My beautiful barn find is about to hit the road!
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 114
My beautiful barn find is about to hit the road!
Hello my wonderful Oldsmobile Family!!!
Four years ago, I found a 1963 Starfire coupe near Aspen Lakes golf course on a farm in Sisters, Oregon. The car was located about 10 minutes from my house and my friend had a ranch out there where this beauty sat!
Trunk was 4' deep in dirt and had a little bit of growth in there, along with a dead bird (fertilizer). The passenger side window was laying in the back seat covered in about 2" of dirt. The engine was sitting underneath a tree about 150' from the car, next to the frame of a Model-T.
I talked with my friend and his family wanted nothing to do with the car, and even let me borrow a trailer, chain, and use their HUGE fork-lift to drag the car up onto the trailer!
Got the beautifully delapitated Starfire home and started shoveling the flower plot out of the trunk, I gave the bird to my wonderful 3 kitties (I remember how much I love my cats when I drive down the road trying to look through all their paw prints on the windshield
I got the motor home the next day, after cutting the tree up with a sawz-all to fit my cherry picker in and get the truck backed up to it. Motor was frozen, so I purchased a 4-door dynamic 88 with a running 2brl low compression (would've been happier with the performance of the seized motor.
The car sat for 2-3 years and I tried selling it for even $250 on ebay with no bites, decided I would do the body work, put in a running motor and try to sell it for $2500. I sanded the whole body down in a day, put the interior back in it, sanded and repainted the motor (Motor has 86,540 miles on it and you will think its brand new!! I moved the body of the Starfire from the gross undurable frame to a convertible frame. This way I didn't have to replace brakes, fuel-line or redo another alignment. I was able to hook the driveline up, put in exhaust, and clean the frame before the body was on, basically a cheap "frame off resto". I masked off the body without bolting it on incase I ran into problems and started priming it, at first I decided not to do body work, but I can to my senses and did all the body work since you cant waste $500 in paint on a lumpy/rusty pile of beauty.
Right now I am changing the motor/tranny/exhaust out for the rebuilt 394/700R4 with new Blue-Streak exhaust so that it will be my dependable daily driver Olds! I am going to touch of the primer on where I did the body work, wet sand, wet sand, wet sand, and maybe once more, and then paint!
And then even more sanding!!!
Don't do body/paint work unless you enjoy it, because it requires enough time to restore about 12 cars.
I will post pictures once its one solid color again!
I always wanted to be that one kid that built his car and mommy and daddy didn't pay for it!
I'll turn 17 this summer and have one very very stock Starfire to drive!
No job and loving that 8 mpg ($4.68 for clear-premium).
$90ish to fill!!! Whew! I love my Olds!
Anyway, thanks for reading!
I am selling all my other cars
63' 88 convertible
63' Starfire convertible
and all the parts!
541-678-0606
demammothman@live.com
-Dalton
Four years ago, I found a 1963 Starfire coupe near Aspen Lakes golf course on a farm in Sisters, Oregon. The car was located about 10 minutes from my house and my friend had a ranch out there where this beauty sat!
Trunk was 4' deep in dirt and had a little bit of growth in there, along with a dead bird (fertilizer). The passenger side window was laying in the back seat covered in about 2" of dirt. The engine was sitting underneath a tree about 150' from the car, next to the frame of a Model-T.
I talked with my friend and his family wanted nothing to do with the car, and even let me borrow a trailer, chain, and use their HUGE fork-lift to drag the car up onto the trailer!
Got the beautifully delapitated Starfire home and started shoveling the flower plot out of the trunk, I gave the bird to my wonderful 3 kitties (I remember how much I love my cats when I drive down the road trying to look through all their paw prints on the windshield
I got the motor home the next day, after cutting the tree up with a sawz-all to fit my cherry picker in and get the truck backed up to it. Motor was frozen, so I purchased a 4-door dynamic 88 with a running 2brl low compression (would've been happier with the performance of the seized motor.
The car sat for 2-3 years and I tried selling it for even $250 on ebay with no bites, decided I would do the body work, put in a running motor and try to sell it for $2500. I sanded the whole body down in a day, put the interior back in it, sanded and repainted the motor (Motor has 86,540 miles on it and you will think its brand new!! I moved the body of the Starfire from the gross undurable frame to a convertible frame. This way I didn't have to replace brakes, fuel-line or redo another alignment. I was able to hook the driveline up, put in exhaust, and clean the frame before the body was on, basically a cheap "frame off resto". I masked off the body without bolting it on incase I ran into problems and started priming it, at first I decided not to do body work, but I can to my senses and did all the body work since you cant waste $500 in paint on a lumpy/rusty pile of beauty.
Right now I am changing the motor/tranny/exhaust out for the rebuilt 394/700R4 with new Blue-Streak exhaust so that it will be my dependable daily driver Olds! I am going to touch of the primer on where I did the body work, wet sand, wet sand, wet sand, and maybe once more, and then paint!
And then even more sanding!!!
Don't do body/paint work unless you enjoy it, because it requires enough time to restore about 12 cars.
I will post pictures once its one solid color again!
I always wanted to be that one kid that built his car and mommy and daddy didn't pay for it!
I'll turn 17 this summer and have one very very stock Starfire to drive!
No job and loving that 8 mpg ($4.68 for clear-premium).
$90ish to fill!!! Whew! I love my Olds!
Anyway, thanks for reading!
I am selling all my other cars
63' 88 convertible
63' Starfire convertible
and all the parts!
541-678-0606
demammothman@live.com
-Dalton
Registered User
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 988
Great story Dalton. Sounds like you've been woring hard. I picked up a '64 Dynamic 88 for my 17 year old daughter's first car. She loves it. Her car needs a bit of body work and a rear bumper. Can't find one anywhere. Hope to see some pictures soon. Good luck with your project.
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 114
Great story Dalton. Sounds like you've been woring hard. I picked up a '64 Dynamic 88 for my 17 year old daughter's first car. She loves it. Her car needs a bit of body work and a rear bumper. Can't find one anywhere. Hope to see some pictures soon. Good luck with your project.
Give me a call- 541-678-0606
Thank you
Dalton
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