Some of you guys have seen or "heard" me talk about the '71 Delta 88 Custom 2 door hardtop with the factory W30 455 I had back in the early 2000s when I was in my early 20s....Long story slightly less long, I saw it sitting at THE classic car dealership (Gabe's Auto) in Great Falls, MT back when I was driving my 3rd 5.0 Mustang. I had no idea what it was cruising by the lot other than it was a Buick/Olds/Pontiac of some sort (we weren't into big boats then, just muscle cars), all I knew was that it just looked "right" at the time lowered down and riding on oh so cool big billet wheels. I stopped in a few times when they were closed and looked it over, and man was it clean. Almost mint, matter of fact....was no way I was affording it, I thought, I was making less than $8/hr at the time....... Well, I couldn't get the car out of my head, and ended up getting some info on it. The car was originally special ordered by a tech at the local dealership Bennett Motors with the W30 455, brown exterior, white vinyl top, brown interior with power bench, but crank windows, and it was his baby until 2001. Gabe's bought it off of him with 74k on the clock. They then lowered it, tinted the windows, re-dyed the white top a matching brown, added some Flowmaster knockoff mufflers, and put the 17x8 and 17x11 billet wheels off their company Astro Van on it, and that was it. It was set-up perfectly to me. One test drive and I traded my precious 5.0 in on it and never looked back.... The car was pretty dang impressive for a big girl. One time there was a car show a few towns away and I wanted both my Mach 1 and my Delta to be at it, so I let my Pops drive the Olds for me. When we got to the city, I had a guy in a 383 4 speed Road Runner pull up next to me in my Mach 1, which I had just got done building a nitroused Cleveland for, and he was looking for a race. I told him he probably didn't want to mess with the Mach 1, but if he could beat the old guy in the brown boat behind me, I'd run him. So I cruised down 3 blocks to watch while they waited at the stop light. When the light turned green, I could see that big brown machine just getting farther and farther ahead of that poor guy, he had no idea what he was up against. He didn't even finish the race, actually pulled off at the 2nd block, and didn't even bother to come down to talk....my Dad and I just laughed. Anyway, things happened in life, and in 2004 I could barely afford to keep the heat on in my house, let alone own 2 hot rods and a truck....My best buddy had entered the Air Force and had wanted my Olds ever since I got it (it blew his '69 LeMans's doors off more than once, he had a real good idea what '71 Oldsmobile taillights looked like). We made a deal and selling that car to him saved my house and my Mach 1 for me. He was stationed in Qatar at the time (2nd Gulf war), so I drove it over to his parents' house and parked it in their shop. I went over to their house and saw it once a couple years after that, and it had about 4 feet worth of old clothes stacked on top of it and 4 flat low profile tires. It made me sad, but it wasn't my car anymore, and I never went and checked on it again. My buddy and I had some personal issues, and we didn't speak again for quite a few years, so the car was always in the back of my mind but I never thought I'd get it back. So fast forward to now, my buddy and I are all good again, and he tells me the car still hasn't moved from the place I parked it in his parents' shop all those years ago. I'm still the last person to drive or even sit in it. And I can have it back for the same $3500 I sold it to him for (he actually tried to give it to me for free, but that isn't my style)....only catch right now is, I have no room for it, but he really wants my '70 Coupe Deville, so he'll give me the Olds and $6,000 for my now beloved Caddy.....so I'm headed back over to the town of Conrad, MT where I'm from next weekend or the one after to get reunited with "my" Olds and see if the fire is still there! If nothing else, I can't wait to see it again, it's always been the one that I was forced let go. Wish me luck! Here's the only pic I have of the car, my Mom took the pic during our local small town parade right after a big one wheel smoky burnout.
Hey, Awesome story! I'm new on here and pretty much haven't met anyone. I always said I'm not going to the Nationals until my car was done...Bought it in 2001, married, moved and kids. Fast forward to 2014 and started taking it apart. Three body shops later (horror stories) and I finally got it back summer 2019. Almost together enough to start it. Last year I was all set to go to the nationals (no car), and Covid comes along and cancels it. Mine's a 70 so it would have been the 50th. Hopefully I can have it together enough to go 2021, even if I'm sitting on a bucket. Nick
Nah, and I live in a rental (owned houses before, I don't need the speeches from anybody ) . I'm going to do the Caddy for Olds swap or just keep what I have. I'm at my maximum on how many cars I can realistically stay on top of, one more and things are going to start getting neglected instead of taken care of, which is also why I sold my Riviera for my '60.... cripes I'm getting old.
