Hello everybody. I have always loved the allure of 4-4-2's and missed a chance back when I was 18. Now at 43, I had an urge to finally get one! I recently bought a 68 convertible 4 speed 442 that has an interesting Hawaiian history (still a good inspection until June next year in Hawaii), has red fender wells painted over black, original interior in great condition, except carpet, and it is looking more and more to have 14k miles, not the 114k miles that I and the son of original owner thought it has). Anyway, I love all the info you guys have on this site. Have a great Christmas (to all that celebrate)!
Shawn

 

Shawn,
Nice story and intro. Sounds like a really neat car. Would like to know why you think this is a low mileage unit. What clues were tipping the scale your way?
BTW, on C.O. it's mandatory for you to post pics of your ride.(Well that's what we tell newbies anyway). We love pics - they show the car way better than any words can.
....and....Merry Christmas / Happy New Year to you too! Don't be afraid to be politically correct - just say it like it is and was meant to be

 

Hi Allan, and thanks! I will post pics when I figure out how to add them. As far as mileage (what clues I see), the engine runs flawless, takes no oil, no noises whatsoever, the trunk has original "checkerboard" mat. Under mat, there are 2 small bands of surface rust in the channels, otherwise has original speckle coat. Seats (front and back), are original, and there is one small stich tear in passenger seat. I pulled up the new carpet to look at the floor pans and they are completely solid, not a hint of any rust. I took the car to a body man friend to go over the car and tell me how much "bad" there is. He looked it over and shook his head, as he cannot believe the car has all original sheet metal. It was painted over old paint many years ago (sloppy job, as chrome trim was never taken off), and the only body work on it is small patch in passenger rear fender with a bad match on paint for the patch fix!). The driver door is missing bottom crimp (crimped, but missed the inside edge), and the body guy said that happens more often than you think. The metal edges at the missed crimp are crisp with no sign of rust, as with the rest of the car. The interior gauges all work well, tack, AM/FM radio, power antenna (goes up about 6 feet), power top. Takes a little work to drive... All manual drums, and manual steering). The engine and trans were never rebuilt but engine was replaced under warranty with another G block when the car was new (block is not stamped). Trans is vin matching P8A17 with a 3915085 tag (Close ratio trans). Between the body guy and a friend who owns a few 442 show quality cars, they both told me it cannot have 114k. Makes sense if it was in Hawaii all it's life driven by an old guy (he is in his 80's now and had it since 1970). I am trying to get in touch with him to get more of a history, but I am extremely pleased with how tight and rust free this car is. I got real lucky, especially since I bought it without seeing it in person!

 

That was brave! Not too many people will buy without seeing it. I hope you had someone local look it over at least?

re: posting pics. See that little tab that says "go advanced" below the text box where you post. Clik that. It will open a whole new window and there will be tools at the top of the posting box. Use the one that looks like a paperclip to attach pics from your computer (my pictures). The 'manage attachments' is pretty easy to work with. If you run into any probs, LMK and I'll help walk you through it.

The other way you can load pics to this site is to use the 'insert image' tool. If you have a photobucket or similar web hosting service, just copy the URL from your pic and post it using that option.

It sounds like you got real lucky on your car. Somehow I wouldn't have thought Hawaii would be a state where you would find a rust free car though. Being surrounded by water (salt water that is) and relatively high humidity. That old guy must have kept the car in his climate controlled house....

 

What I know is the owner's wife died earlier this year (amazing and kinda creepy what research on the Internet you will find, like an obituary in the Hawaii Tribune). He gave or sold car to his son after that (car was newly titled in his sons name June of this year), son sold it to a flipper in Oregon for next to nothing (flipper was willing to tell me he got it for a steal), and I am next on title (flipper did not transfer car to his name). The car almost seems it had to have sat in a garage all it's life and hardly ever driven.

 

I did some research on where in Hawaii this car sat (as I too wondered about salt water damage, since here in PA, salted roads eat our cars alive)! The car was located in the mountain region of Waipahu, Hawaii. Talking with someone, it depends what side of Hawaii a car was located determines it's ability to survive (western winds?). Wish I lived there to know!

 

That's wierd. How did you manage to post the same thing 2X (8:13) and (8:37)?

 

Welcome to the site fellow Pennsylvanian

Pics of car?

 

Welcome and, seeing as I'm pretty partial to 68 442 four speed convertibles, let's see some pics

 

Hello and thank you Redog. You're from Philly? I'm up in Perkasie (35 miles away). Anybody have problems logging on with their computers? I moved off the IPhone so I could add some pics, but all I get is "Internet explorer cannot open the Internet site...". I can open any other web site off my computer.???

 

Perkasie, very nice area. Used to have a sales route up there. Delivered to the Landis Thriftway and the Clemens just around the corner, just over that covered bridge

I'm in NE Philly, 1 minute from the Montgomerty county line and 10 minutes from Franklin Mills Mall

 

I'm about 2 miles away from Mood's bridge (covered bridge on Blooming Glen Road) near Clemens (now Giant).

