Euro nose or 4 headlight version

[Canon_Mutant]

Having an original 87 442 with the Euro nose, you might think I’d be partial but I actually like the 4 light look better. I still miss my 84 (first new car) I have reminisced about elsewhere.

Now, NO, this does not mean mine is for sale or that I’ll be changing it.

I think it would more depend on whether you want to achieve the look of the 87 or not? If you really don’t care, I’d go 4 light.

 

[84dragcutlass]

Lot of good input here, something that did catch my eye is that while i do like the euro nose and think its different, i think its because of the FWD cars of the era that kind of throws it for me. It was almost like GM wanted the Gbodys to look like the crappy FWDs right before they canned them. Maybe ill paint up both and make connectors on the harness so i could run either clip if i wanted to 🤔

 

[69hurstolds]

The euro nose along with the Monte-style outer sport mirrors were originally intended for the 86's, but for whatever reason, didn't happen. They airbrushed out the front ends, but not the mirrors, for the official brochure for 1986 Cutlass Salon/442, but forgot to take out all that info out of the parts books. The 442 also came with the VK3 (sometimes this was left off the SPID, so that was weird) front license plate. Not sure if they would have actually put it on in a brochure without a themed front plate or not, since they DID NOT MAKE A PAINTED BUMPER TAB COVER. Any time you see one, it's home-made. Happened with all the VIN 9 Olds G-bodies. But it's noticeably absent in the 86 brochure. To this day, nobody has ever verified that a painted bumper cover plate part number exists. Ultimately anecdotal evidence as I cannot find anywhere that production orders required VK3 on VIN 9 cars. But they did it. Hmmm.

 

[84dragcutlass]

The euro nose along with the Monte-style outer sport mirrors were originally intended for the 86's, but for whatever reason, didn't happen. They airbrushed out the front ends, but not the mirrors, for the official brochure for 1986 Cutlass Salon/442, but forgot to take out all that info out of the parts books.

You wouldnt happen to have any of that available would you i would like to take a look at that

 

[McGillicutty]

Personally I like the 4 headlight better. I think the Euro is a little too Cutlass Ciera. The best thing I can say about the Euro is that it is mine, and for that reason alone, I love it!

 

[69hurstolds]

A bit more on the VK3. It does not show up on anything for 442. I have a GM document that states that last minute changes to options and stuff dated 7/19/84 (superseding the W42 planning document from 4/23/84). Target pilot dates for 3 units (probably one in each color) by 10/1/84, and target production date to start 10/22/84.

I'm still looking for my dealership release/press photo showing a b&w photo of a gray 442 which IIRC, shows the license plate holder. Can't seem to find it at the moment.

85 442 ad- shows nothing up front where the license plate holder should be. They shaved it for the ad.

They did a pre-production 442 for the mini-brochure "Three for the Road" which does show a one-off bumper tab cover, however, this was not a production option. There was no box to check or uncheck when you ordered one. You just got one. And at the time I ordered mine, it came with one anyway, although SC had only a rear license plate. To me, probably the most annoying thing about this fold out is the fact they red-bombed the interior picture. Looked like Jason Vorhees slashed up a bunch of teenagers in there. The Dark Claret interior is such a deep burgundy it probably wouldn't have showed up very well. They could have used gray. They even "painted" the cross bar and the silver horn button trim ring of the steery wheel red.

 

[69hurstolds]

Here's the parts book rendition of the 82-86 front end illustrations. Note it still uses the regular part number grilles for 86, so I'm wondering if there was another bumper cover going to be used which accommodated the typical 81-86 grille shape? The header panel seems notched at the top at the grille opening for whatever reason. Hmmm. The header panel number is correct for the typical 81-86 header. So they got PART of it corrected. 🙂

Note too, that part number for #23 is for "(1986)". Same part number for the unobtanium nose rocket for 87/88.

 

[84dragcutlass]

Now that is some interesting information, the little mess ups and changes are always the best treasure hunts later on

 

[69hurstolds]

I think there may have been something to the 86 grilles and mirrors being different on this proto-drawing of a potential 86 H/O. But we'll probably never know.

 

[84dragcutlass]

Now that picture looks like a Cierra. Almost looks like the original thought was to use the earlier style grills in the Euro header panel which i think is interesting and would probably have looked better imo