i got the chance to buy it for $4000. Don’t want to pay to much. It needs headliner, valve cover gasket, and a paint job. 350 engine. 106xxx miles. Runs and drives very good. What is it worth if it is the 442 w30.

 

The VIN will tell you if it's real or not. The 1980 442 was the only A-body to get the Olds 350 from the factory. The fifth character of the VIN will be an "R" if that is the case.

 

the 5th character is “R”. Do you know the value? I’ve heard only about 380 of these were produced

 

I think 4k is fair based on the pics and description. While it may be a 442 w30 its not a highly sought after modelyear. If it runs good and you like it buy it.

theres been one or two similar models and years on my local cl off and on for around the same price.

 

so basically it’s not a good car to buy, fix it up a little and sell for a profit?

 

No, its the kind of car you fix up out of true love, there will be no profit when your done.

 

guess I’ll pass on it then. I don’t like the grill on these

 

Despite what you may see on cable, there are VERY few cars that you buy, "fix up a little", and sell for a profit, unless you value your time at zero dollars an hour.

 

I’ve sold a few cars in my day. I was saying of the car was desirable.

 

You might be smarter than the people who posted in #4, #6, #8. Go for it.

 

What about the 68 Cutlass? Or 69? 72, or 73? Or even 79 H/O? Are they not A bodies? Hahaha. Got you back.

 

The car is desirable IF it was well taken care of and mint. And then, at very best, you may could sell it at a portion of the inflation adjusted MSRP more than likely, if that. There's likely a market for such a car that someone would knock people over for, but it's a small pool.

They made something like 886 1980 442s. Not many, but then again, that can be a problem in and of itself when looking for specific 442 or 1980 Calais parts. But even if you "fixed it up a little", you're likely not going to get your time/effort costs back.

You WILL NOT get more than 10K for it unless you restore it completely stem to stern. So you would need to keep paint/bodywork and mechanical restorations below 6K if you bought it at 4K just to break even at best. JMO.

1980 442s are not the hot, have to have item. Sure, they're nice cars and hard to find in any condition, but most people never took care of them. Too bad they didn't keep the dual gate as an option at least. They were mostly decal package and the 350 made in the post- "2nd gas crunch" era, meaning the cars were not made like the 77's and earlier. The bulk was gone and the corners were cut to slice weight and size. They became more "disposable".

But, you can always prove us wrong...

 

It’s a decent car for the price and might be some buyers out there for it , but not likely you’ll make any money on it. I do like the fact that it has the 350 in it , although the 80 version is no power house and a little weaker block than the 76 and older model 350’s.If it were close to me id pay 3500 get it running and driving nice and enjoy it ( but that just me ) I do hope someone buys it that will appreciate it.

 

yeah i plan on offering about 3300-3500. Haven’t seen it in person yet. Will be driving out there first thing in the morning. An hour away from me. Knowing that the car isn’t highly sought after kinda ruined it for me. The seller made it seem like this is the holy grail of cutlass.

 

Be sure to check the usual rust areas trunk , floors, quarters And the frame rails over the rear tires . if any amount of rot it would be game over for me because rust repair gets expensive

 

yeah trust me. I know lol. Just had an 86 cutlass with rust everywhere.

 

Yes, I should have said "only one that year" .

 

Of course, you REALLY should have pointed out that the 350 diesel WAS offered in other A-body cars that year.

 

The 80 442 was square in the middle of the "Oh my Lord, we are bad," early emissions, gas crunch, and off-the-rails style and taste period that American auto manufacturing fell into about 1973 and didn't climb out of till about 20 years later. One would lose money trying to flip an excellent specimen unless he got it for a criminally good deal in the first place. Restoration would destroy any of that profit in the first 10% of costs.

Of the "real" 442s, by which I mean carbureted, real wheel drive, the 79-80 is probably the least valuable.

 

yeah that’s what i see now lol. I might just pass it up

 

I stand corrected. I think it's near the bottom, not at the bottom. If it speaks to you, pick it up, clean it up, and rock and roll as is. If not, pass.

 

i want something with a little umph in it. Engine wise. If it ain’t running like a 350. I don’t want it

 

It will run like a 1980 Olds 350... At 170 ground pounding HP, it was performance for 1980, just not by todays standards. So it does have a little umph, very little.

 

Don't try and project your failures on others. hahaha J/K. I don't know which is worse, those early Olds diesels or the weak gas 350s of that era.

It's a shame, too, that the 1980 is a virtually impossible model to restore correctly due to the extremely hard to find trim parts for it. They only made 886 442s that year, so the rarity doesn't mean much if you can't find parts for it. They're one-year-only parts for the most part. The interior fabric is non-existent and the grilles are tough to find. I did run across some NOS 1980 Calais/442 grilles hunting them down for someone else who has an 80 Calais. Only set I had ever seen out in the wild. There was also a 1980 Supreme version that part of the package was using black painted Calais grilles in 1980. They called it a Y68 Cutlass Supreme Custom Appearance Package. Approx 6000 were made. This is the car that came with the wide stainless steel band on the roof panel.

Unless it's a nostalgic thing, restoring a late 70s, 80s 442 bone stock is likely not a money making adventure. And deviating from stock and hot rodding it destroys pretty much any value as to collectability, for whatever that's worth. Can it be done? Sure. Is it financially viable? That's where the word "hardly" comes into play.

 

Oh, hell. Now you made coffee come out my nose.

 

well I drove the hour to get there, once i arrived the car was Very dusty like its been sitting for a few months. He told me he drive it every other day. could not keep it started, had to adjust the carb. once it started it had a LOUD *** squeal to it. i mean LOUD LOUD. drove it like 3 miles then the belt broke, so i pulled over on side of road. It was a POS.

