Picking up a parts car, 80 Eldo, what to save?

[TJ Hopland]

Im picking up an 80 Eldo parts car to get some parts for my 80 Eldo.    I have a short list of parts I already need but was wondering what else I should be saving.   I wont be able to hang on to the parts machine for long, I live in the burbs where they get pretty excited about junk cars sitting around.   What I am mainly wondering about is things unique to this era E body that usually fails and is either hard to find or plain expensive. My 80 has pretty much been a daily driver so its getting some miles on it.  I dont have room to store larger parts.   Once I figure out what I will be keeping I will post what is left in the for sale section. 

[EldoradoRedd1]

Hey TJ keep all the lenses, parts of the interior dash, woodgrain pieces. Also the front bumper i need lets see wat u got. rhamedavid@yahoo.com is my mail


EldoradoRedd1
S.Rhame

[76eldo]

Computer, door panels if they are not split, all dash stuff.  height sensor on rear axle, air ride compressor, throttle body, much more.

you will know when you see it.

[TJ Hopland]

How about wheel bearings?  I know the earlier generation were not exactly kind to those and they are getting harder to find.   How about the rear wheel bearings?  I did not even look that close to see what sort of setup they are, I noticed they are not like the earlier models that look like a front wheel or trailer.

Had to re schedule picking it up 3x now.  Hopefully today is the day except the truck has a brake light on I think a MAF problem again.   Then there is the usual problem of borrowing your stuff back that the trailer connector on the truck has had the lid open all winter so the contacts are a green chunk.  What would you do if you ever hitched up a trailer and the lights worked? They work on my stuff, that is when I dont let the stuff out of my sight. 

[bcroe]

Its a good chance to grab a spare set of half shafts; keep them rebuilt for when a boot fails.  You might want to have the gas tank rebuilt, if yours is marginal.  Bruce Roe CLC # 14630

[TJ Hopland]

Mine does not have any issues with the tank.  I sawed apart the last fuel filter after 6000 miles and it was clean.

I will just be excited to get my new hubcap , working windows, and not having the wipers / washers cycle every time I start it.  At the moment its a nice feature because we still have wet roads with a lot of salt so getting the windows to 'auto' clean is not a bad thing. 

Got the car yesterday.   Have not had time to look close at it.   Did not get to drive it when I looked at it a few weeks ago because it was snowed in.  Drove it out to the road to load it on the trailer, brakes are a little mushy and noticed antifreeze leaking after it got on the trailer.  I was hoping the engine was good but was not counting on it so no big deal if is not good.   It looked like it was coming down the front of the engine so it easily could have been a hose or water pump but I dont think it ran long enough to build pressure from the heat so it could be a head gasket problem.  Sure ran smooth though so I hope not. 

[AHBrown]

-Front and rear filler panels.

-antennae

-AC parts, especially the control module on the firewall.

-Washer pump

-radio and speakers

[TJ Hopland]

Most of the fillers looked to be shot, ones that are not I suspect are going to be very brittle.

Antenna appears to be stuck partially up.

Blower motor seems to run on hi all the time and the control panel is dead. 

If the washer pump works its going on my driver

Radio is a cheap looking aftermarket cassette unit that appears dead.


Thanks for the tips, once I get a closer look at things and decide what I am keeping I will snap some pics and get a post up in the for sale section.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

When I part out a vehicle, I keep everything that can be unbolted, unscrewed, unclipped, and simply removed, and also keep the bolts, nuts, screws and clips.   Then I store everything away in my "filing" system of drawers, shelves, etc for future use.

I am also in suburbia, but what has to stay outside, gets either sold off, or to the tip.

Bruce.

[mgbeda]

I'm no expert on the 80's Eldos, but I would think the engine mounts and maybe transmission would be valuable to someone who wanted to convert an HT4100 to a 368 / 425 / 472 / 500.  Oh, and the front springs too.

-mB

[TJ Hopland]

Mine is an Olds diesel and leaking diesel is hard on rubber mounts so I doubt they are worth saving but thanks for the thought, its worth looking into.   
Front springs on these are torsion bars.  As far as I know they are the same for all the engines. 

[bcroe]

There are several different torsion bars used in these cars.  The weakest ones tend to sag out of adjustment range. The diesel likely has heavier (larger dia) bars, good thing to save.  Bruce Roe

[TJ Hopland]

Im finally getting around to taking this thing apart.    Its nice having a car you dont care about to learn how to get things apart.

Things I have learned so far:

To pull engine you must at least remove the passenger side exhaust down pipe, perhaps ideally remove the exhaust manifold or you end up tearing out the bottom of the heater box.

Door panels are a one piece molded plastic assembly, not an upper and lower like earlier models.

The rivets that hold the power lock and window motors in are easily drilled out after you tap the center pin out.

When you remove the window motor from the regulator some sort of spring snaps off and flies away, not sure if this is because the window was up?  Will have to pay closer attention on the drivers side.

Main dash cluster pulls out easily if you just drop the steering column slightly.  Everything is socketed including the speedo cable EXCEPT the optical sensor for the cruise control.   I just ended up breaking mine.   Apparently you are supposed to unhook it from the module and fish the harness through?   Getting at the module is no easy task either even on a car that is going to the scrap yard soon.

There are modules for the modules and relays for relays under the dash!   

[TJ Hopland]

I ended up selling the right inner fender to someone that got to experience the leaky fuel rail o rings.  Guess that well completely melts.  With the car on a lift, wheel removed, and engine and transmission removed that is still dang near impossible.   Since the car is days away from the scrapper I just took a sledge hammer to the heater box and made some clearance to get to a few of the bolts.   I dont know how in the heck you would get that out of there with the engine and heater box in the way.  Even though the antenna appears to be broken I figured with that inner fender out I would get it out but it still looks like its going to be another hour of work to get at it.   I cant imagine what the labor would be on just that part alone.