Over the years, as I’ve been on this never-ending revival kick, many of you have wondered if, after the cameras are shut off and the video is uploaded, if any of these YouTubers actually go back and put the work in to make that neat, barely-alive again machine worth a damn, or if they just say, “Hey, it runs!” before they send it back to the weeds. Well, in the case of the 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass that Kevin from Junkyard Digs recently coaxed out of a long slumber, that time is current. Yes, he drove it hundreds of miles from Kansas to Iowa pretty much as you saw it. It did well…no shaking, no sweating, no fourteen roadside band-aids to save his own ass, not even a call to AAA for that free tow. The car did well! But…the car has been sitting for decades, and I don’t care how meticulous you kept it, things will break down over time. Fuel turns to slop, rubber lines degrade, seals fail, and don’t ask about the coolant system.
As good as things were, it was an inevitability that problems would crop up once he started moving the car around and waking up long-dormant systems. The first culprit was the cooling system, which would fluctuate temperature with speed, a sign of attention needed. Then there was the issue that needed attention ASAP: the fuel system. After the car pretty much fuel-starved itself to silence once more, it became time to drop the tank and see what was going on inside. Let’s put it like this…the only worse outcome would be if he decided to peel the vinyl roof off to see what the metal looked like underneath. The sending unit looks like it was used as a rectal thermometer for one very sick rhinoceros, and elements of that crap were floating throughout the fuel system, front to back. And since we’re here, there’s the whole thing about his undying hatred of Quadrajet carburetors. Check out the progress…and some venting…in the video below!
