the 71 Catalina Freeway Enforcer is headed to the Restoration Shop
 

After a 5+ year delay the Catalina Police car is headed for Restoration. The main issue was finding a shop that was both willing to do the work ( I got alot of responses like that's not what we normally work on, or that's not a Muscle car.)
I was lucky and found Chase Classic Motors about 1 hour away from me. And they are actually excited to have a chance to work on the car. They will work on just about any classic, but the team has a soft spot for old Police cars, and they have restored a Michigan State Police Fury, and others. So they have at least some experience and connections to the small antique Police car groups.
The plan is not for a frame off, as that would be way to expensive compared to the potential value of the car. But frame on restoration, fix the mechanical issues, make it drive-able, and put as close as possible to its in service condition when it was the Police Chief''s car of Chambersburg PA from 1971-1980.

I have attached some pictures of the trip on Sunday. The 1st is it loaded up and ready for the 1 hour drive on I-94, the 2nd is arriving at the shop, and the last 2 are it safely inside the shop. The last one is the only Vintage In service Picture that I have been able to find of the car, oddly taken on the day my wife was Born

What do you all think? Worthy project? Or just proof of my fascination with weird Performance Pontiac's?

Someone has to keep these boats on the road just for the uniqueness/historical reference alone...glad you found some help with her 👍

That shop does not shy away from large cars! That's an unusual mix in the shop.

James Q

Interesting :)

Hell yeah! Love it.
I'm curious.... does it have hi-po drivetrain/suspension like the old police interceptors?

I just watched the YouTube video. Adam loves his full size Pontiac s
What a great car

Sent from my SM-A426B using Tapatalk

It has the normal 4bbl 455 D-Port 66 heads, but it has the long branch exhaust manifolds that would have been on 1970 Ram Air III 400's. The carb is the same as the 455 H/O's. I don't know what cam or rocker arms it has. It sounded healthy at idle when I bought it 10 or so years ago. The carb has all the emission parts omitted on it. That's about all I know about the engine.
I find it odd that the aircleaner lid and valve covers are painted, I am used to GTO's and F-bodies that would have chrome.

My wife is looking forward to driving it in the Lights and Siren Parade to kick off the 2025 Dream Cruise.

Thanks for letting me know its on Youtube, just watched it myself. Generating more interest than I would have thought, especially for a car I bought on accident on E-bay years ago.

That’s such a cool project! Sounds like a good fit with that shop for sure!

Our family had a ‘71 Catalina when I was in HS and that was by far my favorite car my dad ever bought! Rode like a dream and man, was that 400 4bbl ever quick for a big car! One of the reasons I got hooked on Pontiacs!

Good luck on the restoration!

First thing I thought of was Oakland County Sheriffs Department, nothing more ominous than seeing a black and white Pontiac with a single red beacon mounted on the roof after doing something dumb……..

I like it and a real piece of history. Good to see it will be getting preserved and some well deserved restoration work.

I'm hardly the Mopar guy but the big Mopar police cars of the 1970's are a treat to look at in the shop photo.

Good luck and post more photos of the progress.

Thanks Guys, not much happening at the Moment, sourcing the needed Battery Tray and gas tank straps from Steve Barcak, Then it will need all new fuel lines & fuel pump (they are rusty inside) after that we will get it started started for the 1st time in 5-6 years, The shop will be posting some Youtube videos of the progress. I will link them here when they post.

Really hope to have it drivable, and the exterior done by August 2025.

Any updates? Such a cool B-body!

Dennis

Not much, other than the shop got the engine fired up, running well, found the radiator leaking slightly from the bottom of the core. So it is out and being recored, looks to be the original Harrison Radiator. I found the missing battery tray in my garage, and located some good Gas tank straps. A 1 1/8" front, and 1" rear sway bars for it from a Demo Derby guy in OH10. So 99% of the missing parts are now accounted for. The original Rims are out being powder coated, And I just found a NOS passenger side rear fender extension to replace the dented original. I have never seen a pot metal part "dented" before. Not cracked or broken, just dented. I am sure it could have been repaired but for $50 delivered for the NOS part I didn't see the point.

That's about it for now. The shop is planning on posting some video's of the work, but nothing so far. They like the sound of the engine with the ram air III D-port manifolds and the dual's. It does sound good. Thanks for asking.

RAIII exhaust manifolds? That's very interesting. Do you have any pictures of them on the engine? Are they listed in any police package descriptions? I'd love to hear (read) and learn more about this as I thought the 455 4-bbl 325 hp engine was the same YC code 455 available in all the models (A, B, F, & G) and they just had log manifolds.

