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I bought Alice in the fall of 1998... for the princely sum of $150. Bought the car from some guy who lived way up in the mountains. I answered an ad in the local advertiser for the car... it was price at $200 (had been $250 in the last issue) and managed to talk him down another 50 bucks. |
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Alice is black (with a recent... but cheap... repaint) with a black vinyl interior. She's got bucket seats and a shift in the floor automatic. She's blessed with V8 power... though it's just the humble 260 (4.3 liter) and a 2bbl carburretor. At least it's Oldsmobile power rather than the also availabe Chevy 305! She's got 206,000 miles on her as of 6/20/99... and she's starting to show it a little bit. The engine, while it still runs pretty good could use a rebuild (or more likely replacement with something with a little bit more power). The transmission is pretty well fragged... but I've already got a replacement for it... it's the infamous metric 200 transmission... but I've got a TH350 to replace it. Alice has an aluminum hood for weight savings, and some other interesting options like the radio antennae is in the windshield. Basically I've done nothing to the car but drive it in these last 8 months.
Update 10/06/99 Well... have now had Alice for an entire year... officially... the tags go out of date this month. Thinking of getting a personalized plate... leaning towards "79 Olds" or "RKNROKT." Took her to the local Chevy dealer (the local Olds dealer, unfortunately, think only front-wheel drive cars are "real cars") for an oil change, chassis lube, etc. Still haven't replaced the fragged metric 200 tranny yet... but am saving for it and have the TH350C (lockup torque converter TH350) that she'll get all ready. Probably next week or two... will update when the tranny is in. Installed an oil pressure guage to see what sorta oil pressure she's pushing... not too bad for a 200k mile 20 year old car... 60psi on startup... quickly drops to an idle of 35psi... and once warm, drops to about 15 to 20 psi range. Original factory spec. for the car is 35psi at 1500 to 3000 rpm. "Stole" a gasket set for the 260 on eBay for $5 plus shipping and a set of rings for about $15... so will probably be rebuilding the 260 sometime within the next few months instead of dropping in another engine right now... though if I find a 455 at the right price... that's another matter! Have a rallye guage set ready to install. Have a set of really nice gray reclining buckets from a late 80's Salon that I'm going to install in place of the ugly, torn, original buckets (gonna keep 'em though). Going to install a late model lighted rear-view mirror for better interior illumination. Also am currently running a set of Cragar 15" directional wedge wheels with spinner caps. Looking for a set of Cragar SS's though. Install of Pioneer CD player is also imminent. That's all for now...
Update 11/22/99 Have gotten a few things for Alice. Got a 1973 Cutlass Salon 4 door on eBay Paid 125 for it... bought it for the engine and transmission. The '73 had some interesting options for a 4 door... like bucket seats... console... 120mph speedometer... kept it all... sorry didn't get any pictures when the car was still in one piece... wish I had of. Had to haul the stuff back from Kentucky... hauled it all in a little 6X8 Uhaul trailer (don't tell U-Haul :-). Engine is a 350 4bbl... transmission is a TH350 with a B&M shiftkit... both will be going in Alice... hopefully before the end of the year. I will go through the engine... replace the rings... raise the compression some... better heads... aftermarket or stock aluminum intake... high perf cam... etc. Basically going to do a "budget" rebuild. I'm thinking of putting the 260 from Alice in my 1980 Cutlass Supreme parts car... so that my rommate can drive it... he needs a car... and besides... it would make really convienient storage for the 260 :-) Also scored a set of 1979 Hurst/Olds aluminum wheels... with original lugnuts (you have to have them) and nearly perfect centercaps... traded this guy... get this... the 2bbl carb off of the 231 V6 in the 1980 parts car... plus 10 bucks and a new set of lug nuts for it! Also managed to find a NOS shifter plate for the console... from the dealer! Paying 26.00 for it. Still don't have the new buckets in her yet... nor the guages and tunes... working on it though. More later...
Update 4/25/2002 Wow... haven't updated since 99... my how time flies... Anyways... the ol' gal is starting to show her age a bit. The 260 smokes... the TH350-C that I swapped into her back in 2000 is now slipping a bit so it might need a rebuild too. I had been having quite a bit of electrical problems culminating in a couple of dead shorts between the alternator and starter somehow (thank God GM decided to put a fusible link in there) and even after fixing these items I was still having some electrical trouble... so I put her out to pasture... relying on my new 1991 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 ex police car (New Jersey State Police) for my daily driving duties for a while and for the last 6 months or better I've been keeping the miles off the Caprice and using my '63 Chevrolet C10 pickup, Bocephus for daily driving/work. Click here for the stories and pics of them. Well the transmission (700R4) in the cop car croaked here just recently so I had to have it built (should have it back later this week) and I was kind of broke at the time... so I agreed to trade Alice for the tranny work. I figured I was getting a pretty good value out of her for a full tranny buildup (with an extremely firm shift... just like I like 'em). Well after waiting a couple of months for him to "get around to it" (he was going to do it in his spare time to save me some money)... I decided the other day... now that I'm doing a bit better financially... that "money talks" and I'm gonna go ahead and pay him the couple hundred bucks for the job and I'll keep Alice... so I guess she's mine again. (and no... I wasn't including the Hurst wheels in the deal :-) ). So now that she is mine again... we have the decision... what to do with her. Well... that 260 still runs... barely... oil pressure barely registers on the guage and is probably not even enough to keep the idiot light off all the time if it was still hooked up. I've got a gasket set and rings for a 260 kicking around... but come on... really... a 260... so anyways... I think that an engine swap is a most definate item on the agenda. That 350 that I got in that '73 Salon is still languishing in my friends' basement... and I've also just recently purchased a 1973 98 Regency for parts (nice interior... great running engine and tranny... bad body) with a 455... but I also have 2 other vehicles I was thinking about it for... the '79 Hurst (I would just put the original engine in storage) and my '53 International L160 which I want to make a rollback out of sometime in the future. What would be nice would be to put the 455 in the Hurst... the 350 from the Salon in the International... and find another 350 Rocket for little of nothing... for Alice. Anyways... I guess I'll be on the lookout here locally. Oh and I'm looking for an LT1 for the '87 Volvo 740 GLE too I think... so I'm going to keep an eye on the police auctions for wrecked Caprices. My mother's cop car (1995 Caprice... much worse shape than my my 91 though) has the LT1 and I was VERY impressed with its performance... for a factory setup. Whew too many cars... and I'm looking into getting another one... found a 1942 Ford fire engine... it was built for the government during WWII and is still very solid with almost no rust in the cab at all... he's got all the original manuals (a THICK stack of government papers detailing every bolt). It has a flat head 8 of course... and I can get it REALLY cheap... I think we will come to agreement somewhere between 300 and 400 dollars... that's for after I get my tax return back. Anyways... that was a big long update wasn't it.
I'll add updates to this page as things progress with her.
To see Alice's Original Window Sticker (very large file)... Click Here.
To see another piece of original paperwork... describing a paint problem in 1979 (acid rain)... Click Here.
