Picked up this Starchief last Sunday and thought I'd post up some of it's clean up work. This is my first bubble top car and I'm looking forward to getting it back in shape. From the Craigs ad I thought the car looked like it was in decent dry shape and the paint would clean up well. That schtuff will buff out! The roof will have to painted - no big deal. The dash cleaned up better than what it really is - all the chrome stuff is really pitted. It's there behind all that shine! The stock 389 2 Barrel is here and runs fine. Haven't dug into it yet. Car got here with no brakes so knocked that out. Rears were all good - just needed to be adjusted. The fronts were toast. Shoes rutted and shot - wheel cylinders corroding and locked - hoses dry like crackers. Replaced it all. Sadly, the rear seat is rough. The front seat has a cheap vinyl recover that is functional for now. That's it for today. Tomorrow I'll do a little tune-up work on the engine and see if I can drive this thing. (Holding my feet up from the road!)
The bad news is the floors. Both front sections are gone and the rear driver side is too. I've ordered the sheet metal. Maybe I'll get it welded in next week. Anyone know a source for the heater channel that runs on the tunnel?
Nice car that cleaned up great! If you're worried about the floors, get a few pieces from a roll of asphalt roofing. That should do until you get new floors.
Cool mordoor and I've always loved '59 Pontiacs. I like what you've done thus far and what you have planned. Keep us posted.
Will be a very nice driver just the way it is, clean it up and roll. Big, comfortable, and plenty of power to get you down the road.
What a great car! Been looking for a 59 Chief for years. None left up here in the rust belt. Congrats!!
I bought a 59 Starchief, and at the time...I didnt really even want it, just seemed like a good deal. Now.... at of all the cars I have, or have owned at one time or another, it is in my top three favorite cars. They are great looking rides and have alot of charactor. Super cool rides! Congrades on finding such a great car!! Have tons of fun with it, its looking great!!
For the floor channel I would check with Hamber Applekrate. Steve Barcak runs a junkyard full of Pontiacs called Pontiac Heaven in Arizona and may have what your looking for. Car cleaned up nice, should be a nice cruiser..
BB, it appears from the photos that you may have assembled the brakes incorrectly. It looks to me like you put both primary shoes on the one side. You should have the primary shoe (the one with shorter lining) on the front and the secondary on the rear. That means both secondaries are on the other side. Excuse me if I am incorrect in what I am seeing in the photos, but if installed as I think they are, your brakes won't work nearly as well as they should. ~Alden
First of the 'Wide-Track' Pontiacs and the first 389 engine. Last year for the reverse-cooling system, the heads get cooling water flow before the block does. Awesome car, good luck with it and enjoy! Bart
Damn nice car, I would check all the steel lines and maybe replace those next, tires, shocks, tune and DRIVE her !!! Great find classic lines
Well bust my britches!!!!! Thanks for noticing - I'll check it as soon as I get finished putting the carb back together.
Mucho thankos to Cadzook for pointing out my brake issue. That coulda been a mess. All better now I think. The carb had some ugly brown gas goo on the outside and it stunk like old gas. Car didn't want to come off idle at all. Pulled the carb and gave it a bath. It was kinda gross inside. Drained the tank - must have been almost ten gallons of that crap brown gas in there. Any ideas of where to donate that stuff? It sure stinks. Pulled the dizzy to fix the lead wire from the coil as mice had chewed through it. Got it all done and dropped back in. Fired up and revved like a champ. Tomorrow I'll need to set the timing and do a little fine tuning. Ran out of day light. Must be heading into Fall.
Glad I can help! That is a cool car, it is nice to see it buffed like that, in original paint. I cannot recall ever seeing an assymmetrical pattern like that in the rear seat upholstery. It would be nice to have that recreated someday. ~Alden
Ok Pontiac masters - I need a little tuning help. I went to check the timing today and found that it was running at what looked like about about 40 degrees at idle with the vacuum pulled off and plugged. If I tried to drop it to anything below about 30 it killed it. I pulled the plug for #1, turned the engine to TDC (using the big hole in the balancer as TDC) and checked to see if the piston was all the way up. It was. Pulled the dizzy cap and the rotor is pointed about 45 degrees off from where the #1 plug is. So I'm guessing the dizzy drive gear is dropped in at bout 45 degrees from where it should be??? The slot in the bottom of the dizzy drive shaft means I can only drop it in right or 180 out - correct? So...... If it is indeed 45 degrees off, to be at 6 degrees for idle do I set the timing light at 39 or 51 degrees? What a mess!!!
Don't forget the distributor turns the opposite direction from most other GM motors. That slot is for the oil pump drive shaft, which you should be able to turn to any position you want, although if the slot's on the gear end it may be a pain in the butt finding a tool to turn the shaft in the engine with.
The more I think about it the more confused I become. If #1 piston is all the way up and the balancer mark is lined up with the pointer - why is the dizzy rotor pointed 45degrees away from #1 plug wire on the cap? If I rotate the dizzy to where it "should be" - the engine won't even run. I've never been inside a Pontiac engine but this seems weird to me.
Ah - love those Pontiacs! Did a lot of loving in my 59 convert years ago. Good luck in your build/CWK
This is correct - you can install the distributor in any position you want. You can turn the oil pump drive shaft with a long screwdriver to get it to line up with the distributor gear. If it runs okay with the distributor in the position it was in when you got the car, I'd leave it alone for now. The reading you're getting off the timing marks on the harmonic balancer may be a separate issue - the outer ring of the balancer is isolated from the inner section with a strip of rubber, and over time they sometimes slip so the marks won't be in the right place. For now I'd leave the distributor where it is, and maybe turn it a little one way or the other to get the engine running good by ear. It sounds like you may need a shop manual for the car - you can get original factory manuals, or they have reprints these days. Even an old Motors manual would be pretty useful, they Pontiacs pretty well.
Nice Poncho...4 doors have class. Think of all the families & friends that '59 drove around through the years ! JK
Well I set the timing by ear with the vacuum disconnected. I still have a hesitation when I first touch the gas but once you feather past that - HOLY TWO BARREL RACE CAR!!! Man this thing has got some guts. I hope it's not all coming from the advance being overdone. I've been reading on procedures for setting the carb - All I found was for adjusting the two mixture screws. Anyone have some info for the big fat vacuum screw on the back of the carb?
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