Personally, my favorite vehicle of all time is a 1969 SS 396 Chevelle, but since I spent the last ten years trying to find an unrestored one for less
than 8-10K, I gave up and went with a close second.
My current car and project is an all original numbers matching 1971 Oldsmobile Cutlass. It was originally built an hour from me in Lansing MI and
shipped to Arizona where it resided for the majority of it's life. It managed to return to Michigan about seven years ago and started to rust just a
little bit, but FAR better than Michigan resident cars do.
That being said, I bought it for $1,500 and drove it home, it purrs like new and even the A/C is cold. It runs and drives like a dream even for its
age.
It may look a little rough on the outside, but aside from a couple spots around the bottom of the door and rear quarter, the rust on the outside is
just surface in these pictures:
I have started doing some body work, but most of the work is under the hood. In the last picture converted the points distributor over to HEI from a
455 I had pulled from my other Olds (1980 Cutlass Calais T-Top--Which I no longer have) and installed a new set of Heddman Headers.
I started building an engine for my T-top but decided to get rid of the car and focus on one instead, so I chose the 71. I have a couple more parts
before I can finish the engine assembly, but due to my son being born 3 months ago, I have little money left to finish it, so it sits on the stand in
the garage.
I will still continue to try and work on it from time to time, but I expect that it will take several more years to complete it than originally
anticipated. In any case, I have my vintage muscle car, if not the one I wanted, a very close comparison and I'm happy with it.
King
