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I may have mentioned a time or two that I would really like to have a 71 to 75 Delta convertible. I love the red ones but this one looks to be a very nice car and I dont dislike the white on the white.
Just curious anyone's thoughts on
1) car itself
2) price
3) things to look for as I will likely get out to see it
And as always thanks for any thoughts and responses.
That looks like a lot of car for the money. Must be a way to adjust that top to get it to go down straight. Also needs some white sidewall tires. The triple white is beautiful.
I drove a 74 LeSabre convertible once with a 455, it needed that engine. I'm thinking a 350 will be a little underpowered for that car but again I haven't driven one with it. Just for cruising it will probably be easier to get along with than the 455.
Open to offers? Lifestyle changes? You could probably get that guy for a real decent price.
the car looks nice. those tops don't come down "straight" make an offer if you like it check out the bottom real good , trunk pan around rear wheels 455's rare, 350 will move it..
nothing floats down the road like a big rrd gm. I can't wait to retire so I can put my 75 back together,
Must be a way to adjust that top to get it to go down straight.
That top is going down exactly the way it is supposed to as dooly says. I had a '75 Delta 88 convertible with the same mechanism. It was used in the '71 to '75 generation of Delta 88 convertibles.
It is what was called a "scissors" top because the mechanism, as can be seen in the photo, actually looks (if you squint real hard) like a pair of scissors being closed. The passenger side of the top folds in first, then the driver's side. You can see in the photos that he shows with the top all the way down that it sits nicely in the well when it's down. Nice and straight and even.
Overall, I agree with the sentiments above. The car looks very nice, and the top looks to fit very nicely on it in those photos with the top up.
But there are some things I notice. See the photo below. There is obviously an issue with the passenger side grille. The filler panel between the bottom of the headlight bezel and the bumper is pulled away on the inboard side. Are we looking at collision damage? That damage is kind of weird. You'd think that if it was just a simple matter of tightening some screws, they would do it rather than drive the car looking that way. Something to take a close look at when you inspect the car.
Another thing. Notice the pinstripes running the length of the car and passing through the key slot on the door. That's not correct. Delta 88s of that era came with a wide-ish (maybe 3/4") vinyl trim strip that ran the length of the car on the two-doors and stopped short of the front wheel opening on the four doors.
Here's what it should look like on a '74 convertible.
It seems that about half the '71 to '76 Delta 88 convertibles I've seen over the years, including the '75 I purchased back in 1994, are missing this trim piece. It's usually because the car was repainted (mine was), and the trim strip was not replaced because it was too crapped up to put on a nicely-repainted car or it was damaged in removal and couldn't be replaced. This is something I would ask the seller about, if you're curious. Has the car been repainted? He doesn't mention this is the ad. He might not know if it was done before he took ownership, but it's worth an ask.
Just to show what I'm talking about, here's what my '75 Delta 88 (I sold it in 2001) looked like shortly after I bought it in 1994.
Here's what it looked like later after I had installed an aftermarket trim strip that I bought at the time from, you guessed it, J. C. Whitney, back in the days when you would get a paper catalog in the mail from them seemingly every other week. It was not as wide as the factory strip, but it was the closest thing they had, and I thought it looked pretty good. It even had the tapered ends like the factory strip.
Good luck on the purchase. It might not be worth the $8500 he's asking for, especially with the damaged grille, but something in the $6000 to $7000 range, if everything checks out, would probably not be out of order.
Last edited by jaunty75; September 13th, 2019 at 09:11 PM.
Jaunty, you have a keen eye,and you are correct on everything.
Thanks. When you had one of these things in your garage for seven years and looked at it every day, you get to know what it really looks like, and you notice when something isn't right about another car of the same type.
Quick correction to what I said above. I think the trim strip ran the length of the car on the Delta 88 Royale but stopped short of the front wheel opening on the base Delta 88. Here's an image from the 1974 Olds brochure of a two-door Delta 88 (non-Royale) with the strip extending only as far as the front wheel opening.
September 13th, 2019, 02:56 PM
