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MM Retro-Write-Up: 1968 Olds Delmont 88
Since we are still on a virus semi-lockdown where I live, and I'm only going out for short trips to the grocery store to pick up daily food and supples (when they are actually available...many shelves are bare), not being able to do new-car write-ups for theme being, I'm doing vehicles from my past instead.
Today, instead of one of my own, I want to remember a old friend's ride that some of you might find dull or boring, but that me and my best friend, in high school, liked and had a lot of fun in (he let me test-drive it a couple of times, because he knew I was careful). When we were in high school (mid-late 1960s), like most teens, we liked the prevailing American muscle-cars of the period, but, un-like most teens, he and I also liked the big luxury-cars of the period. He, in particular, was a GM fan, though I liked them all. His father (he only lived about a half-mile from me) had a big, full-size 1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88...I thought the 67/68 full-sized Oldsmobiles, quality-wise, were the best ones ever done, before the 1969/70 redesign. The Delmont 88 was the entry-level full-size Olds (it was later dropped), as opposed to the more expensive Delta 88, and, of course, the luxury 98, which was the same platform as the Cadillac DeVille. His Delmont was a light tannish/champaigne color on the outside, with solid black interior, and had the base 350 c.i. (5.7L ) V8 and two-barrel carburetor, so it wasn't a speed-demon, but its 250 HP, by the standards of the day, could get out of its own way if it had to. GM, back then, with the famous Body by Fisher, clearly had the best fit/finish and assembly-quality of the Big Three...with Chrysler the worst. GM cars of the period were noted for their great attention to detail...as opposed to the excessive cheapness and poor quality we saw in them a couple of decades later. You could tell a GM car of the period, blindfolded, just from the sound of the door-closings. Their only real Achilles Heel, besides the unreliable Chevy motor-mounts, was the crappy Acrylic-Lacquer paint (also used by American Motors) which would start to fade in just a few months if you didn't keep it waxed. The Fords and Chryslers of the period, though lacking GM's attention to detail, had much more durable Baked-Enamel paint....but that Enamel paint also had a tendency to chip more so than the lacquer. Also, remember that none of the paint jobs, back then, were clearcoat....that didn't come until the 1980s.
Anyhow the Delmont, although having solid-vinyl bench seats, manual window-cranks, and lacking the softer cloth-and-velour interior and feel of the Delta 88 and 98, was plenty-comfortable inside, and made an excellent highway-cruiser. The 3-speed GM Turbo-Hydra-Matic transmission shifted noticeably smoother and more crisply than the 3-speed Ford Cruise-O-Matic in my Dad's Thunderbird and the extremely durable but noisy/unrefined 3-speed Chrysler Torqueflite. It was a nice car to relax in after a day at school, particularly on a Friday or Saturday night when we'd hit a restaurant or movie. I briefly had a girl friend then I was infatuated with, and she'd come along sometime, or with me in my dad's T-Bird, but then she got enticed by a much rougher crowd, and that was that.
In addition to the Delmont, in 1970, his family got another new GM product...a brand-new, light green, automatic Pontiac GTO (I'll save that for a later thread) that the local Pontiac dealer gave away in a raffle-contest, and his family just happened to get the draw. My friend REALLY loved that car....but it also got him a ticket, which I'll also talk about. His family kept the Delmont for a while, then traded it in on a brand-new AMC Hornet as a compact, economical daily-driver for him. The Hornet was a handful to drive...three-speed-manual-on-the-column, ultra-slow steering, non-air-conditioned, similar to the Plymouth Valiant my Dad owned as a second car to the T-Bird. I'll also save that for a later thread.
Even though the GTO was more entertaining (and, with one or two rare exceptions, my friend drove it safely and sensibly), I really liked that Delmont, although, of course, the small, simple Hornet was a much more practical car than the Great Gas-Crunch of 1973/74 hit a few years later, and completely changed the industry as we had known it.
And, as Always, Happy Car-Memories.
