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Hi everyone,
I'm Russ. We acquired a beautiful original survivor 1937 Oldsmobile L37-3811. It's a very rare two door touring sedan with a trunk. Only 398 were built! I'll try to post a photo with this post.
According to Setting the Pace, there was both a 2-door sedan and a 2-door Touring sedan in the L-series for 1937, and it was the 2-door sedan that saw production of 398. Production of the Touring sedan, which your car definitely is based on the body style, is shown as 6,048. That made it the second-highest production 1937 L-series Oldsmobile. Only the 4-door Touring sedan was produced in greater numbers, and it was much greater at 32,705.
Beautiful car. Jaunty is correct. These illustrations are from the 1937 brochure (yeah, I realize these are six cylinder cars and not eight cylinder, but the body styles are the same). Those production numbers are available here.
Sorry to disagree with you, but that is the very mistake the printer made in the book - the numbers are not correct. The president & chief model year advisor of the NAOC can confirm it for you.
Location: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Posts: 24,525
Gorgeous looking car. Hard to fathom that's all original paint, trim and interior after all these years. Where on earth was it stored to keep it looking like that? Is the color Delmar Gray or Santone Creme? I'm kind of curious about the color scheme; it looks positively sharp, but I can't find anywhere, any references that show the car was available from the factory with 2 tone paint.
Another controversial bit of information from the Classica Car Database regarding $ and production.
Sorry to disagree with you, but that is the very mistake the printer made in the book - the numbers are not correct. The president & chief model year advisor of the NAOC can confirm it for you.
Russ, I assume you are saying that the Touring Coupe productions numbers are less than the Coupe and that the records our members cite are incorrect.
If you will examine the link Joe gave you, you will see that during the entire time that Olds made the Touring vehicles (1933 to 1938), the Touring model had greater production numbers than the corresponding non-Touring vehicles.
It is not likely that all these records are incorrect.
Go slow on telling people they have made a mistake until you get to the bottom of this discrepancy. The people on this site are at least as knowledgeable as those in NAOC and it would be well to use their knowledge to find the facts.
Location: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Posts: 24,525
Originally Posted by joe_padavano
(yeah, I realize these are six cylinder cars and not eight cylinder, but the body styles are the same).
You might want to revisit that statement. The L37 was definitely an 8 cylinder car. Or were you simply referring to the illustrations taken from the Oldsmobile SIX catalog for 1937? This one is from the 1937 Oldsmobile EIGHT catalog.
Thank you all for the warm welcome. The paint is not original. I believe the original color was Ormond tan, but the current creme & black paint scheme was done by the previous owner. Yes, this car retains it's original mohair upholstery, headliner, garnish mouldings, sun visors, & door panels. I'm in process of repairing & replacing the mechanicals. Any of you know where I might obtain the interior trim piece that mounts between the rear windshields??? Any NOS parts sources very much appreciated. Thanks for any assistance.
Location: Edmonton, AB. And "I am Can 'eh' jun - eh"
Posts: 24,525
About the only company I'm aware of that deals with cars of this vintage is Kanter Automotive Products. Link to Kanter: .https://www.kanter.com/ecatalog/0000cb.html Good luck with the project.
The paint code should be on the firewall tag.similar to this example from 1937 Buick in Chancellor Blue
Just an FYI, when a car is referred to as an original survivor, it means it's untouched and original in every category including paint. That's why I was confused about the paint scheme and quality. What you have isn't technically a survivor in collector terms. It's a very well preserved car with a lot or original parts. The Truth About Cars - Collectors Corner talks about what a survivor is if you're interested in the read : https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/20...or-car-or-not/
August 31st, 2019, 08:49 AM
