70 442 with SSIIs

Discussion in 'The "Other" Bench' started by flynbuick, Sep 6, 2006.

  1. Canuck

    Canuck Muscle Cars Forever

    SSll Wheels

    According to 70 and 71 sales lterature and assembly manuel the only body colored wheel in 70 was on the rally 350 and the Pace car. In 71 the body colored wheel was known asa SSlll and had sales code N67
     
  2. MikeM

    MikeM Mississippi Buicks

    Hey Dave, I worked at Kemper Insurance from 75 to 79. We were always looking out for folks like you that wanted to change wheels. So you got a haircut.

    I didn't stay there long. Now they belong to some other company I think. Giving haircuts to the hurricane Katrina people.
     
  3. 442w30

    442w30 Well-Known Member

    Paul, that's been my understanding too.
     
  4. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Paul/Diego:

    I'm sure you're right on that. I don't recall exactly when we started the N67 painted wheel option, should be on the page in Section 10 of the Assembly manual. It hould show in the 1970 manual (Check that Blackgold) but denoted as Y74 or W45 only. IN the 1971 manual, that note would, of course, not appear.

    As I said earlier, we painted every wheel, (even the black ones) back then so it was a no effect on the plant. We had to have all the A body colors in the wheel spray booth for the dog dish cars, so nothing added there when they started the body colored N67's. The wheel and tire area ran 500/hour back then to support the 96 per hour assembly line. No time to think or make decisions.

    It did affect the center ornament and bezel assembly as before with only grey wheels, we could bring people in and get ahead. With the N67's, you couldn't keep enough of each possible color ahead of the line (I thnk they did for the most popular colors), so the wheels would have to be taken off the line after painting, and put into the assembly fixtures for the manual operations to attach the center ornaments and bezels(N66/N67). There was a spec on orienting the rokets with respect to the valve stems, so we had fixtures set up to assist in that.

    That last point used to be a biggee for losing points by the judges at the car shows years ago. Pretty sure everybody's onto that now.
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2006
  5. buicklawyer

    buicklawyer Well-Known Member

    I have original Sales brochure for the 70 442, W-31 and the W-30 car that I got from Jim Stolhman. The brochure shows body colored wheels as an option. John
     
  6. Canuck

    Canuck Muscle Cars Forever

    SSII and SSIII wheels

    who knows if they offered the body colored wheels mid year. Never say never,just quoted the literature.

    I personally think the argent wheels look better with certain color combos. Red SSIII dont look good IMO.
     
  7. 442w30

    442w30 Well-Known Member

    I'm not well-versed on Olds, even though I own one. I just remember the wheel chart from a Year One catalog. I've never seen anything from 1970 that shows body-colored wheels. Could you take a pic of this?
     
  8. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Paul:

    The 1970 Assembly manual would clear this up. Unfortunately I don't have one. It would show when the change was made releasing the N67 body colored wheels for production. Incorporation would soon follow, as it was a no brainer to begin it, only had to alter the assembly of the ornaments in the wheel/tire area as mentioned iin my other note.

    I also agree the grey wheels look better than some of the body colored wheels. One of the most popular aftermarket wheels of the time was the Torque Thrust with the grey center spokes. The N66 kinda looked like that with the bright trim rings that were started in 1969. Deep dish 70's even looked more like them in my opinion.
     
  9. buicklawyer

    buicklawyer Well-Known Member

    The piece of lit that I have only list the wheels as an option as Paul notes, but the picture supplied shows colors just like in the 71 brochure. May have been a compulation of the two years. Jim S had them reproduced is my understanding from original copy. Who knows. I like the colored wheels and have had all my 70's red gold and that yellar that Dave doesn't like with the body colored wheels. No deduct at OCA for the Yellar car for them in TX in 99.
     
  10. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

  11. Duane

    Duane Member

    Guys,
    I have a 70 Olds assembly manual and will see if anything is mentioned about body colored SS II wheels.

    That is one of the questions I needed answered on my car. I have a Twilight Blue 70 442 convertible with the SSII wheels.
    Duane
     
  12. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    great, Duane. Look in Section 10, Wheels and Tires. Find the page that calls out the part numbers for the wheels and lug nuts. There should be a chart or something that shows the usage of the wheels. If N67 is shown, that means it was used at the end of the 1970 model year (or whatever the date of your manual). To find out when that started, look in the revision box at the bottom and if it was added mid year, it will be called out with a date. Note should read something like "N67 added". If there's no note like that and N67 is called out anywhere on that page, that means it was part of the original release of the car (usually Feb, Mar, preceding Job 1 and available all year.

