Projects 1956 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday mild custom build

Thanks for looking that up. I ordered a service manual but it hasn't shipped yet.

The original thread was for a later 394 pump, which may already have the shorter arm maybe?

 

Nice project
Recently joined the ‘56 Rocket club with this one family since new, Super 88.
Got a smoking deal on this rebuilt 350/350 combo. It going in real soon.
Can’t afford to get too carried away with her, just concerned about running and driving right now
Definitely want to score some fender skirts I saw on eBay
Weird...skinny whites on passenger side, wide whites on driver’s side. May hide the skinny’s inside the rear skirts for now.




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You can hook the vacuum line from the wipers to the intake manifold and they will work ok. They just may stop if you floor it.

 

The problem is there are two ports on the wiper motor and neither are connected, so I have no idea what feeds what.

 

From the wiper motor a vacuum hose goes to the wiper switch on the dash, then to the engine. Post a picture of the wiper motor.

 

I did.

 

There is no info in the manual regarding the wiper installation. I have the service manual so perhaps it would be in the Installation Manual??
You could install a vacuum can to store vacuum It does work to smooth out the wipers under acceleration

 

Good read here
1955 olds vacuum lines - windshield wipers - Oldsmobile - Technical - Antique Automobile Club of America - Discussion Forums (aaca.org)

 

The vacuum hose is connected to the curved copper looking pipe on the wiper motor.

 

Pulled the Olds out so I could do some exhaust work on my OT Mercury wagon. Picked up a screw or something in the process as I came out this morning to a flat LF tire. Found a bigger problem with the wagon than expected (flanges on pipes are rotted and won't seal), so Olds is on hold until I fix that.

 

Wagon is fixed, turned out easier that expected. Olds is back in the garage. I checked the flat tire and discovered it is dry rotted and basically stopped being airtight. All four are in bad shape. I knew it was going to need tires, but hoped these would last until I was ready to drive it.
Anyway, next project is rebuilding the drag link, replacing the tie rods and adjusters, greasing the front end, and repacking the front wheel bearings. However my carmel discs finally showed up, so I spent this evening stripping more bedliner.

 

The white paint is more than presentable on this car. Looking great.

 

That's a bloody good looking car.
Look forward to watching your progress.

 

Started taking things apart to work on the steering, discovered that someone really didn't believe it had left handed threads and stripped the hell out of one of them. Instead of tracking down one left handed stud I've ordered enough right handed ones to do the whole car, so this isn't ever an issue again.


Lug holes in the wheel are stretched out, probably from people driving the lugs in harder trying to get them off the wrong way. I haven't checked all the wheels, but I know I'm in the market for at least one replacement wheel.

 

Another video update. Pulled the drag link to rebuild it (Need help with what is the left & right side as I didn't realize it was directional when I pulled it out), pulled the rear seat so my partner could measure it to make a cover, and continue to work on stripping the bedliner.

 

Got the drag link rebuilt and the tie rods replaced, new muffler that will hopefully be quieter, and an oil change.
I have ordered 5 new tires (the spare is an ancient bias-ply), but will need one new rim to replace the one with stretched lug holes. In the mean time, the bad rim will be the spare.

Last night I started replacing the lug studs, I knocked them out of the rear axle with a sledge after a ball-joint remover failed to budge them. I tried getting the new studs in, but I have about 1/8-1/4" of each one before they are properly bottomed, but I can't pull them any further in. I'm debating between getting a more powerful impact gun, or pulling the axle and driving them in with an air hammer.

 

I also replaced the oil-bath element with a WIX 42088 paper filter to make life easier. Found the wingnut rod was stripped, when I went to replace it I discovered it is some weird size between 1/4 and 5/16" and was stripped from having a 1/4" wingnut forced onto it. Replaced it with a 1/4"x20 rod, which catches the threads in the carb, but wobbles a bit. Why the heck did Olds use a unique thread size for this part?

 

Hi Improbable Garage I have a 3 deuce 324 in my Hot Rod, hope to meet someday, looks like a great project.

 

Sweet! Hope to see you at a show or something when its safe to go those again.

