1970 Olds 442 W-30 convertible four-speed

[Xplantdad]

Very nice Lee!

[sambrutay]

Very nice. I really enjoyed seeing your car.

[HO455]

Hi Lee-thanks for all your hospitality at the Muscle Car Nationals. It was great meeting you in person and seeing your beautiful car. It was a fun afternoon seeing so many cool cars on display. However, your W-30 stole the show IMHO. My brother Jim and the rest of my Oldsmobile gang had a great time also. I am glad you got to see Ed and Phil. They are definitely two of the old timers in the Olds hobby.

My friend Steve really enjoyed hearing about the history of your car. It was also very interesting for me to hear about the original point area on the rear 442 bumpers.

Anyway, thanks again &amp; I hope to see you next year. It sounds like the 1969 H/O convertible in going to be unveiled at the November 2012 show. I also hope James Kryta from Inline Tube has an Oldsmobile surprise for us in the future as well! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/burnout.gif[/img]

Take care! John

[LeeP]

John: Nice meeting you too. It has been a blast sharing this car with people that love these cars like you and others that had never knew or appreciated the roll Oldsmobile played during the muscle car era. The best part is knowing that I have been a good caretaker of this car for the last 35 years. I knew Level One Restoration had to restore my car and also knew that it needed to be out in public for others to enjoy. Heck even Charlie L. knows me and my car which is pretty cool. Lee

[whitetop]

Lee, car looks great with the wheels.. How did you restore them to get the correct machine finish shine/look?

[LeeP]

I decided to restore the wheel instead of polishing them. They were put on an original type mill and turned down. What I learned was the early aluminum wheels have air bubbles in the aluminum. These actually show when you look close up at the wheels. They would need to be clear-coated to eliminate the flaws. Lessons learned when doing a restoration. Lee

[whitetop]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LeeP</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I decided to restore the wheel instead of polishing them. They were put on an original type mill and turned down. What I learned was the early aluminum wheels have air bubbles in the aluminum. These actually show when you look close up at the wheels. They would need to be clear-coated to eliminate the flaws. Lessons learned when doing a restoration. Lee </div></div>

Lee, just about all the wheels back then had air bubbles. Poor quality aluminum. From what I have seen, probably the most quality wheel back then and the manufacturer who used the best aluminum was Appliance.

There was an article on Fenton and how they would just take scrap aluminum of any type and melt it down-did not care what it came from or what the original purpose was. There are probably a zillion types of aluminum, quality from poor to aerospace.

Today wheel manufacturers use only brand new aluminum and it is all of one type. lot more quality control today..one reason why today's aluminum wheels can buff out like chrome.

[LeeP]

My car is going to be featured in Hemmings in the next few months, Restoration Feature in an issue on convertibles. I am pretty excited because my daughter was the person driving the car in the photo shoot. The story goes the car was always Rug's car (the original owner). When my daughter was born I put her in the car and said if she didn't cry the car was hers. She didn't cry and the car was renamed Maritte's car. 30 years later Hemmings came out and did a photo shoot with my 30 old daughter driving the car. I am pretty excited. Lee

[Xplantdad]

Congrats Lee! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/headbang.gif[/img]

[LeeP]

After almost 35 years of ownership my wife and I have decided to sell our precious 1970 Oldsmobile 442. Many of you have seen the car or followed it's progress. For those of you that don't know the car it is a bullet proof documented 1970 442 W-30 Convertible 4 speed and currently the only one known of the 96 originals ordered with the aluminum w-27 rear end.

For those of you that don't know me, I am just a regular car guy that bought a 1971 Oldsmobile in high school and has owned many since. At one time I had my three W-30 4 speed convertibles with a combined purchase price for all three of under $5,000 dollars. Those were the days!!!!

I bought this very special car in 1978 and it was placed strategically in my garage for almost 30 of those years. During that time I collected many of the NOS parts used for the restoration. A few years ago we decided we needed to restore the car back to its original glory. We saved and were able to hire Gary Riley at Level One Restoration. You can see pictures of the restoration at levelonerestoration.com. Many extra details were also included in the restoration such as the original Hansel Oldsmobile license frames and paper plates and California new car sticker.

I felt it was important to share the car as much as I could afford so it went to 4 auto venues including SEMA Las Vegas, the Oldsmobile Nationals in Reno, Muscle Car Nationals in Chicago and the Detroit Autorama. At the Detroit Autorama it was shown day two trim with vintage Ansen Sprint aluminum slotted rims and vintage original Goodyear polyglass g-70x14 on the front and h60x14 on the rear.

My wife and I do not want to auction the car so it will be listed for sale on various sites. It is a car that represents well the period of time of the 70s performance era and Oldsmobiles high water mark for one of it's best cars. I was very lucky to buy it in 1978 and to this day appreciate Robert Kasley's (the original owners) vision when he order the car, W-30, 4 speed, 3:91 W-27, poverty caps, rally pack, 8 track, no console....just perfect! Even the gold color was representative of the era with three different golds available in 1970. Red and Black may be more desired and popular but gold clearly stated the 1970 era best. Thanks for all your support during the restoration. My price will also be in the area of a high water mark for this type of car but some very recent private sales have been clearly within this price range. I will always have my 1971 442 M-22 convertible so I will not be bailing out of the hobby.

Tomorrow I plan to post a for sale ad on this site. I hope when the dust settles people will feel we were good caretakers of the car. Thanks Lee and Sue Pearl