1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88: Restoration #2 Begins in 2004

Intro and Background

The blog covers the restoration of my 1960 Olds Dynamic 88. The car spent its early years in the Ohio/Pennsylvania region. The car has been in the family since 1984, when my uncle began restoration #1. That round included a good deal of work by Bob, who towed home little more than a parts car when he bought it. From the pre-resto picture that I saw it looked like it had been parked out in a field and neglected for quite some time. He got the engine running, replaced a fender, added new dual exhausts, exterior body work and paint, re-upholstery, and got all of the mechanicals to function properly. He had it for 20 years and then I purchased the car in 2004, with 58,200 miles on the odometer, and it has been in Arizona since then. Restoration #2 includes returning it to as close to OEM original as possible while maintaining a reasonable budget so the total expense remains close to the book value when complete. This is my first restoration so everything is trial by error and learning along the way.

The car's claim to fame is that it appeared in the movie Kingpin. It served as a background car and you can see it (for only a short time though) during the opening scene of the 1996 movie that starred Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid. It's being serviced at Munson's garage as the movie opens. Check out the Internet Movie Cars Database (IMCDb) link in the right panel.

Interesting tidbit: the license plate on the front of the car in the above picture reads "60 OLDS", and is in Pennsylvania state colors, was actually made at the Pennsylvania State Penitentiary by inmates in the machine shop.

It has a 371 cu in Rocket V8 with 2-barrel carb producing 240 hp and automatic Hydramatic transmission. It has the original driveline. It's painted the original copper mist poly with white top.

10/14/09

Restoration #2 Begins in 2004

Living in Arizona offers great weather for driving old cars from the Autumn to the Spring when it's cool. The car does not have AC, so I work on it each summer when it's too hot to drive. It takes longer to complete a restoration that way, but then I get to enjoy it during the great weather and then make incremental progress on restoration when it's too hot. That also spreads out the cost over a greater period of time.

Restoration #2 is frame on. It began with the trunk since the car was already drivable and had been repainted in 1985. The car must have sat outside for sometime and collected water in the trunk or the trunk seal must have been bad and allowed to go un-repaired because there was a good deal of rust in that area and some holes in the sheet metal that had to be fixed. Roofing tar and cardboard, in addition to multiple coats of undercoating, had been used to seal up the damage by the original owner! Expediant I'm sure, but also lots of fun to clean out! It took about a month to get the trunk down to bare metal and clean enough to begin the repair work.

Here is the trunk before beginning: