[Kitch428m21]

My '70 was hit like that long ago, but it was fixed. Not too bad a job, but the trained eye will spot the evidence.
I'm still thinking of putting a high mounted center stop light in the rear window. Those brake lights are too low. I have an LED style light when I get motivated.
Good story, but bad news, eh?

[Pontiac Inc.]

my 1st real car (not a hand me down) was a 69 mustang 351W built 3.90 gears, quick for what it was. when i was in high school i had a list of cars that i beat on the back of my bedroom door. (and speeding tickets too) i outran bigblock chevy's. (i was shocked at the time) but to get to my pontiac story, i was coming home late one night and i was at a stoplight, looked behind me and this guy in a 67 goat was was right on my a**, when the light turned green i hit it. usually i leave anyone behind (way behind) but not this guy he stayed right on my a** about a 1/4 mile or so to the next light. i thought he would pull up and laugh because i couldnt pull away from him, but he pulled up and said "what the hell u got in that thing?" (because he couldn't come around me)we got to talking and he had a 389 tri-power. ( i was impresed) it wasn't long after that i traded my 69 (mustang) for a 76 T/A. i'm still a ford nut but i love my pontiacs too. sry so long. (my friend has since passed away, but my memory of him and that night will never be forgotten)

[p2architect]

In the fall of 1981 I need a ride. Living in Butte, Montana and need to get around. I have 125$ but what will that buy. Borrow a buddies car and drive around town a bit. There a spot a different looking car in the high weeds behind the house. A closer examination reveals a small Pontiac - good interior - lots of rust on the outside - rusted floor boards. I knock on the door and ask - would you consider seeling the car and does it run. Answer - it runs - but needs a cluch. I offer the $125. SOLD.

I take the car home, dad not too happy to see the junker I bought. But wait I say - I am going to fix it up. So me and a buddy start - pre-internet. Try to find a cluch - lucky me - my girl friend's dad owns a Champion Auto store - she is a car gal. After searching all the books - he finds what I need. Takes a few weeks, now it is the end of October. Pull the car into my buddies rented garage with wooded floor and no heats - barely has doors. Jack in up to start - WHAT THE %@#*. No link to drop the drive line. That is right - I purcahsed the 1963 Pontiac Lemans with the rope drive shaft and IRS Transaxle. Okay - I can do this. Take inspection plate of of bellhousing. WHAT THE %@#*. That's right - who dreamed up this.

Talk to a few of the car folks in town - they laugh and say good luck. Spent the next several weeks under the car in the bitter cold. My mom really liked it when I rebuilt the transaxle on her kitchen table just before Thanksgiving. But I got it back together and run it did. Fast, really fast - 326 HO. 3 speed manual. Two door coupe.

The first week I had it running my brother drove it one block got in a wreck at the first intersection that he drove through runided both quater panels. NO way to find these at that time. So a big hammer, bondo and primer bring it back to life.

Many stories follow. Many girls later. That was a sweet car - drove it daily for 5 years.

Fast forward - look for a car for seven years - the right car. Low and behold last October I call a guy in MIchigan and he has a car for sale - new engine - no drive train - no rear end - plastic windows - dented. I say no thanks - he wants $600. A few weeks later see the same car on e bay. Starting at 1,000. Looks not so good. A few days later it is at 30K. Sells for much, much more - $227,000. Well that is life.

So I see another car on the internet. Silvermist grey - re-built engine - straight - no rust - nice interior. So I do a bit of research - engine builder and car owner.

None other than ORIGINALHO - so I bid high and win - it was the right car - it had the right owner and engine builder. Now I have my 63 Lemans again. This time my brother will not drive it. Craig can drive it anytime. Drove it from Vegas to Milwuakee in mid December.

My daughter will take it to high school soon. It certainly won't sit in the garage. This car was meant to drive daily.

[Jack Gifford]

If OrigianlHO is one of the "old guys" here, what does that make me???...

A guy one year ahead of me in high school was the son of a well-to-do farmer, and was driving a brand-new '57 Tri-Power Pontiac to school (we're still friends- he's now well-off himself, but refuses to quit farming at age 70!). In '59 he built up a bored-out '58 engine for his car (2-door hardtop, but I don't remember which model), and I bought the stock Tri-Power 347 from him. I put it into my '37 Buick Special opera coupe and have been swapping Pontiac engines into various vehicles ever since!

