Heading down to the decaying industrial stretch of Estuary waterfront near the 23rd Avenue Bridge, I spied this grizzled Olds awaiting its next boat-towing job. A 43-year-old beater that still gets used to do actual work is a thing of beauty in my eyes, particularly if the decades haven't dimmed the light of its amazing mid-60s style.
This car's neighborhood is full of fly-by-night-looking marine-related businesses, and you always see plenty of battered old boats on rickety trailers around. Some of the shops use an old forklift to drag such derelict craft around the neighborhood, but this car's owner has found a better solution: stick a trailer hitch and some big side mirrors on a rusty Olds Jetstar and you can drag that $50 tub down to the boat ramp with class.
The Jetstar was one of many nameplates GM slapped on their big Eighty-Eight series in '64; it was priced below the Dynamic 88 and the Super 88, but was not to be confused with the pricy Jetstar I. Huh? Just shows that The General has a longstanding tradition of bewildering marketing efforts.
Dig that top-down Bay Area body rust; the only real problem is when the rust gets all the way through the area around the back window trim and the trunk spends every winter full of icky mosquito-breeding water.
You can't help but admire a car that has fins on the front! That's a retro style that Oldsmobile should definitely bring back. Oh, wait...
Ahhh, who the hell cares if the boat-towing car is full of crap? Just clean it out every six months or so and it'll be fine.
Someday, a four-door Jetstar 88 will be worth enough that someone will restore this one and relegate it to a life of shows and weekend cruises.
But for now it's still Down on the Street!