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    1. #1
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52

      Pro Touring 1970 Cutlass S "The Oldsmobeast"

      Hello Everyone! I recently Joined the forum and wanted to make a build thread to introduce my 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass S, aka "The Oldsmobeast." The story of this car really starts out in the mid 80's, when my father was a teenager. He wanted to get an old muscle car to work on, so he saved up working odd jobs, and was able to buy an aspen green 1970 cutlass supreme convertible from his neighbor.


      After working on the car for a few years the day he got his license the '70 vert burned to the ground due to a cracked rubber fuel line, which was sadly caught on camera by a neighbor!




      Following the heartbreak of this incident, my dad was able to buy a '67 442 from someone in the town he grew up in, and still has the car to this day.


      When I entered my early teenage years, I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps and find an Oldsmobile of my own to work on. Being a young kid, I worked what odd jobs I could and saved every penny from birthday and Christmas to try to get some money together.. In late 2011 I had around $1100 saved up and stumbled across an astro blue 1970 Cutlass S on eBay, located around 45 minutes from me which was listed for $1500. I asked my parents to borrow the $400 difference, however they told me that since my birthday and Christmas were only a month away I should wait and would have the money then. To my dismay, the listing for the '70 disappeared two days after I had seen it. Heartbroken that I had missed out on that car, I decided to postpone my search for a car until after Christmas. Fast-forward to Christmas day, and I was excited to add a little money to my project car fund. After opening boxes of socks, a calendar, and small odds and ends, I finally made it to the last box I had to open, which was a small jewelry box. I immediately ripped it open, and did not find money, but a square and an oval key. My dad said that he had decided to give me our old 1977 GMC Sierra truck. Excited, I ran out back to try to open up the door to my new project. However, when neither key worked, I walked back out front and to my amazement, that astro blue 1970 Cutlass was sitting in our driveway.


      My dad had gone to look at the car the day after I showed him the ad, made a deal that day, and then hid it in our neighbor's garage. Our original plan was just to make it drivable, fix any structural rust, and create a car that I could cruise around in. We started by pulling the car off of the frame to fix the floor/trunk rust as well as clean up the frame. We also decided to replace the tired 350/th350 with a 330 we found online, and backed it up with a 2004r transmission.






      Following this I spray painted the car black to make it all one color, and would touch it up as we did metal work on various areas of the car. We went through the wiring to make sure the essentials functioned (lights, brake lights, turn signals, etc). and I was finally able to drive my car! I drove it like this for around a year.



      The car was a super reliable cruiser, however we still had more work to do to clean it up, so we decided to move onto fixing the rot in the quarters and rockers.





      Now that most of the metal work was done, I decided I wanted the car to have more power! So during senior year of High school I bought a 455 core, and swapped in a new rear end, which was a 3.73 posi. I slowly began to collect parts for the 455, and near the summer of 2016 I was finally able to put it in the car.

      Now in college, I decided I wanted to focus on making the car look a little more complete, so turned our attention to the paint. I got an all fiberglass w-25 hood off of craigslist for around $150 (It had been cracked in half) which we combined with a steel hood to make a steel bottomed W-25 hood. Whenever I had free time I would drive home and sand on the car. after months of sanding and bodywork, she was finally ready to paint! We build a homemade paint booth in our driveway and decided to repaint the car in twilight blue with black stripes, as I preferred the look of that color over the factory astro blue. Around this time we also decided to do a pro touring build with the car, with the intent of racing it on road courses and autocrosses some day, so we added in a competition engineering half roll cage, corbeau cr1 seats, the UMI Performance cornermax kit, UMI tubular rear control arms, UMI sway bars, UMI rear lowering springs, and forgestar f14 wheels (18x10 rear and 18x8.5 front.)












      once the paint was complete I reassembled the car and decided that I just wanted to focus on driving it for a bit, and not worry about continuing to work on it. The car was around 80% done, however it still needed certain trim pieces and interior pieces to be complete. Around this time I swapped a th400 (on loan from my father's 67) to handle the torque of the now 463 BBO. I then cruised the car like this for around a year and a half, until an amazing opportunity came up. A journalist for the hot rod network reached out to me and said he wanted to feature my car in car craft magazine! I was excited for the opportunity, and realized that I now had to put the small missing pieces on the car. We spent the winter of 2018 wrapping up small misc. things that needed to be done on the car so that it would be ready for it's feature shoot, which also included adding a few new things like a holley digital dash and holley sniper fuel injection. The magazine shoot was done in march of 2019 and it was featured in the December 2019 issue of Car Craft Magazine!



