Hey everyone! I wanted to stop in and introduce myself and my new car. I’m a car guy through and through. Over the years, have had a huge variety of cars. Mustangs, ‘Vettes, MR2s, modified Jag E-type, Shelby 427 Cobra replica, even a Viper. Most of those were in the days before my wife and I had kids. Now, with 3 young kids and a nanny, car budget for those type cars is a thing of the past. But I always said that I wanted to get an inexpensive cruiser to take the family to the local cruise night or ice cream shop.

I found this car on Craigslist a few weeks back. Almost passed it up, because I already had 2 project cars I was working on. A pair of 1976 Fiat Spiders that I had got in February. Until these Spiders, I had never learned to work on cars. The most I had ever done was oil changes. I work in the auto insurance business, and have an appraisers license. So I know what I’m looking at, and understand cars very well, just never had the wrench in hand experience. Anyhow, the wife liked this Olds, and agreed I could get it if I sold both Fiats. After much debate, I decided to go for it. So here I am, the proud owner of a ’65 Olds Delta 88.

Turns out the guy I bought it from is a fellow forum member. He purchased it from the original owner, who had it from 1965 until 2008. So it’s really cool that I know the history of the car. It’s been repainted once, but besides upkeep, it’s largely as it was 46 years ago. I’d call it a typical “10 footer”. Looks great from far away, but up close you can see it would need to be restored to be in a car show. No matter, I think it’s really cool. It runs fantastic. The previous owner really loved the car and took great care of it. It starts, runs and drives perfectly. Though steering is a relative term on these cars, isn’t it? Very, very, very vague.

So hello everyone. I’m glad to have the car, and my kids are super excited. First order of business is to put 5 four point harnesses in the car. I won’t leave my driveway without seatbelts, so I need to get this car set for that. From what I can tell, the four point harness is going to be the easiest and safest way to go. Anyone else done this with their car? I may even get a pair of bucket seats from a u-pull it yard so the wife and I have head restraints (my kids are small enough that the back seat is higher than their heads). I’m also hoping to continue my learning experience in turning wrenches.
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Welcome-
You will prob get more comments and looks driving this one than any of the others you had before..These really bring back peoples memories

 

I'm sure you will enjoy driving that big car. You may actually find the occasional Fiat or other small car crunched up under a fenderwell; a short burst with the water hose when washing the car should dislodge them.

 

Welcome to the site

my delta is 20 years newer but I still get a lot of looks and smiles. I'm sure you'll get many more!

 

Welcome. I love that car. How would you appraise that car?

 

Pretty car, but see my response to your seat belt question over at the AACA forum. Shoulder belts will be a big deal, due to the need to weld anchor points to the roof rail or pillar. You'll be disassembling the interior and likely touching up paint that gets burned from the welding. As for a seat with headrests, this basic body was used on all GM full size cars from 1965-1970. The 68-70 cars did come with headrests. You may be able to find one of those seats, which will bolt into your car with no modifications, and simply have it recovered with the correct upholstery to match your 1965 interior.

 

Now that's the kind of wife I can relate to!

Very nice car. Did you know that 1965 was the first year for the "Delta" 88 name? Prior to that it was "Super," "Dynamic," and "Jetstar." Super disappeared after 1964 while Dynamic and Jetstar lasted through '66. "Delmont" came along for '67 and '68, but from 1969 onwards until the end, it was Delta 88 as the only 88 series (until the "Delta" was dropped some time in the 1990s, leaving the cars called simply "Eighty-Eight.")

Being the four-door sedan, your car was officially a Delta 88 Celebrity Sedan, it had a base price of $3,160, and total production of the Celebrity Sedan was 30,140. That made it the second-most common Delta 88 style that year, along with 20,857 Holiday Coupes (two-door hardtop), 30,748 Holiday Sedans (four-door hardtop), and 5,540 convertibles.

The base engine on your car was the 425 putting out 310 hp, and it was called the "Super Rocket." It probably says that on the air cleaner, or at least, it should, if that's the engine you have. Also available were 300 and 365 hp versions.

In addition, a 375 hp version was also available as an option and called "Starfire." I think it would say that on the air cleaner if that's the engine in it. It was the standard engine on the '65 Starfire.

