ratterberry

Many thanks in advance... Hi again, any info on my car would be much appreciated. Have found out the color was bamboo. But not much else.

sandman357

Hi
The 81 is Bamboo for the body color, the "F" after the 81 shows a Medium tan top, and the 979 indicates a Dark Saddle interior.
http://www.tcpglobal.com/autocolorli...obile-pg01.jpg
Sounds like a nice combo.
May be something like this?
http://media.motortopia.com/files/85...9/IMG_0095.jpg
Good luck!

vette442

Your 8.5x11 Arlington build sheet sure tells you a lot more than the cowl tag - it's great that you have that. One additional item from the cowl tag is the 10E, which says that your car was built in the fifth week of October 1971. The A65 is the split bench seat with center armrest.
Terry

ratterberry

Could that mean my cars birthday is on halloween?? I think that is pretty great.

72 w29 all green

I had the same car, year and color combo, from 1984-86. The only difference was mine had the console shift. In that car I had many great memories and unfortunately one bad one: collided with a truck head on and lost three bottom teeth . Make sure you treat this car a lot nicer than i did .

ratterberry

I already posted this in the newbie forum...Was wondering if anybody knows or could figure where this car retailed. Also do you think this cars "birthday'" is halloween?? My own birthday is close to that. The small pieces that were missing from the buildsheet i found and they are posted below. Thanks Robert

Oh and "72 w29 all green" i hope to treat this car well. I've trashed and ditched a few vehicles in my day and don't plan on destroying this one.

jaunty75

I don't think it's possible to pinpoint a car's build date to an exact day. Month and week is what you can get from the cowl tag, and that's probably as close as it will get. Besides, October 31, 1971 was a Sunday. I don't think they made cars on the weekends, so your car was most likely not made on the 31st itself.

As far as where the car was originally sold, the build sheet might be able to help with that if the dealer code is still readable. The sheet should have on it the code for the dealer to which it was originally sent, and, with that code and some help from the GM Heritage Center, you might be able to get that info. I had the dealer code from the build sheet on a '75 Delta 88 I once owned, and the Olds History Center in Lansing (no longer in existence--swallowed up by the GM Heritage Center in the early 2000s) was able to give me the name of the dealer (and city and state) where the car was originally sold. At the time, Oldsmobile was still in business, and that dealer was still in business (this was in about 1995). I wrote to them, and they were able to give me the name and address of the person who bought the car originally. I tried contacting that person, but I was never able to find him.

jaunty75

That little scrap of paper on the left in your last photo is interesting. It has a "charged to" address, and you can make out a person's name and "Huntsville." I wonder what that's about. There's a Huntsville in Alabama, but there's also one in Texas, and probably in a few other states, too. My '75's build sheet had no name or address on it that I recall.

wmachine

The "charged to" is the dealer that ordered the car. Just to the right of those blocks (and of course missing here) are the dealer and zone codes. Below the "charged to" is the dealer that it "shipped to" which is only filled in if different than the "charged to" dealer. Again, to the right would be the dealer and zone codes.
One of the most common situations where there is a different "ship to" is when a dealer sells a car from another dealer's inventory and then orders a another car to replace it. So the dealer that ends up selling the car is the "ship to" dealer.
Bear in mind this is still not an *exact* science here, because as with the example I just gave, you can see that the without a "ship to" filled in, it is still possible the "invoice to" dealer ultimately did not end up selling the car.
But these are very unusual situations.

Jaunty, as you've rightly hinted at, the dealer on your car was on record in '95 because it was still in existence. The GM Heritage Center center now only has listings of dealer from circa 2003 when they were going under. I have copies of those listing. Unfortunately, the dealer codes changed to a different number system sometime prior to that time.

I've embarked on project to make a database of Oldsmobile dealers, including name, dealer code, and zone. So far I've just been gathering, and have not complied much yet. Hope to put together the first edition of what I have this winter.

vette442

Well, between the two pictures of your build sheet pieces that you have a huge lead on the dealership:

The "Charged To" box is the dealership and you two pieces of this box.

The first one shows "Bill Pen... / Wash St / Huntsville"

The second line shows "...ney Motor Co. / At Winston"

I would say it's Bill Penney Motor Co., Washington Street at Winston, Huntsville. Now it's a matter of finding a Huntsville that has a Washington Street intersecting with a Winston Ave. or Winston St.

...And a quick web search via Webcrawler shows that Bill Penney still has dealerships in Huntsville, AL. You may have a chance to get some original paperwork.

Terry

wmachine

Terry, we were going down the same path:
http://www.billpenneytoyota.com/contact-form.htm

jaunty75

It would be interesting if he had any success with this. Would a dealer keep paperwork for a make that it no longer sells?

The dealer that sold my '73 Custom Cruiser, Royal Oldsmobile in Charleston, West Virginia, is still in business today as Royal Jeep Subaru. I've debated whether or not it would be worth writing to them. I might do it, as all I have to lose is the cost of a postage stamp. Of course, I already have the original sales invoice and many other things from the original sale of the car. I'm not sure what else they would have.

jaunty75

If it's any help to you, a zone and dealer number are shown on what I presume is a build sheet or something similar that came with my '73 wagon. Zone 09, dealer 734, Royal Oldsmobile Company, Charleston, WV.

The pencil marks were made by the original owner. Probably trying to match up option codes with what was actually on the car.






The same numbers appear next to the dealer's name at the top of the window sticker. The X52278 at the far right matches the order number on the upper right of the build sheet above.

ratterberry

this is really cool thanks guys for your time and expertice.. i will definately try to get ahold of more info and post it quick.. any more help would be appreciated

wmachine

Back to you original post. Your build sheet shows every option on your car. Why do you say color "but not much else"?

jaunty75

I think he meant that he found out that the original color was bamboo, but that he hasn't found out much else about the car, not that it wasn't equipped with much else.

ratterberry

Exactly, although i have learned plenty in the last month or so. Ive read here that the A65 was only available on the '72. I have read here the visor mirror was rare. Bamboo was a common color. And plenty else, just want you'all to look it over and see if anything jumps out at you. I know this car isn't really that special but it's mine! I have some books of my own (olds service manual and body by fisher) on the way ordered them on ebay. They will be helpful I'm sure.
I was wondering about the O-L-D-S-M-O-B-I-L-E across the trunk lid, mine does not have it. Want to know more about that option. Want some opinion on adding it.
Basicly i love my olds and, want and need to be more knowledgable about it. People on the street are always asking questions or trying to tell me something about it.

ratterberry

I contacted Bill Penney Motor Co. they didnt seem very hopeful that they would find anything.

NorTown Olds

GOOD MAN! Hey, at least you tried -- your BEST bet would be IF you'd find someone who works there who's a real 'CAR GUY or GAL' like we all are and they'd do DUE DILIGENCE to FIND whatever they could for you...OR maybe one of the LONG-Time/Old timer employees who'd remember these Olds' from their Glory Days! GOOD luck and keep us posted! This was yet another great thread that taught me MUCH!

Seriousfun

Shouldn't it be Orange/Black then.