How restoreable is this car?

[GMTruckGuy74]

One of my all-time favorite cars happens to be the 1957 Oldsmobiles... and at the top of that list is the Olds Fiesta 88 station wagon. While cruising eBay, I found this:

See more pics and info at: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/57-Olds-88-...1QQcmdZViewItem

Not that I have the money, nor experience, space, skills or tools, to buy and restore back to showroom condition this car, but I'm wondering if something like this is even worth somebody's time & effort? Anyone with experience care to educate me?

[balthazar]

The first question always is: Is it a keeper or a flip?

If this is a labor of love you'll keep 'forever'- only you can say if it's worth it, if you need to ask that at all.

If you intend to flip it (assumedly for a profit)- then you need to figure very carefully.

3 areas that eat the most money are >sheetmetal repair, > original interiors, and > (in this case)- chrome & stainless refurbishing.

The exterior looks pretty solid & complete, but the interior is toast. I know for a fact you're looking at a minimum $650 to get the steering wheel recast and like new, tho you might be able to find an NOS one (ha!!), tho it'll likely be more.

You also need to decide how far you want to take your keeper; if you want a #1 showcar- don't start with this one. The general rule for restorations is to buy the best condition you can afford. Even if it has to be trucked across country to get to you, you'll save in the long run. If all you're looking for is a decent driver and minimal cosmetics, esp if not factory-authentic, you will spend a fraction and the financials become relatively do-able.

I have gotten just past halfway thru my B-59 'restification'. I spent some time estimating each area for costs, and everything done so far came in under budget except for bodywork/paint. That alone put me well over budget. Engine build is another expensive matter... maybe I should forgo big block Buick motivation in favor of a SBC.

Mmmmmmm......nah.

Auction says the Fiesta came from New Mexico- wear/deterioration supports this. "Floors need replacing" sounds contrary, tho. If the floors are too bad to patch, there's more rot underneath than just floorpans.

>>"I have watched these cars needing complete restoration but in running condition sell for between $12,000-15,000."<<

3 days into it and it's just nipping $900. If it surpasses $3000 I would be surprised.

[Intrepidation]

Man that interior is trashed, but the body looks pretty good. It's a sweet looking car.

[XP715]

This is an EXTREMELY ambitious restoration project that is not for the faint of heart, so I agree with balthazar in that the biggest question you have to ask yourself is if this car is one to keep or one to simply play with and send down the road in a little while. If it's the latter you're looking for, as a sort of stopgap to owning your REAL dream vehicle, then save your pennies until you can plunk down what's needed for an acceptable driver and just have fun with it while doing minimal work.

[Robert Hall]

Looks pretty rusty...I wonder how bad the underneath is..

I guess my view on buying old cars to restore (for fun, not as a business) would be to buy a car in the best possible condition that I can afford...it would always be cheaper in the long run than buying something cheap that needed a costly restoration..

[Camino LS6]

Lots of good advice in the posts above. The condition of the car doesn't scare me as much as the difficulty you would have in finding all the parts you'd need. Not only is the car a bit of an addball because it is an Olds, but it is also a wagon. Wagon-specific parts are hard to come by - even on a popular Chevy model, on this car the search could literally take years.

Still, it would make a neat car when done.

[GMTruckGuy74]

Thanks for the input so far. Like I said, even though this happens to be one of my favorite Olds models, there's no way I could afford the restoration of this car. I was just wondering, given it's appearance in the pictures, if it was even worth attempting. I'd much rather wait to find the old GMC of my dreams ('55-'57). But some I've found online look like this Olds, and I agree with many here that something like that would take a long time and a lot of resources. It's getting to the point that many rare vehicles are becoming parts for others in restoration or are being used to make hot rods/etc since you can't find all the original parts. One of these days I'm going to come across the perfect GMC, and then I'll just have to figure out where the money will come from! But I now know from the advice given here to stay away from anything that looks like this Olds and find something that is "all together". Thanks guys for your time!

[Variance]

Maybe I should try to find something of a diamond in the rough to clean up and sell to the Barrett-Jackson eccentrics.

[z28luvr01]

Unfortunately, I think that car would have to be stripped entirely and sandblasted before you could figure out how doable it is. For instance, take the floors - if the majority of the floor is good with a few holes, you could get away with cutting out the bad metal and welding in patches. If it's got a lot of rot, you either have to fabricate new floor pans yourself, hope for a donor car, hope for the aftermarket to come through for this car, or maybe try to make something work from another car. You'd be better off looking for an incomplete project which can sometmes be a better deal - at least you'd know what you're getting, and some of the hard work might already be done.

[XP715]

If it's a '55-'57 GMC you're looking for, then I suggest you get looking like yesterday. The truck market has exploded in the past few years and television auctions and the internet is quickly bringing an end to the days of the good deal; every old man thinks that rotted out four door sitting in his backyard on four flats covered in pine needles and &#036;h&#33; is now worth retirement money. You need to find an acceptable starting point soon and worry about the details later. Case in point: my '67 Eldorado. I've wanted one for a looooooong time, a great opportunity to own an exceptional original example came up (traded two cars I had a grand total of $1800ish in for a car the guy wanted $3500 for), and I scooped it up. I own it outright, and it has indoor storage out of any weather and is kept under lock and key. I don't care if I start the restoration tomorrow or ten years from now because all that matters is I now have a really nice solid one, I got a good deal, and it isn't getting touched until I have the time and money to do it right. So get cracking and secure your dream truck before you're dipping into your kid's college fund for it. And until you're ready to do it up, get a cheap, fun driver to bomb around town with in the meantime. That's what I'll be doing in a certain Lincoln limousine for a few years, anyways.

