Projects My 1955 Oldsmobile Holiday 4-door project

Hi Guys. I was inspired to get back to work by Cobalt in this thread:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820373

Anyway, I rescued the car in september and installed a fuel pump i found on ebay from a '58 i think. Once i got fuel to the engine, it started, and gas bellowed out of the carb (stuck needle and seat). When i tried to order the carb kit, i found out i have a '56 engine with #10 heads! Sweet! So I rebuilt the carburetor, got it running, and immediately broke the hydra-matic (reverse came out in chunks) on my first drive. I got kinda down and quit working on it.





After reading the other post, I decided to get started again. I pulled the seats, carpet, and the trim out. Pretty sure this car hasn't been vacuumed since the 60's based on the gum, cigar, soda wrappers.

I used a grinder and a wire wheel, the used the silver POR15 on the interior

before and after:

 

Wow, that car is solid. Whatcha gonna do about that scattered hydromatic?

 

I snagged some beige power heated leather seats from my car's great-grandson at a u-pull-it for $125 total:





These have the seatbelts built in to the seats. My plan is to solidify the seat mounts. Luckily they are next to the door post which should be solid enough steel to hold the seat together. Hopefully I never have to test it. I ordered some Leather Masters to hopefully refurbish the leather.



while i was there i snagged a few back seats from cadillacs and buicks for $12 each I will have to trim some of the foam here and tuck the leather there, but i can make them fit. The unused rear seats will be stripped and i'll use the leather for custom kick panels, trunk panels, etc

 

thanks! this car is amazingly, astonishingly solid. the ONLY rot in the floors i found was in the rear seat footwell. the trunk is 100% perfect, as is the frame and under the hood. by all rights this car should have rotted to the ground since it spent the last 40 years in a barn and sitting outside. It must have been built on a tuesday.

I'm currently trying to work out a deal on a rebuilt hydro...if that falls through i will be back to looking for one

 

Next up was the roof. That tar carpet stuff on the roof is nasty. I tried to scrape it off, but that didn't work. I decided to hit it with the wire wheel. What a mess! Worked though. laying upside down holding a 7 amp grinder helps the abs, glutes, and tricepts







Here i am. Believe it or not, i'm actually a white guy:



i made a tar paper crap snowman. His name is Crappy. The children say he can laugh and play.




I intend to find a better way to do this when i start on the trunk. Not doing that again.

 

My molding is all rotted and cracked. Even if i spent the $200+ to buy new and went through the pain in the butt install, i have a feeling this old bird would still be leaky. I can stick my finger in between the window and the rubber:



While I was at the junkyard, i grabbed all the rubber molding off of, i think, a Cadillac Deville...maybe it was a Seville. Either way, they had molding that ran all the way from the front door to the back door in one continuous strip. The outside facing part is soft rubber. teh inside part is upholstered with soft beige cloth.








I just popped it on with my palm onto the old dried rubber. It probably would stay like that, but i'll clean it and use adhesive to keep it in place:


compare this to the original picture. Probably a lot less leaky:




Best part? that rubber weather strip is like $1 per foot. I got enough to do two cars for $20
Winning!

 

it has been cold and snowy the last few weeks, so i have been hand polishing the interior pieces. the entire interior is covered in this heavy mildew stuff. Little metal compound, a rag, and a whole lotta rubbin', and a "Top Gear" marathon:

 

cool! great job on the polishing.

 

That's what I call keeping cost low good job it looks good

 

Keep the momentum up! Slumps are downers. Looking good.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

A couple YouTubes. First time I tried starting it (bad fuel pump, open headers)
http://youtu.be/ti09lKO1v90

Stuck hydro wouldn't move. Forward or reverse
http://youtu.be/517o5q4CDrA


After new fuel pump, plugs, wires, valve cover gaskets, oil/filter, tranny juice, carb rebuild. I worked it neutral to drive, again and again for probably 10 minutes. Then magic: she moved! Kept working it and drove it all the way down the driveway. After that, around the block.
http://youtu.be/xJ659zP-M3I

Then I got greedy and grenaded reverse

 

I have been pretty busy with a new job, and it has been snowy here, so work on the olds has slowed. I did get to clean up my junkyard seats a bit using Leather Masters and a blue scotch brite pad and sponge. You can clearly see where i taped it off. The deep cracks have actually lost some of the color, so i will still need to hit them with a bit of color.





even if they aren't perfect, i'm very pleased that i found seats out of an Oldsmobile!