 

Like those rear taillights and car in general. I own a 1965 Jetstar 1 that I am beginning to restore. These old cars are like going back in time. It's fun to think about what was going on in the world when the car was new. Have fun.

 

Real clean car! Welcome to CO.

 

Actually, in '65, the Starfire engine option was rated at 370 HP. In '66 and '67, it was rated at 375 HP, major difference being the addition of the spreadbore manifold and Q-Jet carb.

There are other errors in your post, but its late and I'm tired.

 

I found an old thread that looks like it may be from the prev. owner of your car:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ond-owner.html

As for the steering issue, I know what you mean. Steering is slow, sloppy and ridiculously over-boosted.
I'm installing a new fast-ratio PS gearbox on my 67 Delmont next weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

Thanks for the welcome, guys! Yeah, the car is really cool. My kids are so excited and can't wait to ride in it.

I'm lucky that my wife is a car girl, she enjoys them too, so she's very supportive of my car addiction.

Thanks for some of the stats on the car. I wonder how many are left today? I can't say I recall seeing many '65 Delta 88s running around, even at car shows. My car does have the 2 barrell 425ci motor in it. 129,000 original miles. Runs like a charm.

Working on the seatbelt issue. I definitely understand that the car can never be "safe" by modern car standards. I just want to see what I can do to improve on what's there. Someone suggested perhaps finding seats that had the seatbelt integrated into it? I think that was full size pick ups from the 90's, but I don't remember exactly.

 

Whatever you can do to get that to work is fine, however I would buy all new belts

 

Nice moredoor. I am sure your whole family will have a lot of fun cruising around

 

The statistics on this are very general, but a typical number is that about 1% of a car's original production is still on the road after 25 years. After that it levels off as the cars are kept for various reasons. Given an original production of 30,140 for your car, you might reasonably expect there to be somewhere around 300 of them still out there. But remember that the different body styles tended to be kept at different rates. Convertibles and coupes tend to be more popular, sedans and station wagons less so. So maybe it's 300 plus or minus 150? Certainly the number is likely be in the hundreds but probably not more than that.

No car from that era will be as safe as today's cars given airbags and collapsible steering columns and anti-lock brakes and door reinforcements and all that. On the other hand, cars of that era tend to be pretty large and massive compared to today's, so that can give you an edge in a crash.

You have to distinguish between being "safe" and being "safe enough." Certainly the single most important thing you can do is add seat belts. But as has been noted, it is not necessarily a simple matter to add them to a car that has never had them as they are typically mounted to the floor through a thicker nut that is welded on underneath the floor and which has a threaded hole in it. The typical automobile floor panel isn't thick enough to hold against the pretty high forces that can pull on a seatbelt in a sudden stop. It's tempting to drill a hole in the floor and put a bolt through with nut on the other side, but that wouldn't be a good idea unless that part of the floor is reinforced.

With your car, the first thing I would do is remove the rear seat and see if the mounting holes for the seat belts aren't already there. I don't know how the cars were produced back then, but given that rear seat belts were an option in 1965, it's very possible that all cars were equipped with the mounting points even though not every car came off the line using them. If the mounting points are there, then you're home free. Just get a decent set of aftermarket or used belts and mount them.

If the mounting points are not there, then you might be looking at reinforcing the floor at the point where you want to attach the bolts.

I would forget about adding shoulder belts. They're very nice, obviously, but having seat belts at least gets you most of the way home as far as increasing safety. Plus, as has been pointed out, you would have to mount them in the roof, and, again, is the roof strong enough, etc. I don't know if shoulder belts were an option in 1965. I'm guessing they weren't, so no '65 would have the mounting points pre-attached.

You talk about putting in a three-point system. For that, you would still need to mount something to the pillar, I believe, and you would still be looking at putting mounting points where none existed previously and thus where there is no reinforcement.

 

The car will have the mounting points, front and back. My 1962 F-85 even has the mounting points factory installed.

 

Hello Steve!

Glad to see you made it.

I took care of that car like my father took care of his 65 88 for over 27 years. It was painful to sell, but time and money are not on my side.

Those pictures look familiar!