78 Cutlass Wagon- "CopperTop"

[SRD Art]

Hey All-

It's Ben from Speedtech Performance. A lot of you have seen my Pro Touring Pumkinator '79 Cutlass wagon build, link in my signature. Because of changes and updates in plans along the way I have several leftover parts boxed up in the garage. My 15 year old son and I have been collecting parts for a 73 Nova I picked up for him a while back, but since it's a full frame off pro touring build it's evident it's going to be a while to build it. He's turning 16 over the summer and really wants to drive to school next year so we've kept our eyes open for something cheap, complete and running that he could drive. As fate would have it a great opportunity fell into our laps recently...

I first saw this car at a local grocery store. The family driving it looked like they didn't have much $, and the car was loaded like a storage unit. I felt prompted to chat with them about it, but I didn't want to bother them so that was that. A couple weeks later I saw the car parked in an apartment complex not far from our house. It sat in the same place for a couple weeks and I was half tempted to go ask the owners if they'd sell it, but again left it alone. Then after about a month the car was gone. I figured I missed out on a good opportunity, but such is life. About 3 months later I saw it parked in local store parking lot, with a for sale sign on it! This was right after Christmas and money wasn't all there so I just drove past it several times on the way home from work wondering if I should stop and look at it. After two weeks it was still there, so I figured what could it hurt to ask, and called and made arrangements for the next evening for my son and I to go drive it.

The owners owned a title loan type place and said they got it from a family that was having problems and needed cash to move out of state. They informed me it was original miles, just over 89,940! Everything worked on it, except the A/C belt was missing. Turns out it's an L code Chevy 350 backed by a TH350, fairly rare for a G body, especially a wagon. Almost everything under the hood looks original, even has the original hose clamps on the lower radiator hose! It had a few minor door dings and a decent dent in the tailgate, but there is no rust anywhere except for a small patch of surface rust where the paint is gone near the rear window. Judging by the sand/dust everywhere and lack of rust I'd say pretty good chance this car spent most of it's life in the south western states. I gave it a pretty good check over and found a lot of little quirky things that need to be fixed, but the engine and trans worked fine. I told them we were interested but was concerned about the cost of fixing everything to make it safe and driveable and asked if the price was negotiable. They said they were sick of looking at it parked in front of their house and if they knocked $300 off the asking price would I take it away? I seriously would've paid their original asking price but this was an even better deal, so we jumped on it and brought it home. My son was ear to ear smiles all the way home, he totally digs it.

More to come...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/Ginger%20Snap%20Build/IMG_2346_zps16bff597.jpg

[SRD Art]

First thing we did was some planning of what needed to be done, what we wanted to do, and an inventory of what parts I have left over from my car. As far as appearance goes, I had the painter I work with at Speedtech Performance look it over and he thinks the factory copper color should buff out fairly nicely. With that in mind I went to work on a concept rendering. The car definitely needs some visual upgrades to get rid of the grandpa look. Black always does that pretty well but I don't want to go overboard and duplicate my car. Just the right amount should do the trick...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/01Coppertop_zpse562cf16.jpg

With it being copper and black and trying to achieve a tough guy look what better to call it than CopperTop. My son came up with the angry CopperTop dude so I just had to throw it in the rendering.

Eventually I would like to fix the door dings, get the body smooth and repaint it, but for now we'll go with a bit of the roughed up Street Fighter look. All the chrome is in surprisingly decent shape so we're going to use black PlastiDip so it's not permanent just yet. Later on we'll decide whether to powdercoat it or not. The lower stainless body trim is coming off and I'll have to grind down the rivets, so from the lower body line down will get semi gloss black paint. All other trim like the wheel openings and such will either be removed or painted black. Window frames, B and C pillars will go semi gloss black. The stripes will also be semi gloss black and will match the styling of mine. Eventually a cowl scoop will get put on and I have a spare set of single rib Salon grilles like the ones on my car that will replace the stock 3 bar wagon/442 grilles. The stock grilles are in great shape so they will be for sale on ebay soon. My son wants fender vents like mine, but I designed his to open vertically to be a little different. A ride height adjustment via some performance suspension parts and my old GTA wheels wrapped in 245-50-16s will finish the look off.

