2blu442

Hi All
I went to the annual Medford Cruise car show today. As expected I only found a handful of Oldsmobiles... but this one really caught my eye. It appeared to be an unrestored 1970 442 with the W30 option! It is also owned by a local person, so why haven't I seen this car before. I looked it over as much as I could without touching the car, waiting for the owner to return. When he did he opened the hood for me and allowed me to take some pictures. Story is his mother was a school teacher in Gold Hill and this was her daily driver for many years. The owner said she was the car nut in the family and where he and his brother got the bug. This car is a 4 speed car, non-power disc brakes, manual steering. I was surprised to see the 3 row radiator with no shroud, but the owner believes that's the way it came. I believe he said until recently the car hadn't been driven and sat for 25 years. He just started cleaning it up and got it running. I took a bunch of pictures although due to lighting some didn't show what I wanted, but I'm including several of them here. As we're talking he tells me he has another one that his brother (who has passed away) bought new and that its also a 1970 442 with the W30 option That car has low miles on it as much of its life was 1/4 mile at a time... We swapped phone numbers and I really look forward to getting to know him and learning more about his cars. This one is that sort of red/orange and yes the trim tag shows --- so it came from the factory this way. His other car is blue and he showed me one picture of it on his cell phone. John

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pacekar

cool car

oldcutlass

Nice, that looks like a flex fan with an aluminum spacer.

rcorrigan5

My (former) '70 GTO (now belongs to my niece) came from the factory with the same sort of flex fan. It was loud going down the road so I swapped it out for a clutch fan. Kept all the original parts though, and that was a good idea!

Randy C.

1969w3155

Pretty cool.

Olds442redberet

Very cool indeed

Stefano

Love the patina. Very Kool W-Machine.

61reoldsman

Awesome story and very cool car !

sammy

Great time capsule and story John. Factory orange special orderdrool

oldspackrat

Never seen 3 dashes for paint? Usually only 2 I thought? Very cool car!

BlackGold

John, thanks for posting this. I'd love to see more pictures and more information, as it becomes available. I love gathering pictures and info from unmolested cars.

capstoneclub

Nice

lemoldsnut

I love seeing these driver unrestored cars.

Thanks for sharing John

2blu442

This year's car show had even fewer Oldsmobiles than last year. But the W30 was back and I got the owners phone number again. Last year I misplaced it before I could call him. A couple more details that I noticed with the car. Standard steering wheel and no Rally Pack, both options I'm used to seeing. He's installed a larger radiator to make it more drivable during the summer weather but kept the factory one. There's no tabs on the core support so I believe it did come as a 3 row no shroud setup. It does have manual disc brakes on the front and since the master cylinder has the bleeders I'm thinking it might be original. He's going back and forth on the idea of repainting it, but the drivers seat does need recovered as its getting pretty tattered. Attached are a couple more photos. Anybody out there restoring a 1970 W30 and wanting to see something specific let me know. If he's OK with it I'll try to get photos for you. John

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Hairy Olds

Triple dashes never seen that.

2blu442

I agree, and would like to hear if anyone else has encountered this and knows why its three dashes instead of two.

Another thing I noticed, the passenger side fender liner has extra holes where it meets the core support but they look factory. Would this have been for the overflow bottle if optioned?

Jonb442

I believe that's where the charcoal canister mounts.

lemoldsnut

very cool thanks for sharing John

Allan R

Hi John!
I'll take a stab at the --- part first. I know that typically -- meant extra cost special paint, and I'm pretty sure that on early cars the build specified an extra dash to show the wheel color. If this car was delivered with SS1's though, that wouldn't apply. Maybe you can find out if the original owner swapped wheels when it was delivered to the dealer? If it did have color coded wheels, it would also have had the poverty caps. Who knows? She might have wanted to dress up the car.

The overflow bottle that's become popular with many of us wasn't an option at all (no RPO). It was a response to BBO owner complaints about engine overheating, and was introduced in late 71 / early 72. All one had to do was go to a dealer and complain about the engine overheating and BAM! Whether it was a 350 or 455 you got a dealer installed (OEM) overflow tank at no charge. There was only 1 hole in the passenger side of my 72's fender, and it did line up perfectly for the OEM overflow tank I installed.