'nother new guy, with another giant Oldsmobile
October 18th, 2011, 08:51 PM
#1
Rocket "Scientist"
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Roanoke "Roa-Joke", Virginia
Posts: 252
'nother new guy, with another giant Oldsmobile
I'm here about my 1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, it's a tank, someone tried to kill it with a truck (and failed miserably), it's got a strong running 307, eventually it'll be swapped for a 350 (Dunno when, my motto is when it ain't broke, don't broke it). Atleast taht's what I heard, I got it from a junkyard, the previous owners junked it. Fools! You do not junk a colossus such as this, you fix it as if it never happened, then proceed to total another idiot! Oh the joy of having 6 foot long fenders... Noone cuts of off, and if they do, all you have to do is blow the horn to remind them you don't know what the brake pedal is for.
Anyway, I'm twenty two years old, I hate small sporty imports ('cept some Subaru's, but I only like 'em cause they're all wheel drive and can embarrass the bejesus out of a lifted truck). I'd rather ride in something which could run over a Miata, leaving the driver wondering what crater of a pot hole he or she hit.
I have photo's of my '89 Olds here:
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...tom%20Cruiser/
It won't let me upload here, says "This photo type is not supported yet", strange as that is. Vague, as that is, aswell. Anyway, photobucket is here to save the day, again.
As I said, it's wrecked, the interior is nice though. Headliner is coming down at the seam, but, that happens... Gravity sucks when you use two full sized sedan headliners and not enough glue.
This tank will stay white, the windows will stay tinted, the woodgrain shall be smited with a mighty heatgun (Though not too mighty, I do not want to smite the paint, even though I'm going to have it repainted). No whacky mods here, no donking an unsuspecting family sedan, no flashy wheels, no overpowered engine (The 350 would only have about 250-300 horses), and above all, no gaudy paint job. Factory white, sans the vlood, I hate vinyl wood, it's more annoying than REAL wood on a car. Well almost... Real wood gets termites, and termites in a car is a whole 'nother kind of annoying.
The list of things I plan to do to this car are as follows:
Buy the parts car, $600
Swap the doors and fender, free ('cept for time)
Swap the door glass from the old doors into the new (Save the tint!)
Replace the tie rods, centerlink, idler arm, shocks, and springs, Er... Somewhere around $500.
New wheels, 16"
New tires, $350-450 mounted and balanced
New windshield, $250 installed
Run the bejesus out of the car, make sure it's not going to keel over.
This leads to two paths, first being, motor is fine, car does not croak
New stereo, nothing fancy, factory 3.5's, and 4x10's, no sub, metal does not have bass, and rock has little.
Add a ridiculously loud Wolo train horn in place of (missing) factory horns
Remove decaying bumper rubber stripping
Replace bumper rubber stripping with metal studs to cover holes (Chromed, of course)
Proceed to remove vinyl, swap brown filler bits for white ones (Or paint brown filler bits)
If I'm going to add a 350, this would be the point I did it. I would add four wheel disc brakes if I did so. I like stopping, and I hate fixing drum brakes, they take twice as long, make twice the mess, and leave you with twice the chance of having a stroke.
Prep car for paint, have car painted
Have rear pass door opera window tinted (it isn't easily removed from the old door)
Add an alarm (Not some BS bargain basement job either, details later on)
At some point, add a "Car-puter"
To do this, I plan too
Backdate the 307, or swap it for a 350 (probably backdate if it's still a strong running motor)
Yank out the glovebox (Figuratively speaking, don't want to break anything)
Remove the stock body computer, put in a slim ruggedized ITX form factor computer. This will be hooked to a few sensors which I will add, as well as a backup camera. It will also serve a security feature I WILL NOT disclose. It will also have an atlas program, I am far too paranoid to have GPS in my car.
The sensors will include, ambient temperature, interior, and exterior, some kind of compass, one on the manifold, one on the intake, one somewhere on the coolant system, possibly stick it in the overflow, and one on the trans cooler line. It will also be monitoring RPM's, easy to do with an electronic dis.
