well i finally got my new purchase to my house this weekend and got to clean it up and take a good look at everthing. looks to be the original interior in the car and at least one repaint. from the pics it does not look bad but rear lower quarters need attention driver side worse than pass. trunk floor is in great shape, doors are in great shape minus driver door needing a new or rebuilt hinge. w-25 fiberglass hood is in great shape but does not seem to line up well in the front. front fenders have been repaired at bottom behind wheel {crappy work just like driver lower quarter repair} but seem super solid everywhere else. frame looks great, floors all look super solid except by drivers feet kinda soft there. power top is disconnected but goes up and down smoothly. it does not run so that will be the first thing i will work on. the fan shroud does not look correct can anyone confirm this? and i only saw one tube sticking out where the heater hoses connect to heater core? let me know what you guys see in the pics so i can get educated on this and restore it correctley. this is not going to be a 100 point resto garage queen but a nice driver that is restored as correctly as i can afford lol. thanks

 

a couple more pics

 

Very nice car

 

congratulations and good luck with the project!

 

Nice car

 

Congrats and good luck with the restor

 

thanks guys, i have had a couple cars in the past {hot rods} and a 71 monte carlo ss454 wish i had that one back. i have to say this olds is thee car for me. my plan is to leave the body alone this year as it does not look to bad from 10 feet or so and redo the interior over the winter and get it running for summer and collect the parts and money to get the body done next winter. i know tearing it down and doing it all at once is probally the right thing to do. but i have seen to many people lose interest in big project cars laying in pieces. originally my plan was to get a 70-72 regular cutlass convert allready done ready to cruise but this deal came thru at about the same amount of money and i figured this might be a better investment when i sell in the future....... way future. lots of helpful info on this site for sure!!! going to put a order in at legendary for a complete interior + a new white top this week and take advantage of the 25%discount. i am sure i will be bugging everbody with olds newbie questions pretty soon.
charlie,,,

 

Very nice Charlie. As far as the heater core, looks like 1 of the nipples is broken off. Very easy replacement on a non a/c car. Good luck with the resto.

 

Nice pace car,looks like an excellent starting point for a great driver

 

i was looking the engine over and noticed that the carb was missing a couple pieces and the throttle shafts are wore out. i was checking to see if it had the original quadrajet and where the numbers are usually stamped is blank?{no numbers} not sure what that means but now i need to find a suitable replacement. so if anybody out there can give me a lead that would be great! it also has a w-30 aluminum intake that says oldsmobile on it not sure if olds put these on pace cars or if they even made w-30 pace cars but no plastic red fenderwells or other signs beside w-30 badges on the side. most likely someone put them on there in the past. thanks for the replies!!!!!!!!!

 

Yes, the w-30 parts were probably added by a previous owner.
The w-30 option was not available on pace cars.

 

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The w-30 option was not available on pace cars.

[/quote]

awww man........... well i am still keeping the w-30 intake on it nothing cooler than a factory aluminum intake.......... well maybe the w-27 rearend.

 

Nice car. Enjoy your new ride!

 

it does not have the hood bumper in front of the main center hood latch - according to the assembly manual the OAI hood cars have three bumpers, one on each side where the pin latches are, and one in the middle near the main latch. I see this on many cars though and wondered if the OAI was added later or if it was an assembly line variation. Seeing this car has the Y74 designation on the cowl tag it would have left the factory with OAI so should have came with the 3rd bumper. Hmm, the dumb little details to wondr about

Anyway very cool car - I almost bought one of these when I was looking for my car but as much as I like em, my wife was turned off by the door stickers

 

The intake is off a 4 speed W30, not original, but a very neat part.

 

how do you know its off a 4 spd w-30? man i better learn my olds stuff to hang with you guys!

