It is laughable that this somewhat unusual Cutlass is being sold on Craigslist. I have pictures of the cars that I actually took apart and took photographs of and can tell within two seconds whether the VIN is right because I have examined so many cars. The W-31 package began with Oldsmobile's version of the 350-cu.in. One of them was a 1970 4-4-2 W-30 convertible. Perhaps another slogan would have been more effective. I wonder if it still has the original carb and distributor are still in place? The flat ridge acted like a spear. By 1970, the insurance industry was losing money and began a clampdown. The outside air now came through the hood scoops and directly into the air cleaner. In J.D. Keep me in the conversation via email. Porsche and BMW are very different premium brands one is known for speed and agility and the other for luxury and engine power. I see it is from the rust belt, but the rust seems fairly severe for 49k miles. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a2b73d15da07ed1 As can be expected for a purpose-built machine, production numbers for the W-30 4-4-2s are quite low. What does it cost to authenticate a 1970s Oldsmobile muscle car? Fear of rejection undoubtedly explains Oldsmobile's 1969 ad campaign inviting America to "come see the Young-mobiles from Oldsmobile. I liked the under bumper hood scoops on the 68-69, just like the bad W/30. This month, we've stumbled onto a very special Oldsmobile that was meant to throw the insurance man a curve. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. June 17, 2010 in Technical, I am trying to determine if my 1970 350 is a w31 engine, It has #6 heads with 1.62 exhaust valves and it has a large harmonic ballancer,can some one tell me how to know for sure. Car Fin Styling of the 1950s / Photos and History, How to Find Vintage and Antique Car Parts, Locations of Serial Numbers and Stamps on Vintage Vehicles, Model T Serial Numbers and Registering Antique Vehicles, Sample Decodings of Classic Car Serial Numbers, Search for Cars, Trucks and Parts / Advertise on this Site, The Worlds Two Highest Selling Cars At Auction, Tips on Keeping Your Antique Car or Truck Looking Great, Value of Classic and Vintage Cars and Trucks. My inspection would be an all-day affair, so the fee would be in the neighborhood of $1,000. The transmission in a W-30 would have an OW. In effect, an argument could be made that they were not targeting, and possibly turning away, their best potential buyers. Performance & security by Cloudflare. That is why the Hurst company built the Hurst Oldsmobile with the 455. Email: contact@drivinithome.com. Equipment includes a fiberglass dual-inlet hood, sport mirrors, black accent stripes, and W-31 badging. Tim Murphy (right), a longtime friend of Minore's (and a "1969 fanatic"), helps him remove the air cleaner on Weaver's W-31 to check the date code on the air cleaner and the number on the carburetor. I would like to learn more about both the earlier and later year cars, as my ultimate objective is, for lack of a better term, to become the Kevin Marti or Galen Govier of Oldsmobile authenticators. The automaker itself might have actually contributed to this with their late 1980s promotion of not your fathers Oldsmobile. This would include a six- to 10-page detailed vehicle report with breakdowns on cowl tag info; date codes on the engine, transmission, rearend; and all the important pieces that make a W-30 or W-31 car what it is. This car was the most reliable car I have ever owned. The predecessor to the 1969 W-31 was Oldsmobile's 1968 Ram Rod 350. 1969 Oldsmobile 442s, except for the Hurst had the 400 cubic inch engine, not the 455. For 1970, 3,100 W-30s were built. 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass 'S' Sports Coupe W31 #5 02-18-2023, 07:06 PM tom M. Junior Member : Join Date: Aug 2019. Oldsmobile got into the act too in 1969 with their 350 CI powered, W31 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Additionally, Oldsmobile assembled two W-30 Vista Cruiser wagons. You don't find the right color or plated bolts in the right places anymore. It looked and sounded like it was a W-30, but it was a Cutlass W-31. If it's a four-speed car, I look to make sure that nobody's tampered with it and installed a new transmission tunnel. The 1970 W-30 featured a 455 cubic inch 370 HP engine. In the early 1980s, model-year production totaled more than one million vehicles several times, something only Chevrolet and Ford had achieved. W-31s have a lot of rare engine parts on them. 1970 oldsmobile w31 production numbers ford recall check by registration, Is the Lotus Evija a hypercar, What was the biggest engine Pontiac made, Did Saturn make good cars, How reliable is a 2022 Ford F150, Which Lamborghini is the most reliable, CAR 5W.COM. What is the Greatest Automobile to Restore? The W-31 actually started out in 1968 and was the Cutlass-based Ram Rod 350. Unless you can do every bit of the work on it yourself you will find yourself extremely deep underwater on this one trying to bring it back. Price: The 2022 Porsche Cayenne has a starting price of $69,000. Additional photos are presented in the gallery below showing the suspension, chassis, and driveline, as well as corrosion on portions of the underside. Description from seller. This 1970 Cutlass S is a Nugget Gold Metallic hardtop that was first sold at Tapper Chevrolet-Oldsmobile in Montpelier, Idaho, and it reportedly remained with its original owner until 2018 and now shows 75k miles. Sort of like Woodstock, a big experiment. All W-31 engines were select fit, simply meaning that they were blueprinted from the factory. I thoroughly check the codes on a W-30 carburetor, distributor, cylinder heads, and starter, as there are a lot of re-stamps out there. Properly tuned, a W-31 is fun to drive, but it isnt going to scare anyone. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. He can be reached by email at casamperformance@sbcglobal.net. You CAN get a good indication if the motor appears to be original and unmolested, and if all the correct W-31 equipment is in place. After all the rust and grime are cleaned away, it's much harder to authenticate. The 1968, 1969, and 1970 carburetors are W-31-specific, have their own W-31 part numbers, and are big-dollar items. What does it take to build a 911? Here is an amazing one-owner, matching numbers, low mileage Oldsmobile 442 Holiday Coupe from 1970, the peak of Oldsmobile performance, available now from the MAXmotive Pittsburgh Showroom. Too bad the seller wants top dollar for a project car and cant even change the clutch! If so please use the bidding box above. The 1990s were not good times for Oldsmobile. Jimmy, already a W-31 owner, informed Andy that his 1970 Oldsmobile was a W-31. Depending on the quality of the work the car may not even be worth it. I became involved with the W-31s after I went to the 1993 Oldsmobile Nationals in Somerset, New Jersey. The option disappeared after 1970. . 