1964CutlassSC

Hi everyone!

It's great to finally find a home on the web! My name is Craig and I am the proud owner of a 1964 Oldsmobile F-85 Cutlass Sport Coupe. I am looking forward to talking to all the fellow Oldsmobile owners here on this forum.

My baby now has 28.800 miles on it. It is Jade Mist Metallic Green with matching green interior. It has the 330 4bbl Ultra High Compression V8 with the two speed Jetaway transmission with factory tach and console. It's originally a New Jersey car and came with a ton of the original documentation (bill of sale, protect-o-plate, even original insurance slip and bank draft from 1964). So far I have only seen one other 1964 Oldsmobile around my area and it was just brought in from Tennessee. It was an F-85 Deluxe hardtop though.

wmachine

Post Coupes rule! Welcome! I like that documentation.

citcapp

Nice, I like those post coups, You'll find lots of friends and infor here

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO and glad to have you with us.

wolfman98

Nice to have the documentation of your car. 28,800 miles is really low for a 64 , if it's true you should have a nice car for many years to come

1964CutlassSC

Thanks for the welcome messages! I agree that post coupes rule!! :-) I know the mileage seems really low. When we bought the car in 2002, it had 18,000 miles on it. It's definately being driven now as it was meant to be enjoyed!

I get a lot of looks as many people here don't seem to have seen a 64 Cutlass before. They are used to the late 60s/70s muscle car body shape I guess.

The documentation is truely invaluable and treasured for sure.

My only wish was that this was a Canadian built car so I could get all the exact GM documented details on how many were made, etc. I tried the GM U.S office but they told me they couldn't help me because they do not have any details prior to 1977. They offered for $50 to decode my VIN and fender tag which I have pretty much done myself thanks to the Internet. Has anyone else had luck finding production details about their car?

Rdrokit

Welcome to the forum love 64's & 65's. Can't help on production numbers but someone else on the forum might know especially if you start a thread in the Cutlass Forum. There are some guys here that have forgotten more than I'll ever know about Oldsmobiles. They sure helped me decode my highly optioned 65.

76Supreme455

Welcome to the forum. I have a 1964 F-85 Deluxe 4-door sedan, so it's always good to see another 64 owner online. If you look in a 64 Olds sales brochure and see a light fern green Deluxe 4-door, mine is exactly like that car including the light fern green interior. It was an original 87,000 mile car that I purchased two years ago. I am having lots of fun with mine and sounds like you are also.

1964CutlassSC

Thanks for the tip Rdrokit! I have posted a couple pictures of the car there and asked about the production numbers.

Great to meet you too Alan! What a beauty you have there also! I have never seen a 64 in that colour other than in the ads you mentioned! Are there bigger pictures of it somewhere here on the site?

I am having a blast with my Olds for sure.

wmachine

15,440 Cutlass Sport Coupes were made in 1964.

wolfman98

I used to have a 66 chev impala SS with a 350 hsp 327 and the 2 speed glide tranny. love the 2 speed tranny , it was indestructable back in them days they built things to last I was 18 and tested it severely and it never let me down

1964CutlassSC

Thanks Kurt! I have seen you help a ton of others on here with the same request. Do you mind if I ask where you get all this information from?? I have never been able to get any from anyone before now.

Hey Wolfman, I'd be lying if I didn't have a bunch of people asking me to sell them my 2 spd transmission for that very reason :-) The dirt track racers especially ask..

1964f-85

welcome abord fellow 64 owner

1964CutlassSC

Thanks 1964f-85! Do you have a bigger picture of yours? I really like that colour on it!

wmachine

That's because you didn't ask me!

I have more resource material than you can imagine. It depends on what the info is as to where it came from. I have 2 sources of production numbers by year, by model, and they pretty much coincide:
One is figures I received directly from Oldsmobile for years 1929-1981.
The other is Dennis Casteele's book "The Cars of Oldsmobile".

wolfman98

One thing about kurt , if they put it in print then he probably has it. You should see the pile of books he has on Oldsmobiles that he has through the years He could probably pile them up to clean out the rain gutters of his house though I don't think he would ever treat them with anything but respect

1964CutlassSC

Well thanks again, Kurt. You are truly an asset to this forum.

How detailed do your documents get? Can you actually tell how many 64s had certain features? Example - People tell me all the time that Green on Green was not a popular combination (they think white or beige interior first) and ask me if I know how many they made. Of course with GM not being able to help me out, I tell them I have no clue. Please do not think that that I want you to do all this investigating for me. It's more a curiousity thing..

wolfman98

Hey Craig did you try contacting GM Canada? Even though your car was made in U.S. maybe they can supply some info you need on details.