 

The 442 I bought was for sale on Ebay a few months ago by a flipper selling it as a W30, but he had a few things wrong in his description, and he didn't make himself seem very believable (had a youtube video that said that it had "D" heads, even though when asked, the "D" heads were available through another buyer he had contact with for extra $$). The flipper had the transmission listed as a P8D08A instead of the vin matching P8A17 trans that was in the car. Don't know how he got that info, but his was wrong thankfully. He lost his first sale (quite a bit more than I paid for it, I think because of his mistakes and misinformation). He also listed the rear as a "TO". I did some scraping and actually found a "TM" stamp. The engine appears to be a 69 replacement (blank tab for Vin code), as the exhaust manifolds are W and Z, the carb is a 7029251, and he bought an OAI complete intake that came with it. The Radiator is a beautiful Harrison 4 core, and the red fender wells appear original (looking at the bolts that hold them in, the bolts look like they are undisturbed). I think a few of you had a post in the ROP site that picked the car apart (and definately the seller, who was a strange one). I will say, the interior is exceptional, seats original, steering wheel is the wood type, with a tiny hairline crack on inside back side at the 3 o'clock position. Overall, a very solid and great running car that shifts amazing and engine sounds great!!

 

Here are some more pics... Thanks to all interested. I added a tag that I found hog ringed to the back seat, but I think I will make that a new thread so as not to attach too many subjects to the same thread (I would love to have someone decipher the first line of the tag)! I already contacted a few of you about the tag, but now have the ability to do it right and have this community look at it! Next thread will ask the question...

 

The only 68 Saffron W30 four speed I've seen was at John Ebbs place & if this was from Hawaii I doubt this was it.

I don't remember this car discussed on ROP. It looks real from what I've seen but the tag attached to the seat would be from Fisher Body and probably wouldn't identify it as a W30. I can make out the Y2 (Saffron with a black top) and 940 (black buckets)

Is the washer bottle on the passenger side? Does it have manual drum brakes? If the motor was changed it's quite possible that they upgraded the brakes anyway. It's very hard to find any 68 or 69's that are truly documented cars. I've only seen one 69 W30 with paperwork and that was an original window sticker. They just didn't leave build sheets in them in 68 and 69 at the Lansing plant

 

Hi Mike- This was on ROP as " '68 W30 SURVIVOR - seems legit"
Posting was started by Octania on August 14th, this year. The comments weren't very good about the car... The flipper had a pic of a corner of a 69 air cleaner and then a pic of the new OAI air cleaner in another picture. What I got out of that was that there was not an OAI air cleaner on this car since at least 1970 if it is a real W30. All the holes for the brackets are there, including the ones in the base of the radiator support. The 69 air cleaner he had showing on EBay makes sense with the warranty replacement G block that was put in the car. My only guess is that Olds was not able or did not want to honor another W30 engine, but would be good with another warranty engine available (has C heads, not D). Everything on the engine seems to be original to the engine that was put in before 1970. The owner of the car since 1970 until earlier this year had stated that nothing has been done to the engine or trans while he had the car. The flipper had the trans identified as an M20 with the incorrect P8D08A ID (he must have been drinking or something), as the trans has the 38M251801 stamp and a P8A17 date code (with a 3915085 tag bolted to the side), where the car vin is 344678M251801. The flipper relisted the car after someone "won it" for 27K and it seems they didn't follow through with the buy as there were too many things listed incorrectly (did not have D heads was one of them), and that corner of a 69 air cleaner that I think he didn't mean to have showing in a picture made him look all the more dishonest. He had about 4 or 5 youtube videos that had the car in it. After I bought the car (for way less than the original buyer on EBay), I researched it to death and came across the ROP thread. I was first kind of bothered by it, but it was actually pretty informative, and it got me to go out to my garage and look to see what the trans ID was, in which I found it was original to the car and is an M21 rather than the M20 he had listed it as! There was a link at the end of the thread by "442w30" to an Olds bulletin that alerted dealerships to be warned that the new W30 has rough idle characteristics that may be objectionable to some buyers. Very cool bulletin! It listed the options the car has to have to be a W30... M21 if it is a 4 speed, etc.

Getting back to your question, The original black washer bottle (very old and brittle) is bolted to the passenger wheel well and has a hole in it. The brakes are drums all around. It does not have power steering, but does have a power antenna and power convertible top with a glass window. The doors close better than my 2008 GT Mustang! The car came with SS1 wheels with a SS1 spare and full jack in the trunk (along with the original trunk pad). Something must have happened to the car at some time as the grill is newer, and the hood has the louvers, but also has an Oldsmobile signature emblem and rocket emblem (not even for a 442!). So I would say that all the metal is original to the car except the hood! The car was supposedly always a Hawaiian car, but I am trying to research if this is the case. W or not, I am absolutely tickled pink that I own a 68 442 (Finally)! I bought a set of D heads off a pretty nice guy in Ohio (Brian was his name), who had a complete set of 68 heads, complete with spark plugs, all valves, springs and hardware, taken off a destroyed W30 in the mid 70's (I believe he said mid or late 70's), and were put in storage since. A good friend said either way, the D heads are a good investment either on or off the car! If you ever see this car for sale, it means my wife is listing it as I would have met my maker! I am keeping this for life!

 

I'm partial to the '68 and '69 4-4-2 vert models as well. Welcome to this site. You've got one neat car and I've always liked the saffron yellow color. Enjoy your car!

Randy C.

 

[QUOTE=Redog;351815]Welcome to the site fellow Pennsylvanian

X 2
railguy

 

Welcome to the forum!!! Nice car!!!

 

Thanks for the nice welcome guys!

 

Very nice, welcome to CO