Classic Cars (and Owners) Shine As Extras on "jOBs" Movie Location

Neal Ryan's sister saw an ad in Craiglist for cars with late '60s, early '70s cars that would appear in a movie and told him he might as well get some money out of his old Fiats.

Max Carver, a 19-year-old Newark resident who is studying film at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, thought it would be good for him to see what happens on a location shoot. And he just happened to have a 1974 Dodge Dart—his every day, run-around car—that is from the right time period for .  

Ryan and Carver were one of several extras in the film whose cars might have been seen on Crist Drive, back in the day. Back in the early 1970s, that is, when .

Among the many things to watch this week on Crist Drive was not only the equipment, the shooting—and the possibility of waving at star Ashton Kutcher on the location shoot—but of the number of classic, and not-so-classic cars found on the block. 

Before the popularity of the Japanese imports, it was the Fiats, the American muscle cars and the VWs that were plentiful on Los Altos streets in the time. 

The studio brought a few of its own—a Ford Pinto, a Ford Ranchero, a black Dodge panel truck ...and a very weathered Dodge van painted like a hippie car in lieu of a "Flower Power" VW bus. And still, they needed more cars. They put out a call.

And so they came: Tony Sanchez with his 1969 Camaro 350 from San Jose; Jerry Feldman with his red 1968 Camaro SS 396 ("stock-only); Neal Ryan with his 1968 Fiat 124, that he bought in the same neighborhood; Rick Felsing of Alameda, with the Datsun 1600 that he inherited from his father; Herbert Berthelmer with the yellow 1973 Super Beetle he just purchased last year; student Max Carver with his 1974 baby blue Dodge Dart he brought from Newark. There was even a 1971 Harley Davidson that had been sitting in a local garage for more than 30 years.  

Being in the film brought a chance to show off their cars on a bigger stage. Certainly, it was not the money. At $10-plus an hour, and $35 to pay for the car to travel to the site each day, it wasn't exactly a killing. And they were given 1970s clothes to wear—which meant polyester pants "leisure pants" for most of the men who were solidly in middle age or beyond. The exception was Taylor Fitzgerald of South San Franciscco, who, at 22 with beard and mustache, was dressed with the flowing clothes someone his age would have worn. 

Sanchez brought his 1969 Camaro. It is just the way he bought it from Key Chevrolet in Cupertino 43 years ago, with a co-sign from his parents. "I never found a car I liked better," Sanchez said. It's still in its original "Cortez Silver" and black vinyl top; he said he put down $700 and paid it off the $3,096 car in three years. He takes it to classic car shows. 

The prospect of being in the "jOBS" movie was so attractive that Fitzgerald went to La Honda to his father's garage, and got out the yellow 1972 Barracuda 383 that his father had painstakingly restored in time for his graduation from Mills High School in Millbrae. It is special.

Fitzgerald remembers the day they bought it off of Peter of Peter's Cafe in Millbrae. Then it was metallic blue, and the body was dented. They drove it around and his father decided to take it. His father knows people who restore hot rods and muscle cars, he said. 

"He loved it so much," said Fitgerald, now 22. "He's restoring another one."