    Wish I had the page in front of me. Those books were the Bible of our jobs where I worked at Olds. We lived in them on a daily basis. Any change that affected production cars was called out on those sheets. They were updated continually all year long as the cars changed.
     
  13. Duane

    Duane Member

    Dave,
    Yeah the Olds assembly manuals are set up just like the Buicks. I will check when I get home.
    Duane
     
  14. Duane

    Duane Member

    Dave,
    The wheel info is on page 10-95 and there is no mention of UPC Code N67. The last revision (D) looks to be 3-11-70, so if the painted SS II wheels were an option for the 70 model year it was after this date.
    Duane
     
  15. BuickBuddy

    BuickBuddy Registered V8 Offender GK

    Are you kidding? :pp :pp

    Here's our buddy Jack's car. It is a real head turner. :TU:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
     
  16. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Think it'd look better with the dark metallic grey of the SSII. I see a lot of them today with a light grey metallic color, almost a silver. I don't care for that at all.

    Duane:

    That does tell me it wasn't in the initial 1970 release as you point out. It definitely was added somewhere along the line for the Rallye 350 (W45) and the Indy Pace Car (Y74). Seems to me both of them were mid year or later builds, so revision could be anytime after that. What's the date of the last revision on page 10-95 of your manual?

    I was fortunate when I left Olds, I kept my personal 1968 and 1972 A body Product Information Manuals (PIM) that now are referred to as Assembly manuals. They have the final update at the end of the model year, so they show all changes throughout the production period of those cars, and are very accurate and complete on those cars. I also have an original 1965 A car that I got from a friend, but don't know how late the revisions were.

    Each of us assembly engineers got our own set of revisions for all our books (also had B/C car and E car books) and it was up to the individuals to keep their own books up to date. Most of the other guys only kept the sections of the book that pertained to their areas of coverage and threw the rest away. Some, as usual, were lazy and never updated their books. We always had a master copy in the department that the secretary kept up to date. (Remember secretaries? They were those nice things that were replaced by glorified typewriters and turned the engineers into typists to save money....brilliant :Dou: ) Most all of the books were pitched at the end of the year, even the master copies.

    I was responsible for UPC, 2,3,4,8, and 9 primarily, and helped out on UPC 10, 5, and parts of Sec 1 (huge areas). Added Sec 11 additionallyfor the 1973 model year...what a nightmare. That's when I decided I didn't want to do this for the rest of my life.

    Over on Realoldspower, we've had a similar discussion going on battery cable routings around the engine. One guy found a way to post pics from his assembly manuals and cleared that up immediately. I was wrong on some things i didn't recall. Learn something every day. :bglasses:
     
  17. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Here's the correct shade of grey for SSII.
     

    Attached Files:

  18. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    Here's same w/o trim rings. Not sure why it's so small, but still 150+ kb. ??

    We had to remove them at one track (Martin) at F.A.S.T. race. I like the trim rings better. I had a set of the original SSII wheels that came on this car painted Ocean Turquoise to match the car for 20 years. Fortunately I didn't paint the spare, and was able to use it for a color match (never on the ground, always in the trunk. Duplicolor Truck and Van Paint (Medium grey metallic) is a perfect color match for that, but glossy. Original one was dull. I like the glossy better and easier to clean.
     

    Attached Files:

  19. Dave H

    Dave H Well-Known Member

    ROP discussion lled to a posting of the wheel callout and usage page fom the 1970 assembly manual. Here's the link. Very interesting.

    http://72.22.90.30/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=24901&highlight=

    Wheel page is down near the end. Love it when the actual facts come out. Doesn't always answer the question completely (like this wheel discussion) but certainly narrows it down and gives an insight about how things were doen back then. Battery cable routings was very informative to me. :TU:
     
  20. Duane

    Duane Member

    Dave,
    The last revision on page 10-95 was Revision "D" and it was on 3-11-70, which was late in the 70 model year, so this may actually be the last revision for this page. (They started making 71's in mid summer or 1970.)

    The page does call out the Rallye 350 (W45) and the Indy Pace Car (Y74) UPC codes.

    The Rallye 350 (W45) UPC code was revision "B" and it was added on 1-20-70.

    The Indy Pace Car (Y74) UPC code was revision "D" and it was added on 3-11-70.

    Again, I see no UPC code "N67" anywhere on the page, therefore I would figure it should be safe to assume that the body colored SS II wheels were not available for 70 Oldsmobiles before March 11, 1970. My car was built the fourth week of January 1970, so the wheels should be gray.
    Duane
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2006

Share This Page