Tuesday, May 30, 2006

The Post-War Oldsmobile VIN Decoder

While trying to find out a little bit more about my '77 Cutlass Supreme, I stumbled onto this nifty little site that will tell you what the characters in the VIN number of your 1946-1997 Oldsmobile mean. Got a Rocket you think is rare? Ever wonder where your Starfire was built? Want to know if that flawless "authentic" 442 you're looking at actually started its life out as a base model Cutlass S with a bench seat, column shifter, and vinyl roof before you write the big check? Well type in the VIN and find out!

Also, if anybody out there can point me in the direction of where I can find production figures for Oldsmobile in 1977, broken down at least by body style (but the more specific, the better), that would be super cool.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Tying Up Loose Ends

With finals being over and all this newfound free time on my hands, I finally got around to finishing up the post about my road trip to Goldenrod Garage last Friday. Have a look.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Day One: The Beginning

One down, fifty-nine to go. This summer's gonna be a blast.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

The Final Countdown

As I sit here on the eve of my 60-day license suspension, I'm trying to think if there's any other important thing I need to do before I won't have the benefit of mobility to help me accomplish it. I handed in my last final today at 3:30, checked my work schedule, and took my mother out to dinner. The Riviera's parked safely inside a storage locker at my father's friend's place in Tewksbury (Thanks, John!) and the Cutlass is here at home as a little project for the duration of my suspension. I think I'm set! Only thing left to do is gas up the Whizzer and count down the days till I'm able to drive again. See you on the road in sixty!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Water, Water Everywhere!


For those of you that haven't already seen or heard it on the news, the New England area has received an unprecedented amount of rain this past week; a foot thusfar and still coming down hard. As a result, every body of water in the area has swelled to ten times its size; roads are closed left and right as streams that once flowed under them now flow on top of them and basements and garages are flooded everywhere. The area behind Silvester's house we tear around in on his buddy Kevin's ATV is currently a shallow lake. The photo above was taken at a park just above the Pawtucket Falls on the Merrimack River here in Lowell which, for at least another day anyways, will include portions of the roads that flank it on either side.




These falls are usually not flowing at all; large boards hold back the water from going over as water is diverted through downtown Lowell via the canal system that acted as a power source for the city's many cotton mills that made it famous during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Now, once again, albeit temporarily, the river gets to flow as it once did a century ago as the water recedes and things begin to return to normal.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Road Trip: Goldenrod Garage

My friend Silvester loves cars almost as much as I do; a survey of his yard will yield quite an eclectic bunch, including everything from a 1970 Cadillac Coupe DeVille to a 1982 AMC Eagle SX/4. Even though he recently turned in his man card with the addition of two Japanese vehicles to his fleet, he did it in a way that is all his own: his girlfriend's got a 1997 Infiniti Q45 and his own personal daily driver is a 1984 Datsun Maxima. Not a Nissan Maxima, a Datsun Maxima; say different and he'll pull a nutty on you much like he did on the poor girl at the RMV when she tried to title it the former. It's the last year the marque appeared in the States, and the last year they were rear wheel drive with an independent rear and had the single overhead cam 240Z motor shoehorned into them. A neat pairing, I admit, but still a huge step down from the 1986 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham and 1997 Cadillac Seville STS that previously occupied the two spots in the driveway. He owns a 1968 Camaro with a ZZ350 crate motor in it too, but it's in a very sorry state; this car would be turned away from a Mad Max movie for being "too rough." It's taken him five years to realize the Camaro's too far gone for what his current circumstances and budget would allow him to do, and he's finally decided to move on. Silvester's always been a fan of the heavy iron of the fifties; in particular the entire Buick lineup of 1959, and who could blame him?

Everybody always remembers the '59 Cadillac models for their outrageous fins, but they're too gaudy and over the top, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, here; I'd still give my left nut to own one and nagged an old man that used to live around the corner with a beat up red and white '59 Coupe DeVille on an almost weekly basis to sell it to me, but I think, pound for pound, the 1959 Buick Electra 225 is just the right amount of fifties flash without going overboard; not to mention the majority of bigger Buicks in '59 were powered by the fantastic 401 Nailhead. Problem is, there doesn't seem to be many in the Massachusetts/southern New Hampshire area for the kid to look at. So when he told me about a four-door Electra 225 Riviera (please, all you would-be car experts can save the e-mails telling me there was no such thing as a Riviera until '63; I know. Buick called all of their hardtops "Riviera," much like Oldsmobile would follow suit by calling all of their hardtop models "Holiday;" the Riviera name existed as a body style designation from 1949 until 1963 when Buick gave the name to its personal luxury coupe.) with a vista roof for sale at the one and only Goldenrod Garage in Freeport, Maine, of course I said I'd go along to take a look at the thing, especially since it had been about eight years since I'd been up there when my father was still in search of a Packard to restore.

