zii

Been busy with other stuff a couple of days, but here's a bunch of pics at least.
Will add more info later... and ask lots of questions.

These pics were taken by the previous owner before I bought it. (He lives about 1000km north from me.)

zii

More pics from prev. owner... the only "real rust" afaik, is the trunk floor.

zii

...and even more pics from prev. owner. Aaaalmost done.

zii

...And the final two pics. These were taken somewhere north of Västerås (home of Power Big Meet, one of the largest car meets in the world for American cars) on my way home after purchase.

A nice little ~1000km road trip adventure with an unknown car, quite the chance I took... but it was the cheapest way to get it home so I thought "Why the hell not?". You only live once, as they say.

oldcutlass

Nice project, the car is awesome.

zii

Thanks!

Some info and some questions:

Original 6 cylinder engine and gearbox has been replaced with a Chevy 283, don't know the year, and supposedly a Powerglide. The gearbox has a cast pan, as you can see in one of the pics, so I guess that makes it an early Poweglide.

Brakes are modified, according to the previous owner it's Honda brakes. On the other side of the master cylinder it's written "Civic", guess it's been bought second hand from a car scrap yard.

The brakes need some service, they won't release properly. Theory is a swollen gasket in the master cylinder, preventing the fluid from returning to the reservoir. This and the crappy electrical system are the two most important things to fix right now. Also the horrible steering needs to be sorted out.

Anyone know of a rack and pinion gear with servo, that might be fitted to the car? Without changing the whole front end.......
There's a center rod thingie I think could possibly be replaced with a rack and pinion gear? Or maybe I'm missing something, I haven't checked things out that thoroughly yet. (It's winter here, car is tucked away for the season.)

47 Convertible

Since the car is put away for winter spend your time talking to and getting advice from people who do such modifications as you propose for a living. On suspension/steering I would start with Fat Man Fabrications in the USA and on brakes I would start with Master Power Brakes. You can find both on Internet and both offer tech advice. There are other companies as well that do that kind of work.

Both of the areas you propose to do work are quite complex and it can only help your effort to spend the time studying them and getting advice from professionals.
Jerry

Andreas.Johansson

Nice to have some more Swedes around, great car with a lot of potential!!
About the brakes adjust the distance the Pedal to Master cylinder , if the piston doesn’t go all the way back you will have brakes that takes a while to release, been there…
/ Andreas

zii

Had that thought too, but loosening the master cylinder from the servo thingie didn't help. It should've helped if that was the problem...

citcapp

another thought on the brakes. Sometimes one or more of the old rubber lines will collapse on the inside causing the brakes to not release. I suggest that if these lines are old replace them.

zii

Could be.
The brakes aren't that difficult, I'll just have to work my way through them. Can't hurt to verify that they're in good shape. After all someone else, someone unknown to me, put them together.

I've got the impression that it's only the front circuit that's dragging, and it seems to do it evenly, and only after you've driven a few miles. I don't think there are any common rubber lines for both left and right front, so I still think the master cylinder is my best bet. Time will tell if I'm guessing correctly or not.

Both front and rear circuits are going into some (valve?) housing mounted beneath the master cylinder, not sure what that thing does. Don't know if it's from the Honda system or an Olds part. If it's Honda, it might be some pressure balance measuring thingie that lights up the brake warning light (absent on the Olds of course).

(Sorry if my auto tech English gets a bit weird sometimes..... I don't always find the right words.)

The electrical (re)wiring is probably no big problem either, I have a fairly good idea about how to do it. Proper fusing, the right cable areas etc.

Not quite sure how to solve my dream of a proper steering gear. Buuut, that's a later problem, the two things above will probably take enough time. Wouldn't mind a suggestion or two though.

zii

Time for a little update, I guess:

So I went and drove my car home from the winter storage a few weeks ago. Brakes still misbehaving, had to stop halfway to let things cool down a bit.

After that, the car has mostly sat outside, waiting for its owner to work up enough energy to start fixing things.......