 

Yes, very cool car! Congrats, and welcome to the site!
John

 

i have to say this olds is thee car for me. my plan is to leave the body alone this year as it does not look to bad from 10 feet or so and redo the interior over the winter and get it running for summer and collect the parts and money to get the body done next winter. i know tearing it down and doing it all at once is probally the right thing to do.


hi, you sure have a keeper!! every1 has there own idea on whats right when it comes 2 there car, i think with a rare car like yours the best thing 2 do is pretty much leave it alone!!!! survivors are gettn very very hard 2 find in 10-20 years there wont be any left and they will bring top dollar!! cars with new pui/legenday int are a dime a dozen!! i think the best thing for your car is get it running, fix the rust and repaint it, if it needs a top put a top on it BUT LEAVE IT ALONE!! how often do you see a 70 convert with original clean int?? i seen original 70 convertable interior just the covers and door panels sell for 2600 around a year ago on ebay, if you want new int buy some extra buckets/back seat and cover those put your original int away, thats just my 2 cents

happy holidays and keep us updated

 

i hear you sx455 but to be honest with ya the interier is ALOT worse than the pics show. seats are so dried up they were cracking as i tried to clean them. doore panels have been cut up for multiple speakers. carpet pretty wore out. armrests and pads are rough. its not much of a surviver interior thats for sure.

 

I believe that only 2 pace cars had the W30. One was destroyed when it fell off the flatbed on the way to the Indy and the other one that actually paced the race and is now in Lansing in someones garage rotting. Oh, he doesn't want to sell it because one day, he's going to fix it up.

 

Notice the "pipe" with a 90* fitting off the carb running to a nipple on the intake. MT (4 speed) only.. Unless you're in love with the intake, sell it and use the bucks towards the interior. A cast iron intake isn't that hard to find.
BTW, the intake has a plug where the heater valve belongs, the heater core probably rotted out long ago..

 

I say keep the intake---whether you use now it is up to you. They are not easy to find and the amount you might sell it for won't make or break the project. When it comes time to go through the engine ( you know you will sooner or later) get the intake "freshened up" and detail the entire engine compartment. Nothing cooler than a factory aluminum intake that has "OLDSMOBILE" cast right into it. Maybe even some good chrome valve covers,too. To me, those little deviations from totally stock do not detract one bit and if need be can easily reversed. JMHO

 

Are you speaking of the right angled rubber hose that has the PCV valve inline and hooks to the carb or something else?

 

Lance---that's only a "4 speed deal" on cast iron intakes. All the W alum intakes used the PCV-fitting-in-the-intake setup, auto or manual trans.

It's a desirable piece, especially since it is the earlier "OLDSMOBILE" version instead of the later "OLDS" version as far as the lettering on the intake goes.

I'd keep it on there unless you really need the $$ to finance other work. It's a cool piece and A LOT lighter than the cast iron version.

Cool car!!

 

Thanks Patton for the clarification, my W30 Auto has the same PCV provision and I just checked out the engine manual - states what you said. and I believe the manifold is 40lbs lighter.

Believe it or not we seem to have a bunch of pace cars here in the Chicago area, I've seen at least 10 different ones over the last 10 years - just a cool car.

 

i see you stated its a earlier intake and not a later one. how many years did they make the aluminum intake? and what year do you think this intake is? i think i will just keep this intake on there and pick up the correct one at a later date. thanks for the info!!!

 

does anybody know where i can buy a fan shroud for this car. after looking at a few pictures of other 442s my fan shroud looks incorrect and is not mounted just kinda laying in there.

 

'69 to '70 fan shroud GM part number 402995.

Kowning the GM part number is half the battle!

 

they made them form 70 - 72, early 70s made until 11/69 had the whole word OLDSMOBILE on it. Then supposedly the mold cracked and they only had OLDS on it. in 70 the manilfolds with OLDS on it has a different part number than the same looking manifold in 71 - 72.

 

The shroud you have is from a 1968 Olds Cutlass, 442, or Vista. If its not cracked or broken by the tabs, its worth about $125. Tom

 

Question.......since the pace car he has doesn`t have air, did it come without a shroud, but with a flex fan, and the 68 style rad. top plate? Tom

 

thats interesting about the shroud! is the rad top plate from a 68 also? thanks tom and to the rest of you guys for helping me get things sorted out. just ordered a fisher body manual and a assy manual for the car. i know those things are invaluable when tearing into these things.

 

well i just went thru the legendary catalog and added up all the parts i wanted for the complete interior+ the convertible top..........about 4000$. from searching posts here it seems that for seat and door panels legendary is the way to go. they are not out of line for prices for that but how do they compare with others on the small interior parts? i live about 10 minutes from the Parts Place but i have heard a couple bad things about them here.

 

That's a BS story Steven....the real reason is they had the strike prior to the '71 production run and had to hire a bunch of "scallywags" (or what ever term they used to describe the people that come in to work when the union people go on strike) and they typically found the labor from states that didn't have unions. Which meant the Southeast US at the time.

