Wait a minute, you say! Jamie’s off his rocker again–Oldsmobile didn’t make THAT many Starfires in the early 1960’s. Heck, he just told us so in this recent post! No, they didn’t, you’re right, only 4,401 1963 Starfire convertibles were made, and there can’t be THAT many left. So what’s this “Many” in the title? You’ll have to keep reading to find out. This nice looking Starfire convertible is located in Grand Junction, Colorado and is listed for sale here on eBay, where the buy it now is $15,000 $10,500 but bidding is at $8,500 at the moment.
We’re told this car was in storage in a barn for over 40 years! Of course, we’re also told that it was running when it was put into the barn. I’m afraid that doesn’t mean a whole lot at this point, because undoubtedly you will be doing a lot of systems refreshing before you can drive the car. The paint looks remarkably good, though, for that much storage–a repaint is claimed, but we don’t know if it was before or after storage. I’m betting after. There has also been a new top installed.
Considering the storage period, the interior looks fabulous, with only a little yellowing of the steering wheel and some discoloration of the (leather!) seats giving it away. By the way, those are power seats, along with power windows and power steering.
Engine wise, we have a 394 cubic inch, 345 horsepower V8. Excuse me, a Rocket V8 with the “Fire-Swirl” combustion chambers! There’s a “Hydramatic Drive” automatic transmission hooked up behind it. I suspect both will need some work after sitting for that long.
Here’s why the “one of many” title, if you haven’t forgotten! There were 38 other cars in the barn, with some being stored as long as 55 years. Unfortunately, as you have probably guessed, this is an estate sale, which is very sad to me. It looks like there are four engine stands in the front of the picture, with possibly more behind them under the covers. It’s obvious someone had some grand plans that they weren’t able to enact. It’s viewing situations like these when I’m researching finds that have led me to reduce my collection, while I’m still young enough to think about finishing at least some of them. It must be sad for the family that’s left to see this collection go away, but even sadder that the projects weren’t completed during the person’s lifetime. We’ll keep an eye out for others as they come up for auction and let you know about them.
The Buy It Now is listed at $10,500 currently. It could be worth that provided there’s nothing adverse hiding. Looking at the garage, I would imagine that the motor had been mothballed properly.
Maybe, maybe not. He may have parked it intending to get it going soon, and before he knew it, years had gone by.
That’s one hell of a barn, or steel structure. The vertical supports are way over kill, unless they expected huge amounts of snow. But the poor design of a roof with two peaks and a valley between them. If I had the money to build a shop that nice I would do it right, when I get around to it. Regardless, it looks like it protected the cars well enough. Odd, they put a new roof on the Olds, but as Woodie Man noticed, they left the r/f tire flat, air up the tires! But wait, I am confused, there are two dark blue Olds convertibles here. The one behind the engine stands is a “98” with a flat r/f black wall tire, the Starfire is in a much smaller shop, with a flat r/f white wall tire and a very muddy r/r tire. One of many?
Time waits for no man..or car. Put some air in the tires will ya! I hate that. I know its a dealer selling this but I wonder how they set the price? Beautiful car though. I’m amazed that it has reached 8K sight unseen.
If the buy now is $10,500, I think it is worth it, a little bit of a gamble, but you could be a big winner!
What other cars are in the barn?? Looking for a 1960 or 1963 Bonniville Convertible
If that top is new, the installer has no idea how to do the job. I’ll bet that top is over ten years old. The telltales are the pulling up over the rear of the side windows and the wrinkles in the “C” pillar area between the body and the window. Both of these effects are due to the time shrinking of the vinyl, that cannot be avoided in the installation process.
Those front seats are most certainly vinyl, also. They have color shifted with the door panels and leather dye doesn’t do that.
I was thinking too that there’s something off with that top. It’s very clean for being old, I was thinking it was maybe installed cold, or not stretched properly before being stapled. Love these early 60’s Oldsmobile’s. If it’s not badly rusted underneath, this looks like a good starting point for a restoration.
I really love these Starfires ! Better body design for the 62 model year, but I wouldn’t turn this one down (if I didn’t already have three other projects working). Would need more info before taking the plunge. Hopefully someone will bring it back to all its former glory!
Is that a cruise control unit just to the right of the air cleaner? Pretty rare outside of Cadillac in those days. Really cool car! Lousy transmission that year, but that can be excused with everything else present.