Quote:
Originally Posted by esisson
I was wondering about how people on "Classic Oldsmobile" found and purchased there Oldsmobiles. ...
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Uh, which one?
Actually, the best story is my 68 W-30. I was living in SoCal in the 1980s and would scan the Recycler weekly for deals. I already had my 69 H/O, but I needed parts for it. One week there was an add for a "1969 442 body shell, Hurst front end. $400"
I figured it was worth a trip to Whittier.
I arrived at the seller's house and nearly turned around when I saw that the car was a 68, not the advertised 69. He had already removed the engine and trans and was planning to install them and the rear axle in the 56 Ford F100 he was building. I briefly walked around the car, then lifted the hood...
...whereupon I saw the red inner fenders.
NOW I started looking more closely. Both under bumper scoops were in place (but severely banged up). The car had PW, PS, tilt wheel, UHV ignition, and a 4.33:1 axle!!! It also had the correct manual drum front brakes. Upon checking, the engine he had pulled out of the car was the numbers-matching block with the correct D heads! The only things missing were the dual snorkle air cleaner and the original trans (the TH400 had been replaced by a T10 manual at some point in the past). The car had 27,000 original miles on it, apparently all applied a quarter mile at a time. A previous owner had also cut one of the floor supports to install a Hone overdrive unit (a predecessor to Gear Vendors), apparently due to the 4.33 gears. The car had been sitting in a field for several years and had bullet holed in the windshield and various woodland creatures living under the back seat. I spent the next hour talking the guy into selling me the engine and trans with the car. $800 later, the complete car was mine.