new here with a '73 Custom Cruiser

Discussion in 'The Welcome Wagon' started by jaunty75, Jan 25, 2010.

  1. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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  2. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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  3. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Oldsmobile Option codes explained, including which GM manuals had them, from 1965 to 1976. Bumper Guards are listed. Use the browser's Edit... Find... function:
    http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/ofocd.htm
     
  4. jeffreyalman

    jeffreyalman New Member

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    bumper guards were de rigeur back in the day
     

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  5. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

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    I'm not so sure about that, Jeff. Depends on what day you mean, maybe? :D I THINK I remember on my 49 Caddy Convertible that there were plugs in those if it didn't have the guards. Mine had the bumper guards but I thought I saw a sedan that had plugs in the places where my guards were. I could be wrong....could even be thinking of the wrong car. I've had so many cars I tend to forget which is which anymore. I do remember, when I was a kid, I was at my dad's gas station and asked him why there were those things in a bumper on a car that was in for service. I noticed that there were those "studs" in places where the bumper was not bolted to the car. He told me they were plugs for the bolt holes for bumper guards. I won't tell you how long ago that was. :D
     
  6. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    Couple more tiny updates. Got the chassis service manual today. Learned that the bumper bolts for the rear bumper are correct and that there are two little "button plugs" that cover those holes. The manual says to remove them with a flat-blade screwdriver when removing the bumper. I'm guessing these are missing, although they might be in the various boxes and bags of parts I've only quickly gone through so far.

    I also learned that the problem with the inoperative tailgate motor cannot be due to a bad circuit breaker because that same breaker also protects the rear window motor and power seat circuits. Both of these are present on this car, and they work. When I removed the wire connector from the motor and tested it with a voltmeter, I got no response when working the rear switch with the key. The problem would seem to be an open in the circuit. Time to trace some wiring.

    A little progress every day, or thereabouts.
     
  7. wixom61

    wixom61 Well-Known Member

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    Hey Jaunty, glad your bumper has the correct bolts holding it on. I hope the caps won't be too hard to find.

    On the tailgate problem, I wonder if there is a relay in the circuit. On your original post, you stated that the fuse was blown, and would reblow when replaced.
    That would indicate a closed or grounded circuit.

    I don't have a wiring diagram, but sure wish I did.

    David :)
     
  8. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    I'll have to check on whether or not there is a relay in the circuit. The blown fuse I mentioned earlier is actually for the taillights, not tailgate. It says only "TAIL" on the fuse panel, which is what confused me at first, but I've since learned that that refers to the taillights. The brake lights, rear turn signals, and 4-way flashers all work, but the tail lights do not light up when I turn on the headlights, and the fuse blows, so I've got a short somewhere. That circuit also controls a few other lights, such as the license plate illuminating light and side-marker lights, so the problem could be in any of those places. More wiring to investigate!
     
  9. jeffreyalman

    jeffreyalman New Member

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    funny, I had the same problem. Last year, after having the car for a month or so, the TAIL fuse kept blowing. It turns out there was a short in the wire that runs back to the rear (just verified with my mechanic that fixed it)

    There is only 1 wire running back there. It splits off in the rear.

    My short was in the LF kick panel behind the hood release / parking brake.

    He said also check under the 2 left sill plates, power to the tail lights runs down the left side of the car

    He also said it could be anywhere, but those cover a lot of the length of the run and are easily visibly checked
     
  10. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    Thanks for the suggestion. The sill plates were removed when the car was painted, and only two of the four have been put back on. I will check that area and see if it could be where the problem is. Maybe when one of them was replaced, it pinched a wire or something.
     
  11. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    more finds

    When I finally received the chassis service manual last Wednesday and looked through it for instructions on removing and mounting the front bumper, I discovered that I was missing some pieces. When I got the car, the family had the front bumper wrapped in cardboard and plastic as that was the way it was shipped back from the chrome plating shop back in 2005, and it had never been unwrapped. I bought the car and took it home without ever opening this packaging because, not knowing that the bumper comes in two parts, I had no reason to assume it wasn't the complete bumper.

    So I contacted the former owner's family to ask them to look for this missing part (called the "reinforcement," it's what the outer part of the bumper attaches to and is needed to attach the bumper to the car). They looked for this part over the weekend, found it, and along the way found three other items of interest. One is another piece that is apparently part of the bumper, but we're not sure. If I can't identify it, I'll take a picture of it and post that here so you all can help. Another is a car cover for the car that was purchase back in 2005 but apparently never used. Last is the spare tire, which I knew was missing but wasn't sure what happened to it. They found it, and, interestingly, it looks like it was never used at all. Mounted on the rim is a bias-ply Uniroyal with the old-fashioned L78/15 size numbering scheme. I'm guessing that this is the original spare and that he never used it and never rotated it in with the other four tires. It just stayed in the spare tire well for 30+ years. It still holds air, but I need to replace it if I want to actually use it as a spare. I know that nowadays they put date codes on tires so you know when they were made. Did they do this back in the early '70s?
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2010
  12. silverfox

    silverfox New Member

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    You are a lucky guy that the family is so interested in keeping that car nice. And they are lucky to have a wagon guy such as you to have the car. It seems like a perfect match for seller/buyer. Too bad the old guy hadn't put on that car cover before he passed away. I think you have a great car there and I think it will be a real winner.(y)
     
  13. jaunty75

    jaunty75 Middling Member

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    I think he intended to cover it regularly once the restoration was complete. Next to this car in his garage is a '65 or '66 Pontiac GTO which he did complete the restoration of and which has a car cover on it. The family kept that one.

    It's like I said before, the whole situation with the restoration was a bit eerie. Service records and other details are kept right up to March 2005, and then nothing through when I got the car last month. I know he took ill in 2007 and finally passed in 2009, but it really felt like he put down his tools one day in March 2005 to go have lunch and never came back.

    Based on the partial reassembly of the external trim, it looks like he got the car back from the paint shop in March 2005 and began putting the trim back on. Door handles, chrome spears, head and taillights, and part of the roof rack are on. I need to finish the roof rack as well as the front bumper.

    What's not clear, yet, is why he disassembled as much of the rear interior as he did. I'm thinking that he might have been trying to get down to the floor under the third seat and behind that, perhaps to get at and possibly repair some rust. But I don't see any rust-through, and I don't see any new paint or anything. Since it's all apart, I plan to go ahead and clean up and repaint all that floor metal, but I wouldn't have gone through the trouble of removing everything if he hadn't already done it.

    I've discussed before the non-working tailgate, so disassembly of the trim on the left side would have been necessary to get at the motor, but he took a lot more apart than was needed to get at this.

    It might just be that the interior trim around the rear side windows was removed as part of the repaint, and he never finished putting it back on. He may also have been planning to repaint or in some fashion renew the interior panels as they are scuffed and dirty as would be consistent with a family station wagon that saw three children grow up and is now 37 years old.
     
  14. jeffreyalman

    jeffreyalman New Member

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    yes but it may be in ancient latin hahaha
     
  15. wixom61

    wixom61 Well-Known Member

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    Hey Jaunty, have you had any luck with getting power to your tailgate motor?

    David :)
     

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