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!