Car of the Week: 1958 Oldsmobile Fiesta Wagon
The Ginta’s have been living the “wagon” life for over 30 years with their 1958 Olds Fiesta wagon and wouldn’t have it any other way.
It wasn’t that long ago that station wagons were still the unwanted step-children of the collector car hobby. Relatively few had been kept around, not many guys wanted them, and hardly anybody wanted to restore them.
But times have certainly changed — especially for haulers as stunning and scarce as Bill and Billie Ginta’s 1958 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Fiesta. The New Lenox, Ill., couple were only too happy to give it a home after it was — in a familiar story — not particularly wanted by the previous owners.
“The kids were selling at the Volo Museum as part of an estate sale. I bought it there and they were practically giving it away, and only because it was a station wagon,” Bill Ginta recalled. “That was 30 years ago. I was Oldsmobile guy and I knew how rare these cars were and when I saw it I bought it right way. It’s unbelievable now how much station wagons have escalated in price! It’s crazy! But at the time nobody wanted them.”
According to Ginta, the gorgeous Fiesta had only 46,000 original miles on it when he took it home. It was one of 3,323 Olds wagons built for the 1958 model year and one of only about 24 that are still known to exist.
To be sure, the ’58 Fiesta is a quintessential 1950s people mover — rivers of chrome all around, ornate tail fins, two-tone paint, whitewall tires, and blinding brightwork inside. All the Gintas’ car needed to be truly glorious again was a little TLC and a die-hard Oldsmobile guy to fully appreciate it. Bill Ginta provided both.
“I’ve always been into the Oldsmobiles. I have a ’55 Starfire convertible, which was my show car,” he says. “This, I just wound up being in the right place at the time. We did a mild cosmetic restoration on it and I’ve been playing around with it for 30 years. I like the ’50s because these were rolling pieces of art. There was no concern for aerodynamics or concern for fuel economy. No concerns at all!”
THE OLDS WAGONS RETURN
Olds buyers could order a station wagon in 1957 for the first time since 1950. It was a reflection of the growing popularity of seven- and nine-passenger five-door wagons and meant that Olds brought back the wagon body had its own version of the now iconic hardtop Nomad. For ’57, Olds did not use a Fisher body. Instead, the company partnered with custom coach builder Mitchell-Bentley Iona Body Company, which had previous build the Packard Caribbean and 1956-’57 Lincoln Continental Mark II.
The Fiesta hardtop wagon could be had in both Series 88 and Super 88 trim lines and featured the 371-cid V-8 with J-2 tri-power, Hydra-Matic transmission, power steering and brakes, a roof rack and other goodies. Buyers could also opt for a five-door wagon with sedan styling. The regular wagon sold for $2,914 before add-ons, while the hardtop Fiesta listed for $3,017.
The ’57 Oldsmobiles got a nifty restyling for the model year, and the styling updates continued in 1958, as Olds introduced its “Chrome Mobile” trim on the body, especially the upper-echelon Super 88 and Ninety-Eight models. The long front coves stretched all the way back to the front door handles, and four chrome spears in back extended from the middle of the rear doors all the way to the massive tail lamp bezels, which were supposed to look like jet airplane exhausts. Oldsmobile was spellec out across the front edge of the hood with 2.5-inch lettering.
The Dynamic 88 bowed for the first time in ’58 and was placed one level below the Super 88. The Seventy-Six designation was discontinued. The Dynamic 88 featured a slightly detuned version of the 371-cid Rocket V-8 and produced 265 hp. The Super 88s had the four-barrel version standard that produced 300 hp. The J-2 option upped the ante with three two-barrel carburetors that kicked out about 312 hp.
A new instrumental panel featured a deep-dish steering wheel with “horn bars” in place of the old horn ring. The “Trans-Portable” pull-out radio was a cool new option. It could slide out of the instrument panel and be used as a portable transistor radio. With seven models, 17 standard colors were available, including five extra-cost metallic choices. Upholstery choices included a wide variety of color and material combinations.
‘Silk over velvet’
The Gintas’ wagon got the full treatment from the factory, even though it was lower-tier Dynamic 88 version. In addition to getting the J-2 tri-carb engine, it sports power steering, brakes and antenna; roof cargo carrier, the K-5 interior trim package that included fancier carpet and seats, along with a padded dash; courtesy lights; clock; heater; glove box light; underhood light; windshield washer; fender skirts in back; and white walls. It has the aforementioned removable radio, and a unique prism “Traffic Light Viewer” on the dash that allowed the driver to see overhead traffic lights that may have been obstructed by the roof.
All those goodies no doubt added to the $3,395 base price of the Dynamic 88 Fiesta wagon, in addition to adding a few pounds to the roughly 4,400-lb. curb weight.
Bill Ginta said he did quite a bit of work initially on the Fiesta to get it looking and running right again, but most of those efforts have been nearly three decades ago. Amazingly, the car still looks like it just rolled out of a restoration shop.
“It was actually pretty beat up,” he says. “It needed a paint job because it was pretty much used as a shelf in a garage someplace. The headliner was fiberboard and that had all warped and deteriorated to where it was just kind of falling down. The rear decking needed to be replaced. I was able to find a pattern that was the same pattern the fiberboard that was up there, but only in a soft material. The rear decking that was beat up. The rear decking in the ’58 Corvette was the same pattern, so I called the Corvette people and said, ‘Do you have that pattern in blue and can you send me out a 5 x 8 sheet? So I got a sheet of that and I just cut it up myself. The perimeter trim on the inside of the car needed to be painted because it was sun damaged, the dashboard obviously needed to be replaced for the same reason. The seat upholstery, the perimeter panels, that’s all original. The chrome and the stainless I just put back on the car."
“The mechanical restoration was done by somebody else. It sat for a long period of time. The engine pretty much needed to be built, so I had it rebuilt, had case-hardened valves and seals installed so I could use the gas of today. And yeah, the car just runs great.”
These days Ginta says he has no qualms about driving the wagon regularly, but he tries to keep his trips within 100 miles.
“Anything over 100 miles, I’ll throw it on a trailer. It’s just too rare a piece to take it out much on the highway… But anything less than 100 miles, I’ll drive to shows or cruise-ins. The way I explain it to people, it’s like pulling silk over velvet. It just kind of cruises down the road. It’s a nice, smooth ride.”
One of his stops this year was the big Iola Car Show in Wisconsin, where it drew plenty of admirers, as usual. The car also makes annual trips to Oldsmobile national shows, where Ginta is always on the lookout for other Fiesta wagons — a rare sight even at big Oldsmobile shows.
“I’ve been to every national Oldsmobile show since ’92, and I’ve only seen six,” he says. “I just saw the seventh at Lansing [Mich.] at the homecoming, and that was a Super 88.”
No matter how popular station wagons eventually become, Ginta knows he’d have a hard time ever parting with his flashy Fiesta. He’s been the caretaker for 30 years, and he has more than a little incentive at home to keep it that way.
“This is my wife’s favorite car, out of all the cars I’ve had. She loves this car,” he laughs. “And what else is funny about this car: Whenever I take it to a car show where there is a ‘Lady’s Choice Award,’ I always win. I don’t know why, but the ladies love this car.”
SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!
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