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Canadian Poncho Homepage -> Canadian Poncho -> General Pre 1958 Canadian Pontiac Discussions -> 53 Pathfinder deLuxe
Post Info TOPIC: 53 Pathfinder deLuxe
Fitz


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53 Pathfinder deLuxe
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Here is my car's story.

I bought the car in 1995, and run it like a driver for the 95 summer. In the winter with mostly no money I remove the engine and fix a valve problem, clean and paint the engine, and engine bay. Put the engine back and run it like that until 2005. I rebuilt the engine with my wife in 2005 quickly for the my friend's wedding. In 2006 in august, a valve failure occur, on the #6 cylinder, I have to fix that problem and an other one. In the spring 2006 I found (the other problem) a big hole in the frame. The hole was invisible before, because the previous owner patch with sheet metal, rivet and a good layer of tar. The road dust help after to make look good the frame.

Since I knowing the frame so bad (I have check the entire frame, and found other weird tar fix), I decide to change the frame.

I source a good frame in Kelowna in BC, pick up this frame on vacation trip with my family and my old Lumina in 2007. The car was completly dissasemble beginning on sept 2006.

When I put the new frame in the garage beside the rusty one I found a huge difference betwee the two frame, for me 49-54 frame where identical but I discover it was not. 49-52 are the same, and 53-54 are both unique.

I invite a friend who make some job for me (steel and machining) and I ask him what he 's thinking about the problem. After a while I take the frame and ship it to his shop for "reform" it like the 53-54 one.

At my home while the frame is out of my garage, I rebuilt the steer axle, the diff, the master cylinder, emptied the body.

I ship the body shell to a bodyman, and begin to work on last year, and after a while, he blow a fuse and hit the body with a steel bar, and make it worst than when it came in is shop...The paint was not applied, but it was over for him, in a rush last may, I take the body shell and put in my friend's shop waiting for a new bodyman. I found a new one, but for now I have to wait to sold my house in Drummonville. I bought a new one in St-Hyacinthe and I have to wait for money for make the project go forward again.

The frame is almost completed, some hour of work (I work on and my friend help me) and the job will be complete for the frame correction.

Sorry for error in the text I'm not too familiar with english writing.

Your are mostly up to date.


1 005 (Small).jpg
1 001 (Small).jpg
1 014 (Small).jpg
1 051 (Small).jpg
diff. 12 fév.08 057 (Small).jpg
steer axle 018 (Small).jpg
steer axle 2 021 (Small).jpg
steer axle avril 08 004 (Small).jpg
steer axle mai 08 024 (Small).jpg


-- Edited by Fitz at 18:21, 2009-02-04

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Fitz


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It's crazy, the picture went side by side when on the "show preview", they where one over the other, I'll wait for help before posting new one.

What I've done incorrectly??

Fitz.

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4SPEED427


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I don't know if you are using Photobucket to post but if so, I always hit "enter" after each link is posted. Is that it?

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Fitz


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I use the post picture kit with the "attach image" section. I use all the 9 or 10 lines and hit the button below only once for all the picture.

Fitz.

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Canadian Poncho


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You have to hit return after posting the picture or they will go side by side..


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Stephenzone


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looks good. lots of fun eh. keep up the good work. i have torque tube rearend out of a 52 gmc in my trailer looks the same

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4SPEED427


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69Laurentian wrote:

You have to hit return after posting the picture or they will go side by side..


Can he go into his original post, hit edit and make them stack up?

I always use photobucket so I am not familiar with using this site to load them.

 



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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 (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
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Fitz


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69Laurentian wrote:

You have to hit return after posting the picture or they will go side by side..


I try to find "return'', but I hit the "back" button and I lost the all the page, I need to work on...

Fitz.

coil spring.jpg

master cylinder avril 08 001 (Small).jpg

diff. 069 (Small).jpg

OK I think it work now...





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Rolilk


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Andre..
Nice work and great to see the history of you car. I am going to keep mine as driver for a few summers yet I think. Then I'm going to pull it apart and redo from the frame up. So I'm very curious as to what you run into as problems along the way.

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Fitz


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stay tuned!

since I found the problem for posting many picture at a time I'll post other picture for detail the story.

Fitz.

