Oldsmobile friends,
Once again a deal too good to pass up has come to this poor soul from Down Under ( www.oldsmobilesdownunder.com to be precise ).

Yesterday an original 1972 Cutlass S was listed on Australian Ebay ... original that is except for it's conversion to Aussie right hand drive ( just the way I like my Olds' ... better than putting all that sweet American metal over the line to see whats coming ! ).

So yeah, I called the guy up to let hiim know I would be putting it on the website and we struck a deal ... * sigh *

I pick up my Cutlass S in a week ... and cannot wait !

Turns out the vehicle was bought to Australia by a U.S. citizen working in Western Australia many moons ago... he was advised that he would have to convert the vehicle to RHdrive to be able to use it in the Lan of Oz... so he got it converted.

When it came time to head back to the U.S. there was little point in taking his beloved Cutlass to a Left Hand drive homeland so it was left behind in Australia.

the current owner apparently has it's history and has had it for some time... or so he says.... and it is his daily driver ! Thus it needs some TLC in the paint department but it's running, Registered and apparently quite reliable.

on saturday August 30th I fly to Sydney in the state of New South Wales to meet him and pick up my last Olds for a while... as funds are now depleted.

I'll be in touch

 

Poor soul! It seems you "poor souls" have stables that can hold one more horse, then another, and another. I still can't believe I didn't notice the Vista Cruiser wasn't a '69 when you posted it, duh.
Good luck on the venture and hope it all works out for the best.
Looks like another Olds with the steering wheel on the wrong, I mean right, side found you.

Allan

 

CONGRATS ON YOUR NEW CAR!!!

I still think it would be a whole lot easier if highways were all regulated the same way. So tell me if ya can mate, why does Australia make ya drive sitting in the "passenger seat"? I'm really curious, not critical. I know they do this in Europe and British Isles, but I always figured that was just to be different.

Hey, incidentally to all us in North America....... I found this old law that goes way back. Says you have to get out of your vehicle from the right side when exiting. Does that have anything to do with driving on the "wrong" side?

 

amh555 - I have room for this one ( and the money ) only because I'm selling an Aussie car to make room. this will be "IT" as they say ... no more room or money for more.

Allen R - there was a similar law here in Australia that resulted in no drivers side door locks on commercail or "standard" vehicles produced up to the 70's .

thanks guys

 

quote=Aussie67Delta88Custom;41528]amh555 - there was a similar law here in Australia that resulted in no drivers side door locks on commercail or "standard" vehicles produced up to the 70's .[/quote]

Hey Gary,
I went visiting on the Olds club of Australia website. Funky turn of the century piano??music.

Anyway, one of the things that really doesn't get mentioned a lot up here I saw on your site. YES campers, OLDSMOBILE made TRUCKS!!! I had almost forgot about that. Really nice pics of the 37,38 and 39's on your site.

What came to mind immediately was one of the bands that I grew up with back in the 70's: You've all probably heard of REO SPEEDWAGON?? Great music to drive by or just zone out to. Anyway, on the album cover they've got a picture of a truck. It never really meant anything to me until I was on vacation in BC. Can't remember which town I was going thru, but my wife said to stop at this fruit barn cause she was hungry and my (4yr old son at the time) wanted out of the car.

Anyway, I'm wandering around looking at all the old farm tractors and stuff and I see this old run down truck. Get up close and look it over inside. Then looked at the nameplate. No ****!! It was an REO Speedwagon. I didn't know the band stole their name from Oldsmobile. For anyone who doesn't know, REO are the initials for Ransom Eli Oldsmobile; founder of the company.

It just struck me when I read your post about commercial vehicles and visiting your website that Oldsmobile was really more diversified than originally thought. Really, fix that piano music ok???

 

http://groups.msn.com/MyAussie67Olds...ssscoming.msnw

just a quickie ...

sorry

 

Wow. That's odd looking. Don't get me wrong; I love the car, but that wrong side business really warps my mind. Did you rig up a remote mirror on the right side?

