[SD455DJ]

Jeff, That RA manifold is from a '68 GTO (HO or RAI) as evidenced by the heat flapper pivot sticking out above the outlet. Cool that it is non-AC with the YC 455 4-bbl. Did you say it has the 3.23 posi as well? Such an amazing B-body regardless of what exhaust manifolds it came with.

Dennis

[camerjeff]

Good to know about the manifold, as you said probably not original, It does have a 3.23 but an open not a posi.

[SD455DJ]

I somewhat have the Bonneville version of your Catalina, except it is a hardtop, and not as cool. It isn’t a cop car, but a low option non-AC weird car for the time. It was the 280 hp 455 2-bbl originally, but I bought a junk Grandville and swapped the big valve #66 heads, intake and q-jet from it. It has only a 2.73 open rear end. I’ve been casually looking for a posi rear of unit over the years, but never was able to snag one. (I added the Rally II's and dual exhaust.)

Dennis

[camerjeff]

Dennis, that is a good looking HT! I hope my sedan turns out that well. I have a couple of people looking for 3 series 8 7/8" posi units, if I find a 2nd one I will let you know. I thought I had found on last year, but it turned out to be a later 77-79 8 3/4" unit. Sold it to a guy with a 77 Lemans Safari, he was happy to have it!

[SD455DJ]

Thanks Jeff! Definitely let me know if you find an extra posi, I'm interested and in the market. The big old Bonnie still has its original Cardinal Red paint and factory Cordova vinyl top and black brocade interior. I bought it in 1987 with 39,900 miles on it. It has 56,000 on it now and was my tow vehicle up until 2000. It, unfortunately, hasn't seen much action in the last 25 years other than an annually summer drive to keep it limbered up. It needs new tires, exhaust and a good cleaning...not to mention, it really needs the 455 rebuilt one of these days.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...the Catalina Freeway Enforcer (I apologize about the minor derailment of your thread!).

Dennis

[camerjeff]

Not much to report, but the Radiator has been recored, and I scored an NOS arrow head emblem for the nose, along with a NOS right rear 1/4 extension to replace the dented original, still have never seen a pot metal part "dent" before. Crack and break yes, but never dent? Odd. Also I now have the correct gas tank straps to put on the Car thanks to Steve at Pontiac Heaven. Hopefully I will get to visit the car this weekend.
I will have to check on the status of the original 15" wheels and the big sway bars that are at the powder coater. Hopefully they will be done this week.

[camerjeff]

So after calling the powder coater it seems like the parts I dropped off have been ready for pick up so here are the original 15" rims cleaned and powder coated, the sway bars, and the lower rear control arms. Also the NOS 71-73 Stainless Steel dog dish caps, and a few other parts ready to be dropped off this weekend.

Now to start shopping for the best black side wall 15" performance tires available. The car had ancient Michelin 235/70R15's mounted on the original rims. any suggestions for replacements? I don't really car about cold weather performance, or really tire wear as they will probably age out before they wear out.

[SD455DJ]

Jeff, I believe those are '72 only dog dish hubcaps. '71 uses the '64-'71 ribbed style.

There are lots of 235/75-15 tires available. It's easy to compare on Summit Racing website starting as low as $97.00 each (off brand Chinese).

Dennis

[camerjeff]

Dennis,

I have conflicting information on what dog dish caps would be correct for a 1971. I wounder if it was a running change during the model year? Some references show the the 64-71 style you posted, and some show the Stainless steel version I have as correct 71-early 1973? I know my October built 1973 Lemans Safari came with the stainless steel version, before they changed it to the aluminum version later in 73.

As my car actually came with the Delux wheel covers (that I don't care for the looks of) , any dog dish cap I put on it will be incorrect. I will probably stick with what I have on hand. Note the 71 Police brochure does show the 64-71 caps in the drawing. But I think I like the smooth style of the later caps better on the body lines of the 71-76 cars.

[SD455DJ]

I agree with you that the '72 hubcap would look great on the black wheel/tire. Whether they were available in '71, I do not know. Regardless, it'll still be a badazz ride.

Dennis

[camerjeff]

Just a small update, I purchased a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. 225-70R15's and had them mounted blackwall side out on the freshly powder coated 15X6 rims. I plan on dropping them off this weekend, along with the gas tank straps, NOS Nose Arrowhead emblem, passenger side rear fender extension, and the cleaned up 11/8" front and 1" rear sway bars and the lower rear control arms.

