Well I guess this is the place to introduce myself. My name is Frank Martin, I'm 74 and live in Connecticut. I'm going to tell you about my first Oldsmobile. The garage that performs the work I can no longer do, also sells a few cars. About six weeks ago I spotted a car on the lot that looked pretty good. Upon closer inspection what I found was a 1974 Omega 2dr. with a vinyl top. The paint had some very minor surface rust, but the vinyl top and the interior were both like new. The chrome and stainless was perfect and dent free. The original owner was a woman, who in 2008 had passed away at the age of 101. She stopped driving it in 1988 and parked it in a garage with just 9,005 miles on the odometer. In October the property owner brought it over to the repair garage with instructions to get $2,000 for it. The uninformed property owner merely saw the service rust, misread the odometer and thought it had 90,000 miles on it. He just wanted to get what he thought was an old junk off his property. About an hour after he left it on the lot, I came along and immediately wrote a check. Well I think that's enough for now....Thanks

 

Welcome aboard Frank. Good story. Sometimes the luck holds out...We would love to see some pics of the car.

 

Great story!
Any more imfo on the car....power options engine, etc.....

Welcome to CO...a ton of imfo available!

 

Welcome Frank. We would sure like to see some pictures of your car. Perfect timing for you. What are your plans for the car?

 

Right place at the right time. I am always at the wrong place at the wrong time

Glad to have you with us and X2 on some pictures

 

Welcome, yes post some pictures.

 

Well! Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures. I'm afraid they wont be very interesting, as I've removed almost all the trim in anticipation of repainting and I am also sanding and priming. As mentioned the car had minor surface rust, but there is just a lot of it. My ill health prevents me from working on it for more than a few hours at a time. Also I now live in a condo with no garage, so finding a place to work on it usually ends up with neighbors complaining about the noise. Right now the focus is on the drivability. So far I've replaced the gas tank, the lines and fuel pump with new. The brakes were shot. Brake fluid had leaked on the shoes and penetrated them. I did catch a break on the second day of ownership when I opened the trunk to find 4 wheel cylinders and a master cylinder in new boxes. No idea how. Knowing The carb had issues, I decided to up-grade the 1bbl with a Webber 2bbl. Then I thought, as long as I'm in the neighborhood I might as well put on a ceramic coated split exhaust manifold, and because I like to be noticed, combined it with a pair of Smittys. OK purists I'm saving those kind of parts so it can be returned to stock if the next owner wants. Oh! forgot to mention it's a 6 and I really don't much care. We named her "Lucille"as in the song "Come away with me Lucille, in my merry Oldsmobile"

later I would be interested in hearing from you regarding paint color and other ideas I have. Right now I think I'll put my hip back into joint and take a nap......Thanks Frank

 

Welcome Frank, sounds like a great find. Good luck with it and looking for the pics

 

Good morning everyone,

I would like to talk about what "Lucille the Oldsmobile" needs, hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I need good taillight bezels, or replace the taillights with something different. I was looking at a 64 Dynamic 88 and thought the lights would look cool on "Lucille". So something that a person viewing her has to take a second look and wonder about it. There is another thing, and it's concerning the rear bumper. In 74 the rear was mandated to include the 5 mph impact stuff. The rear bumper was moved back an inch or two to accommodate the change. But instead of making a new splash panel, Oldsmobile just added about an 1" to 2" strip to the panel and it looks terrible. So I'm wondering if I remove the 5mph arrangement and the strip I should be able to move the bumper closer. Does this sound like something that will work? I would also like to find bumper guards, both front and rear.

Since I have to paint "Lucille", I'm thinking a creamy white and match the light green color of the vinyl top for racing stripes, front and rear. This will co-ordinate with the spotless, original interior. The final change will be the steering wheel from another Olds that is more racy looking. Can use help there also. The last thing is to make my own version of the "ice cube trays" found on the hoods of SS chevelles, Cameros, and Novas. I think that will complete the look I'm after. Any help or suggestions, or any input will be welcomed.............Thanks, Frank, csp654.

 

welcome frank always good to see an olds guy from Ct

 

do you live here also?

 

yes in in near Danbury

 

Welcome aboard Frank.
Sounds like a nice project.
Does it have the SS-3's or
caps only? Pics can be posted
at the bottom of your post, just
click go advanced, you should
be able to load some up.

Great story and good luck with it.
Stripes? How about a two-tone?
Just a thought.

 

Frank, I like the way you think about you rear bumper issue. Lets say, you remove the five mile/hr shock thingee and have some new brackets fabricated that suck it in closer? But then I don't know how to trim that out to look good, but maybe that's not so hard.

Oh, and about your steering wheel, there might be a possibility that the later omegas(like yours) had a four spoke sport wheel option that looks a lot like the earlier sport wheels just a smaller circumference. Anybody have a lead on that?

Look forward to your progress.

 

Thanks to you both. I'll tell you tru-blu making a decision on color, where and what is not easy. With the lt. green vinyl top it's already 2 tone What I want is to what I call grounding it. The color is duplicated elsewhere on the car. A striped hood and deck would do just that. Thank you to Don. I really appreciate what others think. On the bumper, I don't know what's inside the tubes or pipe, which-ever. I'm thinking to take out the bolts closest to the gas tank. Remove the bumper to the workbench and use my Dremel cutter to scribe a line on the length of the pipe, cut about an inch and a half out, line up the scribe marks and tack it, then weld it and put the bumper back on. Your thoughts?

 

just a slow start

 

It sure is clean.
Your right though. Picking the
colors will take some thought.

 

Welcome to CO, cool car. I see by your user name you might know my Father In Law,
D. Bragg. Good luck on your project.

 

You don't mean Donny do you

 

giving some thought to your response about stripes. They may "guild the lilly" maybe a 1/2" to 3/4" stripe along the sides, matching the top will look better.

 

Welcome to CO Frank! Sounds like a nice car, look forward to seeing the before and after pics.

 

[QUOTE=csp654;617662]You don't mean Donny do you[/QUOT

Why yes! That's my father in law, do you feel sorry for me. I'll PM you.

 

Picking colors is hard. Even if you had a black or white interior. That would seem easy, but not so. Green seems to give you limited choices...like black stripes or white ones...I don't know, two tone green, light and dark might work quite well.

Nice pics...anymore?

 

Hi Don71, Your input is most valued. The easy way out is keep it the same way as it left the factory. Which is what your suggesting. The problem is the two shades of green on the car just don't work well in my opinion. One way however is to keep the bottom the same, which is Cypress Green and dye the vinyl top. Since there's no a/c I wouldn't want a dark color. I'm thinking a cream color. I found one called Wimbledon White. It's creamy with just the most slight hit of green. If I then use the same color with a 1/2' to 3/4" stripe along the side to ground the color, I think it would work well, as well as being much easier with not having to paint the inside of the doors and trunk. What do you think?.....Frank