striping, big chrome hubcaps, saddle brown interior, and tan Convertible top tying in the interior color to the wood wheels, and I believe it will be as close to stunning I’ll ever have. There is also the door saddles painted cigarette cream, matching the wheel striping and the body striping that will be put on. I know I’ll be cursing trying to keep it clean but there are many things worse! Now I just hope it comes out as good as my “vision” in my head looks.

[Spinneyhill]

I wonder about white wall tires. You have lots of chrome, as you say and have spent many hours making beautiful wheels. The whole lot will disappear in a dazzle of white. The tires will be the dominant feature on the car IMO and I think they would attract the eye away from the workmanship and design in the car.