I ;bought a 1969 olds 442 a year or so ago . its a old race car / hot rod , low option car , no radio , no antenna , no trunk , hood , glove box ,ash tray lights , wire for rear back up light cut . 4 spd car , shifter was shortened and welded back together , sun tach in place of the clock . rear end TM code 466 gear D stamped on shock tower right side , air shocks , air bags , ladder bars , made by n.m.w mfg , welded in place . Drum brakes , brake pads delco marine . 1969 olds 442 holiday coupe , car is in very good condition . should i leave it as is , or . return it to stock ?

 

Pictures?

 

Pictures coming soon .

 

Its hard to give you a direction without seeing what your really up against.

 

Good luck with your project... By good condition, you do mean what's left of the original body, correct? Has any major areas been cut for racing applications such as wider rearend, larger tires etc. Is there any drive train, if so what is it? As said by others, photos will help substantially....

 

No , car is clean , it runs and drives good , no rust . had the engine done , standard rods , crank , and pistons . drove it home from Wis , about 120 miles , 45 MPH at about 3 grand , on 235 75r15 . not fun , no problems . rods had been bushed .

 

Im back . trim is very good , had the car torn completely down put back together , carpet still has white manufactures tag on it , had door panels off LAS tag were on the doors . Lots of olds parts . radio delete , mirror on driver side only .

 

Where are the pics? Holding out on us! ;-) Sounds like an interesting one

 

pics in the morning ...

 

 

red plastic hold u joint on drive shaft , they looked good , left them in .

 

Looks like a nice car!!!

 

I'd drive it, enjoy it and over time do what ever makes you happy

 

Well, pictures of the whole car (in daylight and in focus) would help. The inside of the glovebox lid really doesn't tell us much.

Bottom line is that unless there is some well-documented historical racing connection, the car will be worth a lot more restored to original. Whether or not that is cost effective depends on where you are starting from, and we can't really tell that from the photos you've posted. For example, what does it look like under the hood? Is the engine original or are those parts long gone? Is the car originally a manual trans car or not? How much was done to install the ladder bars and can it easily be reversed? Etc, etc. Good luck.

 

First radio delete 68-69 Holiday I've seen. KOOL. At first glance it looks nice and solid. If all the metal and all or most of the OEM parts are there go for a OEM resto. If the original major components are missing e.g. engine, trans, rear etc... then its up to you whether or not to do a resto mod or OEM resto. If the original parts are long gone then it will never be a numbers matching car yet still could be a very nice example of a day 2 car with some of the mods left intact such as the ladders. Have you ran the block, heads, trans numbers? Do you know where to look for said numbers?

 

 

ladder bars are welded in , low options car , 466 gear , dealer installed ? was told car sat a long time . speedo showing less than 9,000 miles .

 

Toronado oil pan...
Looks to be in great condition.

If it ain't broke...

 

Nice car.

 

With the limited pictures, the car looks to be in great shape. As the others asked, is it an original powertrain?

 

thank you for the old pan info , this what I'm looking for , the engine is not original , engine 38M171102 casting 396026G , not surprising ,they were know for spinning bearing , so I've been told .

 

carb 29251 trans p9c13a , rebuilt the carb , works great , trans shifts like a new one ! engine is standard on crank and rods , rods were bushed .

 

Looks like a great car to enjoy! Swap rear to make more friendly to drive

 

here are pictures of the car before I had it painted , pin stripping was painted over with white pearl paint , easy to figure out what color pin strips were . strips on the hood were painted over with black paint , looked like it had been painted on with a brush .

 

 

hopefully some knows this car .

 

emblem on the back , RIZZA FORD I think , guy I bought it from tried to sell it there , I think he knew someone . don't know what happened to the old one .