Projects New Project: 1953 Oldsmobile

Happy 4th all!



While I’m here, I finally put on a olds horn button and recently added some chrome eyelids. I really like how they came out!

 

Stopping by to share some rolling shots a friend took!

 

Great car Hawk! I just picked up a '55, it has these half moon type eye lids that are glued right onto the headlights, they are not a shroud like yours. Moonshine runner to keep the headlight beam out of the trees at night? Weird. Anyway, good update!

 

Ok, it’s time to confess what’s been going through my head and have you guys help me keep this thing traditional.

Confession first: I have an extremely OT car in my garage with an extremely OT engine and transmission I bought specifically for Baloo.

But I really love my 455.

Here’s my goal: I want to be able to haul a teardrop trailer across the country without having to worry about reliability or awful awful gas mileage.

Can a 200r4 do that for me? With a rebuild of my 455 and a 200r4, what kind of mileage do you think I could expect?

Picture simply because I hate pictureless posts.

 

We would need to know what rear end ratio you have now, before anyone could come anywhere close to a estimate. Me personally, I have no use for any of these overdrive transmissions, I learned that the hard way with a Hemi and a 700r. But I do understand why folks want to go that way. I still don't think they are a good fit for most of our applications, I also think I am in the minority with that thought as I am sure there will be a dozen guys come on here and tell you there how there overdrive automatic is the greatest thing since sliced bread. My dealings with one of them was just bad.

 

I am betting that the rear is a 323. I know nothing about those overdrive trannys so I am not able to suggest much that would be worth while but this will bump it up for the morning crew.

 

I’m kicking myself for not counting the teeth on the diff when I had it out last time. Oh well. I’m still banking on the 200r4 doing better on gas than what I have now.

Just got back from picking up a core. I paid $250. The shop I bought it from said they will rebuild it for $1250. Sound about right? I told them my goal is to tow down the highway with it eventually. Didn’t seem to think that was a problem.

Here the core:


I’m going to sell the OT car I bought (can kinda see it behind the 200r4) and use the money for the rebuild. Next will be to get the 455 rebuilt.

 

Super long shot, but I assume this picture isn’t enough information to tell me what my gear ratio is since you can’t see the pinion?

I figure next time I have it on stands, I’m just going to spin and count, just thought I’d ask.

 

There should be a number stamped on it that with a shop manual you can tell the ratio,its not the actual ratio but a single number and I should still have a manual. Mine had around a 3,23 and I think stamped 4.

 

Ring T / Pinion T = Gear Ratio

 

Sitting here and thinking of stupid ideas, so I wanted to get some opinions.

1) who should I contact about getting my dash clock repaired? And how much should I expect to pay? Think I should ask local watch places first?


2) I’d rather have a functional clock, but if it’s something I just can’t afford to do, how dumb would it be to put in a vacuum/eco gauge there? They’re kinda cheap, and I think it would be cool.

 

Those clocks are not hard to fix. Take the cover off of it and oil all the gears and the pins they spin on. Next file the points. Most quit working because the battery slowly went dead and when the clock tried to rewind there was not enough left in the battery for it to rewind. So the clock points just sat there and burned. I have fixed a bunch of them with these simple to do fixes.

 

I actually have a second clock in a box of parts… I might give it a shot. What kind of oil do I use?

 

Cool car. Extra cool with the olds motor. You won't have any issues with that that you won't have with a sbc. LS would give different harder to fix issues. Looks good lowered. Air bags I see as a waste of money. Just low is cool. I saw some talk on an overdrive auto. Look into T700. That would be my pick of auto. But muy choice would be old school cool 3 speed column shift with electric overdrive.

 

my 50 Ford clock didnt work either. Took it out and blew all the dust off then put it in a small container with a cotton swab that was wet with kerosene for a couple days (old farmer trick) and it lubed it up quite well. File the points and it now works. Give it a try. There is info on the web about these clocks and how they were meant to function.

 

For oil I use sewing machine oil, but any light oil will work.

 

Agree on sewing machine oil, or the little tube that comes with hair clippers. I worked with a guy who fixed car clocks on the side years ago. He said most of them just needed to be cleaned and oiled.

 

You guys are awesome, got the clock working again! And not just the one in the car, the spare clock works too!

