1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88: Under Hood and Rear

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.

10/24/09

Under Hood and Rear

The plan for the front includes brakes and shocks. Even though the rear end is planned for next year I went all the way around with brakes and shocks now. Rear is done for now including shocks, shoes, wheel cylinders, and original '60 wheel covers found on ebay. The rocket emblems were repainted red and white to look original. The black tire, wide white, and chrome has a good contrast--can't wait to see it on the ground and rolling.

The under hood was completely restored. The latch was shot Olds Rocket Gold, the hood copper mist poly, and all of the black is 50% gloss powder coat.

Under hood before:

Under hood after. Repainted with new insulation. Nice improvement in appearance especially on the cowl-to-hood area and the 2 cross braces:

Powder coated hood spring assembly installed. Electrostatic powder coating wasn't introduced to industry until '66, so this finish would not have been available when the car was built in '60, however, given the greater durability than paint, cost, higher quality finish on complex contours, and the ability to exactly match colors, it was hard to pass up: