stevengerard

I have what I thought were two original foam seals that are in pretty terrible shape. They are a gold-ish tan color with the black around the outside. I notice that all the reproductions are gray with black around the outside. Does anyone know what the original color of the foam seal was.

2blu442

Steven, I've made the same observation as you. Every old one I've seen was the yellow foam with all the new ones grey. Someone else will have to tell us for sure if the yellow was the original color, but it sure looks that way.

John

BlackGold

For what it's worth, not ALL reproduction foams are identical. I chose mine specifically because it looks more like the originals. I just wish I could remember where I bought it so this post actually had some meaning .....

stevengerard

first image is an original seal (I think) the second one is a gray reproduction - I know because I bought it.

jensenracing77

i had a 72 W-30 with 16,000 miles that i got in 1996. it had the yellow also. my rallye 350 was yellow also when i got it in 1990. i always wondered this also. my dad got one new in 71 and he said he thought it was yellow but he could not remember for sure.

stevengerard

my thought is if they only sell the grey reproduction I could try some interior spray paint to mist onto the foam. I'm sure there are some colors that would be close to the beige/yellow, just don't know how well it would cover the grey.

Del70

Does anyone know if any one has the correct yellow seal?

jensenracing77

as much as i want to believe they were yellow originally i still don't know that they were for sure. maybe the original material faded to a yellow? i would like to see more info on this subject.

Del70

Is there anyone out there with an NOS seal and or OAI assembly, or a survivor car who can post a picture or two so we all can see what the correct seal color is. thanks?..

stevengerard

I can't see how gray foam would fade to dirty gold but........ who knows. I would love to know for sure, both W30 foams I have had and the one I still have as pictured above were this dirty goldish/yellow color, all the repos I have seen are gray.

jensenracing77

does anyone have old color pictures? maybe a magazine from back in the day?

Bunser

They originally were that dirty yellow colour.Sorry I don't have a pic of my old one, but it was indeed the aforementioned dirty yellow colour.

joesw31

The foam seals that I have seen were all gray the ones that came on cars, and the ones I bought when they were available oldsmobile, and about the same color as the reproductions. However, the the black on the outside is slightly different in texture. Again, this may be something that Oldsmobile had different suppliers.

507OLDS

I've had a few different ones,but I have had the yellow.It is possible that they were originally white,or a lighter color,then turned yellow.

Del70

Magazine adds showed a yellow/tanish color, but it seems all that is out there for sale are the grey foams, at least what I can tell. It seems these days , that what is assumed or accepted to be to factory correct, is what the part places sell. I see this too offer.

bobb

Hmmmmm.....maybe it's my eyes, but every original foam that I've seen has faded to a greenish tint, not yellow. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs. When I bought a repop from Year One way back in 94 I asked about the green color. They told me the originals were all gray, as was their repop, but over time the originals faded to the light green color I was seeing. They also said their repop would do the same.........but it's been 16 years and it's still gray.

Regardless, I don't think any of the repops will ever fade to replicate the originals........but if the originals were in fact gray.......I guess that's ok? Personally........I think the green looks better.

later,
bob

jensenracing77

any new info on this? Any suppliers offering yellowish colored seals yet?

stevengerard

not that I have seen yet.

Del70

There is OAI top on e bay, with a yellow foam seal. I like the yellow/tan seals. Now just need someone to make a new foam seal in what I think is that correct yellow/tan foam.....

1970-W30

Here is an old Polaroid dated 5/70 of my 70 W30. This definitely was the original gray foam and was already sagging a bit. And yes, I stupidly painted the Oldsmobile logo yellow...... What can I say, I was just a stupid kid back then.

Del70

good info. perhaps there were different suppliers..

joe_padavano

Plastics and foam change color as they age. A period magazine photo would go a long way towards a firm answer on this. I personally would not trust the color of a 50 year old piece of foam as being OEM.

1970-W30

Joe, I took that picture 46 years ago, the foam was 10 months (give or take) old.....

joe_padavano

And it looks (light) grey, not yellow, though I can see how it would fade to the "yellow" color over time. Thanks.

jensenracing77

I picked this seal up a couple years ago. It was kept in a very nice climate since the early 70s. It is the best example of an early original I have ever seen. It is a grayish yellow and I feel it is not faded at all but can not guarantee that. I have two more NOS that are newer and are much more gray.