What happened is they got one crew from Alabama and one of these guys was from, yes, you guessed it, Mobile, AL.

This guy was manning the casting area and decided he wanted a nice souvenir to remind him of his famous "strike breaking" days in Detroit so he chopped that part of the mold out of the mold box...M O B I L E.

Sounds plausibe at least doesn't it??????


TOP PLATE: Charlie....that is the correct top plate for your car...it's the style used on 4 core radiator cars from '69-72. Conversely, it's not a '68 top plate....they look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

INTERIOR: Legendary periodically runs sales....sometimes 20-25% off I think. They may be having one right now as a XMas sale. So, you can time your purchases around those sales possibly and break up the orders b/n a couple sales if it's too much to spend at one time (easy to do with these cars!).

Parts Place has a good reputation....they don't make any of the interior kits that they sell. I believe they offer interior kits manufactured by Legendary and PUI. Go with Legendary if you can swing the extra $$ as it's well worth it. There are QUITE A FEW repro parts vendors selling Olds stuff now but, in general, Fusick and The Parts Place get good reviews (Parts Place also seems to have very reasonable shipping charges). Year One is good also but their prices seem to be a bit higher sometimes and their shipping charges also seem to be high. Supercars Unlimited also warrants good mention....more "mechanical parts" oriented but less so now than in the past. Inline Tube also has an extensive line of Olds repro parts and should be on your list of vendors to check out for Olds stuff.....they've been the subject of quite a few "after the sale"-bad attitude complaints in the past but I think less so recently. Still, they have some nice parts.

You will find some vendors reselling parts made by other vendors in many cases (Parts Place wholesales a bit of stuff to other vendors)...not a problem typically so don't let that surprise you

For gas tanks, if you need one, check RockAuto.com...this is also a good place for parts you might have to replace like front suspension parts, etc....more of an online auto parts store than a repro parts vendor. Their prices on gas tanks are VERY GOOD and they also have reasonable shipping charges.

The best thing to do is JUST ASK on this site before a major expenditure....you should get good advice.

 

10 minutes from the Part Place, that can be a huge advantage going there in person. I have bought so much crap (stuff) from so many vendors I can tell you all have been good to me (except one and they are known as the worst on all these forums and are no one you are presently looking at). The parts place tends to have great prices and if you can go there in person it always helps no matter where you buy.

As far as interior parts go Legendary is very nice but check out the pricing for others. The way I look at it my car is a keeper and yet rarely used. If I had to sell it I highly doubt that my interior not being a legendary interior will stop someone from buying the car. I also suspect it will not bring a premium if I had used it. If I used the car every day or even occasionally all year the better quality may have been worth it but I'm not kicking myself for not using Legendary. I'm here in Chicago and just finished a nightmare restoration so I will be happy to help out, PM me with your email and or phone number.

 

well i ordered my seat covers and door panels from legendary today. will stop by the parts place tommorow and take a look around the store. as steve said "its a huge advantage going in person" is 100% correct if ya got problems its alot easier to get them resolved looking someone in the eye. got a price for replacing the top from a upholstery shop {riggs brothers} i have used in the past for small stuff. they say about 2200-2500$ for complete top . first off i do not have that much to spend on a top. 2nd if i did i would NOT spend that much. i have read here thats one job left to the experts and i agree but i will try it myself if i cannot find a much better deal. on a good note i have aquired{sp} a new white top+ rear glass window from a customer for servicing his furnace and humidifier.

 

Charlie,
Congrats on the new Pace Car. Looks like you will have a blast toolin around town in that car. I did the interior in my Pace Car in 1997 using PUI seat covers and door panels. The seat covers still look great today but I was severely disappointed in the door panels. The wood grain seems the "shrivel" up over time and the foil type trim looked pretty weak too. I have seen this on many other Cutlasses too. I kept looking and eventually found a really nice pair of original door panels that are now on my car. This problem may have been corrected by now but I'm just trying to pass on my experience to you.

I bought my Pace Car from the original owner 20 years ago so if you have any Pace Car related questions I'll be happy to see if I can help you.
Again, congrats on the great car.

 

I also have a 70 cutlass pace car.I finally put my pace car decals on. Owned the car for 25 years.

 

I will definately be hitting you pace car guys up on specific info in the near future!
charlie,,,

 

Sweet pace car! Did you find it locally?