oldspackrat

I found this in a '72 4 door that I'm trying to buy. They sprang for disc brakes, AC, rear defog, light package & didn't want/need a radio??? Are these delete plates worth much? I don't have the car yet but assume the radio area behind it should be perfect?

IMG_20150103_181746_669_zps5d55d71a.jpg

Octania

interesting
any chance it is non-factory?

oldspackrat

I talked to another knowledgeable member & he said the factory just installed a plate, which I would think is what this is, over the radio hole. I didn't spend much time in the car as, technically I had to break into it to get the picture. Both passenger side windows were down about 5/8" & it was raining. I just happened to have a coat hanger in my car so I opened the door & rolled both windows up & relocked said door after the picture.

oldsmobiledave

My buddy is the owner of a 1972 W-30 4 speed car that he bought from the original owner. It is a no radio car from the factory and has never been cut for one.

2blu442

Several years ago I had a 1971 Cutlass 4 door with the radio delete. Just a flat piece of plastic with the correct texture pattern that's glued to the face of the instrument panel. My car was a low optioned car.

I thought it would be a rare item that someone restoring a W car that had no options might want. I put the whole instrument panel on ebay and only got one bid. So... someone got a great deal!

John

2blu442

Scott, here's some pictures of the one I had including one from the backside. I would think this to be a very desirable part to the right person.
John

P1010067-3.jpg

P1010065-3.jpg

P1010063-3.jpg

P1010076-2.jpg

oldspackrat

Dave & John,
Thanks for the confirmation pix. So far all of these radio delete cars had the courtesy light option.

davebw31

Gezzzzs not to be picky, but here is no "radio delete option". You ordered a radio or not. Radios were NOT standard equipment! They were an option. Check your "Sales Selling Facts" booklet. If you did not order/pay for a radio, Olds was NOT going to leave a hole in the dash. I have a dealer ordered 70' Cutlass "S" 2 dr. post coupe (which is now a race car) that has that plate. I have the actual "Assembly Plant Build Sheet" from the Linden NJ. plant. It's only options are: M38 Tran-Auto, N47 Var Pwr Strg, and P26 Std WSW Tires.

oldspackrat

Dave,
Thanks for the clarification. That does make sense. I guess I'm used to hearing that phrase about other brands & it got stuck in my head.

jensenracing77

I think most people understand that but don't know what else to call the plate. About like my "stripe delete" 70 W-30. The stripes were not deleted but it was not ordered with them.

kjr442

Are you adding the stripes on your car?

davebw31

jensenracing77: Actually your W30 is a "stripe delete". All 70-72 W cars came std. with the stripes as part or included in the "W package". Your stripe delete "change order" would be noted on the Zone "Warehouse Order" form. The form and stripe delete would have to be authorized by a "Zone Sales Rep" or a "Zone Manager", before being sent in to Olds "key punch" to get the car built. I have only seen one documented "stripe delete" 70' W30 and it was Nugget Gold.

kjr442

jensenracing77

But the term stripe delete was not used in 70 from what I understand, I think that was a 67 term?? you would know far more than me on the subject. I do not have Olds documents to prove it is a stripe delete car. When I got it, it was not the original paint and the stripes that were on it were not in the correct location. I sanded several spots to see what the original color stripes were and could not find any stripes. Later i found the original owners wife and talked off and on for a month. I ask her what color the original stripes were and she said it didn't have them. I thought that she was likely wrong and just could not remember. Later she found me pictures of the car in 1971 and sure enough, it had no stripes. When we soda blasted the paint, they took there time and also said there were no stripes under the repaint. I hate them without stripes and if I keep the car will most deffinatly add them at some point.

I know of a green one with original documents

66-3X2 442

Semantics.

junior supercar

there should also be a plate where the front speaker would go as there would be no speaker in the dash too.

jensenracing77

X2... I forgot about that Scott. If you end up with the car don't forget they go together

MDchanic

Yes, but what he says is correct.

Words have meanings.

- Eric

oldspackrat

Thanks for the info. guys!

66-3X2 442

What do you call a car without a radio? Is 'radio delete' a good term or should it be 'a car without a way to hear music or the news'? He answered it correctly in his first sentence with 'not to be picky',well,he was. Radio delete has been the accepted term for that for as long as I can remember,so what's wrong with that?

MDchanic

Of course he's being picky. That's what semantics is all about.

Maybe it's a regional thing. I never heard the term "radio delete" until I started reading posts on the interwebs.

I never called a car without a radio anything, myself, nor did I ever hear anyone else call it anything. It's either a car that was ordered without a radio, or a car that someone took the radio out of. I honestly don't see why it should seem natural or necessary that there should be a special word for a car that lacks one particular option. It certainly never would have occurred to me if I hadn't seen people using it on line. Do you need a word for a car that was made without a rear window defogger? If you're driving away from your house, realize you forgot your wallet, and turn around and get it, do you need a special word for that? If not, then I don't see why you need a word for a car without a radio, since you probably experience the two just about as often.

"X-delete" specifically means a car which was made pursuant to an order that specified that something normally included should be excluded.
Sometime in the fifties, heaters went from being optional to being standard equipment. A 1940s car without a heater is not "heater-delete." it is a car that was not ordered with a heater.
A 1960s car without a heater is (almost definitely) "heater-delete," because special information had to be conveyed to the factory to leave it out.

