When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So excited for this new venture. Last week i brought home a 1977 Cutlass Supreme with 102k miles and in great condition. I live in Bouder Co. I would love to meet or hear from some locals. Also looking for advice on possible local mechanics or reputable shops that specialize in these Oldsmobiles. I am in love with this car and have started putting together a list of wants. Some are as follows:
• 700r4
• 3.90 posi rearend
• performance manifolds or headers with 2.5" exhaust.
• I already put a really nice set of offset Centerline wheels
• Of course I would love to do a retro / modern sound system. I didn't see my model listed on retro sounds website though. Love some advice on a sound system.
• Eventually I would love to change to a dual plane intake and fitech fuel injection. ( or other ) I plan this car to be my daily driver. That includes snowboarding trips this winter.
The car also has a brand new quadra jet 4bble carb. I need to tune it i believe. I have tuned holleys before so I'm somewhat verses. I'm not sure which port is manifold vacuum for my gauge. Also not sure what all to plug up for the existing vacuum lines for carb tuning. Maybe some input for this would be great. Anyhow I'm super excited to be here and looking forward to learning tons. Thanks
Also i am glad to share my vin# in hope someone can help me find info on the car. Very curios what the rear gears are. I would guess 2.8ish
Welcome to the site! Drivetrain parts are easy to find. But the 1973-77 vintage cars don't have as much reproduction parts available as the 1964-72.
More can be learned from the trim tag than the vin number. The trim tag is located on the firewall under the hood near the brake booster. If you can take a good picture of the trim tag and post it I'm sure member here can decode it for you. John
I just went out and looked I can't find anything under the brake booster at all. hard to see under there too. Here is the vin and the sticker on the inside drivers door...
That second sticker is not that useful as it just shows the VIN again as well as the date of manufacture.
There definitely should be a cowl tag under the hood somewhere on the firewall unless it was removed by a prior owner. It's usually riveted to the firewall, it's about the size of a credit card, and it looks like the photo below. This is for a '69 Camaro, but this is what they look like.
The VIN translates to
3 = Oldsmobile
J = Cutlass Supreme
57 = two-door coupe
R = 350 V-8, 4-bbl
7 = model year 1977
R = Arlington, Texas assembly plant
162256 = production sequence number for the Cutlass Supreme at that plant
One way you have lucked out is that your car is a 1977 Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile actually kept the dealer invoices for the 1977 and later models, and, through the GM Heritage Center, for a mere $50, they will send you a copy of it for your car. You can see the car's base cost both wholesale and retail, every option the car was ordered with, what they cost, the dealer to whom the car was shipped, and the date it was shipped.
I have a '78 Toronado, and I ordered this for my car. It's really pretty cool, but it's something that's unfortunately not available for the '76 and earlier Oldsmobiles.
I FOUND IT!!! It was on passenger side not by brake boost. Was worried I didnt have a tag for a minute. Love to have some help getting this decoded. thank you
Glad you found it. There are body tag decoders out there, but they usually stop at 1972.
I can tell you that the 01B means that it was built in the second week (B) of January (01), 1977.
The 77 next to ST on the upper left means 1977, and the 3 to the right of that means Oldsmobile division. The R just before the 6-digit number in the first indicates the Arlington assembly plant, and the six digits following it are the "body sequence number" which is not related to the VIN and doesn't decode into anything. The 080402 doesn't usually translate into anything, either. The interesting things would be the 71E and A65, as they would stand for options like moldings, tinted windshield, seat type, power antenna, that sort of thing. But not every option the car has would be on there.
I have so far not been able to decode the cowl tag on my '78 except for the date built code. Interestingly, the option codes on the cowl tag do not match up with any of the codes next to the options on the dealer invoice.
Last edited by jaunty75; November 11th, 2017 at 08:42 PM.
Here's the invoice for my car. Yours is just a year older, so I'm assuming it wouldn't be too much different, although they most likely did vary in format over the years. Post an image of yours when you get it. It would interesting to see it.
Here's the still-undeciphered cowl tag. The only things I can translate are like on your tag. It's hard to read, but in the upper left is ST 78, then 3EW57. The 57 indicates two-door hardtop coupe. I would assume the 57 in the same location on your cowl tag indicates the same thing.
LAN = Lansing assembly plant, but all Toronados were built at that plant.
