1968 Hurst/Olds

Restorations Projects

53 replies in this topic | 23,877 reads
83hurstguy
Beginner
#41

Thank you!


I took a break from finishing the seat trim today and decided to drain/inspect the rear end, since it was slowly dripping fluid onto thefloor.

I counted pinion turns, and there were more than 4.5 turns per one tire revolution. Thinking I was losing it, I had the wife come out to watch the tire. Sure enough, 4.7 turns. Check the rear gears, they are stamped 9A42. 42 / 9 = 4.66!!!

Somebody swapped a set of 4.66 gears into this thing... no wonder the original engine is gone, lol. It makes me even more curious to try to research the history on this car.

Unfortunately, there are two chunks out of the pinion gear, 1 piece out of the ring gear, and the cover took some damage too. Looks like I'll be searching for 3.91s soon to use with the original 672 carrier.


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83hurstguy
Beginner
#42

Got the original OW trans back from the rebuilder, who did an incredible job rebuilding and restoring it. A good friend also spent time helping get the refinishing done, which made it look awesome without any painting. Here's a picture of the before and the after. I recreated an 'OW' ink stamp on the bellhousing this weekend and started refinishing the dipstick tube. Unfortunately, after clearing, a bunch of the tube turned dull/white, so I'm going to have to re-do that.

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Paul's (Hairy Olds) reproduction trans tag decal is outstanding. It installed very easily and looks awesome. Unfortunately, I let it sit for 5 days before trimming the rivet hole while we were out of town, and some moisture was trapped around the rivet that I used for setting the decal. This caused it to rust a little bit. I bought a second decal just in case, so I'm debating re-doing that as well.


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Last picture with a question... does anybody reproduce an original-appearing vacuum modulator? Trans guy wasn't aware of one... picture of the original vs reproduction one is shown below.

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83hurstguy
Beginner
#43

Time is flying, and progress is... crawling... house projects, the serpentine project, and other priorities have kept me away from the '68 for a while.

I have been collecting parts, and need to start sending stuff sent out for restoration soon like the booster and master.

I added some pictures of parts...


Got an NOS grille and a bunch of small missing engine parts from Randy, found a correct '68 trans pan (need to figure out how to properly restore the bare metal finish), obtained an original '68 emblem for my decklid, and also got NOS OAI hoses from Dean. You can see the NOS hose on the bottom vs the reproduction from Fusick on the top. The difference in sheen is noticeable... but the NOS hoses are short, hopefully they work on a BBO.

Really want to find a correct date coded 1100767 alternator, but haven't had any luck.


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83hurstguy
Beginner
#44

Wow, can't believe it's been 3 months without any updates. Engine is approaching completion at the machine shop, but I really don't have anything photoworthy to post.


I've had the opportunity to land quite a few NOS or nice parts for the car recently, so that's where most of the progress has been made.

Picked up NOS trunk trim with mint used end pieces from Greg at MCACN. Also got an incredibly nice rear notched bumper from marxjunk... it looks perfect in pics, but will need a few dings worked out and replating for show use.

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Dean put together a package of rare NOS parts from his collection, which included marker lights, turn signal lenses and bezels, HVAC control head, door handles, interior knobs and dash cups, rear view mirror, sill plates, quarter glass chrome, ashtrays, spiral shocks, and a ton more... parts I would never even dream of finding, let alone having. These will take the car to a new level someday, thanks again Dean! The pictures below only show part of it, there was another two plastic bins off to the side.


I certainly appreciate everyone who has either sold me parts, offered them up, or tried to find them for me. There's a lot of great people in the Olds community, and I've been learning a lot.


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Joffroi
Administrator
#45

Have you decided if you were going to keep the bullet hole that was in the trunk lid? haha

83hurstguy
Beginner
#46

Lol, that's still TBD... depends if we roll right into full body restoration or if it stays this way for a while with all the mechanicals done.

83hurstguy
Beginner
#47

Iupdated Post Number 3 in this thread, where it contains the history of the car.... [Edit}thought I found the original owner, but it was actually another '68 H/O in the same area.



Joffroi
Administrator
#48

Its been a long time since an update. Has the project made any drastic updates??

83hurstguy
Beginner
#49

The engine is rebuilt and running, trans is done, rear end is next... will be finally finished with moving next week, then I'll get some car time again. I bought another '68 Cutlass to put the H/O driveline in for testing while I start rust repair and body work. I'll have to get some pics and updates up once I'm settled again.

Joffroi
Administrator
#50

I can't believe you are getting anything done at the same time as a move (not to mentioned having a donor car and project car). Looking forward to seeing pictures.

68CutDawg
Newbie
#51
83hurstguy wrote:

The engine is rebuilt and running, trans is done, rear end is next... will be finally finished with moving next week, then I'll get some car time again. I bought another '68 Cutlass to put the H/O driveline in for testing while I start rust repair and body work. I'll have to get some pics and updates up once I'm settled again.

I love this post.. Watching closely for more updates.


Great work on the seats!



83hurstguy
Beginner
#52

I didn't get much done on the car this year due to moving 500 miles (back to Chicago), but the original air cleaner for the car is restored.


The air cleaner had some rust with minor pitting and a partially flattened snorkel, it was in pretty rough shape overall. We removed the heat riser valves, used pieces of pipe and sockets with hammers to reshape the damaged snorkel, then bead blasted it. Several areas needed high build primer and sanding due to the pitting, but we were careful to not over-do the body work and make anything not look like a stamped part.


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We ended up painting it base/clear, and Paul (Hairy Olds) worked his magic to recreate the silkscreened service instructions. For anybody that has a '68 air cleaner, it's a really awesome finishing touch, and it's great that Paul has helped create details like this (and the trans decals) for these cars. The lid is the rechromed original, with a pie pan from Fusick to top it off.


The pictures don't really do it justice, it's a piece of art now.

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83hurstguy
Beginner
#53

Restored dual gate minus the knob... had an original top plate and shifter handle rechromed, has the H&H reproduction woodgrain.Image title

83hurstguy
Beginner
#54

I wanted to put the original deck lid back on the car for its return to the road this summer. A good friend helped me out... the original decklid was pretty rough along the back edge. He cleaned out the rust, hammered the edge flat, sealed it up, then aged the repair so it blends in. This is talent I just don't have. Here aresome pics of the original decklid edge before/after, and a picture in bad lighting with it back on the car.

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'68 H/O's could come from the factory with 14x6 steel wheels and full hub caps... so I decided to go with steelies this year, and threw on some G70 polyglas red lines just to be different (factory was a G70 white stripe).

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The garage doesn't have heat or insulation, so it's hard to get much done out there in single digits. Been trying to bring some other parts into the basement so I can get small stuff done. I need to get the dash pad out, but I'm not touching it in cold weather.

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