[Sixty8panther]

Hey XP, you still have the phone # for that crazy lady with a beat up old '78 Volare

who thinks it's a '64 Barracuda fastback 4-speed since she wants $9995 for it?

[XP715]

Hey XP, you still have the phone # for that crazy lady with a beat up old '78 Volare

who thinks it's a '64 Barracuda fastback 4-speed since she wants $9995 for it?

No. Hopefully she died in a fiery wreck involving said Volare, thereby removing herself from the gene pool.

But take note, GMTruckGuy, because what Sixty8 says is true, and these are the retards you have to deal with in searching for your dream vehicle. Hope it all goes well for you!

Edited January 22, 2007 by XP715

[Ravenfreak13]

Thank god my cars interior is in excellent shape...with the exception of the headliner...

I say dont go for it...way to much expecially if ur low on cash.

[ocnblu]

It looks like it was that metallic pink color, unless it was red and super faded. It would be an ambitious project, to be sure, but I hope someone buys it and saves it from oblivion. Wagons are "hot" right now among hot rodders. This car, with a factory original body but modern running gear, would be an O mega cool Olds. Edited January 23, 2007 by ocnblu

[daves87rs]

I hate to be the only one, but I would have to say no.

Something just doesn't look right to me...

[Sixty8panther]

an O mega cool Olds.

You're a funny b@$tard O.B.

d87rs:

Dude, it looks liek a complete &#036;h&#33;box, yes... it will probably take 20 years of inflation to make a

full restoration worthwile and it will take many parts off ebay but this car can be restored & is

actually far better off than most of the cars I've seen some crazy europeans restore in those

Nordic countries. There's a lot of American car nuts in Europe and you'd be amazed at how much

of thr car they hand-fabricate on cars that are 80% rust & 20% rot-through.

Anything & everything can be remade, remanufactured, recast or fabricated. After all, someone

did it originally of the car would not exist, right? Now I realize this mentality means that some

people put $700,000 and 10,000 man hours into restoring a 1931 Duesenberg... but i have

nothing but respect for those people. Better than blowing your money on the stock market when

it crashes or buying some over rated exotic that has its value drop by 40% the second you leave

the dealership. After you're gone, decadess from now when the car is in a museum or a private

collectors' garage with a scrapbook of photos of how you hand fabricated 70% of the car you will

live on forever.... having realy DONE something, created something substantial in this life. We all

should be so lucky as to leave our mark like this.

No one has as of yet said the obvious: NICE HARDTOP!!!

[GMTruckGuy74]

XP, that advise was given to me about 7 years ago by a fellow salesman at the dealership I worked at. He wanted a '62 Impala convertible, just like he had when he was 17. Putting two kids through college didn't allow him the finances to buy one restored. So at around the age of 40 he found a complete car that needed work and over the next ten years he got it to the point where it looks like it came right off the showroom floor (he completed it in the mid-'90s). He told me to find a real nice old GMC, buy it, store it and slowly work on it as I can.

Problem with that advise? There are no decent '55-'57 GMCs in New Jersey! Everything I find looks just like, if not worse, than the Olds pictured above. That's why I started this thread - to see what the experts around here would tell me. Now If I really had the money, I'd love to find an old GMC out in the west/mid-west states and do exactly as you said XP. Problem with that is most shipping companies won't ship anything that's not driveable, and I don't know anyone that has the capability to drive cross-country with their truck & trailer to get it for me.

I will not give up hope. Just pray that I win the lottery soon (well, let me start playing again first, then pray for me!).

[daves87rs]

You're a funny b@$tard O.B.

d87rs:

Dude, it looks liek a complete &#036;h&#33;box, yes... it will probably take 20 years of inflation to make a

full restoration worthwile and it will take many parts off ebay but this car can be restored & is

actually far better off than most of the cars I've seen some crazy europeans restore in those

Nordic countries. There's a lot of American car nuts in Europe and you'd be amazed at how much

of thr car they hand-fabricate on cars that are 80% rust & 20% rot-through.

Anything & everything can be remade, remanufactured, recast or fabricated. After all, someone

did it originally of the car would not exist, right? Now I realize this mentality means that some

people put $700,000 and 10,000 man hours into restoring a 1931 Duesenberg... but i have

nothing but respect for those people. Better than blowing your money on the stock market when

it crashes or buying some over rated exotic that has its value drop by 40% the second you leave

the dealership. After you're gone, decadess from now when the car is in a museum or a private

collectors' garage with a scrapbook of photos of how you hand fabricated 70% of the car you will

live on forever.... having realy DONE something, created something substantial in this life. We all

should be so lucky as to leave our mark like this.

No one has as of yet said the obvious: NICE HARDTOP!!!

True.