Projects Brought home a 1956 Olds 88 (waking up an old girl from a 36 year slumber)

Any reason you can't adapt either a '57 Chevy electric, or a late model SUV/minivan rear window wiper motor to the stock mechanism?


Fuel pump you might be able to rebuild, you're going to want a diaphram that's ethanol resistant. You might be able to find a single action fairly easy, I would imagine they were the same for all the early Olds V8s from 49-59 and 394 to like '64.

 

Talk to this fella. I have not used his service personally but I have heard good things of his service. For rebuild kits that are ethanol resistant. classicpreservation.com

 

Can always hook the wiper motor to manifold vac until you figure out what conversion you are going to use.

 

Time for an Oldsmobile update. IT'S ALIVE!!!
I got that nice old 324 running. After getting fresh fuel out of a can into the carb via an electric pump it fired right up and even idled pretty damn smoothly when I tapped the gas pedal. As 302GMC said The lifters did clatter but I never got it up to full operating temp. All's not well yet. It has a couple leaks in the radiator and the carburetor will need to be rebuilt as gas was leaking out of it from the accelerator pump and somewhere else I'm not sure of. But it ran and sounded very healthy.
As of right now I have the carb off and over to an old timer that's been rebuilding carburetors for forty years. I've used this guy before and I know he will do a good job. When I dropped it off he took one glance at it and said Oldsmobile right? I said how did you know? Didn't GM use that same Rochester on a lot of different cars. He said yes, just about everything that had a V-8 but I can tell by the throttle linkage.
I have the radiator over at a shop that I hope can repair mine without having to re-core it. I have already checked for a new one with US Radiator, Champion, Griffin, Dillon, Wizard, Tri-Starr, Auto City classics & eBay no luck yet on a new one for this car. If anyone has any other places please let me know. This one is huge. I don't have the exact size in front of me but it's something like 24 x 21.5. Bottom hose is on the drivers side & top just past center on the passenger side.
After doing more cleaning on the gas tank It has about 8 holes and enough thin metal around them that it is looking much worse than I originally thought. I took the tank around to a few repair shops and the verdict wasn't good. The only place that I have found that makes a gas tank specifically for the 1955-57 Oldsmobiles is Fusick. They are in between runs of production and won't have any new ones for 2-3 months. After adding up what I would have invested to have the tank acid dipped then all the holes welded up, then I would still need to seal it, just didn't make sense. So I sent it off the Moyers Gas Tank Renu, www.gas-tank.com/ All they do is gas tank refurbishing and you get a lifetime warranty. If anyone knows anything good or bad about this place please let me know.
I went ahead and ordered a rebuilt original fuel pump from Fusick. I have mine off & ready to ship back to them to get my core charge refund.
Looks like I have some time to get those new brake lines & fuel line installed while gas tank & radiator are being repaired.

 

Cool to hear it is running.

 

I love the interior, the colors are awesome and I can't believe how nice the chrome is looking..!!

 

Time for an Oldsmobile update.

I got the rebuilt fuel pump installed & picked up the radiator from the shop. They were able to save the radiator and it looks great. It was leaking from three different places. They ended up removing the top tank to clean and re-solder it back on then had to solder a piece to the bottom. Flushed, cleaned, Pressure tested it and painted for only $150.00.

Stupid me found out the hard way that you can not use the rear wheel cylinders on the front. For some unknown reason no one I found has a listing for the front wheel cylinders except Fusick & they want $49.50 EACH. Everybody lists a rebuild kit for the fronts but no new cylinders. After paying $9.49 at NAPA for the rears I couldn't bring myself to pay over $100.00 for the fronts. I spent some time doing some research online and finally found what I needed. The fronts are 1 & 1/8 inch bore, the rears are 15/16th inch bore. For anyone rebuilding brakes on a 1954-56 Oldsmobile here are the part numbers. These parts might very well work on other years and on the Buick's of similar years as well.

These are NAPA numbers.

Front wheel cylinders 14493 & 14494 $16.99 each
Front rubber brake hose 24058 $15.69 each
Rear wheel cylinders 13387 & 13388 $9.49 each

 

That fuel pump is CLEAN!
Radiator turned out great too!
I also had mine looked at by a local shop, they just had to fix a small leak and redo the overflow tube. Beats buying a new one for sure...
When I redid my front breaks last year, I bought a kit off of ebay. Too bad I had to take it off now when I switched to discs.

You got a great project going on here. Looking forward to the updates!

 

Oldsmobile Update

Watched F-1 qualifying and worked on the car until 3am this morning. Burning the midnight oil on this car is going to kill me one of these days. Decided to change the water pump while everything was off and I had such good access. After getting it off I think it was a real good idea. There was evidence of coolant leaking out the weep hole.
I also got the master cylinder/booster out from under the car. That's system I've never seen before. The brake pedal assembly pushes directly down through the floor board to actuate the master. First you remove the brake pedal assembly, then thank god there's an access plate under it that you remove to get to the master/booster assembly. It would be a real bitch to have to remove that from underneath. Once again I can't find a rebuild kit for a power master cylinder. You can buy the manual rebuild kit & the booster rebuild kit but no one I've found has a kit for that power master cylinder. The power master & manual master don't look anything alike. So I have it boxed and ready to ship off to be rebuilt by Fusick. With any luck they have one already rebuilt & on the shelf ready to ship out.

 

Good call on the water pump and the Master Cylinder you sure don't want to go back in after the cleaning and painting. Brakes are always a good thing to have! I bought a rebuild kit for my brothers 56 power Master Cylinder from NAPA. Now that I think about it that was 14 years ago! Time does get away from me.

 

WW and the Dixie Dancekings had A 55 Olds in it. A friend of mine has a car from the movie. One was burnt up in the movie, one was a camera car and was cut up to fit camera equipment and my friend has the other one in storage. Really cool car.

