When Kevin told me he was going to do evil things to some beater Oldsmobile (one such item included “drive it through a barn”, if memory serves me right) I had to facepalm just a little bit. I’d already seen pictures of this Olds Delta 88 and I could tell that it was better than he was letting on. Credit due, you never go into a cheap car without expecting work, it’s foolish to. But in my experience, 1977-90 GM B-body luxobarges have tended to fare better than most people would expect. A carb cleaning here, some replacement vacuum lines there, and a safety once-over and usually the car might as well be as good as new. If the engine isn’t leaking like the right side of the Titanic, you’ll be able to do damn near whatever knowing that the only thing that will stop the fun will be your own stupidity…or a blown transmission, one or the other.

The Olds Kevin scored was pretty good, if not desirable or pretty. Maybe some time with the car would change his mind. And he had a plan, one that involved coming out to Tennessee to hang out with a couple other gearhead YouTubers (you can see part of the fun they had in the revival of a Plymouth Satellite that they took on HERE) but before one mile turned as part of a trip from home, the Olds needed to be shaken down and checked out. If you wouldn’t take your normal driver on a roadtrip without looking it over, surely you wouldn’t do the same with a cheap beater, right? Check out what was needed to get the Delta 88 Interstate-ready for this journey by checking out the video below…and fear not, I’m doing my best to talk him into another rescue trip for this year. It’s the joy of being an enabler!

(You know you need another car, man…just do it!)