Calling all 55-56 Pontiac owners, and anyone else helpful!

Fender skirts are dry, just letting them cure for a bit before I touch them...I really love the way they came out. One coat was enough for a thick glossy finish. If only the rest of the car came out like this. I think I may do a few more coats of the almond color so it comes out thick like the red....and i should do one more coat of red all across the roof. Just very difficult to paint up there. But yea, so once these are dry I'm putting them to the side until I get mounts fabricated. Getting a battery tomorrow or saturday and then I can start diagnosing to find out my problem.

 

It's GREAT! I had a '55 with a pumped 389 and B&M Hydro back in the mid '60's. It had trips and I finally went back to AFB for simplicity. I drove it from Hawthorne, CA back to Conneticut (?) and back and it ran strong! I actually had a Racer Brown cam (do you know who that was?) and solids. Adjusting valves was always a pain, but it was the '60's and we were all experimenting (BZZ_Z_Z_Z !) I creamed the car racing behind Lennox HIGH School when I hit the San Diego Fwy on ramp racing in the fog! I beat my buddy's 426 Street Wedge Fury off the line, but got sideways 90deg off a power pole!
Ah-H-H! I've got a thousand stories! Just tell me the car!

 

Cool car,I got my first Pontiac when I turned 16yrs, a 1955 2dr wagon,then a 55 4dr wagon,then another 55 4dr wagen,the a 55 coupe all by the time I was 21yrs.bloody good cars. I miss my old PumpJacks.
What real nice is you have the H.A.M.B! when I had mine all i had was some old bitchy guys.........wait.......... maybe you have the same .

 

Literally Lol'd at that one.

 

Hah!...you must've seen his previous thread. Not good. Guys saying he was "ignoring my suggestions", told him to "quick dickin' around with the battery", etc. (it was leaking acid) and when they finally provoked him to the point that he talked back, he actually got told to "go fxxx yourself"...to a 16 year old. Boy oh boysenberries.

Keep smilin' 56PP. Plenty of good folks here to help ya get that old Poncho running again, after you get the new battery.

 

I actually laugh at that now, it's pretty damn funny. Like, it got me upset, but it makes me laugh at the same time because it shows the levels of immaturity of some people on here. Thankfully I'm seeing that not many people are like that, and there are a good amount of positive people still left. Of which I'm thankful for. You, the other teens on here, and the pros who are accepting of a newbie and are willing to teach.

 

Damn that custom paint
obviously professional 10/10 would hire me to screw up their paint job.
Oh and somehow that fender skirt is now stuck, and I don't even have mounting brackets. Lol what.

 

I notice you make a couple references to "The Mechanic". What is this a Jason Stratham movie? 56 P.P. - YOU are the Mechanic! Don't be shy about getting in there and getting greasy! It's the hobby! Everybody starts out with the simple things like you are doing. The first time I wanted to put a cam in my 389, the machine shop said they would not do it because of risk/liability. I was scared! Seems everybody's done it except me. I got a couple of books and read how it was done. What a feeling of empowerment! Get your garage clothes at the garage sales and thrift stores. Don't be intimidated by the beautiful cars. I just turned 70 and I have come back around to primer and patching rust. Run what brung!

 

Only thing I can't do is welding, which is what I mostly need. But thanks for the encouragement! I'm going to the welding school nearby after high school

 

Got my battery, turned out to be too big, went back, exchanged it after fishing. 3 year warranty on a gold one. Should be good...just gonna clean the old acid out the battery tray with water and baking soda, and then put it in. Finally we can start getting to the bottom of why this old girl won't start....

 

Cool car!

Keep doing what your doing, keep learning & you'll never be sorry.



SinglefingerSpeedShop.com

 

Thanks Safari Wagon!

 

Here is a '56 317 Poncho Performance engine. Dual quads, different cam and valve train. It was their first attempt to keep pace with what other GM Divisions were doing. Few were made of this version but they did run quite well after some tuning work. Headers did make a big difference in performance too.
Normbc9

 

I heard about that performance engine.
Okay so the new new new battery fits perfect, terminals on battery cables are good for now(will be replacing in future). However a new problem has arisen. My one courtesy light on the inside (the other one has a dead bulb) that goes on when the doors open will not turn off. I tried pressing both buttons with my hands, nothing. Turned the light switch for the interior, nothing. So I unhooked the battery so it wouldn't burn out. I'm guessing there is a short inside one of the jamb switches that happened within the past few days. Will investigate further tomorrow.
And for the hell of it I turned the ignition key. still nothing although my outside lights work like a charm, as well as all my dashboard lights. Plus the horn works. Loud and I love it

 

Your gonna learn alot on this one hehehe

 

Welding isn't hard. You could pick it up in no time.

 

Thing is I don't have anyone to teach me so I'd have to go to a school. Ain't screwing around and learning myself...too much of a dangerous thing it seems like. I'll save up money so I can buy my own portable welding kit, as well as a painting set up so I can do actual professional quality painting.