 

I want to lower mine in the front. It looks like he cut about one coil off. Did you cut the new ones at all?

 

He cut more than a coil off those springs. The front suspension was completely collapsed. The front shocks were out & the bottom bump stops were gone but if it had them it would have be sitting on them. We had to use a 2x4 and a 4x4 as a fulcrum to lift the car up enough to even get a jack under the front side rails of the frame. There was no way in hell of getting a jack under the front cross member. I don't know what that Jackass was thinking when he ruined the front suspension. I bought 1 inch lowering springs. And no I didn't cut anything off the new springs.

 

Ok, it looks like all my hard work is finally paying off as the old girl is up and running great as you can see in this video. Check it out!

http://youtu.be/Cf0fajJxz6w

 

My driver's education car in high school in 1956 was a red & black Olds Super 88 Holiday 4 door. It was loaned to the school by the Cadillac-Oldsmobile dealer.. In '61 my own ride was a '56 Olds 98 Convertible.... Soft spot for the '56 Olds...

 

C1O,

I've used Moyer Fuel Tank Renu a couple of times, and one was on my 55 Olds. They did a great job but I forget the price and turn around time, I'll see if I can find the invoice tomorrow.

I recently had my Bendix master cylinder rebuilt by Fusick. It was a little pricey but so far so good (I just put it in today). Their service was great. I had sent it in for a rebuild and I think the turn around time was about a month. When they rebuilt it they didn't find the small spot on the master cylinder housing that had deteriorated. When I went to bench bleed it, the housing slightly leaked. I contacted Fusick (Dave) and he had me send back in to evaluate it. They said the master cylinder housing can deteriorate over time and would need a new housing. I sent it back in and they replaced it for free (I think he said it was $220 part). I was very happy with Fusick and their dedication to customer service.

There's a thread on here on how to convert to a dual master cylinder on here. It's a great write up. If you're looking to go the disc brake route. If my memory serves me right, the thread indicates its about the same cost to go this route as it is to have the master cylinder rebuilt. I think Oldsdad wrote it up.

Good luck with your build!

 

Good to see another 4 door Holiday being saved!

 

I got the brakes bleed and the gas tank in so I was able to drive my car for the first time last night! In fact for what I know it was the first time the car has been on the road since 1978. The first test drive went better than I could have ever dreamed. The car goes down the road nice and straight with so much more get up and go than my old 1949 Chevy it just had me smiling and laughing the whole time. I just went around the neighborhood a few times not more than 50 mph but it just felt like it wanted to get on the highway and cruise at 70-80 with ease. The power brakes work great, they pull that big heavy girl down fast, smooth and straight. I can't get over this car, all the lights work. Headlights, brights, turn signals, glove box even the both ashtray lights work. It's amazing how a car can sit that long and everything just comes back to life.
Stay tuned for another Youtube of the car going down the road.

 

Awesome find!

 

That's a smile you will never be able to fade from your memory bank! Every time you drive that car from now on that smile will be there! TRUST ME I KNOW!

 

Great car, I would smile so big driving her around!

 

That interior is so nice and she sounds really sweet, beautiful body style!

 

Wow! Beautiful find! I'll have one of those cars yet! I tried to buy one off of Craigslist a couple of years ago, called for two weeks, but no one ever answered. :-( Still see the car around town, makes me regret not having got there first! Subscribed!

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

 

Great to see a car respond after a long sleep like that, a testamant to good old GM quality.

I have a '56 Olds 88 story from when I was 18. A friend of mine was going into the service and he had this '56 88 that his mom bought him a few years prior. I knew it ran for a while, he never registered it.

So he knows I'm interested and offers it to me for $100. I say yes and go to round up a tow to get it home. He calls me back and says the engine is seized... I should have known better since he knew shit about cars. So I pass it up without even going to look at it.

Long story made short... he winds up selling it to someome else for $80. Seized? Nope, only a bad battery connection. I still kick myself in the ass 41 yeas later at least once a week.

Bob

 

I found my invoice for my fuel tank repair for Moyer. It was $399, not including shipping. I'm not sure if the price changes with the amount of work that needs to be done but my tank had small holes on the top of it. The tank was cleaned, repaired, sealed on the inside and it has this rubberized coating on the outside.

According to Fusick's website, their new tank is $419.00, not including shipping. Hindsight I probably should have gotten a new one through Fusick but Moyer did a great job and I'm happy with the result. Hope this helps with your decision on your fuel tank.

 

I would have bought one from Fusick but they are out of stock and in between Manufacturing runs. They told me it would be 2-3 months before they would have one available. There was no way I was going to run some half ass set up & wait for them so I sent mine to Moyers. The tank came back fully repaired and sealed with a life time warranty. So now I'm out enjoying my car and very happy with the decision to have the original fixed.

 

I have been too busy driving & enjoying the car to give an update on it, so here goes. I sanded the crappy primer job off the body and gave it a quickie two tone primer job for now. It still has the green metal flake top for now so actually it's a three tone paint job but the green is next to go. After reading many posts about the pros & cons between Coker and Diamonback tires I went ahead and bought a set of Coker wide white radials. They balanced in just fine with minimal amount of weight and drive nice and true. The first drive I got it up to 90 mph indicated on the speedo and it was smooth as glass.
I took it to its first car show last weekend, the Road Rocket Rumble here in Indy. What a great time that show is. Live music, lots of great cars and beautiful ladies looking to be photographed, Here are a few shots from the show.

 

Very Cool. I've always liked 56 Oldsmobiles.

 

Someone is having WAY TOO MUCH FUN!! That can't be all legal!

 

cool car, and the chicks dig it! what's better than that?