graytoad

did you get this sourced Bruce?

I have been waiting for a few months for the turbo button and the TRF back up bottle stencils to be reposted.

Thanks for your story. I would love to hear more about you adding a vacuum trunk release. Our Riviera has one, it is so handy. What did car did you scavenge the parts from for the job?

I spent many many hours looking on the internet for those clips with no luck. There is nothing on Restoration Specialties even close. Fortunately for me Eric had just picked up a car to part out and the trunk was a mess so he cut the area the letters were out of the trunk skin in one sheet then removed the letters and clips from pushing gently…[Read more]

One thing that our cars are lacking is stuff we take for granted these days. A place to put a bottle of water or cup of coffee plus a safe spot for your cell phone. Since my car is a 4 speed, I need to have something out of the way of shifting: so something ‘off the shelf’ from the automotive aisle will not work. I decided to design a small con…[Read more]

The kick panels are only pressed board and had seen a fair bit of water damage on one side and physical ‘foot’ damage too. Apparently, you can get ABS replacements and you certainly could not tell they were not factory once carpeted and installed. Instead, I decided to use my paper-mache skills and used thinned wood glue and newspaper scraps to…[Read more]

Since I knew the hump area would be an issue, I started at the dimmer switch for alignment as that hole was cut out at the factory. I then used the heal pad and mass backing placement to install around the gas pedal stud. I used washers and vice grips to hold everything in place as I went along as well as bolts into the seat hold down nuts in…[Read more]

I mentioned I had replaced the carpeting but did not elaborate. No one makes carpet sets for the 4 speed cars. The problem is that the 4 speed cars have a much larger shifter tunnel/hump than the automatics. All the car bodies started out as automatic floor pan configuration and if a car was ordered with a 4 spd manual the smaller hump was cut…[Read more]

Wow, I am so behind in posting here! I apologize for that: I do want to have our progress on here to help others should they have any concerns. We finally started the Jetfire in November (2020). We were so fortunate to have our good friend Terry B who is a ‘mechanic by trade’ and a classic car guy join us for the occasion. So glad he did as he…[Read more]

We have had a super productive 2 weeks. Yesterday we got the turbo on. No one told us that bolting on the turbo/getting at some of those bolts would nearly cause a divorce as well as trying to figure out where everything connected to. The factory must have had some special tools or hired people based on how small their hands were. We survived…[Read more]

I see yours is kind of green. Mine is beige/grey.
I would think that you should be able to get a rubber grommet to do the job: even if you had to do some altering. There are also those grommet plugs that have a solid top for ‘plugging a hole’ that you could cut to suit the pipe. Obviously due to the angle of the pipe entering this factory…[Read more]

Things are moving forward well with the Jetfire. Engine and transmission, drive shaft, heater box & rad in so Steve decided to fill the rad when he discovered it was pouring out the side of the block. Turns out there should have been a drain plug installed by our engine builder that was not, nor was it pointed out that we needed to do that!
I…[Read more]

TRF back up bottle Lid Stencil – awaiting classifieds posting, I though I would include here too.
When shipped new your Jetfire included an under the hood ‘back up bottle’ of Turbo Rocket Fluid – should your pressure tank run dry. The lid of the bottle had ‘Turbo Rocket Fluid’ printed on the cap but if it was lost the replacement caps were plai…[Read more]

TRF Tank ‘Red Button’ – thought I would post here too
I spent many weeks working with a leading ‘3D print’ production company to recreate the ‘red button’ that goes on the top of the TRF fluid tank pressure relief cap. As the original, the button sits slightly higher than the cap when sealed and pops up prominently at 7 psi. They are color m…[Read more]

My thoughts on the hub cap color as well Greg: the same translucent red as the F85 logo. Your caps look gorgeous!

wow Eric, that is phenomenal!

Any luck on your question elsewhere? Maybe you should check with the new face book group 1961-1963 Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass/Jetfire as this really more Jetfire specific here. Good luck!

You certainly are making lots of headway lately: Great work Eric!

I just saw your post. I was wondering about waterless antifreeze and any possible issues. We had our heater core redone bu Fusicks: I better check with them about that now! Heater cores seem to be my enemy. Every car we have restored – if we did not do the heater core too: sure as shooting the darn thing would start leaking a year or so…[Read more]

Apparently not all cars came with seatbelts so I have posted mine here. Note: ‘factory correct’ have the soft rubbery vinyl sleeve at the bottom to cover the connectors to avoid rattling. They mount to heavy duty forged eye bolts. If you look at the picture, top right you will see that there are two plates that swing to open to catch the eye bolt.…[Read more]