      After the magazine shoot, the car remained unchanged for the next year and a half, as I focused on just enjoying the car and finishing college, which brings us to the summer of 2020. Once I finished college and started my first proper job out of school, I finally had the means to do the last few things I wanted to do to the car. These things included a t56 magnum transmission, Sparco racing seats, fully boxing the frame, an 18x11 squared wheel setup with 315 tires, and bigger wilwood brakes front and rear. We began the latest update of the car in December of 2020, and wrapped it up in June 2021!
























      Unfortunately we faced a ton of issues with the oldsmobile 455 in the car, as it's really not suited for the sustained rpms on the road course and autocross. My winter plans for 2021 are an engine swap (currently having a dry sump ls7 built) as well as several small changes to help refine the car. I want to make the car as reliable as possible this offseason, so I can run a full season of events next year!
      For those interested in following the build, I have an Instagram page (The_Oldsmobeast) as well as a YouTube channel (The Oldsmobeast) which both document the build of the car.
      Attached Images Attached Images    

    2. #2
      Join Date
      Oct 2015
      Posts
      362
      Country Flag: United States
      Great looking car, great story and a good job on this thread. I remember your car in Car Craft.
      My half a$$ed build thread.https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...elle-6-0-4L60E

      Tighten it till it strips & back it off a quarter turn.

    3. #3
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by Alwhite00 View Post
      Great looking car, great story and a good job on this thread. I remember your car in Car Craft.
      Thanks, I appreciate it!

    4. #4
      Join Date
      May 2012
      Location
      Kansas City, Missouri
      Posts
      665
      Country Flag: United States
      Beautiful car. Love your wheel choice. Looks mean with the fat rear tires

    5. #5
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by thumper877 View Post
      Beautiful car. Love your wheel choice. Looks mean with the fat rear tires
      Thank you! Im definitely a big fan of how the Rocket Racing Attacks turned out. Great wheel for the money!

    6. #6
      Join Date
      Nov 2018
      Posts
      642
      Country Flag: United States
      Wow, when I saw that flaming pic that was painful to look at. Love those old Cutlasses. My mother had a 72 Cutlass Supreme with the 455/TH400 in it, and when you punched it down the gas gauge would sink as fast as the speedometer would rise . It was a lot faster than my 72 Skylark with a 350 so I didn't get to drive the Cutlass much. What I really loved was no matter what speed you were going, punch it down and it would push you back in your seat. Looking forward to your updates.
      2021 Durango R/T
      2005 Dakota beater
      2003 Dakota project-o-mobile

    7. #7
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by Vimes View Post
      Wow, when I saw that flaming pic that was painful to look at. Love those old Cutlasses. My mother had a 72 Cutlass Supreme with the 455/TH400 in it, and when you punched it down the gas gauge would sink as fast as the speedometer would rise . It was a lot faster than my 72 Skylark with a 350 so I didn't get to drive the Cutlass much. What I really loved was no matter what speed you were going, punch it down and it would push you back in your seat. Looking forward to your updates.
      thank you!

    8. #8
      Join Date
      Jun 2012
      Location
      Chicago burbs
      Posts
      247
      Country Flag: United States
      Oh man! What a story and what an amazing result, that color combo and wheels and...everything. I feel your pain on the BBO too, I put almost 14k of my post-deployment savings into the motor-did all the "right" things for an olds, it had great torque but barely lasted 2 years of use. I dream of LS7's but will probably end up stroking my 6.0L with a 418 kit from TSP.

      Mine has been down for brake upgrades since we started hiding in our homes, but this post was hugely motivating. Might try to get out and make some progress so I can put the brakes to use in the spring.

      1969 442 6.0L LQ9 T56
      Fab9 w/ custom 3 Link conversion
      FAYS2 Watts link
      Thanks to Mark at SC&C for his honesty and passion for the sport, and Ron Sutton for the wealth of knowledge that has helped shape so many of the cars on this site.

