Amazing Barn Find! 1965 Oldsmobile 4-4-2
Just when you think all the “good” barn find muscle cars are gone or too far gone, we encounter something like this long-parked, highly-original 4-4-2. Wearing a registration from 1978, the 1965 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 Sports Coupe in Lexington, South Carolina comes with a boatload of documentation including casting and stamping numbers identifying an original high-performance 400 V8 with correct heads, a broadcast sheet, and more. Check out more pictures and details in the well-composed listing here on eBay. At least 10 bidders have the market value above $3000 so far without meeting the seller’s Reserve. If this car doesn’t go much higher, I’ll eat my hat.
One year earlier, Pontiac’s 1964 GTO inaugurated what we now call the “muscle car,” a mid-sized car with a high-performance engine from the full-sized car lineup. Prior to that, buyers generally understood that maximum performance came with the larger, more prestigious full-sized cars. Olds scrambled and put together a ’64 mid-year GTO-alternative called the 4-4-2, denoting 400 cid (6.6L), four-speed manual transmission, and dual exhaust. The 1965 “4-4-2” became 400 cid, four-barrel carburetor, and dual exhaust, and our feature car sports the optional Jetaway automatic transmission. The 4-4-2 moniker endured subsequent gyrations through the late ’80s, at one point designating four wheels, four tires, and two turn signal indicators. I could be wrong, but it was something like that. Often the ’70 and later 4-4-2s with the mighty 455 cid (7.5L) engines garner more glory, but this hot 400 cranked out 345 HP and a tectonic 440 lb-ft of torque. Other than maintenance items, this one looks stock down to the claimed-original chrome air cleaner housing. Wow!
Documentation going back to the original purchase should help validate originality claims, and any wise buyer will do their homework. The timeless white and red color combination always looks great when fully restored, though, to paraphrase our own Scotty G, I may be biased since I myself, am white with a red interior.
The F-85-based 4-4-2 could be ordered in four body styles, and this Sports Coupe has the sloping C-pillar of the Holiday Coupe, but with a B-pillar or “post.” Soon the go-fast world would ignite with crazy scoops, stripes, cartoon characters, and more, but there was no joking around with this 1965 4-4-2. It looked like your grandmother’s F-85, but you could take this one to the streets or the local drag strip and rip the tires off the rims. We’d love to hear from the new buyer and see this barn find become a fully-restored specimen of Oldmobile’s classic muscle car. Any barn finds like this amazing 4-4-2 in your neighborhood?
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Comments
Great article, great car. Sometimes I wonder how these survive as well as they do, with documentation, original parts, the whole nine yards. Hope it finds a good home.
Theres a dark green around a 1970 vw kamnback about 3 blocks from me sitting for about 8 years outside on pavement but looks super clean gotta be from outta state.I might ring a doorbell this weekend.Why not who knows? Saw it driving around the neighborhood with a young lady behind the wheel about that long ago last time I saw it running.
Something I can get running and flip instead of it rotting away sitting there.Cool looking little car.Gotta pic of a 65 442 my buddies wife’s friend or someone she knew that was wrapped around a telephone pole completely in an L shape.The steering wheel is sticking about a foot over the hood.I could see the 442 emblem on the back and the sway bar.Wish I could post it. Pic dated 1972.Got the pic when I cleaned his house out after he died 6 years ago.
442 in 64 meant 4bbl, 4 speed, dual exhaust. 64 442’s had a 310hp 330. 65 was the 1st year for the new 400cid engine. And 1st year for an optional automatic transmission.
Jeff you are correct. The meaning of 442 changed over the years, but that was the original meaning…4bbl, 4 speed, dual exhaust.
I had a 65. This was it, and me, in 1972. Mine was a 4 speed car and pretty fast for the times.
Amusing: “I myself am white with a red interior”
Not amusing: GM 2 speed automatic transmission
This Ad looks quite familiar. Do believe this is the same car advertised on FB located in NC at the time-a few weeks back. Was advertised at $5500, but I think it may have sold for $7500. I would liked to have gotten it, but I was a bit slow in contacting the seller.
MrF, et al,
I agree about the GM 2-speed automatic trans, but that can be rectified. One of the blessings of older GM vehicles is the interchangeability of components. Not always, but for the most part, swapping (automatic) transmissions is a matter of relocating the trans crossmember and modifying or changing shift linkages. Generally (I will NOT claim ALWAYS) a Turbo (TH) 350 (3 forward gears) will interchange with a 2-speed Powerglide (or whatever it was called by various GM divisions), and/or a TH350 can be replaced with a 200R4 with 4 forward wide ratio gears and a healthy overdrive 4th speed. The transmission mount is further aft on an overdrive trans so the trans mount will need to be modified (or in some instances) simply slid rearward within the frame rails (many GM intermediate models of the ’60s and ’70s had 3-sided/open inner channel rails, and the trans crossmember could be slid fore and aft to line up in various applications). A company named Shiftworks used to offer floor shifter conversion kits to modify GM 3-speed automatic floor shifters, as well as some column shift application. I’ve done two of these swaps, the first on a friend’s ’72 Corvette, on a Saturday at his auto body and paint shop, with we completed in a day. I did the second swap ( a 200R4 in place of a column shift Turbo 350 in a ’73 El Camino), solo, in my home (concrete paved) driveway, and again in one long day.
The results are well worth the time, effort and expense if you like to drive that old car. I had already rebuilt to El Camino’s original 8.5:1compression 350 to Edelbrock Performer 350 specs, but with the Turbo 350’s lame (about 2.40:1) low gear and factory-installed 2.73:1 rear gears it took half a block to get the damn thing rolling and into the powerband. The 200-4R I swapped into the Camino has a low gear ratio of around 2.80:1, and with a replacement set of 3.73s (and a limited slip diff) the old car is an animal accelerating and cruises on SoCal freeways turning 2000 or so RPM at 70 miles per hour. It regularly returns 20+ mpg on the highway (in stock form it struggled to do 16-7 mpg on the highway). In this instance, the work and expense were well worth it!
Those mid-60s GM 2 speeds are a strange bunch. Buick and Oldsmobile offered “switch pitch” transmissions, sometimes referred to a 2.5 speed. I believe they were called the Super Turbine and Jetaway, respectively. Chevrolet had the Powerglide of course, and I believe Pontiac used the same unit, calling it ??. It is unfortunate that these otherwise desirable cars used such performance-killing transmissions
The 2 speed only takes like 15 HP to operate. The 3 speed takes about 30 from the motor. So the 2 speed isn’t exactly a performance killer.
As the car sits it is worth about $6,000. Bidding is up to $4650 or there abouts.
Other than some Sheetmetal work, it appears to be a pretty straight forward restoration. The usual rebuild areas, suspension/steering, fuel tank/lines, and brakes. Re-do the interior and paint work. Doing most yourself, and mail order parts (like rock auto) should get you in about $15K, and you would have a car worth about $23-23.000. so in under value, and some equity in it at the same time. If I were 30 years younger, would consider doing it myself.
Good write up Todd. Really liked you “white with red interior” comment and your ultimate 4-4-2 “four wheels four tires and two turn signals”. A double joke write up.