((My very first car show experience ----> Pg. 3))

Hi, my name is Antonia. I'm 20 years old and I'm the very proud owner of a 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado. I have been in love with the Toronado ever since my dad owned a '69 when I was a kid. Unfortunately he traded his in for a 1994 Saturn and I was stuck waiting for the day when I could buy one of my own. In August 2004, I finally got lucky and bought my sweet baby. I'm the fourth owner and am currently in the process of spending all of my money restoring it (hence the nickname Pampered).

Since last year I have replaced a lot of the mix matched pieces that the previous owners had swapped on (in case they're reading this, if you have to hammer the distributor in, it definitely does not belong *sigh*). Besides replacing the distributor, I've also replaced the fuel pump, alternator, battery, valve covers, and carburetor. My car has come a long way since I first drove it home at 50 mph from Tenino, WA backfiring all the way. I still need to have a sound system installed, as well as find a set of rims that will fit. I also added an airbag kit to my list of things I plan to have installed. Now that it is May, there are a lot of car shows to get ready for. My car is far from show quality, but I'm very proud of the progress I've made. Besides, I've never seen a Toronado of any year at the local car shows so mine will be the first.

Here she is. At one time my Toronado used to be a golden brown before turning multi colored (black primer, red bondo, ???). When spring came around the corner I finally took the cans of black primer I had bought, got out the masking tape, newspaper, and some sandpaper, and sprayed my car down. The hardest part was covering the emblems. I spent a good 30 minutes or so cutting the tape off with a razor just to keep them safe.

And here are the stainless steel tips I had installed when it dawned on me that the car I bought had no mufflers on it. I kept the car duel exhaust (of course) and now that loud rumble is the perfect purr.

With spring in full swing, I had to get into gear and spend some quality time with my car. The remote pop door kit has now been installed on both sides, and as you can see from the picture above, I was finally able to paint my car. I'm still planning on getting the Audiovox pager alarm with my next check, and perhaps I'll put some money away for a paint job. My dream job would be a black pearl lacquer with either smokey or crimson ghost flames. Unfortunately, that's going to set me back quite a bit but I'm quite content with the primer black.

This is my engine. Now, when I first bought the car, the spark plug wires didn't match, the alternator was on its last leg as well as the carburetor. The distributor didn't even belong with this engine and, sadly enough, the choke was removed when the previous owners took out the original carb...hence the Edelbrock air filter. I've also added a MSD multi-spark ignition and got rid of the voltage regulator. Thankfully replacing many of these parts got rid of that nasty rattle 'Pampered' would get at 35 mph.

I would love to hear from current and former owners of the 1968 Oldsmobile Toronado. This is my first car and I'm having a difficult time finding parts. I would like to hear how others have coped with having the same problem, what they've done to their cars, or even just generally chit chat about Toronado obsession. Just email me at xeranyx@yahoo.com. Thanks!