gpfarrell

First off, this is my first post here. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm really more of a Mercury guy. But I'm here because there's a beautiful '75 Olds 88 4-door parked in my barn (it's really an over-sized garage) and I'm not sure what to do with it.

It belonged to my friend Jim, and sadly he recently passed away. I'm helping his family settle the estate, specifically the car. The Olds was his pride and joy. It's got just under 3,900 miles on it, and when he was still healthy enough, he loved taking it to the occasional car cruise. It's not perfect, and I'm no GM expert, but it's not far from perfect either.

It's a pale yellow with a brown vinyl top and orangish/brownish cloth interior. It's a 350 4-bbl, has an AM-FM radio, the "economy" gauge on the dash, and climate control (!) A/C. Crank windows and no power locks.

Over the years the tires and battery have been replaced, as well as I'm sure a few other odds and ends.

But the chrome is a little pitted on both bumpers, and for whatever reason the right front fender has been repainted. The re-spray is half a shade off, and has a tiny bit of overspray on the wheel molding.

His wife and daughters asked me if they should do anything to fix the car up before selling it.

Do you think its best to leave the fender as is, and let the buyer address it to their tastes? What about the chrome bumpers?

Overall, the car is very crisp and original, although the underhood area would really benefit from an experienced detailer's touch.

So, should they try to address any of these issues or just keep the car as honest as possible?

Thanks in advance,
Mercury guy.

Redog

Pics and location help a lot

gpfarrell

Good point!

The car is about 15 minutes north of Pittsburgh, PA.

I'll gets some pictures up shortly.

jaunty75

The car sounds very nice, but the 4-doors do have generally more limited interest than the two-doors or convertibles.

Is it a hardtop (no center pillar between the front and rear doors) or sedan?

Also, is it a Royale, or just a plain Delta 88?

The Old Cars Price Guide lists the following values:

In #4 condition (runs and drives but needs full restoration--your car sounds like it's in better condition than this), a 1975 Delta 88 4-door sedan has a value of $1,120. In #3 condition ("car-show quality" but not showroom quality -- with the pitted bumpers, etc. your car doesn't sound this good), the value $2,520.

For the 1975 Delta 88 4-door hardtop, the #4 value is $1,300, and the #3 is $2,900.

For the 1975 Delta 88 Royale, in #4 condition, the 4-door sedan has a value of $1,140 (all of $20 more than the plain Delta), and in #3 condition, it's $2,570. The 4-door hardtop in #4 is $1,340, and in #3 it's $3,020.

These are very average values, but, in general, it sounds like this car is probably worth somewhere around $2,000 give or take a lot.

As I said, these don't fall that high on the collectibility scale, but if you can find the right buyer, you might be able to get a decent price for it.

jaunty75

As far as whether or not you should fix things up, remember that you probably won't get back what you spend when you sell it. You might have to spend $1,000 to get both bumpers rechromed, but you won't recover that because the car won't suddenly be worth $1,000 more.

As far as the repainted fender, to me it would depend on just how different the shades look. If it's not too bad, I, as the new owner, might be able to live with this for a long time, and I would likely address the bumpers first. I think this will end up being a personal preference thing, but, again, if you do spend the money to get it repainted, it will certainly be a bit better looking, but you won't back in the selling price what you spent for the repaint.

If it were me, I'd clean the car thoroughly, make sure it starts, runs, and drives OK, which it sounds like it does, wax it, spring some new-car smell around the interior, and then put it up for sale and see what happens.

slowdime

i have a cousin that lives in prospect pa

are you close to that town?

gpfarrell

Thanks everybody!

Slowdime... Prospect is a bit over 30 minutes from here. Your brother would likely take I-79 to the Turnpike, and then go one exit East on the Turnpike to the Butler/Route 8 Exit. We live 5 minutes off the exit.

Jaunty75... I hear what you're saying with regard to spending the money. The bumpers are really pretty good, you'd just hope that on a 3900 mile car they'd be perfect. Even the front bumper is a great 20 footer/cruise quality piece... but it's got a fewer rougher spots below eye-level that would cost you at a high-level show.

