Hi my name is John Hall and I just joined so I thought I'd introduce myself;
I live in Montreal Canada and I've been in the Pontiac hobby since I was a teenager in the late 70's. I was always a GTO guy but in the last ten years I decided to build a collection the reflects the spectrum of the 69 Pontiacs. All my cars have always been American cars until now.
I currently have 11 69's, two GTO's, two GP's, a LeMans, a Firebird, two Bonnevilles, an Executive, a Ventura and a Catalina. Last weekend I bought that burgundy 2+2 that was on eBay from Calgary. I never had any intention of having a Canadian car but I felt this car was in exceptionally original condition and it would be fun to see how it compared to its south of the border cousins.
Funny thing is that this is sort of full circle for me since the first car ride of my life was in a 63 Parisienne ragtop coming home from the hospital as a new born. He had bought it new the year before. I still have all the original paperwork for it.
Well since you've already seen the 2+2 on this forum here is a bit on my American Ponchos;
I picked up this Firebird in San Diego about 6 years ago from the second owner. It's a Sprint 6 with a 4 speed and no power accessories expect ironically a power antenna.
Here is one of my GP's, an SJ with typical southern options like auto, AC, PW etc. Got this one owner car in Los Angeles in 2007. exceptionally original condition including paint (which looks nicer in the picture than in person).
I picked up this Ventura wagon from the original owners son 2 years ago in central Oregon. The car is a time warp, garage kept since new and only 29,000 miles its original down to sparkplugs, paint and everything in between. He won the car in 68 on a national TV show.
Last year I bought this Catalina from a dealer in Missouri. It has an old repaint from the 70's but otherwise unrestored. it has the 428-360 horse engine, automatic and AC. Nice cruiser.
This car is a Bonneville Brougham convertible. On convertibles the brougham package included genuine leather seats. I bought this car from the son of the owner who bought it is a demo from a Pontiac dealer in Los Angeles. The car was being used by the owner of the dealership which explains why it has every option (36 if I recall correctly).
Welcome aboard. Love your collection but you must know that the first Canadian Poncho is going to lead to having to have 1 of each body style and model.
I've always been an American Pontiac guy because of GTO's and to be honest I always thought of Canadiac Pontiacs as not being "real" due to the absence of a Pontiac, engine chassis or interior. Even more so the beaumonts etc which don't even have a Pontiac looking body. Not that they aren't nice looking, just that I don't relate them to being Pontiacs.
One thing I'm looking forward too is understanding exactly what changes were made to the Pontiac body to fit it to a Impala chassis. I noticed the rad support, fire wall, inner fenders are completely different so I suspect there isn't much interchangeability even in outer sheet metal. The wipers are quite different, parallel on Canadian cars and opposing on American cars hence the different hood.
A particular thing perplexes me, can't wait to get a tape measure on the 2+2. The Canadian car is listed as having a shorter wheelbase than the Catalina 119 vs 122 but overall length is listed as the same for both; 217.5. How can that be?
The difference between the Bonneville and the Catalina is a further 3" of wheelbase up to 125 and overall length grows 6.5" thanks to an additional 3" of rear overhang (the last 1/2" is the rubber rear bumper insert). The interior dimensions of the Bonneville are identical to the Cat, so the only benefit of those 6" is in the trunk.
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Nice collection of Pontiacs. I parted out a 69 Grand Prix and have a few things left rad support, fan shroud, front and rear bumpers and I kept the 428 370 turbo 400 combination for one of my projects. Is your SJ a 370 or 390 hp ?
The one I posted is a 370, the other is a 390. My convertible Bonneville is a 390 horse, the 4 door Bonneville and my Catalina convertible have the 428-360 and my Executive and the Catalina wagon are 400-290.
btw I just realized there is a specific place to introduce myself, didn't see it earlier, sorry for the mixup.
Here is my Bonneville 4door hardtop, original paint, will need paint one day as the hood and trunklid are faded beyond saving I believe. This car is also a Brougham but on the closed car you got a fancy cloth material instead of the leather. One owner car out of Colorado, the car has an odd color combo with brown outside and green inside. The reason this happened is that the car was ordered with a gold interior (I have the paperwork from the purchase in 68) but the dealer screwed up since there was no gold interior available on a 4 door Brougham, factory changed it to green with advising the dealer or owner.
