1965 Oldsmobile 442

[MostMint]

More than halfway since you now know exactly what to do

[GMJohnny]

40,045... Hibernation time. The other day, the weather was wonderful, so I washed up the 442 and got it
ready for winter. It really was a pretty easy task. There were tons of bugs on the front of the car that I
washed off, but other than that, I put a battery tender on it and covered it up. I think this year was a
success with this car. My number one goal was to make it dependable. It is. I can take this thing anywhere
and it does what it's supposed to do. It leaks just a bit and doesn't burn oil. Looking forward to next year
as to what I should do, I find a small list. I have valve covers that are stock painted and waiting on the bench.
It's a matter of installing them. The factory original 442 carb needs to be rebuilt. I have the kit. I scored a
set of redline tires last week. I found a guy who wanted to purchase my old 442 3.90 rear end. Part of the
payment was a set of (bias ply) redline Firestone tires. I have 14" x 7" steel wheels ready to go, but the tires
call for 5" or 6" rims. I have to find those still. I also have to find two more spinner hubcaps to complete my
set. I have all winter to figure this stuff out. I'd like to remove the motor and get it painted, and I'd consider
a camshaft upgrade, but I'm not sure what's going to happen with those two things. For now, I can feel pretty
confident that, come springtime, I'll be able to start up the car and go.

GM

[GMJohnny]

I’ve searched around for a factory shifter lever for the 442 since I’ve owned the car. The lever that’s in the car works fine, but it’s not correct for the car. I was able to score a decent shifter lever for $135 shipped to me last week. The lever I purchased looked like someone took a bench grinder wire wheel to it in an effort to remove the rust. The the threading that holds the ball on was a bit marred up as well.

I decided to jump on it, as it’s the cheapest one I’ve seen for months and months. Typically, these go for over $250. I put a bit of work into it and it turned out pretty sweet! A die on the threads cleaned them up enough where a nut holds tight to them. I spent a couple of hours with my bench grinder wire wheel, steel wool, scotch-brite pads, sand paper and rubbing compound to get the end product I have now. ( I finished with wet sanding 2000 grit then power buffed it.) A coat of clear gloss paint sealed it off and will protect it from rust. It doesn’t shine quite as good as chrome, but it’s a solid 90% of the way there. I have over three hours in this thing, but it was worth it for the look. I’ve ordered the correct thread ball and an adapter to adapt this Muncie shifter to the Hurst Competition Plus shifter linkage in the car. I’ll post those pics when the parts come in. More to come!

GM

[Basement Paul]

Now paint the 4 4 and 2 on the sides in red, orange, and yellow like the badge on the side of the car colors.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

agreed, that would look pretty hot.

[GMJohnny]

Over the summer, for $30 I purchased a box of 2 bar spinner hubcaps from a local guy. In the box was enough parts to make one complete hubcap and then a bunch of miscellaneous other stuff. I made the first hubcap out of the parts on the day I got the box. A couple of weeks later, I took my wall-art 1966 hubcap off of the wall and, with the parts in the box, was able to make a second cap. A couple of weeks ago, I scored 2 more hubcaps from a ‘64 Cutlass on EBay for $80 shipped to me. To make them into ‘65 caps, I went back to my trusty parts box where there were two correct Olds emblems. I was able to convert the ‘64 caps to ‘65 caps to complete the set. Also in the magic parts box was a nearly mint spoke hub that was used on one of the EBay caps. A bit of paint, some elbow grease and about five hours of my life later, I have a very decent driver quality set of two bar spinner caps to install with my redline tires. ( I spent the time to make them all the same. The rocket emblem aims at the valve stem on all four now.)

GM

[MostMint]

they look really good

[GMJohnny]

I’m a bit tardy on the post of this, but a before the new year, I was able to get the shifter installed in the 442. It looks and feels great! I think there might be a small amount of tweeking that has to happen to make sure that it’s just right. The “A-Dapter Kit” that I used to make the Muncie shifter line up with the Hurst linkage is making the bottom of the shifter contact the inside of the rubber console boot. I think I can modify the bolts that I used and grind some rubber off of the grommets that are between the kit and the shifter itself and loose about a half inch, which would be perfect. My concern is that it might pop out of 2nd and 4th gear the way it is. It’s hard to say with the car stationary in the garage. I can deal with this in the spring. It takes 15 mins to get the seat and console out, so it’s just a minor job to get to it. Here are some pics of it in the car, new black shifter ball installed.