I just hooked the ground cable back up and the car started on the first try. It's done that for me every time I've moved it since it moved in with me last fall. Oh, it doesn't need any new car smell... to my nose, it still has some from 1975. My driveway is about 1/8 of a mile long, and runs and drives fine here. It was running better than 60 mph when it was driven to our house last fall and I'd assume it would be happy to do that again. But there are a lot of 36 year old parts under that hood, so'd be hesitant to crack that 4-bbl open!

Also, it's "just" an 88 sedan. I don't see any Royale badging on it anywhere, and it's not a pillarless hardtop either.

It looks great though. I could drive it to a show tonight without washing it; it's been covered all winter and it was pristine when we put it away last fall.

It's much nicer than a #4. Looking at my "How to Use a Price Guide" from Old Cars Report, it's likley between a #2 and a #3.

While not flawless, this is a 3,900 mile car. That's only about 25 full gas tanks from the day it drove off the assembly line. While it's not a more popular 98 or Convertible, it's a very original honest car, and we all know they're only original once.

I think I'll tell the heirs it's likely best to offer it as it stands, and let the new owner tinker as they wish.

Even with the incredibly low mileage, I don't think this is a $10,000 car because, well, it is what it is. I see these limited values with some of my beloved Mercurys too, so no harm meant by that! However, I don't see any 3900 mile cars in the price guides, so I think it would priced above the published numbers for cars with more typical mileage.

Again, thanks for all the help!
Greg

jaunty75

On the convertibles it was on the lower right side of the trunk lid. On non-convertibles, there might still have been one on the trunk lid, but it probably also was on the sail panel right behind the passenger door windows on each side. Also, there was a big capital "R" on a piece of trim on the front door panels above the armrest. At least, that's where it was on the convertible. I had a '75 Delta 88 convertible back in the '90s, and I still have photos of it.


Yours is a pretty cool car, no doubt, and certainly the extremely low mileage will help. Good luck. Post pics if you can. We'd like to see it.

gpfarrell

I've got some pictures, but my uploads keep failing. I think my files might be too big? Any suggestions?

Btw, this is not my car. I'm helping the family sell it, but I'd know a lot more about it if it called me Dad.

jaunty75

Two.

1. Download a photo resizing program like the one at this site:

http://www.faststone.org/FSResizerDetail.htm

There are many others. If you are using Windows XP, then there is a resizing tool among the Windows "Power Toys" available from the Microsoft website. Just google "power toys." The one I use installs itself in the context menu that comes up when you right click on a jpg file, and it gives you several size options to choose from as well as the option to resize the original picture or leave it alone and make a copy. I use this all the time when posting images to the web because you don't need 1 MB photos to look good on a computer screen. Reducing it to 100 KB makes it load 10 times faster, and it looks just as good.


2. Upload your photos to a free online service like Picasa, Photobucket, Flickr, or another one. Then, embed the image in your post by right clicking on it on the website hosting it, select "Copy Image Location," and then paste that into the space that comes up when you click on the little image of a mountain range at the top of the edit window on this site. This method does not require uploading images to the classicoldsmobile.com site, so you aren't up against the photo size limitations.

gpfarrell

Thanks! I resized the photos once, but they were still to big and it wouldn't let me shrink them again. I should probably change the camera settings, but this is already becoming quite an extended/involved favor!

Craigslist let me upload the photos, so I posted the car there. If I get through my "Honey Do" list, I'll put it in the proper place here too. Until then...

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/2368304905.html

jaunty75

It's a beautiful car. Good luck.

Lady72nRob71

Sounds Like a neat car! I would opt to sell the car as a 'survivor'. Leave it alone.
You would save a lot of $ that way and it would easily fit in any 'survivor' class at shows. Rechroming the bumpers is restoration and it would no longer be a survivor.
Try some good chrome polish / rust remover - maybe it will help a little.
As for the fender, it would depend on how different it looks. Pics would help

Make sure your photo is less than 1.4MB before trying to post it. If it is, the website will resize it for you and post it.
If over 1.4MB, it will fail.