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I am in the process of returning my father's 442 to the road. I will be continuing a long historical journey. I will always be mindful that this is my Dad's car. It does not need to be more than that. So please be understanding of my journey. I will be preserving this history and have a keen sense of my role in that. Likewise, I relish the opportunity to give back that history to those who care. Since, I was forced out of the garage by my father to get an education (the opposite of his experience), I cannot perform a build and will not have a build thread. What I will provide is as much information about my Dad's 442, as possible. I hope you enjoy it!
The story involves a family steeped in automobiles, in the right place, at the right time. The whole story will wait for later and most of you are little interested in the story. You are here for the cars. So here it is:
On my parent's wedding day, June 3, 1971. A year later, I was born. The 442 mostly stayed in the garage after that. Mom and Dad would get it out, wash it, and fire it up and go for a spin a couple times a year, until 1975. With a little over thirty thousand miles, it waited.
My mother learned to drive in the car while dating my father.
My mother the day the 442 was placed in the more than capable hands of @69442murph
After the first bath, day 2 at Tim's.
So, I cannot show you all of what Tim is doing; Tim being the consummate professional, will disclose very little. Since, I cannot give you a build. I give you documentation. I hope that there will be more. I have dozens of boxes of paperwork to sift and we have yet to pull the tank. I know Lansing didn't put sheets on the tank... I heard they didn't leave build sheets in them either. Here is what we know so far, on paper:
A 1969 442 W30 built the day after Christmas. It went to Chesrown Oldsmobile, Newark Ohio. Otherwise, here is the elusive Lansing 442 build sheet. Group 37 makes it a true W30, along with the other "heavy" options, posi, etc. I have it mostly coded; of course, they were so helpful in leaving out some option references and many blanks. Just thankful it made in the car! I can cross reference the order number from the build sheet to the broadcast card, which contains the body number. That number can be traced to the cowl tag. The picture begins to fill in, but never completely!
Broadcast card found in rear seat back. Very rough and very little info to glean here. Order number match.
This one is in better shape, but still rough. It gives us a 12/20 date and confirms the Cutlass body style and number. The body number and paint codes match the cowl tag. There is our order number again.
More great info.... left blank... just a matching VIN...
Cowl tag has matching body number from broadcast card, paint/trim codes, and that 3rd week of December date code.
Finally, the original title (in my grandmother's name). MFG. CERT. Dealer previous owner. And that date. January 7, 1969, three days before my Dad's birthday. A body built the 3rd week of December, a broadcast card in the interior 12/20, a December 26 date on the build sheet, and a title on January 7. Grandma signed over title to Dad (he made all of the payments; however, when he went to the BMV, they told him he could not keep the original title. So, he left. When Dad died tile passed to my mother. She transferred title to me. We have all 3 titles to the car. .... $3744.00 and $149.76 tax. Grandpa's friendship with Dave Chesrown obviously got him a good deal!
That's it for now... I will post more as I find it. I hope my journey gives you all some enjoyment and context about these cars we love.
Thank you #1 and Mike... that is why it had to be here. It has been hard to open up the story outside the family... tough to contemplate posting such intimate details... especially when you have largely done the opposite until now.
It is just so important to have people who know this stuff... and these Oldsmobile people deserve to see this and know. So many have said, "They do not exist." Everyone wants to question everything based upon knowledge that they supposedly know. For the most part, folks here are pretty straight and seem to have a handle on just about everything... this seemed like something that I could do for our Olds Geeks in return for all of the knowledge and support that we call get from this site.
I am also somewhat worried about the info being out there .... because, well, there will be a lot of people who are "interested" in one this well documented. We all say that this is our family treasure and we will NEVER part with it.... well, that is true until someone offers actual treasure in return... not looking forward to that...
in honor of all that is good... here is a fresh pic of the original paint starting to shine up!!
welcome to the chesrown owner. would love to get a site on chesrown cars. and the drag cars. neat history. would love to hear more about the car and the day 2 changes.
great thread!
