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Good evening to all. Would like to share a 1966 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight LS sedan we saved from a sad fate. We call the car 'Ocean Mist' in name of the paint color. We got the car in 2018, literally driven out of a field, the fate was the car to be used as a demo-derby by the person we got her from. We did a round-trip of almost 1500 miles to get the car. She looked pretty solid from the pictures, we were not disappointed when we first set eyes on her when pick up time happened. The car was very weathered though not worn, the fact the speedometer said 68,000 miles, and pedal wear etc. seemed to indicate this. What really caught our fancy was the car had a decent an\mount of options. Some were/are factory cruise control, power vent windows, cornering lamps, tilt- telescopic steering wheel, AM/FM radio, A/C. With lots of patience checking and repairing connections due to tarnishing, and having the factory service manual, every one of these accessories works just fine now! Even the points-style clock functions! Getting the car to look reasonably decent again required a lot of hours of work on our part, as farming out the bodywork would have been cost prohibitive for the budget we had. Scrape, scrape, scrape, sand sand and more sanding was done on many evenings. I honestly thing vinyl tops are the most evil thing on a car to remove! Thankfully, by some miracle, the roof was in excellent shape, the windshield cowl was the most damaged, that took a bit of welding and ingenuity to fix as replacement parts for B and C- body Oldsmobiles are hard to find in reproduction. All to many classic cars rust at the base of the windshield! We decided to paint the roof, it was a lot less expensive then fitting a new vinyl roof, and the light cream color keeps the interior fairly cool, the factory A/C only being needed on the most hot and muggy days. The color combo looks so 'tropical' as many friends have said, we agree. The 425 V-8 and Switch-Pitch Turbo-400 work very well, the car is quite snappy when the accelerator pedal is pushed. The rear axle is a 3.08, we do have a limited slip Anti-Spin axle to fit 'just because'. Since the car is now not original in the sense of work being done, and it is for us to enjoy, some upgrades have been done. 1968 Oldsmobile rear side lamps have been installed on the rear fenders, taillamps have additional LED bulbs installed inside to brighten the rear stop/turn lamps, third brake lamp, front side markers hidden in the cornering lamps, and the parking lamps now stay on with the head lamps. The brakes were thoroughly examined, new brake hoses were put on, wheel cylinders replaced, premium brake shoes replaced the almost worn front units. The rear 2.5 - inch wide shoes were just fine. The car stops swiftly and silently. We do not hot-rod the car, so the drums are fine for now. I do have a disc brake assembly from a 1970 Ninety-Eight for the future i Power vent windows! The cruise control gets lots of questions when folks see it. The AM/FM radio This was a real chore to tidy up! So was the underside. Plenty of before to take care of!
f needed. Most important, the single master cylinder was replaced with a dual-circuit master cylinder which was a part used by Cadillac from roughly 1962 to 1966. MC36373 is the part number for any other large Oldsmobile owner who may wish to switch to a dual circuit system on a 1965-66 B or C-body, I am not sure about the earlier years. New springs, shock absorbers, Air-Lift rear airbags and an idler arm took care of suspension and steering concerns. The interior is weatherworn, but still presentable, we do have material and leather for the seats and are saving up the funds to have this done. We intend to get shoulder harnesses installed for the front seats at least, the fasteners will have to be done by a professional welder when we replace the head liner, as it is torn, albeit slightly, in a few spots. Overall, we are really enjoying Ocean Mist, she drives like you are sitting on your living room couch! Our only concern is that she sometimes stumbles and misses when sustained heavy throttle is given, some tracing of this will be done in the spring, fuel pressures etc will be checked. All ignition components except the coil have been renewed, so the coil could be suspect. She gets pretty nice attention at cruises we go to. Ocean Mist is anything but perfect, but we have done our best with what we have. The classic car hobby in Canada can be crazy expensive so one has to be resourceful and careful how funds are spent what with high cost of living ETC! We are very happy to have this elegant car to compliment our Vista Cruiser. C.O. has seen us through with the many interesting threads. Thanks to all!
Thanks to all for the kind words and encouragement. It is never easy to fix up an old car for which there is not a catalog to pick part after part. Even is so there is so much work to do, I have seen so many major restoration on these pages. And yes Gary, Sammy also brings many smiles to many people. Nothing much to share about him, needs only a few little things done, spring can't come soon enough! Sammy in a nice dry place for winter storage!
Yes this is a rear window defog Loaded68W34! Good eye, You can see the round intake just where the top of the 'S' for Sammy is written! The only problem is that when we got 'Sammy', the car was from the desert area of California (funny option for a desert car, but who am I to say, maybe the car was near a misty area some time in the past, dealer install? Again, who knows with half-century old cars), the instrument panel, like every fabric/rubber part on the car was dried out and cracked to ruin. The instrument panel got removed, and erroneously got tossed out before all parts could be removed. I honestly can't remember if there was a defogger switch on the HVAC dials, the new panel I got does not have any switches for this, nor am I sure where it goes. Regardless, the A/C takes care of concerns caused by a non-functioning defogger!
Know exactly how you feel about Ocean Mist, because I have nearly the identical car: No AC or cruise. No vinyl on this roof. Pure, GM white. Yes, those are Buick Wildcat rims. Sorry!
Last edited by pfriesen; April 8th, 2023 at 04:58 PM.
