Projects Building a 56 Pontiac 4 door

Sorry for the late response to your suggestion Dan but I am actually gonna change the color from the 2nd color being red to a marina blue. Will definitely clean her up a bit as its gonna take a while between getting her drivable to where paint happens.

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Here's my funny story about old Pontiacs, while in college in New Mexico one of my friends (who was just getting by) had a 55 Pontiac three door, it was a four door with the drivers side rear door welded shut. It had three on the tree, something that I am sure was more rare than the automatics. He slept in the car while working a job out in the desert, he knew how to save money. This was about 1964, he and I had been somewhere drinking dizzy water all afternoon and we got pulled over by the local police. I suppose we were speeding. The cop asked if he had anything to drink and he answered no. The cop said that isn't ice tea on your breath. I think he told us to slow down and let us go. That wouldn't happen today.

 

Here's mine that I picked up couple years back. All original 316 engine, hydromatic trans, paint, upholstery. I tuned it, went thru the brakes, added dual exhaust, chrome reverse wheels, WW's, and a few extra pieces of shiny trim and I have been driving the heck outta it! Run's easily on highway. No rust thru but has a little surface rust around some of the trim pieces. Get's a lot of admirers and fun to drive while I work on my 57 Pontiac project.

 

Are you still running the original drum brakes?

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Yep, I replaced all wheel cylinders, rebuilt master cylinder, new shoes, and replaced any rusty brake lines. I can attest to the drums- a dude ran a red light in front of me just as I was about to go thru at about 45 mph. My buddy who was behind me said he saw smoke from my front and back tires when I stomped the brakes.

 

Thanks for the info was wondering what to expect. I kinda assumed as these things are freaking huge I could expect some decent stopping ability.

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Also has anyone used the original 316 exhaust manifolds on a pontiac 400. I know the holes are a bit smaller but if they were bored out using a rotary file would it work?

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Also sir what headlight bezels are those? 57 Chevy?

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Hey! Didn't notice the headlight bezels! They do look kinda neat!
Regarding the brakes, if you give them the attention and regular maintenance they need they work just fine. They don't self adjust for example, so jack it up and adjust every once in a while. I drive my '56 Star Chief quite a bit and you get used to using your whole leg to stop and kind of planning stops a little ahead of time compared to a modern car.
Even though the brakes work well enough, MAKE SURE your e-brake works. With the single reservoir master cylinder, ANY leak is total brake failure. I've definitely done more than my fair share of driving my '56 with no brakes at all and the pinch mark in the middle of the driver's seat proves it!
Careful with brake hoses.....auto zone or advance sold me one that was just barely too long and the wheel rubbed through it after a while.....only touched during tight turns, but pedal to the floor at that point.
Regarding your underseat heater, if possible try to get it working, if for no other reason than the huge increase in coolant capacity. Saved my engine from overheating numerous times in summer traffic......did not save me from overheating though....I think I sweated off 20 lbs. or so. That reminds me! Rebuild or find a new heat valve for it. When it's on it really works. When it doesn't shut all the way off in summer it will cook you.
Anyhow, congrats on the car and shoot me a PM if there's anything I can help with. I've had my '56 on the road for almost 13 years now and have picked up quite a few good resources for these things!
Johnny

 

Flypa38 ain't jivin when he says to double check that park brake. I've had 11, 55-57 Pontiacs and the brakes were barely serviceable for a bone-stock car. A hot rod Pontiac will need an upgrade to discs to be safe. Those cars generally weigh 35-3600 lbs and a 4 door hardtop may go 37-3800 lbs. The skinny 2 inch original brakes are scary on a long hill....I've lost my brakes coming down a really steep, slow hill in 2nd gear before....plenty of pedal, no stop!
I had one of those 56, 4 door hardtop as a parts car for my chieftain hardtop. It came with the early dual coupling 4 speed hydro trans....the one with no park position on the quadrant ...great transmisssions. The star chiefs came with the "other" trans with a park position at the top of the quadrant....not a good trans.
Have fun with it!

 

BTW, the purple/black primer car was originally red and white....my mom's brother bought a brand new red and white 56 four door hardtop like yours.....he loved that car!

 

That is a cool car. If the '55 Olds I drove in high school had ben a beautiful hardtop instead of a dumpy sedan, i would still be driving it today.

 

Cool thread and cool car, I'm going to follow along. Here's the 56 4 door hardtop I just got!

 

Hey Rocky! Didn't know that primer one was yours! Been one of the pics on my Screensaver for years!
Not to get off subject, but I_Fix_Airplanes, what do you work on? I'm a mechanic working on Embraer 170/175's. I know of at least one other A&P with a 55 or 56. Is it a pattern or a coincidence?

