On 17 May 2009, I received an email about a 1968 Olds 4-4-2 Convertible that John and Rick saw. They really liked it because the level of detail on the restoration and incredible. The car was restored to mint condition, not sure if it would qualify as a concours restoration, but definitely looked like it could. After reviewing the pictures John had sent to me, I was impressed at what had been done. However, knowing that someone out there has a Olds just like mine at an extremely high level of workmanship behind it, I wondered what could I do to make mine exceed what I see in these photographs.
Soon after I read the following line in the email, it was off to brainstorming on what to do with my Olds.
“This is a beautiful show quality, stock restoration. The color is yours (but we will add just a little metal flake for flare). It will be outstanding with the white stripe and white top when applied to your car. The black is rather dull to my tastes.”
This car below is what inspired me to make my Olds even better.
That was another moment, where I thought, okay, maybe it’s time to up the playing field and look completely outside the box. That’s when I finally had the idea of doing a resto-mod. Initially, I wanted to make sure that she looks like an original ’68 Olds 4-4-2 Convertible from the outside. I also wanted the W-32 option on it. I wanted to paint to be the original Scarlet Red, but with enough metal flakes to have it POP in the sun. I wanted nice meaty rims and tires without going away from SS-2 rims or the Bridgestone T/A radials. Interior, is where I wanted to go crazy and really make the car live up to German quality standards.
Here is the original email from John:
