1955 Oldsmobile 88

Went and picked this up today. Drove it home. It has the 324 V8. The 4 speed Hydro-Matic recently rebuilt. Brakes have been rebuilt. The guy rebuilt the master cylinder when he did the brakes, but it leaks still. So that will be one of the first things I tackle. Both the driver door and the passenger door glass is cracked really bad.
It has it's issues but I'm looking forward to getting into it. Can't wait for the weather to break. The rain is getting old.

Haven't shot any of my own pics yet. These are the ones he sent me.

kool family sedan....

That will be a nice cruiser this summer. I like it.

I seen you cruisin by the Grayhound yesterday when me and my kids were headin to Krohn Conservatory. Cool lookin car.

Please tell me you got the front emblem with the car? Those cars have a lot of cool features, the headlight bezels (look great on 53/4 chevs, The steering wheel, the dash, THE ROCKET MOTOR, Those cars ride so smooth.. I'n not usually a fab of the more-doors, but that would make a great family cruiser. Get that bad boy as low as you can get it, some crome reverse wheels and wide wites.. Keep the 2 tone paint scheme, The top Wimbeldon white, and Hondurus Maroon, you could pull of either Gloss or a semi-Gloss paint job and it would look kool either way, real classy. Resrore to interior to original style, hell even add A/C to it and make that thing a real comfy ceuiser, with enough room in the trunk for 10 dead hookers!

Is it 6 or 12 volt? Switch it out to 12volts you will be happier if you did, and think about an electronic Ignition conversion, I know guys on here have there thoughts about them, But personally, every old car I get with a points ignition I convert to electronic (PERTRONIX's is a simple upgrade) and it can be done and not take away from the original look as it is all done under the cap.. Or switch out to an 8 volt tractor battery at least.. I did the 12volt conversion on my 54 and man what a difference it made... Easier start, hotter spark, never had any problems...

I was thinking the same. That would be one of the first things I did would be to go 12 volt.

RebStew wrote:I was thinking the same. That would be one of the first things I did would be to go 12 volt.

It's already 12volt. I was shocked. I thought I was going to have to do that. When I was looking it over at the guys house I noticed a red tag on the genearatior and it said 12v. I looked it up on line and I read some place that Buick and Olds were two of the first to switch to 12v around 1953.

LRS30 wrote:Please tell me you got the front emblem with the car?

I did. If you look at the top picture it's in that one. I did the same thing when we were e-mailing back and forth.

LRS30 wrote:every old car I get with a points ignition I convert to electronic (PERTRONIX's is a simple upgrade)

I had been looking at those. I was wondering what people thought about them. I personally would like to have the reliability of the electronic.

LRS30 wrote: Those cars ride so smooth.. I'n not usually a fab of the more-doors, but that would make a great family cruiser.

This has to be one of the closest cars between the 2 door and the 4 door. They didn't change that much to make it a 4 door.





That's my plan. It looks like the front shocks are original. Back shocks are air shocks. It was riding kinda ruff on the way home, so I want to look into all that stuff and see what needs done. I know the motor mounts have already been fixed. The boys love it and I want to make it as safe as possible. I will probably do A/C because Tracy has bad allergies and she can't do the heat very well (but that will probably be next year).

First priorty is going though and making sure it's safe. First the master cylinder.
I about got gassed out on the way home, the exhaust is leaking up front. I had as much fresh air coming in on my face as I could. Still had a headache when I got home.


The guy didn't really know what he was doing. He put in a new front floor board, but just screwed it in place. I guess that's better than a huge hole. He has the passenger side too in the trunk. I'll look at getting those in the correct way since I already have them.

Monday I'll get it tagged and titled. I'll look it over better then too.

I'm not going to be able to afford any of the 2x2 or 4x2 or log style intake manifolds, I would just like a factory 4bbl intake. Must be from a 303 or 324 49 to 56. The deck height of the motor changed and the intakes after 56 won't fit.

Olds,Buick and Caddy went to 12 volts in 53 and I have a couple 4 bbl intakes with carbs off a 53 303.

junkyardjeff wrote:Olds,Buick and Caddy went to 12 volts in 53 and I have a couple 4 bbl intakes with carbs off a 53 303.

Cool. PM me a price. It may be a few weeks before i can buy it.

Sounds like you got your ducks in a row there pal.. Good luck with it....It looked like a 6 volt battery was why i said that.. Get you a good maintenance free battery, and drive the wheels off of it...

LRS30 wrote:It looked like a 6 volt battery was why i said that.. Get you a good maintenance free battery, and drive the wheels off of it...

I'll wait till this one dies or becomes a problem. The battery is brand new.

I need to go out to the scrap yard and pull the brake pedal/booster/M.C. off an S-10 and get that switched over and get the leak taken care of. No one has one laying around that would sell for a cheap price??

I will have to get in the shed and check them out,I do have a 4 bbl batwing aircleaner but it wont be cheap as they bring some money.

I've found a couple places I can get the air cleaner later. I'm really just looking for an intake.

I will let a intake and carb go reasonable,I think both intakes have a carter WFCB or whatever its called. I will let one go for 50.00 if you come and get it and I have seen people trying to get as high as 175 dollars for those air cleaners and I would rather keep the two I have for future projects.

Sounds good to me. I've found a place where I can get those air cleaners setup for normal air filters for $130. I'll figure out how to setup a cheapie till I can save up for the other one.

I'll let you know when I can come up and pick it up from you.

Save your $130 and put it towards an original. Convert it to a paper element style filter if you wish. The new ones are Chinese, paper thin and look like hammered horse shit. Stevie Wonder could tell a fake from 20 feet away. Yes, they're that bad.

Ok. Thanks. I had heard good things from what people were saying on some different forums, but no since in wasting money.

Nothing good about Chinese knock-off parts!

Nice score, get it reliable and drive the wheels off it!! If the 2 bbl runs good I would leave it, JMO.

Blue Eyed Devil wrote:Nothing good about Chinese knock-off parts!

Agree!