jayeplate

Can anyone tell me if red line tires are correct for a 69 442? I have BF Goodrich Radial T/A on it now but they need to be replaced and I thought red lines would look good.

jayeplate

And one more question...Was it an option in 69 to have rally wheels painted the same color as the body of the car? Mine are and it looks great but I am in the process of upgrading my paint so now is the time to restore to what is correct.

1970cs

Red stripe was an option!

Oldsmobile wheel terminology (super stock) not rally. SSII's were argent grey.
To glean some info on your own, join wildaboutcars.com.
Also here is a link to Oldsmobile wheels.
http://www.oldsmobility.com/old/superstock.htm

Pat

Grace Stinespring-Welch

take some pics,

jayeplate

Thank you Pat. I think I have to go to ardent grey SSII's with red lines. I don't think it will look as good as the SSII's on the car now with lower body color but I will get used to it.

joe_padavano

The first use of body-color SuperStock II wheels (which technically would make them SuperStock III wheels) was in the 1970 model year on the Indy Pace Cars and on the Rallye 350s.

LI Olds

just painted mine argent

IMG_3189_zps650cb098.jpg

rcorrigan5

I thought all 4-4-2 models came standard with red stripe tires in '68 and '69. Of course, other tires could be ordered in place of the red lines if you didn't want red lines.

SSII wheels in '68 and '69 were 14X6. The 14X7 wheels started with model year 1970.

Randy C.

4speed455

Now correct me if I'm wrong. I thought Olds used dark argent grey. Close to a charcoal color. The pic above looks like argent silver used on Chevy wheels. I'm too young to remember them new (born in 1977). And everybody seems to have them painted body color nowadays.

My wheels on my 70 are silver. I was told they were not correct but it matches my color scheme.

oldsmobiledave

Red Lines were optional not standard. I have owned numerous 1969 442s & have build sheets for 2 of them & the original purchase order for a third. None of them came with Red Lines.

sammy

In 68, the 442 came with a F70 14" 2 ply wide tread Red- line Nylon cord tire as standard equipment.

According to the specs the white line, nylon cord tires(7.75 x 14") were avail only with the 455 and power front disc brakes and were available at no charge

A radial whitewall was even available,205R14 but was only available on the L65 Turnpike option.

Not sure of 69.....

Ted

tva442

My 69 442 conv was optioned with red lines and SS1 wheels. I have been wanting to go back to that from white letters also since would look great , especially since the car is sliver with black interior and top. However, the redline radials are twice as expensive as BFG Radial T/A's Anybody know where to get them at any discount ?

wmachine

Sammy and Randy are correct. '68 and '69 standard 442 equipment were redlines. In fact, all the way back to '65 redlines were standard with teh 442. In '69 they were redline Wide Ovals. Many sources confirm this including sales literature, SPECS booklets, and Assembly Manuals.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is welcome to pony up some proof.

oldsmobiledave

Were the red lines standard on the Oshawa built cars?

wmachine

I know of no reason they wouldn't be. The only exception for '68 Canadian built cars that I can think of is the Chevy rears that went into them, but that is pretty well documented.

rcorrigan5

And that's not to say you could have gotten a different tire. For instance, my '68 4-4-2 came with white line nylon cord tires. But those tires were specifically requested and that's why the car came that way. If a certain tire had not been specifically requested for the '68 or 69 4-4-2 models, the car would have come with red stripe tires.

Thanks, Kurt!

Randy C.

oldsmobiledave

In my earlier post I wrote none of them came with Redlines. What I meant to type was none came with redlines "as standard equipment" as the redlines are listed as an added option.


I just looked at my GM of Canada documentation for the Pewter 1969 442 that I sold a year ago. It shows the car as built & lists all the options on the car. As one of the options on the car Option code N81 and described as F70 x 14 red stripe tires on 14 x 6" JK wheels.

So if this is a standard item on all 1969 442s why is it shown as an option on this car?. By comparison U80 is another option on that car (rear seat speaker). Certainly that was not standard on all 442s was it?

sammy

......and my 68 442 lists it's tire as an option also...