[SRD Art]

We took a bunch of "Before" pics to document changes. We took some with my car to compare stock to the pro touring changes I made to mine. I think his car should be as low as mine when we're done. :)

Overall the body isn't too bad. The worst part is the dent in the tailgate, but I can work most of that out and then bodywork finish it later on when I have more time.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/04Coppertop_zpscac05b13.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/06Coppertop_zps984dc87d.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/05Coppertop_zps68a3fd04.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/07Coppertop_zpsf56293ad.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/08Coppertop_zpsf3d33347.jpg

[SRD Art]

Man this thing looks grandpa-y. Only whitewalls could make it worse, lol! At least the color is a little aggressive.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/03Coppertop_zps9a16e9a6.jpg

Looks like something was spilled on the car. Our painter at work said he thinks it will buff out, hopefully so. The white specs look and feel like house paint spatter, that or grandma's biscuit mix got splashed on it and never washed off. All that stainless on the rockers and the side door trim is coming off.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/09Coppertop_zps18923abe.jpg

I was thinking to leave the roof rack on this one but my son insisted it needed to come off. We're keeping it just in case we want to throw junk up there for a road trip. That's just dust on the roof.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/10Coppertop_zps7b6378c0.jpg

[SRD Art]

Here's the biggest (maybe only) redeeming quality of the interior. Surprisingly, along with the 350 rather than the typical generic 305 most G bodies get, this car also came with a Rally Gauge pack and factory Tachometer! What a weird combination for a wagon. This car was a great investment, I figure if I parted it out I could just about sell the dash on ebay for half of what I paid for the whole car! Lol!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/11Coppertop_zps323f021b.jpg

Now on to the ugly. The interior is really gross. The seats are in fairly good shape for being upholstered in cloth and as old as they are. Unfortunately everything else is just nasty dirty.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/12Coppertop_zps7e097cf1.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/13Coppertop_zpsa6dce7cf.jpg

Not sure what this is, but it smells like barf. There's more of it on the rear interior panels and floor. Eeew. :puke:

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/14Coppertop_zps7f927f98.jpg

Nice steering wheel, eh? We'll be changing it out as well as replacing the key cylinder with a black one. We're looking into doing a floor shifter and stubby floor console so the factory column shifter will likely come off too.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/15Coppertop_zpsb52bfcd2.jpg

We'll be needing a glove box lock as soon I can figure out how to get this one open. Probably have to drill it out. The wood grain look will be going away, as will the pillow top door panels.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/16Coppertop_zpsc5c44bc6.jpg

More nastiness. Can someone pass the hand sanitizer please?

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/17Coppertop_zps96287fb0.jpg

Not even going to comment on this.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/18Coppertop_zps97fa0638.jpg

This headliner shot should explain all the other issues with the interior. I'm surprised the car was void of duct tape anywhere.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/19Coppertop_zps0675d476.jpg

We'll be turning the interior black so this carpet will be replaced. We'll keep the factory panels back here but probably cover them with some sort of material.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/20Coppertop_zpsab6f24fb.jpg

[SRD Art]

This was a nice surprise when I first saw the car up close. I had never heard of a G body that came with a Chevy 350, I thought the only V8 options were a Chevy 305 and some cars got the Olds 350 or 350 diesel. Thanks to the great guys at gbodyforum.com the "L" code engine option sticker, vin code and engine cast number were verified as the original 350 Chevy. Some folks said they've had G body El Caminos with a 350 but apparently a wagon with one is pretty rare. Every other car I've had got a 400 small block Chevy built for it, so this is my first 350 I've owned. Although I have another spare 400 waiting to be rebuilt for something, considering the originality of it, the 350 will stay with the car unless at some point we decide to convert to LS.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/21Coppertop_zps92b22c40.jpg

The air filter looks new as does the plug wires and plugs. Best I can tell the upper radiator hose and heater hoses are the only other things that have obviously been replaced along the way. Every wire, hose, and connection is intact. A/C belt is gone but the compressor isn't locked up and there is a little pressure in the system. I plan to get it working again, it gets mighty hot here in the summer. Since the car isn't registered or insured yet we haven't have a chance to get out on the freeway to test the cruise control yet.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/22Coppertop_zpsbd285dbb.jpg