The computer will also stream media to the car stereo, 'cause, MP3 players suck. You forget it slid over into the drivers seat, then, CRUNCH! There goes $150+.
So, if anyone has any recommendation on speakers, wheels, (I know of wheel vintiques, I cannot find much that'll fit this car.), or anything else I should know (I KNOW what a PITA it is to do the centerlink, I did the one on my fathers '86.)
Anyway, I'm twenty two years old, I hate small sporty imports ('cept some Subaru's, but I only like 'em cause they're all wheel drive and can embarrass the bejesus out of a lifted truck). I'd rather ride in something which could run over a Miata, leaving the driver wondering what crater of a pot hole he or she hit.
I have photo's of my '89 Olds here:
http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...tom%20Cruiser/
It won't let me upload here, says "This photo type is not supported yet", strange as that is. Vague, as that is, aswell. Anyway, photobucket is here to save the day, again.
As I said, it's wrecked, the interior is nice though. Headliner is coming down at the seam, but, that happens... Gravity sucks when you use two full sized sedan headliners and not enough glue.
This tank will stay white, the windows will stay tinted, the woodgrain shall be smited with a mighty heatgun (Though not too mighty, I do not want to smite the paint, even though I'm going to have it repainted). No whacky mods here, no donking an unsuspecting family sedan, no flashy wheels, no overpowered engine (The 350 would only have about 250-300 horses), and above all, no gaudy paint job. Factory white, sans the vlood, I hate vinyl wood, it's more annoying than REAL wood on a car. Well almost... Real wood gets termites, and termites in a car is a whole 'nother kind of annoying.
The list of things I plan to do to this car are as follows:
Buy the parts car, $600
Swap the doors and fender, free ('cept for time)
Swap the door glass from the old doors into the new (Save the tint!)
Replace the tie rods, centerlink, idler arm, shocks, and springs, Er... Somewhere around $500.
New wheels, 16"
New tires, $350-450 mounted and balanced
New windshield, $250 installed
Run the bejesus out of the car, make sure it's not going to keel over.
This leads to two paths, first being, motor is fine, car does not croak
New stereo, nothing fancy, factory 3.5's, and 4x10's, no sub, metal does not have bass, and rock has little.
Add a ridiculously loud Wolo train horn in place of (missing) factory horns
Remove decaying bumper rubber stripping
Replace bumper rubber stripping with metal studs to cover holes (Chromed, of course)
Proceed to remove vinyl, swap brown filler bits for white ones (Or paint brown filler bits)
If I'm going to add a 350, this would be the point I did it. I would add four wheel disc brakes if I did so. I like stopping, and I hate fixing drum brakes, they take twice as long, make twice the mess, and leave you with twice the chance of having a stroke.
Prep car for paint, have car painted
Have rear pass door opera window tinted (it isn't easily removed from the old door)
Add an alarm (Not some BS bargain basement job either, details later on)
At some point, add a "Car-puter"
To do this, I plan too
Backdate the 307, or swap it for a 350 (probably backdate if it's still a strong running motor)
Yank out the glovebox (Figuratively speaking, don't want to break anything)
Remove the stock body computer, put in a slim ruggedized ITX form factor computer. This will be hooked to a few sensors which I will add, as well as a backup camera. It will also serve a security feature I WILL NOT disclose. It will also have an atlas program, I am far too paranoid to have GPS in my car.
The sensors will include, ambient temperature, interior, and exterior, some kind of compass, one on the manifold, one on the intake, one somewhere on the coolant system, possibly stick it in the overflow, and one on the trans cooler line. It will also be monitoring RPM's, easy to do with an electronic dis.
The computer will also stream media to the car stereo, 'cause, MP3 players suck. You forget it slid over into the drivers seat, then, CRUNCH! There goes $150+.
So, if anyone has any recommendation on speakers, wheels, (I know of wheel vintiques, I cannot find much that'll fit this car.), or anything else I should know (I KNOW what a PITA it is to do the centerlink, I did the one on my fathers '86.)
