Hello,

First time posting on this part of the CO forum. I have a question concerning identification of a car that may have come with an OAI option. How can you tell if the car originally came with the OAI option if the engine has been changed and there is no build sheet in the car? It is a '70 Cutlass 'S' model and as you can see in the pictures there are hood pin mount surfaces on the radiator core support. Someone could have ordered them from an aftermarket vendor I suppose and added them, however they appear to have the same weathering and appearance as the rest of the car. Did all '70 Cutlasses come with these mountings attached? When I finally opened the trunk (no keys), I found what appears to be a flapper door assembly that was laying in there. The odd thing about the car is that the original gold paint is visible on the front fenders as well as on the door jambs and in the trunk area, but the non-OAI hood is blue. Can you tell by the VIN? A few years back I saw a listing on another Olds site for a decoder service that was offered in Lansing MI with the build records at GM for Olds cars going back a number of years, and for a small fee if you sent the service your VIN they would research its build history and even where the vehicle was originally sold. Does anyone know if this service still exists or something similar so I can find an answer to my questions concerning this vehicle and it's options or lack thereof. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

 

Steve, I don't know any way to tell without the build sheet. But I agree with you that the brackets attached to the core support look like the hold down brackets for the OAI hood. And I don't see any reason they would be there unless the car once had that hood on it. Maybe a previous owner wanted to keep the hood when he sold it. I hope you didn't damage your trunk lock area going through the lock. I've opened several of them by either removing the seat back and with several extensions unbolting the latch assembly. Or some models you can drop the bumper and remove the spring tab that hold the lock in place by unscrewing the fasteners. John

 

The service to get GM history for a VIN does still exist. It is now available from the GM Heritage Center (no longer in Lansing). For Olds it can't give us any individual car level info for cars this old. It no longer exists for cars before something like the late 70s or so (unless your car went into Canada in which case the info is available and can be gotten from GM of Canada).

Non-OAI cars did not get the brackets. They do look like they have been there forever. Looks to me like it is an original OAI car.

 

On the hood latch there should be an extra hood bumper also some OAI hoods in 70 had little spring things on the cowl seal to bled off static elect from the hood screen.

 

And note that the fenders appear to be original 1970 fenders....another good clue

 

Yes, the brackets appear to have been born on that core support. Is the core support original to that car? Keep in mind that in the 1970s, OAI cars were just used cars. When they ended up in wrecking yards, they were used for crash repair parts. More than one red inner fender panel was painted black and used as a replacement.

 

The core support in my car has the bumper in the same location ahead of the latch as referenced in the above picture. My guess is either the core support was changed at some time in the past with a different one or the car indeed was equipped with OAI. If only I could locate a build sheet to confirm or deny my assumption.

 

Thanks for the suggestion in checking the inner fenders. I will look into this in the afternoon tomorrow. Thanks for your input, thank you all on the forum for your input!!!

 

Hello all,

It just occurred to me that I haven't pulled the rear seat or carpeting up yet to try and locate the build sheet. I always assumed it would be located on the rear seat back( Thats where I looked today). Does anyone know where they commonly were placed during assembly for '70 Olds cars? Any help would again be great, thanks.

Steve

 

Was this a San Antonio car originally, if you know?

It was fairly common for someone to pull parts at a wrecking yard and transfer them over to another car...there's a good chance that it was done on yours YEARS AGO which accounts for the correct looking "aging" on the OAI holddown brackets.

Or...maybe it was an original OAI car and the hood was either damaged or stolen and replaced with another used one (the blue hood).

Remember--San Antonio was likely the muscle car mecca of Texas back when these cars came out with all the military bases around there.

 

I have found build sheets under back seats (upper and lower), under carpet, and above gas tanks and under pillar moldings.

 

I found some paperwork behind the plastic bucket seat back cover on a 71 442.
good luck.

 

I bought a 68 Cutlass convertible back in 83 that had a ram rod fender. I didn't know what the heck it was.

 

The red inner well would only come from a W30 car which of course would have been on a 442. Any OAI Cutlass or non-W30 442 would have still been the regular black just like all non-OAI cars...

I had a 69 Cutlass S convert out of New Mexico that had a red well in it when I got it. Of course on those, it also still had the big hole for the scoop...

 

Correct. W-31s, W-32s, and even 1969 H/Os got black inners. Only W-30s and 1968 H/Os got red.

 

Hello all,

I pulled up the carpeting and the seats today to look for the build sheet and none could be found. It may be elsewhere in the car, but I got lazy and stopped looking. I figure the OAI hood hold down brackets are there, so I will use them. I decided since this car is really not a perfectly complete(#s matching) Olds I would build it up the way I would have wanted it from the factory. So my plans have now incorporated adding the fully functional OAI system when I get to that part of the project. I like the look of the OAI cars anyway.

Thanks for the help,

Steve

 

The OAI option on the 70-72 cars is in my opinion the one option that changes the whole look of the car for the better. Having or adding that option makes the car. It is probably the best looking hood of that era IMHO. Hope you find one.

 

Steve , I know this thread is old but do you still have the olds and are you still looking for a hood.