Stefano

What is the earliest documented 1971 W30 which is known to exist?

wmachine

I can tell you this much: The vast majority were made after the first of the calendar year, only 3 before that. 2 in Dec '70, and none in November. 1 was either Sept or October, probably October. (I don't have which month the 1 was, but I can get that info).

Stefano

Thanks Kurt, that is very detailed info. Where does that info come from and why so few early on in the model year?

wmachine

There is a report at the GMHC for 1971 that has production numbers by model series by option by month. So the number of W30s by month can be had. I just don't have the months of Sept and October myself. Yet.

W-cars were special production and never got off the ground at the start of the production year (with the exception of the '72 W30s which did start in September).

Stefano

Kurt,

For a point of discussion, just think on this a bit, I just don't buy the "never got off the ground at the start of the production year".

By the end of the 1970 model year, the highest production year for the W30, I would believe that there were enough enthusiasts, professionals, Drs and Lawyers, even Olds execs and dealers which would want the ultimate performance model and have placed early orders, so that more than a handful would/could have been built?

There had to be something going on in order to slow down production of the W-Machines.

I did talk to an original owner of a 1971 W30 and he had ordered a 1970 model. His order was not accepted and turned into an order for a '71.

He said that it took 5-6 months to finally get his car.


Thanks for your input.

wmachine

Okay, in Sept 1970 there was a 67-day corporate-wide strike at GM that probably had a lot to do with it.
But one has to admit that with less than 1000 produced, they weren't beating the doors down for them, thus wouldn't be much of a priority for production.

anthonyP

Besides the GM strike itself, many potential GM muscle car buyer's got tired waiting for the strike to end, as there was no end in sight at one point, and ended up ordering either a Chrysler or Ford muscle car.


My brother almost cancelled his 442 order, and ordered a '71 440-six pack Cuda, but thankfully, the strike ended and his 442 was delivered in February 1971.

paulolds

Lead times on 1971 442's and W30 were long in late 1970. I have a 1971 W30 convert, ordered in 1970 in Rally red, car was delivered in Feb 1971 as a 71 in Rally Red. My tripple green convert was ordered in Dec 1970, delivered in Feb as a hartop, reordered right away and the correct car arrived in late May. the 67 day strike did cause havoc with availability of cars. Dave Hailaila(sp?) who worked for Olds at the time said the priority was to get as many Cutlasses in 2 and 4 door configuration out the door as soon as the strike was over.
I have never seen any W30 produced before Dec 1970 however a lot of the special parts (heads,carbs,dist) are dated August 1970. I have copies of production records for June and July 1971 showning YTD statistics and am working on getting the eralier records month by month.

Paul

Koda

Were the W cars batch runs?

Stefano

While some of the W-30 specific parts were built in batches, I have not seen anything to indicate that the cars were.

The end of a model year run has a cut off, wherein the factory will no longer accept orders for that model year.

So as a hypothetical, since I don't have the exact dates in front of me, the last date you could order a 1970 W30 would have been sometime in June. The last 1970s would have been built June or July. Orders for 1971 W-30s could have been placed by dealers and or customers in July and August.

It would have been very unusual for the factory not to build a sold customer car unless it was on restriction. I have never seen any data to support that early 1971 W-30s were on restriction.

Kut's info shows that the First two 1971 W-30s were built in December.

While I understand that the strike slowed down the production of cars, theoretically there could have been some built, but for Kurt's data which shows that none were built in the first few months

classicmuscle442

Would agree with OP on the fact that cars ordered were produced when they wanted them.

My W29 '65 was built in August and has '66 engine and trans.

wmachine

What evidence can you offer on that?

classicmuscle442

Car was purchased by me in '75, had 65,000 miles on it, came with PVC system, q-jet and chrome rims, all late changes in model year. Engine has B heads and (had a early dual quad intake and extra four barrel in trunk, cast with 065), had been bored to .040 when I pulled it.

Will start new thread on this, found paperwork in car back in "80's when we restored car, now where did I ........

wmachine

Please do. Nothing personal, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and that is what I'm looking for.