October 25th, 2011, 05:13 AM
#4
Rocket "Scientist"
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Roanoke "Roa-Joke", Virginia
Posts: 252
We've always had a station wagon, had a '78 LTD II wagon when I was a kid, that thing literally caught fire once when we pulled into the driveway. "Hurry, get buckets, get the water hose, WATER DAMMIT!". Never really liked Ford's much after that thing made us walk five miles to get a ride home... 'Course that was after my father fixed it after the fire... Damned 351 Modified, those things are oil burning, gas leaking, gas guzzling, horribly unreliable engines.
We've had our '86 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, 307, 700R4, since '95, had an '84 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme with a 3.8 V6 for a while, liked that car, but at around 170k miles, the 3.8 had so many problems we had to get rid of it. So there's a lot of reasons I like this car, and obviously it's safe, it deflected a truck doing about 40 with minor cabin deformation. Crumple zones? Who needs 'em?
I love our '86 Custom Cruiser, that old tank has never left us stranded. My father rebuilt the trans in '97, engine in '98, sold the car around '02, repo'd it in 03. We got about $2,100 of the $3,000 we where asking before the guy stopped paying.
Although the '86 did somehow loosen the battery terminals once when I called the car "Old" when ribbing my father about something. Can't remember what, but the battery terminals managed to both loosen in a wal-mart parking lot. My father said to me "Now look what you done!".
My father and I have joked that those two cars, since they both have the third row seat, could seat as many people as a small bus (18 people).
Oh, as for the background, it's the credit scene from a video game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat. And basically, that Lada seen there, is just a nerfed Fiat 128, drum brakes instead of discs, and a heavier body than the Italian version. Oh, and I've heard they handle like a Jensen Interceptor. Anyway, I use that background in all my albums.
Also, thanks for the good luck, I'm gonna need it. My father and a friend of his who owns a rollback tow truck are gonna winch the door pillar back out about half an inch where it needs to be. Once, they get the drivers side door open... And I remove a couple interior panels... On one hand, I'm looking forward to fixing this tank... On the other, I know that she's gonna fight me every step of the way... Every Custom Cruiser I've tried to pull parts from or work on has been stubborn. I dunno why, they don't like to be messed with I suppose. Atleast I don't have to dread beating the centerlink loose, as the tie rods are coming with it.
I just hope one of these kamikaze idiot drivers around here doesn't run into the '89, again... My father's '86 has had another Delta 88 hit it, a Ford Ranger clip the rear bumper doing 30, and a local county school administrator impale a license plate on the trailer hitch of it. The delta 88 was the first car to hit it, if you look at the inside of the header panel, and pull the pass side fender off completely, you can see they where originally green before being painted tan. Old man was driving the Delta 88 the wrong way up a wal-mart parking lot while goosenecking a parking space that was actually a cart corral. The school administrator was fishing for something in the floorboard of the county issue car she was driving when she bumped the '86's hitch, impaling the license plate (Well almost, It was a nice V shape), and cracking the bumper cover of that county issue Crown Vic. And, lastly, the Ford Ranger, my father was backing into a parking space to pick up my sister from the local community college when a mid 90's Ford Ranger clipped the back of the car doing about 30 through the parking lot. The hitch, in this case, was not in the back of the car. Else, that ranger would've been totaled. There was a gash up the side of the Ranger, from just behind the front wheel, to just in front of the back wheel. Guy didn't even check the damage, my father saw only the bumper was damaged, so he just waved the guy on.
I'm gonna have to start keeping tallies of cars that thing has beaten
On a last and final note, since this car was made the same year I was born, if anyone says it's old, I can look at them and say "So, you're calling me old?". Though if I have this car another couple of decades that won't work as well anymore.
Thanks for the good wishes, I'll keep ya'll updated. I've got a job interview today (At Bojangles, breakfast chain fast food restaurant. Not particularly thrilled about fast food, but at this point I don't really care.
Best case, should have the car started on by spring of 2012, or at the very best, have the parts car bought before then. $400, 'cause I'm giving back the shell of it. The shell being, what's left when you park a car with a terrible interior, but good parts otherwise on the car, in a bad neighborhood.
