Customs Unfinished Business- '53 Pontiac 2-dr Project

Heres the build up thread on mine http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312843

I took the body off

 

OH! Something else I thought of... Does anyone have pictures or can anyone tell me if there is a sheetmetal book out there that will show me what the hell goes where?? I am missing some panels and/or need to make some as well as a ton of other odds and ends. There's probably stuff I don't even KNOW I'm missing, in fact.

Does the standard repair and/or owners manual cover everything??

 

Great! Thanks!

 

Agree with what has been said about the trans. I've only had one of those boat anchors and swore I'd never own another. A late model 3spd auto or overdrive would IMO be well worth that ever it took to replace it. YOU'll save yourself a lot of swearing later, not counting the gas you'll save with an OD.

Frank

 

Wow! More negative feedback! Okay! All feedback is appreciated for sure! Thank you!!

 

you won't be able to bolt a late model 700r, 200 etc to it without an adapter, bendentsons makes one. not cheap but they are nicely made. i've got crates full of extra brackets/pulleys for early pontiacs if you need some let me know i really have no use for them, also have a set of good 62-3 389 heads that will bolt on and you can use the later intake, they're yours if you can use em.

389's are real easy to wake up, headers and a cam will make a huge difference.

 

I will take any and all discarded parts home and deal with them accordingly....hahaha.....

Get with Rocky on what you need to do, he's a VERY good and VERY reliable source of Poncho information...I'll just forward him this thread to start with.

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY..........get after that bracket my very talented little brother whom I LUBS soooo much!

 

Scooter,
I forgot to mention the OTHER important reason for using an adapter (and a late model trans)- you can use a Mopar ('99 and below V8, I think) gear reduction starter, as opposed to a very expensive pre-65 (or 64 GTO block) bellhousing-mounted starter. Pontiac block mounted starters are fairly cheap, not so much with the earlier stuff.
I have no previous experience w/ the adapter I listed- it was a Google search- but they've been in business for 60+years and the parts looked good (on the net) AND they're *kinda* local to you, thus the reason for me listing that company(Plus I was gonna use one on a '63 Catalina 389-- it's crappy SlimJim trans was way too much to rebuild).

 

Hey Scooter I'm glad you got your Poncho project back. It's in good hands now and I can't wait to see what you do with it.

 

Stick with what you know, and put a Hemi in it.

Congrats on getting that one back. Looks like a solid specimen and you just never see those.

 

Congrats Scooter.
Good to see her home again. I know this one will turn out great in your capable hands. I'm looking forward to seeing it on the road.

 

Right on man! I know how bad you felt to see her go the first time, and am glad to see her home!!

 

Gonna be a sweet ride! I'm really diggin all the GM bodys from that year.

 

Justin! I will DEFINITELY take you up on that!!! I'll send you a PM! THANKS!!

Thanks Sis! Whatever doesn't get used used belongs to you (pretty much goes without saying)

Thanks SMITTY!! I appreciate that!

HAHA! Believe me, the thought crossed my mind. Too bad they cost so damn much to build!

Thanks man!! Did you sell that MII front end?? Might need to talk to you about that.

Yeah, that was a tough day seeing it drive away on a trailer! Good to be reunited!

Thanks everyone for the comments! Long road ahead, but I think it's a good foundation to start with.

 

Oh! Interesting! Good tip! Thanks!!

And by the way, I have a lot of experience with Wilcap and dealing with Pat and I am definitely a supporter of his products! Great company and Pat is a ruler! Pat is ALSO a HAMBer, so supporting this place is a good thing as well.

 

Glad you got your car back. Very cool, can't wait to see it as you put it back together.

 

wow very sweet story !!

great looking ride

 

That exact adapter seems to be for 61-63 motors, and he has a 1960 389... I don't know the difference but I'm sure there is one, is there an adapter that would work for his motor?

Edit: I'm an idiot and didn't scroll down far enough. It's there, go for it. Overdrive is nice.

I love old Pontiacs!

 

Was thinking a lot about the front suspension this morning. It needs every little thing replaced and to get the ride height down with the extra set of stock springs I have, Fatman dropped arms really need to be used on top of cutting a coil, or so. And since I really want to convert to disc up front, it's looking like I'll be weighing in at over a $GRAND$ just to get it set up and working at the correct ride height. That STILL wouldn't cover my steering box and everything either. The suspension has really seen its better days, that's for sure!

Thinking Mustang II might be the way to go here. I sort of like the idea that with a few mods (to the chassis/towers), I could set the MII up for bags later if I wanted to go that direction.

Anyone run an MII on a U.S. Pontiac frame (I think Canadian frames are Chevy frames for this year)? I'm not afraid of doing some chassis work to get this thing rolling right, so if that's what it takes then I'm down.

 

There is a thread around here on subbing ponchos and when I fire up my laptop I'll find it. Be very careful mixing poncho parts! Pontiac never made a physical diff in blocks, so everything bolts up----just like skinny jeans, just because you can doesn't mean you should! That's why I stick to the 59/60 389s....because they are compatible. Fair warning!

