1961 Oldsmobile Super 88

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rickr

rickr

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 12, 2003
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It is a very humid rainy day here in the Midworst. My Sunday Summer habit of laying out at my sisters swimming pool has been FOILED!

So instead I have scanned the photos of my 61 Olds,and will post some of them for my cyber friends. My friend Tim did the body and paint work,and I did the mechanical rebuilding work,including an engine swap from a wrecked Oldsmobile Starfire,and a transmition reseal.I also salvaged the Starfire interior,and had it redone at a trim shop,to use in this car. We finished the car about five years ago.I took the photos the same day I took the ones of the 55 Cadillac.
 
The Roof style

Car collectors call this roof the "bubble top" It was used on several full size GM cars,except for Cadillac.
 
Side view

Straight sheet metal,and perfect panel alignment. Tim does a great job.
 
My favorite

Is the rear of this car. It reminds me of a jukebox,with the glitter!
 
.

deep dish steering wheel. It was called the "Safety Vee" I guess they thought it would collapse in an wreck. I think the driver would "collapse" first.
 
Factory cruise control

It works very well too. You set the speed you want to go with the dial. Then push the black button,and away you go! It holds the speed very steady.
 
Rear sea;t

Rear speaker is in the center of the rear seat back. Many early 1960's cars were this way.Lots of chrome and bright metal on the inside of the car too.
 
Engine

Is a 394 CID V8. 330 horsepower.Quite a hoodfull here! The car is VERY fast,smooth and exciting to drive! Oldsmobile was a muscle car in the 1950's and 1960's. What did the "General" do to this division?? The "General" assigned the most boring cars of the General Motors line to poor Oldsmobile. And we know the rest of that continuing story......

BTW the silver thing just behind the power steering pump is the cruise control unit. It was made by Perfect Circle. A division of Dana Corporation. Another large American manufacturing company that has really cut it's employee work force in the last few years.
 
Rick goes topless!!

Wow Rick! I LOVE that Olds! How's about I trade you some Texas sunshine for it! ;-)

Have fun in it!

Venus
 
It Just Stopped Raining!! The Sun is peeking out!

Thanks Venus! We will settle up on the car later! Gotta go! I'm So OUT of HERE!! (:>
 
Oldsmobility

I love it Rick! Everything looks perfect.The roofline is so cool on this car and the chrome looks new. Did this car have a reverb unit for the rear speaker? My friend has a 1964 GTO that has it. I had a dual 4bbl intake for the 394 until a couple years ago. Enjoyed your pics. Don`t get a sunburn!
 
Factory air?? Frigidaire.

Does it have Factory Air? Does it say Frigidaire anywhere on the system?

How cool is that to have a car with a Frigidaire A/C.
 
Super looking car

Rick you should take some of those angled shots of your car and have them blown up to a poster size, framed and hung on the wall near your jukebox.(The shot of the left rear and the side view of the front end) They look that good. The first pic of the car in the driveway looks like it could have been taken years ago for an Olds advertisement,just needs a father in a business suit and hat and mom in apron/pearls waving him off to work..
I noticed your streetlights, are they originals to the neighborhood?
 
1961 Super 88 Superlatives

There aren't enough!!! A beautiful auto. The second car I bought in 1969 was a 1963 Dynamic 88 Convertible. I think all of the GM's from fifties through the sixties were the best!
 
Those Oldsmobiles of that era were such wonderful cars and never seemed to get the credit they deserved. They had a great ride and smooth, powerful V-8's. I really miss them. Yours is a beautiful example and you must be very glad to have it.

I can hear it and smell it, your photo's are so good! You know they kept putting that speaker in between the rear seats right on into 1970(Complete with reverb)!

Thankyou so much for sharing!
 
knowledge

No reverb in 1961. Noticed it DID have power antenna, but not Woner Bar radio.

It does have A/C, and yes, it was Frigidaire back then.

Rick, a couple of questions, IIRC that these had these had the 3 speed (notoriously unreliable) Roto Hydramatic with the 2nd gear (if all the silly things)mechanical lockup? Or does yours have the standard 4 speed Jetaway trans?

Correct me if I'm wrong, IIRC the Super 88's having a dome-shaped tail/stoplight lens, those lenses look like the Starfire/98 series lenses.

Those Perfect Circle Cruise Controls were MUCH better than today's vacuum units. They were powered by an actual electric motor and had the strength to floor the accelerator it it had to. Also had the neat feature of being able to be set to push back on the gas pedal when a certain speed was reached to warn of speeding.
 
Comments/questions

Thanks for the nice comments about my Olds! Glad you all like it.
The a/c system compressor and valves are GM Frigidaire. The condensor and evaporator parts were made my Harrison Radiator Division of GM.

The Transmition is a Roto Hydra-Matic,the transmition made just before the Turbo-Hydramatic. The Roto is not as tough as the earlier Hydros,however it is faster,as it has a torque multiplier instead of a simple fluid coupling of the earlier Hydramatics. The Roto was used on some Pontiacs 1961-1964,and all Oldsmobile full size 1961-1964.

The radio was converted to am-fm stereo by me in the 1970's. The radio is from a 1969 Grand Prix. The radio faceplate is from the Olds however,and looks original.

The taillamps are original. The "bullet" type were only used on the Dynamic 88 series.

The rear bright metal panel is from the "98" series,and the lower panel under the rear bumper was painted to match the car originally. The panel is heavy gauge steel,same thickness as the bumper. When I had the bumpers replated I had the rear panel chrome plated also. So the rear of the car is really my own creation. No other 61 Olds has the trim (or the look) of this one.

I will post some photos of the restoration process tonight when I get home from work. The car had 200,000 miles on it,and it was not a pretty sight! LOL!

BTW Kevin,it would be nice if you could take some photos of your cars and post them in the Super section for us. We would love to see them.Vintage cars are popular on this site too! (:
 

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