So I picked this car up last year as a wedding gift to my son and his soon to be wife this coming May, and before I swap out the motor I need a little info.. 1. Is this a 12V positive ground electrical system? The red cable grounds to the block and the black cable runs down the back of the fenderwell somewhere to, I assume is the starting/ignition system. 2. How does the heater system work? Hose runs from the intake to the heater box, from there down the frame rail under the body somewhere, and then back to the radiator, (I assume, there's currently no rad and the hardline runs to that area..) 3. What is that tall canister attached to fender well by the core support? Looks like something to do with the fuel system, or vacuum system? 4. Source for a fuel/vacuum pump either new, rebuilt, or someone with rebuild kits for them. Thanks in advance, and how cool is that underhood light on the firewall!
look at the tail light bulbs and see if they are 12 volt or 6 volt. Will be other ways to tell, but if they switched the car to 12 volt they would have switched the bulbs also. Does the car have a heater under the seat? I have a 1951 plymouth suburban with a heater under the seat. Many cars back then had options for it.
My 1955 buick had the heater under the front seat. I think I had to replace about 20 feet of heater hose on that one. LOL. Bruce.
12 v Negative ground, firewall core is for defroster and there is a heater core under the driver seat http://www.pontiacsafari.com/ Go to this site and it should answer a lot of questions, shop manual, parts catalog It has helped me a lot with my 56 build
Ok, awesome responses, thanks! Found the heater under the seat, had no idea this would have had power brakes and I suppose the master cylinder is under the floor? And this motor is currently stuck, we already have a completely rebuilt, factory 287 to swap in, has around 1000 miles on the rebuild.. which reminds me, are there vin numbers stamped on the engine blocks in '55? Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So I've spent the day cleaning the "rebuilt" engine getting it ready to paint, and the reason that's in quotations is because this is what I was told when I purchased the car, typical I know, lol.. but, I pulled the fuel/vacuum pump off while I was cleaning today and noticed the timing chain has a good bit of slack, more than you'd expect from an engine with around 1000 miles on it, so, I'll go ahead and order a new timing set for it, and now since the front is coming apart I may as well drop the pans from the engine and the trans along with the valve covers and whatever else, and get them to the powder coater for some bright "chrome" coating. Should make this thing look pretty sharp! Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
So I got the 287 primed and painted, I know it's not the original color, but it is a Pontiac Blue.. I haven't been able to find the original engine color, which I have been told is a black/green color.. and now, after looking at this blue for about 3 days now we've decided to go big and different with a goldish color that's close to the original color of the car, and why not, it is a custom build. I should have the original engine pulled from the car by Monday night! We finished pulling the interior today and the seats are in pretty good condition except for the usual driver's seat wear, and my son wants to use a mexican blanket material called Serape, it's a rainbow pattern, and there's another he likes too, that looks more native indian style, so to be determined, lol.. The body on this car is really solid, a few places in the floorpans, and we found the front side of each rear wheel well behind the back seat has rust on each side as well, but a super easy fix. Everything on this car is super easy to remove, we haven't had to struggle with rusty bolts or anything, it's been preserved really well!
We got the original motor pulled last night, I drained the trans just before and the fluid was like new! It will be nice having a spare for this car, or at least for a future build someday.. came out easy, didn't even have to pull the hood off. Decided to change the engine color to gold, it looks so much better! Next, the covers and pans come off for powder coating, and we begin to clean and prep the engine compartment for the install! Sent from my SM-G900V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
