Bigsk8r

Hi Guys,

I am in Michigan preparing the 98 Convertible I bought from my grandfather for shipment to Texas. He has a donor car here (a 1970 98 sedan) that does not have the engine and tranny, but I am taking rare parts off to go with the main car (no room for car 2).

Are there any items that are "gotcha" items that would not seem like things you'd want, but you later found you needed? So far, I have many of the electrical switches and actuators out. Have the entire dash out, and am likely going to pull the headlight cans as well as any exterior lights / markers that are undamaged. I also have a spare set of hubcaps.

Is there any value in taking the A/C compressor for an R-134 conversion rebuild? Or would you not do that?

Looking for any and all pointers here.

Thanks!

66SportCoupe

At least ALL the front brakes and steering components

Sugar Bear

X2 ^^^

All exterior trim and lights/lenses...T-3 headlamps???


Compressor... probably not but post it here for sale if you can for a while. A member may need it.

2blu442

I agree with the others about the front disc brake parts and spindles. Speedo cable to the front wheel. If you have room, the complete rear end. If you don't have room the brakes complete and maybe even strip the axles and gears out of the rear. Any good trim pieces. Are the bumpers good? None of what I just listed is reproduced and available new. If you or anyone else need these items they would have to find good used parts. Even if you don't need them you might find them as good trade stock for parts you need on the good car.

Sugar Bear

Rear defroster set upFuel sending unit
Rear drums
​Steering columnMaster cylinder if original
Proportioning valve
​​​​​

cfair

I’d grab the entire wiring harness and all relays. Maybe a window motor or 4 and the regulators. Door hinges too if they interchange from the donor to recipient.

Echo the brakes & suspension pieces. I’d get all 4 front A-Arms, the spindle and rotor. For smaller stuff - get a jar full of hex head screws, trim screws and any specialty screws like you’d find that adjust the windows.

Bigsk8r

I managed to get bins of parts. Sadly, my uncle need to be able to roll the donor car onto a trailer to dispose of it. As such, I was unable to strip off the suspension parts in the time allowed. I will see if he can get the steering master cylinder out.

Things that I know I do have:

- Tail lights (rear bumpers were so badly rusted that a quick cut with Sawzall freed them up)
- All 4 corner markers
- Front turn signals
- All 4 headlight chrome cups with screws
- Dash panel gauge assembly
- Dash panel padded surround
- HVAC controls
- Rear lighting wire harness, complete
- Front lighting wire harness, complete
- Dash harness, mostly complete
- Engine harness, complete
- Bolt on rear fin caps with gaskets and bolts in good shape
- Window switches
- Horns
- A/C Compressor

cfair

You’re on your way. None of us had a big collection of spares when we started out. It’s just getting a bit harder to accumulate stuff that wears out than it used to be.

On the positive side, there’s not Chevelle-like demand for big Olds parts, so there’s still stuff out there.

And for your ‘70, suspension, engine and other stuff swaps in from say 1965 until 1976, depending on what it is. Parts also swap in from Big Buicks, Cadillacs, and Big Pontiacs, so if you can’t go vertical by year, go horizontal within the GM family when you look for parts.

What won’t swap is trim parts that were generally unique by model and year as a styling statement by each GM make and model. But, even there, look 1 year earlier and 1 year later and you can sometimes get lucky. They changed a lot every year for styling, but they didn’t change _everything_ every year. Too expensive.

Figure out in your area where the local “old car” junkyards are, scout them, and make notes on what they have. Look on eBay, consider a canned search with your year and model and a bunch of variations of years and make (Olds, Oldsmobile), (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70). I’m sure you can google up how to do a canned search (saved search) on EBay.

As you get into it, I recommend a safety-first approach. Make sure tires, brakes & suspension are ship shape before you heat up the engine. Keep a fire extinguisher on board and so on. An old car is only fun if you feel safe driving it and it’s reliable enough.

Over the long term, your basic trade off is square feet of spare parts you have to store vs. the problems you avoid by having a parts hoard. If you’re somewhere where land isn’t too ugly pricey, store more parts. If not, store what you can predict you’ll need.

Hope that helps
Chris

Charlie Jones

Not so, In the 1965 thru 70 era, Oldsmobile had suspension designs all their own in "B" and "C" body cars.
All other GM divisions had their own designs and few, if any, parts interchange.

Now in the 1971 thru 76 era, the big GM cars all used the same suspension.
It was a completely different design than 65 thru 70.

cfair

Charlie,
You’re on point about suspensions and brakes.

With interchange, I was thinking more about electrical connectors, wiper motors, window motors, and other generic GM stuff. Not suspension which, as you mentioned was differentiated by brand & model in those days.

Mainly I was trying to broaden his search parameters beyond ‘70 Olds, because across many years & brands some parts will interchange.

Chris