The shop has replaced the Points, coil, and spark plugs. and say the engine is running better. They pan on removing all the fuel lines and having them reproduced at Inline tube as the ID of the lines are very rusty.

I cleaned out the carb and rebuilt it a few years ago, and replaced the fuel pump, and fuel line between the pump and the Q-jet, but yes the lines should really be replaced as well.

After the fuel lines are removed they plan on replacing the Trans and rear axle fluids, and flushing the brake fluid. All things I should have done years ago..

[camerjeff]

Not much to report, they are supposed to get the car on their lift this week, and start removing the original fuel lines to take to Inline Tube to have Replicated ( they are only about 10 miles away from the shop ) As the original tank at some point before I bought the car was about 1/3 full of water. It has been cleaned out and sealed, but all the lines look to have a considerable amount of rust and scale on the inside of them, I looked at the ends by the fuel tank, and the ends by the fuel pump. So I agreed that it is best to replace them.

[CDN2PLS2]

Cool Car! There are one of those For Sale up here with a straight Six and 3 on the Tree.Thought you might find interesting.

[camerjeff]

Originally Posted by CDN2PLS2

Cool Car! There are one of those For Sale up here with a straight Six and 3 on the Tree.Thought you might find interesting.

That is interesting must be a Light Duty Enforcer, Do you know what year it is? I know you could get a full size Canadian Pontiac with a Straight 6 Chevy in the 1960's But I thought by 1970 they all had V8 engines.

Small update they did get it moved over to the Lift under its own power (running off a gas can as the gas tank is out of the car) they sent me a video but I do not know how to attach a video on this site.

The 455 sounds good, even with the tail pipes off the car. But it does have Ram air III exhaust manifold, and X-Pipe .

So if someone can tell me how to attach a video I will do it. Its only a few seconds long.

[CDN2PLS2]

It's a '72 maybe a Parisienne? Couldn't have been many built that way.

[camerjeff]

Very odd I understood that the last Manual Transmission available in a full size Pontiac was early 1971 Catalina's and only with a 350 2bbl and 3 on the tree. if you have a chance grab some pictures!

[Ben M.]

You could still get the 6 cylinder and 3 speed manual on the column in Canada as the Laurentian until December 1970 or so. I've seen only 2 and here are pictures of 1 of them. I know it's a Canadian "Pontiac" but these were the standard GM frame and not the smaller Chevy-frame-Pontiac-trim-n-badges cars of 1970 and earlier.

[Ben M.]

Things to note on this car:

Extra long brace between core support and firewall unique to 6-cyl cars - 1971 cars had either 2 or 1 brace that went to the inner\outer fenders and not the core support.

As best I can tell, this car has potentially only ONE option. It's got no AC, no clock, no radio (check that delete plate), base steering wheel, no nothing... except power steering. Yes, if you read the original literature that GM put out for 1971 you can find references to power steering being optional on the 6 cylinder cars. I suspect that without a build sheet for this car that the literature may have said that, but in reality no one wanted a car this big without power steering so it was probably standard by the time the car was built.

Power disc brakes were always included in the 1971-1976 B-body line, even the basest of base Chevy cars.

Check that tiny radiator. You can see from the picture that this car has a 2 row radiator. I had a 1971 Catalina 455 4bbl that someone one of those in and I was amazed they even made them, much less someone put it in the car. It did not keep the car cool. I would have imagined that they would have just put 3 rows in every one of these cars, but apparently the base Chevy cars and some Canadian cars (6 cyl and 350-2bbl) came with 2 rows. Crazy to think about and the best I can think of is engineering had a reason for concern about keeping the passengers warm in a timely manner in the winter up north or they had them from a previous car line or design and used them up to get rid of them.

[camerjeff]

Thanks Ben, but the pictures are not showing up. Interesting as I would have thought by 71 the US and Canadian spec cars would be about the same. But it must have been in the mid 1970's that the Tariff system changed and the US built engines became more economical to import into Canada?

[Ben M.]

Trying to see if it's a case issue. Works on my desktop browers but not mobile...

Ok, no idea why they don't show up on my phone but show up on FireFox and Chrome. I'll re-size them and upload them as attachments when I get a chance.

Here's the links if you can get to them that way:

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5257.JPG

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5258.JPG

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5259.JPG

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5260.JPG

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5261.JPG

http://www.slyagent.com/71Laurentian/IMG_5262.JPG