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My First Jetfire

When my wife and I were only 19 years old, we purchased a beautiful  1963 Oldsmobile Jetfire, 4-speed manual, red/white with a black/white interior.  It was the only car I ever bought brand new!  We  had to have my parents co-sign, which was a mistake because I certainly could not afford it.  (Neither could they!)  I wanted to buy a Pontiac Tempest 4 cylinder, but my wife said she wouldn’t drive a red car with an orange dash!!

We had no idea what a turbocharger was, but we bought it anyway because it was so sporty.  My wife & I really enjoyed turning heads as we drove down the street.  I loved putting my foot down and feeling the turbocharger kick in.  What a rush!

We kept the car about 15 years until the oldest of my three kids was almost ready to drive.  I could just see him wrapping it around a tree!  For whatever crazy reason, I sold it to a neighbor for $150.  Actually, it was starting to rust and I couldn’t find anyone to work on the turbo.  The local dealer was reluctant to work on it, and offered to provide the pertinent info from the maintenance manual if I would do the work myself!  Apparently, they only sold 3 Jetfires in our city in 1963.

More recently, I’ve been wishing I had it back, but it is not for sale.  So I bought one that was identical to the first one, color and everything, except it has an automatic instead of a 4-speed manual transmission.  The current car had wide whitewalls when I bought it, which is not period correct.  The original one had two narrow stripes, one red and one white, which looked great on the car!

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My First Jetfire - II

Recently, I talked to the current owner of my original car (see my first article).  You should have seen the smiles throughout our discussion.  He bought the car for his daughters to drive to high school.  But first he replaced the fuel pump and a couple of vacuum hoses.  Then a general tune-up, i.e., plugs, wires, points, etc.  Then it was time for a test drive.  Wow!  Before long the speedometer was flirting with 100mph!  And he bought this car for his daughters to drive?  As soon as he got home, he slowed the timing down to reduce the power, but it still was fun to drive.

Later, over a long weekend, he repainted and sealed  the exterior.  Yes, the car was driven to school, without  any fender benders.  But one of the girls tells me that sometimes she did have a little help from friends “adjusting the car” to optimize its performance, and did not doubt that her dad had the car doing 100mph.

After about 2-1/2 years of use, the car was parked because the girls bought other cars.  The Jetfire main bearing seals were also leaking badly.  While parked outside of a barn on the farm, someone knocked out every shred of glass on the car.  After setting outside about 6 months, the car was moved inside, where it remains today, waiting for a complete restoration.

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