I’m in Vegas for the Spring Fling Million event. I’m in the American Southwest…that means it’s time to look through the classifieds and see what is out there and available. Good metal and somewhat reasonable prices are always attractive, and Vegas seems to be a minor Mecca for hunting for odd, interesting and cool sheetmetal. I’m not really hunting for anything in particular, but who knows, there might be that one-in-a-million “gotta have it” ride up for sale for a reasonable price, right?
A G-body would always be welcome in my fleet. Selling my 1987 Monte SS was one of the dumbest moves I’ve ever made, and that ignores the several Cutlasses I’ve had over the years. This 1987 Oldsmobile 442 would tick the boxes right: comfortable interior, G-body capabilities, and the open-ended options for performance. Drag machine or corner-carver, doesn’t matter. I always picture one with the stock paint and callouts, but with a nice suspension workover and some sticky rubber at all four corners. So, let’s look at the target project vehicle and see what we’ve got to work with. 
There isn’t much described about the Olds. It’s been LS swapped with a 5.3/automatic setup and the rear has 3.73 gears and an Eaton TrueTrac. The body is nice, the interior needs about two days of cleaning and maybe a few restoration parts, but the car is currently on daily driver duty and the seller has receipts for the parts on the car. Yeah, it needs some work and yes, some changes need to be made. But for a starting point, the 442 could be really good. And G-bodies aren’t getting any cheaper…