That caddy is super sweet man but if the olds is your long lost love then I get it, bring her home. CORRECTION: I just reread your initial post, he wants the 70 not the 60 that you just got not long ago correct?
Whew, ok I was gonna say that trade seemed a little light on his side if it was the 60 you were talking about lol. I say go for it man! We always read on here guys sobbing about the cars they should've never let go, you got a chance to get yours back so do it.
Lucas! That was an awesome story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I say do the trade. There are a lot of seven 1970 Cadillacs out there, but very few Oldsmobiles like that one.
I think you’ll know what to do as soon as you sit behind the wheel again! Bye bye ‘70 Caddy, it was a good run!
Hahaha.... I'm seriously at 50/50, don't know what'll happen till I see it. I'm pretty enamored with my Cadillac.
What a great story-isn't it something to get a second chance? About 20 years ago, I looked at a '68 Wildcat sedan with @ 10K original miles. Very tempting but I ended up buying another Wildcat. That car ended up getting sold to finance one of my convertibles. A couple of years ago, that sedan came up for sale again, this time the mileage was up to 18K-but still very low mileage given the car's age. Anyway, I ended up buying it and I think it's pretty cool to buy a car that I had checked out and passed on years before!
The Olds, no kidding, had the biggest trunk I've ever seen on a car. My Caddys are disappointments compared to it in that regard. My '70's trunk is quite small, really....the Olds is probably 1 of 1, for real. I don't know where a guy would find that info on it, but it doesn't matter to me. That car and I were just right together. Hopefully I still feel the same next weekend.
I like big Delta's, my High School Girlfriend, now wife of 30+ years father had a 73 Delta 88 455 that she / I drove all the time, great car, great memories! For $3500, why not just buy it outright, put one of them in a storage unit and rotate them? Keep your Caddy until you decide if you want to part with it, on your timeline, no pressure.
If it still has a 1971 W30 motor in it with "H" heads, the heads themselves are worth more than what you are paying him for the entire car.
It's got the original engine out of it now in storage (was going to build a monster at one point), and I've got a J headed pile I swapped into it now. I've also got some C heads sitting around, too. I was kind of an Olds guy in a former life.
I'm not a big Olds guy, but I think that car is pretty bad *ss. Especially if it was a factory special order. I'd definitely trade the 70 Cadi for it.
Well, I made the road trip back home this last weekend (I'll make a thread about the road trip and whatnot later). Stopped by a few of my friends' places and took a few pics of their projects/cars, the Charger is my friend Keith's and he's owned it since new, and the Firebird 400 is his son in law's and a real clean numbers car waiting to get done. The LeMans is my buddy Rudy's and is the car I mentioned earlier in my first post, and Rudy is the friend that bought the Delta 88 from me. He's had the Pontiac for as long as I've owned my Mach 1, which would be 29 years now and he's 41 years old like I am. It is about the cleanest, nicest one I've ever seen but the interior is starting to yellow on the hard plastics, car hasn't been out of it's garage in 15 years.......I should've called one of those "barn find" shows ........now onto the Olds. So we went to Rudy's parents house where the car has been stored since 2004. Sat and had a few beers, and caught up for an hour or so. Then it was "time". We went out to the shop that I parked the car in so many years ago, it was only about 10 degrees out. I let Rudy go in first and then I followed. And there it was. I could barely see it for all the crap stacked on or around it, but it was there. And it definitely hasn't moved an inch since I left it. There's evidence of a few birds dying by cat on the vinyl top, and it's about as dirty as you'd imagine a car being parked unattended to for 16 years being, but it is beautiful. We moved a few things and I could finally get to the car. It looks straight as an arrow still, still no rust. The top still looks great from what I could see through the dust, no rust under it, solid as a rock just like it was. I forgot how dark the windows are, they must be tinted 5%. Car is packed in really tight, but I could just open the driver's door to peak inside. Still looks mint in there, no cracks or tears that I could see with the small amount of visibility I had, I forgot about the billet steering wheel I put on it back then. I was able to stick my face between the door window and 1/4 glass to smell, and I didn't get any hint of rodent piss or death. Rudy left me in the shop there with it, and I had a good heart to heart with the car. I told it how much I missed it and that I'd never let it go again. And I cried. It was a strange feeling seeing that car again, touching it, and remembering the days past. And come this spring when there isn't any snow on the ground, I'm heading back, we're digging it out, and it's coming "home".
