The insides of the rear quarters: look at the seams and the trunk drop offs!

Wheel wells and tons of undercoating. Do they look like original assembly line drums? I think the front rotors may have been replaced. Opinions?

I also have to fix the gas gauge. The gauge has E to F on the top of the circular gauge in the 11:00 to 1:00 position clockwise, but the needle is pointing to 3:00 o'clock. When I was under the car I saw the ground is correctly attached and not broken. Bad sending unit in the tank? I initially thought maybe the tank was empty but I tried to add 5 gallons and only got 3 in before it was full.

Tomorrow I will do the compression check. And one of my friends loaned me his pressure washer so I can get some of that "extra" chassis grease off the front suspension. It looks like whenever they attempted to lubricate the suspension pieces they decided that "on" was just as good as "in" the zerk fittings. (Keep in mind those front end photos were after I spent 20 minutes with a scraper, removing the globs of old grease just so I could find the zerk fittings.) Thankfully all the front end componentry was tight: idler arm, tie rod end, ball joints, etc.

Stay tuned!

1236997 is a GM number, so it's likely they are. Original front rotors had the groove in the center, so probably not. I'll attach a couple of photos, but rear drum markings are hard to see through the wheel.

Definitely sounds like an inop sending unit. You can try cleaning the connection where the ribbon wire from the sensor meets the bottom side of the fuel gauge wire connector.

Thanks! Any advice on reputable vendors selling a sending unit?

Fusick is the go to for Olds parts. I'm sure there are several others that sell them as well. Just check if it's single or two lines.
https://www.fusickautomotiveproducts...umber=FTU712-2

Just finished the compression test. Here's the results:

Cyl 1: 130 PSI
Cyl 2: 140 PSI
Cyl 3: 130 PSI
Cyl 4: 135 PSI
Cyl 5: 135 PSI
Cyl 6: 130 PSI
Cyl 7: 130 PSI
Cyl 8: 135 PSI

So that falls within range from highest to lowest.

I installed a new set of plugs. The original R45S set looked nicely worn. From the old receipts, I think they had 50,000 miles on them and were due for a change.

I also swapped out the distributor cap since I had an new AC/Delco one on the shelf. The old one was a bit carbon-ey inside. The timing looked good as-is, at 12 degrees BTDC. She starts on the first crank. Rather impressive!

Looks like a single line pickup as I only see one fuel line coming out over the top and over to the frame rail. There are 3 vent lines coming off the tank itself

No return line, mine was the same way.

I ordered the single line sending unit and a diff cover gasket and fluid for the next episode. I also ordered the rear diff brake lines. Along the way, someone had replaced the rear diff brake lines with too long of a set of generic lines and put a loop in them to take up the extra tubing. My OCD can't handle that.

Someone is going to get a nice, well sorted car!

Absolutely. Gong to try to get it registered/titled next week. Since it is a New York state car and they don't have titles for cars earlier than 1972, it transfers on the registration only. But since some states don't like that, I want to make the sale as easy as possible for the next owner.

Yep, I learned about the NY transferable registration with the '66 Buick I bought recently. I have enough trouble with the CA DMV, I expect more issues due to that.

Forgot to mention regarding the spark plug gap, this was the first older GM car I've owned that called for .040 gap that I can remember.

Plus we are dealing with power of attorney documents so that adds an entirely new level of added bureaucracy to the process.

Got some nice shots today on my way to the local cruise night. The sheet metal on this car is amazingly straight.

Very nice looking car! I think it would benefit from having the grilles and taillight lenses put back to silver.

That's another thing I just learned (from you). :grin: I'll have to start looking at reference photos. Is it a textured argent or just silver? (got an example?)

I'd call it an argent silver, dull/flat. Here's the thread on the survivor I had, a good reference car for you.

https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=178274

WOW! Very cool and same color too!. Now I have to run out and check for a broadcast sheet in the back seat!

No sheet visible but since it's a convertible, there's a lot of bulkhead blocking the view and the cushion is much farther in under that convertible top well. Any other locations to check for one?

