Have been on the site for several weeks. Waiting for the seller’s title to arrive so I can buy a 1969 Cutlass S, finally settling tomorrow. Driving me crazy as we had clean roads, now we have a foot of snow and salt everywhere. It will be stuck in the garage for awhile. Previous owner has let it sit for at least a year. Picked up the SS1 wheels today, have like new BFG T/A tires, unfortunately dated 2003, still have the rubber nips. Have to pitch them. 1969 S Holiday. Original 350/310 THM tran, buckets, console. Probable 57k original miles. Interior is super nice, new front covers, later sport wheel. 2002 repaint is 95%, no chips. Chrome perfect, most replaced. 2015 chrome wheels and tires on it now. Body straight, solid and clean. Trunk like new. Engine compartment needs work.
Is $15000 a reasonable insurance value? The market for S models is hard to values.

 

Nice looking ride, If those tires have not seen much UV exposure, they may still be OK. Hard to tell about condition. Not much help on value, but I would insure for enough to cover your investment for sure.

tc

 

Best wishes with the GREAT looking new ride...350/310 will run very nicely when tuned properly. 15K sounds reasonable but toward the light side, let's see what other members say. Remember P R E M I U M fuel only, that is the HC motor.

The sound of the HC motor with dual exhaust is running through my mind, does it have duals.

Good luck!!!

 

We have 91 octane ethanol free nearby, plan on using it, wish it was higher octane. Has 3/4 of a tank of unknown in it. Will siphon out 15 gallons and add fresh with stabil.
Does have duals, sounds good, only ran it a bit, seems to run rich, but after sitting its hard to tell.

 

I think 15 is fair on that car it looks nice, dont drive it in the salt !!!

 

Congrats, I see no reason to siphon out any fuel. Just add when needed. I would insure it for $20k.

 

X 2 on keeping it out of the salt. And I wouldn't put a nice car like that on 17 year old tires under any circumstances.

 

Thanks. Think I’ll keep the insurance at 15k for this year and watch the market. Don’t mind taking the old gas out, can burn it in my atv. Hate to throw the tires away, but have read too many stories of them coming apart. Just glad to have the correct rims, not a huge fan of the modern wheels, low profile tires.
No way taking it in salt, they dump tons around here, at slightest hint of snow. Amazing this car has held up in central PA for 50 years. Need to spray fluid film on undercarriage asap.
Was given the original steering wheel as well, shocked how bad it looked. Dried up and cracked with gaps. Wish I had pictures of it before restoration, was topaz gold, glad he picked what I think was is champagne mist for the repaint.
Weird buying a car that someone poured his heart and soul into, hope I can do it justice while I own it.

 

Congrats on your sharp looking new ride... $15K insurance sounds reasonable...

 

Siphoning is not hard if you're concerned. Best modern one I have found is a little red pump with red hoses sold at walmart and auto stores. You can get it going with the pump, then it has a flow through capability to keep on going. Gas can on the ground, lines always heading down. Saves sucking.

I'm doing tires on my H/O this year. 1997 is too old.

Nice car, def keep it off the salt. Insure for agreed value and don't be afraid to go 25% high. A car can sit for a while with no issue other than fuel (which can be mitigated) and the AC seals drying out. You could pick up mechanic's exhaust hoses to run out your garage door if you want to get it running.

 

Nice, my 70 sat for around 11 months so the gas that was in it was over a year old. When I finally got back to working on it and got it running again it fired right up and ran fine on the old gas. Once I was confident it was running good after a few rides around the block I went to the nearest gas station to add fresh gas. A couple weeks ago we had some nice downpours to clean the roads. I had maybe a week and a half window to drive it. That was the first time in at least 10 years that I drove my Cutlass during winter. I spotted a few classics out before the next salting event.

 

I ran old tires at first then one day riding along and this...

 

Well she’s mine. This was a weird purchase. My neighbor inherited it. She put it in her driveway and had a dealer over. I saw it and ran over, checked it out and made her a offer on the spot. She wouldn’t let me drive it except to put it in my garage. Been sitting there 3-4 weeks while we wait for the title. Lots of time to look it over, wash, wax. Has some issues. Left rear window needs aligned and chrome edge is loose. She was terrified of the brakes, yet she had her mechanic look it over for $150 and he said it was ok. And the radiator may have a leak.
Gave 10k so the 15k insurance will work for now.