Thanks again for the good wishes, and good luck,
-Ben
We've had our '86 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, 307, 700R4, since '95, had an '84 Oldsmobile Cutlass supreme with a 3.8 V6 for a while, liked that car, but at around 170k miles, the 3.8 had so many problems we had to get rid of it. So there's a lot of reasons I like this car, and obviously it's safe, it deflected a truck doing about 40 with minor cabin deformation. Crumple zones? Who needs 'em?
I love our '86 Custom Cruiser, that old tank has never left us stranded. My father rebuilt the trans in '97, engine in '98, sold the car around '02, repo'd it in 03. We got about $2,100 of the $3,000 we where asking before the guy stopped paying.
Although the '86 did somehow loosen the battery terminals once when I called the car "Old" when ribbing my father about something. Can't remember what, but the battery terminals managed to both loosen in a wal-mart parking lot. My father said to me "Now look what you done!".
My father and I have joked that those two cars, since they both have the third row seat, could seat as many people as a small bus (18 people).
Oh, as for the background, it's the credit scene from a video game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat. And basically, that Lada seen there, is just a nerfed Fiat 128, drum brakes instead of discs, and a heavier body than the Italian version. Oh, and I've heard they handle like a Jensen Interceptor. Anyway, I use that background in all my albums.
Also, thanks for the good luck, I'm gonna need it. My father and a friend of his who owns a rollback tow truck are gonna winch the door pillar back out about half an inch where it needs to be. Once, they get the drivers side door open... And I remove a couple interior panels... On one hand, I'm looking forward to fixing this tank... On the other, I know that she's gonna fight me every step of the way... Every Custom Cruiser I've tried to pull parts from or work on has been stubborn. I dunno why, they don't like to be messed with I suppose. Atleast I don't have to dread beating the centerlink loose, as the tie rods are coming with it.
I just hope one of these kamikaze idiot drivers around here doesn't run into the '89, again... My father's '86 has had another Delta 88 hit it, a Ford Ranger clip the rear bumper doing 30, and a local county school administrator impale a license plate on the trailer hitch of it. The delta 88 was the first car to hit it, if you look at the inside of the header panel, and pull the pass side fender off completely, you can see they where originally green before being painted tan. Old man was driving the Delta 88 the wrong way up a wal-mart parking lot while goosenecking a parking space that was actually a cart corral. The school administrator was fishing for something in the floorboard of the county issue car she was driving when she bumped the '86's hitch, impaling the license plate (Well almost, It was a nice V shape), and cracking the bumper cover of that county issue Crown Vic. And, lastly, the Ford Ranger, my father was backing into a parking space to pick up my sister from the local community college when a mid 90's Ford Ranger clipped the back of the car doing about 30 through the parking lot. The hitch, in this case, was not in the back of the car. Else, that ranger would've been totaled. There was a gash up the side of the Ranger, from just behind the front wheel, to just in front of the back wheel. Guy didn't even check the damage, my father saw only the bumper was damaged, so he just waved the guy on.
I'm gonna have to start keeping tallies of cars that thing has beaten
On a last and final note, since this car was made the same year I was born, if anyone says it's old, I can look at them and say "So, you're calling me old?". Though if I have this car another couple of decades that won't work as well anymore.
Thanks for the good wishes, I'll keep ya'll updated. I've got a job interview today (At Bojangles, breakfast chain fast food restaurant. Not particularly thrilled about fast food, but at this point I don't really care.
Best case, should have the car started on by spring of 2012, or at the very best, have the parts car bought before then. $400, 'cause I'm giving back the shell of it. The shell being, what's left when you park a car with a terrible interior, but good parts otherwise on the car, in a bad neighborhood.
Thanks again for the good wishes, and good luck,
-Ben
October 25th, 2011, 08:07 AM
#5
Rocket "Scientist"
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Roanoke "Roa-Joke", Virginia
Posts: 252
Side note, I got the job at Bojangles. I work today at 2PM, so...
Project "Grocery Warrior" has a green light
Work won't really start until the spring, though it is feasible I could get the parts car this winter.
Project "Grocery Warrior" has a green light
Work won't really start until the spring, though it is feasible I could get the parts car this winter.
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