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!!! |
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