Yeah all the heat riser stuff is there and is free and moves.easily. the bi-metal spring is intact so it should work...

After you upload pic click on insert, once inserted if you click on the pic it will turn blue, then you can click on corner of pick when arrow appears and drag down/up to make it the size you want. Put in text before each pic and then hit return, this will drop cursor down so pic shows up below text. Not great at explaining, but hope this helps.

Hi there - if you're looking for a 283/powerglide combo I've noticed a few listed out here on the coast - I could keep an eye open for you if you'd like.   I am in the process of a '57 4 door Pathfinder rebuild but luckily started with a driving and road licensed all-original car with the 261 and 3 speed - next step is to pull the engine/tranny and see if we need any serious rebuilding before making a decision on whether to replace with a v8.

 

in my opinion (for all its worth)...back in the day when I worked at a service station, it

seemed like most of the time we did only a valve job ,the engine seemed to use a lot of

oil after. I suggest you use a "monkey-ball " hone in the cylinder bores . It will deglaze the

cylinder walls & help the old piston rings seal.    love your project -  Bob

I'll see if I can scare up a ball hone I guess. No better time than now, and there is no reason not to.

I have days of cleaning left, I might as well just get my head wrapped around that idea. I covered the exposed block and started on the firewall, working top down. Everything is in remarkable, and original shape. With some citrus cleaner and elbow grease the firewall area is almost done. The lower you go the worse the crud gets. I'll get as much as I can get, then throw it up on some stands and do the pan.

All my parts have shown up, so once the cleaning is done I can get started re-assembling the engine. I'll snap some pics for the hell of it tomorrow. Everyone likes pics right?

Wow, that has cleaned up real nice. One thing when they are coated like that they are well preserved.

57 Pathfinder wrote:

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Scrub a dub dub...

Making a little progress.

 

Seems this old girl got hit on the driver's front twice...once when it must have been fairly new. You can see the chunk of cowl that is blackish looking, and when you look closer you can see a piece has been welded in. They did a pretty decent job. The second hit to the front end was the one that parked the car for 5 decades...

 

Anyways, the firewall is looking decent and I'm getting closer to throwing a little paint on the block and re-assembling.

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 I LOVE IT !!!!!

Well, I've been picking away at this for a while now...mostly cleaning. The only upside is how well this gunk preserved the stuff under it. I have fuel lines, brake lines and vac advance lines that are original, but look brand new. Crazy!!

So, I also spent a few hundred bucks at Rock Auto, plus bought a few parts from members here. A generator from Long stroke that is just dead sexy (pics below!) and a carb and starter from Rabbit64cs.

I don't think I ever mentioned what got me interested in 57 Pontiac's to begin with. My parents immigrated from Holland to Edmonton in May '67. I was not quite 2 years old. The first car they bought was a 57 Safari 2 door wagon...and my dear old Mom dredged up the only picture she had of it. It was the one car my Dad always talked about, and says he should never have sold. They bought it for $100, and a few months after they got it the 283 in it died. My Dad had a good used 327 installed. A year later they traded it in on 65 Strato Chief 4 door sedan.

 

Anyways, it's not like I remember that car, mostly I remember how much my Dad talked about it. When i found my 57 it seemed fateful so I pulled the trigger.

 

So, I finally got to the point where some of this stuff can go back together. Head gasket in place, generator installed, and you can see the fuel and vac advance lines in this pic. Shiny solid originals!

 

 

on with the new fuel pump and fuel filter assembly.

 

 

By this point I'd pretty much run out of small stuff, but I wasn't looking forward to wrestling the head onto the engine by myself. It really doesn't help there are no dowels to help line things up. I was glad to see my buddy Nick show up right about then...so together we muscled the head on, and it was still a pain in the arse!

 

 

Valve train next...

 

 

Side cover, distributor cleaned up, new condensor, rotor, points, cap, wires, coil and spark plugs...thanks Rock Auto!! lol

 

 

Last thing for today was getting the intake and exhaust installed. I'm not horribly far from trying to fire it up. I need a temp fuel system (aka pop bottle), I need to pull the plug on the ignition switch and make some small jumper wires...I have no keys. I need to drain the oil and put some fresh oil in. I need to mount the oil filter canister. I'm going to run the lines to it, but the canister will be empty. At least this will keep the total oil capacity a bit higher. I need to run the electrical stuff.

 

Tomorrow I'm heading a little bit out f town and picking up a radiator, and maybe a few other small parts. I might try to start this tomorrow for the first time in 49 years and 2 months!

What's with Dutch immigrants and Pontiacs? We immigrated in 67 as well and ended up in Saskatoon, according to my mom on the 9th of May after 10 days by sea and 2 by train.

Our first car was a 64 Strato Chief 4 door sedan and in 69 a new 2 door Strato Chief that we kept until 92.

Love seeing the progress on the 57.

dcneric wrote:

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What's with Dutch immigrants and Pontiacs? We immigrated in 67 as well and ended up in Saskatoon, according to my mom on the 9th of May after 10 days by sea and 2 by train.

Our first car was a 64 Strato Chief 4 door sedan and in 69 a new 2 door Strato Chief that we kept until 92.

Love seeing the progress on the 57.

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 I dunno, I'm thinking they were just a really popular brand back then. 

 

Funny we came in May 67 too, I don't know what day. We flew, landed in Montreal and stayed overnight, then on to Edmonton. I think about it now as an adult, my parents were crazy! New country, new language, new climate, new culture, all thousands of miles from family...with two kids under 2 years old. I think they had $250 to their name when they came here.

 

 

Sweet tip!

I pulled a door cylinder out of my parts car, and the only number i can find is not on the lock cylinder body, but on the tabs coming off the lock cyl.

So, I ordered new iggy, trunk and door locks. lol

I picked up a radiator today. The guy was either lonely, or super hard up for cash. I couldn't get out of there as he'd keep dragging me to see another shed, or patch of cars, or his garage. I did bring extra cash, and as you'd guess I eventually found something else to buy. A decent set of '58 Pontiac poverty caps for $50. Gave $100 for a rad that allegedly doesn't leak. He used to run a classic car wrecking yard on that property and still had some stuff. Notably an almost complete 56 Chev 4 door, a 55 Chev 4 door, and a 56 shell with an OK condition complete interior. All the body's looked pretty rust free.

I got a few more parts on the engine today, and got stopped by the phenolic carb spacer. When my car had it's accident back in the day the core support crunched into the air cleaner, which broke the carb base and the spacer under it. I got another carb off of rabbit64, and should have asked if he had the spacer at the same time. I'm still hoping he can set me up. I've been able to find that spacer new for a 235...but I'm 99% sure it's smaller.