Anyways, I took out the MBC and took it apart. Turned out the return hole for the front circuit (connected to the rear part of the MBC) was clogged, as I had suspected.
Unfortunately, this MBC has just a small brake fluid container over the front end, while the rear gets the fluid through a drilled channel. This made it quite difficult to "unclog" it.
mqLy8VYFXxiGQ1m9VPuE_ug.jpg

I put things together, got some help bleeding the brakes but now I had to double pump to make the car stop. Did some detective work and it turned out that it was only the MBC that was from a Honda Civic, not the calipers and rotors as the seller had thought.

Turns out the whole upgrade kit comes from tomsclassic on eBay (their own website seems to be http://www.autocityclassic.com/)
According to them, the calipers are from a '82 Chevy K10 and the rotors from a '95 Chevy truck.
$%28KGrHqV,!mEE4l7OmerzBOW!o2oYwg~~60_12.JPG

Conclusion: Since the brakes are Big and American, the tiny Japanese MBC just doesn't pump enough volume to feed those things, hence the need to double pump.
The only reason I didn't have to do it before fixing the Honda MBC was of course that since the return hole was clogged, the brake pistons didn't return as far as they normally should have.

Also related: Some earlier owner has done a really REALLY bad job mounting the kit. There are supposed to be some extra bearing sleeves that you put on the spindle so the Chevy truck bearings will fit. THOSE WERE MISSING.
spindle_inner_bearing_and_bracket.jpg

Left front wheel could be rocked centimeters, once the car was in the air. Right wheel not quite as much, mainly because the right center nut was tightened much harder.

The guys at tomsclassic were very helpful so now I've ordered the missing parts plus new bearings since the old ones for some reason didn't like the treatment they had gotten...
They also sell other brake parts so I also ordered a brand new Chevy MBC with booster... chromed!

...And now we wait for the parts to cross "the puddle".

zii

Oh, one more thing: Does anyone know where I can find a new parking brake cable?

Since it has the original rear axle, an original style cable should fit just fine... if I could only find one.

Rocketowner

"Chevy's of the 40's " list the brake cable and related parts for Chevrolets of those years, chances are they are the same,and they have pictures of them on their site. Good luck ,Larry

47 Convertible

Good detective work and good repair. x2 on Chevs of the 40s. Sixty series Oldsmobiles share some parts in common with Chevrolet. If they can't help you send me a PM and I will provide a contact who may have a cable assembly.

Just as a double check on getting the right size master cylinder for the brake system, there is a ratio that is helpful. It is square inches of MC bore to square inches of caliper bore. You want the MC to be within 12-15% of square of caliper bore. Here is an example:
1969 Corvette:
Front 4piston, 1 7/8" diameter (5.52sq")
Rear 4piston 1 3/8" diameter (2.9sq") 52% of front
master, manual, 1" bore (.7854sq") 14% of front
master, power, 1 1/8" bore (.994sq") 18% of front

This is just a guide, not an absolute but a good check to make sure you are not way off. It has been my experience that not all brake suppliers will double check when they get an order. They will just send what you ask for so it is up to you to know what size BMC is proportionate for the piston area of your brake caliper bore.
Jerry

zii

Yep, I'm aware of the ratio thingie and that's exactly why I ordered the Chevy MBC. It's 1 1/8" instead of the Honda MBC's 13/16".

zii

Finally got the MBC parts mounted a couple of days ago. Had some problems with the booster sticking (as mentioned in another thread) but it stopped misbehaving after being used for a little while.

I bled the brakes by myself, using check valves. The result wasn't perfect but good enough for driving. Brakes on all four wheels and I can lock the wheels on dry asphalt...

Pedal is a bit soft and could start braking a bit higher up, so I'm gonna bleed them again... but the car is finally driveable!

...or it was. Of course the left side exhaust system fell apart during the premiere trip.

So now I'm waiting for parts _again_. Sigh...
At least I found them in Sweden this time so I'll only have to wait a couple of days.

47 Convertible

zii, I'd say you did good on your brakes if you can lock up on dry pavement.
Sorry about the exhaust breakdown. I bet half of the owners on this thread are waiting for one part or another. Its being old and no aftermarket parts made that makes it worse for Oldsmobiles. Its good you can find these parts close to home.