I also used a headlight restoration kit to try to clean up my taillights. I'm still not pleased with them, so i'll probably try to find a new set

Before:


After:

 

Neat car, and I like the weatherstrip solution. But I wish you would reconsider on the seats. They look like an afterthought, and they really stick out.

 

Stop sugar-coating it Squablow. The seats are ugly as hell. Get the originals retrimmed if they need it and send those monstrosities back to the scrapper.

 

X 1000

I know its a subjective thing...but those seats in that 55 Olds is a crime against humanity !! This is the HAMB after all......

PLEEEEEEASE !!!

 

the seats really set the car off.... Like a set of balls hanging out under a skirt.

 

Wow thanks guys. I won't post any more till I'm finished with it. The goal for this car was to make it a safe daily driver. Seatbelts and headrests are required, and these were the best option to make that happen. I know they don't look as good as the original...nothing will. This is about safety. Oh well

 

Good job, coming along good!

They're a bit ugly, but who cares just run those seats for now until you plan out seat belts and OEM seats (only if you want, it is YOUR car after all). Focus on driving it, then worry about the seats

 

Great job on the polishing, that is a great looking car and so solid! Best to you man, sure love that body style~!

 

Do you have any pics of the entire car? Especially in as found condition? Those would be awesome to see.

 

i just found YOUR page,,,hahaha..looks like your having fun too...looks good..but i have to agree the seats need to be changed as soon as you can...im about a month out before i crack into mine..i have quotes to redo them from low 800 to 1600...then again i might just go the way of getting a seat rebuilding kit from EZ and do them myself...another learning project...keep up the good work..im subscribing to your page...

 

It was in good shape when I bought it. Didn't run, but it would fire after pouring gas in the carb. It was sitting at the back of a car guy's property, too far to wash it, so it was covered in a layer of green mildew. Little soap and water and it looked great














Mice took care if destroying the interior.

 

I had a few people ask. This is the stuff I used to polish the stainless. I bought it at the Charlotte auto fair. I'll have to pick more up this spring.

Metal madness. Sounds legit. From http://supershinedetail.com

 

Those seats negate all the nice work you've done on this car. Seriously, they're an atrocity. I'd sit on torn seats with springs poking my balls long before I'd put those in. Otherwise the car looks great. But the seats are so bad that they're impossible to look past.

 

If you do nothing else, put the old seats back in. Please watch the movie W W and the Dixie Dance Kings. Best Burt Reynolds movie ever and he has an Oldsmobile in it tricked out. It could be an idea to go with.

 

OK, That one made me laugh out loud. I think that about sums up the seat issue for most people here, me included.

 

wow, your Olds is beautiful und you are doing a great job restoring it.The dash on these cars is beautifull and the details are all very well designed. From all this beauty these late model bucket seats stick out like a sour thumb. Please reconsider your choice

 

Could you explain why headrests are required? is it a state law for re registering an old car? As I am unaware of this.

I also vote you deep six the seats, but if you have to because of a law, I'm sort of wondering how other car guy's get around it in your area.

I'm also working from a knowledgeable perspective here as I also own a 55 olds and it is my daily driver, not a use most of the time or weekends and a day a week. It is my only car for daily driving. I have the original seat's in it, I also added lap belts in the front and lap/sash or 3 point ones in the rear.

So unless it's for a state law, I can't see why you couldn't do the same and if you look at my attached photo , you will see the kids seat in the rear so safety was a concern too.

You don't have to compromise, unless you choose to.

Regardless , I will be watching along as Old's always interest me.

 

You see those seats as toast. I see them as needing a few yards of fabric sewn in, the vinyl,if not punctured,sprayed with dye to make it look new again. The roof deal, those are sheets of asphalt and usually peel away,or with help from a scraper and that mess with the grinder was a make work project. If you visit: http://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...dliner-replacement-do-yourself-get-right.html

you will see my post about sewing a new headliner,a '56 but same as a '55. I also have other restoration topics that are also helpful.