My father started this website in 2009, before Facebook Groups were a thing.
My younger brother Rick was the admin, and Dad “contributed” until he died in 2018.
After Dad died, the website (like the cars we all love) fell into disrepair, and many of the members moved their conversations to a Facebook Group (a newer, shinier car).
I recently leaned in to help restore the OldsJetfire.com website, dust it off, and get it running again. I just could not let over a decade of knowledge disappear.
I am the eldest child of the original Jetfireguy. I guess that makes me Jetfireguy, Jr.
This is my story:
When my mother and father were only 19 years old, they purchased a beautiful 1963 Oldsmobile Jetfire—4-speed manual, red and white with a black and white interior. The picture on the right is my car (Dad’s second Jetfire), not that car. It looked exactly the same, but it had the correct sidewalls on the tires (one thin red and one thin white stripe).
I know because I was born one year later, in 1964. When I was a kid, I thought every family had one pinkish-colored Ford tub and one fun red racecar.
I used to lie in the rear package tray while Mom and Dad drove down the road. The TSA didn’t mandate car seats until 1971.
I remember Mom bringing us kids to town to meet Dad after he finished his job at AT&T. The two of them would “race” home. Dad had to take the long way because he had the faster car. If we were lucky, we got to ride with him.
It really was the only new car my dad ever bought. He had enough money to buy as many new cars as he wanted, whenever he wanted, but he swore he would never go into debt like that again.
The car was at our house until I was about 14 years old (the car was 15). I had already bought a pickup, fixed it up, and sold it. I made several hundred dollars in profit over the $50 I gave the neighbor when we dragged the 1963 Ford F-100 out of his trees. I told Dad I wanted to buy the Jetfire to drive to school.
I think I scared him. He said he kept having nightmares of me wrapping it around a tree. Instead of selling it to me, he sold it to our friends (and my Webelos leader) for $150.
Dad tells more of the story of the original Jetfire in his posts here on Jewels From Jetfire Guy.
I saw a ghost on the 1961–1963 Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass/Jetfire Facebook page a couple of days ago. Last September another car enthusiast “dug it out of his wife’s aunt’s barn after 48 years.” It’s nice to see that the original car is being restored. Dad would have liked that.
I bought a 350 Chevy Monte Carlo with working side pipes that was jacked to the hilt and ran drag slicks. I burned through transmissions about every six months. I guess I showed him.
My brother Rick built several ’67–’69 Camaros back when you could still buy them cheap at the junkyard and put two together to make one good one.
Several years before he died, Dad took my car-hauler trailer to Texas and brought back an exact copy of his original car, but with an automatic instead of a stick. My name has always been on that title under the heading: “James R. Perkins, transfer on death to James R. Perkins.” (He was James Ray, and I was James Randall.)
Rick and I helped him take out the engine and transmission for a refresh. Jim Noel worked his magic on the turbos, and we got the car back together for one start just before Dad died. We fogged the garage as the assembly lube burned off and the silicone did its final cure.
When Dad died, I winched his second Jetfire onto the trailer and rolled it into my climate-controlled garage, where it sat for the past eight years.
Here is a picture of all the grandchildren and Jetfireguy’s second Jetfire just after we parked it.
I guess it’s about time to fire it up and take it for a ride.