1942 Oldsmobile B-44 Custom Cruiser Club Sedan 🇺🇸

Of the original 1,771 series 98 Club Sedans produced in 1942, only three are known to survive. This example came to The NB Center in April 2010 in largely original and untouched condition.

Collection curator, Keith Flickinger drives cars from the collection to help maintain them and because he loves to do it. He often drives cars by just picking a direction and going, without the aid of maps or GPS. This allows him to explore the most obscure back roads and corners of the countryside.  On one of these drives he was passing through a small town and spotted an old storefront that was piled high with junk. He thought he saw a headlight and fender peaking out from under the junk but it required a stop and peaking in the window to confirm that some old car was buried inside this apparently abandoned store.

Keith set about locating the building owner who connected him to the tenant. The tenant told him indeed there was some sort of Oldsmobile in there. Keith was able to get the tenant to show him the car and a deal was soon struck.

The Oldsmobile was found to be in very well preserved original condition with the exception of one repaint that wasn’t in the correct shades and the paint was peeling off the car.  The peeling paint revealed some areas of previous repair work. The decision was made to fix the previous repaired areas correctly and paint the car the correct colors of Condor Grey over New Ivory.

Since the chrome was off the car and it was getting new paint, the chrome was also done. The engine was stripped down, cleaned and fully serviced but not rebuilt. The interior was removed, cleaned and reinstalled. Every part of the interior was saved.

The end result is possibly the most original surviving example of a 1942 Oldsmobile that is prepared to stand the test of time.

Company
General Motors

Make
Oldsmobile

Model
Custom Cruiser, 98

Body Style
Club Sedan, 2-dr., 5 -pass.

Body Manufacture
Fisher Body Co.

Model year
1942

Wheelbase
127 inches

Length
216 inches

Engine
inline-8, l-head, 257  cid

Horsepower
110 hp @ 3400 rpm

Transmission
3-speed manual, column shift
Original Base Price
$1,319

Brand Production
67,999  model year

This Car Production
1,771

IIn 1940, Oldsmobile revamped their entire product line and naming conventions. Among the many changes, Oldsmobile introduced names for each series.  The top of the line was designated the Custom Cruiser. The new names would remain through the 1942 model year. 

In 1942, all Oldsmobiles were designated B-44 and carried the one year only badge. The B-44 was not related to any model designations but was intended to mark the company's 44th year in the automobile business.  It is probable this was more of a marketing gimmick than any real anniversary celebration, who makes a big deal of their 44th year in business

Oldsmobile advertisements touted, “Better looking, Better lasting, Better Built than any Olds in 44 years.” It is also likely the B-44 badging was an excuse to make the marketing connection to inevitable war-time production. Another advertising tag line of the year was, “Power-Styled like the B-19.”  Hardly surprising that B-44 sounds like an airplane of the era. It is clear that Oldsmobile had war-time production and patriotic themes in mind when they wrote the 1942 advertising copy. The cars were described as featuring “Double Duty bumpers, Fuselage fenders, Dreadnaught Frame, Econo-Master engines of greater “fire power”.

The impending war notwithstanding, the series 98 Custom Cruiser was a well appointed automobile. The wheelbase was extended to 127 inches. The inline eight-cylinder engine produced a respectable 110 horsepower.  The standard 3-speed manual transmission was shifted from the column but for an additional $90 purchasers could have the all-automatic 4-speed Hydra-Matic transmission.  A long list of options allowed buyers to customize the car to their liking including an “in-a-car” bed for $19.50. 

Oldsmobile ended civilian automobile manufacturing on February 3rd 1942, and quickly transformed into an arms manufacturer. Their factories turned out heavy guns and cannons along with thousands of shells for the same, each day for the duration of the war. 

The truncated 1942 model year makes all cars from that year rare.  Oldsmobile produced a total of 67,999 of all 1942 models. That is a quarter of what they produced the previous year.  Of that total, 6,659 series 98 cars were produced.