Value? My Father-in-laws 1971 Cutlass Supreme Convertible

[olredalert]

Originally Posted by njsteve

And I drained the rear differential, pulled the cover and wiped out any remaining old fluid. It was black and yucky but no metal and the magnetic pipe plug was clean. New gasket and new 75w90 back in.

Am I reading the gear set right at 2.56? It does say 41-16 and if my math skills are still at middle school level, that comes out to 2.5625 to 1. That would explain the 2 to 3 shift point at 50 mph!

----Geez,,, even an upgrade to 3.08's or 3.23's would be an improvement, and not too detrimental to gas mileage....Bill S

[njsteve]

Yeah! 2.56 is even lower than the Lincoln at 2.80.

[olredalert]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Yeah! 2.56 is even lower than the Lincoln at 2.80.

----I can understand not doing a gear change in this situation,(mission creep again) but I do have a good set of leftover 3.08's out of a 67 10 bolt you can have, Steve....Bill S

[grantprix]

Yep, 2.56 was the standard ratio in these cars. Highway friendly!

[njsteve]

LOL. Thanks for the offer. I will see what the future holds. Heading to DMV tomorrow morning to get it titled and registered here.

A friend is bringing over one of his buddies & wife to look at the car on Wednesday. He saw it at the cruise night on Saturday. We shall see...

[Too Many Projects]

I just don't understand why the BOP models of A bodies don't hold a value like a Chevelle. That car should bring low 30's in that condition. What a sweet machine to cruise with.

[njsteve]

Success! We were able to get the car registered and titled today. I brought the wife with me to DMV as she has the power of attorney to sign the registration over for my father-in-law, but we were not going to do anything to it until the DMV lady told us EXACTLY where, and what to write. I have witnessed horror stories in person where someone wrote the wrong thing on the wrong line on a title and DMV voided it right there and made them contact the seller to order a duplicate title and start the entire process over again.

I also got a surprise when the clerk was running the VIN and said it has a prior registration in New Jersey! She said it shows it was in South Plainfield NJ in 1994 and showed 147,000 miles on the odometer. So the 96,430 is actually 196,430 and the new title reflects that as the correct mileage. That might confirm where it was painted because there is a piece of paper in the files that says "Paint 1995". Even with 196,430 miles that is only an average of 3,600 miles a year for 54 years.

Now I'm waiting for UPS to deliver the new fuel tank sending unit tomorrow so I can get the gas gauge operating correctly again.

[grantprix]

Cool, sounds like it was well enjoyed over the years.

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by njsteve

Now I'm waiting for UPS to deliver the new fuel tank sending unit tomorrow so I can get the gas gauge operating correctly again.

Heads up on the repro sending units - most are not accurate. Mine shows 2/3 to 3/4 full when actually 100% full. You might be able to correct by bending the float arm up or down accordingly. I am having my original rebuilt so will wait until that is back before I try and make any other corrections.

[njsteve]

Maybe I’ll hook it up (outside of the tank) to the dash wire and see what it shows in the gauge before I install it.