71cutlass455

Hey yall, I hate do do this, but due to my new job and having to drive 45 minutes to and from, I need to get myself a car I can drive in the winter.

So I am selling my 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass, I am just going to copy and paste what I posted on Kijiji, so I don't have to write it all out again.

I bought it Thanksgiving of '09 and invested over $6000 into it.
The floors and frame are in awesome shape, no holes, or cracks. The body and paint are in good shape, it looks like it was done a few years ago, with a couple minor scratches.

I have redone all the brakes, front and rear, replaced all the suspension bushings with performance polyurethane, new gaskets and filters throughout the motor and transmission.
I put new tires on that have seen 0 kilometers: BF Goodrich Radial T/A's 275/60/15 in the rear, 235/60/14 in the front.

The top end of the motor has been redone with new springs, seats, valves, and pushrods. There is an edelbrock 455 Torker intake matched with an edelbrock 750cfm carburetor. Brand new battery and cables. Has aftermarket mufflers, although im not sure of the make and model. I pulled the motor, stripped all the paint down to the bare metal, prepped it and sprayed it with Olds Gold POR-15 paint.

The interior has aftermarket bucket seats, a floor shifter, and power locks. All weatherstripping was redone on the car this past winter.Interior needs a little TLC to be perfect. Have a new horn in box to be put in. Does not have a stereo, but there is a spot for it.

The car was appraised on July 22nd, 2011 for $9,000, so I'm selling for 7,000 or best offer. You will need to do a little bit of work to get it finished up just right. Good offers will be considered as I need to get rid of it before winter comes, I don't have room to store it.

I really don't want to let her go, I've put alot of time, effort, and tears into it just to get it where its at, and being so close to done it hurts even more lol.

Vega

Aw, sad to see it go. Thats one BA Supreme man. Thats almost dead on what im planning with mine, minor differences here and there but yeah, really gives me inspiration wish i had the money to give it a good home. Who knows, maybe someone here will buy it and hang on to it and you can save some money and buy it back at a later date! I know if i had the money id leave the offer open to you to buy it back at some point if you wanted Hope it finds a good home

Allan R

Sorry you can't keep it. How come it has 72 grills and rear bumpers? BTW the 455 should be painted Olds blue instead of Gold. Still with all the work you've done, someone local should be knocking at your door soon. Can you tell me what the VIN is?

My 1995 Ninety Eight Regency Elite was bought not far from you - Barrie. Do they still salt the roads down there in the winter?

71cutlass455

They came with the car when I bought them, I was looking for some 71 bumpers, but all I could find were the 442 ones... As for the engine paint, I realized about a week after painting it that it was wrong, and I still feel like a doofus about it lol. The only reason i didn't change it is because it looks cool, and was too expensive to redo.

VIN: 336871M211954

EDIT: Yes they still salt AND sand the roads >.< So the cars and bikes don't come out until after the roads have had a good cleaning.

Allan R

Good:
The front grills are an easy to replace item. The rear bumper is the same for 71/72. Just change the lights is all. Don't worry about the engine paint, whoever buys it will decide what they want to do. In the meantime it's a nice clean presentation for a buyer.

Bad:
Only thing that bothers me about the VIN is that it looks like someone in the cars past pulled an illegal move and switched the VIN tag. Check the cowl tag to see if the BDY number is 34257 which is the 1971 Cutlass Supreme coupe body style. The 1 is right, M= Lansing.

The VIN you posted is for a 1971 Cutlass S (sport model) fastback, which is a different back end body style. Cutlass S body is 33687 which is what you posted. Look on your engine block just below the #1 cylinder there is a stamping pad below the alt mount. If your engine is original to the car the pad should read 31MXXXXXX where the X's will match the VIN's last 6 digits. I'm betting they won't match.

You still have a really nice car, but there could be some legal issues with its sale and registration if the new owner looks up his Olds info.

71cutlass455

Hmm maybe its just a swapped out dash, or just the supreme badge on it. The registration only says 'S' on it, I assumed it was supreme.

Either way Im going to have to look into this.

