Does anyone know what D99 means on the trim tag (before the L48 and M38)? Most codes in the D's are paint related, so maybe the 2+2 striping or the two tone option?
-- Edited by North on Friday 28th of October 2016 04:42:32 PM
Btw, I found in the trunk a set of new in the box addco sway bars, 1 1/8" front and 1" rear. I'm not interested in using them so if someone is interested drop me a note, I could give you the part numbers.
I found the link for the option decoder. D99 is the two tone paint moulding which could be ordered on single colour vehicles some years.
http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/wiki/RPO_(Regular_Production_Option)_GM_master_list
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Hi John... you mention above that in the closed Broughams you got cloth instead of leather.
Am I correct that in the 2-door Brougham your only options were Blue, Green, and Black? And that in the four-door you could get blue, burgandy, green or black, all non-leather. And the convertible Brougham was only available in gold or black leather.
Exactly, the closed cars used a very soft cloth unique to the brougham, the biscuit type pattern was the same in brougham ragtops but they used leather. Broughams also used the seat material to replace the fake wood wood side panel inserts. They also used a cut pile carpet rather than loop.
I was wondering why my car sat so high especially in back when the springs in the car are clearly original. On my GM report the car has the option F40. I just figured it was a part of the 2+2 package but with a little research I realized that F40 was a stand alone option of heavy duty suspension (as opposed to F41 ride and handling) i.e. cargo coils. I cut a full coil of the rear springs and the back sits beautiful now (right on the money for the standard suspension ride height as per the shop manual specs and method) but the front needs to drop a touch (maybe 1/2 to 3/4").
Have you had a chance to put a tape measure on them yet? I'm really curious where the dimensional differences are between the American and Canadian cars.
You are one lucky guy, that's a beautiful fleet you have there!!
Thanks guys! I did take out the tape measure, very interesting...
Overall body length is identical to my Catalina 217.5
doors and quarters are identical
overall fender length is identical but wheel opening in front fender is 1" closer to the cowl accounting for 1" of the 3" difference in wheelbase (119" vs 122")
the other two inches come from the rear wheels being 2" further forward on the Canuck edition relative to the Cat, they just threw the chevy chassis underneath the car with US quarters and let the rear tires be scrunched up against the front of the wheelwell with a very big gap in back. Kind of "two bit" engineering to be honest but I can understand why they did it financially.
-- Edited by North on Tuesday 1st of November 2016 04:19:08 PM
btw the tires on the 2+2 are old G70-14's from the 1970's, still in nice shape but the diameter is smaller than the original 8.25-14 (26.7" versus 27.7"). The Catalina has 225/75-15 which is about 1/4" less diameter than its original H78-15"s
Here is the before and after shot of the trimming of the rear coils. One full coil was cut, if I had done about 2/3's of a coil I could have left the front alone but I wanted factory (non F40) ride height so I'll need to drop the front a 1/2" or so. I have to admit I'm anal about factory ride height.
Thanks guys! I did take out the tape measure, very interesting...
Overall body length is identical to my Catalina 217.5
doors and quarters are identical
overall fender length is identical but wheel opening in front fender is 1" closer to the cowl accounting for 1" of the 3" difference in wheelbase (119" vs 122")
the other two inches come from the rear wheels being 2" further forward on the Canuck edition relative to the Cat, they just threw the chevy chassis underneath the car with US quarters and let the rear tires be scrunched up against the front of the wheelwell with a very big gap in back. Kind of "two bit" engineering to be honest but I can understand why they did it financially.
-- Edited by North on Tuesday 1st of November 2016 04:19:08 PM
That is interesting! I always wondered where they made up the difference.
Reminds me of the Mopar B bodies that I used to be into. Plymouth 116" wheelbase, Dodge 117". 1" difference made up in the leaf spring hangers - had to ask myself why did they bother...
That's good info for the Canadian Pontiac guys who are looking for quarter panels - sounds like they can source American Catalina parts and be good to go!
Hood is different due to different wiper arrangement and hood hinge location
Fenders have different wheel opening location, inner bracing diff and near wipers area diff also
Rear valances are different shape
Trunklid of stratocheif and Laurentian are same as Catalina
Trunklid of Parisienne, 2+2 and grand Parisienne are Canadian only
The frame, cowl, rad support, inner fenders, floor pans, trunk pan, all suspension, gas tank, wheels, brakes etc are completely different of course
John, a hardy welcome aboard from Milton, Ontario. I love all your sweet looking Pontiac's and thank you for saving that beautiful Executive sedan. I hope you enjoy your journey here on C.P. Cheers. George
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1957 Pontiac Pathfinder Deluxe sedan restored 261 six
1974 Chevrolet Caprice Estate wagon low mileage original 400 V-8
Fixed the transmission leak, it was an incorrect o ring on the filler tube
Installed a new stock spec exhaust system from Waldron, I stuck with the single exhaust it was ordered with because I want to keep this oddball exactly as built (and it was half price!!). It fit beautifully with proper tail pipe shape (unlike the Midas crap that was on the car) with no tweaking required and surprisingly it sounds a bit louder than I expected but in a nice mellow factory way. This is partly because the single exhaust system doesn't use a resonator but the dual system did. Doing research I realized that the Canadian Ponchos used Impala exhaust down to the clamps. The factory shop manual has good drawings of the systems and they are completely different than American Pontiacs.
I found factory stripe residue on the front lips of my door and the fenders so I was able to measure the width of the three stripes (top white, lower two were silver), I bought the striping material but still hoping to find how the front and rear extremities were tapered before installing them.
Waldron does quite nice work, I've bought 6 systems from them over the years and only one was a problem.
The car is going to the body shop in two weeks to patch the front fender corners, I'm going to take advantage of the striping to hide the paint blend. I did a test install just on the door, the thickness of each stripe was based on the remnants of the original stripes on the leading inside edge of the door and opposing side on the fender. Wider than I expected but thats how the factory did it. Lighting is deceiving but the top pin is white and the lower two are the same silver.
-- Edited by North on Friday 17th of March 2017 03:14:19 PM