After a long wait my friend finally convinced his wife to let the restoration begin on his matching numbers 72. Car is remarkably a low rust gem having spending its entire life in New England even spending some winters outdoors and parked on the street. Car is matching numbers automatic with OW transmission with buckets and Hurst Dusk Gate shifter and factory 3.73 gears. I think Buick really dropped the ball not offering a dual gate in the GS.
We are diving into this car after completing his 72 Hurst Olds a couple of years ago. I will enjoy this one more as no damn air conditioning to deal with. This car is original sun fire yellow with black strips/top/interior. It did have a sort of resto/paint job around 30 years ago but they got the color wrong. It’s a bit too creamy. Two shops had the car then and we had less of an input. Big mistake. They never took it off the frame either. That will be done this time. The first guy that had it then blasted it with baking soda. Guy lost his business and we actually had to sneak into the shop and get the car on a flatbed and then hunt through the place to find all the parts. Some parts we never found and some were not for his car. He brought car to another shop that painted it and did an ok job. Big problem is when he got it back the electrical gremlins it had were incredible. I spent a lot of time under that dash with constant face fulls of baking soda. We finally figured all the connections were caked with the stuff. We actually ended up changing the dash harness. All that was 30 years ago and this time it will be done properly. I will continue to post as things come apart. Hope to find the build sheet on the tank. It looks like it’s never been out.
BLACK plastic wheel well has some interesting crayon numbers on them we will have to duplicate. Any comments on those BLACK wheel wells?
Car is one of 113 w30 convertible built in 72. Some of the crispness on the trim tag was blasted off so we may have an exact copy made and replace it. A51 code next to the 05C date code is a mystery? Any ideas?
The front grill and core support in a 71-72 442 is a elaborated piece. Much more complicated than a GS or even 70 442. It’s a real pain. Compounding the issue we didn’t put it together. A combination of correct hex screws along with weird Phillips screws and some were even metric. That gives you fits! Anyway it’s out and it will be put back using correct fasteners. Anyway it’s out.
Season's Greetings Dave! Long time, no see. I know that car. I've been selling off my Olds stuff, sold the best used 4 spoke and Dual-Gate you've ever seen a few weeks ago. I still have some high end Olds stuff at the Winch house. Tell Bob I said hi.
Absolutely Frank. Merry Christmas to you as well. I bet Bob would have bought that wheel. Let me know what else you have. Is your 69 handy for a picture? Not sure if 69 is the same but it might be? We are trying to figure out what screw holds down the far front of inner wheel well to core support. They have big attached washers. I have part number but not available at AMK. Lansing cars only used the same ones inside wheel well up into fender. Only visible on passenger side as drivers had battery tray attached different on a big block car. All kinds of weird spacers there.
Similar to a 72 Stage-1 you can tell a real 72 w30 by an X as fifth digit in VIN. Too bad they didn’t do that sooner. Would have saved a lot of people from overpaying for fakes.
I like this car very much as I've always been a fan of the '71-'72s. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress. Thanks for posting.
Dave, I'm not near my 442 it's a couple hours away. There is a guy on Classicoldsmobile.com doing a resto on a 70 W31. Total OCD maniac like yourself. lol He's (Jimmy) been keeping crazy track of his build, with a wazillion pics and hardware specs. I remember seeing that info somewhere in his post(s). You have to check this thread out... https://classicoldsmobile.com/forum...70-cutlass-w-31-frame-off-restoration-126116/
When I was a little kid, I was immersed in 71-72 Olds Cutlass convertibles. I remember the plastic wheel wells. I'm guessing that the red wheel wells were not a thing in 72 for the 442?
Bingo. 71 was last year for red. 66 or 67 was first year for red. 67 for sure less sure on 66. I can’t tell you how many times know it all’s pulled along side friend or at car shows telling us it’s a fake because no red wheel wells??? Best response to them is hey” what year w30 do you have?” Ends it right there.
