Just joined this site. You can check my profile. Love your car. I own a ranch outside of Watsonville. If you check my posts you want. I have a 64 GTO I have owned for over 40 yrs. Steve
You don't need a transmission shop. From your description of the symptoms, it just needs a good bit of adjustment and a "rebuild in a can". These trans are as rock solid beefy as any ever made. The Gasser class racers couldn't tear them up and yet they were used in all the luxury cars throughout the 50s and 60s. The throttle valve is adjusted too long and that adjustment is linked to the carb linkage as well. If someone has adjusted the carb linkage that can throw off the adjustment the throttle valve linkage. Get a mid 50's Motors Manual. Under the Pontiac Hydromatic section will be the procedures to make the adjustments yourself. Start at the carb as I pretty sure the manual will say to do. Also, I recommend that you drain the fluid and replace it with fresh stuff, Ford "DEX" is the closest to what was used back then. Also put a bottle of transmission rebuild in it. It has solvents in it that will in time dissolve the varnish that may have the valve body gummed up. Drive it after each adjustment to see if shifts are improving. Let everything get good and hot, that's what will help everything get worked loose and slippery again in the valve body. If you have overrunning on the 2-3 shift still you may need to adjust the front and rear bands. It is best to have the correct tools but if you are careful you can do it without them. A little as an 1/8th of a turn can be enough sometimes. Keep track of every increment of adjustment you make so you can back track out of the adjustment if it wasn't effective. Best regards and good luck with all your endeavors, KB.
Thank you for the tips, once I get the car back together I will look into it more and report back my findings.
Just stumbled across this. cool car. I am in Larkin valley and have lived under a rock for the last 10 years, im venturing back into the social hotrod scene again so I hope to see you and that car around town. I have a 50's manual that should cover the adjustment of that trans that I could scan for ya. let me know. keep up the progress that is going to be one bitchin family cruiser.
Like where you are headed...I'll be following along as I am nearing the strip/bodywork/paint stage...
I have been thinking a lot about a grill for this thing, trying to be creative and "custom" without going off the wall or doing what everyone else does. As of right now I have 3 options for a grill; Option 1: I picked this grill up at the Turlock swap meet last weekend. The price was right and with some trimming and a little bodywork(gotta get rid of that "CHEVROLET" script haha) and paint I think it would look good in there. Might be a little to big to look "right" in the opening. Option 2: 19?? Buick grill that I had bought years ago, forgot about, and it ended up at a buddies house hanging on his shop wall so I got it back. It's a little bit to narrow and the curve of the sides is a little bit to sharp but I can make it work. Option 3: Don't run a grill and just leave it open for right now.
Option #I: too bulky. Option #II: too retro (for the bumper). '53 Chevy teeth are ideal, but no longer re-popped. Corvette grilles (and teeth) are available, and work well with the Chevy bumper. (Much better, in fact, in your Pontiac's narrow opening than in the pictured Chevy.)
I agree. The original '50 Pontiac tail lights are really cool and clean. Changing them will be for worse anyway.
nice work...this is me...got the stance down last weekend, on to body work. I like what you have done w/ the poncho...working towards a cruiser myself..
Just saw this post....I know quite a few people named Mike. Without a little more info hard to say. Send me a message with his last name and I will let you know. Have a great day all !
I don't have nearly as much time to work on this thing as I would like. Between work, kids, my Ol' Lady working nights and life in general I don't have more than a few evenings a week to try and cram progress in. I have a pretty tight deadline to get my car out of the shop it's on, and it's gonna be close. With that being said, tonight was supposed to be my "work on the 50 night". I got a message from my buddy who's shop I'm using ("Having Fun" on here) around 11 this morning telling me that he was off work early and was going to keep stripping my car for me. Sometimes good friends are all you need. By the time I got there he had 95% of the car stripped. I jumped in there with him and pulled the last few trim pieces off and stripped all around the edges. NOW we are making progress! Before I left tonight I treated the whole car with SEM Rust-Seal. Since there were SO many surface rust spots I just went ahead and treated the whole car. Now I'll wait 24 hours, neutralize the acid and then I can really start fixing what few dents there are and get this thing pushed towards primer
I love meeting local Pontiac people. I have this 50 and I also have a 1967 Grand Prix that I've had since i was 13. Maybe I'll see you around at shows this next year. I've got a lot of Pontiac parts, message me if you need or are looking for anything.
