
1934
Oldsmobile - the Find and the Restoration
by
Gordon Thomas
For
about two years prior to the time I purchased this Olds I had been looking for a
mid 30's Buick but with no success. I knew of this Olds and even looked at it at
one time but paid little attention because I wasn't really interested and it
wasn't for sale anyway. Some time later I was phoned and asked if I was
interested in a restoration job on this car. When I found it was for sale I
thought it was worth a better look. It was close to a Buick so maybe it would
do. It was in terrible condition ! A disaster! It had wire around one tie rod
end to keep it from falling off. The same was true for the inside lower A frames
arms. Nothing was any good .I wondered how much time I would spend finding parts
or if I could even get them for this car.
For
some reason the wood was unbelievably good.. Not one door hinge was loose. And
there was no rust. This is hard to find in a car this old. Hard to believe
judging by how awful the car looked. Almost all the windows were broken and the
upholstery was in shreds. The front seat even had had a fire in it at one time.
Worse were the dents and rips in the fenders.
Maybe with the good metal and wood I could convince myself I didn't loose
my mind and I could deal with the other stuff.
Everything seemed there but that's difficult to tell when so much was in
pieces. A previous owner had pulled a lot of stuff apart attempting a
restoration and many parts were in boxes and tin
cans with no labels. Common sense flashed through my
head telling me I didn't need all this work so I told my wife this wasn't
for me. It's not even a good parts car!
I made a mistake. I had showed her what a 1934 Oldsmobile looked like new and she really thought it was a nice looking car. But this one wasn't! Mistake or not we now had another car in the garage. So much for common sense. It took me about three years and some to finish it. The parts situation was not so difficult. Between club newsletters, various parts suppliers and EBay it all worked out. The hardest to find was undersized main bearings .... and expensive! A good rearend took time to locate as well but wasn't expensive. The only item I just couldn't get was the upper halves of the trunk hasps. That was something that took a lot of time to make.
