Projects 1956 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday mild custom build

Hello all, I just picked up a new project car, and decided to start a thread both to share, and to hopefully be able to tap the insane amount of knowledge floating around this place.

A tiny bit of backstory, I have a sleep disorder that means I wake up from a solid 8 hours of sleep completely exhausted, and has meant having to cut out a lot of hobbies, interests, etc. from my life due to a limited energy reserve. This Olds project is basically me telling my sleep disorder to go fuck itself. I may not always have the energy for it, but I'm not going to give up on enjoying old cars just because my body is an asshole. That being said, there may be random big gaps in progress if the energy reserves aren't there.



I bought the Olds the day after Xmas, and after a 10 minute test drive drove it 2 hours home. It is solid as a rock underneath, with only a few small rust spots here and there. It also runs well with plenty of power from the 324 Rocket V8.

I need to correct a lot of minor issues, bad choices, and janky repairs from prior owners, including stripping the cheap bedliner they used to turn it black. The overall plan is a mild custom and solid cruiser.

 

I will be doing a fair amount of videos either as or in addition to updates, as I am recording these regularly for friends who are following the project. This one is the walkaround the day after I bought it:

 

Awesome car bro. Welcome to the 56 Olds club. Does yours have a Jetaway or a Hydramatic trans?

 

Jetaway. It shift well, but has a massive front seal leak.

 

The biggest mechanical issues on the car:
-Very wandery steering. The power steering box was recently rebuild, but the drag link has a ton of play. I already have a drag link rebuild kit, and new outer tire rods & sleeves on their way.
-Running on a badly installed electric fuel pump (with the prior badly installed broken electric fuel pump still in the car as well), which makes it prone to flooding if it doesn't fire up immediately. I have a kit to rebuild the mechanical pump on the way, which will also get the vacuum pump working (it is a dual action pump) and let me see if the wipers function.
-Bad trans leak (needs at least a front seal, possibly more).
-The exhaust is duals with glasspacks and is deafeningly loud & droning when driving. I need to find better mufflers. Would like a bit of rasp/attitude, but will go with stock if it gets rid of drone, I already have tinnitus, and don't need more.

It has lots of smaller issues, but those are the ones affecting its ability to function.

Since I only got the car, none of this is set in stone, but here are my thoughts for the custom work:
-Shave the large trunk emblem around the lock.
-Shave the hood emblem, and move it into the grille.
-Remove the center divider of the grille, and build a custom grille around the emblem.
-I want to shave the door handles, but don't like electric poppers, and needs an opening method I don't have to explain to all my non car person friends. I would love lincoln door buttons, but even the repros are big dollars. I have a couple ideas, but need to think about it.
- Either find a set of skirts, or make my own bubble skirts.
-Swap the rear bumper for something less bulky. What I use will largely depend on what I can find that has the look I'm going for.

Current list of missing/broken parts:
-one front turn signal lens
-straight(er) front bumper
-heater switch
-inside rear view mirror
-passenger rear door super 88 side trim (mine is badly dented, I don't know if this is hardtop specific)
-one tail light housing (a lens screw hole is stripped)
-taillight lens screws (I have 4 of 6)
-tiny trim piece between side trim on hardtop pillar (I'm not sure if one or both are missing).

Info I need:
-Does anyone make decent seat covers to fit this car? I am not looking for factory original, just something that looks decent and period correct at a reasonable price until I get a new interior done.
-Someone be willing to trace out their front kick panels & package shelf on a piece of butcher paper/wrapping paper/etc. and mail it to me so I can use it for patterns. I want to make it out of something that isn't cardboard, so buying the $$ repro cardboard ones to use as patterns seems wasteful.
-Alignment specs in case the local alignment shops don't have them.

 

Some video updates:


Got the horn working, replaced the shift knob, and found a way to strip the bedliner.


Got the blinkers working, started replacing the worst window seals.

 

And here is where it sits two weeks after purchase. I've done a few small things, ordered a few hundred in parts (with a few hundred more wanted). And I've started stripping the bedliner, exposing the badly degraded original paint. I will be stripping the car down and redo it in two-tone green & white, with a green metalflake roof (probably with lace panels). But for now I prefer honest worn original paint to badly-applied bedliner.

I also spent part of last week wiring, insulating & sheathing the wall behind it and building those shelves so I could make room in the bay for it.

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...to-myself-1956-olds-holiday-98-coupe.1198953/

There's a thread I started when.I got my 56 this Summer. Feel free to ask questions here about the car, loads of knowledge

 

Your '56 is sweet, and definitely an inspiration for the future of this car. I'm sure I'm going to have lots of questions on this one.

 

My '56 Super 88 has a (badly installed) electric pump and the stock pump has been disconnected for a while. I got a rebuild kit and pupped it off the motor tonight. The lever arm that rides the lobe only moved a tiny bit, and the whole vacuum side seemed frozen. When I got it apart, I found this:


The end of the diaphragm rod had snapped off, and wedged the lever in one position. It is metal, so theoretically I could either weld it back on or add weld and grind a new one, but I don't know if that will hold up any better than the original?

In addition, while hammering through the hold for the fuel diaphragm rod my punch slipped and I did this:



I *think* this won't mess up the operation, but I don't actually know.

And if those weren't bad enough, when polishing the sediment bowl I did this:



Not my best night.

So I have to figure out if this pump is salvagable, or if I should I find another, or if I should just do a better job of installing the electric pump and pretend this all never happened?