PW8. F70 14 4 PR-RED STRIPE

I cannot find any imfo on RPO code PW8

The car is Oshawa built.....

As Dave points out, why is it listing a tire as an option when it is listed as standard equipment?

Ted

wmachine

Maybe there is something different with the Canadian cars, maybe not. Can you post (or email me) the specific documents you are referring to?
There may be some confusion here with what an "option" is being called. Some RPOs are an option, but are standard equipment in some circumstance. And in some cases an RPO is a "required option". So the devil is in the details, and sometimes the terminology is totally misleading. From a logical standpoint, how can an "option" be "standard" or "required"?
Truth is that "RPO" is misleading to begin with. Maybe should have been called a "feature" instead of an "option".

oldsmobiledave

My Oshawa built Turquois 1969 442 was built on Aug 27th & was the 124th car built @ Oshawa. A day later on Aug 28th they built my Pewter car which was the 340th car built. The Turquois car build sheet makes no mention of red line tires as an option while the Pewter car has them as an option on its' build sheet.

So...me thinks that the rules @ Oshawa were different from those at the USA assembly plants.

It still amazes me that these two cars built 1 day apart in August 1968 ended up sharing a garage 44 years later. Especially when the Pewter car was built for the Halifax NS sales zone but went unwanted & eventually sold to a dealer in Vancouver B.C. while the Turquois car was sold in the center of Canada in south central Saskatchewan. Apart from body color & power windows on the Pewter car they were near twins.

wmachine

Beautiful cars Dave. If you can, please show me the documents you are referring to. Build sheets often list RPOs that are standard equipment. I can't tell you much more at this point without seeing what you are looking at.

oldsmobiledave

I have sold both of these cars (I kept the gold 69 442). The Turquois car is now in Vancouver with a member on here & the Pewter car is in the hands of a friend in my home town.

I will try to post copies of the GM of Canada documents later.

wmachine

Ted, I'm confused too. Is that PW8 from Canadian docs? I have to think there is some kind of error there. I find no PW8 for '68 and any references I find to PW8 point to 15" wheels and tires.
Keep in mind that the data used to make the Canadian docs just basically list the VIN and RPOs. George fills in the descriptions of the RPOs on those docs.

wmachine

If the GM Canada docs are the source of your information for standard vs optional, then I can tell you for sure that it can be misleading. As mentioned above, the raw data for the docs you get is a listing of VIN and RPOs for that VIN. Though almost all of the RPOs are truly options, they can include options that are standard equipment *for that particular car* and "mandatory options". Take a look at this 1970 build sheet. There are about 30 RPOs shown. But more than half of them are standard equipment for this car, as noted by the "*". The L31 is not shown as an "option" because it is standard in the 442.
But that may or may not be shown in the Canadian docs because it is is an RPO that shows up on the build sheet.
This tire situation is further complicated in 1969 with having 2 factory redlines, the old N81 wide ovals and the new P81 fiberglass belted. At a time when the white letter tires were just taking off and not many wanted the old style redlines. Of either type!

stevengerard

As for the Argent Silver color question there are many shades of that color. I have read here (somewhere) that they sprayed those wheels and the top of the barrel of paint was lighter than the bottom and of course the paint most likely varied depending on batch. I have 5 sets of SuperStock rims and at least three looked original (no extra coat of paint) and all three were a different shade - most were on the darker side. I erred on the darker side as well.

sammy

....which would explain why the discrepancy exists between what appears on the GM doc from George as an option, and the salesmen's guide on pricing/equipment for the 68 442 which lists F70-14 Red Stripe as being standard .....interesting.....thanks Kurt

Ted

tva442

Thanks Kurt! I always thought mine was optioned with redlines, but it just came with it. My build sheet has

* N81 TIRE F70X14RS
and also
F70X14 RED 2/4 PLY OE
in the box

so I would have had the Wide Ovals.

and mine does have the "*" just as my W29 442, M14 3 spd does as that is what came with the model, while my console and SS1's does not. Learned something new.