Lime Green 71OLDS 442 convertible

[Godbolt]

Your motor is a thing of beauty. Great job.

[71OLDS]

Your motor is a thing of beauty. Great job.

Thanks!

[71OLDS]

Beefy new driveshaft and yoke ready to go back in:

[71OLDS]

Trying to get the stock breather to fit under the ram air hood with a Torker intake. Started with the drop base for the 4150 Holley carb:



then the drop base was welded into the stock air cleaner:





Could only go so far down because of the fuel lines. It's going to be close. We'll see if it fits with the stock breather on there. Will update.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Yeah, this whole car is just cool.

[71OLDS]

Yeah, this whole car is just cool.

Thanks Ben!

-Joe

- - - Updated - - -

New update - front sway bar issue: So this one is interesting. I've never heard of anyone else with a 70 -72 442/Cutlass have this issue so I thought I would put some details here in case it comes up for someone else. I have the Hotchkis front sway bar on both my 71 442 and my 70 Supreme. The 442 has tubuluar upper and lower control arms with the coil over setup on the front and B-body spindles and it's lowered as you can see in the pics. Here's the issue. The "made for stock" Hotchkis sway bar no longer fits on the 442 with my setup. Not sure if it's the taller spindles or that it's lowered or some combo of everything but the sway bar hits the frame on both sides right where it "V's" up. Said another way the sway bar is no longer wide enough or long enough to fit. So we had a choice to try to go with a custom sway bar or let Frank work is metal skills and fabricate the Hotchkis bar to fit. So I asked Frank to give it a try. It was decided the "safest" way to do this was to cut the sway bar in the exact middle and weld in about a 1" piece of metal. This lengthens the bar just enough where the V's clear the frame and the bar ends up fitting perfectly. The sway bar is hollow but has a 1/4" wall. The piece Frank added is press fit into each tube about an inch and a half. The welding is very tricky - the dangerous part is making it too hard and causing a crack. Frank pulled it off because he's the man with his metal work. Here are some pics:

[71OLDS]

Both sides fit perfect now. If you see in the first pic that rub area on the frame - that's the exact spot it was hitting before on both sides. Now with the car on the ground the sway bar doesn't hit the upper ball joint or or the frame. Plus you can fit a finger between the bar and the frame:

[71OLDS]

Air cleaner is painted and breather is mounted. Inner fender wells are in. Still don't have the hood mounted and not 100% sure it's going to fit with the breather. I can tell from the height of where it sits it's going to be close:

[URL=http://s303.photobucket.com/user/jl71442/media/20160411_181411_zpstbj3wwkc.jpg.html]

[71OLDS]

With the battery in the trunk - added the shut off switch for safety. Went with the black pull/off handle in the lower bumper hole:

[71OLDS]

Great news on the breather - the hood is officially closed so the custom drop base worked with the Torker intake. The hood still has some issues sticking up a little in the back and with the chrome piece in the back sticking off too far but none of those issues have anything to do with the breather. They will be worked out when the body work is done. Here is a pic with the hood installed and closed:



I'm actually picking up the car Tuesday after next (5/17) and driving it back home to enjoy for the summer. I will not be getting the paint and body work done until the winter or even 2017. Once I get the car home I will take some videos to show the close up details of the breather and how it works and how the drop base looks for anyone who wanted to see that.

[Mr Nick]

Which hood is that? I'd love to put a 70 OAI on my 69, but the potential labor cost to make it look good scares me.

[71OLDS]

Which hood is that? I'd love to put a 70 OAI on my 69, but the potential labor cost to make it look good scares me.

it's the Glasstek all fiberglass bolt on repro hood with the air box. Got it about 15 year ago. I have the same one on my Cutlass Supreme. I think they are pretty good for the price ($600 ish). Not perfect and don't have the metal frame's like the "real" ones or the Thorton hoods but you will pay a lot for one of those. Also the all glass hoods are lighter which is nice. I had the factory looking screen added to mine to make it look more like the real one and leave the "waffle" marks on the foam on the breather. Plus it does stop leaves from flying in.




Not sure what's involved to put one on a 69 but I have seen lots of them with them - they always fake me out and make me think it's a 70 when I see one from a distance.

[71OLDS]

A few more pics and details on the airlcleaner/dropbase to get the breather to fit with the Torker intake:

Because the aircleaner was soooo low with the new drop base, the throttle bracket had to be modified to clear the aircleaner.



The two pieces of the aluminum drop base had to be epoxied together and to the aircleaner:



First coat of epoxy on and drying:

[71OLDS]

Got the car to a good stopping point on all the projects. Picking it up on Tuesday and driving it home from MD back to Virginia Beach. Hoping for a fun 4 hour drive and no issues. We'll see how it goes. Also plan on weighing the car at a scale in Falls Church, VA first then will head back to VB from there. Going to enjoy the car for the summer. Here's a pic of the motor today with the aircleaner all done, hood on and all working well with the breather and the Torker intake. Will take some videos when I get it back.

