PastmyPrime

First post here. Brief intro: I am an old car guy - retired from the army 5 years ago (LtColonel) after spending over half my life there (quarter century). I was raised on Mopars with my first car being a 71 Plymouth Roadrunner. I still have a couple of old classic Mopars - one which I will probably be selling or trading for a boat this year. Have always loved the Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs and my cousins and Uncles always had them so I grew up with them as well.

The reason for my post here is that I will be putting a very rare Oldsmobile up for sale very soon. I inherited this car from my Uncle Butch who had special ordered it from the factory in 1971. So I am the second owner. I tried to sell the car a few years ago and had a really bad experience during the couple months the car was in Hemmings. No one believed the car was real and I had to answer a bazillion questions and provide literally dozens of photos to prove what I had was the real deal. The disheartening thing was that very few of the calls I took were actually on the level. MOST of the calls and emails (which I spent an immense amount of my time answering) were not even interested in buying the car. They were more interested in proving I didn't have what I said I had and when I proved it, they stopped being interested. I got a couple of messages that finally seemed interested after I had already parked said car back in its cocoon, removed the adds - and was traveling for months outside the US.

So I have decided to try to sell the car again, but this time I thought - why not come onto a forum where there are experts and enthusiasts for this kind of thing who can give me some good advice on price (perhaps I was asking too much or not enough???) and who could also possibly get the word out to truly interested affluent enthusiasts who could not only afford to purchase my car, but would also appreciate it more than others just perusing car adds in general.

So here we go with the cars description and pictures. First off, I don't think you will ever find a better documented car than the one I have here. This car has every shred of paperwork about it still existent. My uncle was an accountant and he saved everything he ever had for it. So I have collected all of that paperwork together and made copies and put the whole thing into three-ring binders. From the order form with options checked and written in, to the correspondence with the dealer, receipt of pick up, the first original insurance card, work receipts, etc, its all here. If desired we could even make copies of family photos showing us in the car on trips and vacations. I have pictures of myself in it as just a little guy. This car has a history with this family and we would like to keep it, but we have way too much stuff and we could also use the money as well for a major relocation that we want to make happen.

Don't laugh, but I even contacted Jay Leno about this car. Months after I sent a letter and pictures to his agent, he contacted me. Stupidly I forgot to leave a phone number, so he contacted my local PD to find me. What a great guy! He was not interested in buying the car - saying that he was actually trying to downsize his collection, but that he wanted to just get a hold of me to give advice and because he cares about military folks. This guy took like 40 minutes out of his busy day just to talk to me. WOW! Can't say enough about how much I love this guy. I was already a big fan - but he was just the best. His advice to me was to get exposure - magazine layout - etc... so that's what I am doing. That is why you are reading this now.

So the car is Viking blue with the W-25 package. It has the red fiberglass inner fender-wells found on W-30 cars and all numbers are matching (see photos). The interior which is in great shape is all original and is that kind of blue suede crushed velvet. It has the original eight track and it still works. This car spent the majority of its life indoors and half of it in the Phoenix AZ area. My Uncle traveled extensively and worked in Brazil for years for a big bank down there so the car sat for years sometimes. The car could almost be considered a survivor, but there are a few things that have been replaced.

About twenty years ago one of his ex-wives allowed the oil light (idiot light) to stay on for hours during a trip between Idaho and Arizona. The engine was not running well at the end of it so my uncle had it rebuilt to specs by an expert. (and it still runs AWESOME!!!) All numbers still match and only internals were replaced.

My cousin did a partial resto on it at around the same time because the car had minor dings and dents and a little surface rust in the rear quarters. I don't know why he replaced the rear quarters with Year One pieces, because the rust was not serious at all but nonetheless, the quarters were replaced. He didn't do a full repaint either, (just a touch-up) so much of the paint on the car is still original. This car as it stands now is basically rust free.

The car has never been wrecked or in a serious accident, however, my uncle's eyesight at the end of his life was fairly impaired and he had several very slow bumps/impacts with yellow cement parking barriers. So I replaced the original bumpers with repops. I still have the original bumpers if someone wanted to have them straightened - they're not terribly bad at all but it was much cheaper to replace them for the appearance sake.