[aldbeir]

just worked all summer saved my cash. was driving arround a bigger town near here. there it was sitting on the corner at a gas station. 66 gto convertable . jacked up mag wheels headers,offenhauser intake. 8 track. for sale sign $1200. called the guy he came over in his new vega. the summer of 73 gas was .60 a gallon who could afford a hot rod but a high school kid. i had $1100 borrowed $100 from my brother. still got it it's been through a lot through the years

[taff2]

My first muscle car was an Aussie Ford Falcon RHD fastback with 351 Cleveland power(like Mad Max's black car), bought it back in '85, aged 24, for a couple of hundred pounds. It gave me the taste for V8 power, so when I started earning a bit more, I advertised for a big block muscle car-a Mustang fastback would have been my first choice. However, a '72 Formula 400 Firebird in bright yellow came up at the right price in '87 and I bought it. It had previously been used for circuit racing so the motor had been uprated, and all the rubber suspension bushings etc had been changed to solid ali, it was noisy,bumpy and horrendously thirsty,but really quick(or so I thought) and I loved it! I sold it a while later to a guy 60 miles away,but a couple of years later it turned up locally (in bits) so I bought it again for spares, the heads-1969 #16 d ports- are on my current 9 second race car.
I've owned half a dozen Firebirds since,mostly T/A's ,along with a Camaro,F100,Duster,GMC Suburban etc, but I've only ever raced Pontiac power,right up til my current Tubo motor buildup. I'm a dying breed over here, I bet there's not more than a handful of Pontiac racecars in the country. Long live Pontiac.
ps, Craig,I bought your book 'Pontiac High Performance' back in '88 and it was the Pontiac racers bible over here back then,along with Pete McCarty's Pontiac racers & high performance handbook.

[Old Goat Racer]

In 1963 a buddy let me drive his 62' Catalina, 389, 3x2s, 4-speed.

[poison heart]

I bet that was a blast!

[Old Blue 66]

The question in the topic of this thread is tough for me to answer. My grandfather was always an Oldsmobile guy. He was pretty much my father figure growing up. In fact my first car was a 76 Cutlass Salon with T Tops. I loved that car.

My mother on the other hand bought Pontiac's. It was probably the 66 GTO that was at the local Pontaic dealer (not for sale) that caught my eye one time when she bought one of her cars. I didnt ride in it or even sit in it. It was starlight black with matching guts and a tri power. It was beautiful.

I guess I could say Ive been a Pontiac guy since I was a little guy. Always will be.

[GREATGTO]

Well, I was 12 years old and my older brother Paul was 16 . He was at an auto parts store buying parts for his junk chevy chevette when he met a guy who owned an auto repair shop. They got to talking and my brother told the guy how he fixed his car himself and liked working on cars.
One thing led to another and the shop owner Tucker told my brother he was welcome to come by his shop if he needed help with anything.
So one day his chevette started over heating and we happen to be close to Tuckers shop so we pulled in there to replace the water pump. As we pulled in the first thing that caught our eye was Tuckers 68 Charger R/T, he was a Mopar guy. He eventually started to work for Tucker after a few months of hanging around the shop and I used to tag along with him sometimes and I was always amazed at seeing engines taken apart.

