[49olds]

I have a 1948 olds 4 door, it has not moved since 1964. so as you can probly tell it is a little rough. or should i say very rough, No rockers,m floors, and most of the trunk floor has been eaten away. Now, i don,t mind doing the work at all on the car and look forward to it. My first question is this, how do you get the tires off the car without braken the studs off, or more then i have already hehe. I have tried heat and hitting with a hammer but nothing yet
try again tom
question number two, i want to rework the suspension, without braking the bank, so here is my idea, i was wondering if i could swap out for say a camaroe or something like that , around a 1984. or even something similar to that car
the olds has a coil spring rear end, not leafs i would like the leaf and ford 9 inch in it. but don,t know how to do that.
any help would be great and thanks alot for any ideas

[johnnymopar]

hey 49olds,

your project sounds a lot like mine. my car has no floor and i'm currently replacing the rockers and then some. this is my first car and never done bodywork/replacement panels before so it's been quite an education.

anyway, if money is no object i would put a 4link in the back for your rearend. or you could probably fab some brackets and put in leafs off a pickup or something. i would only really be concerned about making sure that the brackets at the front are solid and are positioned equally on both sides. it'd be pretty easy to set up the back for the shackles, i would just box in a small section at the back and cut a hole for your shackle bolts.

also, subframing the front sounds like a good idea if you want IFS and power rack, disc brakes etc. plus it'd be easier to drop in a SBC if that's what you're doing.

also, just remembered that you'll have to make a crossmember for your rear shocks. this isn't hard, i had to do the same thing on my car and i just used some 2x2 steel with some reinforcing material inside the frame rail.

hope this helps.

good luck,

JB

[49olds]

thanks alot for the input, I think i am going to go with a ford 9 inch in the back and fab up something for the leafs like you said, and also alot alot of measuring, done more then once twice alike a ton hehehehe.
thanks again

[oldcars]

Regarding your difficulty removing the wheels, remember that the lug nuts on the left (driver's side) are right hand threads. You turn them clockwise to remove them. The lug nuts should have a little groove around them indicating that they are right hand threads. I'm starting on a 49 Olds 2 dr fastback and have a lot of the same questions you are asking. Let me know if you get any good advice on front end clips. Those old Olds frames are wierd.

[astroracer]

You may look into doing a frame swap. Do a search here under that subject. There was a thread a while back that discussed it.
'81 - '87 "G" body would be a possible candidate.
Mark