I really like RWL '69 cars, maybe because of the rarity or that it was the first use by Oldsmobile
the "build sheet" shows Super Stock IIs with F70-14 w/RWL tires
"w30hurstolds's" car had a couple of the original GOODYEAR WIDE TREAD tires with it when he got it
the picture in the first post appears to show a different tire, can you make out the sidewall, or is an original still in the trunk? TIGER PAW 70 ??
Cool story and awesome car. I see a few other Olds in that wedding photo. About 25 years ago, I built an MPC model '69 442 W30 and painted it the same color with the same black stripes (except my kit didn't include stripe decals for the roof).
Thanks hurst!! We have yet to clean up the spare to determine if it has the original tire... it is a Goodyear F70 RWL... so maybe! Those are not even the correct wheels on the car now; Dad was smart and stored them. You can somewhat make out the RWL tire in the one with Mom on the fender. We have all 5 original wheels and everything else, as the car is a time capsule (more long story).
Dad ordered a W30 with 4.33 out back... now you know a bit about him... more to the story is that he was rebuilding wrecks at 15. He fixed a 66 and a 67... he struggled to part with them and was hooked. He ordered that 69 just the way he wanted it... then, made it his own.
The paint is original, including those stripes. My father painted the skirting and those stripes to make it his 442. Hence, we will be preserving it all, because after all, it will always be my father's Oldsmobile. [For the purists, I concede they are not factory stripes. There were no top or decklid stripes on these cars, I know, but the are on my father's 442 and have been since 69/70 when he painted them on the car.
Good eye Johnny. There were some fine automobiles at that wedding. Here is another pic of the happy couple cruisin in that fine coupe... with the 68 in the background!
Thank you all for the kind words and support.... I will get some more pics this weekend and post next week!
Nice car. If the car was ordered with a M21 4speed, then the gears would have been 4:33's. Other gear sets were optional. Just curious, in the pic of the car in wedding guise, I don't see the W-30 decals on the front fender. Were they there, or is it just bad lighting?
Just the glare. You can't see them in the pic with Mom on the fender and some of the other pics I have taken and they have obviously always been there!
Have all 5 original wheels; however, only one had what could have been an original tire. The pics above show a November 1968 tire, which would fit my December built car!
Oh, would you look at that? My last post was about tires! Anyway, I am really sorry. I have made no effort to keep you all updated. I told you it would be hard!
Nevertheless, the arrival of the tires has inspired me to, at least, let you know the car continues to move closer to wearing these new shoes!!
Btw, we were told November on the tires!... still waiting on rear shocks...
Soon I will post pics back on the ground... I promise...
Teaser (with a set of Tim's steelies and redlines):
I would show you the interior... but the video is too big; I will try to cut it!
Yes... I was torn... and, in fact, when I get a third job, I may still yet get a set of the F70s... but I will be driving the car and the radials are just such an improvement to the ride and were an original tire option for the RWL cars.
Yes…. We had strong hopes that we could avoid a complete engine rebuild… initial inspections were promising… then a scary borescope, then one by one the hopes faded to reality…
we were so close… I mean she is nearly done …. And now looking at least a year wait for machining…. 😢
I will recover… I knew it could come to this… but the cost and the time on top of that… are just a lot….
Moth *****.... we are now at the wait to get into a machine shop line... and I get third/fourth jobs to pay for an engine rebuild... savings is gone. You cant just drop this engine off anyplace... so here I sit typing and waiting and hoping...
I couldnt afford to get it done before Dad passed and now I cant afford to get it done when it is nearly done...
I will try to sell my 36 Ford and Chevrolac pickup to hope to get her finished as soon as we can get into the machine shop...
Thank you all so much for caring and following along... Hopefully, I will know more next year...
