Technical Are 50's Canadian Olds the same as US spec?

We are having fitment issues with a 1956 Olds. Our customer, a Canadian importer, thinks that 88's have Chevy ch***is like Canadian Pontiacs and the 98's run Cadillac ch***is. Hollander is no help here and a Google search comes up dry.

So the question is are US 88/98's the same as Canadian market builds?

 

I don't know if they were even ***embled in Canada. Low production models were brought in from the states. While the more popular models were ***embled in Canada from imported parts.

Only Pontiac differed so radically from American production. Other cars in the GM line were more or less the same as US. I say more or less because there might be small differences in parts that were sourced in Canada like upholster, paint, rubber, and what not.

You might try the AACA they are good on questions related to originality.

AACA Forums

 

I would be amazed if they used a chev or caddy ch***is. The body fittings would be totally different, the Olds (at least my 56 98) has a ch***is with a full x member, everything would be wrong. The only GM product that seems to interchange with an Olds in 56 is the windscreen with a Buick.

 

I'm certain that your customer is mistaken.

 

50s 98s shared body structure with the Caddys along with the Buick Roadmasters but not sure with the suspension.

 

There should be no fitment issues unless you are talking about something like upholstery fabric which may have been slightly different. There were minor differences between Canadian and US built cars as there were between Detroit and California ***embly plants. The Pontiac was the only car in the GM line that differed in major ways.

Have your customer check the ID plate under the hood and see if it was built in Canada or not. They used to import the more expensive models because the number sold was too small to justify tooling up to make them.

 

I am thinking the same thing; that maybe spindles were swapped at one time. We see this all the time with postwar Mopars.

 

Last summer a Canadian '53 Super 88 was around for a while. The only differences from US built found were the gl*** mfr. & cowl tag.
Many Cad parts do interchange with the 98, but also fit the 88 - S88.

 

If it got 52 and earlier spindles they have a smaller inner bearing,I found out the hard way after buying a rebuild front suspension that was supposed to be from a 54 to put on my 53 and had to come up with 52 on back inner bearings and races in my 53 drums.

 

Canadian cars were all metric.

 

Canada converted to the Metric system around 1976, our cars didn`t get metric bolts any earlier than the US cars.