    9. #9
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by jetmech442 View Post
      Oh man! What a story and what an amazing result, that color combo and wheels and...everything. I feel your pain on the BBO too, I put almost 14k of my post-deployment savings into the motor-did all the "right" things for an olds, it had great torque but barely lasted 2 years of use. I dream of LS7's but will probably end up stroking my 6.0L with a 418 kit from TSP.

      Mine has been down for brake upgrades since we started hiding in our homes, but this post was hugely motivating. Might try to get out and make some progress so I can put the brakes to use in the spring.
      Thank you so much! And agreed, the 455 was a great street engine, but just couldn’t hold up to what I do with the car (it was way under powered compared to the cars I compete against). Nothing wrong with doing a stroker engine! Alot of people have great combos with ls engines in the 416-418 ci range. Hopefully you can get your brake upgrade done and can get your car out to some events next year. Feel free to shoot me a message, would love to talk pro touring oldsmobiles!

    10. #10
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Location
      Miami
      Posts
      77
      Really like how this turned out and the background story is pretty amazing. Looks like a blast to drive

    11. #11
      Join Date
      Feb 2007
      Location
      Tinley Park, IL
      Posts
      1,163
      Country Flag: United States
      Is the 455 still running, or has it been damaged?

      Nick ~
      1969 Cutlass

    12. #12
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by lbsurfer11 View Post
      Really like how this turned out and the background story is pretty amazing. Looks like a blast to drive
      Thank you! It’s definitely been quite the journey. Its fun on street and tons of fun on track, and will only get better as time goes on!

    13. #13
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by Mr Nick View Post
      Is the 455 still running, or has it been damaged?
      Technically it still runs, but after we did the northeast musclecar challenge it has been burning a ton of oil whenever it runs, and has been having strange oil pressure behavior. We’re going to pull it and go through, then ultimately it will end up in my dad’s ‘67 442 restomod we are just starting to build.



    14. #14
      Join Date
      Nov 2021
      Location
      Wendell & Sneads Ferry NC
      Posts
      14
      Looks great. I've watched your You-Tube channel as I am building my 1970 Cutlass. Have you had any clearance issues with the 315s on the front? I haven't bought wheels yet and I like your set up.

    15. #15
      Join Date
      Oct 2021
      Location
      Lakeway Texas
      Posts
      3
      Country Flag: United States
      This set up is my goal, road course/autocross oriented. I've got tons of questions

    16. #16
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by GrandpaKen View Post
      Looks great. I've watched your You-Tube channel as I am building my 1970 Cutlass. Have you had any clearance issues with the 315s on the front? I haven't bought wheels yet and I like your set up.
      Thank you! The only clearance issue I've had is with the tires hitting the sway bar at full steering lock. This could likely be remedied by going to a splined sway bar, but for now I'm fine running it as is. Aside from that I haven't had any interference issues!

      - - - Updated - - -

      Quote Originally Posted by Jodak View Post
      This set up is my goal, road course/autocross oriented. I've got tons of questions
      It's a great goal to have! Feel free to shoot me a message, happy to help answer questions!

    17. #17
      Join Date
      Sep 2017
      Posts
      825
      Country Flag: United States
      Drove my moms 72 cutlass in highschool. 350 rocket. Same blue yours was. Wish I had it today. Great story. Great build. Go for the LS7!
      Tankmasterj
      Jason's 67 Pro touring Camaro build
      Jason
      TANKMASTERJ
      https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...touring-Camaro
      Jasons Toys
      67 Camaro White Lightning LMR LS7 powered, Speed tech Front and Rear.
      2023 Rapid Blue ZL1 the Blue Devil
      2000 HD Softail
      1989 CBR Hurricane anniversary edition

    18. #18
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      Quote Originally Posted by TANKMASTERJ View Post
      Drove my moms 72 cutlass in highschool. 350 rocket. Same blue yours was. Wish I had it today. Great story. Great build. Go for the LS7!
      Tankmasterj
      Jason's 67 Pro touring Camaro build
      Jason
      Cool to hear, seems like lots of people have stories about an oldsmobile in their life at some point. And thank you! Currently having the ls7 built, so excited to get it in the car once I pick it up!

    19. #19
      Join Date
      May 2020
      Posts
      52
      For those interested in my winter plans in a little more depth:


    20. #20
      Join Date
      Jan 2014
      Location
      Texas
      Posts
      46
      Country Flag: United States
      Awesome build thread and youtube channel. I'm subbed and ready for new vids and updates!

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