That is a tough break. Here is a thought. If you could find a used 400 or 455 reasonable you might consider buying it and putting it in the car until you are finished with the original engine. Somebody on here might even have one and offer you a deal on it. That way you could take you time and get to drive the car in the meantime. When you are done you sell the extra engine. Just something you might want to consider. This is one of the best stories I have seen in my 15 years on this site.
I would wager Scott Winn or Eric Jenson could dig up a big block for just that purpose and reasonable too. The good thing about
them is they are in your neck of the woods as well. Send a PM to Jenson racing or Oldspackrat for a quicker response. Good Luck!
A little update from the person / shop working on this wonderful car for the Priest family.
So the hope was that this motor would not require much, if any, work. Based on the information given to me, the car has not been started since 1975. It has been sitting in different storage enviroments, always inside. The odometer shows 31,000 +, and it is not been turned over.
Upon receiving the car, it required many hrs to remove the rodent nest, decomposed rodents, sunflower seeds / shells, and things that rodents ( mice ) tend to gather.
Nesting and sunflower seed / shells were found in the bellhousing, exhaust manifolds, and, upon removal, the intake manifold runners, and into a couple of ports of the pass side head. We also found collapsed lifters on the pass side bank # 6th cylinder. After doing a clean up on everything, we still held hope that all we would need to do is replace the lifters. The cam looks fine.
After getting a nagging feeling, I thought it best to run a borescope and check the pistons. In doing this, I could see chunks of something in a few cylinders. However, one cylinder had something laying across the piston that looked to be metal ( I was getting a reflection that looked metallic in the borescope ), and it appeared to be rather large, it looked like silver dollar size!. So now we removed the heads, and found that these pieces were actually chunks of carbon that had come off the valves. That large, circular piece was also carbon, as it came off in one piece off the valve.
So we cleaned all that up as well. I took the heads to a buddy who has 40 yrs of engine building ( unfortunately, his experience is Bowtie motors ), and he was going to remove the valves, clean them up and put them back in. During the disassembly process, he found that most of the valves also has wear marks and after checking with his dial indicators, determined that the valves and guides need replaced due to excessive wear and play. Some of the valves has pitting around the stems where they were seated and not moving for all these years.
His recommendation is not only have the heads done, but also have the bottom end checked, replacing the rings, new crank bearings and probably cam and cam bearings also.
Our local machine shop is telling me they are a year behind, but my buddy told me he can probably get that fast tracked by a few months. I can take it out of state for a quicker turn around, which is probably worth considering.
Would it run and drive in is current state? Sure, but it would be problematic, and not the right way to go with this car. It needs to be done right, so that it can become a dependable car for the next decade or two!
We have done a considerable amount of work to the car, rebuilding the suspension, ball joints, complete brake system overhaul including new lines, new fuel tank and flushed the lines, 4 speed transmission inspected, cleaned, and resealed, new headliner ( due to rodent damage ), and managed to save the remainder of the interior, carpet, package tray is all original and in great shape. I won't bore you some of the other stuff that has been done along the way.
My buddy Dave ( DFish ) has worked magic with original paint, and is still working on it.
If any of you guys know a reputable Olds builder near Cincy, or in the three state area of Ky Ohio Indiana, please let me know. I also have a 69 Hurst Olds motor that needs complete rebuild, and would be happy to delivery 2 Olds powerplants to a trustworthy shop.
This car is in great condition. It's family history, and the story that is attached to it is very special to me, as is Scott. It is my hope that in the summer of 2022 I can return this car to the Priest family, and they can get many years of enjoyment from it, as they deserve it. I have been involved in some special cars over the years, but this one has become one of my favorites.
Thanks to all for following this thread, and offering support, guidance, and suggestions to Scott along the way. I have been lurking on this thread, but tonight I felt it important to become part of the discussion.
Thanks
tim / thunder road restoration
These are the original red wells....almost perfect!
April 21st, 2021, 08:17 PM
