Long before this very 1958 Fiesta Station Wagon by Oldsmobile made it to the auction block, was a classic dream-car day I'll never forget.
One fateful Friday evening in the late 80s, I was going through the Recycler classified ads and found this uber-rare, space age spectacular listed for sale...
Without skipping a beat, I ran to a telephone and called. Much to my delight, an old lady answered, she said she was the original owner, the car had 52K miles, and it was LAAAVENDER.
In record time, I sped from LA to Long Beach to see the see it. I pulled up and there it was, sparkling from stem to stern, parked at the curb in front of her old house.
I knocked, we met, she threw me the keys and we hopped in for a test drive. As I drove, I was mesmerized by the nearly all-chrome dash. I pulled at the cigarette lighter to see if it had ever been used … no … I pushed it in to see if it worked.
Distracted by the glory and story of the car, I forgot about the lighter until I looked down and all the chrome on the dash around it was all aglow like red-hot, orange molten lava … YIKES … It stuck!
I gasped, she gasped. For a sec, I thought the whole car was going to melt and we were going up in flames.
Grabbing my vintage shirttail, I pulled it out, burned a hole in my shirt, singed my fingers and bought the car!
What a thrill to discover it again here in all its lavender loveliness, and so beeeauuutifully restored !!! … LONG MAY IT ROLL !!! …
Cheers to the old lady, her '58 Fiesta and YOU !!!
Charles Phoenix
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