John Eason always wanted a Fifties Yank but he found his ’58 Oldsmobile more by luck than anything. Fortunately it’s been a reliable machine, offering 30 years of trouble-free motoring, which must be a glowing recommendation for this overlooked cruiser…
Words: Zack Stiling Photography: Matt Richardson
“It all started back in the Eighties,” begins John. He’s owned his 1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 for more than 30 years now, and people tend not to hold onto a car so long without good reason. “First of all, I went to a local car show, Kent Customs at Sandway, near Lenham. I met this person who became a friend – I’ve known him 35 years now – and he had a 1951 Cadillac Series 62. He had two other friends, one with a two-door Oldsmobile sedan coupe like mine, and the other had a 1959 Chevy Impala. I used to go around with them and tag a lift with my mate to these car shows, but after a while I thought, ‘It’s no good, I’ve got to have one of my own.’
“I thought I’d never afford a Fifties car and would have to get a Sixties one, but a friend of mine told me about one for sale with a man in Bracknell. I heard he’d gone up to Knebworth House, where the Rally of the Giants was taking place. I went up there instantly and thought: ‘That’s the one for me!’ I put my deposit down and picked the car up a few weeks later from Bracknell.”
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That was in 1993 and the car was the very same Dynamic 88 which still serves John faithfully today. It might have been an impulsive purchase, but it paid off. The car was in good cosmetic and mechanical condition and has never experienced any serious trouble in all the time he’s had it. Also, it came with a raft of history to which John added through his correspondence with the original owner. She was Miss Evelyn C Tilton of 108 Roy Street, Seattle, Washington, a city-centre address which, from 1962, gained a bit of Atom Age chic when the Space Needle was erected just half a mile away. She paid a visit to the Central Oldsmobile Co at 1015 Olive Way on May 3, 1958 and, after a chat with a silver-tongued salesman, she was going home in the Alaskan White and Surf Green machine on these pages.
We may wonder what sort of people bought these cars new and why. Fortunately, John’s correspondence with Miss Tilton has given us the answers. Writing from Vashon Island in 1993, she said: “I loved it and would have kept it, except it was getting impossible to find replacement parts. I bought it in May 1958 for $3100. The salesmen were on strike, so instead of paying $4500, I got a bargain. The cream and green are the same colours. I had it repainted every five years so it always looked like new… I am 75 years old, never married, and I live with my sister, Esther, who is 84. I was born in Seattle and lived there until I retired from the Telephone Company in 1979. I was all-night chief operator on information for all of western Washington state for 20 years. I was with the Telephone Company for 36 years.”
Repainted every five years! Miss Tilton was the most diligent of owners, and kept a meticulous log of all the journeys she made between purchase in 1958 and the eventual sale in 1991, along with a complete record of fuel consumption, servicing and so on. Living in the very north-western corner of America, Miss Tilton made regular excursions up to Canada – destinations such as Swartz Bay and Salt Spring Island suggest that Canada’s Gulf Islands, just across from the American border, were a popular getaway destination. On November 5, 1976, she rolled the Oldsmobile all the way around the clock and back to zero miles. A year before putting it up for sale, she treated it to an engine overhaul, but was disheartened to have to wait two months to source the necessary parts. An additional 20,000 miles had been put on the car by 1986, and today the odometer stands at 53,000 miles, with John never having had to take the engine out.
Crossing the Atlantic
After Miss Tilton decided to part with the Olds, it was imported by Howard Cox of Needham Market, Suffolk, but it very soon passed to R Willcock in Bracknell, and it was shortly thereafter that John pounced on it. “I never thought I could afford a car from that era because they were expensive even then, but I had to have it. There’s something about Fifties cars – it’s the shape and all the chrome work and just the whole look of them. They stand out.”
Of course, GM had every intention of making the Olds stand out, hence the huge fins, afterburner tail lights and chrome adornments by the bucket load. The Mobile Look, as it was termed, represented one of the most extreme of GM’s Fifties’ styling efforts – earlier models were understated by comparison, and for 1959 Oldsmobile’s styling went off in a completely different direction with the razor-edged Linear Look. Some critics lambasted what they thought was emblematic of sheer excess, but it had the desired effect upon the public. It looked prosperous and optimistic, capturing the general zeitgeist of the era. So, it happened that while car sales fell across the country on account of the 1958 recession, Oldsmobile moved up from fifth to fourth in the annual production charts, with 315,000 cars built.
There was a simple three-model hierarchy throughout the Fifties, with the 98 at the top, the 88 at the bottom and the Super 88 in between. For 1958, the 88 was renamed Dynamic 88, and was available in seven different styles: sedan, hardtop, convertible and station-wagon body. With a price of $2837 before options, four-door sedans like John’s were the best sellers, with 60,429 produced. There was little to distinguish the models, except that the more expensive they were, the more chrome was bolted on and the more luxury fittings came as standard. A 371cu in V8 was used across the range, but the basic one used in the Dynamic 88 produced 265bhp and was outranked by the tuned 305bhp mill used as standard in the Super 88 and 98.
