Bought this car around 15 years ago and it's time to start getting it on the road. It spent its life in the canadian prairies so fixing rust is where I'll start. I'm hoping I'll have it ready for paint for next spring but who knows what other problems I'll find. The car doesn't have much for options. Bench seat, manual windows, no a/c, 2b 350 The 350 runs but I bought a rebuilt olds 455 that only had 2000 km (barely broken in) before the owner wrote off his car. 76 block, 10.0:1 compression, .496 lift, stock heads with minor porting. I would rather have a buick 455 but It cost me around $1100 US so pretty good bang for the buck for such low mileage. I still need to buy mounts and pads for it. I bought a B&M transkit for the th350 to help it handle the extra power. The car came with a Robbins top but it has a plastic rear window so I'm going to try to install it myself. I'll switch it to a glass window top in the future. The body plate on the cowl has a different VIN which is odd, so I don't care about keeping it original. It's missing the grille so I'm thinking of buying the billet one that's available but I'll still have to find the chrome surround which doesn't seem to be remanufactured. Anyways, I'm glad I can come here to find people who can give me tips if I run into problems
Welcome from way south! Looks like a good start. My advice would be to keep the 350 unless you really want more power than the tires can handle. A properly tuned 350 with a good Quadrajet, stock four barrel intake and curved distributor will be a great cruiser. If you want to swap engines, sell the Olds and put a Buick 455 in. It’ll be easier and, done right, will help the value instead of hurt it. Either way, a shift kit doesn’t help the transmission hold more power. Buy a used or repro ‘69 grill and surround, it’ll be easier and more valuable. (And look better.) As for the top, know your limitations. You could waste a top and your time. A lot of people I consider skilled farm tops out. It’s your car, so ignore my suggestions if you want. Patrick
I was originally going to rebuild the 350 but the freshly built olds 455 saved me a lot of money to put towards other parts. I think the only things I have to change is mounts, fan shroud and shorten the driveshaft. I'm keeping the 350 and might switch it back later. The b&m transkit should be a improvement. It's a full rebuild kit, not just a shift kit. Maybe u are thinking of the transpack instead of the transkit