70-442-W30

Has anyone ever seen an under hood pic of a magazine road test or a factory pic of an OAI unit back in the day? Just wondering about the OLDSMOBILE and the lettering being painted.

truckman5000

Im wondering also

BlackGold

I have a bunch of old magazines with reviews of 1970 W-30s. I'll take a look, but I wouldn't put any stock in what I see as proof of what the factory was doing back then. The magazine cars were typically prep'ed by Engineering, and I'm sure that Marketing had a hand in it, too. Painting the OLDSMOBILE letters on the OAI adapter is precisely the type of thing they might do to promote the brand.

As an example, in one of the magazine pictures you can clearly see the engine-code tape on the oil fill tube. On it is the engine code for a plain 442, not W-30. Does that mean the magazine was testing a plain 442 engine? Doubtful. More likely the factory had shipped them a ringer built by Engineering which started with a plain 442 engine as its base.

70-442-W30

I just find it hard to believe that every OAI with the white lettering that I've seen looks basically perfect. If these were all hand painted, surely there would be some real messy ones around. I've not seen one.

BlackGold

I checked my magazines. Of the five I have with road tests of the 1970 W-cars, three did not show the top of the OAI adapter (or at least not the part with the lettering); one looked like the letters might have been painted, but the picture was too grainy and poorly lit to tell; and one definitely had the letters painted white -- but that was a promotional picture of a body-less chassis, obviously a marketing tool.

I remain open-minded that maybe some were painted, whether by Oldsmobile specification or just because the manufacturer thought it looked cool. But it seems to me that the vast majority of original adapters out there are not painted, which makes you think.

70-442-W30

Thanks for your research. This is some promising info that at least some were white, and not done by the consumer themselves. Maybe it was a production line process that got changed. Brian, you have one of the earliest cars...did yours have the original OAI on it and if so, was it painted white lettering?

BlackGold

Just to play Devil's Advocate, "1970-W30" posted above that he painted his letters back in the day. He must be considered representative of at least some owners. Personally I like the look and might have painted them myself, if I was lucky enough to own a W-car back then.

The letters on the OAI adapter on my '70 W-30 are not painted. As far as I know it's the original, but I can't be sure. It's missing the vacuum motor and flapper door. My air cleaner housing is original to the car, at least based on its date code.

70-442-W30

So it seems it was real common back then to remove the flapper also?

joe_padavano

Neither of the O.A.I. adapters I have have any evidence of ever having the letters painted. It was done for some of the marketing and magazine cars and photos (as were other things to doll up the cars) but not done on production cars that I can tell.

It was after Hot Rod magazine published a drag test on the 1970 W-30 and W-31 and showed a couple of tenths improvement by removing the flapper.

costpenn

In 1985, I bought a Rallye 350 car in San Antonio, Texas. The car did not have the OAI adaptor on the car since the owner said he had removed it "a long time ago" but he had it in storage in Waco. I gave him my address, and surprisingly, a couple of months later it showed up at my house. The thing had indeed obviously been in storage for a long time and foam seal was mostly gone, but what remained of it was a very distinct pale yellow.

And the lettering on the adaptor was not painted either, but the first thing I did was paint them white.!!

BlackGold

So now we have two Olds enthusiasts confessing to painting their own letters. I bet this was somewhat common and the source of all the painted units we find today. Remember, the word "Oldsmobile" did not appear anywhere on the outside of your 1970 W-30. I could see proud owners wanting to make a statement when they raised the hood.

70-442-W30

This vintage article showing a skeleton view of the car shows the white lettering. Not sure if this was one of the articles you were referring to Brian or not, but you can barely see the painted lettering on the pic.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/dmQAAO...DP/s-l1600.jpg

joe_padavano

That's yet another photo set up by Oldsmobile PR. It proves nothing about how production cars were delivered.

70-442-W30

I'm not trying to prove how they were delivered. Obviously this wasn't how all cars were, painted or not and before delivery or not. All I'm trying to do is encourage everyone to remain open-minded.

Maybe there was a change in the process of how these were done. We have no definite proof one way or another. All we can say is some were white lettered from Oldsmobile, in marketing material or not, and some were definitely painted by the owners.

I have one of the earliest cars known and it was white lettered. I have no clue who if it left the factory that way or not and neither does anyone else. Could it be a trend that caught on...yes...I do see that. However, I don't see the average muscle car guy sitting around reading reviews in magazines back in 1969. And going by the rarity of these cars, word wasn't going to spread like wildfire about painting the letters.

1969w3155

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.