I'm not sure why this is such a big deal to some people when it is so simple and clear.

- Eric

66-3X2 442

Welcome to the internet. If it was the first place you heard the term radio delete,I'm very sorry. I've been in Olds cars for 35 years and the term radio delete was used as far back as I can remember. It's no big deal to me either,just wondering why he would even bring it up. Thanks for the clarification what constitutes the correct terminology for various options or the lack of for us unknowing car guys. No it ain't a 'regional" thing either.
I tell you what,the next time somebody here calls a steering relay rod a center link,you and Dr. Olds need to set them straight. Then ya'll need to contact all of the vendors who also incorrectly call them center links and have them correct their parts ID.
Another thing,I didn't see where the OP said it was an option either.

Run to Rund

I have a blue and a black NOS radio hole cover, and the tan one you show looks correct.

jensenracing77

lol, I remember Norm always getting on people for calling a transmission a tranny. I miss Norm, like him or hate him it was always fun to read his posts.

oldcutlass

Just my .02, radio delete and heater delete terms have been around as long as I remember. I don't understand the argument. The cover plate is usually called a radio delete plate.

66-3X2 442

DING DING DING We have a winner.^^^^^^^^^^^^^

67442nut

Ditto.
This hair has been split several times before now.

Many terms in the English language whose use is not completely accurate or acceptable
have become accepted over time due to there long term repeated use.

Everyone knows that, in those years,
radios were optional in most cars and that a car without a radio
has not had the standard radio removed.
They simply didn't order a radio.
It will STILL be a "radio delete car" to me.

Boiler_81

Delco Radio built the radios for GM just up the road from Indy in Kokomo. A lot of the employees there use to order cars without radios and then purchase one from employee sales and install it in their new car.

My dad was an engineer there during this time frame and always ordered this way. The last one he did was a 68 GTO. He forgot that the antenna was in the windshield starting that year. He could not bring himself to cut a hole in the fender to instal a mast antenna and did not want to swap the windshield. So, he drove the car for five years with no radio.

I remember when he was selling it there were several potential buyers who were put off by the lack of a radio. The person who did finally bought it was planning on hacking in an aftermarket radio and antenna.

MDchanic

Okay. Fine. I give up. Call it whatever you want.

I miss Norm, too. He provided a refreshing, if pugilistic, clarity.

- Eric

oldcutlass

May he rest in piece.

66-3X2 442

That's exactly what I and others are going to do. Thanks for the OK to do so.

kjr442

This is interesting. I too, have always used the term "radio delete", but, just like everyone else, when referring to a car without air conditioning, I use the term "non air car". I don't know for sure, but I don't think that air conditioning was standard equipment on our cars, it was optional, just like the radio.
My point, maybe, technically, we have used the term "radio delete" incorrectly? Lol, "Non radio" just doesn't sound right though. I'm I thinking wrong on this?

MDchanic

Certainly not. To consider that would be to engage in the consideration of "semantics:" "the study of the meanings of words and phrases in language" (Merriam-Webster), and in the US, where accuracy is unimportant, and intelligence is ridiculed, that would be considered to be antisocial behavior.

As a general rule, this forum, much more than most other fora, values accuracy, and corrects inaccuracy... Except in the use of the language in which we all communicate on the forum, in which case accuracy is trumped by assertion.

- Eric

Boldsmobile

Ive been using tranny and radio delete for ~35 years and continue to use both to this day but i have to say i never heard Joe's term Hole Cover. A term ripe for taking this thread off track.

drop top olds

"Sacrasm" words I don't like-

tranny----> could be something else
dizzy-----> rotor
cutty-----> Cutlass





Carry on!

davebw31

Did not mean to start a s**t storm. Apparently I am not as educated as you all are in the use of the English language! I was only trying to inform. Each model has standard equipment when built, meeting the AMA Spec. sheets as submitted, you know like wheels and tires as an example. Would not sell many Olds cars without them!


Anything else is an OPTION. At Fisher Body if a radio option(s) was not ordered than they installed a "radio block off plate". This was the term I heard. We Olds/GM employees spoke the language that was taught to us. Just because a laymen in the general public called that "plate" a "radio delete plate", even if the term was used by a layman since 1896 when R. E. Olds built his first 4 cars, does not make it right. I guess long term bad habits are hard to change or just don't want to change!


BTW: read a service manual or parts book and a light bulb may and I say may come on!



BTW2: I truly don't give a "flying turd" what the hell you want to call it! NOTE: If you do not know what a "flying turd" is, go to the Monkey cage at the zoo and you will see that it exists.


Flame Away>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

66-3X2 442

Write a book.

oldcutlass

If you google radio delete plate and radio block off plate, see which one is the more widely accepted term. Not trying to start an argument, just presenting a facts.

66-3X2 442

Not the point,the debate is about there's no such option as radio delete. Radio delete plate or radio block off plate mean the same thing and even if you called it a radio block off plate,according to others there is no such option. It's trivial BS.

davebw31

Gezzzzs 66 3X2 that is the most intelligent thing in this thread you have stated. Bravo!