I spent several years building a 1986 Cutlass Supreme with a 455 Olds and 2004R overdrive transmission that went mid 12's, but in 2004, my heart was ripped out when it was stolen. After a 19 year abscence from owning a hot rod, in June of 2023, I purchased this 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass S. It came with a stock 350 Olds, TH400 trans, 10 bolt 3.08 gears, and 14" tires on later model Super Stock Rally wheels.
After a few maintenance items like replacing the alternator, etc, I put 18x9.5" Vision American Muscle 143 Torque Series Wheels on it with 275/40R18 tires on it.
I immediately started making some cosmetic improvements to the engine bay. The core support and radiator hold down were pretty ugly:
I sanded the core support and radiator hold down to bare metal and treated them with PPG acid etch.
Next, they were primered and painted. Much better!
The car overheated before a trip to the Oldsmobile Nationals in August of 2023, so with a little modification, I installed a Summit Racing 4 core aluminum radiator. I didn't have time to buy a 4 core radiator hold down, so I cut and welded my stock one from the 2 core radiator to fit. The Summit Racing radiator also required me fabricating new lower radiator hold down brackets on the core support.
A new master cylinder and power brake booster were in order too. The bubbling paint is a tell-tale sign of leaking brake fluid. Here it is before:
Here it is with both replaced and working well:
I purchased and painted to match a nice used W35 "spoiler" at the Olds Nationals in August of 2023. Notice I called it by the name Oldsmobile used, a "spoiler", even though I would more correctly label it as a wing. Either way, it just looks cool! A.L. Pavey paint store in North Canton, Ohio scanned the existing paint and mixed up a batch that almost perfectly matched. Apparenlty it's a Hyundai color called "cranberry".
Although I THOUGHT I was purchasing a rust free car, in October of 2023, it I realized it needed some serious bodywork. I started finding bondo over expanding foam in the A-pillars and around the windshield.
This discovery led me to finding out that although the areas these cars usually rust out, like the doors, the wheel wells, the quarter panels, and the trunk floors were in very nice shape, the entire roof was covered in bondo. I later deduced that the car had an aftermarket vinyl top installed very early in it's life, and when the car was painted 20-years ago at a body shop, they cut some major corners in regards to the body work. Below is what I found when I sanded off the bondo from the roof. Notice in the right picture, there is a riveted on patch!
The only way to fix it right was to remove and replace the roof skin. Although I've done quite a bit of rust repair via welding on patches, and I've even painted a couple cars before, I had never replaced a full roof skin before. Thank goodness for YouTube! I purchased a new AMD full roof skin and A-pillars and forged on.
Here is the car with the new AMD roof skin and A-pillars installed. What a difference!
The leaking roof rusted the floor pan as well. The passenger side had already been replaced, so I replaced the driver's side half floor pan with a new AMD stamping to make it right. Here is the floor before... it doesn't look terrible in the photo, but it had quite a few pinholes in it, and the rest was pitted and thinned:
Here is the floor cut out:
Here's the new AMD half-floor pan partially installed:
Here's the floor after it was finished:
In addition to the rust on the roof, both outer and inner cowl panels were very rusty. The passenger side cowl to rocker reinforcement panel needed repair, and I made a new driver side cowl to rocker reinforcement panel. Notice in the before photo that the cowl to rocker reinforcement panel is crushed upwards. Whoever did the bodywork decided not to fix this, and only made basically cosmetic repairs.
Here is the passenger side:
I did all of the bodywork myself at home in my garage over the fall/winter of 2023-2024. Although at first I was devastated that this car that I paid a decent sum of money for needed so much work, now that the work is done, it was the most gratifying project I've ever completed. The bottoms of the fenders had some shoddy work, so I fabricated and welded on patches. The passenger side fender's reinforcement bracing was rusted, and the bodyshop that painted the car simply cut off the bracing from the driver's side fender, so I bought a shrinker and stretcher from Harbor Freight and made my own panels and welded them in. Here are the panels being made from raw flat steel (you can see the yellow Harbor Freight shrinker in the photo):
You can see the new panels I fabricated below, with the rusted out factory piece beside it that I copied.
