First off hello to all ! Thanks for accepting me into the fold . I'm in the mist of purchasing a 1966 Grand Prix , but I have an issue . The car by all rights to me looks like a 1965 . This is a project purchase and the only thing stopping me from buying is it is registered as a 66 and it looks like a 65 . If I'm restoring something I want the proper Vin #. Can anyone help me decode Vin and Style plate ? Sorry vin is blurry .676657017417
Glad to see another 66 Grande Parisienne fan here, there's a few of us!
That VIN brings back memories! I owned a 66 Grande Parisienne 4 speed in the 80's that is roughly 40 cars away from your's... I bet they were built the same day.
One thing I can say for sure, that car was originally built with either a 396 or a 427 because of the M40 on the cowl tag. That means Turbo 400 transmission which was only available with those 2 engine options. (Assuming that is the cowl tag for that car, because the rivets holding it to the firewall are not original, they have been changed at some point)
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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
I see the power window harness beside the VIN tag, does it have some other options as well? The cowl tag only shows the TH400.
As far as the VIN breakdown, 6 is the year, 766 is Grande Parisienne, 57 is 2 door hardtop, O is for Oshawa, 17417 is the sequence number. I believe they started at 10,000 so it would be the 7417th full size 66 Canadian Pontiac.
The 1-1-10 on the cowl tag is 1st shift of January 10th. I don't have the cowl tag info from the car that I owned but it was shipped out of Oshawa on January 13th 1966 so that would make sense.
Can we get more details about this car?
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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
Joe, one thing that might be worthwhile is to spend the $100 or so and get Vintage Vehicle Services documents just to make sure it all adds up. It's a bit hard to see but as Jim mentioned, the rivets on the VIN tag may indicate they've been changed as well, which kind of raises a red flag. Sometimes guys pull those tags off to paint a car though.
I see the firewall is black and the cowl tag overspray is not, which can be a concern. It might be as simple as someone detailed under the hood and painted the firewall black, a common mistake people make when restoring a Canadian car that should have a body coloured firewall.
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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
Thanks for everyone helping out . I really appreciate it . Options for the car are ps , pb , pw , tilt , A/C . Engine has been changed to a 455 olds , interior is turquoise , bucket , console and round gauges in dash ? Should it not have square gauges ? Car is definitely a repaint color change . Carl , how does one get service documents ?
Here are pictures of the actual car , also has fender skirts . As I stated these are the reasons I'm hesitant on buying it . Please let me know any input that anyone has .
I am betting the VIN and cowl tag are from the same car (based on me owing the car that was only 40'ish cars away from this one and build date matches) but who cares, they are on the wrong car.
Don't touch it with a ten foot pole or you'll be sorry, unless you buy it to strip it for parts.
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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
It appears to be a US Grand Prix with a Canadian set of tags from a Grande Parisienne. Wow, what a combo!
One thought comes to mind. Someone got a US car across the border with no paperwork to avoid all the expenses involved with importing, the decided to try to hide it with Canadian indentification.
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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
Just switch it back, and delete this post. It takes just a few minutes to switch the little tags. The original cowl rivets have a large hole in them, this is clearly a "successful" importation, and saved someone the $100 AC tax too! And I have a loaded '65 GP, lo miles zero rust survivor
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 283 3-2's TH350 3.36 12 bolt Posi tilt wood wheel AM-FM reverb. 50k miles long gone but not forgotten, and I'm sure it's living a charmed restored life somewhere
And why don't I see an attach button??? I have great pix of my silver blue GP
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 283 3-2's TH350 3.36 12 bolt Posi tilt wood wheel AM-FM reverb. 50k miles long gone but not forgotten, and I'm sure it's living a charmed restored life somewhere
Not sure on the other body styles b,g etc bodies, but the x bodies had a part vin stamped on firewall and trunk area. Might be able to compare just to be sure if it matches up. Just comes back to buyer beware.But as others have stated....doesn't look good. Carl may be able to shed more light on this.......as I only know x body cars. Pic is of inner 1/4 beside trunk weatherstrip, matches part of my vin #
This thing does make me wonder just how hard it would be to make a 1965 Grande Parisienne, canadian drivetrain and all.
I suppose you could use a 66 Grande as a base and a front end, interior and dash from from a 1965 Custom Sport, with maybe a 1965 Grande Prix rear panel.
Think of it!
A 1965 Grande Parisienne 409 4 speed car.
Its kind of too bad that I actually access to the cars to do this but I'd have to strip out a 65 409 4 speed car.
And even then nobody would really notice except the guys from this forum who would just wonder WTF?
Ok , I have one more question . Is there anywhere else I can look for Vin # on this car ? It is registered as a 1966 Grand Prix . Not a Grande Parisian , the owner now has had it for 6 years . He seems to be a straight up guy . ( Not saying it is impossible for him to be shady , but doesn't seem that way ) he bought the car this way . If I had a way to actually correct this he would be all in . Any advice would be much appreciated . IE: other Vin locations , ect . As for the 455 olds by the casting marks it is a late 60s block . By the U.S. option package the car should have a 421 cid in it . Again thanks for everyone's help .
I hope someone knows about VIN's being hidden on the US models. There is no doubt about the tags being Grande Parisienne though. It sure is interesting that he is able to register it as a Grand Prix with that VIN, it shouldn't fit the template.
It's very possible that the current owner is totally innocent in this but someone certainly pulled a fast one along the way.
Strictly speculation but I would bet those tags came from a "clean" Grande Parisienne" that simply was scrapped due to rust or collision. Too bad, because it would have been a big block car.
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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
It's hard to register a Canadian car down here. When I imported my Laurentian you have to take it to the State patrol for an inspection to make sure it's not stolen, more or less. They demand to know what model it is, and it must be in their system.
Suffice to say that Strato Chief and Laurentian are not among the options the Washington State Patrol had on file!
Eventually I told them "It's the same as a Catalina but I'm not lying on the paperwork, I'm writing Laurentian". They could hardly force me to lie, but they had their answer (Catalina). It's registered now as a 2+2 I think because they did have that in their system at least (from the 1967 model year I suppose).
Hi , everyone ! Quick update , I have gone to look at the car again . I took pictures of trunk drain sill . Have not got to the frame number yet , but working on it . My biggest fear is buying it and finding it was stolen . Car could be restored to this vin and would be nice ride with some parts changed . GM has stated they have had people buy U.S, cars for parts to build on Canadian bodies , but vin indicates this was a nice car to start with , I guess frame will tell the rest of the story . As only other place is the rear frame . Any other input would be very helpful . Thanks to all