Vega

Id say the dash was swapped and the last guy just didnt think to swap the original vin into the new dash. Actually im kind of glad this thought came up, i would have swapped my dash and not even thought about this. Im going to have to remember that

Allan R

Yes, it is entirely possible that the dash was swapped out, but the dash doesn't have the VIN. The VIN is riveted to the steel subframe (welded to the cowl). You can change a dash pad easily enough without changing the VIN. Someone in the cars past deliberately had to take out the windshiedl, remove the plastic trim plate around the VIN, drill out the rivets and replace it with a different one, then reassemble. This is not an accidental or casual mistake. Whoever did this was probably involved in a car laundering scheme.

You could go back to the PO and ask if they have any history on the car....but don't tell them the real reason. Just say it's for maintenance records or a collision repair that looks wonky.... It would be great if they said they owned it since new......

Your car is definitely a Cutlass Supreme - it's not just badged that way. The rear roof line and quarter panels attest to that. Supreme's were the TOL Cutlass models back then. Like I said earlier - check your cowl tag. The information on it will tell you specific fisher body information about the car. It will NOT give you the VIN, but it will confirm the Cutlass Supreme, unless the cowl tag has been swapped too. (that would make this even worse) The engine/tranny also can't be guaranteed to provide you with VIN - too easy to swap out.

I can appreciate how devastating it is to find out this info. I bought a car that had been tampered with too. In my case though it was vehicle fraud with speedometer rollback - I had AAMVIC involved. The car showed 72,000km at the auction, in reality it had over 180,000 actual km according to dealer and sales records.

If the registration says it's an 'S' model, that's based on the VIN. I am really sorry to have found this problem with your car, but it's better you know up front than have someone come after you when you sell it. I had seriously thought about it, that's why I asked for the VIN and road salt etc. I don't quite know how to say how sorry I am to have brought this up, it wouldn't be able to register in AB with the VIN discrepancy that would likely come up with the mandatory OOP inspection needed for licensing and insurance.

71cutlass455

Wow thats a bit to swallow... definitely not what I wanted to hear

I need some help with this, is there a step by step I can folow so I dont get screwed over here?

hookem horns

Bummer on the vehicle history if true and could hurt your selling price. Since you have so much into it already, any place to store it over winter and get a cheap daily driver? Some unloved but pretty reliable cars take major depreciation hits, like a Ford Taurus.

Allan R

I appreciate how upsetting this is. I would not post the information if I wasn't 100% sure of what I'm saying.

Open this link and look on page 7/23 (in the CSM its 63 in the bottom of the pic corner) http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/membe...ECTION_1-1.pdf This shows how the VIN tag is riveted into the car. If you scroll through this section you will also see that the subframe is part of the cowl.

I don't know what the legal system is down in Ontario. What I would start with is a question to the OPP. Something like, "If I wanted to buy a car but think the VIN has been tampered with, what should I do?" They could probably point you in the right direction. If the reply is favorable, you could amend it to " I got ripped on a car purchase and just found out the VIN has been swapped from another car. What do I have to do to legitimize the car?" If they say the car has to be impounded or seized, that's the worst case scenario. I wish I knew more about the law in ON. Some lawyers will give free advice based on pro bono work. Or you could check the phone book or web for free legal assistance?

I just hate cans that have worms in them. Try asking Ont MV what to do http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/dan.../getinfo.shtml

71cutlass455

I took these two pictures of stampings on the motor. Do they mean anything? Or am i looking in the wrong spot?

Allan R

You have one picture that confirms that the engine block is a 455. I see you have J heads - that means your heads at least are 73 or newer... they are not 72.

This one means nothing. What you need is the engine stamping pad. Its going to be hard to see but if you look under the PS pump bracket there will be a flat surface (small) that faces downwards. It may have crud built up on it (the side view of the engine looks like it has a fair bit of crud so whoever painted it must have just done the top parts to make it look good) so you might have to clean that off. The numbers will be stamped onto the pad. The numbers stamped will be in this sequence 3 (Olds division) X (year) X (Plant - if yours was Lansing the letter will be M) then the 6 digit number that should match your tranny, VIN, and frame.


If it was a 350 engine you would be looking in the same spot; Have a look

71cutlass455

Ya know, I thought it was under the alternator bracket... I shoulda just stuck my phone in and snapped a picture, cuz I cant get my head in there to see it haha.

Theres actually no crud buildup on it, we had to heat up that area there to get a broken head bolt out. I just never got around to touching up the paint again