F-Body Europe

Hey all, New here but not so new to germany... This is my second tour at spangdahlem. I work in vehicle maintenance with "Hot Rod". Last time i was in germany i had a 97 S10 that i took to the Bittburg track. But this time its sitting in a garage in idaho under a cover. So when i first got back i needed a car. I happend to come across a 1984 Olds Cutlass. Which was nice when i got it. Its got a crappy Olds 307, but its loaded otherwise. I left for iraq for 5 months while my wife drove it all winter. Well lets just say when i got back it wasn't in such great shape. So i pulled it in the shop and gave it a looksi. It had a blown intake gasket, bad thermostate, needed brakes (complete, blew wheel cyl's) and who else knows whats wrong wit it. So i started to fix it with new edlbrock intake and gasket. Deleted all the egr crap.. and said piss on it when i got to the brakes. I went and bought the wife a Mercedes 4 door with an automatic. She loves it.. So i said well now the cutlass is my new toy. And i got the ok. So this is the plan...

Body..
-straighten it out..
-fiber-glass 3" cowl hood
-fiber-glass deck lid (might as well shave some weight off the boat)
-new moldings
-prob gonna need a new set of rockers and door skins
-clean up the decals... only one on the trunk. A 70's cutlass decal
-paint (havn't decided, but either black or burgandy)

Frame..
-Take body off frame (ya i know lot of work)
-clean up from
-coat it with some type of german undercoat
-new body bushings

Suspension
-tube upper/lower A-arms
-Springs n Shocks
-Beefier Sway-Bars
-All new poly-bushings
-Beef up the rear with new adjustable control arms ect.

Audio
-sorry Jazz this one will be stock. (been along time but you may remeber working on my truck)

Exhaust
-still open to ideas... prob 2.5"-3" true duals (anyone know of an exhaust shop?)

Engine... This is the hardest part to decide
-Scrap the 307
-Find a SBC (350,400 god something)
might do a 383... was taking to "HotRod" the other day and he offered his up but i'm takein the easy way out and doing the carb. No sense in wastin a good EFI set-up...
so if you'll have a block sitting collecting dust give me a yell

Tranny..
-I really would like to go with a T-5, I've did all the research and looks like a fairly easy swap.. now i didn't say cheap.

Interior
-Convert the blue to gray.. so dye the saveable parts and by new were needed
-replace carpet

Oh ya and get it done by may... Lol ya right.

welcome
Souns like you have a a very challenging project ahead of you.

It looks to me that you are getting ready to spend $10 000 and a great quantity of your free time (which you could have put to use drinking beer etc etc...) to build a $3 000 Cutlass.
Good luck with your venture, but remember: you can't polish a turd.

I had a 78 Cutlass over here in the Mid 90's. It had a 355 Chevy, Trick Flow Heads, Erson Cam, Headers, 2500 stall and 3.73 gears. It was fairly quick. Ran a 12.6@107 in the States. I never got to run it over here. Good luck with the project.