 

i could see how that could get intimidating but i think you could teach your self with some studying of you tube and reading stuff online. and for the paint set upp i would use a friend or relatives shop and gun if you could cause a big enough air compressor and good gun could cost $$$

 

Okay I figured out the reason why the interior lights were staying on. Some non-factory switch under the dashboard. Anyways, I have my battery in, and I had a good chat with the previous owner. He says the only problem would be either stuck points or the condensor went bad. So, I'm gonna pull the distributor cap off next free moment I get, tomorrow I have a painting job. If I get home and it's still bright out, I'll do that and check them. In the mean time, I started replacing all my old weather striping with new weather stripping. Ran out, I have to get 3 more packs. Will update soon...

 

Opened up my distributor cap again. Lol I have no idea what I'm doing.
I checked all the wires, nothing is grounding/shorting. I'm looking at a diagram of a distrubutor and trying to figure out all the parts...once I figure out what points actually are I'll check and see if they got stuck together or not. Is it correct that I shouldn't try to crank the car with the cap off? My auto friend says it will blow up...then again he's sort of a doofus so I don't know if he's right or just screwing with me.

 

Is the motor turning over? My 56 has no Park setting on the automatic (hydromatic)and you start it in N and part it in R. The neutral safty swich is touchy, you need to move the lever to the right slightly almost to the first Drive position to make the switch activate to allow the starter to turn.

 

Nope I've got park and all that, fully automatic. It turns over, just no spark is what I'm guessing. either the points or stuck or my condensor went bad. Most of that stuff is new however, but I guess for sitting for 4 weeks it can go bad. my coil should be fine...

 

I'm not following the reasoning behind digging into the distributor? If the battery is new, and it is not cranking over, the problem is not the distributor. Does the car crank over but not start? I was thinking it wasn't even cranking....

 

Cranks but doesn't start. People told me could be spark plugs gummed up, but they are brand new. Also was told the distributor might be wet underneath, but it's all dry. Was also told to check my starter solenoid, ignition coil, check to see if the points are stuck, and check the condensor.
And yes I have fuel. Even though it's only maybe a gallon in there, I've even sprayed a bit of starting fluid down the carb and still nothing.
Four weeks ago it started up right away even with a nearly dead battery.

 

Start by pulling one plug wire off of any plug, put an extra plug in it, using pliers on the boot hold the threaded end of the plug to the block(or another ground source) and have someone else crank it over and look for spark (easier to do in the darkso you can see a spark or not). That will tell you if you have spark. I used to have a Galaxie that would corrode up the terminals on the inside of the cap if it sat for weeks, I would have to clean the copper corrosion off the inside of the plug wire terminals and the end of the rotor and it would start.

 

pull the plugs and do a spark check, also if the plugs are wet they will ground out instead of spark . and a 6 v system is not the strongest to get a spark out of .

if no spark with dry plugs then check the coil with a ohm meter as if you leave the key on for a long period of time ( 10-20 Min ) they will burn the windings out in them .

if the plugs are wet try to warm them up a little to dry the porcelin off , a can of computer dust off will help blow out any hidden liquid , I used to take them and put them on a heater for a hour or so . ( one time I used the stove , but the wife complained about the smell . )

 

It's 12 volt not 6 volt

 

I know you said you tried starting fluid but our 56 wagon loses fuel in the bowls from evaporation when sitting between uses, usually two weeks between uses. I have an extra electric fuel pump added inline on a switch to fill up the carb to get it to start as the mechanical pump will take all week to fill the carb enough to start on the starter alone.

 

then definately do a spark test , and if its dead then definately check the ballast resistor and coil . 12volts will smoke a coil sooner .

 

I have that same switch in my 55 Safari so I beleive it is factory. On mine it just turns on the lower courtesy lights and not the dome lights.

If it started and ran before you might try shooting a SMALL AMOUNT of starting fluid into the carburetor with the air cleaner off.If it starts and then stalls it is a fuel delivery problem.If it doesnt start or even backfire it is an electrical problem. Likely causes are ignition points closed up;a bad condenser,or a bad ballast resistor or ignition coil. Fortunately on these cars it isn't rocket science to figure out what is wrong. You don't need a 50 thousand dollar engine analyzer of 10 thousand dollars worth of electronic modules to diagnose the problem.

If the car has been sitting for sometime,I would suspect bad gas.Possibly a blockage in the fuel line or a bad fuel pump.Mine died on the road one day and I knew it had gas. Checked and it was getting spark.Turned out someone had removed the fuel tank sender for whatever reason and when they re-installed it used some of that black "monkey snot" in place of a gasket.Piece broke off and lodged in the fuel line. Didn't have anything except a Swiss Army Knife with me.Took off the fuel line at the tank(had a small Murray clamp on it)and blew out the line with a McDonalds drinking straw.Put the line back on and drove the 15 miles home.