85 442 white with 79r interior and 120mph speedo options

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85 442 never came with 120 MPH speedo only 87, I worked on many 442 and Hurst cars at dealer during those times and never seen 85 or 86 with a 120 speedo. There's nothing wrong with having one it's just not factory correct for 85. In the last 15 years I have seen many 83-84 Hurst and 85-86 442 with them and wasn't there someone making a 120 speedo overlay or decal at one point.

They started in mid 1985 production installing roller Y engines in a Cutlass, Vin 9 engine in 85 was still a non-roller engine. If there was a 442-engine change at the end of 85 production the dealers would have a service bulletin on it and never seen one or heard of a change. Very possible that the engine was changed out with a roller short block ask me how I know, do to what ever happened to the original engine.
 
I'm going to back that truck up and figure that your car is a late January car. I've managed to snarf a few documents that people have posted on the web about their 85 cars. A black 85 442, VIN 357096 was scheduled for build on 1/18/85 based on the build sheet. Another black one, VIN 369511 was preferenced for build week assignment on 1/30/85, and shipped on 2/22/85. So it was likely built sometime around the end of the 2nd week of Feburary. Just guessing, but they were usually shipped off a couple of days after build, in general. The safety door jamb sticker for black 85 442, VIN 362924 says it was built in 2/85.

I did find VIN 360395, but could not find any documentation for it, just a SPID.

The kicker is, I found VIN 361815 and its door jamb sticker shows 1/85 as the build date. This seals the deal, your car had to be built sometime 9in January of 1985.
 
The knowledge you have on these cars is incredible! I really appreciate you taking the time to break it down, i dont know whether I should get on my knees & bow to you, send you money or thank you lol unfortunately the only tag on the car you can't read is the one that has the date on it. I'll look at the engine codes tomorrow when I have more light to make sure it matches up with the 85 numbers. I'm not disappointed at all about the speedo not being original (had to replace the one in my 86 442), the car rides like it did when it was new & so far looks to be mostly all original. I Wanted to build a drag car but I believe this car is too nice to do that too.
 

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It does have the front plate holder on it and it also does have the matching rear floor mats in it. It does not have cruise control or the rear defroster.
 

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Correct. No K34 (cruise), rear defogger (C49), power trunk (A90) or 6-way power driver seat (AC3), no top option, no block heater (K05), no body side moldings (B84), no external lamp monitors (U46), or no rear floor mats (B35). The thing I've learned about the SPID, is that not ALL RPOs end up on it 100% of the time, even though the car has the option and it's listed in the invoice/window sticker. The SPID says you do NOT have B35 from the factory. These mats were available pretty cheap from the dealerships so maybe they were added later, or just left off the SPID? It's weird they had them as separate options and listed each with its own line on the window sticker. Too bad you don't have the window sticker, as that would show all the invoiced options, so if it did come with the mats, it would show up there.

Now, the VK3 RPO. I still don't quite get this one 100%. That little plate you have up front, that's not the plate holder I was talking about. I'm betting if you look carefully, that part was painted. It minimally covers the flap that hangs down from the upper bumper cover.

The VK3 is the big, black plastic funky looking plate holder for the front. This thing usually doesn't survive over the years. The way it's installed, there's too much pressure on it as it doesn't fit as nicely as it should. It gets brittle and the upper or lower mounting bolt areas break and it flops and/or falls off. There is an aftermarket reproduction now, but not sure how well it holds up as I've never bought one. There is no option code separate for it. The thing is, when the dealer ordered the cars, there was no check list that included or excluded VK3. So it could not be added to the option list by itself.

There was a time where the manufacturers included it when cars were shipped to dealers where front plates were required, and if not, they got little chrome-like plates that covered up the front flap of the bumper cover. But since the only part they had was shiny like chrome, as every other car except VIN 9 cars had chrome bumpers, the VIN 9 cars with their painted bumpers would look really stupid like that. So the cheap "fix" was to install the plate holder on the VIN 9 cars to cover up that flap regardless of where they were sold. The Hurst/Olds cars got their own license plate up front so you could put that on in states that didn't require 2 plates, but the 442 got nothing as far as their own special plate. Most one-plate state dealerships would put their dealer plates up there on these cars. I know mine came with the plate holder installed, I didn't order it, and South Carolina hasn't used 2 plates since the Great Pyramids were built. And the dealer put their plate up front when I picked up the car. I really like the small little metal plate, but it's not what should have came on the car. These little plates are repro'd too, and some people that have VK3 on their SPIDs have obtained one of these little plates, painted it silver, and bolted it upfront after their plastic plate holder broke. Some don't even paint it. I've yet to see any factory documentation for this RPO, however.

BTW, someone peeled off the outer part of the label on your safety sticker in the door jamb. They were laminated from the factory with the "tamperproof" data section. The sticky part of the window was a partly transparent gray glue that when applied, showed the darkened lettering so you could read it. But if someone tried to peel it off and steal it, for example, you would lose the information. As yours did.
 
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This is probably a guesstimate thing but how many white 85' 442's have the claret/burgundy interior? Seems any I see are gray or maybe blue. Also I assumed they would be cloth not vinyl seats.
 
It's like T-tops. Nobody knows how many white with ?? interiors were made, except GM. And they didn't release that number to my knowledge. I've seen a lot of blue ones with white exterior as blue was only available with white cars, but not that many Claret, and not many vinyl, period. AFAIK, the only vinyl you could get is Claret, anyway. So it's sort of rare combination, but not really adding to the value. It's not like a rare dual-quad, 455 option or something like that. If you had one in high school, it might be worth something to you, but, well, again, rare does not always equate to worth in the real world. JMO.

I honestly think the Medium Gray (paint code 15) with the claret interior would be even more rare for an 85 442. I've only seen ONE in person in my life. Every other Medium Gray metallic 85 442 had gray interior.

Here's one at some dreamer's website, Gateway Classics, although it doesn't even have good interior pics for the price they're asking.

 
I went through the glove box last night & found the 1985 warranty and owner assistance info book which has the delivery date & mileage at delivery on it + owners manual & all that came with the car...
 

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The former owner said he may still have the window sticker for this car at home, if it turns up I will post a picture of it...
 

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It's like T-tops. Nobody knows how many white with ?? interiors were made, except GM. And they didn't release that number to my knowledge. I've seen a lot of blue ones with white exterior as blue was only available with white cars, but not that many Claret, and not many vinyl, period. AFAIK, the only vinyl you could get is Claret, anyway. So it's sort of rare combination, but not really adding to the value. It's not like a rare dual-quad, 455 option or something like that. If you had one in high school, it might be worth something to you, but, well, again, rare does not always equate to worth in the real world. JMO.

I honestly think the Medium Gray (paint code 15) with the claret interior would be even more rare for an 85 442. I've only seen ONE in person in my life. Every other Medium Gray metallic 85 442 had gray interior.

Here's one at some dreamer's website, Gateway Classics, although it doesn't even have good interior pics for the price they're asking.


I don’t recall ever seeing that combo before. Reverse of it I’ve seen one, maybe two maroon 442’s with gray interior, want to say 86’ maybe 87’. Think that’s a sharper combination.

Agree it doesn’t really mean higher value but makes it more interesting personally. 49k for that one is a comical number.
 
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