1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 holiday build

I love your 2 door sedan, what a weird combination.

Kevin

 

You would be correct. Olds hoods from this era are notorious for it. The framing is not strong enough and over time it bends the tabs that weld to the edge of the hood resulting in a nice kink. This is if the spot welds along the back edge dont break first. There are too support straps that bolt to the hood frame and go diagonal to the edge of the hood in the middle, but they were little more that sheet metal. Im gonna use some nice 1/8" x 3/4" in its place so the hood will never have problems again. I spent many exhausting hours hammering, shrinking, hammering more, heating, and finally got everything flat. The metal was stretched from being kinked all the way to the center of the hood. I must have shrunk it at least 2 dozen times in different places. After that I attached the frame underneath and managed to get it lined up with the cowl perfect.

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Thanks Kevin - strange one for sure...still trying to figure it out

 

Thanks for the info - watching your progress is humbling.

 

Today marks 1 year ago I drove the olds home on a dolley. It was uneventful, except when it dropped into drive and the transmission was driving the motor for a few miles up the interstate.

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I'm interested to know why you decided to weld up the cowl?

Ice just converted my 55 super 88 coupe to 8" dual diaphragm booster and dual master set up for brakes and had to delete the fresh air box to do so. Was it for this reason, to stop water going down into there?

 

That's right, to keep water out of the blower box, from behind the wiper motor and from rotting the joints between the upper cowl panel & firewall. Its a bad design and I will be running a duct to the blower box from somewhere else I haven't decided yet. I can goto the front beside the radiator, to the inner fender beside the wheel, or out the sides of the cowl. I will show it here when I get there.

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Alright, tonight I installed the passenger rocker and rocker top. It was relatively painless, most of the work was planning and cutting, as usual. I capped the end of the rocker like I discussed, sealing it up tight with liberal amounts of seam sealer. Every bit of surface area inside the rocker cavity got hit with epoxy. I never understood why people would fix rust on any car and do the same rusty repair just because "factory knows best". The muscle car fanatics are notorious for this. I think its weird and in a way, sad. Anyway, I got a new phone, so picture quality will be much better.

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is that rocker 'outer' one you made or the ones that are available on ebay? Just wondering as I have a pair from ebay and I'm not sure they are the right curve , in comparison to my car it looks to 'square'

watching with much interest as I need to do this rust repair myself and my hood has suffered the same issue as it seems most!

are you still planning on staying with the 324?

 

The rocker inners and outers came from classic fabrication. They are pretty accurate but not 100 perfect match. The ones on ebay _suck_. They do not have the proper radius and the bends are off. I dont believe the Guage is right either. As far as im concerned, classic fab is the only way to go.

And yes, I am keeping the original drivetrain.
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Finished welding the new rocker in last night. Looks great, and only one more panel to go on the passenger side and ifs done! Well at least that side, the drivers side is in far better shape. After that, ill be sanding my ass off

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coming along nicely, looks good.............john

 

Lookin' good Robin Hood!

 

I fabbed up the last piece I needed for the quarter panel and tacked it in. Everything came out exactly how I wanted and I couldn't be happier. The metal work on the badly damaged passenger side is done and it should be smooth sailing ftom here on out.

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must be time for an update?

How's it going?

 

I just took the first piece off my '55 this weekend, and the end of my journey is no where in sight. The road will be rough I'm sure, but I am excited! Especially after reading this thread! I hope the project is going well, thank you for sharing!! I wish the best for you and yours!

 

DRH, looking for an update on how your going?

 

Looks damn good man can't wait to see it all back together

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i think dustin sold the olds, called me back last february wanted to know if i was interested in buying it, at the time i didnt have the money or space so had to pass, a few weeks later i seen it on craigslist.

 

Well that sucks if he did that's allot of work for someone to say they did it