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Back in 1976-77 we pulled the hood and air cleaner assy. from a wrecked '70 W30, the letters were not painted, and I have another that I got from a friend about 25 years ago that shows no sign of paint.
I believe you for sure. No doubt that many of these exist without the paint. But how early were these cars? Do you know what the cowl date was on them?
In the assembly manual, Sec 6-1, page 138: check the revisions section, letter B. 10-2-69 - "Figure 2 removed" What was this mysterious Figure 2? Could it be something to do with the paint? We apparently will never know.
I have no idea, we just pulled the hood and other parts, and at that time I knew nothing of data tags and their info. The one that I currently have was in the trunk of a Cutlass that was sitting out front of a junk yard with engine fire damage, it had the O.A.I. hood, but it was toast, my buddy was good friends of the owner, and bought the air cleaner top (no foam present) and gave it to me to have/use as long as I want, but I cannot sell it, if I don't want it, he gets it back.
This is a very interesting thread. I am curious if any one can tell me if any adhesive is used to hold the foam in place. The replacement that I have is slightly to large in diameter and I had to cut it to fit. Just for kicks my OA1 adapter is not painted and my old foam is a gray/green color. Sorry no pic at this time
Bumping this will hopefully get someone's attention on your adhesive question, bumble-70442.
I have a question as well concerning the OAI and maybe white letter vs non painted variants. What size is the vacuum hose hole on the ones that weren't painted?
I have always been told by guys that worked at lansing that they were not painted from the factory. I've owned a few. IIRC the ones on my cars were not painted the one I got used was.
I have always been told by guys that worked at lansing that they were not painted from the factory. I've owned a few. IIRC the ones on my cars were not painted the one I got used was.
In my opinion, when you compare the two...the lettering on mine is too perfect to be hand painted. The way the letters are with the recessed black lines, it always made me wonder if that was used to align whatever painted them. Like maybe they had a block for each letter with a pad on the back for the paint. I don't know, not familiar with what process goes into it. Or if it actually did.
Look at the PR photo. I don't see those recessed lines at all. Could be they painted down into them, but that one sure does look hand painted...look at the edges of the letters and how they aren't perfect.
And another example from k.weaverfamily on eBay. Most owners that would have hand painted these would have definitely fully painted down into the recessed areas. Like I said, too perfect to be applied by the average individual post-purchase:
It really isn't that hard to paint the white. You get a hard rubber roller from an art supply store and use it to roll the paint onto the raised part of the letters.
Without referring to anyone specifically, it just seems strange to me that there is such pushback saying that this never occurred on any car, except for the cars in the PR photos. If it were to happen and for there to be an early process change, well we only know of a few October cars and this is one of them. Just because the majority of the ones out there don't have white lettering or were at a later date painted by the owners, it doesn't set a rule.
Oldsmobile themselves had the initial idea to make the lettering white. Did this make it to the production line for the early cars? I think anyone who says with 100% certainty that they didn't is possibly fooling themselves. Possibly.
Did changes happen in the production process? Yes. Do we know every component that they occurred on with absolute full detail? No. Do people saying they remember this or that about a component matter? Of course. But like Diego says, we need proof of production numbers, not just someone saying they remember XXXX cars being produced. The same concept applies here. We just can't assume. Again, I encourage open-mindedness. https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post945029
Without referring to anyone specifically, it just seems strange to me that there is such pushback saying that this never occurred on any car, except for the cars in the PR photos.
It's OK, I can take it...
The pushback is because we were old enough to have seen these cars when new in the dealership, and NONE of those had the letters painted.
The pushback is because we were old enough to have seen these cars when new in the dealership, and NONE of those had the letters painted.
No, I just meant anyone saying with 100% certainty that this white lettering, which originated from Oldsmobile PR, could have never occurred on a car that left the production line. Which, by the way in reading another thread on this, apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do. I'll have to search for it.
Has nothing to do with you being old enough to see them at the dealership. Unless you visited every dealership and saw every single October car under the hood. Then I would accept that.
But being a data guy yourself, you know you have to have a valid sample size before you even can start to make a prediction. In this case, none exists because we have misplaced our time machine.
Another theory is that the company who supplied the top might have painted some and not others. I can see a small factory supplying parts like this and having a few "slow" moments. Painting the Oldsmobile script white would be a productive time filler.
My October build W-30 didn't have the letters painted. Every OAI air cleaner adapter that I have seen painted was done by the owner. Even the NOS the adapter I purchased new when they were available wasn't painted.
My October build W-30 didn't have the letters painted. Every OAI air cleaner adapter that I have seen painted was done by the owner. Even the NOS the adapter I purchased new when they were available wasn't painted.
And I think Brian (BlackGold) mentioned his October car wasn't painted either. However, I will add that he mentioned in another thread that his distributor was a 977 from the factory, in an automatic car. So we know from this and other data that things aren't always as simple as you see one or a few cars and know how every single one was. We just can't know for sure.
This is the same premise that 3.42 gears were available in W-30 A/C cars. The person doesn't know if the distributor was changed under warranty. I have seen many parts changed under warranty.
I have two anomolies as well one bieng the 3.42 gears. I wish I knew who else but at least two other people (maybe on this board) with W30 converts and W-27 rear-ends have 3.42s in their car along with AC just like mine does.
I also have the windshield bottle on the driver's side with no holes on the passenger side for it. From what I understand they all came down the line with the bottle installed on driver's side. If a 455 was dropped in they moved the bottle over to the passengers side and plugged the driver 's side holes— not mine
I have heard of a few early auto W30s with manual carbs and/or distributors
The likelihood of a supplier painting the lettering on the flaps due to a slow moment is unrealistic, if a supplier did this on their own, without GM's consent, they would be out of the supplier loop in a heartbeat. You as a supplier, build/supply to the specifications required by the company per a contract, modifying a part because you have a slow time would get you in deep **** real quick, plus why would you add cost (paint, labor) to any item out of your pocket/profit, because you had a slow time, or thought it would be cool? I also believe that if this part were to be painted that it would be called out for in the assembly manual.
The likelihood of a supplier painting the lettering on the flaps due to a slow moment is unrealistic, if a supplier did this on their own, without GM's consent, they would be out of the supplier loop in a heartbeat. You as a supplier, build/supply to the specifications required by the company per a contract, modifying a part because you have a slow time would get you in deep **** real quick, plus why would you add cost (paint, labor) to any item out of your pocket/profit, because you had a slow time, or thought it would be cool? I also believe that if this part were to be painted that it would be called out for in the assembly manual.
I mentioned previously that the assembly manual was modified: Sec 6-1, page 138: check the revisions section, letter B. 10-2-69 - "Figure 2 removed."
