1970 Cutlass convertible updates

[badolds]

Got the carburetor and regulator rebuilt today. Replaced the old fuel lines and relocated the fuel pump to a less visible location. I used some old rubber sway bar end link bushings to isolate the fuel pump from the frame. I am hoping this fuel pump is as quiet as they claim and by isolating it with the thick rubber spacers it is not noticeable when the engine is running. I also replaced the cap and rotor, I cant believe how much rust and corrosion builds up inside the distributer cap. New spark plugs and the motor is ready for some abuse haha. I am going to drive it to get inspected soon. I have not drove it since the suspension and brake upgrades.

A couple shots of the engine.

[battenheaded67cutlass]

Yes they have inertia tensioners as well. After the air bags and seat belt tensioners deploy the inertia tensioners still work like any other car.

Dan

Awesome, thank you Dan!

[badolds]

I got the wider rims installed and some used craigslist tires to try out. In doing my research for this project I have seen many guys order the wrong wheels and tires that don't fit. I decided to get some used tires to check for fitment before I throw down the cash for new shoes. I found some 275 35 20 p zeroes for the rear and some 245 40 19 Dunlop sport max for the front. They fit like a glove with no rub at all, I can go 285 in the rear with out issue and possibly 295 would fit as well. I took the car for a spin yesterday and let me say it was really a SPIN!! The motor was real peppy with the fresh tune up and blew the tires off at any speed any gear. I am going to play with tire pressure to see if I cant get it to hook a little better. Both of these tires are run flats, I would like buy run flats when I decide on new tires so I wont have to carry a spare tire but am not sure if you give up traction with those style tires? anybody know?

If anyone is considering a quieter fuel pump I can recommend the Edelbrock Quiet fuel pump. It is not loud at all and I can not hear it when the engine is running. Me and the wife are off to Florida for the long Memorial day weekend. I hope you all have a fun holiday as well.

Dan

[Left Lane Brain]

Hi Dan,

Regarding Runflats, I wouldn't recommend this route. They are more expensive, although that's not my reason and I'm sure you already know this. Runflats weigh considerably more than a traditional tire, impacting acceleration, braking and mileage. They also have reduced tire life (unexpectedly). But, the real reasons for me are traction as you mention. There is less contact patch and less traction due to stiffer reinforcements, especially in wet and low temperatures which is often when traction is needed most. They tend to be noisy too. I had runflats on my E39 BMW when I bought it and absolutely hated them, but that's only one data point. BMW and Bridgestone (and other OEM's) have been sued by consumers for terrible runflat performance, although they may have improved since then. Not so important to me, but for less informed consumers, runflats usually are only recommended if you have a tire pressure monitoring system, since you can't tell if its flat visually, although that guideline really doesn't apply to the enthusiast market IMO. Of course, the overwhelming benefit is no need for a spare. Perhaps you can find a smaller donut with a 4 3/4" bolt pattern for more trunk space? To me, a runflat is in the same category as an all-season tire. It begins with compromise in mind, and excels at nothing. Best of luck and the project is looking great.

Any chance you'd be willing to post the backspacing of those new rims, front and back?

Sidebar, I installed a Holley Red electric fuel pump (brand new) on my old Corvette that failed within 6 months and left me walking so many times it scarred me for life. Because of this, I absolutely hate that style pump. I hope the Edelbrock does better for you. For good pump life make sure you used sufficiently large gauge wire. I used 10 and 12 gauge due to my long wire distance, but obviously that didn't matter in my case. One thing people neglect (intentionally or accidentally) is to tie the fuel pump circuit into a oil pressure cutoff switch so the pump shuts off in the event of a crash or stall. I'd recommend doing this if you haven't already.

-Tim

[badolds]

Thanks Tim for the info on the run flats. I thought that they probably are not ideal but they will be fine for a while especially through paint jail. At least now I know a 285 will fit in the back without issue. The exact rear backspacing is 6.4 inch measured. The specs are 20x10 with 20mm offset which is supposed to be right at 6.3 inch. The front is 5.5 inch measured with specs of 19x8.5 with 38mm offset, I use a 20mm spacer on the front which also corrects the 5x4.75 to 5x120mm. The rear end has c-clip eliminator axle ends and the wildwood brake hubs space the wheels out a little bit from stock. I believe that to be the reason the 6.4 inch backspace clears with ease on my car but would rub on a stock setup.

