how do you know the differance

[Guest A_ngelo1971]

how can i tell if my 37 olds is a f or an l ? i just inherited this car from my grandmother who passed away reciently, anyways, i know nothing about this car other than it has been sitting in the barn since 1956, most of the car is there but i will need tail lights lenses and the side chrome pices, if anyone knows where i can get this stuff id love to talk with you, also looking for in general help as how to make this car perfect !my plans are to get the motor running first the tear everything apart , sand blast everything and im not sure what the best rout to go is from there, do i use paint, or powder coat or anodize. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[GARY F]

F MODEL , 6 CYL & L IS 8 CYL.

[rocketraider]

Oldsmobile|Cutlass|442|Hurst|Toronado|Parts -Fusick Automotive Products, Inc is a good starting point. You can download their pre-1960 catalog online and they are in East Windsor CT so may be close by you. They speak fluent Oldsmobile there.

A National Antique Olds Club membership The National Antique Oldsmobile Club will also help. At one time there was a 35-36 Olds Registry active and seems like they covered the 37 too. Between NAOC and AACA someone somewhere will have seen or done it on this car.

BTW as far as making the car perfect, GM didn't make it perfect by a long shot. They barely made Cadillacs perfect, much less the lower- and mid-line cars. I think what you will strive for is an "accurate" restoration.

Edited January 3, 2011 by rocketraider (see edit history)

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Oldsmobile|Cutlass|442|Hurst|Toronado|Parts -Fusick Automotive Products, Inc is a good starting point. You can download their pre-1960 catalog online and they are in East Windsor CT so may be close by you. They speak fluent Oldsmobile there.

A National Antique Olds Club membership The National Antique Oldsmobile Club will also help. At one time there was a 35-36 Olds Registry active and seems like they covered the 37 too. Between NAOC and AACA someone somewhere will have seen or done it on this car.

BTW as far as making the car perfect, GM didn't make it perfect by a long shot. They barely made Cadillacs perfect, much less the lower- and mid-line cars. I think what you will strive for is an "accurate" restoration.

Being the owner of two mid '50s Caddy's I can say with certainty they were far from perfect once one gets beyond the glitz of their chrome and upholstery, and even the chrome was not anything to write home to Mother about. Also having Oldmobiles from the same general period of automotive engineering thinking I'll be hacking off fellow Caddy owners in saying Oldsmobiles were a far better engineered car than Cadillacs.

Jim

[rocketraider]

Oldsmobile had the best engineering staff in GM- that was recognized even back then. A lot of Cadillac's gadgets came out of the Oldsmobile engineering labs. Cadillac got them first by default, then after a couple years the others could have them. And unlike later years, whatever gadget Caddy offered was tested and proven within an inch of its life before being released to production.

But we must remember that was a time when no GM Division could do any wrong.

Edited January 4, 2011 by rocketraider (see edit history)

[Guest A_ngelo1971]

thank you for that bit of info,iv been working on cars since i was 10,so im pretty good at fixing things, my family thaugh it would be a challenge for me to restore this car to show room quality.is there any other kinda stuff i should know about this car? it has a 3 speed manual tranny,i got the numbers off of the rear end and i took pics of the plate on the fire wall,i would love to figure how to read that,well anyways, thanks for everything

[rocketraider]

Post the firewall plate info. Someone here should be able to decode it. Think we did one on an early 40s Olds a while back. Basically all it tells you is body style, body number, original paint code, and interior trim code. I'm not sure if the prewar cars gave the build date code or not.