 

At least you gave it a whirl.

 

Don't rule it out just because it broke a belt!

 

So you adjusted the carb to get it to run but did not take the time to tighten a belt or see the cause. To me that's a negotiating feature... Its an unrestored 40 year old car, its going to need work, your expectations are a bit skewed.

 

1000 for a running car.

 

Appears to be a real 80 442. 885 were made, and most or all went to Canada. I had one years ago, bought it in Canada and brought to MI. The emblems are correct, has an Olds 350, grilles are correct.

The 80 442 was supposed to be the 80 Hurst Olds. We were in a recession, so car lots still had 79 Hursts on the lots. This was why the 442s went to Canada. The shifter, emblems and front end were about the only differences from a 79 H/O (horn button and steering wheel are interior differences). Also, speedometer was in km, not mph.

An interesting thing for only the 80 442s, they are allowed into the Hurst Olds club of America. They are the only 442s allowed.

Mine was also a white/gold, bought with a blown up engine. The 350 was yanked, and a 403 installed. Very fun car and I hated to sell it. Having a son and needing to buy a house pushed me to sell it. I have replaced it with a 79 black/gold H/O. Again, 350 is out, 403 going in.

Most people won't know what your car is- many don't know what mine is. Interesting car to own and keep around.

 

You forgot about the seat fabric/vinyl sewing pattern being different in 1980 vs. 1979. The 403 is definitely a nice upgrade. Probably should have went with that engine in the first place.

First I heard of the 80 Hurst/Olds story. The only Hurst and Olds thing going on for 1980 from my recollection from Judy Badgley's stories was the "Hurst/Toronado" fling that never came to fruition as a production car. I want to say a prototype was at the Dalton, GA H/OCA meet at least one year, 2012 was it? I forget. A black car IIRC. I might even have pics of it somewhere. There was apparently a special-built 1980 "Hurst/Olds" drag race car, too. I don't know if Hurst actually had a hand in it officially or not, however, or it was just a Hurst/Olds name slapped on a Cutlass. I've only heard of it, never seen it or any pictures.

From what I could learn back around that time, the 1980 442 was supposed to be the 1980 442 because Olds didn't even want to pay money (200 per car for nearly 1/2 million $) to Hurst for the rights to simply purchase their shifter, name, and emblems for the 79. The 79 is the only Hurst not to be upfitted at a separate Tier 1 facility like the others. Hurst's top dog Toomey at that time wouldn't allow 79 H/Os to happen unless they had a dual gate. Olds wanted to use the plain factory shifter. Olds finally caved at the last minute and 2,499 were made. I think it was that thorn that rubbed Olds the wrong way. There was a time you actually paid attention to what was coming out in the next model year because they were still building Oldsmobiles at the time. Now, not so much.

In 1980, I guess Olds figured it was easier and cheaper just to include the Calais shifter and pop some 442 emblems on the already certified car and call it a day. I've seen the 79 H/O prototype, but never a 80 H/O prototype. This was a bad time for Hurst and relations between the car companies and Hurst were already on edge. (Things didn't start to normalize with Hurst until Dick Chrysler took over Hurst in 1981 saving it from itself.) SAME thing happened in 1985 when the H/O program came to an end after the 84 model run. Olds brought back the 442 for 1985 without the emblems, graphics, shifter, scoop, and air dam. They even used a restamped 84 H/O "tweener" carbs on the 85 442 production cars. I call them "tweener" carbs because of all the factory ones I can find, the H/O carbs were mostly built in 1984 mid-year AFTER the 84 H/O production run but before the 85 442 run with a 17084554 and then the year was stamped over to a "5" for use on the 85 442 engines. In 1986, Mr. Gasket took over Hurst, but it was pretty much game-over for the Hurst/Olds after the 86 prototype design got no further than a drawing board. Even Doc Watson couldn't pull off a "last hurrah" official H/O version for the 1988 model year.

Sorry, unless someone can point to something in writing, I'm throwing the BS flag on the only 442 allowed into the H/OCA is the 1980. Only 442 I'm aware of being allowed a pass was Angelo Valenti's FE3-X replica 85 442. Plus another BS flag on most if not all the 80 442 shipped to Canada. I've seen several examples in the U.S. over the years and they all had MPH speedometers in them. (last one I ever spotted out in the wild and not at a car show was in Blackville, SC sitting in front of the local post office about 10 years ago. Ironically, it was black, too. I was just driving through but when I saw it I did a louie and stopped and looked it over).

Most all of this is anecdotal evidence, so there may be a few details I'm not 100% aware of, but that's why I said that I was to understand the facts as I was made aware of them. These facts mostly came from sources such as long-time H/OCA advisors, Judy Badgley, my dad who worked for GM until he retired in 1986 (I always got great inside info from him) and my own personal witness.

The biggest question I've always had about the 80 442 was why only 886? 442 twice with a couple left over? I have never got a good answer for that. I'm sure they could have made more. IIRC, 540 were black leaving 346 to be white.

 

You do not have to own a Hurst Olds to be a member of the Hurst Olds Club of America, but, to show your car at the H/OCA Nationals, it needs to be a Hurst/Olds. 68, 69, 72, 73, 74, 75, 79, 83, 84, 9 years. An 88 Cutlass Supreme Classic with the Hurst effects kit installed is also permitted. Other than the FE3X, the only other thing I could think that MIGHT get in would be a Hurst Hairy replica.

 

To me, $4K is strong for that. There is some ugliness under the hood and the interior looks shot. There isn't much aftermarket support for these so its not hard to see this becoming a money pit. This is a car for someone that has passion for it & does it as a labor of love.