OLDSmobility.com - The 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass and 442 Resource - My Current 442 Buildup Photo Gallery

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The Current Buildup - Page 1

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(Page posted August 25, 1999)

August 25, 1999 - I've rented a garage from a local businessman and am now getting started on the new and improved 442 buildup. I decided to do a complete frame-off this time around, repairing my previous amateurish attempts. Every nut and bolt will be taken apart, every part sand-blasted, bead-blasted and/or painted, and some major improvements and upgrades installed along the way. I'll probably be taking at least a year or so to do this, so stay tuned for updates on a fairly regular basis.

Here's the shop where I'll be spending a lot of my time over the next few months/years. I'm renting out the bottom half of this building. (...and I even have a "cute" little gargoyle protecting me and my car!)

This is a shot of what 4 years of sitting will do to a once-nice, albeit unfinished interior will do...in addition to field mice, who virtually destroyed everything. Back to the drawing board!

These two pictures were taken immediately following the removal of the front clip. I decided it would be a lot easier to pull the engine and transmission with the sheetmetal out of the way.

Here's my motor/transmission coming out. This is the first time I've ever used a come-along to pull a motor...and hopefully the last! Cherry-pickers are the ONLY way to do this right!

OK, here we go...the body's getting jacked up off the frame using nothing but a hydraulic jack. Definitely NOT the fastest (or safest) way of doing it, but...

Well, I've got the front half up, getting ready to do the rear. You can see I'm planning on supporting the body with large-diameter pipe. Again, not the safest way, but I don't plan on being under it, and it's just until the frame gets rolled out. Then I'll lower it down to within a foot or so on some secure stands, so I can safely do some interior work.

TA-DA!
The frame and suspension are out where I can tear into them. This job literally took me an entire afternoon, since I could only jack up one corner at a time, and only inches at a time....but it's done. As you can see, the iron pipes are wedged solidly between the stall walls and set on 4 X 4 posts, which are in turn securely bolted to the wall. After the frame was removed, I also reinforced the center of each pipe with another 4x4 with a V-notch in the top.

Here's a shot of the frame. Man, there sure isn't much to it, is there? I'll be sand-blasting and painting this and the suspension components, doing a little detailing and upgrading along the way.

August 25, 1999
As things sit right now, what you see here is as far as I've gotten. I talked to the electrician about the rewiring job on the garage, and he'll be getting started on it shortly. Since we're talking some bucks here, we're going to do this in stages...he's going to bring in the 220V, install a new breaker box and then just tie into the existing wiring. Then in a month or so, once my bank account has recovered, we'll be completely rewiring the garage, adding outlets and improving the lighting.

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This page last modified on February 15, 2003.