The rain was coming down hard all morning with no end in sight, and we had a 262-mile round trip ahead of us. This factor alone would dictate to any normal human being that a vehicle equipped with modern amenities such as anti-lock brakes and traction control could be the only rational choice for such an excursion, and was taken into serious consideration when choosing the car that would take us to our destination and safely home again. Ten minutes later we were gassing up the '77 Cutlass and went hydroplaning on up to Maine.


We made it in once piece, lackluster seventies defrosters and all. Not that if the windows were clear I could have seen much anyways; the high setting on old windshield wipers is today's low. Couple that with sideways rain all the way up the Maine Turnpike and driving becomes a blurry, soggy adventure! But the old girl performed flawlessly, got us there in comfort and style, and the rest she got in the space of honor right in front of the office door was well-earned.



If you've never been to a place like Goldenrod Garage, you're really missing out. There's all sorts of wonderful vehicles around for everybody's taste and budget. Concours-quality restorations such as the stunning 1958 Cadillac Coupe DeVille that can be found in the barn on the other side of this row all the way to beyond gone parts cars like the 1974 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna out back in the field that could quite literally break in half if you were to look at it the wrong way can be found here, and everything in between. The row above represents a few rough project cars. That red straight six-powered '64 Pontiac LeMans convertible in the middle really caught my eye; I could see her shiny and new again with a built 389 or 400 or 455 between the rails in a year or two. The two Studebakers closest to the end and the '56 Chevy towards the other end didn't look too bad either.


Wow. This building is the length of a football field probably and has two floors of the best cars in inventory here. There were two 1967 Pontiac Grand Prix convertibles, a one year-only body style, almost as soon as you walked in the door. Those two '58 Cadillacs on the top level that you can see in the picture (the green Fleetwood Sixty Special in the front left and the red DeVille convertible behind the 1949 Ford Custom Deluxe Sedan you can see in the front right) were so impressive in person. The '58 Impala behind the green Caddy was stunning as well, as was most everything else in this barn. Everything from an all-original running 1924 Ford Model TT depot hack to three early 90's 9C1 police package Chevrolet Caprices could be found in this building, with a 30's, 40's, or 50's bicycle hung here and there from a crossbeam to mix it up a little. Now imagine two more buildings of a similar size filled with driveable, presentable originals down to very rough project cars that were still too good to be kept outside. The last of these buildings is where the '59 Buick awaited us.



What a machine! I've always loved the one year-only angry headlights and delta wing styling of the 1959 Buick. This was definitely a diamond in the rough. Solid as a rock, save for a few small holes in the floor on the drivers side, she was all there. The interior was in amazingly good shape; new carpets, headliner, two front armrest caps, and a little pad on half the dashboard and you're off and running. Literally. This baby runs and yard drives! Something was up about the vacuum booster for the brakes, though; I think the gentleman that owns the place said it can lock up at times. But that's a small price to pay and a minor thing to fix to be behind the wheel of such a big bold automobile such as this; I wish I could have taken it home myself. Seventies cars are all well and good for where I'm at, but there really is nothing like a car built before the days of widespread emissions and safety legislation that brought about the demise of the vehicles that were truly great. This Buick is one of those vehicles. After spending a good three hours at the place, and talking about prices and such, Silvester and I were on our way; he with a figure in mind that he'd like to pay for the car if it is in fact the one he'd like to buy. But before coming home, even though we knew they'd be closed, we proceeded to take a slight detour to Classic Convertibles, also in Freeport, to see what sort of neat stuff they had sitting around. Mostly 60's muscle, mostly Chevelles and 442's, some cloned and some real, but all in tip-top shape. Oh, and this old piece of junk we parked next to.



Don't worry, it's a clone. Nobody would leave a real 1969 Yenko Camaro unattended overnight in an open lot out in the rain.



Still doesn't make it any less funny to see, though!

Monday, May 08, 2006

Whizzer Parts!


Finally! The parts that I ordered for my 1939 Whizzer Motorbike replica are here. All in all they set me back just about $100, shipping included, from Joseph Neri Chevrolet-Pontiac in Williamson, New York; the closest Whizzer Motorbike dealer to me here in Massachusetts. Now all I need is for finals to be over so I get some time to fix it before the big day.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