 

scoot,

From the story you told me I was expecting the car to be in much worse shape. Glad you got her back.

 

Water ports... I saw that. And I agree... probably over-thinking everything. Just collecting info at this point.

I have to re-state my earlier comment about not looking to hot rod the car, but just set it up so it gets up and goes, runs well, and will start when I need it to. So if that comes down to a stock rebuild with just a nice little 2bbl on there, then so be it. That's what it will get.

From a visual stand point, I would like to keep the motor stock LOOKING for sure. Probably won't even do chrome valve covers, or anything. They look good the way they are and frankly, the hood won't be openened unless it needs to be anyway. Don't get me wrong though. I'm a sucker for details, so it has to have some. They will be subtle though.

 

I'm real happy for ya, and excited to see how this turns out!
As this is gonna be a driver, any thoughts to stock-appearing fuel injection?

 

Good idear, but I do want to stay with carb induction for simplicity sake. The less that can go wrong the better.

And thanks! Can't wait to see how it turns out also! HAHA!

 

If you just want a quick driver, throw a little hotter cam in that 389, headers and a pertronix kit in the distributor..
As far as mounting that devil in the 53 chassis? I've heard conflicting thoughts regarding this but just listen for a minute....the 53 used two rear motor mounts on the bellhousing...V/8 bellhousings were drilled for the same style mounts up through 1960 on the manual tranny bellhousings and the phoney-baloney Slim-Jims [Yech!] had the same style mountings through 58 or 59... Your 53 used a single front motor mount that bolts to the bottom of the timing gear cover.....as did V/8 Ponchos up to 60...and I'm certain the 60 timing gear cover was drilled for the two 7/16ths mounting bolts as were all the V/8 covers back to 55.
Sooooooo....it MAY be possible to actually bolt-in a 389 using the early V/8 mounts....not sure. Your tape measure will tell the whole story. I've never tried this swap personally but I'm 100% sure about the 3 point mounting.
That said, I've had bad luck with those bellhousing rear motor mounts. But I always buy 50-70 year old cars too. Maybe if you change 'em out every few years you'll have better luck with them.
Oh, and don't fall for the guy selling 55-57 Pontiac manual tranny pieces.....they're a carry-over from the late 30s/ early 40s and are fragile, have a totally unreasonably tall 1st gear and almost impossible to bolt a floorshift to...very hard to find linkage for one. If you're gonna run a manual tranny, buy 58 to '60 bellhousing. The 55-60 flywheel will work tho but the early flywheels used the smaller clutch.
I'm also not so sure you can't bolt the old original 53 hydramatic to the 389 using a stock iron bellhousing from a 55-early 56 Poncho....there again, I've never tried it but the tape measure will help tell the story..
.........and why would you go through the trouble to bolt in a 53 Olds rear axle? The Pontiac and Olds axle assemblies are identical to each other with the possible difference [and I say "possible"] of the leaf spring mounts...
Your 53 Poncho being an automatic car should prolly have a 3.23 gearset in it..a great all-aroiund ratio for a street car. The 37-56 rears all used the same gears with several different ratios. I yanked the 3.90s outta my 41 coupe and bolted in a set of 3.23s from a '55 to get better mileage and faster speed to keep up on today's modern interstates.....worked great and I drove the livin shit outta that car and also my 48 fastback [did the same trick] ...
Brake parts are available at NAPA. for fronts and rears....cheap too. And the 53 U-joints are the same as some farm machinery! I found that out whan I wore one out in my '48 [same u-joint as '53] coming into Springfield, Illinios one morning..6 bucks later and a borrowed hoist and I was on my way again..
I've used the stock Poncho front suspension with no problems. Yeah, I'm stupid enough to cut 2 or more coils and run down bumpy roads and yeah, the lower control arms will bottom out on the frame on those giant potholes...even after taking a hacksaw to the rubber bumpers, leaving them about 1/2 tall...so What? But really... a better way would be to only take 1 loop off the coil and use a pair of Fatman dropped front spindles...I just never had the $$ for those spindles.
Any more questions just PM me....
Rocky

 

Keep the car simple huh??? I guess I am going to have to confiscate you hole saws and Sawz-all when I get to California in two weeks because I don't think you have it in you to keep it simple. I am sure this thing will end up with 6 97's, M22 Rockcrusher adapted to the 389 and some crazy gauges to monitor it all!!!

I think simple on a custom is key. I wouldn't even bother exploring the MII option. A rebuild on the stock suspension will do just fine. Unless you do the bagging option then that might an option. I love to see the stock suspension under old cars with clean and subtle engine bays. I think that's where your headed.......but first the Model A of course.

 

I heart Rocky.

 

Thanks Rocky! See my replies in RED...

 

Yeah, as simple as possible... unless it's chassis fab! I LOVE chassis fab work! My favorite!!

Yeah, just not sure on the MII thing. I like the idea of being able to completely lay it out and raise it up when needed, but at the same time it increases complexity and reduces reliability. Lowering it the traditional way and leaving it at a fixed ride height would sure simplify things. Sure love that laid out look though...

 

Any updates on this?