I just joined this website because it said I could get a free then number check. So I signed up and I cannot find how to get that free offer anywhere. Can anybody help?

 

retired hardrock miner from colorado. living in norman okla.
joined yesterday because during googling for old F-85 parts, this site advertised "Free VIN # decode" so here i am. only site that came up after joining was not 'newbie' site and was quickly told i was stepping on toes by being there. my bad. so here i am today still searching for VIN offer.
I own '65 Ranchero (my daily driver for past 15 years) and recently purchased '62 Olds F-85 with original 215 CID aluminum block. Looking for parts for the F-85 AND the free VIN code read. is there a moderator on this newbie site that can lead me there? or anyone else. now going to try to find master cyl for F-85. looking forward to yakking with people on this site.

 

Asking $6,500 obo
After moving from colo. to Norman, OK to care for my mother till she passed last year, i moved into rental house and was walking my cat (yeah, that's right, i walk my cat. wanna make something of it?) i saw this car for sale. it's any eye catcher so i stopped in to inquire. Story is that it's low milage, garaged for many years and was bought by seller from 85 year old man who was being moved into retirement (read nursing) home. odometer said 37,000. tranny had first and reverse only. engine sounded great. he had put it up for sale that week. seller had several inquires already and said someone was on their way over as we spoke. he was asking 2K for the car. i was about done looking at it and thinking it was exceptional car, when prospective buyer pulls up. I had no thoughts of buying a car when leaving my house to walk my cat but there i was thinking, "snooze- you loose" so i said I'd give him $1,800 cash right now. seller said, "O.K." other buyers were busy with big magnet looking for bondo and one asked if it was still for sale. seller said, "No. this gentleman just bought it." prospective buyer was crestfallen and said, "how much?" seller said, "18 hundred." prospective buyer said, "I'll give you 23 hundred cash right now." i'm thinking, damn. here i am -in a bidding war on a car i didn't really want that badly. buyer said, "sorry. I already sold it to this guy for 18 hundred and thats that."
True story.
so i bought it and after a week of investigative research, had it towed to Transmission Specialists in Norman. $2,200 later, i was able to drive it. stupidly, i felt compelled to test drive it to OKC on I-35 and back. about 35 miles round trip. got back home, parked it and walked back into the house thinking, "wow! i love this car!" about ten minutes later a loud bang had me running back outside to find out left front tire had blown out at the sidewall. car had incredibly old dry rotted bias ply firestone tires. if they weren't the originals, they were second set. original spare is still in the trunk. but enough about me.
engine is 215 CID aluminum block with 2 barrel. i.d. tag still on carb. has add-on AC that is old R12 freon - of course. belt still on but clutch does not engage. sigh. air filter says, "Rocket 8" - not 88, 8. no power anything.
Trans column shifter reads from left to right, P N D S L R. who ever thought having reverse at the bottom was a good idea? tranny has mechanical kickdown from carb linkage to tranny. another strange piece of engineering.
according to the build sheet which was in the glove box the tranny is a 4 S Hydra-Matic. Trans shop owner showed me the trans after it was torn down. i'm 67 and have seen my share of trany guts. these were exceptionally clean. there was a broken spring but they replaced all moving parts after 2 week search found them in Tenn. the car was built in Kansas City. I hopefully will figure out how to import pix of the car.

 

Welcome to the site!
I moved your posts into your first central greeting thread - others were in wrong places.
Sounds like you got a good deal on your '62 - neat story as well!
Glad the tire blew in the driveway - replace them all before driving it more.
I am sure one of us can decode the VIN - just let us know what it is.

 

Cool story, welcome to the site. Post some pictures and your vehicle info so some of the guys can help you figure out what you have.

 

It makes a pleasant change to hear of dealing with a man who stands by his word as you did when you purchased your car.
Apart from replacing the tires I hope you give the car a thorough mechanical inspection before you next trip, particularly the brakes and suspension, but not forgetting changing fluids and checking the cooling system too.


Sounds like you got a good deal, can we have some pictures please?.


Roger.

 

i uploaded pix of this car but i obviously did it wrong. i'll try again.
I was promised a free VIN read for joining this site. a lady moderator said give her the VIN. here it is. 621K02712

standby for pix. (i hope)
well, i used the "insert image" icon above but still unable to upload pix. frusturating.

 

I've never once heard of a free decoding of the VIN if you join this site.

VIN's from back then didn't tell you much more about the car than you could determine by just looking at it.

Your VIN decodes as a 1962 F-85 Deluxe built at Kansas City, Kansas.

62 = model year
1 = series (F-85 Deluxe)
K = assembly plant (Kansas City)
02712 = unit number at the KC plant

http://www.v8cars.hu/oldsvin/decode.php

 

Certainly if you ask someone on this site will be happy to decode your vin for you.
But as Jaunty said, your vin won't tell you much.


This site is free to join, no special offers to induce you to join.
Welcome to the site, we hope you can benefit from the vast pool of combined knowledge and experience available here. Maybe you will come up with something you have learned elsewhere that will benefit us too.


Roger.

 

I am guessing he saw an ad somewhere that had the VIN offer, but since many of us use ad blockers, we do not see them.

Hope you stick around - much more cool and useful info here aside VIN decoding!
If you need help getting your pictures up, there are helpful hints in the Site Help section.

