'51 Pontiac Chieftain finally begins

Friday officially began the build of my poncho. The car is still really solid and has every single piece of trim and only the driver side window is cracked. I did some tear down today. Got the hood and front bumper removed, headlights and trim rings removed, and so on. The front grill is giving me hell to get off. There are flathead screws that are so rusted it's ridiculous. I tried torching them, you name it. They aren't budging. Looks like I will just grind them off, re-drill, and tap. I wasted too much time as is. I only got to spend a couple of hours this weekend on it, but it feels great to finally get started.




Ed

 

Any updates on this project?

 

Hi EdV.Looks like its going to be a great and fun build.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Yeah love to see any updates. Have one myself

 

me too! hoping to get my ponti back in paint on the weekend

 

I'd like to see some as well, my first car is a Pontiac. Its nice to see peoples projects while I'm working on my own. Although mines a Pathfinder which is entirely different.
-Garrett

 

Hey guys, sorry for no updates. I've been really busy around here this summer and I wasn't sure there was a lot of interest. The car is all torn down for the most part. I'll post some more info and some pics tomorrow. Thanks.

Ed

 

Ok guys, sorry for the lack of updates....

I got the car all stripped down of parts. To see how bad some of the areas were, I then took some aircraft stripper to some areas but a lot of it was done with my DA sander.

The car was not nearly as solid as I thought. The front floor pans and braces were gone the rear seems good. Both rockers are shot as well the lower quarters and the truck pans. Front end is in good shape. Also hit a bit of filler. Good news is the window channels weren't bad.... except the upper driver's side. That is going to be a fun challenge.

Here are some pics:









I have a freshly machined Pontiac 400 block sitting in my shop I was thinking of using for it. I would like to use the original straight 8 and hydramatic... but not sure if it's worth it. I have changed my thoughts from my original direction. Thinking now that I'd like to keep it a period correct mild custom.

In a couple of weeks I'm gonna weld up some bracing and add new rockers to stiffen it up. I'll then get the body off and finish stripping the outside and I'll soda blast interior. Hopefull start sheetmetal work by first of October.

Ed