1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88: Firewall

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.

4/26/10

Firewall

Firewall clean up and painting is complete. Everything had to be removed from the firewall for a complete paint job, so since it was apart all of the vac lines were replaced and the entire wire harness was re-wrapped. NAPA self-fusing wrap was as close as I could get to the original and it worked great. Firewall joints were sealed with 3M auto sealant and I attempted to make it look factory applied. The firewall received 2 coats of black hi-build primer and 3 coats of copper poly, with sanding between each coat. Due to all the contours and the size it took a lot longer than planned. Now it's finally time to start re-assembling some of those reconditioned parts onto the car such as the heater assembly, brake master cyl., voltage regulator, and wiper motor. Here is the painted firewall:

1960 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88