There is currently a ‘70 W-31 for sale on Bring a Trailer. Beautiful looking car with some very good documentation. There are some questions though.

 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...e-cutlass-s-5/

 

The broadcast card is for a different car, he was called on it, yet it is still up. Classic sales technique, admit the fault and hope the attention dies off but still keep it there for attention.

I'm unfamiliar with the GM of Canada documentation and how it should look. I'd much rather see the car's broadcast card.

 

Carb is for a ‘70 W-30 4-speed car ? Does that look correct ?

Do the numbers on the distributor look correct ?

 

Wrong year scripts on the fenders, fan shroud on a 4 speed?

 

the scripts on one fender are above the stripes the other side into the stripes.

 

John, the VVS documentation for GM cars built or sold in Canada is pretty much universally accepted as ironclad throughout the hobby. If it's legit, I would have no problem accepting it as authentication for this car.

 

It’s a beautiful car, obviously not 100% correct but definitely a w31 car. Sittin at 40 k, if you could by it for 50k that’s a fair deal for such a nice car

 

I’m wondering if the carburetor that is currently on the car is legit. If it is then you could use in in a trade if you could find the correct carburetor and alternator.

 

Sure, but is that the stuff they're showing? I've never seen it.

 

Dafuq? Assuming the Vintage Vehicle Services paperwork is unaltered, whoever put those fender emblems on should be shot. The trunk stripes are neat if they were on a 442, but not this one. If it were me, and I was interested in it, I'd send off for paperwork myself and see what actually comes back. They are legit, and considered the place to go for GM documentation in Canada. I wouldn't care too much about a broadcast card if that info from VVS is solid. Same with my 69. I got a copy of the Demmer receipts, and that's good enough for me to know it's real. All that junk to try and make it appear stock as possible, and they muck it up with wrong emblems and stripe mess ups. Easy layups to get right and they still toss bricks.

 

That is the correct service replacement carburetor for that car. All service replacement carburetor’s for the w31s were 7040256. I believe that “date code” is the last service replacement year they were made.

 

Fellow Oldsmobile brother Al Sutton who resides in Canada knows this car and is helping with any info. He says it’s a legit car with a few things missing as noted..I take his word on its authenticity..

 

I think the biggest issue with the fender emblems is that one of them is for the trunk... Maybe the stripes won't be affected when that is switched out. Still a nice car overall.

 

Yeah, it does look a little ... different. If I was interested in this car, I'd probably pay the $150 to get it done for real.

 

$48,750 + 5%.

 

Fair deal no doubt, little over 50k

 

So I am restoring a 70 f85 sedan..the f85 emblem are in different places side to side..we made patterns and on the new fenders we put the back in diff spots..like 1/2 off..orig paint car

 

I think the front grilles are wrong. They look like cutlass supreme grills.

 

Here is a bad pic of my original 70 W31...from back in 75....yep still kick'in myself for selling it...is this what they looked like?

 

Yours are what they are supposed to look like.

 

Neat picture. Can you tell us about the car? Do you think it's still around today? Looks like rally red.

 

Looks like Galleon Gold to me, but between the washed out tone of the image and my severe color-blindness I could be in error.

 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...e-cutlass-w31/

 

Yep - this car showed up on a used car lot that my mom worked in at the time (1975). I had just had an accident in my first car and needed a different one. I was able to get the car for $1600. The PO had apparently blew up the motor that was in the car when he had it (I do not know if it was the original motor) bracket racing the car (as the story went). When I got the car, the folks at the car lot had decided to put a bone yard motor in it. Luckily, they kept all of the original accessories (including the intake, heads, dizzy, balancer, alt, PS, etc. The motor they threw in had (2) rusty cylinders with virtually no compression in them. It did not have the original w-31 camshaft unfortunately. It had a 3.91 posi rear, headers, original TH350 trans, nice original interior (including his and her auto shifter console) and had not been in any accidents (as far as we could tell...) The Rally Red exterior was also in pretty decent shape with very little rust and no dings/dents. Talk about a win for a 19 year old! I started saving my money for an engine rebuild! I found a local racer (H gas Camaros) that agreed to take on this project. The motor was bored 60 over and fitted with 10.5 to 1 pistons. The crank and rods were in good shape. We found a new crane cam with the original specs to install (which became an issue later - will explain) The guy, decided it was OK to use some high pressure valve springs (not Olds) along with the stock lifters and pushrods. The engine ran great through break in - 1500 miles. The first time I took the motor above (4500) RPM it ran smoothly but did not have much power. Immediately following this run, the motor developed a tick that got louder as I drove the 3 miles to the house. About 200 yards from my garage, something popped and the engine ran really rough and had a huge knock. To make a long story short, when I removed the rocker covers I found one of the rockers broken and bent in half. As well, every push rod was bent? What I found out later was that in the camshaft box there was a flyer from Crane that told the installer to use adjustable push rods (which the mechanic ignored). I pulled the heads and checked the pistons for damage - thank goodness they were all OK....Had the heads rebuilt with proper Olds hardware, replaced all of the other valve train pieces (except the cam) and re-assembled the motor. Put about 500 miles on the motor and cut her loose! I did a lot of street racing with that car (in the Greater Dayton area) for a couple of years and only lost once to a kid who had a really nice 71 Mach one with a big block motor. I managed to collect (5) moving violations the second summer that I had the car, decided that I could not keep my foot out of it and sold the car. I do not know the whereabouts of this car but would be cool if someone in the Dayton area still had it....