OK, so I managed to hole the oil pan. fixing that require lifting the engine. Doing that required detaching the exhaust, which always results in broken bolts. Fixing *that* requires lifting the engine again, and removing the tranny to get it far enough up to work on. At which point I realized that there were only two wires and a power steering hose still attached. so out came the engine. Might as well clean and paint it and the tranny while they're out. Oh, and the engine bay as well. Huh, the fenders come off pretty easy... Kind of a pain to mask the AC "suitcase", so... Oh, look! Rust in the lower driver's cowl! Yay! Better fix that, too. didn't the yahoos at GM paint *anything*? I swear, they put all these nooks and crannies in the car to catch crap, and then didn't even prime those areas, like inside the cowl, and that stupid double-wall area in the front fenders. thank god for POR-15, and a little fiberglass (I don't have the equipment to properly weld in new sheet-metal yet.) It's all hidden anyway. I may weld in new metal next time it comes apart... :-)

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Some 'before' engine shots. Before painting, anyway. The engine's already been stripped of accessories and power-washed.	As you can see, I'd already started masking the thing before I thought to take pictures
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			A shot of the under-carriage after power-washing. And my crappy exhaust system.
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Right side engine compartment	Right side firewall	Left side firewall	Left side engine compartment
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	Right head stamp	Left head stamp	Block casting code - correct for '70 350, among others
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Oil fill part number stamp	Block front face stamp, matches heads	Block VIN-derivative stamping. Matches VIN of car	Stamping on rear of right-side head
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Date castings at rear of block	Left head casting numbers	Left head casting numbers part 2	Right head casting numbers
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Right head casting numbers part 2	Rear block casting code	All painted with headers temporarily installed	Purty! I'll get more shots when I have all the accessories installed.
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I really dig my Holley aluminum rocker covers	Driver's firewall inside fender	A closer look at the rust	Not bad further up
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The seam sealer is falling off, though.	Looks like another nook they forgot to paint.	Passenger side firewall inside fender. Much less rust.	The inner fender rubs the AC box for some reason. Wore a hole in it!
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A closer look at the lower bit.	Some rust, but it's all surface stuff. No holes or pitting.	Yep, another nook with no paint.	Inside the right-side cowl. The black rubber thing is the inlet duct for the blower. note that the paint stops where the cowl holes end.
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Even more rust in the driver's side cowl.	Just a wider shot of the mess.	A little different angle. Shows where the paint stops. They just kind of sprayed it through the holes.	yep, that's some serious stuff starting down there on the lower right. It gets worse.
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This is a Texas car, folks. I shudder to think what it would look like if it had lived its life up north...	A lower angle showing the underside of the top of the cowl. Yep, no paint there, either.	This was *inside* the lower driver's cowl, along with 30 year's accumulation of dirt and leaves. I imagine this held moisture nicely...	The access plate into the cowl, from whence I pulled the insulation in the last photo. Note other chunk of insulation and organic crap on floor.
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Moving inside the cowl. The crud in here was piled above the bottom of the access plate. Now I know where the water was coming from. That and the flaking seam sealer.	The oak leaves are recent-ish. The other stuff is not. Yeah, there's rust down there.	Right of the seam is the front of the cowl. Left is the driver's outside panel. Eew.	Same location, lower down. Getting serious.
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Looking up at the underside of the cowl. on right is the outside wall curving into the top. On left is the rear wall.The hole os where the panels all come together.	The outside of the driver's side cowl. This is what started me digging.		Ruuuuuuust!
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Oh, hey, there's no bottom on the cowl any more! Water's supposed to flow into the rocker channel and out via drain holes there. Now it just dumps intot he bottom where the fender attaches.	The seam is infected, too.		I cut out the worst bit, then the wire wheel revealed even more!
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A closer look at the Swiss cheese. Bondo ain't gonna fix that (though some ham-fisted clods will try it!)	The upper rot.	Body tag. Astute Oldsmophiles will note that the car is supposed to be silver.	Looking a little naked. Fenders gone, AC box and wiper motor gone. Wiring harness unplugged and soaking in Simple Green for cleaning. you can't really see it, but there's huge rust in the usual battery tray area, too. Project for another day.
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This is after power-washing, wire-brushing the rusty bits, and sanding with 200 grit.	Next up is washing with POR-15's "Marine Clean", then hitting it with their "Metal Ready", a zinc phosphate wash.	Just another angle.	This is how big the hole got to get all the cancer. It provided plenty of access for prep work, at least.
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Rusted through the back wall of the cowl into tthe kick panel, too! You can see that I attempted to braze up the holes, there, but 1) I suck at brazing so far, and 2) I ran out of O2 on the Mapp/oxy torch I was using. I'll fix the little holes with POR 15 and fiberglass cloth for now.	Looking down into the new access hatch. See? No bottom!	Bottom rear of right-front fender.	A wider shot of same.
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The back side of the same spot. You can see the double-wall reinforcement that causes the problem. GM left a gap of about 1/8" between the two panels, which allows leves and dirt to nest in there and hold water.	Couldn't bond the panels togehter or fill them with foam or something, eh? Heck, seperating them *more* would have made it easier to clean out.	A better look at the overall construction or the reinforcement.	Bottom rear of left front fender. Not as bad, but same problem.
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A closer look. Not too terrible, even after wire bushing, which tends to beat through the thin spots.	The back side of the driver's fender.	That's where it all goes.	You can just see the rust pitting down there.
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Maybe easier to see in this one?	Brilliant design, if you're looking to kill the car.	Before galvinizing was regularly used in cars, or they immersed the body in primer. that wold have helped *all* these issues.