Hello All.
I purchased 1966 Holiday coupe but it’s a California Fremont car and I’m having trouble decoding all of the cowl tag. Can anyone help. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

Black Custom Sport Bench Seat interior. The Custom Sport Seat is the RPO A65 bench seat with arm rest.

 

Joe, again thank you for taking time to respond. When I bought this car it was presented as a 4 speed 442. I have no displacement to reference and it’s a California car. Any guidance would be greatly helpful. Thank you

 

Yeah, Fremont car so you're kinda screwed unless you can find a build sheet. That's more likely for a Fremont car, at least. Does the car have a bench seat and 4spd? I assume you don't have a Protect-O-Plate for the car. I assume you have one head with an engine unit number consistent with a 442 engine (starts with a "V"). Does the casting date on that head at least fit with the 12B build date of the car? Casting date would typically be ~1 mo prior to the build date (though that could vary up to 3 mo prior).

 

No interior except a partial headliner. Sadly the car probably sat for a number of years even though it was tagged and a clean title. The rear end had a stamp date SA which when I looked that up it’s for a 65’ but with the build date 12B could that be consistent? And on the left of the dash it looks like a tachometer would rest. Dash is intact a non a/c car . So many unknowns but the car is mostly solid and the price was right

 

Does the car have mounting brackets on the floorpan for bucket seats or bench, and if buckets do they look factory-installed or not?

SA code is for 2.78 gears for 1966, which would not be consistent with a factory M20 442. Standard ratio was 3.55 with 3.90 optional/

 

There weren’t any brackets when purchased just sheet metal floor. Well that’s good about the axle at least that matches the year but

Did all cutlass 442 F85 come with a rear sway bar?

 

Inside the engine compartment there should be a tab welded to the drivers side frame rail near the firewall for the Z bar to attach. Is that there?

 

I believe Koda summed it up best in 2018. (He is one of our most knowledgeable and respected members, As Joe P is, among others.)

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...g-code-128438/

By the way Red I also owned a 1966 442, numbers matching factory correct. In my case it was a Lansing car and 5V coded. It was bench seat.

 

This whole thread is awesome, 2blu442 I’ll check the frame rail for the Z bar attachment. Koda, thank you for the advice as I’m looking forward to uncovering the details with everyone’s suggestions. Koda it’s not out of the question to have a bench seat 44 then. Gives me some hope here. 69CSHC I will subscribe to these members thanks

 

Thank you.

Correct. In that year, the Cutlass Coupe, which you have, came with bucket seats as standard equipment, but a no cost option was the bench seat. You can see that in the specs Joe posted. Read standard equip, look for strato bucket for coupe, then go down to custom sport bench and see that it is available for coupe at no charge. You can also see your L78 442 package there. There are a number of "fast looking" features that were commonly ordered with the 442 package enough so that people think they were part of the package. Bucket seats, tachometer, disc brakes in later years, console, sporty wheels, etc.

 

See my post in your other thread. I just realized that is a Type O axle, which was not available when your car was built in Dec 1965. It's clearly not the original axle, so one has to wonder if the rear sway bar and boxed lower control arms were added when the axle was put in. For most of the years that the Type O was used, SA would have been 2.78, S4 would have been 3.08.

 

thanks, joe. It looks like SA but it’s faded so bad it’s hard to tell. Let me check again and respond it could be S4