 

Wow that's weird!! I work on AT-802's used to fight forest fires, along with their scouts (called bird dogs), Aerostars and Cessna 337's. I also do a little on Cessna 188's, and my buddy's 1953 Cessna 170B. It looks like something that belongs on here! lol
Anyway, sorry for hijacking the build thread, carry on!

 

Thanks for all the Replys and convo. So here is the current progress I got replacement Brake Hoses here but not installed as well as new floor pans to cut and install. Also I have gotten the engine painted and gotten the floor cleaned out so I can see what I am working with. I think with the Oil Bath Air Cleaner on it with the factory Valve Covers and breathers it will get the desired effect of looking like a 316 but be different. Now has anyone bored out the 316 manifolds and put them on a 400 before?

 

Stock brakes aren't the best just be aware , there is always the scarebird disc conversion, it is good and gets away from the expensive ball bearings also. Did you put valve cover spacers on to the run stock valve covers?

 

Thank you sir for the advice. In the future after I get her running I will probably migrate away from the stock brakes. I got some really thick Edelbrock valve cover gaskets and I have a pair of valve cover spacers from when I had shaft Mount roller rockers on my Trans Am

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I'm a big Pontiac fan also but as you have found out, you run into problems you don't with other cars. Notably the exhaust. IMO you will have an easier time reworking a set of headers. You may get the originals to fit but they are going to be pretty restrictive concerning what you are building.

Headers will work with no problems on passenger side. You will have to work around the steering on drivers but it will be only one side as opposed to both and IMO it would be easier to work with the headers as opposed to the stock manifolds.

You would lose the stock appearance you seem to be after though. It's not like you are ruining hard to find desirable parts if you mess up the stock ones. Start drilling and grinding. If it doesn't work you have only lost out on some time.

 

Don't want to make any argument here, but the "blue engine" changed from time to time over the years. This is 1958 Pontiac engine color... before and after they varied quite a lot...
https://49fordcoupe.smugmug.com/The-Engine/i-GKnJZ5R/A

And a full list of colors
http://www.pontiacpower.org/enginecolor.htm

And by the way, your Pontiac is EXACTLY the same as the car we had when I was a kid....Did it come from south Texas by any chance ???

 

Planning on installing one of these as even though I rebuild the original one I am concerned about serviceability while she is all put back together. So I originally thought about getting just a remote reservoir but then I found they had frame mount master cylinders has anyone done one yet?
http://www.jegs.com/i/Wilwood/950/260-3378/10002/-1

 

I would get the mc back together and measure the stock pedal travel , 1" doesn't sound like much on the wilwood mc and the stock drum brakes may not like it. plus now going to a 2 channel brakes should put in a proportioning valve. I used the wilwood adjustable. And remember all that uses 3/16" stuff and the 55 is 1/4" line. I use a 55 Chevy pedal with a dodge 5th ave mc , similar to wilwood but less than 1/3 of the cost. And got the mc away from headers also for rear exit on driver side. Have fenderwells now I built so not an issue.

 

Okay Thanks for the info. I really don't wanna use the Chevy Pedals if I can help it. But another thing ,I was looking at tanks and while I didn't find any actual Pontiac correct tanks for our years I did find this BOP tank for a 1941-1954 universal GM tank that looks correct based on size and filler neck locations. I saw another post on the forum about using a chevy tank but was wondering if anyone used these or tried them. http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/p...t_id=130/category_id=102/mode=prod/prd130.htm

 

I've sold both my 55 tanks and also sold a 56 with a good tank, don't know if he is going to use it or not but I can ask. I run a fuel cell that's sumped with an fittings and lines to support fuel to my race engine.

 

Okay cool thanks for the info but as I want to drive this a lot I don't know if a fuel cell will cut it.

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Got a friend with a 56 Safari and he needs a coupe of parts for it, including the front seat skirts for both sides, the knobs for the heater controls and the directional signal knob. Any leads on these would be appreciated. Great project keep us posted and thanks for sharing.

 

I would assume that you could use a '55 Chevy tank, just reposition the straps. I hope its not much more involved than that, mine is very rusty on my '55 Chieftain

 

Okay so at 1st I thought about using the 55 fuel tank also but the filler neck tube is in the wrong location. But a 1941-1954 BOP tank looks the same and you can get them with a seemingly correct filler neck location. I am about to pull the tank down and measure and double check. I just finished rebuilding the rear brakes and after re doing the front ones install the brake lines.

 

Infact Sir I got her from a guy in West, Texas who got her out from around the Abilene area. As a matter of fact I noticed today that she has the very light remains of a Cooper High decal on the back window.

 

So finally after much work of helping my dad get his other project taken care of and getting a transmission rebuilt I finally got to get Prue in the garage so I can get seriously cracking on getting stuff lined up to get her drivetrain in.