DanK

Long read so be forewarned. I have my college car which is a 71' CS convertible. After college I gave it to my dad. He is gone now yet the Olds lives. Combined we put over 300,000 miles on the original engine and an endless amount of mamaries, excuse me, memories. I also have every receipt ever spent on the car, sales receipt, manuals, etc.
I recently had the engine rebuilt to keep everything original. The rebuild was excellent and the car is solid. It is time to replace the carpet and some interior parts like the boot retainer plastic ring and seat springs. If someone could steer me in the right direction for the Sienna interior it would be appreciated. If not, it's not that bad to begin with and I'll keep it as is.
After reading through tons of posts regarding these cars, I am intrigued and somewhat surprised at what people expect from the cars. We have 5 cars between my wife and I and only one couldn't whip the CS in the quarter mile. They were not fast cars to begin with or Grandma would have never owned one. On the other hand, there is no mistaking the sound from an old iron head V-8. Therein lies the attraction. I love the car, it's history and my license plate, "IBSLOW2"

CRUZN 66

Welcome to Oldsmobile bliss... Sounds like you have a very nice piece of Olds History, and as you said, a lot of memories to go with it... As for the license plate, was that previously your Grand Mother's...

DanK

Good question, but no. I used to have the license plate that said "CMERUN". That was for the Z car with double carbs. I learned to grow old gracefully! Nothing left to prove.

zeeke

These motors could run forever but don't get there just due. Thats awsome you still have it. Try to post some pics.

Happy Trails

Your stack of gas receipts must be longer than my...well, it must be long. (with a nod to Ocean's Eleven).

Welcome to the site. I hope you can post a picture or two of your car. The A body cars are before my time, but I love them. I can just look at them and hear them and they make me happy. Today's vehicles don't do that for me. Point A to Point B. No soul anymore.

Hope someone can help you with your paint question. Thanks for sharing the story.

oldcutlass

Its nice that you've had your car in the family for so long. You're right, in most cases a Cutlass in stock trim will not beat most of todays cars. Believe it or not neither would a lot of the Muscle cars.

DanK

None of us, and I mean NONE of us, are taking anything with us. What did we leave behind? Hopefully much more than an old car. This is my favorite forum for a few reasons. The responses to inquiries, regardless of their level of knowledge, are in general helpful.
Personally, I've owned this car when it wasn't cool and when it is considered a classic. I prefer the former, but hopefully will learn to embrace the later.

DanK

You're totally right in your statement. What matters is the preservation of these old, classics. In the last week I've had 2 people come out of their business's and ask to take pictures. It's only been on the road for a few weeks.
On the other hand, and I'll make this brief, our 67", 400 GTO was, and still is a freak of nature. 278,000 miles, 3 teenagers, and is now only taken out a few times a year for a casual drive. Too much sentimental value to stomp on it. It's had it's day, and it was good. People respect that and fly right by.

Fun71

Same here. I remember being told to buy a new car and quit messing around with that old clunker. Now everyone loves it since it became a classic.

Happy Trails

People love seeing the old cars out on the road. I was down in AZ a couple weeks ago. My uncle collects cars (no Olds though) and I get to drive them when I'm down there. The car that people loved the most was his 1963 Chevy Sport Coupe. I used that as my daily driver while I was down there and probably had more than 100 people give me the thumbs up. Everywhere. At the grocery store, at the bait shop. Guys would chase me down on the freeway honking and carrying on. I don't love those four-wheel drum brakes in modern freeway traffic...

He has a Corvette that I was fortunate to drive one of the days up through the mountains. It didn't get anywhere near the attention. One kid came up to me while I was pumping gas to tell me he loved the car. It was fun to drive, but the 1963 Chevy was more fun for me. My grandpa had a 1962 that he gave to my dad and my dad drove it as his daily driver for many years, so the 1962-1964 cars have sentimental value to me.

DanK

Rebuilt at 332k. Lots of fun, still!

jpc647

damn, looks good for 300k miles.

How'd the motor run at 300k? Any problems?

Happy Trails

Very cool! Thanks for taking the time to post some pictures. I don't have any vehicles that have made it to 300K miles yet, but I have a couple that are getting close. They don't look anywhere near that nice though! Winters are hash on cars here. Now I'm thinking convertibles have an unfair advantage since most don't see winter use.

I wonder what the most miles are an A body car (with original equipment), and what does it look like with all those miles...

oldcutlass

I merged your 2 threads, it makes more sense. Looks great.

DanK

At 300k the engine was still running good with no smoking or leaks to speak of. Compression was checked and down some in a few cylinders. Oil usage was a normal 1 qt. between oil changes. We run our cars slightly under full all the time.
Our 67 GTO always wanted to run 1/2 qt. below full. You'd fill it up and it would spit it out then stay there. They do have personalities.

DanK

Very nice! What valve covers are those? I added a chrome alternator and am thinking about air cleaner and valve covers. Thanks for sharing.

DanK

What fun! I hear ya on the drum brakes. I may switch at some point.

76olds

Very nice shape for 300k miles, go to hear your still enjoying that awesome Olds. You can beat driving an Olds.
I hope you get many more miles out of er'
Put-r-ther
Eric

Dan K

Welcome - your username seems familiar, but I can't quite remember from where...

Love to hear about your family getting 300,000 (s)miles out of your cutlass and counting. Looking forward to pics as well

1969w3155

Welcome. For your interior, check out Legendary, they have the best.