Parked In ’89: 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Convertible
This 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Convertible was a barn find for its current owner 18 years ago. He hasn’t had the time to commence a restoration on it, so has decided to sell it. You will find it listed for sale here on Craigslist. Located in Adams, Massachusetts, it is offered with a clean title. The price for this Oldsmobile has been set at $4,500.
While it is an attractive looking car, the new owner is going to have some rust issues to deal with. The frame and trunk floor are solid, but there is rust to address in areas of the floors, the rear quarter panels and the front fenders but these all appear to be repairable. There is also a coating of surface corrosion across the majority of the underside of the car, but this should be able to be dealt with relatively easily.
The interior of the Cutlass is largely in quite good condition. The dash, rear seat, carpet and interior plastic trim all appear to have stood the test of time, and a decent clean will do all of these items the world of good. The front seat will need a new cover and there are some issues with the door trims, but I think that these can be repaired. The armrests on the doors will probably need to be replaced.
The good news is that the 350ci V8 runs. The car hasn’t seen the road since 1989, so you can guarantee that there will be some work to do. The seller is clear that the engine runs well, so it may be a case of giving it a full service and that will be right. The rest of the drive-train is an unknown quantity, but I would bank on replacing all of the rubber components such as hoses and belts, and giving the brakes at least a partial rebuild after all of these years.
The Cutlass S Convertible is currently commanding some pretty reasonable prices. I did a fairly thorough search around the available offerings, and found project cars starting at around the $11,000 mark, with nice examples starting at around the $22,000 mark specified the same as this car. At those sorts of prices there is certainly some room to move on the restoration of this car at its current asking price.
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Comments
Just a wee smidge cheaper than that $30,000 442 convertible in the same or even worse shape huh?
To me this is a way better deal. I mean, honestly what’s the real performance difference? Put a cam, headers, and aluminum Intake on this and you’re probably about the same performance level of the 442 stock.
Totally agree, I’ve mentioned the 350 Olds is a great street performance engine. This would be a nice starting point for a restoration, I bet $3000 would buy it.
The 350 Oldsmobile engine has a better bore/stroke ratio then a 350 Chevy. The Pontiac and Buick 350s were worthless boat anchors. With the W-31 package Olds made a Killer for the small block classes. Make mine an Oldsmobile!
Muffler is rusted out, think I’ll pass.
Had I not just bought my current ’68 442 convertible project, I’d already own this. I used to own a ’70 with the exact same specs, except (of course) it had A/C. Love, love, love Oldsmobile, and especially Cutlass.
My brother and I have owned many ’68-’71 cutlasses, including a couple of W-31’s and Rallye 350’s (they weren’t mutually exclusive).
Point of fact: that interior color is NOT White. It is Pearl. They are two distinct colors and both were offered. I’ve owned examples of both. When you have a Pearl interior and the top is down on a sunny day, and the car has metallic paint, it’s like cruising in a silver cloud.
If you like the big 3 mid-size cars, this deserves a long, hard look.
Hold it, children. I have just had to temper my enthusiasm for this car, somewhat. I may have been too hasty. As I settled down to review the pix a bit more, I realized that this car has an A/C dash, but it is not so, under the hood… I don’t know what shenanigans have been afoot, but it bears closer scrutiny.
Well, the A/C dash would be a plus for me because I’d put in a Vintage Air system in it anyway, and I don’t like knee-knockers.
I would be buying this thing if it had some red heater hoses.