racingjunk has an ad for a 1970 Oldsmobile 442 W30 for under 20k.
http://www.racingjunk.com/Oldsmobile...obile-442.html

I did a reverse image search on it and sure enough, seems to have a lot of old post around the same price ranging from 2 years; some in florida, some in SD. Anyone know the story behind it? I suspect something fishy.

 

Superb...

 

What is a reverse image search?

 

So this may help others. Google has a cool feature to where if you go to images.google.com, you can actually drag an image from your computer (or paste a url of an image I believe) onto the search bar. Google will then display any webpages that has that exact image or similar images in the results. I use it a lot to track down possible down scams or maybe find if an image was posted anywhere else.

 

Well, one thing I noticed is it wears W30 emblems and the seller claims it has the original BUILD SHEET. Since all W30's were Lansing cars, that's a first. None of the Lansing cars have ever let the build sheet out of the factory.

Other thing is that W30's didn't have Power brakes. They were all manual disc brakes from the factory. Olds didn't undercoat the cars back in 72, they simply sprayed black paint on the bottoms where appropriate.

It might be a true 442, but there's little evidence other than the sellers word about all the 'superb' features of the car. I'd like to see the engine, interior, trunk, undercarriage etc.

Usually if something appears to be too good to be true, it usually is.

 

Also note the sellers phone number and name are different now? There are more pics shown in the reverse image search that aren't on the link you first posted. It does have W30 red inner liners.....

 

Actually w30 cars with an automatic could have power disc brakes. manual trans cars could not.

You could also get AC on an Automatic W30 car

 

You can also right click and select search this image, what I do.

 

As noted, for the 1970 model year, this only applies to the manual trans W-30s, which came with the 328/328 cam. The AT W-30s got the same 285/287 cam as all other AT 442s in 1970, thus they were available with power brakes and A/C.

How they allegedly made the same HP as the manual trans cars remains a mystery...

 

Well, now that I actually read the ad, clearly this can't be a real W-30. According to the ad:

And exactly what numbers "match" on the rear axle???

 

And here I thought I knew all the tricks!

 

I emailed the seller and for sure this is a scam. Any time shipping is included and the car is not where the poster is and it is just too good to be true it is.

Larry


His response was:

Hello, the price is $19.600. It’s in great condition, always garaged, no known problems, everything works as it should. No rust. Clear title.
I'm selling the car for this price because i've been deployed to UK and i'll stay here for at least one year, so it has to go, unfortunately.
At the moment the car is in storage in Texas, car can be shipped anywhere in the US, shipping cost is included. Let me know if you're interested and i'll send you pictures and details.


Thank you,
Sgt. John Decker

 

I wonder what his response would be if you asked to see the car.

 

Of course its a scam...

 

Well at least they got a regular sounding name now, not Barrister Simone Lebarre or something. Milking the Service Man angle too, good one. Only left out the "God Bless You" to make you feel all warm and fuzzy as you Western Union away your hard earned $.

Much like the Wolf of Wall Street, this kind of "seller" ha no conscience, and they tell themselves that if you fall for the pitch then they deserve the $ and you don't.


Search "fraud [the phone #]" returns the phone # as an insurance place?

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...05)%20352-6851

calling the "seller's" # gets a fax machine?

#852840 ad # ?? was reported to the phone # shown [866-326-9227, x10] via voice mail, as a scam. Requested the ad be removed.

 

Apart from all the other scam alarms in the scenario, I've been in the military for 36 years. I NEVER use my rank in personal emails, particularly in non-work related communications.

 

You can also tell the poster is not from the US as he lists the price as $19.000. If he was from the US he would list it as $19,000. The Europeans use the decimal mark where we use the comma, and vice-versa.

 

I learned one thing that I never knew. Build sheets were not released from Lansing on W30 cars????

 

Lansing was the only factory that produced W30s. And Lansing never released build sheets on ANY of their cars.

 

I am aware Lansing was the only facility that manufactured W30's. I am sure I have a build card?? that decribes the interior,trim,etc.

 

I checked the trim plate and this 442,although not a W30 car, was manufactured in Lansing. What is this card called? I know it's not the protect-o-plate.

 

Perhaps you are referring to the broad cast card.

 

You're correct. It is a broadcast card. Why didn't Lansing include the broadcast sheets with the car??

 

You're correct. The car has a broadcast card. Did Lansing release the broadcast sheets also with their cars?? Why didn't Lansing release the build sheets with their cars???

 

i dragged one of these BS scammers out really good awhile back with some parts i was selling. His scam was interesting too. He emailed me interested in the parts and wanted a package deal price. I gave him a number. He said great, i will send you a bank check. A few days later a bank check comes for $800.00 more then what we had agreed on. He emails me and said that he wanted to make sure the parts were his and wanted to give me something extra for my time etc etc. Thats when i obviously knew something was up. So i went down to the bank, told my banker the story and she called the bank the check was issued from. Turns out hes been sending bad checks out from this bank for awhile and theyre still trying to catch him. The scam works like this..... you get all excited and cash the check thinking wow this guy just hooked me up with soe extra cash.... you send the parts out.... then he emails you with some sob story... this guy emailed me right away saying his dad passed away that night and could i please western union the money back to him as he needed it for his fathers funeral. So naturally you feel bad, send him the money back (now he has cash because its western union) and 3 days later the bank calls you and says... the check was bad.... guess what.... now your out all of the money and hes got. So with my situation i let him email me for about 2 weeks straight with his nonsence about his dad passing away and how he needed that money western unioned back asap. I continued to tell him i would go that day and send him the money.... finally after getting him all hyped up about getting this money back.... i told him that i had a really bad drug and gambling addiction and on the way to western union i got all excited, picked up a few hookers, rented a room, and gambled all this money away along with drugs and hookers. LOL. He was VERY unhappy with me after that....

 

Broadcast Cards are Fisher Body created. Starting in 70' model year run the "Card" indicated the W30/31 option so the "piercing department" needed to know that the car was going to be striped and not receive side mldgs.

There were two 55 gal. barrels at two locations at the end of the line, one set at the "alignment station" and another set at the "driveline test station" (the final place of the main assembly line before being driven across Logan street to the "Final Assembly Bldg."). All Lansing Plant Assembly Built Sheets (which included the Chassis Line Build info) were thrown away at these locations.

 

They did. If you look for them they could be located under seat springs, under parcel shelf, under carpeting etc. The car may likely have more than one tucked away somewhere. My car had 3 of them. This was all done at the Fisher Body Works associated with the Assembly line. Fisher then shipped all the completed bodies to the final assembly line where the front clip, rolling chassis and final outside trim was installed. It took approx 4 days to build the average car from time the shell was started to rolling off the line.

 

As a point of interest I would always go by the end of the Fisher Body line and watch the line workers at the "vinyl top station" install the material. Right after that a little further down was the installation of the front seats. That was were the "Fisher Broadcast Cards" where place in the vehicle. If a "Line Inspector" was present they would make sure they would install the correct card. Sometimes they would see the Inspector coming and then throw in to the body those they had laying around that should have been previously installed in to that body!

 

in the 70s true,they were in the 80s cutlii

 

I'm pretty sure no RWD Cutlasses were built in Lansing in the '80's.

 

The reason the build sheets were tossed is because their purpose was done. The reason the sheet said "put big honking high cammed 455 here" was not to authenticate the car, but to put the right engine in it. Once it had all the parts it needed, the sheet was done.

In other words, it's almost incorrect to have a build sheet, as it's an error. The only thing more wrong is to have a blue asset tag on your car.

 

That is AWESOME! I literally laughed out loud when reading the result. Thanks for a good laugh.

Steve