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.

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