Welding on new bottoms of the fenders:
Here's after welding and dressing the welds:
Here are the fenders finished:
The driver's side door was in nice shape, other than some rust and stress cracking from a poorly done repair around the door handle. I got a nice patch panel from a donor car from Scott Winn from the Facebook group "Oldsmobile Club of America" for a very reasonable price:
By May of 2024 the bodywork was done and the car was ready to paint. I started with Epoxy primer, then high build urethane primer surfacer that I guide coated and blocked down.
After this, it was top coated with primer sealer, then base coat, and clear coat. The paint job has quite a few runs in the clear, and a bit of dirt in it, but I believe it will wet sand out.
Here she is in primer:
Here it is immediately after painting!
Along the way, the car got a new rear axle. The axle is a 12 bolt Chevy with 3.42:1 Motive gears, Eaton TrueTrac posi, Moser 7900 weld on axle ends and bearing retainer plates, Moser 33 spline axles, and Strange chromoly 1350 steel pinion yoke. The housing was panted aluminum color and the W-27 alloy cover make it look like one of the very rare aluminum center section Oldsmobile W-27 axles just for fun. Believe it or not, the entire underside of the car was painted blue and John Deere green. This metal was in fabulous shape and just needed to be sanded down and painted.The shocks are QA1 double adjustable. I added a UMI Performance shock tower brace kit, adjustable upper control arms, and control arm reinformcent bars. Of course, the axle ears and the lower control arms got polyurethane bushings. I fully boxed in a pair of factoy boxed lower control arms. I also added in a Summit Racing 1" diameter rear sway bar. I finished it off with new grade 8 1/2" fasteners. Here is the underside of the car as I purchased it!
Here is the underside after lots of work:
The transmission was built by Rich at Cyclone Transmission, and like the rear axle, is built to handle up to 800HP. It's a 1997 GM 4L80E four speed overdrive. It has a deep aluminum finned pan for extra oil capacity, and just becaue deep aluminum finned pans are cool. I ran 3/8" copper nickel line for the cooler lines up to a Summit Racing 13" 16 row transmission fluid cooler. The transmission uses a TransDapt bellhousing adapter plate to mate it to the Olds engine. I installed a UMI Performance driveshaft Safety loop too. The 4L80E required a bit of modification to the transmission tunnel to fit and to clear the cooler lines.
Here is the tunnel after welding.
I saved myself a few hundred dollars by modifying the stock crossmember, rather than buying one. One side is removable, because without it being two piece, it no longer can be installed. Here is the crossmember before modification:
Here is the crossmember after I cut it, offset it, and added steel plates and gussets. The two halves are held together with four grade 8 3/8" bolts, nuts, and lockwashers.
In this photo you can also see the 3" 409 stainless steel Pypes X-pipe exhaust system with cutouts. I chose the Street Pro mufflers for a nice loud throaty sound that's not obnoxious.
The car also got a new interior. It came with an awful light brown bench seat interior. I found for a reasonable price a nearly complete black interior and factory console. I welded in the bucket seat and console brackets. I purchased and rebuilt a used Hurst Dual Gate shifter. I also purchased ProCar Rally Series 1000 XL bucket seats. New carpeting from Summit Racing brought it all together. I made a new factory looking tachometer from the guts from a Stewart Warner green line series tachometer. I didn't just use the SW tach as is because it's too small at 3-3/8" diameter face for the 3-3/4" factory pod. There were no appropriately sized aftermarket tachometers, and I dislike teh factory tic toc tach, as the area to view the indicator needle is very small, and they're notorioulsy innacurate. I made a new gauge face from a spare factory speedometer face. I welded over the turn singal holes and bodyworked the face smooth. I then ordered custom font numbers from lettering.com that matched the factory numbers. I laid it out such that the 1,000 RPM marks matched the original gauge face. I used the brights hole in the speedo face and installed an LED for a shift light.
I also found a nice used Olds Rally steering wheel. I covered the factory wood grain with faux brushed aluminum vinyl adhesive covering. The car had no shoulder harnesses at all when I bought it, so I installed retracting lap and shoulder seat belts rather than the factory style non-adjusting ones that have to be tucked up above the roof sill.
The interior before:
The interior after!