GM

[GMJohnny]

In order to install the redline tires that I’ve acquired, I have to have 14” x 6” rims. I had a nice set of 7” wide rims, but they were too wide. A bit of a horse trade got me three 6” wide rims with 4” backspace. I found a fourth on Craigslist locally, so I was able to have a complete set. It was way more difficult to find these rims than I thought it would be! Everyone must’ve scrapped all the steelies! Anyhow, a quick cleaning, sanding, prep and some new 2" valve stems got me a really decent set to put the redlines on. I should have the tires mounted on the rims and the whole set completed and in my possession this week. I purchased stock lug nuts online and they’re enroute to me as I write this. Soon, I’ll have the spinner caps with redlines on the car.

GM

[GMJohnny]

So here’s the final outcome of the redline tire project. The tires and caps are factory stock look for the ‘65 442. The 7.75 x 14’s are narrower and taller than the 225/70/14’s I took off. The tires look pretty good, but need a good cleaning. If the weather had been a bit warmer, I would have taken the tires out and cleaned them, but it was right at 32 degrees and I wasn’t up to freezing yesterday. I put new lug nuts on while I was at it. I can’t wait to feel the bias ply and skinny tire feel! I’m going to hold on to the chrome wheels and RWL tire combo for a bit. I might want to go back and forth between the different tire combos.

GM

[Basement Paul]

Those look cool because nobody runs their cars that way, but I like the mags way better. I still think you're going to really dislike real bias tires. I remember them on my Pinto and they sucked. Now, yours are a lot skinnier than mine, so maybe that will help somehow. But like you said, you have both, so you can switch back and forth as desired.

-BP

[MostMint]

The red walls look good.

I would not run those skinny tires on a car that heavy. If the manufacturer used current rubber technology it should at least have more grip than the original bias ply tires from the 60's.

The Saturn came stock with 195 tires (7.67") and weighed like 2500-2600 new. On the other hand Rachel's 2013 Charger police came with 225 tires and it weighed 4300. So who knows?

[GMJohnny]

Exerpt from a thread on ClassicOldsmobile.com:

May 29th, 2013, 09:46 PM #6
Old Olds Fan
Registered User

Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Bonaire, Dutch Caribbean, Ft. Lauderdale Fl.
Posts: 142
I've a copy of the1965 Inspectors guide a good reference, what see is yes you could get 15's on the F85 but not the W29 optioned car(442) it only came with redlines and14's, Coker makes reproduction 7.75x14 redlines, as well as other side walls, they all are 27.2 O.D. I've read that you should stay within 3 percent of original O.D. I've checked again and see that Good rich T/A's 225/70R14 are 26.5 O.D. within the 3 percent, Just my input.
Old Olds Fan is offline

These skinny redlines were what came on the car from the factory, in 1965. I’ve seen guys with tires that are as wide as
10” on the rears, maybe even more. There’s no argument that wider, radial tires ( or coil-overs, or maybe an LS motor)
will be a better option from a performance standpoint. Modern tires and everything about modern technology leaves this car in the dust. That’s not the point of running this type of tire or vehicle. I might hate the way it rides, it’s been a few years since
I’ve driven on bias ply tires. We’ll see..I miss my manual steering on my last 442, so one never knows.

GM

[GMJohnny]

40,068….. I started off the 2023 season today. A real quick check of fluids and air pressure in the tires and I was ready to start. No starting fluid required today, just some typical Rochester pumping of the carb and it fired off. I sat and idled so nicely while I checked for leaks, which there are none of. I took the car for a quick spin around the block to make sure the tires were riding true and my shifter install was correct. All is status quo and my work turned out to be satisfactory. After a quick washing of the redlines, I was off to do some errand running. I’m not certain what projects I have in store for this year, but for now, I can just hop in and roll knowing nothing failed over winter.

GM

[GMJohnny]

40,219.. Today I did a routine oil change/chassis lube. 5 qts. 10w-40 and a new Napa 1049 oil filter. The oil was barely dirty, but I keep a pretty old school “once a year” plan going for this car. All of the grease fittings took a pump of grease. While I was checking stuff over, I wiggled the front wheels. Both of them needed a bearing tighten. Each one took a notch on the castle nut to make them nicely snug. I should be ready for summer!

GM