I picked up this car off Craigslist last November.... Parked in 1976, had not been touched since. 39,000 miles. It was pretty crusty. I put floors in it, and a gas tank,lines, brakes, etc. It started up with a few days worth of work. The top even went up...what was left of it. It was wearing a shitty paintjob the last owners put on it in 1974 when they were 17. Quite a bit of filler in there. I worked on it all winter last year and got it on the road in may as soon as the snow was gone. I drove it over to my buddy Kyles house and snapped a pic. Some bugs to work out yet at this point, but it was a driver. With fewer than two weeks of drive time, I got t-boned. Lady backed out of her driveway and ran right into me. Pushed me into the car in the other lane and both quarters were smashed. You can see the rust in there. It was ugly.
I was sick. I was set to drive this car all summer as is, in all its old glory. After about two or three weeks I found the motivation to fix it. Both quarters were rusty, and prety smashed up. The doors were not damaged. Louverdude hooked me up with a 54 Poncho parts car he had. I hacked the quarters off it and started building myself a custom. Nosed, decked, shaved and alot of other custom touches and here is what I had. I mouthed out the grill opening for a floating 53 chev grill. Moved up the hood opening and rounded the corners. Shaved the trim and door handles.
I had it all in bare metal welded up by June. Fixed all the other rust, rockers, and rear panel below the trunk. Took it over to a guys place the get the bodywork roughed in. Two months later I picked it back up..... I had since sent out the bumpers, grill, door and interior garnish mouldings out for chrome. From there I took it over to Webs shop and started wet sanding and filling pinholes. Im not a body guy, but he put me to work for a few days geting it ready for final prime and paint. Then came some HOK GOldmine Gold Pearl...... and some PPG Flexed and Flat clear. Here it is before I put it back together... Turned out sweet. This pearl really pops in the sun. I got after it for a few days and got the interior and top and the whole works put back on it. Converted it to 12 volts and I was on the road. I love those chrome garnish mouldings..... Couldnt get any shots with the top down. WAY to cold out up here. Put a few miles on it for the last few weeks, and then parked it for the season on thanksgiving. Look out next year as soon as the snow melts....Im gonna put some miles on this straight 8.... Rob
Gettin' in a wreck might have been a blessing, you've got one hell of a car now! Just watch out for old ladies lookin' to hit you !
The car looks great, it's a shame it got hit because that would have been fun to drive around as-is for a while, but the work was well worth it in the end, looks great. Some day I'm going to find a convertible that doesn't have a tree growing through it and doesn't need to be loaded with a fork lift.
VERY cool pontiac. I loved it in its original glory, and its always hard to see someone start with a pretty clean one and give it a shave, but the end result came out very nicely. I like it a lot. I must know, what did you do with all the trim you took off?
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