1964CutlassSC

Yeah they were the first ones I tried when I heard you can get it GM Documented. As soon as I started reading the VIN to them they stopped me and said it was a U.S. built car and they were unable to help. That's when I tried the U.S. route and they told me I was unable to get the info either :-( I have been searching the internet for the last couple years and only found one site that even had production numbers for the regular models (not just the 442s only in 64). That site didn't even list Cutlass Sport Coupes, only F-85 Sport Coupe production numbers.

This was the site here (I hope it's OK to post it!) as it might be useful for other owners:

http://www.tedstevens.us/1964-Produc...tatistics.html

wmachine

1. The reason you didn't find your production numbers on that site is that he improperly (probably a typo of sorts) identified the Cutlass Sports Coupe as a Cutlass *Club* Coupe (no such thing). Notice the same 15,440 figure.
2. I'm a little puzzled by your answer from GMC. They have records of Olds made in Canada *and* Olds made in the US and *sold new* in Canada.
Was yours sold new in Canada? If so, I'd go back to them!

1964CutlassSC

Hey Kurt. Thanks again!

It's a U.S. built car sold new in the U.S. at a dealership in NJ which is what complicates things I guess.

jaunty75

Just out of curiousity, how do you KNOW that the mileage is 28,000 and not 128,800? As was pointed out earlier, 28,800 is hugely low. It's almost unprecedented to find a car that old with that few miles unless you've paid a small fortune for it. I'm impressed.

In Ohio, for a car that old with an odometer that has only 5 digits, you can put whatever mileage you want on the form, and they simply stamp right next to it "Exceeds Mechanical Limits". This is their way saying that the state makes no guarantee as to what the mileage actually is, and you can believe whatever you want!

1964CutlassSC

No worries. I know it seems unrealistic. We have a fair amount of documentation to back up the mileage as well as the condition under the hood which has never been touched. Various appraisers have backed up the claim also that this is original mileage. The radiator I just had recored also was verified as the original from the factory.

jaunty75

What's the condition of the various rubber components? A car that old with that few miles has done a lot of sitting and not being driven. So unless it's been stored in a hermetically-sealed, nitrogen atmosphere, rubber is going to dry out and crack. If you've got a lot of that, then your mileage is most certainly correct as these parts would be replaced over time if the car were driven more regularly. Heck, for that matter, are the tires original?

Why did the radiator have to be recored?

1964CutlassSC

The hoses have all been replaced, yes. We have also replaced the springs and shocks all the way around as the car was starting to squat. The parts looked new but were shot from the weight of the car. The car came with 4 bias ply tires and wheels that were removed and radials and rims installed to drive it.

The rad looked good but was starting to show it's age on the fins. I had them re-use the Harrison tanks that were on the original rad. The car would tend to run a bit warm in the middle of summer so I decided to change to a 3 core.

I don't know what brand of tire the car was shipped from the factory with so if someone knows that, post it here. These are Silvertown bias ply.

jaunty75

Cool. Any chance they were the originals? Were they a matched set? What was their condition? Heck, if they were the original tires, you might want to hang onto them just for their historical value, even if you never drive on them!


Speaking of low-mileage originals, I did have a neat experience some years back (mid-1990s). A neighbor across the street who was not a car person came up to me and asked if I would help him to get started a long-sitting old car that used to belong to his uncle and which was sitting in a garage in another part of town. At that time I was working on my '64 Jetstar 88, so he knew of my interest in the older cars.

Well, it turned out that this old car was a '69 Olds Cutlass, about as bottom-of-the-line as you could get with the "econo-way" 6-cylinder engine, no radio, and true hubcaps, not wheel covers. Anyway, the piece-de-resistance was that the car had only 9,000 miles on it. Wow! And it really did. The tires were original, as were the hoses and everything else. There was virtually no wear to anything.

While the car had been sitting a while (several years at least since last started), we were able to get it started after putting in some fresh gas (we didn't try to drain the old stuff), checking the oil and other fluid levels, putting in a new battery, and "bumping" the starter to make sure the engine wasn't seized. It actually started up pretty easily. He ultimately sold it to an Olds club member, and I don't know what he got for it.

1964CutlassSC

Not 100% sure they are original. Does anyone know how I can tell? I can definately tell you that they actually have a fair amount of tread on them (I forget now what the appraiser measured the depth at) but are dry-rotted between the treads. They hold air which is pretty impressive :-) All 4 are the BF Goodrich Silvertowns and the matching one is in the trunk and it still has the paint stripe on the tread and the blue paint somewhat still on the whitewall.