The air pump was making an awful noise so we pulled it out and put a shorter belt on. Problem solved. Unfortunately it looks like the power steering pump is on it's last legs too so we'll be replacing that. The motor is pretty caked with dust and grease. The plan is to pull the engine and trans, clean 'em up and do a reseal. I will be replacing the intake with an airgap dual plane. While we have the timing cover off I will be installing a new timing chain and trying out a Summit cam to keep the car at a high school salary budget. The one I want is the 1103, I've heard lots of folks have had good success with it, and it's mild enough for a kid's daily driver. Plus it sounds good at idle which he hopes will earn him some big coolness points in the school parking lot. Here's a link to one in a 350 in an old truck- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K-XV3Yum8k

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/23Coppertop_zpsda236e87.jpg

Original radiator hose still has the tower clamps on it!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/24Coppertop_zps7b39fe0b.jpg

Underneath is pretty ugly. Here you can see the factory triangulation brace and larger sway bar. Upper ball joints are original, I suspect the rest of the front suspension is too. Most of that is coming out and will be replaced.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/25Coppertop_zps1a99d35f.jpg

This car also has the engine bay fender braces. My wagon didn't have them so I think they're pretty cool. That'll help a bit, my son plans on autocrossing with me. We'll also be installing a 6 pt cage in this car to help stiffen things up a bit.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/27Coppertop_zps25215330.jpg

[SRD Art]

The first order of business was to spend some time cleaning the interior. We didn't mess with the carpet, I don't think there's any hope for it. Then we took it to the spray wash and hit the outside and engine bay. Hopefully we can buff the paint to look almost like this. :)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/28Coppertop_zps26c90d16.jpg

The engine cleaned up ok, there's that GM corporate blue paint. We've got some cool plans for engine bay colors and details. We don't have emissions testing here so all the smog equip will be removed. I'll be adding headers and a 3" single exhaust through a Flowmaster to replace the manifolds, huge cat and factory muffler. I plan to split the exhaust at the back side as my son wants the dual exhaust look. We're hoping the car will see low 15s/ high 14's at the track up here at 2800 ft altitude. A lot of that will have to do with what gears the rear has, I'll be checking that as soon as I can get it down to work and on the lift. At the end of the month is the first drag race day of the year, so we're hoping to run a few passes as it is to get a baseline before all the changes. My guess is maybe in the 17's.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/29Coppertop_zpsb788e4b5.jpg

That's it for photos at this point. We'll update as we start digging into it, likely next month when it starts to warm up a bit. Thanks for following along!

[WSSix]

Cool find! I think I'd sell the dash though. To me, its rarity and value are worth more than trying to keep it and use it. That's just me though. I like the plans you guys have and the name. Good luck with it, Ben.

[67goatman455]

the carpet does look a little far gone, but i have always had luck pulling it all the way out, spraying every type of cleaner on it i can think of, scrubbing the crap out of it, and hosing it off at the car wash with every selection there is (wheel/tire, engine bay, soap, then water)

[SRD Art]

I thought the same about the dash. Turns out they're only worth about $50. I have a spare 73-86 V8 Chevy Truck factory tach dash that you'd think wasn't worth much but I've seen those go for $250+.

We had the same thought about the spray wash. We plan on converting the interior to black but for now that's a decent solution to try out.

[SSLance]

Very nice solid platform for which your son to build off of for his first car. Love the fact that it's a basically solid classic and just needs some TLC to make it nice again, then the fun can begin as his budget and time allows.

The 350 option blows me away...along with the gauges and the fender braces. What year is it anyway? By chance does it look like it's ever had a trailer hitch on it (maybe set up for towing back inthe day)?

[SRD Art]

My initial thought too, but there's no signs of a hitch at all. Perhaps someone ordered it with that intent and didn't follow through. Isn't it interesting to think of the history of our cars, who's driven them, where, why...

[68400BIRD]

Should be a great car for your son. It's nice when just a little clean up or a lot in your case will give you a solid foundation and reliable car. My first thought was how are you going to make that car look cool. Then, I see a picture of the black wagon next to it. Are you staying with the stock color? I like it. And if you are what are your plans with rims? Chrome, aluminum, or powder coated? Looking forward to more pictures.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Thanks 68. If you click on the link in my signature you'll see more of the black one, it's fairly hard core for a station wagon, and still a long ways to go on it.

