I knew I wanted to use this 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass for some kind of post today, but I wasn’t sure what for. I could say it was one of my “Money No Object” cars, but at just under ten grand, it splits the difference between a good value for the price and a pack of wolves howling how it’s a $2,000 car all day long because “tWo DoOrS TwO mAnY”. It blows the Rough Start budget out of the water by nearly double the budget of $5,000, it isn’t some hyper-specialized, one of maybe four W-30 powered four-speed equipped super sedans that some police force out in Goat Lick, Montana ordered up for the police chief and three of his close friends. This is the average car from 1972, an Oldsmobile Cutlass packing the Rocket 350, an automatic, and air conditioning. If there’s a modification, you are going to have to point it out to us. This could’ve been Dad’s car that he drove to work every day, Grandpa Matthew’s church-going car or the car that your friend’s dad fondly remembered as he tried to talk shop with you and your buddies. 
But let’s rewind for a second, to that “two doors too many” quip. There’d be a ton of you that would whip out the grinder and welder and roll out a rotted two-door shell in the hopes that you could finish up that 442 clone you were hoping to do, simply because four doors equals disposable. From the author’s viewpoint, all I’d do is put the stock rolling combination up and put some nice, fat Cragars on white-letter BFGoodrich tires on, put a cover over the front bench and I’d roll this car wherever I damned well please. Ten grand to enjoy a 1970 Oldsmobile that’s this nice? Why wouldn’t you do the same thing?
Today’s question isn’t about this one particular car. The Cutlass just makes for great visuals. The question has to do with classics in general: why save one but scrap another? Why build every last Monza but scrap every last Vega, if rust isn’t an issue? Why build yet another Road Runner clone, but send the ex-FBI looking Satellite to the heap? What is the line between saved and scrapped?
You and three of your buddies can get out at the same time, two don’t need to crawl out.
It’s simple – The car has to speak to me; and even as nice as this Olds is, I barely hear it mumble… It does deserve to live, just not with me as it’s caretaker.
The two door only thinking is over! I would way rather have a 4 dr so my pals can jump in we cruise to the show–drink some beers see some cars buy some fleas and head on home–As all the 2 dr dry up a cool 4 door will be next in line
They are Worthy!!! Think of a 62-66 Mopar 4 dr sleeper with a stroker–haul your pals and your beers and your parts and make grown men cry when a 4 dr full of guys blows their doors off Or not! Ride with that slant 6 and HAVE FUN which after all–IS the name of the game
I agree. I have a 66 dart more door with a pretty pissed off 408 in it. The cars an absolute riot and I always get asked the question, “why?”
Back in 2005 i purchased it from a WWII vet as my first car. He was selling classic cars to pay for his chemo. I showed up with a fist full of summer job cash with intentions to buy a 68 olds 442 he had. I was promptly shut down by my Dad who knew exactly what I was going to do with the car. So, I settled for the 225 slant powered dart. After I paid the gent who was selling it he asked if I had a minute or 2 to talk, I sat and talked with him for 6+ hours about his life growing up back east and how he was around cars his entire life. Really a genuinely cool guy. I saw his obituary in the local newspaper about 6 months later. That, surviving my highschool days, college days, and a few years as my daily driver afterwards pretty much solidified the notion that the car wouldnt go anywhere as long as I could help it. I have a lot of memories attached with that car.
It is only original once. The trend is to leave nice original, survivor cars alone. Hot rod it and the value plummets, IMO. Leave it “as-is”, get the AC working, and drive it to car shows.
I’ve never been a subscriber to the “4 doors isn’t sporty” mindset. A lot of these cars that have 2 door copies share the same chassis and will accept the same bolt-ons and same motor configurations. It’s all about nostalgia and no kid in the 70s was in awe over the 4 door green Cutlass or the brown and wood Vista Cruiser in the lot, they were looking at the gold W30 or the yellow 442 on the showroom floor instead.
In Australia we didn’t get most of our awesomely cool cars as 2-doors. (The ute is an exception of course) So we don’t have that massive prejudice against 4-doors. And even of the cars that we did have the 2-door version, they are/were limited numbers and have been out of reach of the average enthusiast for a long time, so it’s not at all uncommon to see people building awesome cars out of 4-door sedans. And that’s a good thing
I love 4 doors but $9450? Way overpriced…. 3-4 grand tops
2 doors or 4 in an Oldsmobile of that vintage: Find a ‘Holiday’ trim level and it will have Bucket seats. I HATE those old Bench Seats. if the floors are solid the bucket seat brackets weld in. Same with the console brackets. It’s a cutlass so adding a Clutch peddle aint rocket science (rocket surgery??).
The downside of a 4 door: Finding interior parts, doors, door skins. Yet if it’s clean enough and cheep enough ill rock it.
The upside of a 4 door, unlike ruining a 442 or a W31 or W30 or a rare W27 aluminum center section car with a LS motor. No one is going to cry.
Re: 1968-72 A-body 2 doors had a different wheel base than the 4 doors and I believe they used a different frame, too.