68Tom

Hello to all--

Today, I find myself in unchartered waters. I was perusing eBay for, well, that's a good question...haha..no, I was looking for parts for my '68 LeMans and got bored when I came across this car.... Next thing I know, I'm hitting the 'buy it now' button. So I am now a proud, first-time owner of a 1968 Oldsmobile ("Youngmobile"--I DO know the commercials!) 442. It is red with a black vinyl top (should have a vinyl top--have to put it on), 4-speed, number matching block and transmission. It's not perfect, but I think it was a good deal and a wise-move in terms of now selling the LeMans for it. Anyway, I'll post pics when i get it and make it presentable.

I guess I had a couple of cursory questions as I'm new to Oldsmobile-land. I'm sure I will come up with some of these answers, but I thought it'd be good to ask as a starting point:

1) what is the best source for general OEM or OEM-style replacement parts? For example, Pontiac has Performance Years.

2) As far as interior parts go, how many are interchangeable with say, a Chevelle or a GTO/LeMans?

3) How do you find the 442 to compare with the GTO, GS or Chevelle? I've always admired all of the GM muscle, so I'm down with all. Just wondering from maybe a performance standpoint.

4) Is there a service like PHS (Pontiac Historical Society) that can provide all info on your vehicle including the build sheet and window sticker for Oldsmobiles? If not, and you can't find the build sheet in the car, what do you do? Just wing it?

Well, I think that's all I have for now. Although some of these are obviously 442 specific, I'm mainly concerned about the ease of finding parts for a rebuild which all you Oldsmobile guys should know. Performance Years was really an invaluable resource to have for finding parts easily.

See you on the boards!

Tom

Dapapadon

Welcome to the site Tom!! And congrats on the 68 442! I'd say 68 is my favorite year for 442's. I'll leave the answers to your questions to the more knownlegdeable folks here. But I think you'll enjoy the 442 more than the LeMans, but then again I'm bias.

Don

2blu442

Let me join Don in saying welcome Tom! I like the 1968's too and having a matching number car is a great start! There are several aftermarket companies with good parts. The only ones I've purchase from recently though would be Year One, Paddocks, and Supercarsunlimited. Sadly, Oldsmobile doesn't have a source for build sheets like Pontiac does. But when you begin your rebuild there's a number of places you can look for a build sheet. The stitching on the seats and door panels are different between the GM lines, but the seats are the same underneath. I believe the arm rests, window cranks and door handles will interchange. I know things like brakes and steering are the same, but the rear ends are different. They'll bolt up but Oldsmobile used larger U-joints than Cheby, I don't know about Poncho's. I have owned some other 1960's vintage GM cars, but I'm very partial to Oldsmobiles. I think most of the people on this site will have a strong leaning towards them If you build the engine right you can get some great performance with lots of torque from an Oldsmobile engine. The parts are out there, you just may have to look a little longer to find some items. John

Olds64

Welcome to the site. We can't wait to see the pics.

Hmmm... BETTER IN EVERY WAY!

Oldsguy

I think the Olds 455 big block is one of the best torque heavy engines from the muscle car era. Performance wise, you probably know a lot has to do with the particular engine/drive train/rear end combination a car had. Oldsmobile used a type O 12 bolt rear end that was different than the other GM corporate 12 bolts but I don't think the 442 in '68 used that one so don't worry there. They are hard to get parts for. Olds didn't drill too many of it's cranks for the pilot bearing for use with the manual transmission either. So if a person wants to convert from auto to manual it requires some work and effort. Oldsmobile big blocks and small blocks of that era had similar dimensions but different deck heights so the big blocks had wider intake manifolds, otherwise things like alternator brackets, p/s brackets, even exhaust manifolds can be used interchangeably although some exhausts were better than others (W and Z manifolds). Water pumps and from timing covers were the same except for those for A/C cars were longer to accomodate the extra pulley. Turbo Hydramatic 350s and 400s were very similar but you probably already are familiar with those. Finally, for some parts you may finder Kanter and Fusick useful although I think they both concentrate on older years. Welcome to our site.

Jolly Green

Hey Tom, welcome! I've been floating in the same uncharted waters recently. I picked up my 68 442 right before I deployed for 5 months, so I at least had alot of time to hunt parts and stuff. Alot of the guys here are a good source for used parts. Some of the other places I've found are:
Ron's Classic Cutlass (Junkyard in IL)
Fusick (repro company in Midwest, downloadable catalog, usually cheapest)
Year One (Usually expensive)
OPGI (LOTS of good parts at good prices, especially interior kits)
Just Dashes (Only co I've found so far that will redo vinyl dashes, mine's WRECKED)

Parts I've heard are hard to find are fenders, hoods, and glass. And if you're interested in adding more speakers into the cockpit, I just came across a website customautosound.com. They make repro kickpanels with speaker holes built in.
Once again, welcome and enjoy! Oh, PS, I haven't found my build sheet yet. May not exist. Good luck!

68Tom

Thanks for the welcome, guys. Jolly Green, Fusicks is great. That's pretty much what I was looking for. And, it's not far from me, so that's good too. Hopefully I'll get the car delivered soon and I can get some of the trim that needs to be installed on and then get some pics up.