Hello everyone, I just recently bought my first classic car. 1969 Cutlass S, beautiful car I love it.. The body is in great shape, the entire inside needs to be restored. The guy I bought the car from bought the car 10 years ago. He only drove it for about 3 years and it sit for 7 years. The engine is a 403, which I dont know much about. I want to make it alot meaner than the 403, any suggestions as to what I could do with the 403 or should I go with the olds 350 rocket or the 455? This is my first project, i am very green when it comes to restoring a car, but I love hot rods. I live in the NKY florence area if theres anyone out there who is close that could help with questions and suggestions..

 

Welcome to the site! Please post pictures of your car when you have time. Not sure I recognize your location, was that NY with an extra letter thrown in? John

 

Hey thanks, I live in Kentucky.. I am currently trying to figure out how to post my pics, they should be up soon.

 

Welcome to CO good luck on your 69.

 

I have posted pics if you want to check them out

 

Welcome to C.O.! Interesting story on your car. Just a FYI, the 403 is an Olds engine that entered the market in 1977, so it's not the original one for your car. The 403 is actually a small block. If you're looking for a torque monster, the 455 is the way to go, that means also changing the tranny unless you have a bullet proof TH350.

I looked at your pics. Nice car - like you say though it has issues to address. Lots of opportunity there to learn and get 'ungreen' So the previous owner tried to clone it into a 442? Post the VIN here; that will give us a great idea of what you've got. If it really was a 442 your engine should have been a 400 and tranny TH400.

Most of the time when the guys say 'post pics of your ride' they mean to put them into your thread for convenient viewing. You'll learn to insert pics anyway because as you go through your build process, we'll naturally want to see how it's progressing.

 

Yeah I believe the previous owner of the car did try to clone it.. The vin # is 333687 LAN 360323 the # on the engine is 557265 4B, I'm not sure what the trans is. How can I find that info out?
Yeah I'm green on the website too it took me an hour just to figure out how to post those pics...

 

1. The block casting number confirms it's a 403 (produced from 77-79)
2. Your VIN is decoded like this:

3- Oldsmobile division
33 - Series - 3300 model series - Cutlass with L6 engine
87 - Body Style - 2 door holiday coupe (hardtop)
Lan - Lansing production
360323 - build sequence at Lansing. (it was the 360323 rd car built for the model year)

So it appears your car was born as a 6 cylinder. That means that both the engine and tranny in your car were changed by someone. It may have come with a Jetaway automatic 2 speed trans, or a 3 speed manual. The shifter in your car pics is definitely not factory, so I'm guessing whoever changed out the 403 probably changed both engine and tranny at the same time.

Look on the speedo and let me know what the trans selector letters are. I'm betting it says PRNDL. That would confirm the Jetaway trans. No letters would indicate you likely had a 3 speed manual.

 

Thanks for the info man, I've learned more about the car today than I have these last couple of months.
The speedo reads PRNDL, the shifter on the floor is a B&M shifter PRND21.
At the beginning of the VIN # on the body it says ST69, what does that mean?

 

Ok, ya got me!
I thought you were reading the VIN off the dash, it sounds now like you were reading info off the cowl tag. I thought it was weird that you would have LAN in the VIN instead of an M (lansing factory code).

1. The PRNDL means for sure the car had a Jetaway.
2. The B&M is for the 3 speed TH that's hooked up to your 403. It has the right shift pattern for a TH350 or TH400.

Now, back to the VIN stuff. There are 2 different tags on your car.
VIN is the Vehicle Information Number and is located on the drivers side upper dash. Look from outside through the windshield at the lower right section of the dash. There will be a recessed plate there with numbers and a letter. It should start like this 333879MXXXXXX (X=a number - not the same one on the cowl tag). This information will give specific details probably similar to what I posted except for the last 6 digits.

Cowl This plate will provide more information about the cars original body colors, interior trim and options that may have been fitted to the car by the fisher factory prior to shipping. This will be on the upper cowl of the engine compartment. Take a photo of it and upload it here. FYI the ST69 means 1969 model year production. If you can get that and post it, I will update your thread with the 'right' information.

FYI, the terms VIN and COWL get mixed up by a lot of people when they first start out in this hobby. No worries though, it's part of the learning process.

 

I live close, work in Erlanger, and have done a few 69's. PM me for phone number - great to see someone in the area here at CO.
tim

 

Hey I coudnt get a real good pic of the tag but it say...
Body by Fisher
ST69 33687LAN360323
TR 933 53 50 BDY
04C PNT
The # on the dash is 336879M358969

 

Ok, now we're getting somewhere
Your COWL information
ST69 - 1969 Model year
3- Olds
36 - Cutlass V8 (you posted an extra 3 in your first attempt - which is why I thought it was an L6 engine. Odd #'s are L6, Even # are V8)
87 - 2 door holiday coupe (fastback)
LAN - lansing production
360323 - fisher body number
TR933 - Interior trim code - Blue (possibly strato bucket seats?)
53 - upper body color - Nassau Blue (your body color is called a TWO TONE)
50 - lower body color - Cameo white (note: Dealer SPECS says either of these colors could be the base color)
04C - built in the third week of April 1969

Your VIN 336879M358969
The first part 33687 repeats the info you know from cowl
9 - model year 1969
M - Lansing production
358969 - Lansing build sequence.

 

Thanks for all your help bud, Yeah I believe the original color was blue, the bucket and back seats are blue. I wasn't for sure if the original was bucket or not, because most pics i"ve seen so far of that model cutlass, i think they all had bench in the front???

 

No, the Cutlass S could be ordered with split front bench seat or the A51 strato bucket seat. When I looked up the color code you gave, it indicated 'strato bucket seat'. The verts all had buckets too.

 

. . . but please keep in mind your car is a two-tone car, which makes it a little rarer from your usual Cutlass. Plus, if a Cutlass was going to be white and blue, it's likely that the body would have been blue and the top white. As equipped, yours is in the inverse combination, which is the rarer configuration. I think it would look pretty neat like that. As you restore your car, you can paint it anything you want, but I think your car's original configuration is nice.