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Fitz


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Numériser0009 (Small).jpg

Numériser0012 (Small).jpg

Numériser0015 (Small).jpg

resto 3 (Small).jpg

resto 5 (Small).jpg

resto 7 (Small).jpg

rouille 5 (Small).jpg


rouille 2 (Small).jpg
;lkj (Small).jpg

1 009 (Small).jpg

there is some picture of the disassembly of the car.

Fitz.

-- Edited by Fitz at 18:20, 2009-02-04

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Fitz


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coil spring.jpg

diff. 12 fév.08 066 (Small).jpg

diff. 12 fév.08 069 (Small).jpg

steer axle 2 015 (Small).jpg

steer axle 021 (Small).jpg

Avril 14, retour peinture steer axle 003 (Small).jpg

steer axle avril 08 018 (Small).jpg

steer axle avril 08 023 (Small).jpg



Steer axle caddy mai 08 001 (Small).jpg
steer axle avril 08 035 (Small).jpg

there is some other picture of the steer axle, it is ready to install, but I don't have frame right now to put on....soon I will

-- Edited by Fitz at 18:38, 2009-02-04

-- Edited by Fitz at 18:40, 2009-02-04

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59poncho


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looking great. i wish i could do the same,just dont have the room. I think i will drive it for the next 4-5 yrs and then do a resto like you are doing. At that time i should be in mexico and wont have to worry about weather or room to do the resto. Have any tips? Are you just useing varsol to clean that part with the brush?

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Fitz


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not really varsol, some kind of part cleaner. Don't smell very good, but look like varsol anyway. Now I'm moving, and I'll refill my cleaner tank with varsol for the next time.

For tips, just ask, if I could help...

Fitz.



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Rolilk


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How bad is the body? I can find the innner and outter rockers but to find as they call them the frame braces or body brackets is a hard one to get..So far I have not found any..I will most likely get them fab'd up to fit and look close to the originals. I think 57 poncho has the chassis book on our cars and he gave me some part numbers to follow up on. He might be of some help in looking up numbers if you dont have that book.
Rod

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Fitz


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The body is mostly bad, all the outer brace are shot. They are not reproduce for now, but EMS plan to make them, they have 49-52, but not 53-54. there is some picture of the underbody.

Fitz.

1 045 (Small).jpg

1 047 (Small).jpg

aile arrière, rouille (Small).jpg

boulonneries (Small).jpg

chassis rouillé (Small).jpg

diff. 12 fév.08 010 (Small).jpg

diff. 12 fév.08 007 (Small).jpg

fete a Marilou 044 (Small).jpg


Attachments
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Rolilk


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I will have to get a few shots of mine from under. Maybe this weekend. I can post them once I have something. For mine it seems odd some of them are perfect and some are totally gone?

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Rolilk


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Sorry for my ingnorance who is EMS?

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427carl


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EMS is a Ambulance driver

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Fitz


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there is the link, hope will help. You have to use for sheet metal chevrolet  53-54

http://www.emsautomotive.com/

On my Pontiac too, some brace are gone, and some don't. Mostly on the outside, the brace are gone, and those inside are OK.

Fitz.

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www.FitzbackGarage.com Look for Easy Steering in your vintage Poncho, Look for the EasyDrive Power Steering System in the web site
Fitz


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427carl wrote:

EMS is a Ambulance driver


?????



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www.FitzbackGarage.com Look for Easy Steering in your vintage Poncho, Look for the EasyDrive Power Steering System in the web site
Rolilk


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427carl wrote:

EMS is a Ambulance driver


LOL.... Carl your funny..
laughing.gif




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Rolilk


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Fitz wrote:

there is the link, hope will help. You have to use for sheet metal chevrolet  53-54

http://www.emsautomotive.com/

On my Pontiac too, some brace are gone, and some don't. Mostly on the outside, the brace are gone, and those inside are OK.

Fitz.


Thanks for the link Andre.



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speelman1958


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I nicely had my body guy replace doglegs and braces... he did a great job. Being a parts guy by day, he even found the right parts for me!

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Rolilk


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Yah I can find the braces for a tri five and later but its the 53/54 thing..I have even thought of buying some for a 55 and modify. It just seems these cars were just not that popular to restore or customize..So these are one of the few that have a bit harder time to find nice OEM looking stuff. But they are now just starting to make more and more parts for these years. Thats a good thing for me.

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