My son's car will be a little more mild due to the low budget he has to work with, but should still be a lot of fun on an autocross. We will be buffing the factory paint for now, and in time will fix the door dings and do a repaint in the same color. The rendering I did in post #2 will be fairly accurate, I had a hard time duplicating the factory color in the computer program I use but you get the idea. The wheels we have right now used to be on my wagon, they're 16x8" Trans Am GTA wheels with BFG 225 and 255 50 tires. Eventually I'd like to see 17s or 18s on the car but that's a ways away. When I become rich and famous I'd like to put 18s on my car so the 17s I have now could get passed down to him. :)

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Well my son has been spending a little spare time on the wagon. He's got the 16x8 GTA wheels on now and he's bee working on blacking out the trim. I have a new set of grilles for my wagon so I gave him my old Cutlass Salon grilles. We both like these better because they have only one verticle bar as opposed to 3 on the standard grilles. They're also a little more deep set in. He cleaned and prepped and shot them semi gloss black along with the head light bezels. Next up it the bumpers...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/Coppertop00b_zps5aff6306.jpg

We've decided to black out the pillars and window frames, and later on window tint will give it a nice subtle look.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/Coppertop00a_zps6887915b.jpg

More pics coming soon...

[68400BIRD]

Where are the side shots of the new wheels? Did you get a chance to see how the paint will buff out? You know that you have one tiny circle somewhere on the car where you tested it.

[Ben@SpeedTech]

We haven't gotten to the buffing yet, Roman's just been cleaning and doing the trim painting while he's waiting on my time to free up to help him. I've been spending all my spare time evenings and weekends working on several concept renderings for some forum members and I just finished them up this week. This coming weekend and some evenings next week will be spent on my car getting it ready for an SCCA event next weekend. So after that's over I'll have more time to spend on this car. I'm actually pretty anxious to get going on it.

I'll have him get a photo of the car with a good shot of the wheels.

[67goatman455]

oh yea! it will really need some 20% tint now, thats going to look great. maybe black bumpers next?

[SRD Art]

Roman has been continuing with the painting of the trim. I'm pretty busy with work and trying to spend time with all the kids so he's pretty much doing this on his own with occasional advice from me. I'm impressed, he's doing a great job. Every day I come home from work and see his car and am a bit jealous, I think it looks better than mine! I'm really growing bored of the rattle can black paint on my car and like the vibrance and color of his. He finished up the front windshield and rear glass trim this evening but it was too dark to photograph. I think next is clean and repaint the wheels, and I need to get a new buffer so we can work the paint.

Here are his latest pics he's taken. He also took some time to Photoshop a couple of the pics to get a vision for where we're headed with the car, so I'm posting them too...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/34Coppertop_zps18e43069.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/33Coppertop_zps1c99503b.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/31Coppertop_zps268fe9d2.jpg

Photoshopped- shined up, lowered, blacked out rockers and bumpers...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/35Coppertop_zpsa908107b.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/32Coppertop_zps4af814fd.jpg

Photoshopped- lowered and blacked out. I plan to narrow the bumper and I think we'll be grafting in some driving lights to be a little unique and continue with the pro touring look...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/73novars/CopperTop%20Wagon/36Coppertop_zpsf56af171.jpg

More coming soon...

[glassman]

Did he gut that interior? At the least Lysol it....i know exactly what that interior smells like (worked at a Chevy dealership in the ''80s), whew, the bacteria....

Fun project, good luck with it!!

[SRD Art]

He's cleaned it up, but it still needs help, summer's gonna be stifling here in Southern Utah and the smell is gonna kill us! lol When we swap steering wheels we'll deep clean and paint the column. The carpet's gonna go and eventually it'll get front buckets. :)

[Coppertop]

Yes! Finally some more updates and hopefully we'll get updates on here more regularly now.

First off, we've taken the car to a couple races; we have taken it both, drag racing and autocrossing so far.
I was actually surprised with how the car handled both the different racing styles. :thumbsup:

First off is the drag racing... The car ran an insanely lightning fast quarter mile of 17.2 Seconds at 79mph with a reaction time of .655 seconds. :rofl:
However, the car did pull surprisingly strong and the motor stayed together. The only issues it really had was, it was pretty dang hot down here in St. George and the car was getting vapor lock and the fuel was burning up before it got to the motor so the car would slouch down and completely quit making power towards the end of the 1/4.

The same type of thing happened during the autocross towards the end of the day.

