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1950 Oldsmobile Rocket: The Old In Oldsmobile

1950 Oldsmobile Rocket

This is my favorite kind of barn find, the forgotten old car, perhaps granddad’s old car. This old Oldsmobile here on craigslist in Nashville seems really nice, complete and unmolested. The plastic covers are still on the seats. It runs and drives, but it will need brake work and a gas tank. He’s asking $8,500 and it could turn out to be a great driver. If it’s not too rusty, what do you think it’s worth?

Comments

  1. Avatar Vince Habel

    These were pretty hot in their day. I like the Holiday and the coupe better but these are cool too.

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  2. Avatar Mark E

    Okay, I’ll date myself here. When I was in college I could have gotten a car like this for free. Yes, I said FREE. This old lady had stopped driving it awhile back and just wanted it out of there. I started it up and drove it up and down the driveway. Everything worked good and there wasn’t much rust either. Trouble was I couldn’t get another car. My sister had just started college and I tried to get her interested but no luck. I often wonder if someone got the car or if it ended up being scrapped…

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  3. Avatar DENIS

    I love those old Olds…I had a fastback like this with a ’57 J-2 motor/trans..it was badass…would love to have this car but prefer a coupe for that price…

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  4. Avatar Matt Tritt

    I hope someone saves this from the friggin hotrod crowd.

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  5. Avatar Rick

    ’50 fastback has always been my fave Olds. I had a chance to buy some guy’s old hot rod ’50 Olds 76 series 2-dr (plain jane non-fastback) with a three-on-the-tree around ’76 or so for $250 – it had a later model Olds 324 w/ 4 deuces and a Spaulding Flamethrower ignition, total period hot rod that he had kept and it still ran. But back in ’76 that was all it was worth. Still kick myself periodically . . .

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  6. Avatar bonneville 64

    The 50 olds fastback model was a realitively low production car. Most were 4 door sedans and 2door sedans, along with some business coupes. some of the body panels may interchange with chevys of the period. been a long time, so memory is kind of foggy. this particular car would be a great buy around 6500 or a good buy about 7K.

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  7. Avatar -packrat

    Saw this on a trailer beside the Hermitage Cafe today. Boys, it is -bought-, it is on its way…

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  8. Avatar Mike

    They featured one of these on the TV show Fast & Loud, all the did was put a crate 350 in it, and clear coated the patina, even left the drum brakes on it.

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  9. Avatar Peregrine Lance

    In 1950, my dad traded in his “Woodie” 1948 Olds wagon (the wood didn’t like Tennessee) for the 1950 version of the same car, except the wood was fake, and the charm was gone. He told us to watch the back of the rocket hood ornament; and when he’d hit 60, smoke would come out of the rocket. (It was an effective kid-focusing device!) This being our second postwar car, and thus a reward-after-deprivation, it shared a garage with neighbor Jim’s 1948 Buick–the gorgeous green Dyna-Flow-Sounder with the deep finger ridges on the steering wheel, the center radio aerial with its inside control knob, and the lift-either-side hood.
    I’m not a rich man, but I’d give a lot to trade in today’s ludicrous “stylings” for such as these old chargers! (I don’t broadcast my wishes, as there are still people in earshot who are saying: “I’d give a lot to trade in these 1948 duds for some REAL cars of the ‘thirties!” Plus ca change…

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  10. Avatar Matt Tritt

    I know what you mean. It would be neat if auto companies kept their dies and tooling, since most cars could be brought up to current safety standards by only modernising interior components and using current corrosion control methods. As fondly as we remember them from our childhood, even “new” cars in the 50’s had nothing but unyielding (and deadly) everything inside the passenger compartment; the frames were ridgid; engines would end-up in the passenger compartment in head-ons; the window glass would rip you to shreds as you passed though them (because of no seatbelts) (this happened to my mother); broken necks were common in rear-enders and the brakes on all were useless when wet. All of this stuff could be rectified in a new production using old body dies and modern everything else…. The other thing though, is that current designs at least show SOME consideration for pedestrians by removing killer hood ornaments, etc., and the pollution levels are just a particle (ho ho) of what they used to be. The head master of my old school told me of an accident from his youth in the 20’s, which involved a big Packard touring car and a telephone pole. When he arrived on the scene the pole was sheared off at the base and the Packard was at rest down the road a bit idling, with two people in the front seat. The car showed NO sign of having knocked down a huge pole, but both occupants were dead as doornails – sitting up, eyes open and bruises on their foreheads. Ugh. Those cars were made like tanks with high carbon steel frames that would survive about anything – but not the people riding in them. I think that Swedish cars changed everything – mainly because of all the drunk Swedes causing so much havoc. Saab was the first car with real seatbelts (taken directly from their aircraft production); energy absorbing crumple zones, headrests, engine/transmission units that would stay out of the passenger compartment, front discs – so many things that are taken for granted now originated in Sweden! Sorry for the digression!

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