 

@NelsonN you have some Olds things for sale? or am I having a senior moment.....PM me, do'nt want to hijack this thread

 

New tires! I'd planned to buy some wide whites in a year or two when the bodywork/paint was at least closer to done. However one tire stopped holding air, and I discovered the spare was a 40+ year old bias ply.
I couldn't stretch the budget to proper wide whites, but I was able to get 5 1.5" whitewalls, which is what are on the front now, and look decent. Now I just need to get them mounted. The plan is to mount 4 of them, using 3 rims and the spare rim. And have the shop move the best of the 4 current tires onto the crappy rim with stretched lug holes as the spare until I can find a fifth good rim.

 

Hello,

Nice Oldsmobile sedan. Our family started with a 51 Olds 2 door sedan and it kept others at bay in the local cruising scene from 1956 to 61. But, in looking at some old drag racing films I took and edited, I found this Lion’s Dragstrip pits staging lane action. The big old Buicks and Oldsmobile sedans were numerous in the different classes back then.

It was take the daily driver out to the drags, pop the hubcaps and stomp on the pedal. It was fun to see how well they performed.

Jnaki

These days, the old 50s-60s cars have a lot of appeal to those that had them before or those that like that style. Keep up your interest in that cool Oldsmobile sedan. One of the girls in our high school class always drove a big family Olds sedan to school and other places, dances, football games, etc. It may have been that her dad owned the big Oldsmobile dealership that was near our high school. But, it was fun to tease her about the big cruiser, who could complain about a car full of teenagers?

 

Video update from yesterday, got the studs replaced (did the 4th corner today). Replaced the inside mirror with a nice used one off ebay.
Today I dropped off the wheels & new tires at a shop to be mounted and balanced. Discovered a coolant puddle and a dribble down the radiator, so pull the rad & dropped it off as well so it can get flushed and pressure tested.

Also working on the interior. Found a "close enough" match to the seat upholstery, so instead of making covers, my partner is replacing the torn panels on the seat bottoms.



I also scrubbed the leather (still need to treat it), but I am having a problem with some rust(?) stains that don't want to budge. Any guesses how to get this off white leather?

 

Might try a test spot with CLR or the old white vinegar and salt trick ( the wife says it works)
Wet the area with the vinegar using a sponge, while wet put some salt on it and work it with the sponge then rinse well.

 

Got the new tires mounted, sadly according to the shop all of the rims are at least slightly bent. So I will be getting new rims in the spring.
Studs are done, but I'm waiting on new front wheel seals to re-assemble the front hubs, and I'm waiting on getting the radiator back, then that is going back in with new rad hoses, rad cap, and thermostat. In theory this will button up the mechanical stuff for right now. The trans still has a significant front seal leak, but I'm not pulling that right now as I'll need help to wrestle that monster out.

 

How bent is "a little bent"? Did they balance out OK? Let's face it bro, you're not going to be running the Nurburgring with this car. If the wheels balance out fine and they're not noticeably wobbling, I say run it.

 

The black wheel was the least bent, and it took several ounces of weights to balance. I'm going to wait and see how they run in the spring, but they were already a bit gnarly so replacing them isn't the worst thing. Coker has smoothies for $68 each so it won't murder the budget.

 

Do yourself a favor and find some steel wheels. Smoothies are some lame '80s '50s stuff, they never look great even when they look OK. Run a set of caps on steel wheels. Only other choice to me for a custom style car would be to run chrome wheel. That's assuming the wheels you have already aren't good to run, which I suspect they will be. Who cares how many weights you have on there as long as they're on the back. Nobody sees them.

My O/T daily driver has 19" M sport wheels, and with the low profile tires on NJ roads, I've cracked them at least 5-6 times. I've lost count. I put a fat weld bead on there, brought them back to the shop, they balanced them with what looks like a book of stamps worth of wheel weights, and those shits don't vibrate at 110+ mph.

 

From my experience " the wheels are bent" is most likely a tire tech assuming they are bent since they require a lot of weight which in most cases the culprit can be found in the tire itself. The new balancers today are able to check run out and allow for indexing the tire for high spots to reduce weight but in many cases this is never done.
Did they indicate that they did the run balance or provide you with a print out of each balance?