I ran a Mallory 140 pump on the car for over a decade without issue. When it died I bought a Jegs brand pump that was on sale and it was LOUD!!! I put this Edelbrock pump on and it is acceptably quiet. Time will tell how reliable it is but I will keep the Jegs pump ready to go in the trunk with wire terminals and an fittings as a back up. I have it wired through a relay and the battery is in the trunk so the wires are short. I am going to wire an oil pressure switch into the fuel pump like you recommended. You just cant be too safe especially with your friends and family in the car. I witnessed a bloody incident at the race track where a guy accidentally started his car in gear and crushed his buddy's leg between the front bumper and the back of his trailer. I put a neutral safety switch in the car right after that.

Dan

[badolds]

The time has come to send the car to the painter. He does his own cars as a hobby and the paint and body work is flawless. He only can work on it after work and weekends so he will have it several months. Since my last post I have been extremely busy with work and July thru September in the Houston heat is brutal to work on the car. We also had hurricane Harvey to deal with so the car has been on the back burner for a while. I was able to get a new convertible top and finished the interior.

The car is getting a new hood from The Parts Place that has a steel frame and fiberglass top. A new fender and deck lid along with all new grill, headlights, bezels, buckets etc. I am going to paint the front bumper body color and experiment with blacking out the grill. I am also going to route the exhaust over the rear axle and put the signature 442 exhaust tips in the rear bumper. I will have the painter send me some pictures and update this thread over the winter.

I have been driving the car quite a bit lately, It is a completely different car than when this build started. It takes a while to feel comfortable in the car after all the work I did. The feeling that a wheel could fly off at any moment has pretty much passed haha. Just being able to take a corner at high speed and accelerating out of a turn is a great. Having brakes that actually work and work well is awesome too.

Dan

[badolds]

The painter has already started replacing some sheet metal. The driver side front fender was smashed pretty good in the hit and run. The rear deck lid was in bad shape and I have never been real happy with the hood that was on the car. It is just dimensionally too long, if you line up the front the trim does not line up near the cowl. I like the design of the steel hood with the fiberglass grafted to the top. I just hope it fits right.

Dan

[71OLDS]

Looking good Dan. If that's a glass decklid, you may want to see my post about adding the "shocks" to slow down how fast the trunk opens. The glass decklid is so light if you don't hold it when you open it, it could literally rip on the hinges. Plus forget about using a power trunk or keyfab or anything. I'm really happy with how mine came out and will now be able to use my factory power trunk button in the glove box then add the power trunk to my key fab with the alarm.

Here's a close up so you can see what I'm referring to. Sorry it's a mess here - will be all cleaned up when it's done:



Here's a video of it opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5iHM-Ujx7I

[badolds]

I went with a steel deck lid. That is a slick setup you did on yours, with a steel deck lid and the wing bolted to it I don't have to worry how fast it goes up lol.

Dan

[71OLDS]

oh OK sorry about that. It just looked like fiberglass in the pic - although it sure fits MUCH better than mine so that should have told me something right there. Still lots of work to be done on mine. And you are correct - you have the opposite problem - it will pop open but stay closed. That's how my steel one was with the wing before I switched to the glass one. Glass decklid is 26 lbs lighter than the steel. Fenders were only 16 lbs lighter and the front bumper was only 20 lbs lighter. It's a shame the decklid is in the rear! Would love to have more of that weight loss up front.

-Joe

[badolds]

I have glass bumpers and lightweight hood on my other Cutlass, that was enough fun to know I did not want to mess with them on my street car. The red convertible weighed 3450 without driver before I did the upgrades. I probably added 150 or so pounds with the upgrades. I am going to get the silver car out of the garage this fall and either start racing it or sell it.

Dan

[71OLDS]

I have glass bumpers and lightweight hood on my other Cutlass, that was enough fun to know I did not want to mess with them on my street car. The red convertible weighed 3450 without driver before I did the upgrades. I probably added 150 or so pounds with the upgrades. I am going to get the silver car out of the garage this fall and either start racing it or sell it.

Dan

Wow that's crazy! No idea how you are at 3450. My pig was 4,100 to start with w/o driver. After all the fiberglass parts, aluminum heads, intake, light weight AC compressor, cutting up the core support, etc etc, I was down to 3810. But...it does have AC, full stereo w/12" sub, power windows etc. Now with my roll bar add, i"m heading back in the wrong direction. I'm sure I'll be back to 3,900+. Going to cut the steel beams out of the doors when I get to the paint and body stuff but that will probably only drop around 25 lbs max. And you are right about the fiberglass and all the work involved. I found a local glass expert to help with all that but it will next year before I have chance to go there at the earliest. With your car being that light, no reason to even consider glass in my opinion - I wonder how much lighter you motor is than mine? I just don't get how/why your car is that much lighter.

