Hey everyone: I just bought a '77 Cutlass Supreme today. I know a little about cars (just enough to be dangerous), but have never done much aside from changing the oil. SO, this will be a learning experience, especially since the car is older than I am. It is physically beatup but runs great. A few questions:

- are there any other Cutlass guys in Chicagoland I can get together with? Maybe a club of some kind?

- what are the differences between a Supreme and a Salon?

- how tough would it be to install a 5- or 4- speed manual transmission in place of the auto I have now? It's mated to a 350 engine.

-when I make turns, the car feels kind of "loose" for lack of a better word. And bumps make everything rattle. I expected this to a degree on a 30 year old car, but what causes this- bad suspension? What should I do?

-how do I know if I have frame rust (aside from getting the car onto a lift)?

-any simple things I can do in my garage (with a little help) to get more power, or to get the car to run even better? I assume there's all sorts of emissions junk in there I could remove.

Thanks for all your help!

 

Well I am in the Detriot area, so I can't help you with other
Olds people in the Chi-town area, But I can help you out with a few of
your Questions.



The difference between a Cutlass Supreme & Salon is that the
Supreme is a "G" body chassis, and the Salon is an "A" body chassis.
The Supreme has a more formal roof line, and is similar to a Monte
Carlo, Grand Prix, or Regal. And the Salon is more like a Malibu,
Lemans, or Century models.



The most difficult part of installing a manual trans in a 73-77 A
or G body is finding the parts. Manual trans 73-77 cars are very rare,
and as far as I know were only offered in the A body's (with the
possible exeption of the 73-75 Pontiac Grand Ams, they may be
considered a G body by some people) I own a 73 4-speed Lemans Wagon,
and I searched for 2 years to find a replacement shifter porch (the
small sheet metal piece that mounts on the transmission tunnel, that
the shifter sticks through) to replace my damaged & rusted
original. I ended up repairing mine as they are rare & very $$$$$
when they do show up on E-bay. If you don't have alot of do it yourself
ability it would be very expensive to convert, as the conversion parts
start at about $1500.00 not counting the trans. But you may get lucky
and find a complete doner car for less than that. You will probebly be
better off installing a shift kit in the T-350 trans to make it shift
more to your liking.



As for the suspension, it is very difficult to tell without
seeing & driving the car, best suggetion is to get under the car
and inspect everything & look at the frame for rust while you are
down there. If the car has more than 100K on it, it probebly needs a
front end rebuild and other attention.



As for simple things to increase power, just the standard up
grades, tune it up well, adjust the timing & carb, if you can
afford it a rear gear change is almost always a great upgrade in these
cars, remember they were set up for gas milage not performance.



Good luck & have fun with your new Olds!!!