Hemmings Motor News – October 2026

Summary

1941 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser Convertible Phaeton leads the features in Hemmings Motor News October 2026, Volume 73, Number 10. The cover story "Home Garages: Workshops and Sanctuaries VII" opens seven readers' workshops, from a two-post lift setup to a meticulously organized tool-wall sanctuary. This issue balances preservation-cruise nostalgia with hands-on tech, anchored by a 1974 Pontiac GTO buyer's guide and a deep cylinder-head porting tutorial.

Inside, the Muscle Car Profile tracks a 1976 Plymouth Road Runner survivor, while the Classic Car Profile documents the Oldsmobile 98's prewar rarity. The Buyer's Guide lays out GTO pricing and rust traps across 1974 model-year variants. Tech runs cover a vintage Ford ignition-switch replacement and aluminum-versus-cast-iron head porting. Marketplace sections track auction results from Maine's Throttle Car Club sale, Hemmings Auctions listings, and the American Stock Exchange column on 1949-1951 Mercury Eight station wagons.

Regular columns — Between the Lines, Fast Idle, Backfire, Independent Thinking, Weekend Wrench — keep the reader connected to the collector community. New Products and Books & Literature round out the reference value. The 3-page Car Corral on a 1955 Studebaker President Deluxe and an 8-page Parts Locator make this a practical file for anyone shopping for or maintaining a vintage vehicle.

Content Guide

▸ Features / Profiles
p.14 · Classic Car Profile: 1941 Oldsmobile 98 Custom Cruiser Convertible Phaeton
Collett walks through the 1941 Oldsmobile 98's one-year-only Custom Cruiser Convertible Phaeton body style, one of 100 built. The car retains its original straight-eight engine and vacuum-shift transmission, documented with period literature. A 1941 price tag of $1,345 anchors the market-value discussion. Factory paint codes, interior trim options, and the rarity of surviving examples help a buyer separate a real Phaeton from a rebodied clone.

p.36 · Muscle Car Profile: 1976 Plymouth Road Runner
This profile tracks a 1976 Road Runner that escaped the malaise-era scrap pile thanks to a 400-cubic-inch V-8 and a four-speed manual. Production numbers show 1976 as the Road Runner's second-lowest year, with only 7,102 units built. The article documents the car's vinyl-top deletion, original broadcast sheet, and the 48,000-mile odometer reading. A market-value range of $22,000-$28,000 for comparable #2-condition examples gives owners a realistic insurance benchmark.

p.44 · Home Garages: Workshops and Sanctuaries VII
Seven HMN readers open their garage doors for the annual workshop tour. One builder fitted a two-post lift into a 22-by-24-foot space; another organized 400 Snap-on tools on a wall-mounted magnetic strip. Each profile lists square footage, lift capacity, and floor-plan details. Anyone planning a home-shop renovation can borrow the pegboard lighting layout from the Wisconsin garage featured on page 50.

p.28 · Buyer's Guide: 1974 Pontiac GTO
This 4-page guide covers the 1974 GTO's final-year specifics: the single-year-only steering wheel, the 350-cubic-inch V-8 standard engine, and the optional 400. Production hit just 7,058 units. The author flags the rear-quarter rust behind the wheel wells as the costliest repair, often exceeding $2,500. A price guide spans from $8,000 for a driver to $35,000 for a concours-correct example, with frame-off restoration costs itemized by labor stage.

▸ Tech
p.82 · A Big Turn-On: Dash-located vintage Ford ignition switch replacement
The author replaces a failed 1956 Ford ignition switch without pulling the steering column. The aftermarket switch costs $28 and fits existing dash cutouts with a quarter-inch socket. Wire-color matching for the original three-terminal circuit takes 10 minutes with a test light. A reader with a mid-1950s Ford retains original steering-column lock function by following the tip about the separate start-relay bypass on page 85.

p.— · Cylinder Head Porting: Techniques and tools for aluminum and cast-iron heads
This technical feature covers porting basics for do-it-yourself engine builders. Die-grinder bit selection separates by material: carbide for iron, dual-cut for aluminum. The gasket-matching step requires no flow bench — a machinist's straightedge and layout dye suffice for a 15-percent flow improvement. The author warns against removing the valve-guide boss material, a common mistake that drops low-lift flow by 8 percent.

▸ Marketplace
p.24 · American Stock Exchange: 1949-'51 Mercury Eight Station Wagon
The column examines the Mercury Eight station wagon's woodie construction, noting that only 1,836 examples left the factory in 1950. Reproduction wood kits from three suppliers range from $4,800 to $7,200. The final paragraph connects current Hagerty valuation curves to the rust-risk discount applied to cars with original steel-roof panels intact.

p.62 · At the Auction: Throttle Car Club Auction, Scarborough, Maine
HMN's auction reporter covers 127 lots crossing the block in Scarborough. A 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible sold for $132,000, the day's top result. A 1965 Corvette coupe with a non-matching 327 brought $48,600. The write-up includes a hammer-price table organized by condition grade. A bidder planning a New England trip now knows the Throttle auction's 6-percent buyer's premium and the Friday-night preview schedule.

▸ Regulars
p.4 · Between the Lines
The editor reflects on the restored 1961 Chrysler 300G he drove to the July Hemmings Cruise-In and the $0.87-per-mile ownership cost he tracked over 900 miles. The column shifts to reader-submitted photos of home garages, inviting submissions for next year's tour. Regular contributors each receive a bylined slot to announce upcoming cruise-in dates.

p.80 · Weekend Wrench
A 10-step guide to adjusting a Holley 4150 float level without removing the carburetor from the intake manifold. The tool list fits in a sandwich bag: a 5/16-inch nut driver, a 3/8-inch wrench, and a 6-inch ruler. The float-bowl gasket costs $4 at any parts store. Performing this adjustment every 5,000 miles prevents the rich-idle stumble common in pre-1975 Ford and Mopar applications.

Editor's Take

This is the strongest issue of Hemmings Motor News in the past six months. The GTO buyer's guide and the home-garage feature earn their cover billing with real square-footage data and restoration-cost tables, not fluff. The weakest section is the New Products spread — four of the six items are branded merchandise (hats, T-shirts, 3D-printed lighthouse kits) with no automotive function. This issue suits the restorer who values hard numbers over nostalgia essays, and the Weekend Wrench column alone justifies the cover price. Photographs in the Car Corral profile are underexposed, but the tech-shot clarity in the cylinder-head article is excellent.

Strengths
• GTO buyer's guide with model-year-specific rust locations
• Home Garages feature with lift specs and floor-plan dimensions
• Cylinder-head porting tutorial usable without a flow bench

Weaknesses
• New Products section dominated by non-automotive branded merchandise
• Car Corral photographs lack adequate lighting

Verdict: Recommended — 48 pages of genuine tech and market data outweigh the thin advertising-heavy sections.