1988CutlassGT

Im a newbie here guys nice to be involved. In 1995 I purchased my 1st car which was a 1983 Cutlass Calais ,same as the Cutlass Supreme. It was white with the white vinyl top, it had the v6 engine maroon int, power everything and a floor shift. I love the design of these years of the Cutlass. I had 4 cutlass' in my early drving years and modified all to fit my likes at the time. I got married had kids and lost funds to have a Cutlass in my garage. Recently I managed to save some extra $$ and began my search. I prefer the maroon int with the floor shift, not easy to find...I was trying to find an interior i could salvage. Then I decided to look for a 442 since it would make finding the maroon int and floor shift easier to find...while upgrading in the process. Ive had Cutlass' since I could drive and followed and drooled at every car show since then but never knew of the 88 Gt. I know its just basically a "looks" upgrade only, but lets face it if you love the 80's G body Cutlass'...you dont love them for their speed anyways. Its their prescence and outstanding lines that make it stand out. I live in Pennsylvania and located this car in North Carolina, the next day myself and my son left at midnight and drove 16 hours straight to get this beauty back home. Now she is in need of a good amount of work and is missing some key parts but I love the challenge in making this car come back to life. I will pass this car down to my son one day so we plan on doing alot of the work ourselves. It makes me smile seeing a 10 year old boy falling for the same beauty that stole my heart 17 years ago, hopefully he will know better then to let her get away.

Allan R

Welcome to C.O.
Great story and plan for the car. When you get a chance throw some pics up so we can see it?

I love the look of that car, and was really sad Olds discontinued that final refinement of the G body in early 88.
88CutlassGTe.jpg

rocketraider

Which # car do you have? Supposedly 287 built out of a projected run of 400, though I think there were a few conversions done very late in the year for certain Olds dealers. You can usually tell those because they will have rocker panel trim, and the original car orders deleted it.

Tops & Trends is still in business http://www.topsandtrends.com/ . At one time they still stocked the original striping and lettering for the GT. Not sure about the hood scoop. Those were notorious for flying off the cars anyway. Knew one guy who put his back on four times.

What other "key parts" are you missing?

1988CutlassGT

I am having issues uploading pics it says my upload fails. Yeah it has the brass plaque on the console #185 it has bucket seats like I havent seen on others but they appear to have come with the car. The hood scoop is missing and the left side of the 3 piece wing is missing{ the little 3 inch turn down piece}. It has been buffed down and the body is straight as an arrow with no rust anywhere, which I was suprised since almost all year Cutlass' have the trunk rust issue. And for some reason right behind both front wheels the lower front fender is cut off or broke off...Im not sure what happened but I will buy 2 donor fenders and just cut and replace the missing 4 inch corners. yeah I am really excited about this build the last owner said he was getting oil in his radiator so he started to swap a 350 in the car, but only started removing the 307 which is still in the car to which I will have rebuilt. I am not worried about the speed or trying to be the fastest, i know its just a package done by a dealer, but rare is rare no matter how you cut it. And i cannot wait to pull up to a car show and have the only car of my kind there...thats what its all about, to me anyway. I did find alot of scoops online that look like they will work, but I would really like to have excact whether its new or used. I heard somewhere its like the 442 scoop but longer. If I am going to have a one of a kind I want the parts that make it special to be factory if possible. I hope I dont have to buy the whole wing just for that left side piece but if anyone knows where to buy those parts please inform me because there isnt much info out here,.even on the web...thanx guys

1988CutlassGT

Yeah Allen I always said that Olds shouldof re done the cutlass supreme like chevy did the camaro, or the mustang before they closed doors. Is that your Gt in the pic...nice car doesnt have the hood scoop...now is that by choice or just cant find one?? Rocket thanx for the info I will see what they have left for my car because i will need the decals and such, they are there on the car but will need new for paint time

rocketraider

The hood scoop and the spoiler are different from factory Hurst/442 pieces. I'm not sure exactly where T&T sourced those but as pointed out above they are still in business and will be who you need to talk to about this car. Been a while since I talked with them but pretty sure they still have all the original sales orders and everything.

It is not a dealer conversion. The GT was a sales promotion car made for Raleigh/Charlotte NC sales zones, similar to the Y76 cars. Selling dealer ordered the car thru Highland Oldsmobile in Winston-Salem NC and it was delivered to T&T in Kernersville for the conversion. After conversion it went to the ordering dealer.