The ’58 Olds were perfect for the world into which they were launched. Twenty-one different colours were offered, in various two-tone combinations, with the order of the day being those bright pastels so reminiscent of old Kodachrome slides. Some of the options would be expected, like a heater and air conditioning, New-Matic air suspension, power-windows, power-brakes, four- or six-way power seats, an electric clock and a range of radios, but otherwise were purely gimmicky. The Autronic Eye, an automatic headlamp dimmer, is quite well-known, but Olds also offered the Safety Sentinel, an adjustable hand on the speedometer which buzzed a warning if the speedo needle overtook it. There can’t have been many takers for that… As a lower-priced offering, John’s Dynamic 88 doesn’t have many power options, but it does boast its original heater and Deluxe radio.
Keeping up Appearances
As stated, the 88 was by no means in bad shape when John became the owner, but old cars will deteriorate over time, and he has performed occasional restorative work to keep it looking its best. He has had all chromework, except around the windows, replated, and the car has again been repainted in its original colours. John has not continued the tradition of doing that every five years, but he has kept a similarly meticulous service and journey record in the spirit of Miss Tilton. He has also dressed the car up a little with Deluxe wheel trims, keeping the original standard wheel trims in storage.
“The chrome was down to a guy who used to work in Ramsgate,” he says. “I had quite a good deal on it. The whole lot was done for £700, but that was quite a few years ago. The front bumper was too wide to go into the vat, so they had to cut it behind the overrider and bolt it back together. You wouldn’t know it’s there. That was the only way to get it into the vat, and at the time that was the only person I could get hold of.”
John has also redone the ‘Fashion-flair’ interior with new carpets and new cloth upholstery which he ordered from the States. “The new trunk carpets I picked up myself in Pennsylvania and brought back on the plane,” he adds. Mechanically, he has had the starter motor, radiator and dynamo rebuilt at various points, but the engine has never needed serious work. The only modification to have been made was the repositioning of the brake fluid reservoir onto the bulkhead because, in its original position, one had to crawl underneath the car to see the fluid level. Most recently, the Olds enjoyed a short stay with John’s local specialist, Redline American Muscle near Rochester (www.redlineamericanmuscle.co.uk/01634 250200), which perked it up with a light overhaul.
Of those 53,000 miles, John has contributed his fair share, regularly visiting car shows throughout the summer. “I’ve done a few weddings and proms, but it’s a stressful job doing that. I only did it for friends and even then it was stressful. You’ve got to put time aside and make sure everything’s all right. I did break down once at a wedding, which wasn’t too good… I don’t do that anymore, I just like going to car shows. I used to go up to Billing Aquadrome and Knebworth, but it’s mainly all local shows now. I try to get to as many as I can. I’ve got some friends and we all correspond, so if someone hasn’t heard of a show we let them know.”
It’s fortunate that the Olds is a dependable machine, because spares are few and far between. However, John has taken measures to ensure that he has a guaranteed supply. “I’ve got one other car which I shipped over from Canada for spares. I had it shipped to Antwerp then used a low-loader to get it here. The body wasn’t that good, but some of it was. I just kept it for those hard-to-get-hold-of spares. Now I’ve got suitcases full of parts in my basement; you never know when you’ll want them. I’m lucky next-door lets me use part of his shed; I’ve got the doors, hood, trunk lid and a set of wheels in there. It’s so hard to get hold of spares now for ’58s. I went to the 100th anniversary rally for Oldsmobile in 1997 in Michigan and I only saw five like mine. Even over there, they’re getting rare. I’ve seen about four or five in this country, too.”
If you can find one, John’s experiences suggest that they’re excellent cars to own, and very pleasant to drive. “It’s not too bad at all,” John affirms. “It’s still got its original drum brakes and when I first got it, it had cross-plies. They were a nightmare, tramlining on the motorway, so I changed to radials and they make for a much better ride. It keeps up with the rest of the traffic, it’s just a shame people don’t think that I can’t stop as quickly as a modern car and cut in front of me. I could have it converted to disc brakes, but it’s not worth it for the number of times I go out with it, and I’m trying to keep it as original as possible.” Even as one of the cheaper Oldsmobiles, the Dynamic 88 is a true luxury liner from the golden age of American cruisers. With big, soft bench seats, power steering and Hydra-Matic column change, it’s such an easy and pleasant car to live with; its rarity is just an additional attraction. Hats off to Evelyn Tilton for making sure this one survived!
