Unfortunately, it has seen better days, but it is all there. I want to take it completely apart, clean and paint all the pieces, and then put it back together with a few improvements while I'm at it. It's just a matter of time and money, both of which are in short supply right now.

The 442 was a perfect balance of luxury and power. My first was a '62 Fury 3. Wish I still had it, you're lucky.

Here is a short vid about a 1971 Oldsmobile 442

No hi-jack, post about pretty much anything car related. Looking for funny/sad/weird stories,etc. Feel free! (Btw it turned out the alternator died on my Lumina. Pure coincidence. The brick - not so much.)

In all original condition, with ZERO (<----very important) modifications, your car as it sits (starting is not important) is considered a "survivor". This is a very en vogue new classification in car collector circles. Bottom line, it's only original once.

Depending on where you live, there may be an active collecting community near you. Online there are a lot of resources, starting with http://www.442.com.

Asks specific questions about value.

In '69 they went from drum to disc and a while back I pulled the front end off a '69 Vista Cruiser. As it is now, the thing has all the power of a locomotive, but unfortunately it also stops like a train as well.

Especially 4 speed ones and the hairy W-30 cars. Surprised yours doesn't have discs up front. It was an option but so many were ordered that way.

Don't get rid of it.

...had the Hurst/Olds W30 custom with the W30 455 4 speed. He went airborne one night and totalled it... he survived though.

Their stchick got old and too predictable.

But the callers make the show. There is never any shortage of people who do crazy stuff with their cars. My favorites are the ones who have been dealing with a loud, horrible noise. "How long has it been doing that"? "Oh, about 5 months". "Have you had it looked at"? "No". "Well, you have a broken ball joint, and your wheel is about to fall off....."

A farmer has a 40 lb stone that he uses to measure out bales of hay on a 2 sided balance. He loans it to a friend who accidentally breaks it into 4 pieces. Instead of being angry, the farmer is quite happy. He says to the friend, "You managed to break it into just the right 4 pieces that will now let me weigh any (integer) weight between 1 and 40." What are the weights of the 4 pieces?

Without success. I have sloved 2 that I remember.

in the auto group

http://election.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1205

I hope this thread is o.k. for DUL, as I am looking for car related life stories/memories than tech stuff. Thanks for directing me to an interesting forum!

just wanted you (and anybody) to be aware of the car group too

stories - jebus! 80% of my freaking life is "humorous" car stories (at least they eventually become humorous, during they pretty much just suck )

that comet is our current topic of interest around here, but I'm not posting an update until the damn thing has run for more than two days straight I don't want to jinx it.

Comets were the little Fords as I remember. Those and the Falcons, Chevy answered them with the Chevy 2, later to become the Nova. I myself am now I the Crown Vic 92.. I used to drive GM products, but hard timmes have made me appreciate things that do not break easily, and the Vic is one of them.

Just saw one of the Subaru dogs driving commercials. Hilarious

She told me she saw it on a lot in Santa Ana. It was bright yellow and had a bee graphic on it and would be perfect for me. All I could think about as I was driving to go look at it was what kind of V-8 my new Dodge Super Bee would have. I had better hurry too, lest somebody else got it first.

Much to my disappointment, mom didn't know a Dodge Super Bee from a Datsun Honeybee.

Sometimes pulled cruel practical jokes like that on me too!

seriously. I'm not sure where the Tappets are from, but from their accents I always assumed they were from western NY, and I always felt a neighborly-mechanic connection with them. One day I will own a vehicle again, and rejoin the fraternity.

That's tough, Joe. I believe click and clack are from Boston/Harvard MA.

Sounds plausible about Click and Clack. But at least I saved this (now mounted to hunk of steel on my desk......waiting for a new muscle car thats worthy)..... hopefully a new(er) Challenger...gutted and made death-proof. But before then I'll pick up a beefed up Ram. I've had 1/2 dozen of em before, and they blew away the rest of the rest of my multi-brand hard, grindin' fleet in all the worst conditions.... hands down.

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Is awesome! Glad you could save it!

Gear heads don't die. I might have lost a truck, but as far as symbols go....I won....now just waiting for the day to build another worthy machine.

I had an outstanding mechanic. He didn't have a shop with lots of new equipment, but the guy was an absolute mechanical wizard. Ąlways charged me prices that were more than fair, even not charging me for a few minor repairs. His german shepherd always greeted me, his faithful garage mascot.
One day I pulled up at opening time, for a problem I knew he would handle. As time dragged on, I tried the door and it was locked. I waited longer and a feeling of foreboding came over me.
I turned on my android phone and googled his name, as I didn't have the garage phone number on me. And there was his obituary. He had passed a week before.
He was in his late 50s, a Vietnam Vet, an Officer in the local Volunteer Fire epartment who was in charge of training the new kids. He was an usher at a local church and a member of several local clubs.I knew nonee of this before.
If you have a good mechanic, appreciate them. They are hard to find.

I wasn't the one who called in, it was a paper-delivery person. Everytime he stopped to put a paper in a box, the car would buck and stall. He'd put it in park, start the engine and drop it in drive and it would buck but take off. That's exactly what mine was doing. They explained that automatic transmissions have a magnetic coupling for fuel efficiency. Normally they work by transferring torque from the engine to the transmission through a fan in the fluid. At high speeds, a magnetic coupling binds the engine to the transmission physically so it works like a manual. It is SUPPOSED to disengage when you come out of Hyperspace, but over time that process can fail (physically sticky or something). So when you stop, it is just like driving a manual and not pushing in the clutch.

I had my mechanic disconnect the magnetic coupling (one wire) and BOOM - never had that problem again.

"Don't change that dial or your dipstick will fall off!"

My first car was a 1968 Pontiac Firebird. When I was 15 I bought the body from a junk yard for 250 bucks and I bought a 350 motor and tranny for another 250 bucks. The motor and transmission came from a Buick LeSabre, though, so my stepfather made engine mounts from a block of aluminum so it would sit right in the engine compartment. For the next year and a half I sanded rust and applied bondo and worked at various jobs to afford tires and wheels (got some sweet snowflake rims from a 78 Trans Am - 10" in the back, 8" in the front.) and air shocks to raise it up in the back enough so that the G60's would fit in the wheel well and I finally got it in shape enough to drive.
I got my license at 17 and immediately took my best girl out on a real date that neither of our parents had to drive us to. I hadn't even had time to get the car inspected so my vehicle inspection sticker was a crumbly, faded scrap of paper leftover from the car's first time around life and I promptly got pulled over by one of Dallas' finest. And I mean that - he was a good guy to a scared shitless 17 year old out with his girl for the first time ever. He listened to my story of restoring the car and told me since I had just got my license and knew I couldn't hardly stand waiting to drive the car he would overlook it as long as I got inspected within the week and let us go with just a warning.

But here's where the story takes a turn toward bummerville: I never made it to the inspection because a couple days later my friend called me up and said "Hey I heard you got your license - I know a place that will sell us alcohol!" (we were both underage) So I drove over and picked him up, went downtown and picked up a 6pack of Bud and a bottle of MD 20/20 and some pre-mixed tequila sunrise shit and we proceeded to get wasted and decided to run up to the mall and see Stripes at the theater. Of course, on the way I totaled the car - ran into a telephone pole right in front of a Sambo's restaurant (they still had them then). We both put dents in the windshield where our heads hit and my friend was awake enough to grab me and walk me over to the mall (we were almost there anyway) and hide out at the sporting goods store where another friend worked.

I don't remember much else except I never ever drove under the influence again and feel damn lucky that the car is all I lost.

But I sure miss that car.