1972 Cutlass Supreme and 1995 Jeep Cherokee

2009-10-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Click..... Nothin'.

2008-03-18T19:02:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in an earlier post the battery for the Olds was on it's last legs. Until now it had been kept in a heated garage all winter long, and now it's had a dose of Wisconsin weather.

The battery didn't like it.

Paraphrasing Star Trek's Dr. McCoy: "It's dead, Jim."

The weather has been warming up a bit (it's in the 40's!) so I wanted to get it out of the garage to warm the engine and burn out any moisture.

Not happening, even with the charger on the battery for the past day.

Oh well, it's an easy fix. I do plan on getting a little larger battery than is in it now though. I think the current one is too small for a 350 v8.

One thing I do plan to do when I put in the new battery is to install those little felt washers. They're designed to prevent corrosion on the battery posts. Some people think they're a scam, but every battery I've ever used them on has remained completely corrosion-free. Coincidence? I doubt it.

The Top Finally Works, and GM Engineers Still Suck

2007-10-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

Taking advice from the Classic Oldsmobile Forum, I pulled the seat to get better access to the back of the dash. Once that was done, I found a lot more room than I had expected in there. For me, it was still necessary to remove the left gauge to get access, but I was able to finally get the old switch out. The biggest issue was trying to get the wiring harness unhooked from the switch. I finally gave it a good tug and it came off. From my previous blog entry I was wondering about the gray and purple wires. As I was finishing up the switch replacement I was able to determine that the orange wire from the firewall supplied power directly to the switch (always on, not switched by the ignition). The gray and purple wires went from the switch to somewhere else on the car. Where? I don't care, the fvcking top works without me knowing. I do know now that I could have hotwired the top if needed to get it raised. I tested it with a small jumper wire, which proceeded to get hot enough to soften the insulation on it. Yeah, it was a thin wire and it really needs to be a heavy gauge wire, but it was enough to know it'd work.

Here is "old and busted" next to "new hotness". Don't mind the faded paint.

If anybody needs a switch, here's the one I used from Year One.

Yay, the Top is Down! Boo, the Top Won't Go Back Up!

2007-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

After a little digging under the dash, I found a couple of connections which were disconnected to disable the top. For the first time in what I now find is 5 years, the top went down. It's 49 degrees, overcast, and windy. Perfect day for it... The switch really is shot - it's a hair trigger to get the motor running to lower the top and it won't work at all to raise it. Now I have more reason than ever to get the switch replaced, as I'd like to put the top up so the car can be driven occasionally before the snow starts falling. In the background is my daily driver - the Family Truckster.

Under the dash, this orange wire is the first piece of the puzzle. It plugs directly into the fuse panel to provide power for the top. Just disconnecting this one wire seems to be enough to kill the top. That wasn't good enough for the donkey who disabled the switch though...

He also found this pair of wires which I assume are the up/down power wires to the motor or motor relay. Since I don't have a wiring diagram for the '72 (yet), that is only a guess. Either way, these wires were unplugged and pushed up under the dash. Once re-connected the top went down nicely. Unfortunately, it doesn't want to come back up. I think the switch is just completely shot, since no matter which way you push the switch (to raise or lower the top) it only wants to drop. Changing the switch will hopefully fix this. In the meantime, I may hotwire it to get the top back up if necessary.

No Humans Live Here, Only Packrats

2007-10-24T15:14:00.001-07:00

So there I was, backing the convertible out of the garage for a drive down to the in-laws. I happen to glance over to some of the shelving I put up a month ago to try and finally get my garage cleaned out enough for the Olds. There, I noticed a pair of grills for the Olds. Not the ones I pictured earlier with the gold center trim, but a completely different set of grills! Like the other pair I pictured earlier, these have a couple of broken mounting tabs, but nothing which can't be fixed easily (they're inside the grill, who but a fanatic will ever notice?). I got a step ladder to see what else I put up high on the shelf and found a couple of boxes of goodies my dad gave me a while back. Some may have been from the Cutlass I had years ago but most probably came from my brother. In the boxes I found:
The grills
Two door hinges
Headlight trim
A couple of chrome trim pieces
The original air cleaner assembly
Front turn signal lenses
Two push-on wheel center caps and one bolt-on center cap
The old coil and distributor

And what I think is the best find (if it actually still works), an original Oldsmobile AM/FM Stereo radio!
I'll have to bench test it to see if it still works, and if so, it's going back in! Well, after I find a source for the missing knobs...

GM Engineers in the 1970's were Sadistic Bastards

2007-10-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well, they probably weren't all sadistic bastards, but I'm sure the lead engineer involved with laying out the electrical system for the dash liked to sodomize gophers.

The wiper switch is on the left, the convertible top switch is on the right. I've already started taking the dash apart to get at the back of the switch.

This is a replacement switch. Notice how there are no warning stickers on it to let you in on how much this job is going to suck.