All Oldsmobile Spring Dust-Off

Today the Eastern Massachusetts GMO Chapter of the Oldsmobile Club of America held its annual Spring Dust-Off show at the old Haskins Oldsmobile dealership in Wellesley. Being the proud owner of a '77 Cutlass Supreme sedan, I piled a few friends into it and roped my buddy Paul into bringing his '73 Ninety-Eight two-door hardtop down for the day to help celebrate the gone but certainly not forgotten marque. The weather was great, the cars were incredible, and the people were some of the nicest you'd ever meet. My 1977 Cutlass Supreme is faded to death, ugly as sin, and mean looking. It's the car mothers pull their kids back from the edge of the sidewalk for as they wait for the school bus together; the kind of car that a guy that works at a steel mill and hits his wife would drive. A car that goes hand in hand with acid-washed denim jackets and lukewarm Old Milwaukee, flannel shirts and restraining orders, and would look right at home in DEA file photographs of a recently raided backwoods meth lab in West Virginia. But you know what? Every person at the show treated me like it was an authentic numbers matching 100-point concours restoration '72 Hurst Cutlass convertible Indianapolis 500 Pace Car. It wasn't looked down upon for a second; it was an example of a marque we all shared a common interest in preserving and that's all. Every single one of them was genuinely interested in where and how I was able to find such an unusual car in such original condition and commended me for doing so; true enthusiasts in every sense of the word. What the show lacked in size was certainly made up for in the overall quality of the vehicles that entered; my only complaint was the lack of Toronados that showed, with one immaculate low-miles 1984 model being the only offering. Now it's time for a few photos of what came out.


Hoods and trunks are open for judging. Using my '77 Cutlass Supreme in the lower right-hand corner as a reference and going left, that's a 1965 Dynamic 88 hardtop next to me, followed by a 1984 Toronado and a 1971 Ninety-Eight hardtop. Mostly mid 60's to 1972 Cutlasses and 442's and 80's Cutlass Supremes are in the middle with a few early 70's Delta 88 Royale convertibles mixed in, and the row on the right had cars ranging from the most impeccably restored 1947 Model 66 convertible I have ever seen, through the Super 88's and Dynamic 88's of the fifties, all the way up to a 1970 Ninety-Eight convertible.

Starfires! Never in my life have I seen so many beautiful Starfires at one event, which held down the better part of the row closest to the road, and also out in front of the dealership as well. Oldsmobile's first personal luxury car, which borrowed its name from a Lockheed fighter plane, was produced from 1961 until it was replaced by the Toronado in 1966. Beautiful and distinctive, sleek, powerful, and lavishly appointed, the Oldsmobile Starfire is, in my opinion, one of the best nameplates of the 1960's. The paint on the burgundy '64 on the right was a mile deep; absolutely stunning.

This handsome 1942 model showed up late and had to sit in between a row of the dealership's inventory, with a 1983 Hurst Cutlass Supreme against the fence behind it. It would later be joined by an all original 1970 Cutlass Rallye 350 and an all original 1975 Hurst Cutlass Indianapolis 500 Pace Car.

This is the nose of a 45,000-mile original 1936 sedan that came with all original documentation including the original bill of sale. It sat front and center in a place of honor, and rightfully so; it drove off the lot of the very same dealership 70 years ago!

What do you get when you cross a 2001 Alero coupe with an L98 Tuned Port 350 from an 80's Camaro and an S10 pickup truck frame? The ultimate sleeper, and the car General Motors should have built. Talk about not being your father's Oldsmobile!

Last, but certainly not least, sitting next to my '77 Cutlass Supreme is my friend Paul's 1973 Ninety-Eight two-door hardtop, sporting its original and very rare landau roof. Bought out of a neighbor's backyard in a sorry state and limped home in first gear when he was just fifteen, this became his project car until he was old enough to drive, and then a daily driver for two years. Another proud old road warrior spared from the heap.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Intermediate Pipe

Although I have much more grand ideas for the exhaust system on the '77 Cutlass Supreme, I felt it was important to spend the $18 for a new intermediate pipe to hold me over until they come to light. Apparently whoever last had exhaust work done to the car only had the muffler and tailpipe replaced, leaving the intermediate pipe to rot away. The back pressure was fantastic and stop and go city driving became a lightheaded adventure at times when there wasn't a breeze.

See those red circles on the old rusty intermediate pipe? Each one of those is highlighting a hole. The most impressive one by far would be the one second from the right. This spot had rotted through, had a patch made out of a piece of another exhaust pipe welded over it, rotted through again, filled with muffler mud, had a piece of aluminum bent around it, and had a piece of strapping around it to hold it all together. To think that someone would spend that much time and effort on such an easily replaceable piece of the car boggles the mind, but at the same time makes me happy because old cars wouldn't be around period if people just gave up and didn't save what was thought to be unsaveable.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

1400 Motors Plate!


Thanks to my friend Silvester, the '77 Cutlass Supreme now proudly wears a period-correct dealer plate up front from the now-defunct 1400 Motors Cadillac-Oldsmobile from my home town of Lowell, Massachusetts that has just the right amount of wear and tear for the car. I think it's perfect for it and really contributes to the total time warp that the rest of the car is. If you didn't already know it came from Idaho, you'd probably believe it rolled out of my grandmother's garage yesterday. Fantastic!