My wife and I were able to drop in on the 2005 Oldmobile Club of America Pacific Northwest Nationals last week as part of our vacation. We couldn’t attend any events (we were only there three days and had shopping to do), but made a point of dropping in on the vehicle display area for an hour or so each day.

A few thoughts/notes:

-WOW! There were some awesome vehicles there. Ones I wanted to take home (excluding the 1957 wagon from our local club) included an orange and white 1953 Fiesta convertible, a turquoise and white 1956 88 convertible and (odd for me) a cherry red vista cruiser.

- I got a couple things from the swap meet, but generally that part of the show was a disappointment for me. I had hoped to find a 60/40 rear seat for Oldsmotron. No luck

- I was able to answer a lot of questions about proper underhood colours, upholstery styles, etc. It was an awesome reference collection.

- Some people are seriously committed to the hobby and confident in their old equipment. Imagine driving 1400 miles in a 50’s era vehicle to be at the show.

- Only two 58’s were at the show and neither was a wagon. Oldsmotron is going to be VERY unique.

I’ve posted some pictures in the photo section of the site. I apologize in advance to folks hoping to see more images of 1960+ year model cars. I had a limited amount of memory and followed my own interests. (Please leave a comment if you have any links to other photos collections showing cars from the meet.)

posted by @ 5:52 pm

I recently purchased a House Of Kolor Chip Chart / Tech Guide Package off eBay.

I love the House of Kolor line of paint and wanted the kids to decide on the actual colours they want for the cars.

Tiffany wanted the Sprite to be pink and Tristan wants Oldsmotron to be two-tone orange and white, but there are a lot of different pinks and oranges out there. In the end, Tiff decided on HoK PBC39 Hot Pink (three coats over BC-26 White Base, then clear) and Tristan picked HoK PBC32 Tangelo. While I am a teal guy myself, I think both of their choices have the potential to be very striking.

(There is a color chart here, but it doesn’t really do the colors justice.)

Ouch of the day: I turned the air on to my pressure sandblaster and the spray house “stiffened”, uncoiling and flew. The metal nozzle valve smacked the bone on the inside of my knee. Doh!

Tip of the day: Don’t sandblast inside your garage unless you want to spend a million years cleaning grit out of everything. I should have known better…

posted by @ 12:13 am

It’s interesting how banged up you can get playing with cars.

On Friday I came to school with my forearms all bruised from pushing Rocket on the slope of our driveway.

Yesterday I discovered the pain of getting brake cleaner on tender skin. I accidentally doused my leg and ended up having to run to the shower as my skin started to burn with vigor.

Then today I bled all over the place when I took a wack out of my knuckle while trying to get the a swivel seat base for Oldsmotron spinning.

It’s pain, but ultimately I suppose it’s a good pain.

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On the weekend I changed my first set of disc brakes. (Sandra and I used a Haynes manual to figure out how to change the front pads and rotors on our PT cruiser). With that under our belt, I think we’re ready to tackle putting disc brakes on Rocket. I picked up the bracket kit on Saturday and will likely get the rest of the bits I need this weekend.

posted by @ 12:49 am

It was date night tonight and after our dinner out at White Spot, Sandra and I dropped by the local Chapters to check out the magazines and books (Heh! Stop laughing. I didn’t say it was wild date night). I picked up Rod and Custom (May), the Hemmings Motor News (April) and “Chevy Classics Turning Quicker and Faster.”

I’m still reading through them, but I’ve already discovered a few things I need to remember for Oldsmotron.

• I found an ad for Wheel Vintiques in Rod and Custom and apparantly they offer 18″ smoothies (92 SERIES BILLET GENNIE)! I’ve been looking for these. The fact that they don’t list prices in their online catalog scares me a tad, but I’m still very pleased I found this ad. Note: They list some interesting powder coat colors on their site. I need to check out PFS - 500 - s8 - Safety Orange.
• I need to investigate what sort of bar system to put in the car (triangulated, regular 4 bar, etc.) to replace the leaf springs. There are some interesting shots in the Chevy annual, including a system incorporating torsion bars. I need to investigate and there are several good examples shown.
• I like the lines (if not the implementation) of the center console on page 7 (Chevy Classics).
• Retrofitting A/C. Page 26 (CC).
• On page 81 (CC), they talk about converting a 4-door into a convertible… rrr… not that we’re doing that or anything… Um…

Already some useful info found and I haven’t even cracked my Hemmings yet.
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I was in the valley today and dropped in on the local t to look at various Olds bucket seats. I need to take Tristan with me to get his OK, but I’m kind of liking the seats I found an early 80’s (82, 85?) Cutlass Cierra Brougham. They aren’t perfect but they could make a good starting point for re-upholstery. $75 for manual, $100 for the power seats.
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I picked up another pair of wheel dollys at Costco today. These ones will probably end up under the Bugeye once I take the wheels off. $28.34 CDN.
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There’s a really interesting ad in the latest Pricess Auto mini-catalog for a turbine HVLP spray system. At $129.99, it is worth investigating.
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Found a good article on retrofiting a rack and pinion steering system.

posted by @ 12:16 am

In a fit of procrastination (I’m working on report cards), I called Redi-Strip to see what it would cost to dip the Sprite and maybe Oldsmotron at the same time - I thought maybe I could get a two for one bargain, especially now that both vehicles are mostly bare metal at this point.

To make a long story short, I’ve been warned away from sand blasting (warps the metal) but there are still places I’m finding hard to get to with my grinder and stripping/sanding tools.
So I thought maybe if I could get both cars finished off at the same time, I could be done with it.

Boy was I wrong! I’m hoping the lady who answered my call wasn’t too sure of what her pricing because she told me $3000-$6000 CDN to dip just the Healey! Given that I could have bought a running almost rust free modified Healey for $4800 about three months ago, that bracket seems a tad extreme for a small car. The low end is almost double what I was quoted for the wagon, still in paint, when I asked last year. OUCH! That’s a lot of OxySolv.

No stripping for me. I knew that-but had to remind myself.

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In the “I wish I had some money right now” department, I’d love to buy a set of these adjustable flexibility sanders. ‘Something our curvey bits could really use. They’re on my “too buy” list.

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I almost didn’t find a “resto-treasure” project this week, but this 1958 MGA might prove an interesting, albeit challenging, project for the right person. If you have a lot of tools, but only a small garage, this project could be your ticket to a few winters of fun and frustration. I’d make sure the car had a title before buying.

posted by @ 5:09 pm