Tucker used to put me to work cleaning parts in the parts cleaner which seemed like the coolest machine in the world to me the way it would remove the grease from parts and made them look brand new again. Eventually my brother learned enough from Tucker to be able to do just about all the things you need to know to build motors.
One day Tucker told my brother he needs to get a real car so he can fix it up and restore it so the search began. We decided to build a Nova so off we went looking for novas, we wanted a 66 but they seemed hard to find. Then one day a neighbor told us he thinks a local car shop has an old 66 nova behind his car dealership in the weeds and it was just down the street from where we live, so off we went to check it out. Well we pull in and drive towards the back and we dont see any nova but we do see a chrome bumper peeking out from the weeds and we notice it had cool looking stacked headlights, we thought it was a fairlane or something.
We get out and walk towards the bushes and brush away to weeds and the first thing we see are the letters GTO on the front grill! It was a 66 GTO convertible. This was the first time I had ever seen a GTO or even knew what it was. We both looked the car over and it was pretty rough but we both fell in love with it just looking it over, we were so excited at the prospect of finally finding a car we can work with and the search for something cool might be over. We walk back up to the front of the building and go inside where the owner of the car dealership is sitting behind a desk. We ask him if that old car in the back is for sale or not? He says he wants 500 dollars for it but it doesnt run and has been sitting back there for many years. This was in 1985 so the amount of years is anyones guess.
My brother said he had a deal for 500 and we would be back in a week to buy the car.After we left he called Tucker told him what we had found, Tucker told my brother he would give him the 500 and he better hurry and buy that car before someone else does. So the next day we show up with tools and money in hand, we wanted to see if we could get it running. The owner of the shop looked at us like some crazy kids for thinking we could get that old car to run. Well we walk back and start cutting down all the weeds, the car was full of parts. The rear bumper was in the back seat along with a bunch of other parts form some other car. I remember to this day the first time I ever looked at the 66 GTO tail lights, they were so cool with the louvers and chrome trim. Well we get the hood open and there sits the 389 4 bbl engine . The carb was seized up but we decided to throw a battery in it to see if it would crank , sure enought the engine turned over but would not start . We go back to the shop and get a carb to throw on and we bring a can of gas back with us to see if we can get it to fire.
Crank it a few times and it just wont start, so we pull the cap and take some sandpaper to the points to clean them up a little, we pour some more fuel into the carb bang! The engines fires up, I can still remember the sounds of the exhaust. We put air in the tires, the brakes didnt really work too well but we were able to drive the car home down a service road next to the railroad tracks that led about a block from our house . We ran a fuel hose from the pump to a gas can to act as a tank because the gas tank was full of crap.From this time on I have been into pontiacs, a few years later I came of age and bought a 70 lemans sport for 600 dollars. Iv owned a 70 GTO, a 69 GTO, a 65 GTO and I now own 2 68 GTO's and havent looked back since. There is a lot more to this story but I will spare everyone LOL, great memories for me.

[68 Goat]

I grew up with two older brothers. Kenny & Mike. They are 15 & 16 years older than me. They always had muscle cars. Mike had a Chevelle SS with a 396, 71 or 72 455 HO GTO, 69 Road Runner with a 383, and a 70 Judge. I always heard the wild street racing stories that my brothers would talk about. Kenny was the one who really got me hooked. He had Mach 1 rustangs, Nova SS, and numerous GTOs. He would put me on his lap and we would drive down the back roads when I was young. He was not to impressed when I shifted from drive to reverse!

I guess when you're about 5 or 6 years old and you are around a lot of cars that squeal and smoke the rear tires, you think thats pretty cool and it leaves it's mark on you. Funny thing is Kenny will still do it to make me laugh, and I'm 36 now.

Mike's son now has a 70 Lemans, Kenny has 3 GTOs: 2 68's & a 71 and 2 Chevelles (try not to hold that against him). I'm working on a 69 GTO hardtop. Pontiacs are in our blood! Ya Chevelles, Novas, Road Runners ect. ect. are all cool, but they are not a Pontiac!

[Old Goat Racer]

Originally Posted by old goat racer

In 1963 a buddy let me drive his 62' Catalina, 389, 3x2s, 4-speed.

I had never driven a 4-speed before, but I'll never forget the sound of those "trips".

[JackF]

It all started when my then brother-in-law bought a new 66 396 SS chevelle. Well, I had to have something to beat his butt so I bought a new 66 GTO. He beat my butt with with his 396 (I should have got the tri power) but I still loved my GTO. Latter in 1968 my brother borrowed my GTO to attend a going away party the night before being shipped to Viet Nam. Long story short, he made it back home (in the back of a CHP) but the car was totaled. I bought it back from the Insurance Co. and all the running gear was placed in my 34 ford 3 window where it still resides to this day. I have never bought another pontiac but I will never replace the pontiac running gear in the coupe with anything else. The coupe has been going thru a complete re-do for several years now ( more years than I had hoped) and will soon be sporting a fresh 455 that is nearly done. Hope this hasn't been to boring.

Jack.

