My best Oldsmobile tool

Kennybill

Active member
Oct 3, 2018
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Braceville Ohio
My 1980 C30 started out life as a box truck. Extended frame, dovetail flatbed, 4 speed with PTO, 12 Ton winch, ramp truck. I've owned "Big Daddy" since the mid 1990s. I owe this truck for pretty much my whole Oldsmobile hobby. Being into drag racing, I felt there would be a shortage of big blocks Olds so I use to put ads looking for Oldsmobiles. I've pulled Oldsmobiles out of fields, gullies and off small mountains in western Pa., Ohio, and W.Va. Back then they were usually under $100. I never took pictures or keep track of how many. Probably 60+ Olds, plus an occasional Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, Chevy, and even a couple Fords. Zero Mopars. I use to sell the engines then scrap the car but some were to solid. I still have it but only use it occasionally. It's been the best "tool" I've ever owned. My two post lift is second. I only have a couple of pictures. First is a 1971 Cutlass project car I bought around year 2000. I had another load of parts that went with this Cutlass. I tripled my $ on that one. Next picture is last summer, that's the last car I bought. I'm about half way done with it.
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Apr 2, 2019
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Chicago
Big Daddy ha ha. Got any more pics of the truck? Great progress on the 442. The paint looks beautiful.

I don't really have a "best Oldsmobile tool", but here is a tool I made that has, for its cost and what it is, proven to be one of the more useful tools I own. I think it cost me about $12. $10 for the lazy susan bearing, and a couple bucks for the wood. I use it for painting things that are round, like wheels, air cleaners, that sort of thing. It would be hard to get a better paint job using any other method. It's basically two platforms joined together by the lazy susan bearing. You put whatever it is you're painting on it, and spin. Saves a lot of wear and tear on the knee joints, and it's easy to get a nice, uniform application.

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Apr 2, 2019
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Chicago
Ha ha nice, I want to see pictures of your wheels when you're done. For what it's worth, there are three important strategies when using this. Hit all the difficult-to-reach areas like the sides of the spokes first and the easy-to-reach areas last, work your way from the center outward, and apply less paint or use more speed the closer to the center of the wheel you're spraying. Also worth mentioning, if you start at the backside of the wheel, focus mainly on areas that you can see from above, that way you can grab it from areas you can't see (downward facing bead surface) without messing up the paint. Same holds true when you flip them over. I had masked a previous set, thinking the overspray through the holes would be a problem. I skipped it this time, and it wasn't a problem. Got three coats on all four wheels front and back in about 45 minutes.

Oh, and you might want to do your final coats on visible areas using the same exact nearly-full can of paint, and reserve varied and less-full cans for the inner part of the rims. Nearly-empty cans work a lot better vertically, and using the same can on visible areas ensures they all match. Shockingly, I got the whole job done with less than 4 cans of Krylon Dual. I was very impressed with this paint. (I typically prefer Krylon "just paint", nothing special, but they don't seem to make "just paint" anymore...) The Dual worked well without primer, didn't have a tendency to run at around 65 degrees/low-ish humidity, and gave a nice gloss. Installed the trim pieces after 24 hours, and had tires mounted after 48, and the paint held up well.
 
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Apr 2, 2019
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When I paint the rims I just use a 5 gallon bucket

They fit perfect on them

I'm lazy though, I don't like hunching and moving around the rims. Plus, it's easier to get an even coat when they're spinning.
 

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