Dennis

Awesome!!!

I can envision Buford T. Justice driving it, a few years before he had that terrible encounter with that rascal, the Bandit!!!

Dennis, I am only about 90% sure the June 1970 dated Ram Air III manifolds were original to the car, The passenger side manifold was cracked in half around the center ports, and the Drivers side had a large crack in the same area. I suspect they cracked from all the idling that a Police car does. But I don't know.
The previous owner was a Pontiac Collector and had several 69-70 GTO's and 70-73 T/A's, and this Catalina. I know he removed the big front and rear sway bars for some reason, and put on a 7/8" front bar. So it is possible that he added the manifolds? Nothing in the Police Brochure's say anything about a performance exhaust system, other than dual exhaust.
I replaced the cracked manifolds with some repo';s from Ram Air Restoration's. It is a YC block, but the carb is odd as all the emissions parts on the Q-Jet are deleted. And the PHS has Emissions & Tax exempt hand written over the 1st page.
I don't think I have any pictures showing the original manifolds on the car. I can take some of the repo's the next time I go visit it.

Jeff, I think the RA D-ports were added a later time as you suspect by the previous owner. I'd leave them on myself. Glad you found the police sway bars for big gal. I'll be following your progress on Freeway Enforcer!

Are you rebuilding the 455?

Dennis

You are probably correct, but no way to know for sure. The shop sent me a picture today, I think just to prove the radiator was out.

I did find a picture of the cracked passenger side manifold, unfortunately out of the car. the missing piece was actually sitting in place on the car, helt on by about 1 mm of material. Fell out when I removed it and fell into the exhaust system up pipe!

I don't know what happened to the radiator out picture lets try that again

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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..

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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?

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

And yes, I believe the tariff and import\export laws on engines started changing in that timeframe. I don't think the 6 being available was part of that, it's the Chevy 6 they used on everything once the Sprint\OHC6 was gone. I suspect it was more to do with the Canadian car buying public's wants and desires. While folks up there definitely did want (and get) performance cars, bigger engines and fancier packages just weren't part of the general public's buying habits back then. They definitely sold quite a few of these, as I say I've seen 2 and one of them was a daily driver for a guy. Both of them had no options to speak of.

I will say I have a hard time imagining how much "fun" it would be driving one of these cars with a 6 cylinder. They're perfectly fine with a 350-2bbl but a 6 cylinder is a real step down in the torque and HP curve from that. In the flatlands they're probably fine but in the hills or mountains...?

Interesting Car Ben, thanks for Sharing pictures of it. and a 2-door! The dash is interesting look like my 71 but has a radio block off plate, My car just has the open radio holes, no sign that anything was ever installed there.

I do remember driving a straight 6 powered 77 Impala rental car back in the day, automatic trans, very slow. I would think the manual trans would help, but the 71-72 cars would also be about 500 lbs heavier. Either way I don't think I would enjoy the experience. But I don't know how much slower they would be than the Buick 4.2 L V6 cars made in the early 1980's.

I see it does not have a "Certified" Speedometer strange as that was the only way they could "Clock" a speeder back in the day.

Small bit of Progress this week, the shop is going to pull the engine and clean it and the engine compartment up, and repaint both. The engine only has 36k miles on it, and the only oil leak I could fins was a small leak on the drivers side valve cover. So no plans on rebuilding the engine at this time. They are also going to replace all the fuel hard lines and flex lines. I will have to see if I still have some 1971 to early 73 Pontiac Light Blue engine paint in the stash.

The shop pulled the engine and trans, they will reseal the external seals on the transmission, and clean and repaint the engine. Good news it looks like it still has the original transmision in it. The TH400 code PH decodes to 71 455 4-bbl Police HD as far as I can tell for the 1970-74 model years.
The 5-blade Flex fan just looks odd to me.

Some shots of the engine out on the stand, some progress

The engine looks better now after what we used to refer to as "a Flint Rebuild" after an infamous Northern Flint based used car dealer in the 70's-80's. Cleaned and rattle canned.

Looking good Jeff!

Dennis

Thanks Dennis,

Bonus we removed the back seat and found found a copy of the Build sheet in pretty good shape! Any help in decoding it would be greatly depreciated.

I will also ask in the Lobby were it might get more views.

455 4 bbl, 3.23 rear gear, Honeycomb wheels (I think hard to read that part)
Dealer VT Angle & Sons in Chambersburg PA


:)