Last of the big cars is this Executive 4 door sedan, one owner car out of South Dakota, mostly original paint but it does have some minor rust on the heel of the front fenders and one corner of the rear wheel wells. Well optioned for an Executive with Automatic, ps, pb, pw, p seat and AC.
For those of you who don't know an Executive was a car built on the longer Bonneville body but with Catalina trim level outside and Ventura trim (Ventura was just a fancier interior on the Cat) inside.
I was going to ask about what factory literature is available for 69 Canadian ponchos? I have the letter from GM with the options but what is known about pricing of cars and options etc? I have a friend who produces window stickers but it seems like there is very limited examples of original canadian window stickers. Back in the day the dealers around here ripped all the window stickers off the cars as they unloaded the cars coming off the truck. Easier to cheat customers when they couldn't even know the factory suggested prices I guess?
My 2+2 is scheduled to arrive Monday, 2-3 weeks late! No thanks to TFX. They told me they would pick it up within the week, it took 3 weeks. Luckily the seller was patient and didn't mind keeping it in his garage.
The 2+2 finally showed up yesterday, very happy with the car. Very much as described. Amazing original shape, the only repaint is the two front fenders from minor dent repairs. Apart from the bottom corner of the fenders there is zero rust anywhere. Trunk pan still has like new factory applied speckle paint.
On the area for concern front the silver paint is oxidized, may or may not be saveable. The burgundy paint is still quite shiney without having been buffed but there are more scratches than what it looked like in the paint and lots of door rash which is why the main body character line seemed poorly defined. Car must of shared a garage with a family hauler with lots of swinging doors. Runs and drives great, better than expected.
Car is amazingly untouched. One odd thing is that the area in the dash where the shift indicator goes with a column shift automatic still has the shift indicator even though it has the console with the shift indicator there too, is this correct? I thought it would have a blanked out panel with the Pontiac name in it.
Interesting options; two tone of course, tinted glass all around, 300horse, th350, posi, lamp monitor, hood, trunk, underdash and interior mirror lamps. I guess it's the only one exactly like it.
Welcome to Canadianponcho, John! With an impressive fleet like that and being in Montreal I would think your name should be John Scotti. You have a simply amazing cache of GM cars from the days when the "GM Mark of Excellence" was reality. Very impressive. The Canadian cars would appear to be lesser than the U.S. versions (wow, genuine leather on the Bonnie convertible!) but the reality is that most of us enthusiasts of my generation in this still great country of ours grew up with the unique hybrids. The narrow trackers looked perfectly normal to us; big engines were the exception; the wide trackers seemed wide. There were 3 Canadian 69 Pontiacs within a block of my house in '69; 2 Laurentians and a Parisienne, plus 3 Beaumonts within 3 blocks. I am not even touching on the other year models which were also prevalent. Canadian produced vehicles were simply a given back then.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
I came home from the hospital in my dads 63 Parisienne ragtop so I guess I've returned home
Btw, I parked the 2+2 next to my same year Catalina and was surprised to discover that while the Cat has a 122" wheelbase and the 2+2 has the 119" chevy chassis they share the same exterior body panels, the 3" reduction in wheelbase was accomplished without relocating wheelwells but just by relocating the wheels inside the wheel well. That's why Canadian pontiacs have such a big gap behind the back wheel and the quarter panel compared to the front of the tire and the quarter panel. Kind of hokey, surprised GM did it but I can understand the economics of the decision.
The 2+2 has much stiffer suspension than my Cats and Bonnie's, spring rates are firmer and it has a 15/16" sway bar versus 3/4" on US cars (even the Y96 option in the US used only a 7/8").
btw, I was a bit incorrect about the difference between the cat and the 2+2, the rear quarter is identical as I said but they just move the rear axle 2" forward in the rear wheelwell giving it an odd look. And while the outer dimension of the front fender is identical the Canadian front wheel opening is 1" closer to the door than the US version (and the rear wheel itself is an inch closer too). The shape of the wheel opening is also different with the Canadian version having a more rounded shape and a point at the rear. This adds up to the 3" difference in wheelbase and the overall length being the same.