I need a quarter window for my 47 convertible. No one makes them. Haven't been able to find Olds, Pontiac or Chevy quarter window for parts or a whole one and no one makes the vertical piece that holds the rubber seal. That piece on mine looks like swiss cheese. Gonna keep looking while I start to figure out how to make that double 'U' shaped piece of channel. Someone made it to begin with so it can be fabricated again.
Jerry

Manuelte

Hey Zii or any other of our knowledgeable guys,
I see that under your front lights you have two small ones, do you know where those came from? I have the same ones and have no idea if they are stock, an option or simply added by the owner later.
I will make an update of my car on the main thread soon
Best wishes
Manuelte

47OldsWy

Hey Jerry for your glass have you tried the "glassman". Here is his link:
http://www.classicflatglass.com/PartsShelf.aspx
There are a couple other sites (Metroparts and Glass Seekers) that sell quarter also, but I talked to Nicholas (the owner) and he was very helpful.

Sporty45

Good info, Jenni. I'll be adding that site to my bookmarks!

Dennis

47 Convertible

__________________________________________________

Thanks for the link. looks like all he sells is glass.

I'm needing either the whole window with all the chrome trim and attachment parts or at the very least the chrome pieces--particularly the vertical one that holds a rubber seal. Thanks for thinking of me and if anyone runs across a parts convertible that has a quarter window please let me know with a PM from this site.
Jerry

zii

Huh. Weird... I don't write here much, but I sometimes check in just in case, but I haven't gotten a notification of your reply.

Anyways, I'm fairly certain those lights are of the universal kind and added later. If you look closely (live...) you can see that hey don't quite fit. The lights are flat but the body is slightly curved at that particular spot.

I've been thinking about moving them outwards a bit, so they fit better AND follow the shape of the grille... but then I'd have to drill new holes and cover the old ones.

zii

New problem: Vibrations!

I'm guessing an U-joint.

Haven't crawled under the car, but there should be at least two... does anyone know if both are the same?

And where do I find new ones? I guess what I'll need is two complete kits.
(Might as well change both while I'm at it.)

citcapp

Kanter Auto

Follow this link:

https://www.kanter.com/productdetail...Router=Catalog

zii

Thanks, I'll check it out!

Too bad I realized the shaft may not be original since the original engine and transmission are swapped out for slightly newer stuff.

I guess I should try to get in contact with the previous owner who did the mods...... wish me luck.

zii

I'm not very good with the updates..

Anyways, I actually managed to get in contact with the previous owner (well, not they guy I bought it from, but the guy before him) and it turns out he pretty much bought it as it was. He fixed some things, but did not swap out the drive train.
He was also the first owner in Sweden, which means someone on your side of "the Puddle" did the drive train exchange. (283/PG, remember?)

I guess the trail ends there.

On a side note I had to get another brake booster. The first one kept being semi-sticky at random, and every time it happened, the pedal wouldn't go all the way up. This caused the brake lights to remain on and the brake fluid return holes wouldn't open, causing the brakes to drag ever so slightly.

New booster and the brakes are better than ever.

What else is new...?
Right. The exhaust system broke down again. One exhaust pipe hit a speed bump, causing a large piece of the manifold to break off!

Since the engine is replaced with a V8, the left manifold originally points straight into the steering box. Therefore someone has cut the original manifold up, re-angled it and welded the pieces together again.
Since the manifold is cast iron, the material along the weld was weaker, so the re-welded piece snapped right off when I hit the speed bump. Didn't go fast either, but I had passengers so it rode a little lower than usual...

I fixed it temporarily a while ago, but a couple of weeks ago I hit another of those bumps (I hate them!) and managed to break things even further...

It feels like I'm getting closer and closer to redoing the entire exhaust system with new headers and all. But before I do that I want to change to a rack and pinion steering (powered)... so things are a bit locked up right now.

Frustrating.

47 Convertible

The two "Fs" of hot rodding: Fun and Frustration. Hopefully there is more of the former and less of the latter. A good idea to change to power R&P. Good steering box parts for our old Oldsmobiles are not to be found even if the box wasn't in the way.
Jerry