Here's the problem I'm trying to fix: the switch on the dash which raises/lowers the top is shot. It started randomly trying to lower the top while driving a few years back. If you know anything about physics and wind resistance, you know this isn't a good idea. At that time, my dad had a local garage disable the switch. Personally, I wouldn't trust the shit heads at this garage to disable a flashlight, but my dad trusts them for some reason. At this time, we still have no idea what they did to disable the switch - I'm hoping they just found a plug to disconnect it somewhere I'll be able to find it. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't just cut every wire they could reach under the dash, puncture the hydraulic lines, and weld the top's hinges in the open position. When they were tasked with disabling the switch, we didn't have a replacement handy or they would have been tasked with replacing the switch. I'm sure there would have been hammers and crowbars used for the job.

That brings me to today. I have the switch and I want to drop the top before winter hits. It's been a few years since it's been used, and that inactivity worries me a little. A little digging on the Classic Oldsmobile forum alerted me to the fact that I need to get a little more creative than I had first expected to get the switch replaced. To do the job, I have to remove the left hand gauge which gives just enough room for a 10 year old girl to reach inside. Well, last time I checked I'm not 10 and I'm pretty sure I'm not a girl. It's about this far into the project that I realize just how fucked I am. Big hands + tight spaces + no visibility. Not a good combination. Half an hour later and one mounting screw is out. To get the other one out I'll have to pull the plug on the switch. Somehow... I stuffed a mirror inside the dash and shined a light in there and am closer, but not there yet. Still gotta figure out how to pull the harness plug without damaging it.

Step one: start taking the dash apart. The left gauge needs to come out. The right-hand pod currently houses an after market oil pressure gauge. I may change this later if possible for a stock clock.

Step two: "You gotta use the whole hand, Doc?" Reach in and find the screws. It's at this point that you realize that the title of this post is accurate.

Step three: get four times the number of tools you think this is going to take out of your tool box. It still won't be enough as you try to find just the right tool to get at those damn screws. You will consider hammers and crowbars about half-way through the job.

More to come.

Battery Tray? We Don't Need no Stinking Battery Tray

2007-10-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Back in early '06 (when my dad still had the convertible) he brought it to me to have me do a little work for him. He's more mechanically inclined than the average bear, but if you don't have the right tools, you can't do the work. The project at hand was the replacement of the old battery tray. Years of snow and slush did their work to the point where the battery was sitting on cardboard and being held down by a bungee cord. The cardboard kept the battery from rattling around on bumps. Obviously not the safest way to go. To remove what was left of the old tray I had to break out the grinder to remove the bolt heads. Once that was done I was able to drill out the remains of the bolts and re-tap the holes for new bolts. I could only get to three of the four bolts due to some additional structure under the last one, but that's still three more than had been holding the battery down previously! Here you can see the original tray next to a Year One replacement.

With the old tray out of the way I brushed off the remaining lose rust and gave the whole thing a heavy coat of rust inhibiting paint followed by a coat of under body coating. I don't know if the under body coating will help, but it shouldn't hurt...

Here's the new tray ready for action. The rest of the engine compartment looks pretty shabby next to the new metal and paint, but it's an engine compartment - who's going to see it? When I get around to doing substantial work on the car I'll probably pay some attention to this area and clean things up as well as possible. 35 years of dirt and oil are waiting for me...

In the Beginning....

2007-10-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

For some sick reason, Oldsmobiles have always seemed to occupy a place in the garages and driveways of my family. A Vista Cruiser, a Calais, and too many Cutlasses to recall. At one point I remember 5 Oldsmobiles parked in the driveway at one time. Best part is that they were all drivers. Three of them were '72 Cutlasses: one Cutlass S, a Cutlass Supreme, and a Cutlass Supreme Convertible. The "S" started off as my dad's, but was handed down to my brother who restored it, drove the hell out of it, and sold it years later. The Cutlass Supreme was mine - a work in progress which never progressed. The Cutlass Supreme Convertible was my brother's, but was eventually given to my dad. That is the only one of the three 72's which never left the family. My dad has had it for a decade or so and has finally decided that it's time to lighten his burden, so he gave it to me with the understanding that it not be sold. Deal!

The car isn't perfect, by any means. It's had it's share of Wisconsin and Illinois winters, meaning it's got some cancer on the fenders. The engine is a little tired, but still runs good enough to not need any work (yet). The paint is fading and the rear bumper needs replcing. At 35 years old and with over 180,000+ miles - a trailer queen it isn't.

Getting the convertible back to very good condition will take a while, and I plan to do most of the work myself. I've had replacement doors from Texas for around 20 years (they were for the Cutlass Supreme I used to have and never got rid of them). I want to replace the rear fender skins and some of the wheel tubs to get rid of the cancer. The front fenders might survive with only some patch panels, but may also get replaced all together if the cancer has advanced too far. A new trunklid would be in order as well, since there is plenty of body filler along the edge and it's starting to look shabby. The interior is pretty good and only really needs recovering of the seats and some scrubbing.

As time permits I plan to update this blog to journal the work being done. Hopefully the information will be helpful to others doing similar projects. The major job I'm currently working on which will severely limit my play-time in the garage is my house. Currently, I'm up to my armpits in home renovation work which may go on for the next year or so. So many jobs, so little time...