1974 Formal Window Option
 

Since we haven’t had much activity in the ’73-’77 A-Body Section lately, I thought I would start this thread. This is a “who cares” subject, but I thought I would post this tidbit of Pontiac info anyway.

As you know, Pontiac’s new for 1973 Colonnades were met with a lukewarm welcome from the car buying public. With the success of the more formal and elegant 1973 Grand Prix (siblings Monte Carlo, Cutlass Supreme and Regal), Pontiac Product Planners at the last minute offered a new “formal roof window” option on the Lemans and Luxury Lemans series for model year 1974 capture the Grand Prix “opera window” look that was in vogue at the time.

In the 1974 Pontiac Lemans brochure and accessory brochure, the Formal Roof Option was available only if a vinyl top or vinyl landau top was ordered with it. However, sometime after early1974, you could order the Formal Roof Option without a vinyl top covering. Why? This is where you are going to see some really “cheesey” body work, or as we would say down here in the south, some “Southern engineering rigging”. See attached pictures and you will understand why the vinyl top was mandatory.

Fisher Body had not tooled up in time to produce an A-body quarter panel with the formal window option in time for the beginning of the ’74 model year, so the plant “improvised” until the new formal window quarters were stamped.

In the “early version” of the ’74 formal window option. Note how a blank triangular panel was installed over the colonnade rear triangular glass window and body filler used to fill the gaps. On the interior side, an upholstered triangular panel was used to cover the back side of the triangular window to achieve that “formal opera window look”.

You can tell this is an early model '74 LLM because it has the blanked out rear triangular window turned into a formal rear window.

Sometime around early 1974, Fisher began stamping the quarters with a true formal opera window, so it was no longer necessary to cover over the triangular rear glass window and hide the body work with vinyl roof covering. Note a new interior panel design was used as well.

Oldsmobile did this too on their Y76 Special Edition Cutlass' (non Supreme model). Here is a '77 Cutlass with the vinyl roof covering peeled off. See the cheesy body work.

By 1976, the rear triangular colonnade window was no longer available.

Another tidbit regarding the formal roof window. The formal window was also available on the Grand Am as well if you didn’t want the louvered rear window.

Thanks for the interesting post about this. I've read similar things in Chevelle forums too, but not explained as well as you did.
I prefer my louvers, in any case :) .

This is a misconception. Total 1973 Pontiac A body production was 249,552 units. I would not consider that a lukewarm welcome. Couple that with 153,899 G body Pontiacs, Pontiac sold 403,551 midsize cars-a sales success. Compare this to the 1972 Pontiac midsize sales of 169,993 A body and 91,961 A special cars for a grand total of 261,954. The 1973 Olds A body Cutlass sales were 185,682 and the G body (Cutlass Supreme coupe) sold 219,857 units for a total of 405,539 midsize cars, only slightly more than the Pontiacs. The 1974 Pontiac A body production dwindled, but that can be attributed to the gas crisis, not totally based upon styling.

The base model Chevelle Malibu had the triangle window as did the Cutlass S which was also used for the 442 through 1977. I had a 77 442 with the triangle window.

Oldsmobile used 2 different rooflines from 73-77. The fastback had the triangle window and the notchback had the opera window. All the Cutlasses of 73-77 were 'A' bodies.

The Special Edition Cutlass Y76 as aformentioned was a triangle window Cutlass S with the window blocked off that continued until 1977. I suppose that Olds assembly plants only had the triangle fastback roofline quarter panels and didn't stamp fastback opera window panels for the limited run of those dealer special cars. The Cutlass Supreme and Cutlass Salon were opera window cars but with the notchback roofline.

The Hurst Olds of 73 and 74 had the fastback roofline with custom smaller windows that were converted from triangle windows. The 75 Hurst Olds (I have one) has the notchback roofline with completely blocked off opera windows.

Additionally, I have an early 74 Laguna with the blocked off triangle window without louvers and vinyl roof and a later 74 model with the opera window and louvers and no vinyl roof. Two different sales brochures were printed for the model year with this distinction stated.

Good thread. Many people are confused about this topic, even those who have these cars. I've had people argue with me at car shows that my Laguna was fabricated and not real because of this. Ironically, the Laguna has it's own 'vin id' as an 'E' being the second digit and people would still like to argue.

John

Rick,
You are absolutely right, for some reason I thought the 1973 number was less. I went back and looked up the production numbers and got 248,785 total A-body units (2dr, 4dr,wagons) for 1973. That is a very good number and much better than 1972 total A-body production. But keep in mind that some buyers were delaying their new car purchase in '72 in anticipation of the new '73 colonnade styling. Overall, 1973 model year was a good sales year for the auto industry in general. I believe the last prior A-body new intro for the 1968 model year netted Pontiac 301,069 units. So 1973 was a good year.

219,857 Cutlass Supreme 2-doors and a whopping 290,693 Monte Carlos is amazing for a single model.

I am deleting the "lukewarm" sentence and will start the paragraph as follows....."Following the sales success of the 1973 Cutlass Supreme and Monte Carlo, Pontiac Product Planners at the last minute offered a new “formal roof window” option on the Lemans and Luxury Lemans series for model year 1974 that would capture the Grand Prix “opera window” look that was in vogue at the time."

Thanks for pointing those facts out. This is why I would never make it as a professional auto writer. I'll just stick to helping write club newsletters. :)

I had forgotten that you could get a blocked off rear window on the '74 Laguna. That must be pretty rare, because the only ones I ever see have the louvers.

The completely blocked off window was only on the 75 Hurst Olds.

The early 74 Laguna had the opera window that was a retrofitted triangle window with mandatory full vinyl roof. Later 74 models had the opera window as part of the newly stamped quarter panels. It was very late in the model year that the louvers were placed on the Laguna. Therefore, most 74 Laguna's didn't have louvers. 75 and 76 Lagunas all had louvers as did the rare 77 Chevelle SE.

Both Chevy and Pontiac sport models introduced louvers for the 1/4 windows and a urethane nose. Luckily, the Laguna's don't suffer from deteoration like the Grand Am. Like the Grand Am taking the place of the GTO, the Laguna S3 (sport 3rd generation) took the place of the Chevelle SS. I'm sure this was for insurance purposes as any type of sports car had high insurance costs especially for young drivers and thus sales were declining.

John

I think that adding the formal roof was due to the demand for Opera Windows and 'Personal Lux' cars, rather than 'lukewarm sales' of 73 LeMans. 1973 was a boom year for all new cars. Which is why the low 74-75 sales were such a shock to the economy.

Interesting is that for 1976-77, Buick and Olds, the 'mid-lux' brands kept the full triangle models, while Chevy/Poncho did not.

Interesting post, thanks