I replaced the master brake cylinder myself. It was a chore to find a new one that matched exactly with the gold finish. I had no idea there was such thing as DOT-5 fluid either until putting this in. I still have the original if someone wanted to rebuild it.

Last, the radio is a replacement. My uncle had a Clarion stereo put in it back in the 80s. The stereo was stolen out of it on a trip to NYC around 1990 and it just had the dash hole for years. I decided to find an original to put in. Man that was so difficult to find that piece - and I had to find the ***** to fit it separately. I just happened upon the ***** a couple years ago in an old wrecking yard in Idaho and scored them off of an old Olds sitting there with a ton of other really old cars. The guy let me have them for 5 bucks!

Now as to the reason that people have not believed this car is real, is because my uncle was a ladies man and loved to date A LOT OF WOMEN LOL. So he special ordered a W-30 Olds ragtop with (wait for it) a bench seat and an OD-40 automatic on the tree with no console on the floor. So people think this car is a clone because of the bench and automatic - BUT IT"S NOT! The OD-40 tag is still on the automatic (see picture) proving it was made for the 442 W-30 with auto option. AND it is numbers matching exactly with the engine (see photo). All of the numbers on the engine clearly prove this is a W-30.

So my questions for you guys is (realizing it isn't quite as desirable as the 4 speed cars that have been going for a 135k + at the auctions - what is this one worth? What's a fair price. I mean it does need a full resto to get it to concourse one quality, but as it sits now it is absolutely beautiful and can be driven anywhere as a number 3 car. It still has the original and now tired suspension, but if I were gonna keep it that's really the only thing I would replace myself. So what do you think?

Any advice on what to do next?

Last I just want to say that if someone wants to contact me - SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY. I never really understood why people would put that on their adds until my last experience trying to sell it a couple of years ago. If I have the same experience again, I will just pull the adds back down again and leave it in storage for a few more years until I am ready to sell again. I have a very busy life, so this car will only be available for interested buyers for a couple of months before it will disappear again if no one makes a good offer.

For anyone interested, I can be contacted at ashields38@live.com and my phone number is (208) 716-6724.
For those on Linkedin, here's my profile to prove who I am. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-shields-9a3b293/

Thanks for your consideration.

Aaron

PastmyPrime

PastmyPrime

PastmyPrime

Thanks to Eric for getting the pictures to work and in the post.

As far as asking price, the only thing I have to go on is what others have told me - and there are conflicts in the advice. Some say its worth more just as it sits with no resto and others say it needs a concourse restoration to get the big bucks. However, those who have seen it agree that the resto would not be nearly as cost prohibitive as many because of the excellent shape the car is already in.

So based on that the 4 speed cars are worth more and more desirable and near perfect ones have been going for $135k plus, I will lop off 20k and another 20k for resto costs. So I guess $95,000

Don't know if that's fair or not but some of my friends say I need to ask more than that.

As far as the interior goes, I don't know what those cars originally had and just assumed it was stock. It looks stock. It has a slightly velvety feel though it is not velvet. I will see if I can get a good picture of the interior in a couple of days (away right now).

Thanks for the comments and advice. I have already been contacted via email by several interested people - so this was a good move.

As to questions - I am fine with answering questions - and will do so happily, succinctly and politely. After a long army career I have the patience of a dead man. However, if people are not actually interested in really buying the car or even can - then I don't understand why they waste others time. That was frankly annoying and I am not a salesman - I am a retired Colonel and wire brushed a couple of them fairly good when I figured things out. In my mind, things will happen or not as they are meant to. This car will end up with the person it is meant to, so I don't need to kiss anyone's derriere or perform deep research beyond what I already know as the owner and someone who has been intimately acquainted with this car for most of my life. It is what it is. I am not writing professional correspondence here - this is a forum - so I just told the narrative of the car as best as I can for people who would enjoy the story. Not gonna apologize for being "all over the place" on an internet forum.

I do apologize for stating the trans was an "OD-40" I meant to say OW-40 as you can now see in the posted photos.

V/R
Aaron

oldcutlass

I deleted the old Classified that got derailed. If your interested in this car I suggest you contact the OP directly. Thread crapping is against Classified forum rules and will not be tolerated. Classifieds are not discussion threads, if you are not interested in buying it, move on.