[Keith Seymore]

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[MH 1964]

Class act only PONTIAC THANKS! Keith!

[Keith Seymore]

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[Keith Seymore]

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[8LUG]

KEITH, VERY NICE PICTURES , THANK YOU FOR SHARING, JOHN

[merlin5353]

Keith, I'm new to this forum. Any Pontiac activities in SE Michigan?
Thanks.
John
(still at GM... for now)

[Keith Seymore]

Merlin - I'll shoot you a PM -

K

[MOJO Catalina]

Nice photos Keith.
On a different note, Eever notice that the rear seat speaker in the GM photo car is actually from a '61 Catalina? And that there are rear courtesy lamps in the sail panel of the headliner but I've never seen them in a regular GP. Anybody?

[Keith Seymore]

Thank you -

1) No - I hadn't noticed. How can you tell the difference? The original photo is about 11" x 14", and the only thing I can tell is it seems to have much more "chrome" showing than my car (mine has some parchment colored trim on it).

I do not know the build vintage of the car in question (that is, if it's a production car, or some type of preproduction/show build).

2) I noticed those courtesty lights in the sail panel. My car has the overhead reading/spot light, so I just assumed the sail panel was the correct location for cars that did not get the spot light. I'll make note of it as I look at other cars.

K

[MOJO Catalina]

A few years ago "Collector Car" had the GM photos on the cover and inside the magazine with an article about the '63 and '64 GPs. The photo was crystal clear and you could see the V on the speaker grille showing it was a '61 unit. I'll dig up the magazine and post a photo or two.

I've never seen a '61-64 Pontiac with those lights in the sail panel. I bet they were proposed but never made it into production, but I'm no expert.

It's pretty cool the way in one photo the tint is such that the car looks like it's dark blue and in another it looks black. Even the woman's dress changes from green to blue.

[MOJO Catalina]

Here's a photo. Article to follow.

[MOJO Catalina]

Note: Wrong caps on 64 GP.
Odd console in the '64 or is that the way they came when equipped w/4 speed?
Has vac gauge on console and tach mounted to the dash.

[Keith Seymore]

I believe that console shape is correct; most certainly the vacuum gage was standard on the console for automatic cars and the tach on the IP was an option that could be added (that's the way my car is). For a 4 speed I thought the tach came on the center console. I could be wrong though.

I am pleased that I recognize (and have) most of those photos!

K

[MOJO Catalina]

The photo of the 64 shows a tach on the left of dash (edge of photo), the vac gauge (noltice the colors and lack of knob) on the floor mounted plate and what I guess is a four speed on the floor. Pretty cool but I didn't think the manual trans cars had Vac gauges on the console like that. I know the '62 GP had the tach on the floor there w/4 speed manual.

[Keith Seymore]

...or maybe not.

I've been looking at this lake as I drive by it every day and it occured to me that - maybe - the reason that I had so much trouble positioning the car for the above photo shoot was that GM had been moving the islands around. After all, stranger things have happened...

Fortunately, I have this old postcard from right after the Tech Center was opened in 1955. This same lake is prominently displayed:



After taking a good look at this I drove over there and made a sketch of the existing layout, as shown by this Google Earth satellite image:



...and they are the same. I guess I can't blame my problems on the islands moving around.

On the other hand, I am somewhat encouraged by the fact that the lake and islands are unchanged after all these years. It's kind of nice to have some measure of stability around here.

K

[MOJO Catalina]

It might be all about perspective.
If the GM camera was in a building and they used a zoom lense, the trajectory of the background and foreground could change dramatically. Though the photo appears pretty close, the actual distance of the camera could be much greater and on a higher line and therefore, the geometry and alignment of the background would be hard to match on the ground and close-up.

I've been watching forensic files and paying too close attention..
When you look at the aerial photo you can see the building they may have set up in.

[Keith Seymore]

GM Tech Center Brochure:


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