Reason: adding info
You have done a great job on your car. I love the painted roof. The color really accents the color and the car. Good for you saving that car like you did. 👍
So I went looking for pictures of your Vista Cruiser. Couldn't really find any. Could you start a new thread so we can all check it out? Please?
You have done a great job on your car. I love the painted roof. The color really accents the color and the car. Good for you saving that car like you did. 👍
So I went looking for pictures of your Vista Cruiser. Couldn't really find any. Could you start a new thread so we can all check it out? Please?
Thanks about Ocean Mist, I have never really had much problems tackling cars that are not top choice amongst others, dare to be different!
Thank you for the request! I will post pictures perhaps a bit later in the Vista Cruiser section. Best regards, Howie. Sprung for spring!
Last edited by Vistabrat72; April 9th, 2023 at 06:42 AM.
Know exactly how you feel about Ocean Mist, because I have nearly the identical car: No AC or cruise. No vinyl on this roof. Pure, GM white. Yes, those are Buick Wildcat rims. Sorry!
I really love how nice the paint looks on your own Olds! Much better then Ocean Mist's paint. She really shines! Do not excuse the Buick wheels. I am trying to find a set of 15" ones like you have. The 15" tires fill the wheel wells nicely. The ones on Ocean mist right now look so tiny! 215/75R-14! When I did the painting, I did my best to recreate the 'distressed' look of the majority of remaining paint as a professional repaint was and is still out of the question for the whole car. The classic car hobby is crazy expensive in Canada as much has to come from the States, our dollar in Canada is a sad joke now.
Tell me about it, Vista, I'm in Winnipeg. Had the Olds redone at least 15 years ago. Cost eight grand then. Imagine that could be double now.
Where in Ontario are you? If it was Kenora, I'd do a road trip .
-Paul
Hey Paul, pretty much the same price in 2008 for taking 'Sammy's' paint off (lots of paint remover and sand blasting), but fortunately the bodywork was very minimal, even around the removed windows, so it did not cost more then one arm and part of a leg . Over time the interior work, changing over to a 2004R automatic, replacing the final drive gears to 3.73's and other miscellaneous things came close to adding half again to this. Unfortunately I am not that close, I live about 45 minutes West of Toronto. I will do a separate post of the car in the Vista Cruiser section. Look out for it soon please. Best regards, Howie.
Howie, I was wondering about the interior of your Ninety Eight. A lot different than mine. So I take it yours is not original?
Hey Paul, the interior, in all its threadbare glory, is original. Ocean Mist is the LS model offered by Oldsmobile as a higher trim line vehicle for the model. The body is of the pillared hard top style, shared with other C-bodies including Buick and Cadillac. The interior is really fancy-pants with lots of courtesy lights, lit rear seat vanity mirror, grab handles on the front seat back too. The doors have pull straps on all of them. There are a few other added goodies on the LS line too. The power vent windows though, were an extra cost option across the whole Ninety-Eight line. IMO I feel the LS interior rivals some interiors on Cadillac.
Most important, the single master cylinder was replaced with a dual-circuit master cylinder which was a part used by Cadillac from roughly 1962 to 1966. MC36373 is the part number for any other large Oldsmobile owner who may wish to switch to a dual circuit system on a 1965-66 B or C-body, I am not sure about the earlier years.
Thank you so much for this information about converting to a dual circuit master cylinder. I have a few questions I'm hoping you can shed some light on.
Does the Cadillac master work with the factory Oldsmobile brake booster?
Speaking as a ‘66 98 (convertible) and ‘66 Starfire (coupe) owner, upgrading to dual circuit master is one of the first safety measures you should take.
After install if you blow a hose, you’ll at least have 1/2 your brakes. As opposed to me in the 1980’s who had to (luckily) glide to a stop with no brakes.
At install put in a Wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to adjust the pressure to the rear drums and then get advice on how to lock it up like it should. I can’t recall the logic this evening, but you want it settable.
Seek advice here about whether fronts or rears should lock up first (if i recall, rears), use that advice to set the proportioning valve pressure to the rears.
The ultimate solution for these cars is front disc/rear drums, but that’s spendy and getting harder to do as parts get more rare. Dig around under my username and you’ll find my ‘66 big car brake journey.
Not to get too brake-nerdy but if I have it approximately right car brake evolution was:
1920-1960’s: single master 4 wheel drum —>
1967 (US federal mandate) dual master 4 wheel drum —>
1967/1968 dual master disc/drum —>
1990 or so dual master 4 wheel disc —>
2005 or so 4 wheel disc / ABS —>
2015 or so 4 wheel disc/ABS/regenerative braking (on EV’s)
2016 or so 4 wheel disc/ software/radar activated augmenting driver input.
Go as far forward in tech as you can afford/what, and just remember than most cars on the road can stop shorter than you. Drive the old cars just a little more gently. For my ‘66 big cars I settled on disc/drum systems from approximately 1970.
January 28th, 2023, 06:22 PM
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. Over time the interior work, changing over to a 2004R automatic, replacing the final drive gears to 3.73's and other miscellaneous things came close to adding half again to this. Unfortunately I am not that close, I live about 45 minutes West of Toronto. I will do a separate post of the car in the Vista Cruiser section. Look out for it soon please. Best regards, Howie.
