Cutlass Restoration Page

9-10-2006

Stage 1\Stage 2\Stage 3\Stage 4\Stage 5\Stage 6\Stage 7\Stage 8\Stage 9\Stage 10\Stage 11

Well, after owning my cutlass a year, I decided that it was time to restore it. Granted, it is a super clean car, all original and hasn't been hammered on. But there are things that I have wanted to do with it since buying it.

First off, the details.

1. Car lacks power of any kind. Could be summed up as "it cant get out of its own way". This is probably due to it having 116k miles on the original 307 V-8, the original th200 3 speed, and 2:14 a peg leg rear. When finished, car will have a 1972 olds 350 block with about 400hp, a 2004r tranny and a 8.5, 3:73 or 4:11 rear. Don't worry. I will be keeping the original engine and tranny for it. If I ever want to put it back to original, it will be an easy swap. 

2. Car was originally all black. Silver has been added by original owner. While I like this combo, I am taking back to the original color, albeit, a slightly modified scheme.

3.  Interior is all original, but some of the parts are faded, headliner is just barely starting to come down, and it has the granny speedo. Upgrades to the interior will include new carpet, new speedo with gauge cluster, new headliner and probably newly recovered power reclining buckets. (haven't decided yet)

4. Weather stripping is completely shot. A new set of weather stripping for the entire car, with dew sweeps (inner and outer), trunk and doors.

5. Suspension is worn out. Going to put aftermarket springs, upper and lower rear adjustable control arms, tubular front control arms with b body spindles, bigger brakes, new sway bars (front and rear) and shocks. While doing this, the body will be off the frame. The frame will be sandblasted, primed and painted, underbody cleaned and painted, and all new body mounts put in place.

6. Since emissions wont be a problem anymore, headers and a full dual exhaust will be put in place. The ecm will be pulled out, all smog equipment will be taken off. All of this will be kept though, in case I want to put it back to stock at a later date.

Pretty much the only thing that will be left in the car during this whole project is the front and rear glass and the dashboard (which is amazingly un-cracked and in great shape.

Step 1. Disassembly

The car at this stage has had most of the interior taken out, the weather stripping taken off and the stainless trim from around the windows taken off.

This picture shows the first stages of taking off the front clip.

The next series of pics show the complete disassembly of the front end.

This is as far as I have gotten. Not bad for one day. All parts were taken off one by one, the big parts put in the basement for cleanup, and the small parts put in ziplock plastic bags, labeled and put in a empty case of beer with the dividers still in it, awaiting cleanup and re-assembly. If you plan to take anything apart on your car, I recommend tagging everything. It makes it so much easier for putting it back together.

Stage 1\Stage 2\Stage 3\Stage 4\Stage 5\Stage 6\Stage 7\Stage 8\Stage 9\Stage 10\Stage 11