[Ryan1969Chevelle]

I revived a great E-Mail from Bill Pritchard (below)

Very cool story from back in the day!!


Hi Ryan,

I'm not sure how I missed it, but just stumbled upon the thread about you buying the 69 W31 that Pete found for you. That is absolutely awesome!!!!! Huge congratulations to you, and being only the second owner is just icing on the cake.

I have a cool 69 W31 story to tell you (a bit lengthy, but bear with me). Back in around 1971 or 72, when I was still living at home with my mom, the neighbor across the street from us owned the local Volkswagen dealership. I had purchased a 69 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 that was traded in there, and a friend purchased a 70 Challenger R/T 440 that was traded in there. Another friend noticed a white 69 Olds F85 2 door sedan that was on their used car lot, and it had gold stripes on the hood, so it caught his eye. Knowing that I had somewhat of an 'in' there, he asked me to find out more about it. The dealership owner (Richard) told me his mechanics "couldn't get the car to run right", and that it had some "transmission problems" (it was a column shift automatic). They just wanted to get it off their lot for what they had in it.....$900. My friend bought it. It was, of course, a W31, and the reason the mechanics couldn't get the car to idle smoothly was due to the cam that came in the car. The transmission "problems" were the fact that it had a higher stall converter, very high shift points, and firmed-up shifts. Just exactly the way the car came from the factory! I guess the VW mechanics figured all Oldsmobiles should idle smoothly and quietly and shift imperceptibly. Their loss was my friend Bruce's gain. That car absolutely screamed!
Bill