Been a year or so since I posted here. Last time it was when I had my Hudson. Super cool car but unfortunately it had to go. I bought a couple muscle cars to flip and while looking found this. '58 poncho! Way rustier than I was hoping for but the two doors are scarce as hell! I've wanted one for twenty years. This one had the original 370 and the interior is still in it. Headliner too! Kinda crazy. It was an Arkansas car I was told and came with a title. Motor had never been popped open and is stuck like a pig! Someone left the no.1 plug out of it. Anyway, I was going to slam it down like old Hud and I remembered I had these old slotted mags with mickey meats on em. I stuffed them under and walla! This is the car that has been burned into my conscious since I was a kid! Big meats on the back, 55-58 body, standard transmission (gotta find one), bucket seats, diamond tuck and roll, headers, all that good stuff. I've had cool cars off and on through the years but i'm determined to see this one through! I found these bucket seats already covered on craigslist and started tearing the motor down.
Congrats. The 58 Pontiacs absolutely RULED their stock class [drag racing] in the late 50s-early 60s. Nothing could touch 'em. I always thought a 370 in a light car would be a gas to drive so I've got a 370 all put together to run in my 34 ford coupe...will be running either my 4 speed or a T-5 .
I'm looking for a 3 speed believe it or not to put in it! lol. Found a set of cross-ram adapter intake runners for a dual four intake but trying to scrape the cash to buy em. also trying to figure out how i'm going to build the damn thing. Pistons, compression ratio, etc. I was toying with the idea of making a destroker out of it also.
Thanks! Was a tough decision to keep it but I'm committed now! The 68 Galaxy fastback and the 69 Cougar gotta go!
I have a Heavy duty 3 speed transmission [Borg Warner T-85] from a 59 Pontiac ambulance I'll part with...but I'm keeping the bellhousing/starter for my coupe project.
I'm for sure going to try and keep up with the posts on the build. No air tools, old car port that used to be an automotive bay and an old 3 drawer S&K tool box. Me and the poncho are both getting a rebuild.
A good friend of mine has a 58 Pontiac Chieftan station wagon that I'm in love with (and I'm a die hard Mopar hot rod/musclecar guy). He's just finished it but due to the military cutbacks and sequestration and the effects on the local economy he's forced to sell it. PM me if you're interested. It's BEAUTIFUL. Cool car you got there! I like it the way that it is.... Fix the engine, of course, but maybe do it up like a "made up barn find" old drag car, nascar or dirt track car with faded lettering and faded sponsor names... It'd definitely turn heads. And then of course you make up some fantastic story about finding "Jimmy Squirrelnut's record holding car from the 1960 season over there at the Darlington..." and see how many people swear that they were there or that they pulled pit crew duty on that very car!
Sweet!! It's amazing at first glance how similar these cars are to a 58 Chevy, but then at second glance you realize its something totally different! Love them!
I'm going to take CLR and a scotchbright pad to the paint and rust. Already did the back drivers side quarter panel. Then gonna clear coat it. Polish the rims out, keep the big Micky's out back and the big mickey's up front too! Also going to of course concentrate on the motor and drivetrain and also cherry the interior. Eventually going to match the rest of the interior to match the bucket seats I got for it. Black and silver interior and maybe painting the body where the patina is to black leaving the rust blending it in.
So it's about 3am and I am waiting on the homemade bread I made to finish baking. I got pissed off at the price of bread and my future mom in-law got me an old school book on making bread! I got pissed off at the price of razor's and I got a bunch of straight razors and figured that out too! On to the car. Not sure if I should make an official "build" thread or if this suffices. I'm a musician here in Austin so the funds are limitied! I have a great girl who pretty much supports all my insanity within reason but almost cost me a seat in the house over the purchase of those bucket seats! 50.00 for em but money is tight this month. I know while I move a long with this build there will be a lot of "ya shoulda" "why did ya" and so forth and also a lot of sound knowledge passed along. This site is insane! I could sit and read it 24hrs a day. So many cool builds and rides! I pulled the head off of the passenger side finally and here's the findings!
Yeah, yeah. I said it! Here's the challenge, not a sympathy call either. Four years ago I helped a buddy with his jap chop re-setting the timing and went flying down the road. He forgot to tell me a little detail about the bike that almost killed me. I ended off the street and missed the car in the driveway, the telephone pole, and the tree. Unfortunately the highway peg caught the guide wire cable coming down to the ground and threw my left leg on the wrong side of the cable at about 45mph. Tried to tear my leg off and split me like a wishbone from a turkey at thanksgiving. Jerked my leg all the way behind me and took me up off the bike. Separated my upper torso from my lower leaving me at about 30 degrees cock eyed. I grabbed my ribcage with one hand and my hips with the other and shoved until everything went back in place. Then I got the feeling in my legs back. And a three day trip to the E.R. Fractured five vertebrae, tore the aductor tendon away from the bone between my you know what and my you know what. (felt like when you fell off your bike hitting that middle leg with your taint for about 10 months) Tore all the muscle tissue away from the bone from my pelvis all the way around to my butt, Tore up four discs, severe damage to my hip, nerve damage, now three vertebrae are coming apart, fractured my pelvis, tore the muscle around my bladder and other internal damage, and I couldn't walk without a walker for 4 months. I still played gigs because my ex (and this statement is why she's an ex) said two days out of the hospital, "I just don't know how your going to pay your half of the bills now". So working on the car is a struggle. I pay for it sometimes not being able to walk very well the next day. I do what I can. Now I can't work an 8 hour day like the rest of the world. Pretty frustrating. anyway, I rescue cars from a worse fate when I can and put em in the hands of folks who can finish them to help pay the bills, gigs, bartend when I can and any other thing I can find to make some cash. We moved into the new digs two months ago. It was an old automotive shop that was turned into a duplex. We have 3 bedrooms, 1000,00 sq ft. A little shop next to our place in the back for me, a 10x10 tin storage shed, and up front there's a big industrial gate that rolls closed keeping the outside world out. We moved in first so I took the front spots in the carport. That gave me the extra bay that I have the Cougar in. The wood cabinet came out of our kitchen so I nabbed it to put my little tool box that was a survivor with me of 20 years and have the motor parts in it. An old tire rack from my old motorcycle shop I used to have and a few odds and ends leftover. I figure it's a good place to rebuild the car and me and slowly put my life back together.
I've been working at unlocking the motor for awile now. It prompted me to pull the heads to take a look. I used all the usual stuff and more to break it loose. Interesting findings are that the valves show it was running pretty damn good and no oil on the plugs at all. In the cylinders I found some trash from it sitting not running for a long time but none of the cylinder walls show any scoring or pitting whatsoever. Two cylinders show just a small amount of surface rust starting at the top of the walls. I have used a six foot breaker bar trying to get it to budge. It moved one time about a 1/4 of a turn in each direction then locked up again. I'm wondering if possibly something in the timing assembly came loose and that is why it quit running. No valves look nicked at all and it continues to be a mystery.
Looks like i'm swapping my 68 ford fastback galaxy with the killer running 302 motor for these this weekend also.
Here's the '58 when I found it. And the oil change stickers on the door! The code on the passenger side of the block.
The Jalopy Journal
