Went to the junkyard today looking for a driverseat that was in great shape in a 91 Olds 88.( maroon ) It was there July 30th And I probably should of taken it then, but now the entire car is gone...anyway I was thinking maybe they moved the car so I start walking around the yard to see if I can find it. End up in the back of the yard where the rear wheel drive cars are and I still didn't see it.
They must of scrapped it or somebody bought it whole. The body was in fantastic shape ..
So, I walk around the back end of a 83 Caprice because I spotted a 63 Wildcat 4 door hardtop I wanted to look at and what the hell is sitting directly to the left & behind the Caprice but a brown 2 door 1978 Olds Holiday 88 with a tan bucket seat / console floor shift interior. My jaw dropped !
So I began to talk to the car .
HF - Hello Car ! I had one just like you loooooooong time ago.
78 Olds - You don't say !HF - Mine was the same color as you, I even had the same interior color as you
78 Olds - Really !?HF - Hey, you got a flip up / removable sunroof just like I had. Ziebart installed mine.
78 Olds - Yeah, mine is glued shut with Silicone cuz it leaks.HF - You even got the landau roof mouldings running over the roof outlining where the vinyl used to be before it was torn off. I had the roof re- repainted on mine.
78 Olds - My roof was repainted too! I think it was over Memorial day weekend 1988.HF - Hey you even got the 74 Cutlass chromed hood louvers on the rear quarter panels like my Olds had.
78 Olds - Yeah, what the hell are those for? Is that to make the car look cool or something ?HF - Jesus Christ car you got the same exact color body stripes running down the body crease and up over the wheel openings just like my car had !
78 Olds - There all cracking & peeling now.HF - Hey Car, your Sport Mirrors got a pin stripes wrapped around the mirror body like my car had. I stole that idea from Burt Reynolds Trans Am in Smokey and The Bandit.
78 Olds - Oh a copy cat, eh !78 Olds - HELLO ! - I AM YOUR OLD CAR ! Go around back and look at the trunklid to confirm what I just said.
78 Olds - So how you doing fuzz face ? You still got that shiney new black Bonneville ?HF - Yeah I still got it but its not shiney new anymore. Its almost 13 years old and got 266,548 miles on it.
78 Olds - LOL ! Someday it might be parked in here with the rest of us.HF - SHHhhh don't say that !
Anyway , I walked around to the back and looked down at the trunklid and sure enough there's the round stainless steel 4 inch diameter plate my dad made to cover the hole in the trunklid under the key hole where the thieve's punched the lock out when the car was stolen in November of
1986. The dealer sticker was still readable on the left hand side, Steele / Hoff Olds - Blue Island, IL.I could not believe my eyes that I was looking at " MY " Olds that I sold in April 1991 two months after I bought the Bonneville. It had
196,000 miles when I sold it to Lou, a trucker driver who delivered locomotice crankshafts to my dads machine shop.Lou -Lou, as we called him bought it for $900.00 I know he had the car at least 5-6 years ( Maybe more ). His son told me at 225,000 the rear end had to be replaced and the power steering pump went out around that time.. Lou Lou & the Olds were now living up in Wisconsin.
After 1996-97 I don't know what had happened to the car.
The car today has 29,491 showing on the odometer. I'm going to assume the car has 329.491. I know Lou Lou run it past 225,000. At 99,00 the older cars odometer resets back to 00000. An employee at the junkyard looled in their records and the car came in July 23, 2003. The last owners name was not Lou.
There are no floor pans under the rear seat or front passenger side. The front passenger side has a hole from the front seat bolts to the firewall and about 18 inches wide There is less than average surface rust for a 25 year old car. The driver door was rooted off from the inner portion where the pinch over seem is.
The fenders & quarter panels were solid as was the trunk floor. Front nose was fine, tailights were not broken out. Trunklid had a little rot out on the pinch over seam on the inside, Both bumpers were rusted out. Fiberglass header panel was intact as were the grille & lights.
Hood was fine. Interior was shot - Headliner was dry rotted, carpet was water rotted away. Vinyl Buckets were all cracked. Dashboard had 1 crack in it. Door panels were still in good shape. Even the cloth three pocket storage thingy I screwed into the drivers door panel was still on there. I took that with me..I also had the add on assits straps to aid in closing the door, those were still there too. Even the decals I stuck on the inside of the glove box door were still there and looked new yet. Now I know where my 2" x 3" Auto Meter Gauge's decal ended up. I had been looking for it around the house about a month ago.
WIndshield had a crack, and 1 quarter window was busted out. Transmission & Radiator was gone. Engine was all there except the 4 bbl carb & air cleaner assembly. I assume it still had the original engine. It was the blue Olds 350 engine.
Sadly, in BIG yellow letters written on the side of the car were the words :
WATER IN OIL - MOTOR JUNK !
I just stood there looking at the car. I sat in it. I thought about all the people that rode in the car, the places we've gone, all the good & bad times we've been through together. It was mind boggeling to be reunited after all these years. After I saw the car I had to go home and get the camera. Call me crazy but I took 2 rolls of pictures of the car, 8 with me in the photo posing with the car. I still can't believe I saw my old car today .
Incredible !
========= Harryface =========
1991 Pontiac Bonneville LE ~_~_~266,400 miles_~_~~_