Rocketguy

I am just curious: If the engine had been pulled and bored one school of thought would lead a person to suspect that it could be a different engine. Do you have any evidence that it was the factory installed engine?

limegreen71w30

My 71 w30 has a date under the hood written in yellow chalk crayon of Dec 1970. I assume that was a build date. Im unsure of how to date my car, but I was using that as a guide. Is that safe to do? Mine is numbers matching and documented. So to my understanding there werent many built before Jan 1 1971?

paulolds

Your duild date is on your cowl tag, left side middle, if a Dec built car it would read 12B as an example of second week of december, weeks were lettered A,B,C,D and sometimes E. Share your cowl tag build date and someone here will confirm it for you. Is your car a hardtop or convert?

Paul

BlackGold

My 1970 W-30 has a yellow crayon date written on the underside of its hood. The date is in 1971. Obviously not the build date of the car. And it's not as if someone put a 1971 OAI hood on my '70, as they are completely different hoods.

Someone who used to work at a dealership back in the day once told me that they used to write the in-service date (when it was picked-up by the customer) on the underside of the hood. But I know for a fact that my car was put in service just a week after being built -- in 1969, not 1971.

So I'm left with thinking that some service tech in 1971 wrote the date there. Or its conceivable there was a collision and the hood was replaced in '71.

Regardless, date codes are interesting, but it's never safe to assume anything.

Joeolds71

I have a 71 W-30 that I purchased in 1990. The yellow crayon on underside of hood is 1-18-71. The build date of the car is 01C (Third week of January) The date on protect-o-plate and warranty card is early February of 1971. I always assumed that the 1-18-71 was in fact the build date. I talked to the original owner not long after I bought this car. He said he ordered the car in August(I think) and it took forever to get it due to the strike.

paulolds

Joe

As Jan 18 1971 was the day I started my first Job, I know it was a Monday and that Could be the first day of the "C" week for production. January 1 was a Friday and could have bben construed as week A If that was the case your car would have been built Jan 11-16. That type of crayon marking often could have been when the Antifreeze was tested, the date followed by a - number. This would have been critical info on all cars built and shipped in the winter. Do you have a build card? It would show the exact build date, sequience number for the shift etc.


Paul

Joeolds71

No build or broadcast sheet found yet. Even though I've had the car for 20 plus years I have not started the restoration process. Three places I know it is not located: Drivers seat, under package tray, top of gas tank. I am confident however that it is a real W-30 car as it has a number matching block with H heads, correct number distributor, carb and intake. VIN on OW transmission matches VIN on dash. Correct code on rear end, etc. I also know and have talked to people who were around when the car was "nearly new".

limegreen71w30

My Cowl tag shows 01A for a build date. So I am assuming first week in January? My Broadcast card show 01 for month and 11 for day. So correct me if Im wrong but does my info show that friday Jan 1 would be considered a December build date? And was the cowl tag at the end of the build so the car would have been nearly completed when it was made and attached? It seems odd to me, my broadcast card shows a different week than the cowl tag. Ed

wmachine

You're trying to extract exact info out of un-exact data.
The date on the cowl tag is a Fisher Body related date. And so is the Broadcast card date. Not the date the car rolled off the assembly line. The dates we never intended to be an exact date of anything. Even the build sheet date was not the the date the car was made, but the "scheduled date" and that was exactly what it was called.
What you have is not at all uncommon. My '65 Jetstar 1 has a body date that amounts to 7-12 days *after* the scheduled build date.
We all want to know when our cars were made. But you can't take all these dates for gospel. That was not the intention of them, or certainly the result. All of these dates were applied prior to actual occurrences. They meant nothing once the car was produced.

Stefano

Just as Kurt stated there is nothing there to conclude the exact date the car was 100% completed, however we/ the public have recently discovered that GM does have the day the car was transfered on to the dealer floor plan, which would be considered the day it was completed and ready to ship.

The cowl tag "week" date translates more closely to when the body was completed by Fisher Body plant and sent over to be united with the chassis and drivetrain.