[badolds]

I was kind of surprised it was so light, It is all steel except the hood which is as heavy as a steel hood i would bet. Aluminum head SBC with a TH-350 at the time. 700R4 now. All of the ac has been removed and it is gutted behind the dash. I need to weigh it again, probably wont like the new number.

Dan

[71OLDS]

I bet your motor and lack of AC and all the parts is what it is. Motor, AC parts, and everything behind the dash is probably 200 lbs. I weighed all my AC stuff alone and it was 107 lbs but then I got one of those aluminum light weight compressors so that put me at about 87 for all the AC stuff. I bet the SBC motor is 75 lbs lighter than my BBO. I've got every part in the universe behind my dash - full AC duct work, heater, defroster, 8 track housing with all my gauges. If I'm 3810 before the roll bar, I bet you will be in the 3600s when it's all said and done. That is still really light for a 70 -72 442/Cutlass convertible that's not stripped down for racing. I'm just thankful for the Hellcat and all its 4,400 lbs!! My pig is still a skinny little beeaatch compared to that Of course I'm only at 528/568 hp/tq and the Hellcat is 700+/700+ so I guess it's all relative. Since I'm staying Olds only on the motor, I need to upgrade to the new Olds block that finally came out (Rocket Racing) and get my motor up to 750/750 just to compete with some of these newer muscle cars. HP and tq in the 500s is nothing these days!!

[badolds]

You are a trooper when it comes to staying with Olds power. My first car was a 69 Cutlass with a 350 Olds, I blew it up. 2nd car was a 69 Cutlass with a 400 Olds, I blew it up. I would replace the engine and kick the rods again, My dad would get pissed!!! After a while I learned that the small block Chevy was the engine for me because they rev forever and stay together. Back in the eighties there was not many aftermarket engine parts available so we made due with stock stuff except for cams, Carburetors, headers, intake manifolds etc. My buddy told me about his "bowtie" heads and I had no idea wtf he was talking about. The mostly stock Olds engines make good power but if you over rev them they leave you on the side of the road with a big puddle of oil under the car. Since shifting at 5500 was not an option for me I had to change brands or quit haha.

Dan

[71OLDS]

I drive my car extremely hard at all times. Bang through the gears with 6,000 RPM shifts. Motor is great. Old Richmond 5 speed couldn't hang though. Sheered the teeth off 2nd gear - had a new 2nd gear installed and was back to banging gears again uh....for about a month. Then sheered the teeth of the new 2nd gear. Knew it was time to upgrade to the Magnum 6 speed rated a 700 ft lbs at the wheels. In fairness to to the Richmond 5 speed, it's only rated to 450 ft lbs at the wheels and I'm guessing my 563 at the crank is putting more than 450 at the wheels. Plus I hit that 1 -2 shift hard off almost every stop light.

I will always stick with Olds. Especially now with that new block available it's just about the money now. My builder Frank Trimble is a stud and knows how hard I drive and knows how to build the Olds motor to take a beating. I also put a lot of hard miles on the car - about 3 to 5k a year - only limited by all the fixes, upgrades, and work on the car.

[badolds]

Kenny the painter has been busy on my car. So far he has sanded the car and replaced the door hinges. Good news is there is very little rust to repair. Hoping to get it back by springtime.

Dan

[cdrod]

BadOlds:
I would love to see some pics showing how you mounted the front seats. I have some E46 seats from a 2001 M3 convertible but they aren't centered on the steering wheel if I bolt them directly to the floor. I think I need to raise them up a little so I can move them closer to the doors. How did you mount yours?
Rodney

[badolds]

Rodney, the BMW door panels are much thicker than the originals. If I tried to center the driver seat to the steering wheel it would interfere with the door panel. After installing the door panels and center console I had to just bolt the seat right in the center. The driver seat is one inch inboard of the steering wheel. I thought this would bother me but it is a non issue, I have drove the car quite a bit since the install and don't even notice it anymore. I did not use a bracket to mount the seats, I beat the floor of the car flat and mounted the seats directly to the floor. The range of adjustments of the seats allows them to be level when you sit in them even though the floor of the car runs downhill to the back. There is plenty of room to get in the back seat and they are very comfortable to sit in.

We both live in Houston, you can check out the car in person when its back from the painter. It is being painted in Flatonia so its a bit of a road trip to see it now. When I get it back I would love to show it to you and check out your car as well, maybe go for a cruise.

Dan

[cdrod]

Dan:
I didn't realize you were in Houston; I would love to see the car when you get it out of paint jail. I wish I was farther along on my project, here's a pic. I'll send you a PM with my contact info so we can connect sometime.

Rodney