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass 1970 CUTLASS SUPREME COUPE REBUILT 455 V8 4 SPEED MANUAL TRANSMISSION 442 TRIBUTE BEAUTIFUL BLACK PA . Oldsmobile would offer actually, two choices.. the Rallye 350 and the W-31. Visible through the windshield. Menu Search (866) 383-1416; Inventory. These fenders had a flat ridge running all the way down to where they meet the hood. When it comes to the W-30 cars, Oldsmobile made only about five or six different Julian codes, and you've got to be able to recognize those carburetors when you see them. Item specifics. Required fields are marked *. There are Julian codes on the front disc brake calipers, the master cylinder, and the radiator tag. The Oldsmobile 442 (pronounced four-four-two) was a muscle car produced by the Oldsmobile division of General Motors. I started buying cars in 1980 and through the years they almost all had at least 70k and yet somehow all these cars have half that 30-40 yrs later The Antique Automobile Club of America defines the Muscle Car Era as between 1961 and 1974, a wider range than many muscle car enthusiasts recognize. The cars with A/C got the QS version of the 400 cid engine. "Hardware store hardware," we call it. There are a lot of nice finished muscle cars out there for less than $50K. "At the time, I was about the only Oldsmobile swap meet vendor around. The "it" was a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Holiday Coupe with the W-31 option. If someone owned a 1970 4-4-2 W-30 and it was rotted to the core, but it was one of 96 4-4-2 four-speed convertibles built, less scrupulous souls might remove the VIN and cowl tag and install them onto a Cutlass convertible body. To be able to look at a picture of an original W-30 car from back in the day to reference something is priceless.". Porsche offers the 911 in six trim levels: Carrera, Carrera S, Lamborghini dealerships own the vehicles seen in showrooms and if you want one be prepared to wait six to 12 months. . These models were equipped with the Hurst/Olds 455 package. He pulled it out, and it was the broadcast sheetthat car's Golden Ticket! production date code (month/day), and a suffix code which identifies the engine. More than 300,000 Porsche cars were sold in 2021. On the positive side, All that lightweighting paired with the zestiest powertrain results in a. I would knock several digits off the price just for this being a non-runner. Bid for the chance to own a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Hardtop W-31 at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. The two kept in contact, and in January 2018, Jimmy made an appointment to look at the Oldsmobile. That too has its own part number. The W-31 for 1970 had very similar styling to the W-30 trim but the engine was a more economical 350 cubic inch with 325 HP. The all-new Turbo GT model is at the top of the model range. I would rather have a clean all together 200,000 mile car than one claiming such low mileage with everything worn out. There are a few familiar names at the top of the chart, starting with, The average cost for a Porsche 911 oil change is. Terms of Use, Your Privacy Choices It was both BMW's first and only production V10 engine, and the first petrol V10 engine to be available in a production sedan (saloon). Would be a pleasure for most to work on!! Become a member to add images to your comments. All contents 2023 The best vintage and classic cars for sale online | Bring a Trailer, Privacy Notice Oldsmobile was a late developer into the muscle car scene and then moved swiftly to create an affordable mid-price intermediate muscle car. Believe it or not, the hardest things to find these days are N.O.S. Copyright 2023 FortranFAQ.Com All rights reserved, The worldwide production will be limited to. Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick had been doing this and Olds joined the movement. It was the body number, which matched the one on his cowl tag. That's when he found himself immersed in a W-31 time capsule in this rural Ohio garage. MCR: What are the areas you look at when authenticating a car? I helped a friend swap out the one in his 67 442 using a curb in a suburban neighborhood, serving as a ramp, for under-car access. By 1971 it was only available as a cover. Always question everything else the seller says when he wont do something basic like clutch replacement and his asking is so high. "I started looking at things like the Julian date codes on cowl tags, VIN numbers, broadcast sheets, and those kinds of things. That too has its own part number. One of the best examples was the 340 CI Dodge Dart GTS which later helped spawn Plymouths Duster 340. Research indicates that there were about 1,300 W-31's assembled in 1970 across all body styles. The W-30 was an option of the Olds 442, while the W-31 was an option on the Cutlass. However, after a car has been restored, it's much harder to figure out whether or not it's the real deal. Based on whats photographically revealed, the interior is certainly salvageable and probably not at great expense or effort. Im willing to bet the lower fender, rockers, and rear wheel lips are shot as well. Of course if money is if no consequence. I agree. Sell your Oldsmobile Coupe with Gateway Classic Cars. That really helps when you're putting one of these cars back together. Photos of assorted casting numbers and stampings are provided in the gallery below. Of the above production, these models were equipped with the L-69 32-bbl engine. :) :) :). The manufacturer estimates that about 200 Taycan cars cannot be built per day. Supreme Holiday Hardtop Supreme Convertible Supreme 4-Door Holiday Hardtop Handling 1970 Averages The 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass measures 69.50 inches in width, The 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass measures 203.20 inches in length, and has a wheelbase of 112.00 inches.