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I just picked up a 54 Delta 88 and don't know too much about it. It has a 324 and runs very good. I'm looking for any info on it at all. What parts from other cars I can use, where I can get parts for it, and just any info about the car. All of the trim is there with the excetion of the P/S headlight bazelle. I need to repair some holes in the floor and trunk and there is a little bit of rot behind each rear wheel. I'll post pics probably Sunday. Thanks for the help.
My first roadster had an olds in it they were fast in their day.. the 394 is a direct bolt in with only the corect pilot ring for the torque converter required. cheaper horspower if you can fing a good one. bigger valves etc. 57 J -2 multi carb setup looks great. most likley you have the 4 speed hydromatic they were the auto trans for racing in the 50's and 60"s B & M were famous for their racing trans's. they only drawback was the siamesed exhaust ports some racers added a divider plate ( welded into the head) to have individual tunned length headers.
chris,
i had a whole string of 54 Olds back in the 50's and early 60's. Big problem of course is rust. That's why you don't see many of these. Back then they really ruled the street. The 4 sp hydro with some mods from B&M or hyro motive really gave them a jump off the line. I made probably one of the first "traction bar" set ups on mine and it glued the rear end to the ground. A stock 283 4 bl pg Chev was a good run but the big olds had the grunt for a 100 yds. The quick trick was to use a 50 olds cam and 55 Olds rocker arms. This was the poor man's hot rod. It was very effective. Gave the high lift and more radical cam. The motor needed a good distributor. I made a dual point, dual spring dist that was so trick I covered it when it was on the bench. We used to shim the rocker arm shaft up so the lifters were bottomed out which gave us about 5000 rpm. The real trick was to get a 3.90 gear. These were rare as hen's teeth. They were called mountain gears and rare on the praries where I lived. We actually put a 9 inch Ford rear end in one of the Olds. Not exactly a bolt in but if 17 yr olds could do it, it wasn't difficult. A couple guys tried to put 57 Chev rear ends in but the big Olds shelled these with impuney. The front end has intrigal shocks with the upper a arms that went away on the 55's. These are a real pain. We did change fluid but we didn't know what we were doing so that was a bust. The cars didn't handle real well but with a little stiffer suspension they were ok. Brakes are miserable. The radio vibrators went out about every 2 months so we always carried a spare.
Caution these cars were notorious grl getters!!! Most of us didn't know about the birds and bees and got in a lot of trouble in the huge back seat!!!:LOL:
If yours doesn't have dual exhaust you will have to cut a hole inthe frame for the extra pipe. Not a big deal but ya gotta have dual exhaust. You will have to make your own headers and make a divider for the center port. Messy. There isn't a lot of room for them either but not too bad if you are handy with the torch and welder.
The best of these car were the super 88 2dr sedan. They had the strongest body. The hard tops always leaked around the side windows and rattled. Light blue and white was the color. Maybe a medium green and white. You need the "flipper" style hub caps to be ultra cool.
One final tip. You will need to grow a bit of hair, brown is the color, get is slicked back with butch wax, snug jeans with rolled up cuffs and white socks with penny loafers. Grls have to have puddle skirts and brown and white saddle shoes. A ribbon in her hair doesn't hurt. Don't forget to roll your cig's in the sleeve of your tee shirt. (even if you don't smoke)
have fun with your new rod.