1yesfan

Are there any books out there from any company that makes/sells repro stuff for the 74 Delta 88? I need radiator hoses, will I dins any repro hoses?

1yesfan

anything with top parts, the top, padding, etc?
Interior door panels?

jaunty75

While mechanical parts (engine, drivetrain, suspension, brake, pretty much anything underhood) are available all day long at your local auto parts store or from any number of online vendors, nobody reproduces anything body/trim/interior for full-size Oldsmobiles of any year. This has long been true and one of the banes of trying to collect and restore these cars. Your only hope is to find good used pieces or the occasional NOS piece on ebay, swap meet, etc. One good thing to do is post a list of your specific needs in the Parts Wanted section of this site.

For radiator hoses, have your tried your local Autozone/NAPA/O'Reilly's/whatever? I've replaced radiators hoses in recent years on both my '67 Delta 88 and '73 Custom Cruiser. I don't remember exactly where I got them, but I don't recall it being any great difficulty in locating the parts.


Here's the lower radiator hose at Autozone. Has to be ordered, either in store or ship to home, but it's there. $10.99

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...18922_0_10495_


Here's the upper hose at Autozone. At my local store, at least, it's in stock right now. $19.99. Go buy it right now.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...84627_0_10495_

jaunty75

As far as your convertible top, you can probably buy one from any of a number of vendors. Just Google "convertible tops." Your local auto upholstery/convertible top shop can probably order one and install it for you if you want. This is what I did when my '75 Delta 88 convertible needed a new top back in the mid-'90s when I owned it.

If your top mechanism needs parts, again, those will have to come from donor cars. I'm not sure, but I think any GM full-size convertible of that era ('71 through '75) would be able to donate parts.

1yesfan

you can get them all day long on ebay, just wonders if there were any reproduction ones that match oem.

1yesfan

My hardware on the top works, and appears to have no issues. I will need a complete top job, top, pads, head liner? weather seals, well thing.

jaunty75

You're talking about radiator hoses here? They're radiator hoses. They all look pretty much alike, at least to me. What would be different about a "reproduction" radiator hose versus an oem radiator hose versus these I just pointed out on Autozone? Aren't these Autozone hoses "reproductions?" After, while they might not have the AC/Delco or whatever markings that would have been on the hoses the car originally came with, they're a match to the originals in form and function. Isn't that what a reproduction is? What more do you need?

Buy what you need, put them on the car, they'll all be dirty in 10 minutes, so no one will be able to see what markings are on them, anyway, and move on to the next project.

jaunty75

Convertible top pads, well liner, etc. will likely be available from the same place that makes your top. When I had the top on my '75 replaced, all of these were replaced as well as part of the job.

As far as weatherstripping, it's available from any of several vendors. Fusick, MetroMoulded Parts, Steele Rubber Products, Rubber the Right Way, and, again from your local auto parts store. They even sell complete kits for convertibles (cowl, roof rails, front pillars). A kit will probably be $200 or $300, or if you only need individual pieces, you can buy those. In any case, weatherstripping is readily available. For the doors, too. Ditto for a new hood pad if yours is worn/dirty/missing.

1yesfan

I was thinking radiator hoses that had the same stamping's/words that the factory ones had. Same for the heater core hoses, for instance on my 70 Camaro SS I had they had raised lines in one hose, the other was smooth. Just wondering if that stuff was avail for this car.
At the end of the day a Gates hose off eBay will be fine, just asking.

jaunty75

You're comparing the worlds of Chevrolet and full-size Oldsmobile, and the two could not be more different. By trading your Chevrolets for an Oldsmobile, you've left the Chevrolet world and entered the Oldsmobile. Leave your experiences behind as they do not apply here. Or perhaps what Dante's Inferno says is written above the gates of hell would be more appropriate: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

While anything anyone would ever need to make any Chevrolet ever built look like it just came off the assembly line yesterday is available, we in the full-size Oldsmobile world are just thankful that enough mechanical parts are available for our cars to keep them on the road. No one produces catalogs of body and trim parts for full-size Oldsmobiles because no one produces body and trim parts for full-size Oldsmobliles. No one makes OEM-look radiator hoses or fan belts or battery hold-down clamps for these cars.

Fusick has an Oldsmobile "big car" catalog covering 1961 through 1975, and that will have lots of mechanical parts plus little touch-up things like engine compartment and trunk compartment decals. But there are no bumpers, no seats, no interior door panels nor exterior door handles, no fenders, no chrome strips, no taillight housings, no parking light lenses, no sun visors, no nothing along these lines.

A good rule of thumb is that, with a few exceptions like headlights and tires and windshields, if it's something you can see by standing outside the car and looking at it or sitting in the car and looking around you, it is something that is NOT reproduced.