Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online! Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online!
Automotive Forums .com - the leading automotive community online! 
-
Latest | 0 Rplys
Go Back   Automotive Forums .com Car Chat > Oldsmobile > Oldsmobile Classics
Reply Show Printable Version Show Printable Version | Email this Page Email this Page | Subscription Subscribe to this Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 07-10-2009, 08:28 PM   #1
corkery12
AF Newbie
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Castro Valley, California
Posts: 1
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
1970 cutlass supreme help

Hello all,
I bought a 1970 cutlass supreme a little more than a month ago. I LOVE this car but it doesn't have air conditioning, power steering and disk brakes. I just recently started educating myself about cars so I'm not knowledable, so ive come to ask for advice as to what brands and models of products I should get.

I have all four drum brakes but I only want the front two to be converted to disk. I'm willing to spend about $900-$1100 for the brakes so if you know someplace I can get all four drums converted to disks within that price range, I'm all ears. I have 15 inch rims if that helps with your decision.

Air conditioning: I am going to Arizona for college in about a year and I will need something to battle the heat. Pretty straight forward but I don't know where to start looking. I'm willing to spend about $1000 but less would be nice.

Power steering: of all of the things this is proving to be the most difficult to find what I need to get power steering and what brand is the best. I'm willing to spend $500-$1000.

Thank you for all your help you can offer
corkery12 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-11-2009, 05:59 AM   #2
thisnametooktolong
AF Regular
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Erin, New York
Posts: 204
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Re: 1970 cutlass supreme help

I would say that your best bet would be to dig around for a donar 442. They came with everything you are asking for. The breaks and master is a simple bolt in swap. The Dash and airbox would be included, and you would get all the brackets for everything. Down south they are still plentiful in the junk yard. The Cutless S also had disks on the rag top as an option. the brackets are the same for the 350 as well as the 455
thisnametooktolong is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-14-2009, 05:19 PM   #3
xeroinfinity
out saving the world
 
xeroinfinity's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Yourtown, Indiana
Posts: 10,707
Thanks: 8
Thanked 18 Times in 18 Posts
Re: 1970 cutlass supreme help

Welcome to AF corkery12 !!

If you cant find used parts, yearone.com should have what youre looking for a little pricey but worth it IMO.

Good Hunting
__________________
1999 Grand Am SS 3.4 OHV
xeroinfinity is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2009, 09:59 AM   #4
MagicRat
Nothing scares me anymore
 
MagicRat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: City of Light
Posts: 10,702
Thanks: 12
Thanked 82 Times in 77 Posts
Re: 1970 cutlass supreme help

Quote:
Originally Posted by thisnametooktolong View Post
I would say that your best bet would be to dig around for a donar 442. They came with everything you are asking for. The breaks and master is a simple bolt in swap. The Dash and airbox would be included, and you would get all the brackets for everything. Down south they are still plentiful in the junk yard. The Cutless S also had disks on the rag top as an option. the brackets are the same for the 350 as well as the 455
Just a couple of clarifications.......

A parts car would be helpful. But any 442, even a wreck will be priced way out of range. Disk brakes were an option on all models, even the base model.

I believe a front wheel disk brake set up from any A-body car, (Cutlass, Tempest/GTO, Skylark, Chevelle, all '68-72) will fit. You will need the master cylinder, front calipers, steering knuckles, rotors, hubs and wheel bearings.

Rear disk brakes would have to be an aftermarket set up. There are kits available, but they are a little expensive and imo unnecessary for normal driving.

Power steering....... its VERY unusual for these cars to have manual steering. In fact, I have never seen one. Are you sure your car is manual.... and not a PS car with the pump removed?
A power steering box from any A-body will fit. An olds engine PS brackets should be relatively easy to find. Also pretty much any power steering pump from the '70's will do, so long as you get the right pully. Imo get a new/rebuilt one, not a used one.

My dad bought a new 1970 Olds Cutlass back in the day. It had an aftermarket A/C system (installed new from the dealer), which was quite different from the factory A/C. The evaporator, control knobs and fan were in a chrome unit suspended below the dash, with the compressor and condensor in the usual place.
If you can locate one of these aftermarket AC units (they are available new as well as used) , the installation will be much easier than trying to convert your car to a factory-style AC set up.

Last edited by MagicRat; 07-15-2009 at 10:29 AM.
MagicRat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-22-2009, 04:05 PM   #5
carnuted
AF Newbie
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Orlando, Florida
Posts: 2
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Re: 1970 cutlass supreme help

To be perfectly honest, for the work and money you are talking about putting into the car, I would sell it and buy a car that has the options you want. Brakes and power steering aren't bad if you know what you are doing, but installing an AC system into a car without one will be very expensive, try upwards of $2000 by the time you get everything and replace the parts that are sure to be worn (I am doing it now on a 70), and it is extremely time consuming and will basically require everything from the seat forward to be taken apart. If your car is truly an all manual car, than it may be more valuable to someone looking for a racer than it would be as a driver. If you do go ahead and decide to do the work, buy a complete 4 wheel disc conversion kit. You can find them for about $1200, and having new, clean, and rust free parts to work with is definitely worth the extra couple hundred bucks. Power steering parts will be easy to find, but again, the AC stuff can easily be prohibitively expensive, so know that going into it. Good luck
carnuted is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply

POST REPLY TO THIS THREAD

Go Back   Automotive Forums .com Car Chat > Oldsmobile > Oldsmobile Classics

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:19 PM.

Community Participation Guidelines | How to use your User Control Panel

Powered by: vBulletin | Copyright Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
 
 
no new posts