MM
Since we are still on a virus semi-lockdown where I live, and I'm only going out for short trips to the grocery store to pick up daily food and supples (when they are actually available...many shelves are bare), not being able to do new-car write-ups for theme being, I'm doing vehicles from my past instead.
Today, instead of one of my own, I want to remember a old friend's ride that some of you might find dull or boring, but that me and my best friend, in high school, liked and had a lot of fun in (he let me test-drive it a couple of times, because he knew I was careful). When we were in high school (mid-late 1960s), like most teens, we liked the prevailing American muscle-cars of the period, but, un-like most teens, he and I also liked the big luxury-cars of the period. He, in particular, was a GM fan, though I liked them all. His father (he only lived about a half-mile from me) had a big, full-size 1968 Oldsmobile Delmont 88...I thought the 67/68 full-sized Oldsmobiles, quality-wise, were the best ones ever done, before the 1969/70 redesign. The Delmont 88 was the entry-level full-size Olds (it was later dropped), as opposed to the more expensive Delta 88, and, of course, the luxury 98, which was the same platform as the Cadillac DeVille. His Delmont was a light tannish/champaigne color on the outside, with solid black interior, and had the base 350 c.i. (5.7L ) V8 and two-barrel carburetor, so it wasn't a speed-demon, but its 250 HP, by the standards of the day, could get out of its own way if it had to. GM, back then, with the famous Body by Fisher, clearly had the best fit/finish and assembly-quality of the Big Three...with Chrysler the worst. GM cars of the period were noted for their great attention to detail...as opposed to the excessive cheapness and poor quality we saw in them a couple of decades later. You could tell a GM car of the period, blindfolded, just from the sound of the door-closings. Their only real Achilles Heel, besides the unreliable Chevy motor-mounts, was the crappy Acrylic-Lacquer paint (also used by American Motors) which would start to fade in just a few months if you didn't keep it waxed. The Fords and Chryslers of the period, though lacking GM's attention to detail, had much more durable Baked-Enamel paint....but that Enamel paint also had a tendency to chip more so than the lacquer. Also, remember that none of the paint jobs, back then, were clearcoat....that didn't come until the 1980s.
Anyhow the Delmont, although having solid-vinyl bench seats, manual window-cranks, and lacking the softer cloth-and-velour interior and feel of the Delta 88 and 98, was plenty-comfortable inside, and made an excellent highway-cruiser. The 3-speed GM Turbo-Hydra-Matic transmission shifted noticeably smoother and more crisply than the 3-speed Ford Cruise-O-Matic in my Dad's Thunderbird and the extremely durable but noisy/unrefined 3-speed Chrysler Torqueflite. It was a nice car to relax in after a day at school, particularly on a Friday or Saturday night when we'd hit a restaurant or movie. I briefly had a girl friend then I was infatuated with, and she'd come along sometime, or with me in my dad's T-Bird, but then she got enticed by a much rougher crowd, and that was that.
In addition to the Delmont, in 1970, his family got another new GM product...a brand-new, light green, automatic Pontiac GTO (I'll save that for a later thread) that the local Pontiac dealer gave away in a raffle-contest, and his family just happened to get the draw. My friend REALLY loved that car....but it also got him a ticket, which I'll also talk about. His family kept the Delmont for a while, then traded it in on a brand-new AMC Hornet as a compact, economical daily-driver for him. The Hornet was a handful to drive...three-speed-manual-on-the-column, ultra-slow steering, non-air-conditioned, similar to the Plymouth Valiant my Dad owned as a second car to the T-Bird. I'll also save that for a later thread.
Even though the GTO was more entertaining (and, with one or two rare exceptions, my friend drove it safely and sensibly), I really liked that Delmont, although, of course, the small, simple Hornet was a much more practical car than the Great Gas-Crunch of 1973/74 hit a few years later, and completely changed the industry as we had known it.
And, as Always, Happy Car-Memories.
MM
