1966 Toronado Sign Oldsmobile 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Cutlass 442

Description

I can ship this gorgeous sign anywhere in the world if you are serious about owning it. This listing is for an absolutely stunningly beautiful original sign made for use in the fall of 1965 when the fantastic new front wheel drive Oldsmobile Toronado was introduced. This is a double sided sign that measures about 3-1/2 feet or 40 inches tall by 8 feet or 96 inches long.
This sign is a bit hard to describe as it is different than any other sign that I have seen. Both sides are covered with a red reflective plastic material that has a kind of marble look to it. When the light shining on it moves, the marble pattern moves. This makes this sign look like it is on fire at times whenever the sign, viewer or light shining on it moves a bit.
I have considered having a series of lights shine on this sign and have an electrical circuit that turns them on and off by having them fade on and off. That should result in an absolutely beautiful affect as the red features dance around on the surface of this sign. I have way too many projects so I have not lighted this sign as I would like to yet and decided to offer it here to the world of Oldsmobile, Toronado and sign collectors.
Both sides of this sign are made up of 4 separate pieces of red plastic material that has been bonded to the wood material. There are 3 even vertical gaps about 1/16" wide between the 4 red plastic pieces on each side. I doubt this sign was made that way. I suspect that the 2 foot wide plastic pieces dried out a bit through the years and shrunk about 1/32" on each side. This does not really detract from this gorgeous sign but I have to mention it anyway.
B
oth sides of this sign are really in very nice condition but as always, one side is a bit better than the other. The first 4 photos of this listing show the best side. It is in superb original condition except for the 3 narrow gaps mentioned above and a few splatters of white paint as you can see in the 4th photo of this listing. I have not tried to remove those few paint spatters and will leave that task to the new owner if they choose to do so.
The other side is still very nice but in slightly lesser condition and is shown in the 5th photo here. It has the same three narrow 1/16" wide vertical gaps between the 4 red plastic panels as the other side has. It has a narrow crack in the upper right corner of the red plastic that is shown in the 6th photo of this listing. The last photo shows a somewhat cloudy small area that is in the lower right corner of this sign. I can not explain that minor damage and it does not show up very much. The protective metal edging around the perimeter of this sign is still in very nice condition.
This sign is too large to ship by the United States Postal Service, United Parcel Service or Federal Express. It can be shipped by truck motor freight by placing it between two pieces of plywood. I would not put it on a large pallet for fear that the freight company might stack thousands of pounds of things on it. I think a better option might be to use Uship.com as I have successfully done several times. Those individuals who haul items that way seem to have an incentive to take better care shipments than the motor freight companies do.
Another option is shipping this with Fastenall if you live near one of their stores. They will haul this sign for about half of what most truck motor freight companies will charge as long as you are in no big hurry to get it. They have partially filled trucks running all over the country and can take things like this as a partial load at times.
If this sign goes to a foreign country, it will first have to be transported to a freight broker in the Los Angeles area. They will then include it as a partial load in a large container going to the desired country. This process can take up to 2 or 3 months depending on the country it is going to. I can get an approximate quote for you if you live somewhere other than here in the United States. I have plenty of indoor storage here and can store this beautiful sign for you as long as you wish if you or a friend are planning a trip to beautiful Montana some time in the future. I have a lot of friends in the collectible car, truck, tractor and sign hobbies and may be able to arrange safe and economical delivery of this sign depending on how soon you want and where you live. I have a friend leaving Montana and traveling to Pennsylvania in later November that may be able to deliver this sign anywhere along his route.
I was 14 years old when the Toronado was introduced and I remember it very well. My Dad had been an Oldsmobile fan since he bought a new Super 88 sedan in the fall of 1958. We lived on a ranch and he really wanted a Toronado when he bought a new 1967 Delta 88 sedan. He could not justify the extra cost of the Toronado and Mom was not excited about hauling three kids around in the back seat of a two door car.
Dad finally bought a dark green factory rep's 1970 Toronado in the fall of 1970 and I still have that car in very nice original condition. Dad replaced that very thirsty car with a new 1974 Saab 99 which turned out to be the worst car he every owned. I still have that car too in very nice original condition and hope to work on it and sell it here this winter.
Dad then replaced the POS Saab with a new Diesel Toronado in the fall of 1979. That car turned out to be the 2nd worst car he ever owned. The engine broke a crank shaft with only 55,000 miles on the car. Dad still loved that damn Diesel enough to replace it with a new Diesel Toronado in the fall of 1982. That car made around 150,000 miles before it blew a head gasket due to the head bolts being too small and stretching through the years. We repaired that engine and he put another 45,000 miles on it before he retired that Toronado which I still have too. I probably now have more nice low mile Toronados in my collection that almost anyone on earth. I think I counted 11 of them not long ago.
Dad then bought his last car which was a very nice used 1993 Olds 98 Regency when it was about a year old. I still have that car too and it is my main car for long trips and has just over 200,000 miles on it now. As you can tell, I have been a Toronado fan ever since they were first introduced. I have seen several smaller Toronado light up signs and have two of them that I may list here soon. I can never recall ever seeing or even hearing about a larger Toronado sign like this one. I am sure several were made but I am sure they are very rare today.
The Toronado has been out of production for over 20 years now so there would be no reason for an Oldsmobile dealer to have kept a sign like this one. This is a very rare opportunity to own what I believe is a very rare Oldsmobile sign so please give this some serious consideration. Thanks a lot, Bob Woodburn in Bozeman Montana