I am currently looking at a 72 442 hardtop. I know you could order these cars with all different equipment. It is equipped with a according to the vin, it is a 350 2 barrel dual exhaust with a 3 speed stick on the floor. There are aftermarket bucket seats in it right now, but I believe it might have been a bench seat to start with. It has no a/c and manual drum brakes. It has all the badging and stripes with a new canary yellow paint job. It seems like a real odd car was wondering if the 3 speed on the floor was rare, have been around Oldsmobiles all my life and currently own a 1960 Ninety Eight 2 door holiday. Any remarks would be appreciated.

 

My brother has a 72 with factory 3 speed on the floor but his is a 350 4bbl. I believe if the 2bbl was opted for the car would have single exhaust originally. Easy enough to change to duals.

 

The cars VIN should start out as 3G87J to be a factory 350 2bbl with N10 dual exhaust. Is this a match so far?

This is easy to find out. Look on the cowl tag under the hood. You should find option code A52 if it had a bench seat, A51 if it had buckets.

In 72 the 'standard' transmission for the Cutlass Lineup was the 3 speed manual transmission but it was column shift. If it has a 3 speed MT on the floor, it might have started out as an M20 (4 speed MT) from the factory. It sounds like you are looking at a car that someone has modified to their own tastes.

In 72, the 442 was no longer its own model. It became part of an Appearance and performance package, not available to Cutlass Supreme hardtops. Any of the available engines that year could be ordered for the 72 442 W29's, but only the X code for the W30.

Post a picture of the Cowl tag and we can decipher a bit more about the car for you. Also if you have pics of the car, post them for validation/comments?

 

The base engine was the 350 2bbl single exhaust, but you could have ordered RPO N10 dual exhausts. As Allan correctly pointed out, the VIN will tell you how the car was originally equipped. If the fifth character of the VIN is "H", the car originally came with the 160 HP 350 2bbl single exhaust. If it's a "J", the car originally came with the 170 HP 350 2bbl dual exhaust.

The three speed on the column was the base trans, but you could have ordered RPO W39, which was the three speed Hurst floor shifter. The trim code on the cowl tag will tell you what the original front seat configuration was. You could have ordered W39 with either bench or bucket seats.

 

Also
If W29 was checked and M-15 is had which is the 3 speed standard trans you automatically got the W39 floor shifter as part of the W-29 package.

 

Thanks guys for all your information the vin is 3F87J2M, so according to the info it is a 350 2 barrel dual exhaust. The car is in another state were my brother lives, I discovered it under a cover while I was there for 4 months. I don't know what the cowl tags says but I am going to call the owner and ask a few questions. He is indifferent if he sells the car or not, so I'll have to be very tactfull. It does have the 3 speed on the floor, the hump is built up like a 4 speed and it has a squarish silver gray metal or plastic surround, and says HURST on the flat of the handle. If I can strike up a deal I'll let you guys know. Thanks again, Paul

 

Paul,

The F in the VIN indicates it's a base Cutlass. That's the lowest priced and trimmed of the 72 Cutlass lineup. On the + side, the only significant difference between the 3G and 3F is the interior trim (door and rear seat/sail panels, and seat covers).

From the exterior the Olds identification shows F models have no rocker stainless moldings and have a brushed OLDSMOBILE deck lid bar in place of deck lid thin stainless reveal. Of all the 72 models, IMO this would be the easiest to clone into a 442.