The 742 is the trim code. I don't know what it translates to exactly, but the car has a red interior with red leather seats. The 79 and 79T are the paint codes for the lower and upper body colors, and those do match up with what's on the paint chip charts for that year, and indicate Carmine Red, which is sort of a dark maroon, and which is the color of the car.
8C means third week of August 1977 build date. Mine is a very early build as the VIN ends in 700005, indicating, we assume, the 5th '78 Toronado built for the 1978 model year.
I went and looked up the '78 chip chart after finding that the '77 chart has the interior color codes on the back side, and the '78 chart does as well. 74 = "dark carmine," which I take as the red color the interior is, and the 2 = leather seats, which the car has. So yay, I have translated some of the tag. Still no idea about the AM6 and the 74X.
I also notice, at far right, there appears to be another code partly hidden by screw head. It looks like "L8", and the rest is unreadable. Since the plate is screwed on, I could probably remove it and try to read what the rest of the code is. Something to do the next rainy day, which we never have around here.
Last edited by jaunty75; November 11th, 2017 at 09:20 PM.
Here's a paint chip chart for '77 Oldsmobile, and paint code 13, second one down, first column, is "silver poly," and it looks just like the color of your car.
But if you look at the lower right corner of the chart, it says that vinyl roof color 13T is also silver poly, but your car appears to have a red vinyl top.
Here's the back side of the chip chart, and it says that the interior color can be identified from the info on the cowl tag. Your cowl tag gives a trim code of 71E. 71 = "Dark Firethorn" (whatever color that is!), and the E indicates "cloth and vinyl or leather" seats. I don't know where the "door and headlining" and "instrument panel" codes are.
But see, we've translated a fair amount of your cowl tag!
You would need a 1977 Olds Chassis Service Manual to look up what the code means. If you don't have one of these, it should be your first purchase.
These are on ebay all the time. Here's both the chassis manual and the '77 Fisher Body manual in one purchase for $40 plus $6 shipping. Worth every penny and then some, and you will want the body manual as there are things covered in there that are not in the chassis manual, such as, for one example, wiring diagrams for power windows. GM produced one body manual covering all makes.
Welcome and good luck... you should also consider joining the Olds Club of America at some point..good bunch of folks, and their 73-77 adviser is right outside Denver..he's also on here ... nice guy, very knowledgeable, as are a bunch of people here.
as to your cowl tag..the fact that your vinyl top is red, and the tag says it should be silver.. quite possible it has been replaced. I can't tell from the picture but it does appear that the edge trim is not original.. the trim around the opera windows should be a plastic chrome, but they usually fell apart or warped in a few years.
Enjoy..we're all looking forward to seeing more pics..
Thank you Bill. So good to know about the Olds club and I see thres the rocky mountian chapter here. For sure going to join. That really interesting about my top. It doesnt appear to have been painted but maybe was replaced. For the trim around the opera window it is peeling a bit and chrome under but the chrome paint on plasic is bad too. Is that trim purchasable new? I'll love it to be nice shiney chrome. Super excited thank you.
Thank you Bill. So good to know about the Olds club and I see thres the rocky mountian chapter here. For sure going to join. That really interesting about my top. It doesnt appear to have been painted but maybe was replaced. For the trim around the opera window it is peeling a bit and chrome under but the chrome paint on plasic is bad too. Is that trim purchasable new? I'll love it to be nice shiney chrome. Super excited thank you.
For Olds-specific parts, Fusick is the best choice..they carry more than all of the others..As stated, parts, original or repro are fairly hard to find for our cars, but some parts are reproduced. I believe Fusick and some of the others carry the opera window moldings for your car..I'm not positive but I believe they are the same for 73-77..
The trim around your vinyl top should be metal..if it's been replaced sometimes they used a flexible vinyl trim that looks ok but is not correct..either way your car looks fine..
There's also another forum that's 73-77 specific, but not as busy- 73-77olds.com. lot of the same people there, and some others that aren't on here..again ..a lot of knowledge on these cars..have fun..
Thanks Bill. I did see the opera window trim on Fusick site. $169 not too bad. Will be ordering soon. I plan to scrub the living hell out of my rearend housing this evening after work in order to get the exact number stamping off of there to find the ratio I have. I am betting its 2.41. Will be ordering my series 3 housing with 3.42 posi gears this Wednesday. Also runniing true duals out back from manifolds next weekend. need to figure out the crossmember work around. Is there a block off plate I need for one of the manifolds when going true duals? By looking in there I am not sure what the stock pipes are doing for routing. Thanks
November 11th, 2017, 07:00 PM