 

i should change my screen name to idiot whiner. thank you guys for straightening me out. i was thinking the vin # was going to tell me paint color, trans info, engine info, yadda yadda. i get it now and again, thank for help and thanks for not talking down to me. i''m about ready to drive this f-85 off a cliff. i've looked at enough web sites now to realize i'm not going to find a nice, ready to bolt in, master cyl. car runs great but won't stop. driving it off cliff requires no brakes and it looked cool when Susan Sarandon drove her T-Bird off that cliff din Thelma and Louise. i've also realized i must own the last existing '62 f-85. i've not found one for sale anywhere on the inter-web. hmmmm. i'll keep looking and keep checking this site. i'll also keep trying to get some pics up here. it's still confounding me.
also, i did put new tires on it the same day i had the blow out. also dumped diff. oil (which was amazingly clean) and rpl it with 90wt. changed oil (duh), yanked drums and checked brakes. no leaking wheel cyl. but if i ever find new master cyl, i'll probably blow wheel cylinders. aaaand now i know why i should have let the other guy have this f-85. my daily driver is a '65 Ranchero. 289 2bbl, pw strg and pw brakes. ford only made 500 rancheros with these options. it's got 197 K on the engine with nary a major problem. my aunt bought it brandy new and i talked her out of it about 15 years ago. i've driven it from okc to denver and back twice this year. i swear there is nothing partswise, that i can't find for my ranchero. and to think i've always been a GM person. go figger.

 

Post a clear photo of the body cowl tag, which should be under the hood on the firewall on the driver's side. It'll have codes on it that can tell more about the car, such as the original paint color or colors.

It'll look something like this, although this one is from a '71 Chevy.

cowltag.jpg



Here's an older one, this from a '53 Chevy.

IMAG0396.jpg

 

Ok, what issues do you have with your car?. Sounds like you have a brake problem and some other issues as well.
Give us the symptoms and as much additional information as you can and we will do our best to guide you into getting your car fixed and fun to drive again.


A car over half a century old will almost certainly have problems, you've known your Ranchero all its life, and no doubt it's a fine automobile, your Olds could be just as good, but be prepared to put some money into it to get it into shape.


Roger.

 

Rockauto shows a master cylinder repair kit for the 62 f85...

1962 OLDSMOBILE F85 3.5L 215cid V8 : Brake/Wheel Hub : Master Cylinder Repair Kit
RAYBESTOS Part # MK427
Professional Grade
Power Brakes
$5.16

RAYBESTOS Part # MK234
Professional Grade
Manual Brakes
$11.21

ACDELCO Part # 18G1228
{#19113997} Professional Durastop
Manual Brakes
$16.36

Maybe it would be worth a shot of a rebuild if you cannot find a new one. Eastwood sells a great brake solvent resistive gray paint for the finishing touch.

 

still trying to put pics here. above this text body there are many icons. the only one that looks helpful is the little curvy arrow that says "insert image" i tried to up loaded pics thru that icon. no luck. can someone direct me?
i'd be grateful. tks,
ronny

 

I usually load up pictures on the picture hosting site such as flickr, imageshack, etc., than copy the link, click on insert picture icon and paste the link in the little box that comes up there.
I hope this makes sense.

 

Nope. That button allows you to input a link to a photo hosted on another site like Picasa or Photobucket.

To post pictures to this site, scroll down below the message entry window and click on "manage attachments." When you do that, a box will pop up allowing you to upload from your computer up to 5 photos per posted message. When posted, thumbnails of the images will appear, and people will have to click on the thumbnail to see the full-size image. The advantage of linking to photos hosted on a third-party site is that they appear in the body of the message full size, rather than as thumbnails.

 

First Click on the attachments icon it looks like a paper clip. That will open a new screen, on the top where it says "upload file from computer" click on browse and find the image on your computer you want to upload then click on upload and close the window.



Upload File from your Computer

 

dear Lady72 i tried uploading my pix of my olds mobile. it tried to upload them and then i got this error msg

Your submission could not be processed because a security token was missing.

If this occurred unexpectedly, please inform the administrator and describe the action you performed before you received this error.

can you help me with this?

 

to the other folks that chimed in here, thanks. i have put new tires on it. my grandmother said "the lord looks for babies and fools." amen to that. i was lucky that tire didn't blow on the test drive i took it on.
FYI i put out feelers out for a master cyl for this olds. i got a reply from a place called Quality Auto Parts. they gave me a number to call which i did. i can't say for sure but i believe dealing with this place would be a disaster. they had a "used' master cyl for my car, delivered to my door for $439.00. he guaranteed it would work. 30 day warranty. i said, "no thanks" he said he had "hundreds" of warehouses in the united states and i had a hard time getting off the phone with him. he wanted my credit card number really bad.
the master cylinder worked" veddy veddy good" he told me that over and over. i"m just saying....... thanks again to folks that gave me good advise here. i appreciate the help. I've asked the nice "Lady" who is guiding me thru the ropes, for some advise. think i won't get out of the "Newbie" site for a while.

 

One common problem for pictures not uploading here is that they are too big in size. This site chokes on any picture over 1.5Mb. You would either need to take the picture in a smaller size or convert it smaller with a photo processing software.

$439 for a used master? Glad you RAN!!!
Get a cheap rebuild kit, a brake hone, and rebuild it yourself (or find a local mechanic or friend to do it for ya!)

 

Does that story have SCAM written all over it or what??!!.


If you can't find a master cylinder there will surely be a machine shop that will reline and rebuild your old unit for a lot less than $439. And you will be face to face with whoever will do it, not giving him your credit card details down the phone.
Plenty of members on this forum who can help, but don't forget not all of us check out the forum on a daily basis. It may take a while for someone who has the part or information you need to spot your post. Put up a "parts wanted" post with "master cylinder" in the title, that might catch the eye of someone who might not read all new posts.
I hope you get your picture posting issues sorted out, I resort to waiting for my niece to have trouble with her car so I can exchange fixing her car for her fixing my computer, well my lack of computer skills really .


Roger.