They're interesting cars though I know several G-body "purists" who dismiss them completely- one of them I think mainly because he wasn't "in" on the project like some of us were.

Be prepared to have the GT challenged at car shows and especially Oldsmobile shows by people who don't know the story behind them. They were a VA/NC thing but yours is the second one I know that has made it to PA, and there are also a couple in OH.

I had the chance to buy car #7 several years back and by the time I had a day off to go make the deal, someone else was driving it off the lot.

69HO43

Not sure if that's Allan's or not, but that car was sold on ebay several years ago. I saved all those pics as well from the ad since you rarely see one in that good of shape.

Here's some pics of the car. First one has the scoop the guy had with the car, but I think the ad mentioned he never put it on (or maybe it flew off too and never re-installed it?).

Allan R

69 - No it's not my car. I just posted that pic for anyone who wanted to see what the GT looked like. I really like the look as it basically has the body aesthetics of the 83/84 HO's. Almost bought one of them, but went for the 83 Regency Brougham instead. It was the same price! (and I needed a bigger car at the time)

Stevec

They should have had a V6 turbo like the Buick Grand National. Just a thought!

1988CutlassGT

Wow alot of great advice thanx guys I am soo excited to begin this with my boy. At least i know the correct history and where to begin my search for the missing elements. Ive already had some interesting conversations with people that say my car doesnt exist or was never made. Thats why I want the original sales orders or brochures maybe...hopefully??! Both disbelievers have worked at different junk yards their whole working lives but now have seen the car and cant wait to see it finished...and go for a ride. For those purists that deny the car...all I will say is that it is here, it was produced , Americans built it and that i dont really give a *&^% what they think. I am going to try and work on getting these pics up...thanx again guys for the support. I feel like Im not taking this on all by myself anymore

1988CutlassGT

Ive always been a fan of the Grand National, I had the chance to test drive one when it was only 5 or soo years old, was very impressed with how smooth and quiet the power was. But for me the look of the Cutlass, done correctly is un matched. And just for the record, I love the late 60s early 70s Cutlass as well and even though Ive never had one I want one in my garage eventually. Nothing like the feel and sound of true 70s muscle car

1988CutlassGT

Finally figured out how to upload...i think. I do have the hood...minus the scoop. He had it off since he was going to take the motor out. I put it in the bed of my truck for travel

OLD SKL 69

Welcome to CO. Like the car, looks like a great starting point. For original information on the car (window sticker), go to www.gmmediaarchive.com. They have it supposedly for every Oldsmobile produced since 1977. Cost is $50.

1988CutlassGT

cool thanx...will need that document

rocketraider

You'll have to give T&T the car's VIN as well as the plaque number to get the stripes and probably the other parts too, if they still have them. At one time they wouldn't sell them to you otherwise due to terms of the agreement they had with GM to produce the cars.

1988CutlassGT

Will do Raider thanx

oldsguybry

Nice looking car !

1988CutlassGT

thanx oldsguy

Olds_71_442

Is the car sanded? The black above the stripe looks like it's dull from being sanded. Not only that, it look like it was done in patches or sand stripes? I'm assuming the previous owner was sanding it to prep it for paint?

Also, you mentioned in a previous post that the fenders in front of the wheels had a piece missing. It looks like they were cut because he had wheels too wide or too large and wouldn't pass when he tried to turn the steering wheel?

Nice car, though. I wouldn't mind having one of those, myself. I'm trying to make a deal for a 1988 Monte SS, at the moment.

69HO43

If they do not have the decals available any more (I think they used to have them) then take great pictures, measurements, and see if a local vinyl sign shop can reproduce them. (and if so, tell them to save the plot files for you!!)

It doesn't look undoable, but it sure is going to be a complete going through to make it look showroom again.

It would seem to me if the purist that denys the 88 GT isn't much of a purist IMO. They should know that the car actually existed. I've personally seen 5 of these and a few in for sale ads on the internet over the years, and there's no doubt they exist.

