'63 Oldsmobile 98 four door hardtop

[electra225]

Nice. What else can I say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGZq5r3ieto

[William]

It's beautiful! Greg, do you remember the 1964 Olds 98 at the BOP a few years ago. It was red and had every available options offered in that year. That car was gorgeous. I have a photo of it somewhere. I will try and find it.

Bill

[Firedome]

Fabulous Olds! I love the '61 to '64s!

I have mixed feelings about seeing this car in Sweden. An unbelievable number of US classics have been shipped there since the '80s due to their strong economy, cheap container shipping (then) and personal wealth, and I'm guilty of contributing to it. I've sold a '58 DeSoto, '58 Chrysler, '59 DeSoto, and '68 Caprice to Sweden in the last 10 years. I've never sold any of my many Olds over there though.

Scandinavians, Dutch and Germans love big US cars and culture, especially the Swedes. All the US car clubs have chapters there. The biggest car meet in the world is the "Power Big Meet" every mid-summer, in Vasteras or Linkoping Sweden. The 2017 meet had 22,000 cars!!! I know guys from here who have been, it's mind blowing. Far bigger than Hershey or Carlisle.
The average guy pays high taxes but almost everything, education, health care, child care, long term elder-care, is virtually free so it leaves them amazing discretionary income for expensive toys like cars. I know a taxi-driver in Stockholm who has a car collection of US convertibles worth at least $400,000 US.

Here's a small sample of Power Big Meet:

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/big-p ... rican.html

Even though I'm of Swedish ancestry on Dad's side (his grandfather came here from Goteborg {Gothenburg]), I'm sad now to see so many of our classics leave. They come over here on vacation, scour the Southwestern junkyards, constantly check out our CL and FBM, and are really dogged in pursuit of these cars. When I bought my red '58 DeSoto 4 years ago, it was on local CL, 10 mi away, but I beat out a guy from Sweden who saw it and phoned the seller only 1 hour later, he offered more than the asking price, but I was lucky the seller had integrity and turned it down. After work and detailing I sold it to a guy in Tuscon. I won't sell any more overseas an at least of the many vintage cars I've sold only a few left the US. Here's pics of the cars that did go to Sweden before I wised up:

[walyfd]

About 10 years ago, a Swede offered to buy my 57 during the Saturday car show at Hershey. I said it wasn't for sale... wish I got his name now!!!

[William]

22,000 classic cars in one spot, and not in the USA. Unbelievable! From what you are saying, they don't care if they are perfect or not? They must have a lot of classic repair places in Europe.

Bill

[electra225]

Weren't the '68 Caprice model Chevrolets the first ones with no wing vents in the front doors? Or was that just on the two-door models. Did all, or just some Caprices and SS Impalas have hidden headlights? You'd think I'd remember something like that. The Caprices and SS Impalas had two rings inside the tail light lenses, the regular Impalas just had one, the Bel-Air and Biscayne models had two lights on each side with no trim rings inside them. My wife bought a new '68 Impala SS with a 396 and TH 400. It had gauges in the console and power rear antennae. Quite the car, but my '68 Buick would run off and hide from it. 1968 Chevrolets were extremely rust-prone in Indiana. The thing I didn't like about hers was crank windows. She traded it off on a '71 GTO/Tempest Pontiac. It was a 350 with a 2-barrel carb, but had air and power windows....

[Firedome]

Greg, Caprice 2 dr fastback coupe and 4 dr Hardtops had vent windows (pic). Astro-Ventilation (ventless) was standard on Caprice Custom (notchback) Coupe, an option on Caprice sedans and Impala. Hidden lights were a Caprice option, my Caprice did not have those (pic). It was an option on TOL wagons. SS did not have them at all iirc, though no doubt some have added them since.

Walyfd, I have the phone number of a guy in Scranton who acts as a buyer for Swedes, he's actually the guy that transacted my Caprice deal 2 yrs ago, the others I sold myself. He charges them, not the seller, a %.
PM me if you want his contact info.

