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[firedome]

Nice Olds!

I started the OCA Blue & Gray Chapter in the early 80s... we had a '73 Delta Royale with 350 Rocket and it had tons of power, but '74 onward were rather strangled by added emissions equipment, they were cantakerous and down on power( we had a '74 88 'vert and '76 98 (455) as well as real gas hogs.

 

[stan]

Hi Rodger

What is OCA Blue&Grey chapter?

Olds hasn't been delivered yet.. Maybe tomorrow.
Getting the Olds is a stretch for me, my plan was to sell my 50 Plymouth Club Coupe, and my 76 Grand Prix after the Olds arrives
(Hard for me to do, and I won't till after the Olds proves itself)
I'm hoping that the Olds drives, handles, and performs as well the G.P.

Think I'll start a new thread with a better explanation of what I'm doing, with pics (vintage cars) so I can get the car guys in on all this!

 

[firedome]

Stan:

it's the Oldsmobile Club of America regional Chapter for Northern MD & South/Central PA. I put on the first organizational meet at Wintrode Olds/Buick/Chevrolet near Gettysburg PA around 1984 (can't remember the exact year now!), got the dealer to let us meet there, and he provided the refreshments and door prizes. We had a great turnout of cars (drove our mint original '69 Toronado), got organized as a Chapter under OCA guidelines, and it took off from there. B & G Chapter is still around, but is more PA than MD based nowadays. Olds owners tend to be a very enthusiastic and dedicated bunch... that's easy to understand as Oldsmobile, imo, was GM's best with an incredibly dedicated workforce in Lansing... they were breathtakingly foolish to kill off the oldest car brand in the US of A.

 

[stan]

Hi Rodger

Olds was delivered today. And car was in good condition, the only complaint I have is that from what I can tell the car has a leak, and water got into the trunk, the side well on the drivers side had 3 inches of standing water, and the car had mud splattered around wheel wells, and doors. I can understand the mud because maybe they had to shift the cars around somewhere in a muddy area.
However the driver said that he had trouble with the roof of the truck and water was leaking in on the cars. There was a 55 Bel Aire directly above my car, no telling how much water got in it!
So I guess my only issue is that I paid for closed transport, and I kind of didn't get that.
This is the car coming off the truck.

 

[stan]

This shows some of the mud

Thats the driver backing out.
The car came with 1st owners brief case full of original sales lit, service records
(most of preformed at the dealer ship in W.V where the car was purchased new) news paper articles about the car ect. I found the original owners name ect, and it looks like he was a member of the OCA # 032014. His card say he was in good standing til 9/2001
Still haven't looked through everything, and I need to go through some of the mechanicals before it's driven.

 

[112561]

Wow, good for you!

Once you get into your new baby, I'm sure you won't be disappointed! Great color, and overall appearance. I think I may have owned more Oldsmobiles than any other make. My last hurrah was when I bought this high mileage Cincinnati car from Vero Beach in January 2013. A woman bought it used in '95, sold it to her ex husband a few years later, he gave it to his son, whom I bought it from. It's distinctive feature is that it has the last Olds manufactured V8 engine. It's a 307 with a four barrel carb. I'm a member of Stationwagonforums.com, they're really down on the 307 as an extremely under powered engine. It doesn't look anywhere as spectacular as your car, but it displays well. I hope you really love yours, and send us more pics when you get a chance please!

 

[carmine]

Nice Olds! Seems that color combo was very popular among full-size GM 'verts of that era. Hope you will enjoy it.

 

[stan]

Hi guys

Thanks for the photo Allen, look nice, and I'll bet it comes in handy for moving stuff. How dose it run?

Well I've gone through some of the mechanicals and have found that the front brakes are shot, and has leaky master cylinder. Center link needs replacement, and can't find a date on the tires. All safety issues, especially with a car this big and heavy. A.C compressor looks new, but A.C not cold.
Hopefully there's no more surprises.
Here's a pic of my three girls.

 

[stan]

Another

Angle

 

[launderess]

Love Your Street

Just gorgeous! You cannot beat those older planned areas, though notice some new stock has been added but it seems to blend in well.

 

[supersuds]

Nice lineup. Is that about a 1950 Plymouth and a 1977 Grand Prix?

I guess if the Olds has a new compressor it's been retrofitted for R-134?

My '64 Lincoln needed a new center link. I went to NAPA, not expecting them to have it. The parts guy rummaged around the back, put a brand new Dana center link on the counter and said, "What else?" Floored me!

 

[112561]

Thanks Stan

I like the new pictures, especially the Grand Prix, and the Plymouth is a treat for sure! I certainly hope you don't get anymore surprises with your new Olds than you've discovered so far.

I don't carry anything in my wagon, it's strictly a toy for my amusement, the poor 2000 Nissan Xterra SE in the background is the work horse. The 1990 wagon runs well, but needs a cooling system leak fixed, possible power steering leak, but am using stop leak in it right now. The tires are tired, right rear has a slow leak, has cosmetic issues with rear bumper and filler, rust dots around rear side windows, scraped right rear fender and defective wire wheel cover there too. Car has R12 refrigerant, but needs a charge, leak fix, and or conversion. Has a mystery water leak that collects under the right rear carpet. Etc, etc....... But it is a fun old thing, I display it at the Knights of Columbus get together every third Thursday of the month.

