1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass… where it all started..

Scope of Work

This is where the story really starts.

It was 1984, I was attending Santa Rosa High School, and my first car was our family’s 1973 Triumph TR6 convertible in a gorgeous British Racing Green. Being classically British, it came with the usual collection of electrical and mechanical issues, which meant I regularly found myself working on it.

I also apparently had a tendency to drive it a little too fast—at least according to the condition of the new Michelin Redline tires.

Concerned that a TR6 might not be the ideal car for a teenager who loved to drive fast, my mom eventually decided it was time for a change. One day I was told the Triumph was being replaced by a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass. It was white with a dark turquoise interior and, by just about any measure, it was a boat compared with the TR6.

But I quickly realized the Cutlass had something the Triumph didn't. It was a great cruiser that just needed a little love.

Then I started having engine problems, and "a little love" quickly turned into something much bigger.

I found someone selling a 400-cubic-inch engine from a 1967 Cutlass 442. The engine had its own issues, but I saw the potential and bought it. Around that same time, I had read in *Hot Rod Magazine* about Ed’s Industrial Machine Shop in Santa Rosa. Ed had been building dragster engines for Mendy Fry, who I happened to go to school with, so in my teenage mind the conclusion was obvious: **Ed needed to build an engine for me.**

And that’s exactly what happened.

It turns out that in 1985, you could have a full stroker engine built, have your car painted Corvette Yellow, and install an entirely new interior for the grand total of about $11,000. So that’s what I did.

Yes, I had somehow managed to take the car that was supposed to be the safer replacement for the Triumph and turn it into something probably ten times more dangerous.

But what a fun car it became.

I built the Cutlass at my dad’s house, working on it during weekends. Looking back, that car was much more than a high-school hot rod. It was my first real introduction to working on cars, restoring them, solving problems, and building something that was uniquely mine.

**That 1967 Cutlass was really where my passion for restoration and hot rods began.**