[William]

I came across this ad and thought I should share. I fits right in with the discussion on Oldsmobile. This is a beautiful car!

https://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/atq/ ... 20071.html

Bill

[Firedome]

That's a nice 98.
I had a chance to buy an almost identical white 4 dr hrdtp w/black vinyl top in close to this condition with 38 k original miles locally a couple of years ago for $2995. Just didn't have the room.

As a charter OCA guy IMO this car, despite it's great condition and seemingly proper going-over, is quite over-priced.
OCPG (2020) puts a #2 car (and that's giving it the benefit of the doubt) at $11k. I'd say that's close. The right buyer might pay $12-15k on the right day, but who knows. The white/white/white imo is a negative, so many color combos were so much better. Also although most prefer the 2 drs, on cars this huge the doors are just too big/heavy and to my eye the proportions are off, on these leviathans the 4 dr hrdtp body style just both looks and functions better, again my opinion, however as is typical the 2 dr does bring the higher proces.

Interestingly the drastically downsized '77 to '79 C body models show about the same OCPG prices as the super-big models from '71 to '76.

[William]

I agree, Roger, 2dr full size anything GM is a pain. The hinges pins and bushings wear out allowing the door to sag which makes it very difficult to shut the door. When it comes to cars, my first choice in color is white. But, I want a red interior in it. A nice tan would do too. My second color choice would be the Ford red. It's kind of the candy apple red that Ford used. After that, I don't much care. I cannot tell you how many Robin egg blue Buick's I have owned so that is not high on my color choice.

Bill

[electra225]

Henry Ford and I agree on car colors. Anything you want, as long as you want black. Triple black even better. I have owned several Buicks that were all black.

[TC Chris]

Black cars in the sun? Solar collectors....

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

Black looks great on big luxury cars for sure, as does navy blue or other very dark colors.

On sporty cars like Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, Porsches... not so much imo. When looking at Mustang converts my wife said it must be an in-your-face loud color, looked at Grabber Blue and Gotta-have-it Green, and finally settled on Torch fire-engine Red (with black rocker stripes)! I'll take my vintage Challenger in Plum-Crazy!

[electra225]

Yep, black cars are solar collectors. But, here in sun country, we have window tinting and "refrigeration". These two devices help considerably with heat load. ANY color is hot if it sits in the sun for very long out here. I own two black cars and a charcoal gray one.

When Art was mentoring me in the auto restoration business, his forte was to use his signature Raven Black to add detail or some pizzaz to the exterior of cars. He thought it was a mortal sin to not at least two-tone a Buick, using black in the scheme somewhere. Garnet Red over Raven Black, Lido Lavendar over Raven Black. We did a '56 Centruy one time in pink body, over Raven Black with a dark metallic blue top. What a ride...

We did a '59 Electra convertible in Sea Foam Green inside the chrome strips with Raven Black bottom. This made the hood and the trunk lid different colors. The owner of the car liked it so well, we did a '60 Electra convertible for him, but reversed the colors, Raven Black in the chrome with Sea Foam Green bottom. My grandfather bought a new '60 Electra 225 flat top four door hardtop that was Raven Black between the chrome with Lido Lavendar bottom. I have pictures around here someplace with grandpa pulling his new Electra to church on Easter Sunday, thru snow drifts with his Massey-Harris 444 tractor. Grandpa is dressed in his Sunday best with a not-too-thrilled grandma steering their new Buick thru the snow drifts. One could cut a wide swath driving a '60 Electra 225 flat top in Lido Lavendar......

I found a picture of a Lido Lavendar 1959. Close enough. On the '59's, you'd two tone to the lower trim strip. The '60's didn't have that, so you would two tone from the upper trim strip. The top and the trunk lid basically. This is a '59 Electra. The Electra 225 didn't come in a two-door hardtop in '59 or '60. The Electra series bodies were shorter than the 225 series.