 

[stan]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen

Allen love your station wagon, the leak your describing that drips onto right rear carpet... Is that on the passenger front? If so you may have a leak in the heater core. Most times there is a sweet smell to it.
Everything else sounds serviceable the A.C can be converted to the R 134. I'd love to see a pic of the engine on that.

John the line up is a 1950 Plumouth Club Coupe Special Delux (p20)
I'll have a little trouble letting it go because it use to belong to my parents, and I bought it back from a guy.. But I didn't know it was theirs car till 6 months later. ( there's a story )

The 76 Grand Prix I've had since 1983. It's been a fantastic car, in that it has paid for itself many times over. Still drives exactly the way it did when I drove it of the lot! This car I will have more trouble letting go of because of how good it's been to me.

Laundress. Don't know how well the area was planed, most of the houses on the street are over 100 years old. The first pic shows my house, and the house next door. Their sister homes. Their not the same floor plan, but similar.. Like sisters!
These two are the newer ones on the street (1934) they were built as wedding gifts to two sisters that grew up 3 doors down.
They both raised there children in these houses.
There's a building out back next to the ally that was used as some sort of Gin Joint, and later became a chicken hatchery, the one sister (house I live in) sold eggs out of it.. and if they need a little something to calm ones nerves.. A 1/2 pint or so.
There was a series of electric buzzers ( still present ) Someone would press a button out back that would ring a bell on my back porch. A button in my kitchen would ring a bell out back... You know just in case!
Have found little treasures hidden behind the walls, and in the basement left over from the time.
One thing I love about this house is that it is unmolested, no remodel has been done, still has the original furnace that work perfectly (here in CA)

 

[firedome]

Stan: that's a really nice looking '73!

1973 was a record breaker in sales for Olds, second only to '77 iirc. Olds was # 2 or 3 after Chevy in those years, and it's still hard for me to believe the idiots at GM shut it down just a year or so after their 100th Anniversary! '73 was the last really good running year for Olds, and a lot of US cars for that matter, after that they were emission strangled, thirsty, and finicky, until FI and other technology was applied to good effect some years later. Sounds like relatively minor issues on your '73, and as far as leaks go, of the 7 or 8 Olds & Mopar convertibles we've had, ALL of them leaked somewhere! Inside storage and dry day drives are the answer for the particular.

Allen, yes the 307 was sort of notorious for being a bit of a dog power-wise, but on the plus side they are strong as a brick sh_thouse and can go just about forever, a highly under-stressed and over-built engine. There are some fairly easy tweaks you can do to open her up powerwise, but depending on your state regs they may or may not be entirely legal to do. Those were real workhorses, a staple from 1950s to 80s.

 

[112561]

GM pulling the plug on Oldsmobile for whatever reasons was just dirty. Same for Pontiac.

My leak goes under the carpet in the right rear, and one day after a deluge outdoors, it got wet enough under to saturate the top part of the carpet. Some reason, the rest of the carpet never seems to even be damp. I don't know what under the hood is actually leaking, seems to be from the bottom right of the engine. I'm going to get one of my car guys to scope it out sometime. I hope it isn't a freeze plug. Antifreeze looks clean.

Here's a picture of the fire breathing monster that powers it.

 

[stan]

That

looks like a Typical G.M motor compartment!
Leaks drive me crazy til I find out where their coming from!
Allen I dought it's a freeze plug. You'd see something on the ground if it was, like a big puddle!
Could it be a rust hole in the floor pan? Look and feel under that spot.

If I can't figure out how the water gets in my trunk, I'm going to at least make a weep hole so it will drain out!

 

[112561]

Stan, I get a leak under the engine every time I stop the car. Fortunately it's not so bad right now. I don't really think it's a hose, and it's a relief to know it's not likely a freeze plug. The hoses and belts were replaced not long before I got the car. The <span style="font-size: 14px;">leak </span><em style="font-size: 14px;">under the carpet </em><span style="font-size: 14px;">is a total mystery. With the puddle underneath, I need to get a weep hole in there too. The car is from Cincinnati, and doesn't have a great deal of rust at all. It's the first time I ever encountered that problem. I thought maybe the flush and dry rocker panel on that side of the car might have something to do with that, but now I doubt it. I was so blinded by the general condition of the car, I missed some key trim fittings that need help.</span>

 

[sarahperdue]

Love the car, love the neighborhood

Stan, it's beautiful, and I'm so glad it arrived in basically good condition. My grandmother had a green one--she lived on a hill with ravines on either side. She was leaving to go shopping in town, stopped to run back into the house forgetting to put it into park and the ravine ate it. It was the first of two cars that I remember being consumed by the "gulley."

All of the cars of my childhood were Olds...except for my great grandmother's '58 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. I drove it for several years when I turned 16. A picture and story for another thread.

Sarah

 

[supersuds]

Would love to hear the story about your parents' Plymouth sometime. Remarkable that it found you again!

 

[circlew]

Stan, you say your trunk is leaking. Does it leak when parked, or just when it has been driven in rain? My mom got a '91 Chev. Caprice that leaked only when driven, and water was being splashed up from the wheel well somehow.