N43

My name is Dick. I recently bought a 1950 Cub Coupe, serial number 506M4482, body number L 257. It has lots of December 1949 and January 1950 date codes.

Only 2,499 base model Club Coupes were made per "How Things Work". Series 76 was dropped in 1950 because everybody was buying more powerful 88's.

Is there any reference to see how close the end of the run my car could be?

Does anybody know how to decode body numbers?

Point me in the right direction and i am on my way.

Thanks.

citcapp

You've come to the right place for info. Someone on the site will be able to help you out. I have sent your request on to a friend who is really into 1950 Oldsmobile's hopefully he can answer some of your questions or at least point you in the right direction. Good luck.

Lets see some pictures of your car

Oldsguy

Welcome to CO, hope you get the information you need.

okie88

The Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile shows there were 3364 Oldsmobile 76 Coupes built in 1950. Your car was built in Michigan, but it's going to be hard to tell where it's production lies in reference to just coupes, as the production numbers were assigned to a series, not just a model. The 76 series started at 1001 at each plant produced (there were 7 plants), and the number ended differently at each plant, depending on how many cars were produced. At michigan that number was 17502.

N43

Since we don't know in which plants the Series 76 coupes were built and if they were all built early in the producton year and the serial number sequence includes all Series 76 makes things more difficult.

Maybe another way to ask is whether anybody has a higher VIN number?

Thanks.

sedanettefreak

Does your car have no removable floor pan? That was a mid-year change in 1950.

jaunty75

Interesting. Setting the Pace has different numbers. According to this reference, Oldsmobile produced five different models containing the name "Coupe" in the Series 76 line in 1950. Production is below.

Club Coupe: 2,499 (as the OP noted)
Deluxe Club Coupe: 1,126
Holiday Coupe: 144
Deluxe Holiday Coupe: 394
Convertible Coupe: 973

Add them all up and you get 5,136. Leave out the convertibles and you get 4,163 closed Coupes of all types for the 76 Series for 1950.

N43

sedanettefreak: The only removable pieces I have found are two access covers to service the Hydramatic and one to cover the hole where the clutch pedal would go.
I don't remember seeing a date code after January 1950.

The windshield is two piece that indicates an early car. My '49 - '51 Olds buddies say it was a running change during '50 production when plants ran out of two piece glass.

jaunty75: Holidays are actually hardtops. Note the limited production. Dealers probably used them to advertise low prices. It would be a real trip to find one of them or a Series 76 convertible to restore.

Note the lack of chrome trim around the windshield indicating "not Deluxe"; btw, the missing side trim will be reinstalled when the car is stripped and painted.

Thanks.

jaunty75

Yes, but they can still be coupes. Coupe just means two doors, center pillar or not. Unless they have four doors, convertibles are coupes, too.

Nailhead 88

yes and no
I agree with most of what was said
yes, 2 door hardtop the Olds Holiday and club coupes are called coupes
but i never heard a 2 door sedan listed as a coupe

jaunty75

The term "post coupe" is used all the time on here to refer to a 2-door car with a center pillar, especially with the Cutlasses.

But, no, there is no hard and fast definition. "Sedan" generally is taken to mean four doors, but there have been such things as 2-door sedans, where it was being called a sedan because of the volume of the second seat seating area (a more boxed-off roof line, rather than a slanted roof line), rather than because of the number of doors or whether or not there was a center ("B") pillar.

As just one completely random example, here's a 2011 Nissan Altima 2-door, with center pillar, and it's officially called an Altima Coupe. I'm not saying Nissan is the last word on this. It's just an example of a 2-door, center-pillar car (what you might call a 2-door sedan) being called a coupe.