Here it is in 2000. Day after I bought it. Less then a mile from my parents place. In this photo it is sitting in my parent’s machine shed. Some where along the way this car lost its S hood and I believe the original front fenders. It does not have the fender moldings or the holes for mounting them. The rest of the car does have all its molding.




This car was built the second week (B) on body tag, in July (07) in Lancing Michigan. The protector plate booklet said it was shipped to Jim Danca Oldsmobile in Crystal Lake Illinois, and sold on September 10, 1968. Somehow it wound up in Wausau. Wis. Maybe someone who worked at the Jim Danca dealership, or the purchaser, at the time remembers this car, and is glad to see it hasn’t wound up in a crusher like so many Of these beauties. I would be happy to here from them.

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Plenty of room back there, to get to know your sweetie.

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Some help from my brother, and his son.

In 2009, work began with the tare down process, and I had some consern about the rear wheel housings. You can,t get wheel housings for a convertible, so ones for a hard top would have to be orderd, and cut to fit a convertible. I did not have any welding experience, and was counting on my brother, who did. He lived some distence from me, and it just diden’t work out to get him there on the weekends. So I was glad to meet a car inthusiest and restorer who agreed to take the body work on.

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Driver side, has rot in same airias along with pin hols. It is Wise to replace the floor.

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Here, A failed atempt was made to replace the outer wheel housing causing me to have to reorder a nother one. Work stoped untill I could get advise on what to do here.

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Frame will need some work as well.

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This front floor brace under the floor, will have to be replaced.

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Some more hiden rot under the remooved windshield trim.

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Tied down to a platrorm I made for easy mooving.The shell is ready to go to phillips wis, a hour and a hafe drive on november 6, 2010, where it will get two new partial guarters cut from hard top quarter skins. A top quarter patch cut from a doner convertible. both outer wheel housings repaired. New floor and trunk pans, and trunk drop offs, front new floor brace and a new lower dash repair panel. Luck would have it, their was no snow on the ground at this time, and no road salt.





I will try to post some more soon.

 

Cool! Looks like a nice project car! John

 

Thanks John, I am glad to see this project getting some ware. after 10 years in storage.

 

Hello,
I have a '68 442 convertible built the 2nd week of October that has some factory mistakes, such as a '67 emergency brake pedal and the glove box door having both a Cutlass and 442 emblem. Did you find any such mistakes with your car?
Eric

 

No, not that I could see. Every thing looked correct. The only thing not 68 on the car was the motor. Some one put a 72 rocket in it, and the front clip looks to be off a 68 cutlass with no upper molding. The hardest thing to find is that S hood. I end up buying one out of pure excitement of just seeing one for sale. That I snatched it up with out looking at it close. Hauling it out of the swap meet, I saw why it was only 25.00 dollars. I did not use that one. The second one I came across, got the inspector number 12, stringent look over, and it passed. I paid 200.00 for that, and it is the one I will use.

 

It's interesting that "mistakes" are mentioned. I have a '68 4-4-2 convertible that my dad bought when it was new. I recently met with the owner of the old dealership that sold the car to my dad and we talked about his business. One of the first things he asked me is if my car was a Lansing car or a Fremont car (his dealership got cars from both assembly plants). When I told him it was a Lansing car, he was pleased. He said the quality control at Lansing was much better that that at Fremont (I don't know about the other assembly plants). He mentioned mistakes by the Fremont plant, similar to the 442 glove box door with Cutlass S insignia also attached. In later years at other dealerships he owned, he said he would get GMC pick-ups from the Fremont plant with Chevy tailgates and grills.

The qualiity control at Lansing might also explain why virtually no Lansing cars have build sheets in them (build sheets were supposed to be removed before the car left the assembly line) while build sheets can be found in a number of locations on Fremont cars.

Randy C.

 

Just looking at your pics. I'm working on a "S" and I am planning on painting it black and having a red interior. Your's is the first black one I've seen. Did you go back black?

 

Thanks for looking at my thread. The shell is still in primer yet. All body and frame work complete. just waiting on finding a painter. I will but it back to the factory color, burgandy.