Under the carpet at the driver's side rear footwell was where I found the second one.

Here's some grille close ups.

Now that would not be fun to repaint with the black inset and all that masking.

Good thing they look perfect.
Be careful, you'll be owning it after cleaning and driving it...:laugh:

Pulled the back seats and looked under the carpet. No broadcast sheet found. Did some more vacuuming and cleaned the trunk. It looks just as solid as the rest of the sheet metal other than having been resprayed with the wrong trunk paint. The dark patches are pieces of the rubber mat's backing that were stuck to the floor.

Is this normal? Looks like they applied the factory door jam VIN sticker over a plastic body plug. I was able to gently pull the plug out and verify the VIN but that's crazy. The other side has a similar plug that has paint over it, I assume from the 1995 repaint.

BTW, the undersides of the doors are beautiful. No door-skin seam swelling anywhere.

No, that's like a Ziebart plug for rustproofing, but likely another brand. Never seen that before being placed right into the VIN decal.

Yeah, I thought so. Absolutely insane choice of location to drill a hole. Now come to think of it, my black 1972 Formula Firebird from Canada has a hole drilled in the same exact spot (in both doors): right through the VIN label. Must be a pattern of insanity occurring above a certain latitude line.

More mission creep. :-)

Replaced the generic master cylinder with something more correct and not seeping from the rear seal. Had to dig through my parts to find the correct push rod that comes out the front of the booster since the one in there was waaaay too long for the stock style master cylinder. (2-9/16" versus 4")

And I drained the rear differential, pulled the cover and wiped out any remaining old fluid. It was black and yucky but no metal and the magnetic pipe plug was clean. New gasket and new 75w90 back in.

Am I reading the gear set right at 2.56? It does say 41-16 and if my math skills are still at middle school level, that comes out to 2.5625 to 1. That would explain the 2 to 3 shift point at 50 mph!

----Geez,,, even an upgrade to 3.08's or 3.23's would be an improvement, and not too detrimental to gas mileage....Bill S

Yeah! 2.56 is even lower than the Lincoln at 2.80.

----I can understand not doing a gear change in this situation,(mission creep again) but I do have a good set of leftover 3.08's out of a 67 10 bolt you can have, Steve....Bill S

Yep, 2.56 was the standard ratio in these cars. Highway friendly!

LOL. Thanks for the offer. I will see what the future holds. Heading to DMV tomorrow morning to get it titled and registered here.

A friend is bringing over one of his buddies & wife to look at the car on Wednesday. He saw it at the cruise night on Saturday. We shall see...

I just don't understand why the BOP models of A bodies don't hold a value like a Chevelle. That car should bring low 30's in that condition. What a sweet machine to cruise with.

Success! We were able to get the car registered and titled today. I brought the wife with me to DMV as she has the power of attorney to sign the registration over for my father-in-law, but we were not going to do anything to it until the DMV lady told us EXACTLY where, and what to write. I have witnessed horror stories in person where someone wrote the wrong thing on the wrong line on a title and DMV voided it right there and made them contact the seller to order a duplicate title and start the entire process over again.

I also got a surprise when the clerk was running the VIN and said it has a prior registration in New Jersey! She said it shows it was in South Plainfield NJ in 1994 and showed 147,000 miles on the odometer. So the 96,430 is actually 196,430 and the new title reflects that as the correct mileage. That might confirm where it was painted because there is a piece of paper in the files that says "Paint 1995". Even with 196,430 miles that is only an average of 3,600 miles a year for 54 years.

Now I'm waiting for UPS to deliver the new fuel tank sending unit tomorrow so I can get the gas gauge operating correctly again.

Cool, sounds like it was well enjoyed over the years.

Heads up on the repro sending units - most are not accurate. Mine shows 2/3 to 3/4 full when actually 100% full. You might be able to correct by bending the float arm up or down accordingly. I am having my original rebuilt so will wait until that is back before I try and make any other corrections.

Maybe I’ll hook it up (outside of the tank) to the dash wire and see what it shows in the gauge before I install it.