Well,
it won’t be long now. Car show season is about to start.
I am hoping to make to a few this year along with our
show in Olds. See the flyer in this issue of Olds Faithful.
I received an interesting email from a fellow who knows about
the where-abouts of some Oldsmobile parts, especially
Toronados. I remember there was an Oldsmobile junkyard many
years ago in Soldier, Kansas if my memory serves
me. I told him I’d let you guys know about it, in case
you’re in need of that elusive part.
Dear Northern Neighbor Oldsmobile Enthusiasts,
John Dorcey of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the USA, has been called
one of the primary go-to guys for Toronado parts.
I would like to suggest that Howard’s Auto Salvage
here in the Heart of the USA may be one of the secondary
sources.
Howard Stephens’ auto recyclers is on the north side
of MO 18 Highway, about ¾ mile east of I-49 at Exit
141 / Adrian, in west-central
Missouri. He has quite a few Oldsmobiles, including a dozen
1st-Generation Toronados, as the attached pictures show.
In the mid-1990s, local Toronado enthusiast
and Rural Postal Carrier Larry Clark was killed one dark
and adverse-weather morning at
an unmarked
rural railroad crossing while delivering
mail. When his estate auctioned his possessions, Howard was
fortunate enough to
buy 10 of Larry’s Toronado collection.
He has since sold a few parts from them, but still has many
parts and near-complete cars, although
the weather hasn't been kind to the exterior
finishes.
Notice that the rear bumper of the trunk-open Toronado in
Photo 4 even has a trailer hitch. Not sure if it’s
official Oldsmobile – looks like maybe
aftermarket or self-engineered (been there, done that!).
An interesting thing about the gold ’67 Toronado in
the left-foreground of Photo 1: A few
years back, someone sneaked into the yard one night and broke
out the windshield just to steal the
VIN plate
from the corner of the dashboard. But
the secondary VIN plate is still on the driver’s door
frame, showing it as VIN 396877M616378 (second-last attached
picture, a little dark), so if any of you Toronado owners
have one
with that VIN, you may want to contact whoever sold
you
a stolen-VIN Toronado to find out why.
Not to leave other Olds enthusiasts out in the cold, Howard
also has a number of various Oldsmobiles, and the last picture
shows a pair of Cutlasses. The white ’87
on the right in the picture was a complete and running car
when Howard acquired it a
few years ago, and was driven into the
yard. Seems it belonged to the husband in a nasty divorce – he
had the car, and she hid the title. An amicable settlement
couldn’t be reached, so the husband
sold it to Howard without a title.
Respectfully,
Rod Rom
Butler, MO 64730
USA
So there you have it. You can
see how to contact Howard’s
Auto Salvage in the classifieds
Section at the bottom of the
“ Parts For Sale” column.
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Don’t forget to sign up for the Rocket
Round up in Olds. You can do it on line
on our website at www.oldsclub.ca The
first 50 cars will receive the goody bag with the Oldsmobile
art
and if you sign up before July 8th, the
car show is only $10. That includes your registration, a
lunch and a door prize or cash. You
also have
a chance at a few trophies.
On the banquet last year, we made 5 cents a plate. It will
probably go up this year, but for now at least, it’s
still $25/plate because I haven’t heard
what the price will be. If next month it goes up, I will
increase it to the going price in the July issue of
Olds Faithful.
If you are going to the banquet, sign up before it goes up.
Take care and I hope to see at a show this summer,.
Ken
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