 

What a beauty! That looks like it's in real good shape, original paint? Just in time for... spring? I only kid about the cars because I'm envious, and I like it. You have one more than me but I have things in the works, these covert operations take time and intense planning to come to fruition. My daughter has it down to Harvard, Princeton, or Yale for college (got her mother's brains) so I may have to sell a few of my organs, never the cars.

On the dash do they hand make those dash parts or do they make reversed parts like where the headlight switch mounts? never ceases to amaze me. You can drive by store windows and see what it looks like here, and vice versa for us. I would have to get used to shifting and using the directional on the same side, what do you do with your right hand other than steer?, left that question wide open.

I lke your site, put on REO Speedwagon and Allan R will be happy.
Hey all you people!, I personally cringe when I hear them.. people!, especially.. people!, the beginning.. people! of "Riding the Storm Out".. people!

Allan

 

It really does take some getting used to when you're used to north american cars. But from the outside, you'd never know.

Looks like you have a little work ahead of you. Is this a 455 or a 350? Great project car!!

What kind of issues to you run into for getting parts in Australia? I'm thinking that shipping is a killer. I was talking to someone who'se originally from down under a while back and learned a new word. Panelbeater.

Cheers mate.

 

Good Morning all,
I am sorry that I have traumatised you all with the "other side" issue but see it from my perspective ( especially with my Delta 88 ) ... I would have to put an acre of US steel on the wrong side of the road to see if I can pass , so I like them to be "ADR" - Aust. Design Regulated.

As for how they do it ... it would not be as simple as it looks, especially with the dash side of it. this one looks like a very nice conversion internally, but I haven't had the time to look at it too much yet ( I've mainly seen it at night ! ... we picked it up late and started the 10+ hour trip at 10.30pm.)

I will only be buzzing around the local area in it until I get a chance to get a major check-up done on it.

The "panel-beater" will be one place it goes to for a quote. Luckily I have found a good one as it is a very dirty phrase in the hobby here. Too many horror stories for one web-site !

Yes, it will make a very good project ... running 350 OLDS (other string needs to take note ), auto, floor shift, etc. I have the history of the vehicle so that has set the project as a restoration as it is pretty much stock except for the side switch.

She fires and runs ( a little noisily ) without too much prompting.

more to come soon ... thank you for your support once again ...

love this site

 

p.s. the site with the umm ... if you call it that ... music is the Club's site, not mine.

 

Hey there Gary,
I wasn't really serious about the music. I can turn down the volume if I don't want to listen. Thanks for having a sense of humor.

By the sounds of it, there weren't a whole lot of Oldsmobiles shipped down under back in the day. Too bad.

On a practical note, I guess it would be just as "different" for you to get used to shifting with your right hand as it would be for us to use the left.

Friday morning I noticed that the guy following me was driving a ninja imported supersonic kamikaze rip snortin prescription windshield Toyota with the classic oversize fuzzy dice and cross hanging from the rearview. Something didn't seem right so I looked again. You guessed it, it was right hand drive. But it was registered and running. The car drove fine, but the idiot behind the wheel almost caused 5 accidents in less than 2 blocks weaving in and out like a madman. I think it was the dark tinted glass, dark sunglasses and long hair in his eyes and joint he was smoking that made me want to stay the hell out of his way. Still stopped at the same lights as everyone else for at least 3 miles. Ha ha on him. I can see why your country imposed the law to convert the car and make it standardized with all the rest. Don't know how they missed that here.

 

Driving on the right side goes a long way back. Most men are right handed. Gong on down the road with a sword or lance in your right hand makes it easy to have go at the guy coming in the other direction. Old things are hard to change. Andy

 

Siamese twins walk into a pub in Ontario and park themselves on a barstool.
One of them says to the Bartender, 'Don't mind us, we're joined at the hip. I'm John, he's Jim. Two Molson Canadian beers, draft please'.
The bartender, feeling slightly awkward, tries to make polite conversation while pouring the beers.
'Been on holiday yet, lads?'
'Off to England next month,' says John. 'We go to England every year and hire a car and drive for miles, don't we, Jim?'
Jim agrees.
'Ah, England!' says the bartender. 'Wonderful country... the history, the beer, the culture...'
'Nah, we don't like that British crap,' says John. ' Hamburgers & Molson's beer, that's us, eh Jim? And we can't stand the English - they're so arrogant and rude.'
'So why keep going to England?' asks the bartender.





'It's the only chance Jim gets to drive.'

Sorry, The voices in my head told me to post this joke.
__________________

 

That is interesting about the sword and driving on the left side of the road, that makes sense when walking or riding a horse you had to be on guard, still do. But in jousting don't they approach to the right of the oncoming opponents horse?
I have also heard the steering was on the right side because of the "steer board" on early ships and boats on the right or starboard, so wheeled vehicles naturally followed.
In a boat or ship the you always stay to the right of an oncoming vessel and those that are approaching from the right have the "right of way". The other vessel has to wait for them to pass or set a course to go to their aft or right approaching. That would make right hand side of the road driving make more sense to me since people were using boats way before any wheeled vehicles and the nautical rules of the road would be a natural progression. This also explains why there are red and green navigation lights on watercraft and the traffic light colors being the same from a seagoing commonality. But then again you had to dock on the left to keep the steerboard from being damaged, so in turn you had left side parking, even more confusing.
So that in my humble opinion may explain the reason for driving on the right side of the road possibly...or not.
To sum it all up... it should have been right hand drive and driving on the right side of the road while holding a sword or lance out the window, (then you could joust with the idiot that cuts you off and wear armor, hmmm), then park on the left.
So I guess everybodies wrong.

Hey Jamesbo, I bet all this nautical talk makes you want that Amphicar even more now. Just think, you could drive to the land down under... in about 6 months.
You may need a fuel tender to follow because finding gas stations could be a little tough unless you have a sail or oars, then no problemo. Is the mileage good enough to get to a station in Hawaii?, nautical miles are longer. Just island hopping after that.

I like the opening statement of the site below, it has a nice bunch of Olds pics too so this still is on topic.

http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/Amphicar/

Allan

 

Whew If I got an Amphicar and drove it to Australia, I have to drive on the right from Ga to California, then stay on the right under nautical rules, then get on the left when I go to New Zealand, the back to the right for nautical rules again, then back to the left for Australia.
I'm getting dizzy thinking about it.

 

[quote=Jamesbo;42763]Whew If I got an Amphicar and drove it to Australia, I have to drive on the right from Ga to California, then stay on the right under nautical rules, then get on the left when I go to New Zealand, the back to the right for nautical rules again, then back to the left for Australia.
I'm getting dizzy thinking about it.[/quote

yep n u gotta redo the headlights or they blind oncoming traffic

 

Where on earth do you get right hand drive parts for cars like this ? thats amazing in my opinion.

 

Britain is the ONLY country in Europe where the driver sits on right side. British just had to be different, just like they are the only country in Europe that doesn't use the metric system.

 

It's begun ... the endless tinkering / meddling that one does to make a car truly "yours"...

About a week after purchases my Cutlass someone in our state of Queensland listed a set of 15 x 7 SSII's on EvilBay so after a momentary hesitation (microseconds !) and an email to ensure they would send them south ... it was Buy-It-Now time !!

they arrived early in the week and looked excellent ... now to find some reasonable treads ... as in FAT ! ... well on the back 2 anyway.

After being given nausea by quotes of a Kings Ransom per tyre, I was lucky enough to come across a local tyre place that felt they could do much better ... and they did, so I booked in to part with my $$ this Thursday.

Then, as I was about to turn off Ebay for the evening I did a search and found a pair of 255/60/15's about 10 minutes away !!

After an emailed offer of cash and the returned call - they were mine for nearly half the price of Thursdays booking... so I cancelled it and took the rims and tyres to the tyre place to be put onto the rims and at the same time got a pair of 205/65/15's for the fronts rims.

Well ! She looks like a real muscle car now !

check out my sites for pics tomorrow !