Our June feature car is owned by a fellow I've known for several years. While David Saint-Pierre usually owned "Forward Look" era Mopars (1957-61) this 1959 Pontiac Parisienne caught his eye and I think it's safe to say he is hooked on this Poncho. Rescued from years of poor storage, Dave put quite a bit of elbow grease into this Pontiac to make it the stunning driver that it is today. Many of you followed his thread which starts at when he bought the car and it was evident he didn't waste any time getting her on the road. For those of you who missed his thread, Dave is more than happy to tell us again how he found this car and what started his love affair with this "Belle FIlle":

After numerous other fifties cars, most of them thoroughly restored, I thought I was done with the hobby for a while, but it was not too long that I started lurking for the next project.. I have always loved 1959 Pontiacs ever since I saw a two door sedan Laurentian in my home town when I was a kid. So when I saw this one for sale on Facebook, I had to at least make the drive to see it.

The ad was poor, bad photos, almost no description and outrageous price. Still, I figured a 59 Parisienne two door hardtop survivor was worth the trip. And it was!

I went to see the car with a friend between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, it was -30 degrees!.. I quickly figured out that the car had some rot but was worth saving. I negotiated the price, gave a deposit and drove back home pretty stoked. We went back to pick up the car on January 2 2018 and brought it back to life over the next four months.

 Seeing how this car was mostly original and well preserved, the whole idea was to keep as much of it original as possible while getting the mechanicals and electrics working safe and reliable.

 I had to have the floors patched in a couple of places, the worst part being the right side of the trunk.

 The poor thing was originally a six in line car, but the motor was blown by the former owner and he took it apart carelessly, so the car was sold without an engine. As much as I am a purist and I like original cars, I thought this was a perfect candidate for a V8 upgrade. So I located a rebuilt 283 with an aluminium PowerGlide and this was the deciding factor in buying the Pontiac.

After the 283 was installed in the car, I made sure it looked like it came out that way from the factory. The brakes, radiator, gas tank, and suspension were gone over and redone. I had a lot of little electrical bugs to sort out mostly due to the car having been forgotten in a canvas garage for at least 9 years.

 I am super happy with this car, and love the fact that it’s a very good cruiser, but with the original patina looks!.. This looks like  it will be a keeper!