Hey everybody, new to the forum and I''ve got a few questions.

I''ve got a 1971 Olds Cutlass sedan, don''t quite care for the dashboard layout or full bench seats that are stock w/ the car. I wanted to know about the viability of putting a ''74 dashboard in and ''73 splitback bench seats w/ center arm rest. And also what difficulties I may run into. I am a huge fan of the bench seat style, but I always prefere to have an arm rest availible. I know the wheel base for the two eras are similar (if not exact) though I don''t know if the floor pan layout and dashmounts would allow for this to happen.

Also, what''s the best cold air intake for the 350 rocket? I want to try to increase the hp and mpg if I can (though that seems contradictory to me, adding horse power and saving gas, but a buddy of mine was telling me about it, and I just put on a new scoop hood so I might as well make use of it yeah?

Thanks a ton!

 

Forthe dash, here is what we did to my car: With my 71, the dash was severly rotted out. To fix it, we completely cut the dash out, from the fire wall all the way around to where it starts to curve on the inside of the car and replaced it with a good junk yard piece. If the dimensions are similar enough, you could probably get a 73 dash into a 71. You would probably have to cut out everything all the way around to the underside of the dash. Keep in mind, if you swap out the dash/cowl, you will have a 73 VIN on your 71. We had to carefully cut the VIN out of the original dash and transport it into the new one. If you mess it up, you will have a very 71 looking 73 Cutlass. Of coarse, this was no easy task and required very careful cutting skills and very good welding and body work skills. Make sure to pay attention to how the two windshields fit into the car and take that into account. It was also very time consuming.


If this is how you decide to do your dash. Send me a message and I can give you some pictures and some pointers on the surgery. This was the most difficult part of my restoration, though, and we replaced almost every piece of sheet metal on the car.


For the Intake: Is the "new scoop hood" a factory style ram air or a cowl hood? If its a factory style hood, you may have to do a lot of modifcation to the intake or the ram air box to make it work. (if you make modification to a factory original ram air box, you''re an idiot). Or you could just make a box out of left over sheet metal and foam.


I have not clue about the seats. The closest I have seen is the mid seventies rotating seats in a 72.

 

If you''re good with a welder and good and bending sheet metal, you can do what ever the hell you want. That''s my experience.