[gtoric]

Shortly after my family and I moved to Bad Axe, MI in late '68, my dad decided that we needed a new car. The '63 Chevy station wagon that was at the time serving duty as Mom's family hauler, was starting to give us some maintenance problems. Our new back-fence neighbors, one of the "sons" in Flannery & Sons, just happened to own the local Pontiac/Buick dealership of that name. After going through all of the sales brochures for the 1969 Pontiacs, Dad settled on a new Catalina 4-dr sedan. It was Verdoro Green with a gold interior, 400 2bbl/TH400. It was a great car and never gave us a stitch of trouble over the seven years that various members of our family cared for the "egg sucker."

In early 1977, when Dad and I started a search for a suitable first set of wheels for me, we started with a local used car lot owned by a former local school teacher. He had a '74 GTO on the lot. It was Buccaneer Red, with black bucket seat interior and a 3-speed stick. The cost was $3,000. A little steep for a three-year old car that only sold for $3,600 brand new. The next stop was at Flannery's used car lot where a '74 Ventura coupe was sitting in the front row. It was Denver Gold with a 250/3-speed, bench seat and only 22,000 one-owner miles. As I recall, the mileage was about half that of the GTO. Best of all, it was about $1,000 cheaper than the GTO. The dealership offered to repaint the lower body (first owner lived on a dirt road) and add a Sprint accent stripe to the upper beltline. That was my first Pontiac. It still resides in my garage.

I stopped in at Flannery's a couple of summers ago and obtained a Flannery & Sons license plate frame for when I complete the restoration and upgrade to GTO specs. That frame and YoM license plate with be the last items I screw onto the car to complete the project.

[janderson]

I sort of inherited the interest in Pontiacs and the hobby through my father and several family members that migrated from the coalfield area of Virginia in the middle to late '40's to Michigan to work in the Auto Plants rather than mine coal, cut timber or drive a truck.
Dad went to work at PMD in 1950, and retired after 36 years. Most of that in Car Assembly (Plant 8) and Reliability (Inspection).
We always had Pontiacs to drive and there was a tremendous loyalty to the Company back then with the employee's to purchase and promote the product they produced.
Friends that came over to the house seemed to come from Plant personnel, so most of our off time and weekends were spent with GM employee's, conversations always seemed to wind up relating to Plant experiences and problems.
I was in High School '69 to '71, and with Dad driving "overnight" evaluation vehicles home every day...guess what I learned to drive in??? Spent alot of time on Telegraph and Woodward in the evenings and weekends in a car that was only a day or so old and had Manufacturing Plates on it. If I would have ever been caught, Dad would have probably lost his job.
Into the Army after High School, a Lemans and a couple Firebirds later I got out in '75. Had a new car waiting for me at the Administration Building at PMD that I had ordered through Dad, Silver '75 T/A with a 455, still have that one. It was a courtesy car (3 months or 3000 miles). Met the wife in it in '76 and shortly after we parked it. The Daughter says that its her favorite of the Ponitacs that we have, and she has been promised it when she gets her Masters.
Then...I started to work at PMD in August of '76. Began in Plant 14 (Sheet Metal Operations), and after a couple of years transferred to the Engine Plant (#9), where I spent out the rest of my time with GM in different Plants in the Powertrain Division.
Left GM in '95, alot of memories and life experiences from being involved in Plant life, its really depressing to see the industry in the current state that it is in.
Just bought a new HD 2500 Crew Cab with a Duramax, and seen yesterday that sales are down over 50% from this period last year...have a brother that is a Tool and Die maker at GM in Michigan, he has over 30 years and is really sweating.
Hope things start to turn around soon.

[fiedlerh]

About 1963, standing behind the driver's seat looking over my dad's shoulder as he was doing 120 mph on the back roads of Wisconsin in the 1962 Catalina. The hills were lots of fun. Mom was nervous. They traded it in on a 68 Catalina, they first car they bought that actually had options. As a kid, I was amazed that you could get things like a radio and air conditioning.

Fast forward to about 1977 when I buy my Grand Am from a high school friend. About 1978 I walk into this little shop called H-O Racing while out in California on business, and my education about Pontiacs really begins. They were THE source for Pontiac technical information and performance parts. I told them I had come all the way from Muncie, IN (where I lived at the time) and they were nice enough to give me a tour.