 

I insure my cars with Hagerty. Sometimes they'll want an independent appraisal but I've also sent them photos which made them happy (on lower priced cars). Their rates are very inexpensive, in my opinion, due to the limited driving these cars see. I suspect you're in the ballpark at $15k. I'm not sure if you've seen one of these in the correct shade of Topaz, but with the black top and interior, that would be a stunning combination.
Lot's of opinions on the site about running ethanol doped gas. I no longer do. I've had rubber seals turn to goo and only burn non-ethanol now (with octane booster). Good luck with the car. It looks great.

 

Went with American Collectors . $133 for 15k agreed. 2500 mile per year max. Had to email 2 pictures.
Put on permanent antique plates, $81 registered for life. Can only drive 1x per week, pleasure use only. No need for state inspection.

 

American Collectors, which I what I assume you meant, doesnt check mileage unless there's a claim, so you can "bank" mileage, like if you only drive 2k this year, they dont know that, so next year can be 4k, etc.

State wise, unless you get pulled over, they don't know how many times you drove it.

You can probably creep that value up a grand or so a year.

 

If you like the car, don't insure it for what you paid, but what you can replace it for. I agree with what was said above. I would insure for 20K. I think you will find the price difference in premiums is not that big of a jump. Remember that anything can happen at any time, not always in your control. I have Hagerty on all of my classic cars. About 6-7 years ago, my brother and I went in on a 64 impala. One day I was turning onto his drive and a 17 year old girl rear ended me doing probably 40 mph. The impact was that hard, it spun the car completely sideways. The hit was a "glancing" blow to the left lane if it had not been she probably would have been killed in the impact (luckily there was not any on-coming traffic at the time in the other lane). It shoved the back end of the car over so hard that the front of the driver quarter hit the back of the door and the front of the door hit the back of the fender. Rear end was pushed over several inches as well. Transaction with Hagerty was pretty smooth. Initially they only quoted $6500 to repair, so I took it to a local restoration shop for an estimate. They came back with $25,000 in repairs. Hagerty did not haggle at all over the shops estimate. I had agreed coverage for $20K and that is what they paid. It would have been a different story if I was trying to get the money from the insurance company of the girl who hit me. With Hagerty, they paid me, then went after the other insurance company to get their money back.

 

In mass the mileage is recorded at the yearly state inspection !

 

Take it from my experience, never under insure. My car was stolen and stripped and my hagerty insurance policy didn't cover my loss. My fault, I could have insured it for more.

 

Looks like a nice car. Welcome and good luck.

Engine tips:
The gas is a year plus old?
I often install and extra external fuel filter on the hose leading into the fuel pump.
You would be surprised how fast this external filter will fill with crud.

When you have time, change the fuel filter paper element inside the carburetor.
Make sure the wrench for the Fuel line is a Flair Wrench.
A stock wrench will strip the fuel-line nut.
You will also need a 1.0" to 1 1/8" wrench for the fuel filter cover.
If you are not careful, you can break off the pot-metal filter cover on the carburetor.

I have had many 69-72 Cutlass/442.
The first year that engine came with NO-Lead valves is the year 1971.
The engines 1970 and older need lead.
If your engine has not been rebuilt, you still may need to use LEAD gas.
I will add a few gallons of racing fuel {CAM2 110 Octane} a couple times a year.
I get it from Haffner's at $9.10 a gallon.
You don't need a full tank, I just mix about 4 gallons every other month.
I am not aware of any over-the-counter Octane boosters for sale that contain Lead.

 

Thanks for the advice. Last fuel filter of this type I changed was in 1977 on a 65 Impala. Seem to remember I had a issue at that time.

 

Fuel filters are preferred on the suction side. Rubber and other non metal stuff should not be on the pressure side, although I'm guilty of that myself. I always have a fire extinguisher in the cab.

 

Impressive. Is that a band failure?

 

The inside separated I was told . Lifted the car up on that side while driving tires were 12 years old I think( looked like new)

 

That tire is bizarre. Looks like 175 psi. Never ever seen something like that. My tires are old but sure seem fine so far.

 

By the way. Love the color of your 69 Cutlass.

 

Thanks, I like it as well. Though if I get the correct hood I may return down the road to the original Topaz.
Think it would look good with the black/black.

 

I add octane boost to my High Compression 67 442 and can tell a big difference from the 93 octane 10%ethanol in our fuel. Remember, these engines were built when we had 100+ octane fuel available without any alcohol added.