I know not everyone does Instagram or Facebook, but here are links for videos if anyone wants to see and hear it:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ch-0qxLjLcQ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...EERWnhmqmWQ7yAl&id=1286021457&mibextid=zXXBe0

 

I saw it on IG and commented. Good for you, I knew there was not a lot to fixing them.

 

Yeah man! I’m super excited about it.


So, got another question; I read that the clocks will auto adjust their speed over time as you keep correcting the time. Is that true on this one too?

I ran both clocks on my work bench all night to see how they did. The one from the car was about 15 minutes behind after 8 hours. The other was 5 minutes behind. I played with the speed adjustment on the back of both before leaving this morning to see where they’re at later.

 

Clock is back in! You’ll never guess what time I took the photo at…

I ended up switching to the spare clock since it was a little more accurate. Hoping over time the accuracy will improve as I adjust hands.

It’s dumb, but I am super excited about this thing working. Literally sat in the car about 15 minutes just listening to it tick and rewind.

 

After cleaning and lubing a clock mechanism like this, especially without doing a complete disassembly, I'd give them at least several days if not weeks of "run-in"time before worrying too much about their accuracy. As the new oil works its way into the gears and bushings it's also still flushing out some of the old oil and other dirt and debris. During this time I would avoid making any adjustments to the regulation.

As far as adjusting the time making an improvement in accuracy . . . I doubt that it's a function of the clock's design. But you might end up seeing this coincidentally as a result. Probably more as a result of giving the clock more run-in time to circulate the new lube. And manually moving the clock's hands may further help to circulate the fresh oil.

I'd guess that moving the hands manually would only work to make the clock maybe run slightly faster, but not to slow it down. This is likely the reason you usually see instructions stating to only move the time forward when adjusting the hands. Backing the time up a few minutes shouldn't hurt anything but you should avoid backing up the time over a span of hours.

And remember that even when these clocks were running at their best, you could expect to see a variance of plus or minus a few minutes every couple of weeks or months. These are not digital quartz movements.

 

Hey, if it’s only off by 20 minutes every week, I’ll be thrilled!

Thanks for the information!

 

Listen man you are not looking at this clock accuracy thing in the right way. You actually want a clock to loose a couple of hours each week, that's what is known as a Married Mans Clock.

 

Ok, so while I’m saving up to get the 200r4 rebuilt, I’m really enjoying these cheap detail projects. I need help with the next one.

I want my horn button to work. Currently have one zip tied to the side of the column.

I thought it would be easy enough, but I have a telescoping column, and I’m not sure what it’s from.







I don’t actually use the telescoping function, so I’d like the simplest way to do this. I’d love to ditch the spring if I can.

Biggest problems I’m running into is that the column doesn’t have a contact pin like I’m used to. The spring works if I ground it out and it has a place for a contact pin, but it’s too wide for my steering wheel.

Does anyone know of an adapter I can use to ditch the spring and have a contact pin that would line up with my steering wheel?

The wiring seems to work fine. I’m able to ground it out and get 12+ where I need it.


Worst case scenario, I can probably rig something up myself, but if there’s a cheap an easy option, I’m all for it.

 

Still looking for ideas.

I’m not 100% sure how this works, but can I just replace the horn cam with this one?

 

Got the horn button working!

I ended up getting that turn signal cam. It didn’t fit, so I trimmed the heck out of it and sort of added it to the telescoping spring. Threw in a new pin and it seems to be working fine!

No lie, it makes me a little nervous the way I have it rigged. Kinda worries at some point the horn will just start blaring. I added a small fuse under the dash I can rip out real quick if something goes wrong.

 

Ok, on to the next detail!

I want my gear indicator to work. N, D, and R take 12+ to show on the cluster.

Example below shows them off, N, D, and R bench testing with 12+.


Reverse and neutral are easy. I can use the neutral safety switch to make those do what I want. I’m having a hard time figuring out drive.

I played around with a couple of relays, but I don’t really want to use extra relays for something so simple.

So on to my actual question, is there a neutral safety switch that will give me 12+ (or just complete a circuit) in drive?

Here’s a picture of mine:

 

Figured out the relay! Only need one and some diodes. Hopefully I can put it together tomorrow. Got tangled up in another part of the project this evening.

 

Took some time during my conference period to draw out my wiring for the gauges.

Anyone want to check for a feedback loop? I think I’ve got it covered now.

Purple is for reverse.
Orange is for neutral (and park).
Green is going to be drive.

Little black and red things are diodes.