I have been posting a few questions on finding some parts as I am in the process of getting my olds registered. Here in Australia its a lot more difficult to get a car registered than in the US. I have to pass a roadworthy, which means, no oil leaks, brakes up to scratch, no rust to speak of, lights, turn signals etc work well. no cracks in seats or steering wheels. all lenses must be crack and scratch free and not faded. all steering and suspension good, including rubbers and tie rod ends/ball joints etc. This may sound way out to some, but I'm also planning on putting my wife and son in this car to go to rod runs ( having a kid means the 32 roadster is left home now). So I'm not unhappy about having to go over the car, I want it safe for crusing and daily driving. I got the car in November of last year and have been steadily working on it as well as my hot rod and other peoples cars/motors. so its taken a while. The car was from Utah then titled and registered in Cali, as it was, it wasn't safe for the road, a drive around the block yes, but not a decent drive or highway speeds either. there were a few things I needed to go through, including the lifters, as some had collapsed. My biggest problem has been that while these are red headed stepchildern in the US, their non existant here in Australia, no one locally carries parts for these cars as we never had them imported. And very few know about them. I should have bought a Ford to make my life easier, but I wanted something different. But given time I have managed to import what I need. needless to say I dropped the car in for roadworthy inspection yesterday, I'm guessing I will still have a list of things to do, but happy that I have at least got it to the point that I'm happy to drive it on the highways. bare in mind that the cost to me just to have the car sitting in my driveway has been double my purchase cost, so a 10k car becomes 20k. So you have to be committed to the project to import something as its not a cheap exercise. this doesn't count the $$ I spent on a full set of rubbers for the car from fusick and carpet and underlay, new windscreen and 5 new tires. here some photos from then to now. pick up day. work starts. the underside hadn't seen a clean ever I think, but the motor had had a dulux rebuild. what I cleaned off. brakes new hardware wheels blasted and painted interior back in
nice work. definetly worth the extra effort to have it turn out that clean. keep the pics coming once you get her out and about more.
Looks real nice. If importing a car doubles the amount like you said you are a dedicated guy for sure. Keep up the good work!
neat car! needs a blower sticking out of that hood, ya know one of those aussie blowers you can turn off and on
Nice Corey, but you must have flipped the images - the steering wheel's on the wrong side! Re. roadsters, mine's been on the road 10 years and I've found the 2 seats an advantage. Having said that, the kids call the sloper the 'family car'. Hopefully they'll still be living at home when it's finished.
Thanks All, slowly I will get this where I want. I have decided that if the motor doesn't turn out to be what it should the car will get a windsor ( have one and parts are locally available- and I couldn't own a chev.) I had issues with noisey rocker assembly, turns out no oil was getting there and most of the lifters had collapsed, as I couldn't buy them here, I had to rebuild what I had, took some time to ungum the ones I had and find some parts that would work. but got there. also gave the motor a new dulux rebuild closer to what it should be. had trouble with it running at higher revs, note to self check all and everything before driving a car that has sat for a while also don't trust what some people will do with brakes! this car was registered in cali. front hoses rear hose. got rid of the rochester, so tried some other options. ended up putting a holley 600 on, as the car is going to be converted to 'gas' as in LPG that we run cars on here in Australia so you use the base of the holley for the converter. its cheap to run and the engine runs cleaner and the octane is 100 so good from that angle too. here the car is yesterday as I stopped to take some photos on the trip to the roadworthy place. and there.
Thanks for the pix. Those are great looking cars, and I don't understand why we don't see more of them. I like the colors on yours, and the way the seats are done. There were a lot of interiors done that way, way back when ...Simple , but eye catching.
Thanks All, this has been a drawn out process, but now its registered its nice to be able to jump in it and drive. As I said, the idea is a family car for rod runs and a daily during the week. I have found it a tight squeeze to get into the multistory carpart at work. And the swipe card access can be a bit of a pain, but I only have to do that twice a day, so small fries to be able to get to drive this all the time. I have put about 800mi on it now and my son seems to like it as he sits up a bit higher and can see with all the glass. His mother even did a trip in it for a few hours and didn't complain! 5 minutes in the roadster and she wanted out. So looks like I am on a winner all round. Plus I haven't seen another '55 here in Australia yet. I have seen a few '54 and '56 models but no '55's talk about the red headed stepchild. some driving shots taken by Rat Bastad who drove me up to Castlemaine to pick up the car from its roadworthy check.
Good to see it on the road finally Corey. X38 I hear ya on the 2 seats is a good thing. I refer to it more as a sanity escape pod! Sometimes you need that bit of distance from the kids....
That is so nice glad you got a lot of the bugs worked out on it. Its well worth it. I had a 54 about 22-23 years ago. After I rebuilt the carb and a few other things damn thing would pull down 20-22 mpg all day @65-70 mph. Michael
Looks great! Thanks for choosing the 55 Olds too. I've had 4 so far and still have 2 of them. Sure hope the engine and trans hold up for you as the one I have still totally stock is a hoot to drive. Jerry
hopefully for rod runs yes! the wife drives that I'm back to my faithful Ute, which really needs a birthday. I'm hoping the motor does, as I said on another thread, its a slug, I have gone through it thoroughly but its still a slug, will continue to play with it though. I hear you on that Brett, when I went to a recent hot rod outing, man it was nice to be out in the breeze by myself! hopefully I can still manage to get out in the roadster, I have neglected is since November last year when I started concentrating on this car.
Thanks All, anyone who knows of a 324, doesn't have to be a runner, happy for a rebuilder as long as its good and mostly complete I'm interested, have been chasing up a few, but they have fallen through. Can organise transport too. Really want to keep this olds powered. not afraid of a little hard work.
While I love 55 chevies, as of late I have really taken a liking to the "other" GM 55's . My Buick always pulls people away from nicer (show car) chevies, just because it's different, and I'll bet you'll see the same thing with the Olds as well.
Ya know, you really need to be careful with your wording otherwise some people will take it out of context....
You had to go to castlemaine for a roadworthy?! Olds looks really nice, good score. Whats the plan for the paint????
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