Thank you, the bumper didn't work out exactly how I had planned, but a little tweaking and it will work just fine.
Awesome! Welcome back to the scene haha. I've been in and out of the hot rod scene in this town for years. Ill probably take you up on that manual offer, i just have to get the car back together before I am ready to even start thinking about the tranny.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have, I've been working in Body Shops/Restoration Shops for almost 10 years now. Mostly on the paint/prep side of things but I'm no slouch as a body man either. I would be happy to help.
I love the look of the Corvette grills, my biggest issue is that; 1: Nothing with the name "Corvette" attached to it is ever cheap and 2: They have been done and done and done again. I agree that neither of my current grill choices work all that well with the front end of this car, but I'm still waiting for that "one off" grill, or at least something less commonly used. Thank you for your input and comments, I will never argue with someone else's opinion.
One thing I never understand why you guys so often need to "strip to bare metal" ...??? Areas like roof, hood, top of doors in case there is no visible rust = there is no rust. Why not leave the factory paint on and seal it by using exoxy primer? I've done quite a few paint jobs and I know there's no risk of any reaction ever after the epoxy has cured (24hrs). Once you grind a panel to bare metal by using abrasive the micro rust starts that very second. You don't see it before it develops to surface rust, but it's there. 8 out of 10 DIY painters will ever get the priming job (primer&sanding&filling&sanding&primig&sanding...) done as well as it was done at factory for virgin panels, thus where's the point? Nightmare job and result worse as by less job?
I agree that a lot of paint jobs can be saved and primed over. However, especially with pre-80's vehicles a lot of times you can and will run into unseen variables and materials that react differently. I've seen what I thought was a good solid paint job wrinkle up like it got paint stripper poured on it. Just because the catalyst and reducers in the new primer bite in so hard that they loosen the under layers and lift the paint job. Every job and every car is different. My car in particular had ALOT of surface rust, not solid but little dots. So it needed to be stripped.
You should know that stripping a car to bare metal isn't the way to go if you like taking the risks of paint failure. Personally I'd strip anything that's already at risk . Especially 60 year old paint jobs but you already know that lol keep on trucking mijo
Thanks I have a bunch too. Including a lot of pre-65 stuff...a couple Offy dual quad manifolds and tri power stuff. Plus a few 64 389's complete with heads...so if need something please let me know... Have a great day !
Very nice work so far! I vote for the Chevy truck grille, I always wanted to see that done though not sure how that would flow into your bumper? Maybe trim the supports?
I'm definitely going to check it out, I think with a little bit of trimming I can get it to fit in there without looking to out of place. Still not sure if I'll use it though. The car will go back together in a few weeks and I'll try it out. Thanks for the input.
Oh how I love progress... It has been a very long 3 weeks. On January 31st I pulled this thing into my buddies shop with a HUGE plan and a very short deadline. With some help it got disassembled and completely stripped to bare metal, then the rust got treated and bodywork began. Tuesday February 9th the guy who's shop I am using went on a 9 day vacation, my car HAD to be done when he got back so he could use his shop for his own projects. It ended up taking me 2 extra days, but somehow between working a full-time job, dealing with kids and still managing to spend time with my GF I got it done. I can't take full credit, I did get some help when I was getting burnt out and had some good company when the nights got long. Me at 8am Saturday morning. I had already been up since 6am, the day before I worked 9 hours at my regular job, then went and finished my car, working until 130am. It was a long day... worth every second All unmasked and put outside so I could clean up the shop. Don't mind the Text on there haha had to be a little bit cocky to my coworker
I had some free time at work last week so I mixed up a 1/2 pint of each of my colors and made some spray out panels on some aluminum panels I had. The green will be the body of the car and the white will be the roof and tops of the doors, split at the trim line. These pictures really don't do justice to either color, the green has a gold "pop" to it in the sunlight and the white is not as yellow as it looks here, its the same color as the wheels.
There are some memories from my childhood that I will never forget, working with my dad out in the garage will always be one. I am a 3rd generation gear head so my dad did it with my grandfather, i did it with my dad and now i have the amazing experience and memory of my kids helping me. Me showing my Daughter how it's done She was 110% into it... such a proud moment for me My Girlfriends son helped out to. These are the kind of pictures that I wish I had to look back on, I hope these kids cherish this memory as much as I will
The Jalopy Journal
