Lizard

I acquired a 69 442, which has been my dream muscle car for 30 years. After seeing this car sitting in a yard, I approach the owner asking if it was for sale. I was told "No." I knew the car ran because the car would be moved around to different places in the yard over the years. Over the years I asked the owner repeatedly if the car was for sale, and finally I was given a price which to me for the condition of the car was outrageous, but the car did run. Over the next 10 years I again Ask the owner about the price of the car, and eventually he came down to a price that I felt was reasonable. $5,000. Now I will tell you the story of my 442, named her Grace. I named her that because my adventure with her has been truly amazing. This is the story of my Amazing Grace. Her rear window was not installed, it was just laying in place. So over the years the rainwater had leaked in and destroyed the rear quarter panels inside. The rear deck was also damaged beyond repair or salvage. I installed the rear window and then after working on her to get her roadworthy, adding radiator flush to the motor and radiator (bad move), installed spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, changed the oil and transfer fluid, PS fluid, distributor cap, insalled a high velosity oil pump and new battery etc. I fired her up. She ran smooth. With Grace purring, I drove to the tire shop to get her some new shoes. Boy did she look funny with a layer of dirt and cobwebs with a fresh pair of running shoes. Her old shoes had weathered cracks in the side and I did not trust them. But on the drive to the tire shop, the vehicle in front of me through up a rock and cracked her beautiful windshield. She didn't have any trim around the windows as the previous owner was in the process of removing the trim to have her painted, but that was decades ago. With Grace's new sneakers installed, I drove over to my boyfriend's house to show him Grace. He came out to look at the car, and when we were both looking at her we noticed that there was water leaking down from the engine compartment near the firewall. The heater control valve had took a crap. Luckily I was able to find one at a local auto parts store, and install the new heater control valve. Then when I was driving back to my house, some guy had his truck right on Grace's rear end and she didn't like that, so I assisted her in a little bit of track running and hit the accelerator, Grace took off like a bullet, leaving that guy in the dust and I couldn't help but giggle inside. I'm sure Grace and I were both so happy to finally have her on the road. So after the dusting of the truck, I turned onto my street and then attempted to turn into my driveway, but apparently over the years since Grace hadn't been eating well, Grace decided to die halfway into my driveway. I got out of the car and was trying to figure out how to get the car out of the road and into the driveway because there was a slight incline and there was no way I was going to be able to push Grace up the driveway by myself ( I didn't want to tell her to her face that she weighed a lot). No one else was available to help me push Grace. As I'm standing there looking at Grace, dead, halfway in the road and halfway in my driveway, I'm watching a car coming down the road with a girl texting on her phone and not paying any attention to the half of my newly-acquired 442 hanging out into the street. I reached in and honked Grace's horn, thankfully it did work and the girl looked up just in enough time to swerve and miss hitting the rear end of Grace. Since she is a carbureted model, I was able to pour gas down into the carburetor and start her up and move forward a few feet at a time and finally got her out of the roadway. After replacing the fuel pump she fired up and ran just fine. But while I was sitting there listening to her run I could hear another noise, so I turned the motor off so I could hear the noise a little bit better. It was water pissing out of the side of the freeze plug. The engine/radiator flush was very effective in removing any rust or debris inside the engine and radiator, including the rust that was holding this steel freeze plugs together. So I went down to the auto parts store and I bought a couple of temporary freeze plugs. You may ask why I bought two of them, because that little voice told me that I needed too. So I popped out the first bad freeze plug and I install the temporary freeze plug because I really just wanted to drive Grace around and find out all the little things that she needed to take care of her. And after installing the first temporary freeze plug, one of the other rear freeze plugs decided to start leaking as well. So I installed the second temporary freeze. I fired Grace up again and she was running for a couple of minutes and then all of a sudden the rear freeze plug on the opposite side of the motor started pissing out like a racehorse. I shut the motor down and watched the rest of the fluid leak out from the freeze plug. I decided right then and there that I needed to pull the motor out of Grace and start the restoration right. Even though I was excited to get Grace on the road and drive her for that brief short five mile trip, I have started on the adventure of bringing her back to life. I pulled her heart out, replaced the old steel freeze plugs with beautiful brass freeze plugs, changed all of her gaskets, have given her a new timing chain and gears, new water pump, new hoses, belts, motor mounts, transmission mounts, painted up her heart really pretty and settled it back down in her chest. She still isn't running yet because I have to hook up the torque converter and the exhaust, put the starter back in, hook up the radiator Etc. But I'm very close to getting Grace back onto the road. But I do need to put the windshield back in her cuz as of yet she doesn't have a windshield. When the windshield was removed from her after it was cracked on the way to the tire shop, I noticed that there was nothing but rust across the cowling under the window windshield, so that has to be repaired before I can put a new windshield back in her. Then I plan on painting her the original maroon color with a white Landau top. I will be adding Stripes to her even though she didn't look like she had any, but the build sheet is not in the car which is quite sad, so I can put striping on her and no one will be the wiser. I will keep you updated on what's going on with Grace.

oldcutlass

Cool story, welcome to the site. Now all we need are some pictures.

My2nd 69 442

Lizard,
What part of Tucson are you in. I'm on the far East side.
I also have a 69 442, but my car is in perfect condition and doesn't need anything other than lots of gas.
If you get a chance, PM me your location. I would love to see your project and talk cars.
Best of luck with your project and Welcome to the site.

don71

Best of luck Lizard. Hope you can bring her around. Your story is a good one that many of us can relate to in some way. Its a labor of love...and welcome to the site.

rcorrigan5

Welcome to this site, the best Olds site around! Show us your car when you get a chance. Lots of '69 owners here, their expertise available at the asking of a question!

Randy C.

'68 4-4-2 convertible
'69 4-4-2 convertible

anthonyP

Hopefully everything goes smoother from this point on. From what I have read and seen, all of the '69 442's had standard pin striping on the hood and trunk lid, which was just enough to nicely highlight those parts. For some reason, you rarely see the pin striping nowadays when the car is repainted. In the same realm, many have replaced the hood pin striping with the W-30 only hood stripes. Personally, I prefer the hood pin striped.

Lizard

I have posted a few in my album

Lizard

I'm on the NW side of town. Don't know how to PM on this site yet, lol

Lizard

My name is Lizard, (stop giggling). You can call me "Liz" for short. I don't fart dust, but I will someday sooner than later. I live in Tucson AZ (where cars don't fall apart from rust) and finally got my dream car, 69 442, but she needs some work. My dad ruined me when I was young by taking me to the circle track and drag strip. I'm a tomboy and proud of it. The love of old classic cars runs through my veins. I'm here to get educated by people who love Oldsmobiles. Glad to meet you all and I hope to make some friends here. I have a weird sense of humor so you are warned. Life's to short to waste time on things that don't make you smile.

Jamesbo

Welcome aboard

tru-blue 442

Welcome Liz. Post some pics of that bad boy (or girl), ha.
You will find many kindred spirits here on CO.

A pic of my 69 442 in a million pieces, but hopefully I will be able to get
back on it one day before I turn to dust.

Jamesbo

click on his name on the left hand side of the post and several options pop up

oldcutlass

I merged your 2 threads about you and your car. Now all we need are some pictures.

Lizard

will post some pictures soon. Currently trying to catch a Bugle Unicorn

QMaster

Welcome to the site Liz!