I have sold the 50 Pontiac 2 door sedan, Now have a 53 Pontiac convertible(original), 53 Pontiac hardtop(custom) and a 1949 Cevy Fleetline(chop) to keep me busy with projects. The convert is first in line.
Here is my daughters 51 Chieftain. We bought if off Craigslist, we surprised her with it on her birthday. She had wanted a Pontiac but she didn't like the Catalina...said it was a "Old Mans Car". So this is what she got. She named it " Charlotte Rose". We put new brakes on it, converted it to 12v, and lowered it in the rear 3" More to come.
Did you radius the wheel openings yourself? I am tempted to do the same thing to my '55. Not sure I want it badly enough to actually cut up my car, though. Anyway, I like yours. What rear axle do you have under it? I have a posi unit from an '80 Z-28 that I plan to put under mine.
Yes, I radiused them myself, their are some better pics under my gasser build thread. I believe that the 80 f body rear will be a tight fit. A stock 55 rear is 60.5 " wide and yours will be as wide or wider is what i'm thinking. Stock with lifting up from the frame would only have about 7" between the drum and 1/4, so not much room to get tires on and off. I have a 8.8 explorer drum brake rear that is 59.5" wide and I got 15 x 7 cragars standard offset with a 235 70 15. I got some longer shocks to work that helped the rear dropping down furthur when jacked up. I beefed up the rear springs also to help with the weight from the high front end. I could actually take these tires and wheels off and on no problem without messing with the shocks. But I wanted room for slicks and wanted to do it before paint. I'm building a set of reverse offset wheels now for slicks that will sit about flush with the 1/4. I have a 9" to build for the fiture that will be a few inches wider than now.
The Z-28 rear axle is 61" wide, so not too much difference. Wide tires and wheels will dictate that I have to drop the axle to change tires, even with the stock rear. And I will have to order wheels with custom back-spacing. That is one reason why I am thinking of radiusing the wheel openings. However, I have a friend with a tubbed '55 Chevy, huge rear tires, and stock wheel openings. He thinks nothing of dropping the axle to change tires. For a flat, he just carries several cans of Fix-a-flat in his trunk. The neat thing about the Z-28 rear end is that the stock spring perches are in the right place, it's a posi, has a lower gear ratio than stock, and it was free. Anyway, thanks for answering my post.
One other thing about the rear shocks, I went to the parts store to get some rear shocks to replace the original ones that were still on the car. They listed a Monroe 31000 as the replacement. Specs are 12-19.5" for length. The problem is that the original extended length is an inch longer so it really makes it worse for letting the rear end hand down to change tires. Plus it made it that much harder to compress the leaf spring to get the shock bolted up. A Monroe 31094 has the same upper and lower mounting and specs are 13.375-23.125 so it will let the rear end hang down lower to change tires . And long as the rear end is not sagging this will work but check the currant length at ride height to make sure . There is a stop on the frame so the shackle can only go so far anyway. This is about the spec length i'm using currantly. In my case also I added some additional leafs to make up for the high front end so the length differange wasn't as big a change.
54 pontiac 2dr post, 2.5" chop. Jim meyer racing chassis, 6.2 lt.not hamb friendly on The inside, but outside will be perfect. pics in album
I just picked up a '56 Star Chief that I plan to do as a Gasser. It's a stock v-8 base model (radio-delete, backup light-delete) 2-door. No interior or drivetrain but that's OK. My question is about the heater/defroster setup. This is my first Pontiac of this vintage and it has the weirdest setup for defrost and under-seat heat. Is this standard? What are people using for master cylinders that mount in the stock location on these? I read an earlier post about taking out all the defrost stuff and mounting it to the firewall like a Cheby, but I kinda like the hidden look. Mike
Pontiacs all came that way. They all had a separate defroster core and under seat heater with the blower mounted in the fresh air tube. They worked pretty good but I used a 59 Ford truck heater that mounted on the inside and has defroster vents. I also mounted my brake master cylinder on the firewall by blocking off the old defroster and mounting hanging pedals from a later model Pontiac. Good luck! Rick
1962 389 and Olds Jetaway out of a horribly wrecked Star Chief. Has '71 400 small-valve heads & two-barrel intake (on it when I bought the car). I can't wait to see what it does in the '55 Chevy half-ton, because that Star Chief was a handful with 2.91 gears
Working on several Pontiacs. Currently a 59 Catalina 2dr post sedan. Also have a 66 GTO, 70 Firebird, and 78 Trans Am.
I've got two I'm working on... The black 52 4 door is my daily and has been for almost 8 years now - mild mill flathead. The green 2 door I bought about 5 years ago. I got irritated with it after the guy I bought it off of on ebay lied about the condition - The photos were poor quality and I thought I could take his word on it... so I sold a bunch of stuff off it then sold the car, but I bought it back a year or so later. This picture is old, I took it shortly after I got it... It's in my garage now and I started tearing it down. I plan to build a custom out of it... chop top, lowered, maybe custom frame since the one under it is rotted, etc...
Whats up fellas... Here is the little jewel i picked up this weekend... 52 sedan... The rear quarters need some love but other than that its a pretty solid car.. Where is the best place (if any) to get parts for these cars? here is what she looks like
That car is a 1953 Pontiac Chieftain... looks like a solid start. parts... California Pontiac Restoration has parts, Kanter has mechanical parts, ebay, the classifieds on here, etc...
A 53 chopped post car convertible, a 53 catalina hardtop, and my favorite... My 54 starchief catalina two door hardtop.....
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