I am restoring a 1970 olds 442 w-30. When I was in Colorado last month Gary had black bolts holding on the w-27 cover. I recall zinc plated bolts on my w-27. I need an expert that can resolve this debate. Thanks Lee

1970 442
1971 442
1970 vista cruiser

 

I'm no expert but the dealer installed W27 cover Oldsmobile marketing bulletin says the package includes the aluminum cover, gasket, and 12 zinc plated bolts.
The pic in the bulletin for the factory installed aluminum rear carrier and W27 cover has silverish looking ones too.
The bolts are part #9432435 in the '71 assembly manual, couldn't find the cover in the '70 manual?

 

Interesting that olds sold the factory units with black bolts but decided they looked better with the zinc plated ones for the cover buyers. I just lost this discussion with the restorer. Always seems I am wrong but that is why he does such great cars. My 1971 has the cover option (real one). It is in storage but I recall it has the zinc plated bolts. We are in the last month of the restoration and will probably have a few more of these detail discussions.

Lee
1970 442
1971 442
1970 vista

 

I don't know if the guy is right or wrong (or really care) but him just saying they should be black bolts isn't proof of anything.
I'm not from Missouri but show me anyway.
I always say where I get my info from unless it's a common knowledge thing, anybody can just say something is so.

The Inline Tube cars have won everything around and they have zinc bolts. Contact Wing's and tell them their restos were done wrong if your guy is dead to rights.

http://www.wingsautoart.com/

 

Your approach is my approach. James at inline says black. My correct w-27 started with black and many shots on the web show black. A few show zinc. So I guess I convinced myself black was correct. Looks like olds sold zinc with the cover kit if you just bought a cover and my 1971 has zinc. Kind of crazy how the color of bolts make a restoration correct or wrong. Lee

 

I bet that w-31 on the web site will have black bolts next time you see it. I am now certain they were black from the factory. I know the history of my w-27 from original owner to me and the rear end was never touched. If you search on the web the dirty unrestored w-27s have black bolts. Lee

 

Shouldn't a 1970 Cutlass W-31 have a standard rear bumper and not the exhaust cut out style found on 442s?

Just asking

 

That's correct.

 

Though the car (Kryta's W31) is very nice, it was not an original resto. It has Pontiac mufflers, the bumper w/cutouts, an aluminum W31 motor, which was a factory experimental that they acquired, but presented at Homecoming as a "factory car" that they found and restored. It is a W31, just not the factory experimental that they presented at Homecoming, and in Muscle Car Enthusiast magazine. I do not know if they still show as such.

 

Thank you very much for clearing this up for me!

and.... sorry Lee for hyjacking your thread and leading it in a different direction.

BTW, Black oxide is the correct color for your factory "flanged hex head" axel cover bolts.

 

joesw31 I guess that muddies the water even more because I have had 3 w-27s one NOS and my original from my 1970 has black. Go to levelonerestoration.com and you can see it all dirty and ready to restore. All the picture I can find of originals on the web are black. The Kryta w-31 he tells me is now black too. Holy cow I hope you are not a judge at the Reno Nationals..........Lee

 

Checked out Wings Auto Art. They do some great work. Not to knock this fine shop, but I did notice two "errors", a '70 W-31 with a cut-out bumper with trumpets, and a '72 W-30 with a spoiler. I do realize that the customer may have insisted on these items, but it also notes that these two won awards for their restorations. I do agree that it seems from all the Oldsmobile literature that the bolts on the '70 W-27 rear axle and for the '71 W-27 rear cover were zinc bolts.

 

mine are zinc

 

Hi Steve.

Do you have a factory W-27 carrier or the dealer installed W-27 cover?

Seems from the discussions that the dealer install 10 & 12 bolt W-27 cover came with zinc bolts, but the '70 W-27 carrier came with the black bolts.

I have not seen anyone with a 10-bolt W-27 cover that was factory installed chime in yet, as it would be interesting to see what bolts the factory used in '71.

Anthony

 

Mine is the whole shebang - at least they look zinc to me - now I'm going to have to crawl under there again and see what the bolt heads say.

 

nope, which one do I have? I bet the earlier one as all my dates are early W30 dates (e.g. oldsmobile 455 on intake etc.)

And what is the difference?

 

yes, I heard of those but I thought they were the same cover just modified on the assembly line with a hammer or another tool to take the fin off to make room for the return line for California cars.

 

Oh my
I bet that would fetch a pretty penny

 

wow that's great looking. Can you send me a larger image would like to clean mine up next spring and can use yours as an example. Clearly very little of it is polished.

 

oh ok, I was wondering why the brushed area on mine seemed darker than yours, you with have thought it would be the other way around seeing as mine has been under my car for 43 years

 

Found this recently.




In this book.

 

Cool mister scott
do you have that for a 71 10bolt cover??
happy motoring

 

Brian,
I think this is the only info. on these covers in this book.

 

no worries
i am not trying to authenticate anything

 

Very interesting. Do you know why the one fin is shorter and do you possibly have a photo of the W-27 cover with the shorter fin?

 

Thank you Joe for the information. Do you know what the marking is on the bolts for the '71 W-27 cover, and why they might have been shorter/longer?

 

Can you post a larger image?

 

Two quick questions: How did the return line run in '70 California cars that required the one fin on the W-27 to be ground down? What is the avatar photo? Thanks