That's a cool story! Wow 9,000 miles!!!! That car was a nice score for the club member! It's hard to fathom a 69 Cutlass with anything other than a V8 under the hood :-)

76Supreme455

I was thinking it would be interesting to know how close our cars were on the assembly line, even if they were built during the same time period. Would you mind posting a picture of the data plate on the firewall and the vin number so I could look up the numbers and try to determine this information. As for pictures of mine, I realized that I had never posted any pictures of mine on this forum other than the avatar picture. I will post some when I get home. I really like the look of your car. I am planning to go back to the BF Goodrich Silvertons on my car and also am going to add the wire wheel covers to jazz up the four-door.

I drove mine to last years Olds Club nationals in Dearborn, MI. It was about a 1K mile trip and the only problem I had was that the original power brake booster gave out on the way to Michigan. Got it fixed when I arrived and no more problems on the trip. We drove over into Windsor Ontario while we were there. That was an experience going through customs and being asked all the questions about the car. It was great fun having it out on the highway. On the way home, the interstate was 4 lanes for a few miles up in Ohio and I was passing a semi. As I went by I looked in my mirror and in the other two lanes right beside me was a 68 442 and a 71 442 I think. We all went by that truck at the same time. Wow, what a site that was!

jaunty75

I don't know much about vintage tires, but if they're dry-rotted, and if the spare is the same as the other four and appears to be unused, then I'll bet they're orginal.

1964CutlassSC

Hey for sure, when I get the picture of the plate on the firewall, I'll post it here. Definately post a picture of your car! I'd love to see it.

That's cool that you came across the border into Windsor. Isn't customs fun? :-) That would have been a cool picture with all the Oldsmobiles!!

Thanks for the compliments on the car! These wire wheels can be a pain (they are always clicking even after trying to fix loose spokes) but they look amazing on there. I always worried about other people's safety if one of these covers came off as they are pretty heavy. I had one come off about two months ago. I watched it come off the front driver's side tire, roll behind the car in the rear view and hit the curb and launch 10 feet in the air. Luckily no one was walking on the sidewalk. It damaged the lip of the cover but it held up great. I went to a big automotive flea market here we have twice a year and found a pair (one was parts only) with Buick spinners on them. I cleaned up the best of the two and put it on. It matches the others in quality just perfect! I just put the Olds spinner on it of course instead.

Speaking of brakes, I had my car involved in the movie that was released a bit ago called Flash of Genius. They filmed some of the scenes in Toronto and my car is in the background twice in the film. On the first day of shooting, my master cylinder decided to act up (the pedal would go to the floor, then would be hard again). Gotta love manual brakes :-) I replaced the master cylinder the next day.

1964CutlassSC

That was what I was going by too I wonder if there is some date code or something on the sidewall on the tire as there must be a way to tell the old ones from the new replicas..

ent72olds

I just did the rad thing before I drove my '65 Vista to the Nats. The original rad wasn't leaking, but the 2 core was flowing at about 50% after boiling out(45 years and 58,000 miles orig.) Was overheating and reused Harrison tanks and 3 cored it. Much better. I also added a 7 blade clutch fan out of a mid '70's olds 350. Made a world of difference! You NEED to post more pics of that car, inside and out. Also underhood!

1964CutlassSC

The 3 core rad is making a huge difference so far. The car used to boil over during pretty hot days. It has not done it once since I had the rad re-cored.

I'll take a bunch more pictures and post them here of the car, no worries. I posted a couple over in the Cutlass forum. I guess I should have posted them here instead since this is a more appropriate thread...

ent72olds

Not sure what options of tires were on the cars then, but yours probably were original IMO. With the spare being the same....I have what I believe to be the original spare in my '65. It's a firestone 500!

1964CutlassSC

Finally got a chance to post a bunch of pictures of the car in my album. Please check them out if any of you are interested! I forgot to take one of the firewall plate 76Supreme455. I'll try to do that this week!

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...hp?albumid=108

Rdrokit

Great looking car. Love the black on black look. Looks like you put alot of time and energy into her. You might want to post a link to your album to make it easier to get to.

Oldsguy

Since this thread has really grown and has some good information in it I moved it to the Cutlass forum. 2 day re-direct....

1964CutlassSC

Thanks! Great idea so I did it. Believe it or not, it's actually dark green on dark green, not black :-) In the shade it looks quite dark. Olds called it Jade Mist metallic green. The 64 Vette also used it but it was called something else.