The latest modification is the Holley Terminator X Max Stealth 550-1013 TBI EFI system. I used the Holley retrofit in-tank pump 19-350 and a Holley Billet return regulator plumbed with -6AN lines from the tank to the frame, and from the frame to the regulator and TBI. The portion running along the frame is 3/8" copper nickel hard line. I chose the Holley Oldsmobile Dual Sync distributor so I can have electronic control of the timing, and I purchased the Holley Sniper EFI Hyperspark 2 CD Ignition box, and Sniper EFI Hyperspark Ingnition coil. Having the fuel pressure gauge right on the billet fuel pressure regulator is very nice. I modified the stock gas tank with a recessed plate to mount the 19-350 90 gph fuel pump. The Holley EFI is a game changer! I got it running, but still haven't driven the car yet as it doesn't have a windshield in it yet. I'm extremely excited about learning to tune and use the Holley Terminator. Just today I figured out that it comes with a rev limiter, and I can activate an output to turn on the shift light I incorporated into my custom tachometer! How novel! I love being able to just turn the key to start it, even in the 50°F fall weather. My 16 year old daughter was able to start the car to show it off to her friends without fear of stalling it. That didn't happen in cold weather starts with the carburetor!
I removed the ashtray and the door covering the ashtray, and turned it into the information center. On the left is a three USB port charging station, with the Holley Terminator EFI interface on the right. Notice the recess to allow removal of the SD card. Yes, it's running very rich here - this was before I figured out that the MAP sensor vacuum line was not connected.
Here is a nice shot of the engine bay with the EFI:
I moved the coil from the firewall to the p[assenger fender well based on advice from the Holley tech department. I ran the orange and brown coil wires across the front of the car to avoid any RF interference.
I finally finished the body and paint work in December of 2024. I wet sanded the entire car (except the. hood and trunk0 with 1000, then 1,500, then 2,000, then finally 3,000grit sandpaper on a DA. I buffed it with 3M compound. I was amazed at how much dirt this process removed from the paint! I also had several runs and sags that were removed. For the big runs I started with 400 grit by hand and worked my way up.
dmittedly, the EFI, transmission, and rear axle are overkill for the current stock small block 350 Olds, but the purpose here is to prepare the car to accept a new engine. M&J ProFormance in Tennessee is building a new 482 cubic inch Olds. It's a 1968 455 block that got new billet steel main caps on #1-4 mains, with the center three having 4 bolts. The block got a sonic check before overboring 0.125" over. The crank is an Olds 425 crank (all 425 cranks were steel) that was offset ground to 4.250" stroke and Chevy BBO sized 2.200" rod journals (down from the Olds factory 2.500"). The connecting rods are steel 7" long K1 BBC rods. The pistons are a custom Diamond 15cc dish forged piston that will yield around mid-10:1 compression ratio. The heads are ported Speedmaster aluminum heads. The intake is an Edelbrock Torker intake that has been cut to make it a semi-air gap. The camshaft is a .065"/.609" lift, 249°/254° duration hydraulic roller with 112° lobe separation. I chose the 455 block rather than the 425 block I took the crank from because my 425 block had the larger 0.921" diameter lifter bores, rather than the standard Olds 0.842" lifter bores. The standard lifter bore size is preferable for choosing good aftermarket hydraylic roller lifters. Here is a photo of the block:
Here is a photo of the intake made into "air gap" - keep in mind the carb surface will be machined for the 4150 flange and milled flat. It was powder coated by New Image Powder Coating in Struthers, Ohio (near Youngstown):
The pistons: this set of eight pistons, rings, and wristpins alone cost more than the entire rebuild of my small block Olds that I did in the late 1990's:
This car is in some ways nothing special. It seems today that 1,000HP, $100,000 cars are COMMON place now. It's both awe inspiring and in some ways depressing at the same time. I think we have to be grateful for whatever we're able to do with our current level of resources and talents. This car is never going to win any shows and probably won't win races, but it's MINE. I'm seeing the fruit of a vision I've held in my mind. It's a STREET car that I will race. I was clear about that from the start. I wanted a base model Cutlass and not a 442 because I wanted to make it the way I wanted without encumberances of "that's not correct". It brings a huge smile to my face every time I see it. The entire build has been documented on my YouTube channel "Cobbler Bob" if you wish to check it out. I did all the work myself, other than the transmission and engine assembly. The car still has a long list of improvements, such as the front suspension and larger 4 wheel disc brakes, but it's progressing nicely. Feel free to email me at robertpowers1972 at gmail.com with questions. I am documenting the build on my YouTube channel "Cobbler Bob". so feel free to click below to see Episode 1.
Bob Powers
"Cobbler Bob"
www.YouTube.com/@cobblerbob