 

Good for you. Olds make great cruisers. and I love the 4 door hardtops.
Do what you can ,when you can. I would put a cover over the fuel pump hole and run the electric.
My health has gone from bad to worse and I'm in the middle of bringing back a car from the dead that was on a trailer headed for the scrap yard when I saw it.
A 49 Dodge Coronet that I have chopped and sectioned. I wish it was half as solid as what you are starting with.
I'll be following along....
Torchie

 

Congrats - you are on the right track with fixing the basics first - then do the changes you want - most everyone here has a disorder of one kind or another -

 

I had a pump that is apart and in a box in the shop. You could have it if I can find it???? Just moved so you know the deal there. Still trying to find things but I do have a list by box. I will look today and if I find it I will send you some pics of it.

 

That would be great. I just ordered a later buick pump that might interchange (doesnt have the vacuum pump) so no rush to find it.

 

4 door hardtops are very cool, and being a Super 88 makes it really GR8. Nice car, i'll be watching.

 

nice ...
good thing you have started a 'project' page ... i wished i have when i join the hamb

 

I have two NOS 324 fuel pumps , send me your shipping address and they are yours. Just send me shipping after you get the pumps

 

That is also super generous. If the buick pump doesn't work I'll PM you.

 

Impro.....can't locate that pump. I might have let it loose during the down size as we moved. Good luck with the Buick unit. Following along now, love those Oldsmobiles.

 

What made the electric pump so poorly installed? Honestly, I prefer electric pumps to mechanical. They use basically no power, completely eliminate the problem of low fuel pressure on startup if there is drain back, declutter the engine compartment, and generally are easier to change out than their mechanical counterparts and it's easier to diagnose them as the problem if they go bad, not to mention they're less expensive. I run a $60 Carter on my Olds 324 and it's been great. I mounted it on the outside of the frame rail in the left side in front of the axle, and just put a basic, plastic clear filter in line in front of it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CIQ5DG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

It is screwed to the front splash pan in front of the radiator, wit the rubber fuel lines hanging under the radiator going to/from it. Then the pump to carb line is zip-tied to the fender support rod. The wiring runs all over the place. The older broken electric pump is still screwed to the inner fender.

 

If you have an original tank chances are it is crudded up pretty well and electric pumps as a rule do not care for junk mixed in with the fuel. it will shorten the life considerably. Of course a filter before and after may eliminate most of those issues. I think with whatever pump you use it might be a good idea to "filter up" coming and going.

 

While waiting on the fuel pump and other parts, I have been continuing to strip the bedliner & clean out the car. As seen in the first video, the front hood emblem had been covered in bedliner. Well while sorting through the bin in the trunk I found an old lens & globe from the emblem, which made me curious. So I took the emblem off, and disassembled it, the lens & globe were clearly new reproductions, with the lens coated in bedliner. Well with some careful removal and polishing, I got them back to looking new. So some prior owner spent almost $100 on these new parts, then covered them in bedliner. Weird.

I also did some experimenting and discovered brake cleaner and a plastic bristle brush will get the bedliner off chrome easily. Can't use it on paint, but it'll save me time on the trim.

 

OK, you're right. That's awful.

I totally agree with @vtwhead that the lines are probably totally shot and the tank totally crudded up. I know mine was. The tank for the 56 was a 1 year only tank, and I bucked up and bought the one from Fusick, which as far as I know is the only place that offers it. Despite the fact that the tank and sender cost me a lot $700, I'd consider it money well spent since I won't have to concern myself with the issue for decades and it installed in like 10 mins and fit perfectly.

If you're being extra cost conscious, there are generic tanks available from CARS, LLC, which are advertised for Buicks but said to perhaps fit other GM bodies. They're on eBay for like $225 with the sender, which is the same ohm range as the Olds fuel gauge, but the tank I bought was too wide and wouldn't fit between the frame and spare tire well. There are other configurations available, and might take some persuasion to get to fit in the Olds body, but they're made by Tanks, Inc. and are really nice quality. Just depends on your budget and tolerance for fitment issues.

From there, you can easily replumb the entire system out of nickel copper 5/16 lines you get from any local parts house. It's super easy to bend by hand. The Fuel pump block off plate is from a BBC if you want to replace the one you have.

 

Hood emblem cleaned of bedliner and polished and put back on for now.



Bedliner stripping continues.



Found out the window tint was cling film, so got rid of that.

 

They have rebuilt kits too. Sorry about the screen shot, somehow the copy function didn’t work

 

The kit supplier for my FE Ford fuel pump has all of the components available, it's 99% the same pump as yours. https://classiccarbs.com.au/Fuel-Pu....757FPK-?keyword=757fpk&description=1&model=1


Also here's a great video to rebuild the pump

 

Fuel pump problem solved!

I found this old thread on the HAMB about an interchange for an olds 394, and found that a pump that crossed with the AC #41209 was $14 on rockauto, so decided to try it.

When I got it in and offered them up, the lever arm was shorter, but overlapped about 1/2 with the worn contact spot on the original pump.



So I hogged out the holes to take the 3/8" bolt, found some 1/2" shorter bolts and bolted it up.



I made new lines in & out ( 5/16" rubber line in & 3/8" hardline fitting out on the pump), and fired her up, and she runs perfectly.



No I can get rid of this janky mess and I don't have to worry about the flooding issues I was having with the electric pump if I turned the key on but didn't start it immediately.



Now I have my next mystery, the hardline that used to go from the carb vacuum to the vac pump is jammed in a rubber line, which then goes to this clamped off mess. Anyone know how the lines for the wiper (and whatever else was fed by the vac pump) are supported to be routed?

 

That's great info on the fuel pump. Going to have to remember that.

You should also post that on the be-all, end-all Olds rocket thread, which is bursting with unreal info.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...o-end-all-other-posts-lasalle-related.149650/

 

I pulled my 56 service manual out yesterday for torque specs so I will look this morning for info regarding the wiper installation. I have the same pump on the project currently. The OP did not mention any issues with length ? on his rocket. Curious about that for sure.