[citydesk175]

Originally Posted by janderson

Into the Army after High School, Then...I started to work at PMD in August of '76. Began in Plant 14 (Sheet Metal Operations), and after a couple of years transferred to the Engine Plant (#9), where I spent out the rest of my time with GM in different Plants in the Powertrain Division.
Left GM in '95, alot of memories and life experiences from being involved in Plant life, its really depressing to see the industry in the current state that it is in.

================================================== ==========
I got into PMD through a connection, Somebody i met while I was working at Pontiac General Hospital on Huron.
About a year after meeting him, He ran into my brothers and told them Pontiac was hiring and I should give his name at Personnel. I went and their first question was "Who do you know?" When I mentioned the name of my connection, their response was "We like him." "You are Hired"


and I never missed a meal in 42 years at GM.
and have never owned a non GM car either

It worked for me

Grinz
Citydesk175

[Hammertime Mike]

Like a lot of people out there I was influenced by my dad.How can you NOT become a pontiac fan when growing up with a 66 conv. GTO.(And it was 4-spd.)

[cosgrove]

I was about 9 years old in the late 60's. My older brother and his friends were big into street racing Chevys. He had a 66 396 SS Impala. My dad had a shop so there was a constant parade of Camaros,Chevelles and tri 5's coming and going for engine swaps, paint, and performance upgrades. His best friend's 396 Camaro was the car to beat.
One day a large group was gathered at the shop bench racing. One of the guy's girl friend had brought out a brand new 70 Firebird and they were talking about how fast it was. I said to my brother and his friend "Well you can beat her -Can,t you?" They just looked down and didn't answer while everyone started laughing. That stock Pontiac suprised them all.
Later I would own a 71 Lemans in high school. I put a 455 in it with all the bolt ons and had a pretty fast street car for those days.
I raced stock cars with a Pontiac motor in the eighties and nineties. It was a lone Pontiac in a sea of Chevys.It took a couple of years to learn how to make a Pontiac live in a stock car.Too bad there was no PY back then. I found the 428 was the best combination of cubic inches and rpm. The 455 needed a bigger gear for straight speed so it didn"t get off the corners as good. I enjoyed a big power advantage over the small blocks and no one ran big blocks because the weight hurt handling too much. I had 4 track championships in 6 years running Pontiac motors.
I went back to drag racing for the last 10 years. Man,have the parts changed over the years. I think the only stock part on my Firebird's engine is the distributor clamp.

[Mater]

When I was a 5 year old kid in Reno Nv. in 1979, my uncle had a 70 Nova with a 327. It didn't have a back seat in it but it had a rollcage. My uncle used to take me for a ride and I'd swing from the rear cage like a monkey while he'd blip the throttle and I'd swing back and forth laughing hysterically the whole time.

It was from then on that I decided that I wanted a "Nova Car". Fast forward to 1997 when I was 23 and I had yet to find a Nova that was worth fixing or that I could afford. Anywhoo, my g-pa called one night and said that his neighbor was selling her house and I should look at it. I looked at it and I bought the house, (double wide trailer). It turned out that the very same lady had just that day given my g-pa a Quezal Gold 1972 Pontiac Ventura II with just 56,000 original miles on it.

Being curious, I headed over to his house, which was 5 trailers away, and there it was. A "Nova Car" with a funny looking front end and a Pontiac emblem. I didn't shine, had ugly rims, silly whitewall tires and an ugly interior, but it was a beautiful car. He never really liked the car and only drove it when his truck broke down. He asked me what I saw in it and I told him it could be the best lookin car in town and to prove it he needed to give me his credit card and 2 months. He always laughed at that part......I don't know why.

He passed away in 2002 and in his will, he left the car to me and even added that he would be looking down and laughing at me as I went broke trying to fix "Eva" up. So far, I haven't done much to the car, except drive it and enjoy it, and what has been done has just about broken me, but one day I'm gonna fix Eva up so purty and I'm gonna make a little plaque to put in the engine bay that simply reads, "I told ya so gramps!"



Oh, by the way, I have absolutely CREAMED a few Camaros and even a Chevelle, even though the Chevelle was a challenge. This car is wicked fast!