Saw this car in front of a local shop...

The front grills look wrong for a 442

I don’t think the upside-down “L” above the headlights is supposed to be chrome.

It has Mecum auction house plates, but a quick search of their past auctions does not bring up any black 1972 442s.

Thoughts from those of you with a better eye than I have ?

 

No 442s were built in the Supreme hardtop body style in 1970-72, so it's not a real W-29 car. Those are 1970 chrome fender eyebrows, 1971 headlight bezels, and it has the rear spoiler that Supremes never got from the factory. W-30 stripes too. Another tribute car with no attention to details.

Terry

 

That is just wrong on SO many levels. If I was Dana Mecum, I'd repossess the plates.

 

Also 442 emblem in the Supreme grills. Who ever built the car does not know Oldsmobiles very well.

 

x1000 on the being wrong, but don't think Mecum really cares much about what rolls across the stage as long as the fee is collected. Some of the auction vehicles I saw at the Dallas auction last year left me speechless - cars that would not be allowed in a wrecking yard because they would junk the place up too much.

 

You guys know that in 72 Black was not offered on the color pallette for A bodies? This is one of the rare 1 of zero cars that also has the uber rare wheel opening delete option. Want to bet the (wrong) hood stripes extend onto the trunk?

AC car with proper hood though. Wrong trim rings on wheels though.

 

Found it!

With a little more sleuthing using Google Images.....

http://www.gatewayclassiccars.com/or...e/442-S24.html

Thanks to everybody for chiming in....I knew it smelled fishy....

 

Just a point of information, don't want to stick up for the car, but this promo material I found here:
https://myclassicgarage.com/marketpl...oldsmobile-442
shows "Ebony Black"

 

I think the no black option comment was just being silly about the owner probably thinking it's rare.

I wouldn't buy it for 20k...but I'd drive it all day long.
Beats the hell out of another Malibu poorly dolled up as an SS chevelle.

-pete

 

Ah. Silly me.

 

That's a $10k car ruined into a $5k car.

 

But you could order it - I owned a code 19 U Code Supreme with window sticker back in 2000-2001 (it has made a few recent appearances on Ebay with white stripes and a cheap OAI hood now).

Picture from the day I brought it home in 2000:



Terry

 

Great way to put it! I agree.

 

Terry, that's correct. But the color pallette for ALL GM A bodies in 72 excluded Ebony Black. I also know a fellow who has a factory ordered (Freemont) 72 Cutlass S in Ebony Black. The Build Sheet he found on the top of the tank clearly shows the special order color change at extra cost. Code 19 was still offered on the B/C cars as a standard color offering.

 

Really? ALL A-Bodies? Because it seems to me I've seen a lot of black '72 Chevelles over the years. I guess they were all repaints.

 

You're probably right. 72 GM A body lines suffered from black pigment not being on their palette as a standard color. So yes, you probably have seen a lot of repaints or special order paint 72s - did you bother to check their cowl tags to see if they were ebony black from the factory? It's just not commonly known. Check Pontiac, Buick and Chevrolet for 72 A body production and you'll find the same issue. I don't know why 72 was an 'exception' year.

Hey, don't have to believe me. Here's the info from the 72 Oldsmobile SPECS. Note that all the code 19's have an * and that * indicates 'not available on intermediate models'.

 

Unfortunately, no. I have found that the owner tends to resent it when he has his car parked on the street and strangers start prowling around under the hood to get a look at the data plate.

 

Its actually not a bad looking car. Growing up way back when its not any different than what most kids did to their cars adding stuff that they liked. I assure you the average car show attendee has no clue as to what that car came stock with and will just stare in awe at the shiny paint and ask the clueless owner if it has a four forty two engine in it. The present owner will respond with a shrug and probably say "I don't know I bought it like this..."

 

This is coming from no knowledge base, but could it be possible that Oldsmobile reintroduced black later in the year?

I only say this because something interesting happened to the Camaro in 1968 - according to the Camaro Research Group:

In 1968, two colors, Tuxedo Black and Cordovan Maroon, started the year common to both Camaro and Corvette. In January 1968, three additional Corvette colors were added to Camaro, with specific marketing attention given to the fact that they were Corvette colors applied to Camaro. These three were Corvette Bronze, LeMans Blue, and British Green. (In addition to these three, Rallye Green was another mid-season Camaro color addition. Together they replaced Fathom Blue, Grecian Green, Palomino Ivory, and Tuxedo Black for the remainder of 1968.)

http://www.camaros.org/exterior.shtml#ColorPercentages

It's easy for the lack of black to be a head-scratcher because the color is quite popular today, but back then there was a different perception of black, especially on a sporty car.

Too bad we don't have all the bulletins from 1972 to see if there ever was such a thing.

 

I agree, not everybody is a Olds fanatic. Most people can't even tell the difference between a Chevelle, Skylark and Cutlass. 99% of people at the show, street, strip, in general, don't have the specs., options, color codes etc. memorized, nor do they care.
Not all of us like our cars 100% original, the way they left the factory.
This is probably not a great example of modifications one might do, but to somebody it was cool and he liked it......and that's all it matters.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to infer you should do this skulk and dagger like. I thought you might have been referring to viewing the cars at a show where a large majority of them usually have the hood up. Most shows I've been to even if the car doesn't have the hood up, the owner is usually more than willing to discuss his ride and mods. Anyway, I'm sure a large number of folks out there who started with a different color and gravitated to black, or triple black just from personal preference. Black looks great on some cars, not so on others. Hard color to keep looking clean IMO.

Totally agree with your comment. BTW, interesting link to the %'s.