But honestly I can say I'm completely surprised with the way the motor took all of that abuse. I felt like I was beating the absolute crap out of it because I always would think to myself "This is an Oldsmobile Station wagon from 1978, it's not made to perform like this" so I really couldn't help but smile when it took all of that abuse without any complaints.

Changing subjects to the autocross, one of the funniest parts about it was where I thought I was doing pretty good and felt like I was really pushing the car and then traded off with my dad and let him take a quick run in it and he actually knocked off a few seconds from my best time. After seeing that though, I realized I could actually push the car more than I already was (because before, I was sure I was pushing it to it's limits) so I pushed it a LOT harder the last couple times and got really close to my dad's time, even with it vapor locking and slowing down. So I was kinda proud lol.

As for the suspension on the autocross, well... I can say for sure this car was not made from the factory to do that kind of racing hahaha. There was a ton of body roll and over all the car didn't take the beating in the best way possible.
Basically the day before the race, we put my dads old rear lower control arms and shocks on the rear of the car (since he upgraded to full on Speedtech suspension) and I noticed a difference right away in how the car drove. But it still wasn't enough to overcome the rest of the suspension all working together.
The car did actually stick really well, most likely thanks to the semi-wide and sticky tires it has on it currently. I went in thinking the car was going to get both ridiculous understeer and oversteer but I really didn't have an issue whatsoever with either one. There was one run that we experimented with the air pressure in the tire. We pumped it up to probably around 40 pounds and that run I got extreme understeer and went off the track, so as soon as I finished that run we lowered the pressure back down and it stuck great the next time. Also another thing was the interior. The bench seat had no lateral support at all and while this would normally be a con for professional racing I couldn't stop laughing with the way the car threw me around in there, it was so much fun. But after it all, I can absolutely say for sure, that it was an indescribable amount of fun taking the car out there and just driving the thing. I really cannot wait to do it again :D

Here's an example of that insane body roll:
http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag175/CoppertopWagon/IMG_9224_zpsb518809e.jpg

In comparison, here is my dad's car coming out of the same turn (just taken at a different camera angle)
http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag175/CoppertopWagon/IMG_9204_zpsdddca866.jpg

Here's some more pictures from the same day
http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag175/CoppertopWagon/IMG_9209_zps15e4680d.jpg

Another one
http://i1368.photobucket.com/albums/ag175/CoppertopWagon/IMG_9223_zps6ec4103b.jpg

Also I think we may have some videos of the drag racing so I'll see if I can dig them up and get them uploaded soon.
Thanks for reading! I'm so excited to really start doing stuff to the car to make it more race ready :hello:

[SRD Art]

It was a great time for us both. The SCCA guys really enjoyed calling us "The CAM Cars" and talking about how we had near identical old school wagons. I had a good time testing out my new suspension, but by far my "funnest" race of the day was when I drove a lap in Coppertop. My car was having vapor lock issues too but despite that my it's best was a 75.9, about middle of the road against all the imports. Roman was running 89-88s in Coppretop. When I took it for a run I went all out and no holds barred. I absolutely abused those poor 225-50-16 front tires and pulled off an 81.7. I was ear to ear smiles and even laughed a couple times during the run because of the crazy body roll and all the effort you have to put into trying to stay put in the seat. It was a blast! The funny thing about this car is the body roll is it's saving grace. Once the body rolls over it plants the tires and although they complain out loud for the most part they stick. It gets a little understeer but not enough to get out of shape. You have to remember this is stock suspension, the only upgrades are Varishocks on the rear and Edelbrock lower rear arms. Factory front sway bar and no rear sway bar. At least one of the front shocks is blown out, the right side wheel has static Positive camber, all the factory rubber bushings are in rough shape, and the 16" BFG tires are worn and about 6 years old. I showed Roman my time as if to say "Push it harder". I think it was his next run or two he nailed a low 84 with bad vapor lock throughout the course. I'll bet with a better running motor and a few more runs he would have been right on my heels. That was near the end of the day so we had to pack it in with that. The season is over out here so next season he will be pushing some faster times with all of my car's old suspension in place. Then it'll be even more of a challenge to keep your cheeks planted on the bench seat, lol!

Way to go Roman! It was a good time watching you run your first AutoX.

[Zoomin]

Nice project guys! Love seeing the father/son build and drive.

[instro84]

nice!

[SRD Art]

Thanks guys!