[1965gp]

I picked up a 60 Catalina Safari last weekend, I have my share of Pontiacs but I've never had a wagon. I liked the car because of how complete it was.

The car has 76,000 miles on it and wears it's original paint and has the original interior. The car was originally bought to pull an airstream from Austin, TX to Albuquerque, NM.

I bought it from the second owner who drove it from Austin to South of Houston. The second owner had the transmission rebuilt along with some other maintenance items. New exhaust, recored radiator, disk brake conversion (front), rebuilt drums in the rear and added dual edelbrock carbs.

This is what the car looked like advertised:



The car is solid except for the front floors. I guess the original owner had an "evaporator" that sat on the trans tunnel that held ice for the blower to blow through. the ice melted and took a toll on the floors- mainly on the drivers side. That is the only major rust on the vehicle.

Here s the car once I got home and started to work on it.





Since the car was in it's original paint I decided to go to work on it like I did on my 68 LeMans. The paint was rough- literally. I washed it with a fine scotchbrite and dish soap, then hit it with Meguirs ultimate compound, then chemical guys fine cut then hit it with a few coats of Zaino:



Here is the car all cleaned up- as good as I could get it anyway. I wanted to use the wide whites (brand new Cokers) on my 58 Bonneville so I went with a more modern look on this car.

[Stuart]

Nice car! I'd go back to the stock wheels but that's just my opinion.

[mgarblik]

Thanks for all those pics!. Really unique styling on the wagon. Car looks really solid and a great cruiser. How does it run and shift? Looks like fun.

[Lightfoot]

Good job on saving the original laquer.
We don't need no stinking BC/CC. lol

What rear axle ratio does it have? I'm curious to know what kind of fuel consumption it gets on the interstate.

[Chief of the 60's]

Originally Posted by Stuart

Nice car! I'd go back to the stock wheels but that's just my opinion.

Agreed. I like the Torque Thrusts but they are too big and it makes the car sit so high it looks like a 4x4. If you are going to run TT's go with a 15" wheel. Awesome car other than that.

[Fullsize455]

I third the motion to either go back to stock or go smaller. I'd probably go an inch smaller and lower the car a little to get the proportions right. Aside from that, that is a fantastic original survivor and I'm delighted to see someone make the effort to preserve their original paint rather than just kneejerk a gaudy new color on it. Great car!

[1965gp]

So the car drives great- all of the lights work, signals, reverse lights, horn, cold light... everything except the radio. The car was about 70 miles away south of Houston and I literally took an uber to the car and drove it home through Downtown Houston traffic. Didn't get hot or sputter or anything,

I do have a question though. The car had the wrong dipstick and the seller said he made a mark at the correct level. He said he was running 10w 40 and I prefer to run VR1. the car was also making a lot of racket at the top of 2nd gear shifting into 3rd.

I couldn't get a filter yesterday so I drained the oil and only about 3 quarts came out. That didn't seem right to me. I seem to remember these these taking 6 quarts with a filter? I added 5 quarts to it and the clicking / tapping sound immediately went away. Car drove better and smoother. But... today after the car sat overnight i took it to pick my kid up from school and it started to smoke- noticeable blow by. Drove it around and it continued under acceleration. I took it to a friends shop to look it over and he is going to change the oil and filter and see what happens. It didn't smoke before so I am assuming I just put too much in it.

The plan for this car is to put vintage air in it and cruise. I will probably have to repaint the roof, but I don't see any reason to touch the body- I am digging the look and I think the wheels help sell it. I know the wheels arent everyone's thing but I am happy with them and they dont rub at all.

[1965gp]

I totally understand that most don't care for the wheels- I understand it's not everyone's thing. I have plenty of stock vehicles and this one is hopefully going to be used a lot as a family car this summer. I might lower it- I havent decided yet.

[Chief of the 60's]

This was a buddy of mine's car. Notice the wheels were not as big. The wheels are my thing but big wheels were ment for Honda Civics not old cars.

[Chief of the 60's]

Here is one with similiar wheels

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Just realized I have never seen a 60 wagon before.
No idea they only had 1 tail light per side.
I really like the back end of that car
Whole deal is Awesome ! Congrats !

The wheel/tire combo will grow on us with more time.
Seems to fit the form better in the back than the front.
Might just be the angle of the front shot ?

Any interior pics ?

[Verdoro 68]

Sweet wagon, it cleaned up nice. I dig the wheels, they really change the attitude of it. I’d love to have a fun family cruiser like that one day.

[Chris65LeMans]

I didn’t think I liked the 60 wagons; but I’d never seen a 2 tone one. I’ve been converted.

Nice car! Build it how YOU want it, and enjoy!

[1965gp]

Thanks guys- like I said I know not everyone will like the wheels but I grew up in the 22”s era so it doesn’t look uncommon to me.

I will send interior pics once I get it cleaned up

[77 TRASHCAN]

Is there enough paint left to work with on the hood to bring it back?

Yeah, I'm a 15" wheel guy too, BUT at least they selected a classic style of wheel, that helped a lot.
Are you going to go back to an original intake and carb? Shouldn't be too difficult to come up with that stuff.

Very Cool! Glad you are blessed to have a few cars, and got this one! I had a nifty 64 4 door Bonneville hardtop
for about a year. A woman pulled out in front of me, and that was the end of that.

I hope Troy (60man) sees this. Have not seen him on here lately...

[1965gp]

I think the hood will improve with more buffing but I’m not expecting much. The top of the doors and quarters are pretty fried. Assuming the front clip was painted at a separate time and it seems to have held up better. The doors and quarters are starting to show the white paint underneath.

The car came with the 2bbl intake but I don’t really see any reason to swap it back since it runs good and the dual carbs a little flair to the car

[72projectbird]

Cool car!

The wheels make it look 100x better!

[Poncho60]

Neat car. Wheel style is ok, but dia is just too large IMO. Borderline "donk".

[77 Canamman]

Nice job on the refresh!

[kmeyer54]

Nice work! I'll admit to a strong dislike for the wheels, but hey if that's what you like it's not my place to judge. Hope you enjoy it!