1988CutlassGT

Yeah the previous owner didnt know what he had. He had put a cherry bomb exhaust on the car, was in the process of removing the stock 307 to put in a chevy 350 and sanded the paint for paint prep to paint it. I am glad I bought this car before he removed its heart and did further damage. I want to bring this car back to a driver condition. I want the paint and body to be showroom but the int for now I will replace carpets have the headliner and front buckets redone to match and clean up the vinyl, replace steering wheel cover rear seats are like new and I want to drive this car for now. Thanx for the info on the stickers, I figured that would be difficult. I am figuring the body and paint will be most of my budget when done. Noone has really touched on tweaking the paint color. I was thinking of tweaking the upper paint color from claret to a very dark black cherry But now I think Im hearing my color might not be a popular one on the Gts...might sway me even more to keep paint compl stock . One day I will do a full frame off resto on this car probally once I get another toy i can spend my weekends driving hopefully a late 60s early 70s 442. Nice color by the way olds 71 . yeah thats what i assume for the cut fenders too...wheels to large. dont know who starts hacking off body parts for tires, inside wheel wells are different but cutting the visible part of a fender is a little crazy to me. I was at a junk yard yest with my son trying to find donor front fenders when a 86 or so monte carlo ss aero coupe pulled in ...some people didnt like those...i did...same basic car as the Cutlass...just a lil faster and wider...good luck with your negotiating

rocketraider

Heh. That cherry bomb is actually close to what the cars had. They had a low-restriction muffler installed at T&T and I think most were some type of glass pack. I've known a couple that had 442/Hurst style duals installed by owners. I think the other thread has a picture of one that still has the dual outlet TransAM style tip T&T put on.

On the paint- if you like the dark claret or black cherry (not a lot of difference really) then use it. The reason most were black or charcoal was because the idea was to evoke the 83-84 Hurst/Olds appearance-wise. Then people started asking for other colors. To me the dark blue ones are the best-looking, but JMHO.

I will say up front- thank you for saving this car from a yahoo who obviously did not know or care what he had and was prepared to commit an ultimate sin against it. That's often the fate of a specialty car like a Hurst, MCSS etc especially in this part of the world- the original owner will usually cherish and maintain it pretty well, but once they get into the used car pipeline they tend to go to hell rapidly. By the time they hit the finance car lots they become very attractive to trailer trash types who just have to "modify" (read butcher) them- they can't stand it. And then what was once a proud and desirable car is generally junkyard-bound.

And please please please tell us that Aero Coupe wasn't bound for that junkyard! I was never too crazy about the outsized rear window on it or the GP 2+2, thought it made them look stubby in the back end, but unless absolutely trashed, those cars are too rare to let them perish in a junkyard.

HO43- you'd have to know this guy.

1988CutlassGT

no the aero coupe was BEAUUUtiful had me drooling a little anticipating my car being that clean. Yeah the aero coupe is either hate it or love it..i always loved the look. I have always liked the black cherry paint and i think it would really set this car off. I would just hate to spend all that $$ on paint and wished Id gone black cherry. That is the last step soo i have a while to ponder over that. I am glad i saw this car too i really beat him up for it too i think....he wanted $3000... he paid $3500 a couple months back it was running then but I left him with 10 $100 bills and trailered her on home. So with the exhaust if i just do a nice flowmaster or magna flow replica I should be fine then ??

texxas

Since the last owner may have been some what of a yahoo, judging by his modifications to the car, I'd take his diagnosis of the oil in the radiator = bad engine with a grain of salt. It could be transmission fluid in the radiator which could = cracked internal transmission cooler in the radiator. A radiator is cheaper than another engine. I would not go off the information from the PO. I'd make sure you check it all out yourself. Very cool car, glad you're putting it back right.

Olds_71_442

Did a teenager or someone in their early 20s own this car before you? That's who comes to mind when cutting those fenders to fit oversized tires on the front.

I liked all those G body cars from the 80s, myself. I owned two Cutlass Supremes and a Grand Prix. Never had a Monte SS before. My friend had one and spent a fortune on it trying to make it into a powerhouse, but ended up making it slower than when he had the 305 HO in it. It would spin it's tires until they blew up, though.

1988CutlassGT

yeah Im not about being fast with this car...Ill wait for my 70s olds for thaT.Yea a kid in his early 20s had the car, back woods trailer is where i picked the car up.

Bernhard

Cool car I never new they made a GT G body. Did they use the H/O hood scoop or other?