what's just a LITTLE bit odd? http://countryclassiccars.com/spcars_197.htm

 

Buick wheels??

 

Look a little bit closer, but it is really out in plain sight. Once you spot it, you'll go DOH!

 

Bingo

 

You mean the random use of side chrome pieces? The "ballast" in the trunk? The velour upholstery? The fact that the front bumper has been incorrectly hooked up to a tow truck?

By the way, unlike Olds, the Buick sport wheels came in both 4 3/4" and 5" bolt circles.

 

Aw Joe, this is 1 time I think I stumped ya. Dealing with you mostly on O.P.,I don't think you've ever been gotten, isn't that a 66 front clip on a 65 dynamic 88?

 

Yes it is. Good call.

 

Kinda settles any argument over whether it can be done. Just not WHY?

Something also funky about the steering wheel, looks like it may have been "smooved" a bit. Or something.

Also its an AC car, they go out of their way to mention it...but...

 

Don't go anywhere near this place. I stopped one day on my way back from St. Louis 'cuz I'd always wanted to. Was disappointed. All those cars, and most have been resprayed with cheap paint to hide the bondo. Only a couple of semi-nice ones, and they're pricey for what they are. So the 65 clip, random trim and Buick wheels don't surprise me.

 

Droptop, thanks for the heads up. I was thinking about doing the 3 hr. drive to check out a 65 jetstar they advertise. Saved me a lot of gas.

 

Steering wheel looks like it's been leather wrapped per olds 4 spoke sport wheels.

 

I of course liked the 48 olds better. But I think it is really a 49 Olds. Shows how much they know about Oldsmobiles

 

After blowing the interior photo up, I see that you are right. Not bad. Not that I would do that to any car I owned, but not bad.

I figure this thread is as good a place to mention it, but there is an old story I re-found searching the net recently, had posted it to another famous Olds BBS to no fanfare, but here is an amusing article about a fellow with a red 1966 Delta 88 convertible who had some interesting things to say about it (I'd say the article was written circa Y2K):

http://web.archive.org/web/200006111...icles/mo-1.htm

He’s one of a kind and so is his car

By ROBERT CAHILL/Staff
In 1898, Ransom E. Olds began turning out the first production automobiles for the American market. He called them Oldsmobiles. Nothing has been the same since.
Saying Marion resident Doctor Brown Odham is a collector is definitely an understatement. He is an easy-going fellow with a quick smile and a quicker laugh. It’s obvious that he collects friends as easily as he does objects. The gentleman with the unusual name (he goes by the nickname ‘Doc’), collects, as he said, just about everything.

"Some of it’s worth a little something," Odham said. "Some of it is probably just junk."

Odham, who retired from the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, said he has a house full of things he has collected over the years. It’s an eclectic mixture of items. Odham has several pieces of carnival glass that he said are fairly valuable. He has a set of glasses he believes to be one-of-a-kind. He has tube type radios and eight-track tape players. He has a gold series, autographed set of Michael Jordan’s basketball cards that he won in a contest, saying the odds of his winning were some 8,000,000 to 1. He even has a gas-powered iron his mother bought in 1936. The iron is still new, his mother never used it. But the crown jewel of everything Odham has collected is a 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertible.

Odham said he has his mother to thank for much of his collection, she kept all sorts of things that eventually passed down to him. He has many household items from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. He has a toaster from the late ‘30s that still works and looks like new. But no piece he has looks finer than Odham’s fire-engine red Oldsmobile.

Odham was from Rich Valley originally, but his family moved to Marion while he was still very young. He worked at Southwestern State Mental Health Institute for several years but in 1961 he quit.

"I went up to the Radford Arsenal, it was operated by the Hercules Powder Corporation," Odham said. "I was looking for a job but there was these long lines of other fellows looking for jobs too. Lucky for me, Dan Gullion, a local boy was the paymaster there. I give him a call and asked if he could get us on; there was a couple of us there. He said he didn’t know but he’d see what he could do. Why in just a few minutes, here they came with loudspeakers calling for us to go take our physicals. I retired from there, worked nearly every department there and ended up in security."

The 1966 Oldsmobile Delta 88 was a huge car. Long, low and wide. Powered by a thumping American V-8 engine. Every option was power-assisted. It was a truly luxurious vehicle, a land yacht. What more could a car-lover want than a fire-engine red convertible?

"My uncle, John Stevenson lived up in Delaware," Odham said. "He’d come home every few years and trade cars with Fred Graybeal. In 1966, he came down but Fred didn’t have anything he wanted just then. He went back to Delaware and drove by the Oldsmobile dealer’s showroom window and he saw it. He had to have it. He bought it in December 1966."

"On July 26, 1969, he came to Marion and traded with Fred," Odham said. "I was waiting outside the office. As soon as they finished trading, I bought the car off Fred and I’ve owned it ever since. I still have all the paperwork, the financial papers, everything on it."

Odham said his Olds may be the last one left on the road. According to factory officials, Oldsmobile manufactured only 4,303 cars of this model. In the United States, that is definitely a small factory run.

"The Oldsmobile factory people told us there weren’t any of these left, they suggested a couple of junk yards they knew of for us to check about parts but we didn’t have any luck," Odham said. "We’ve checked junk yards all over. You just won’t find this model in the junk yards. They’re gone."

When the engine needed rebuilding, it was impossible to locate the parts. After the factory made repeated efforts to find new-old-stock parts, factory officials finally took Odham's engine and factory re-machined each piece. Local mechanical whiz Allen Bales then rebuilt the engine for Odham. It runs beautifully.

Other things make Odham’s Oldsmobile exceptional. According to him, all the factory literature of the day shows all the models, including an Oldsmobile 98, but not the Delta 88. They are two distinctly different models. Odham said he occasionally checks the magazines such as Hemmings Motor News and Cars & Parts that specialize in collectible and antique automobiles. He said he has never seen a 1966 Delta 88, much less a convertible listed.

"We’ve looked all this stuff up on the Internet," Odham said. "All the brochures and stuff show a 98 but no 88. There’s some other stuff about this model that makes it rare. It is the only one to ever feature a double A-frame [part of the steering/suspension]. Also, most cars’ speedometers run off the transmission. With this model, it ran through the wheel well and was driven by the right front wheel. Whatever speed that wheel was doing was the speed it registered. I figure it’s more accurate."

Is Odham interested in selling his rare Oldsmobile?

"No I’m not interested in selling it," he said. "It has 98,425 miles on it and it’s all original. I turned down $30,000 for it. About 20 years ago, someone in California had a baby blue one. It brought $40,000 back then. I wouldn’t even know what to ask for it now."

"A short while back, I was at the grocery store," Odham said. "I’d taken [the Olds] out for a spin and stopped to pick up a few things. I ran into Fred Graybeal. I told him, ‘Fred, I got something outside, a car you sold me, that I bet you’d like to see.’ We walked out and he couldn’t believe it. I promised him then, if the weather’s nice on the Fourth of July, I’m going to go get Fred and we’re going to ride that Oldsmobile up and down Main Street here in Marion."