[71OLDS]

Rained the entire drive but made it safely back home....again. A few pics I took at the same rest stop as last time:





I was able to get the weigh in done. With me and a 1/2 tank it was 4,060 and 3,850 car alone. Previous weigh in without fiberglass and aluminum parts plus Brian Trick's lightening of the core support was 4,370 so 310 lb drop!! Not too bad. Still heavy and was hoping to be under 4,000 with me in the car but still an huge difference.

[Godbolt]

Looking good. I'd be tempted to coat it in matte black plastidip unit you paint it. Stance is spot on.

[71OLDS]

Looking good. I'd be tempted to coat it in matte black plastidip unit you paint it. Stance is spot on.

Thanks. I'm tempted to do the opposite and get the black and grey fiberglass panels hit with a "quickie" job of the original lime green (at a Maaco or something) then add the correct stripes so I can drive the car for a while in all it's correct colors. The body work required (cutting out and welding in metal in quarters, many fiberglass panel issues (gaps, alignment etc)) plus a full "complete" paint job will take 6 months (or longer) in paint jail and cost thousands. I just want to drive the car for a while and get everything dialed in. Would like to hold off on the "full" paint job for a year or two. I know many will cringe at the thought of a $1,000 quickie Maaco job making it a "10 footer" for a year or two but I'm fine with that. I will be putting about 5k miles a year on the car and enjoying it.

[Godbolt]

Good plan.

[71OLDS]

Been doing lots of little projects since the car has been back home. Already put 800 miles on the car in about 2 weeks That includes the drive home from MD but been doing LOTS of test driving and tuning/tweaks over the last week. Had perfect weather Wed, Thurs, Fri, & Sat (yesterday). I had the top down with the boot on:




and put about 350 miles on the car just driving around over those 4 days.

Some updates. Had to raise the front coil overs about an inch because the top of the drivers side front tire was hitting the fender well on pot holes, bumps, and entering driveways. I think I have it in a good spot now where it won't hit anymore.

Unfortunately the alignment was done w/o the steering box centered so right now it will let me turn 1.8 turns to the left but only 1.2 to the right. Need to get it redone for 1.5 each way (AGR steering box) The box is leaking a little from the shaft seal too so will hopefully get both those issues fixed next week.

The AC is not able to be used right now which is disappointing - having idle issues with the carb and fan set up. The idle can go up or down about 400 RPM (600 to 1000 RPM) from cold start up to fully hot. When the electric fans come on, the idle drops. As the motor and heats up the idle goes up. If I turn on the AC on the car will stall if idling. Will need to add an idle solenoid to the street avenger 770 carb to raise the idle when the AC is on and try to dial in the idle issues on the carb itself. Also having some issues with the throttle being a little too tight. Only an issue when leaving from a dead stop. A "soft" granny leave off the line from a dead stop is hard because the throttle "sticks" and doesn't want to go smoothly off the line. Going to try softer springs to see if that helps. It's not so bad when everything is cold but as the clutch and motor heats up it gets worse. I can leave the line hard = tire spin or "jerky" as I try to ease it and the throttle sticks.

Anyway lots of little issue like that to get worked out but banging through the gears has been a blast over the last few days. The throttle response and power feels incredible. Massive tire spin all through first gear even with the big 18" 305 drag radials. Even a rolling start is hard not to spin. Been enjoying hitting the corners and even a little drifting sideways action too Doing this caused the big tires in the rear with very little space between the frame and the 3" tail pipes to start to rub/hit. So I took the car to a Midas had them heat up the areas of the tail pipe where it was hitting and put a "flat spot" there for added clearance. No more rubbing or hitting. Took a few pics of that:




you can also see the shiny part in that last pic where it was hitting the inner well in that one spot. Did some "massaging" there then coated everything in some high heat flat black and I can now get as sideways as I want and no more rubbing. Probably gained about 1/2" on each side which did the trick.

[71OLDS]

Upgraded the old Alpine deck to a new Sony MEX-GS610BT Bluetooth/IPOD/2 way voice w/mic above steering column




It is Bluetooth connected to by cell phone now (no wires) so all my songs, directions on the phone, and incoming and outgoing calls are hands free and wireless through the stereo. There's a small mic mounted above the steering column and below the speedo and tach. So cool to have all that technology now in my 71 car!! Can press the button on my Iphone and ask for directions into the mic and it cuts the music and gives me step by step directions through the speakers. Can answer the phone and talk hands free while driving. I had no idea what the newer car stereos could do!!