Our July feature car is this nicely executed custom 1960 Pontiac Laurentian. Noel Gratto is the owner of this fine Poncho. As you will see by the following photos Noel is very talented in all aspects of automotive repair as he did most of the restoration and custom work on this car himself. The results are outstanding. Here's the details:

"This story starts in Dec/ 2018. I wasn't really lookin for another car, as I already had two. I noticed this car on Kijiji

and realize that is was a two door bubble top car. I have always loved the look of the Chev and Pontiac bubble top cars but never thought that I would ever

find one. I was able to make a deal with the owner and bought it home in Dec/2018. That is when the work began. The car was running

and drivable but it needed to be completely restored.                                                                                                                                                                                                             

     Before I started the restoration I needed to do so some research on the car. I sent off the serial number to Vintage Vehicle Service and

got the G.M. records for the car. This car is a Canadian built car, it was built in Oshawa Ont. Original sold in Hawkesbury, Ont. by

 Laniel Autos Ltd. There was only 1755 built and a 1 year only style, which means there is probably not many survives out there. 

     I started tearing the car apart to see how bad the restoration would be. I noticed the car had been worked on before but not up to safety 

standards of today. The body mounts where collapsed and the body was sitting on the frame. 

     The trunk needed to be completely replaced. Unfortunately, replacement sheet metal for these cars is not available. So I had to do it the hard way 

and fabricate them myself. I had to make the trunk panels in three pieces.

     The floors also needed to be replaced.

     The frame from the rear wheels back was also rusted out and had to be replaced. 

     A lot of the rear quarter panels had to be fabricated. 

     Once all the sheet metal and body work was done, it was finally time to move on to the paint and reassembly the car.

     Started painting interior parts and dash,(24 pcs in total) there is a lot of metal in these cars.

     Finally started painting the outside of the car. This part makes all the hard work before, worth it. 

     After all the paint was done, I begin on making this car a custom one of a kind car that I had pictured in my head. I started by swapping out the 6 cylinder

engine for a period correct 384 8 cylinder engine.  Then added 700R4 overdrive transmission. Also added power steering and power brakes, with disc brakes on the front.

     . Custom interior was installed with  new carpet and headliner. 

     New modern day gauges where installed into the original dash panel. 

     Finally decided to add air ride suspension.

     Installed air compressor in the trunk and covered with custom panel to hide it.  

     Finished the car with American Racing Torque Thrust wheels. 17x11 on the rear and 17x8 on the front. 

   Thanks,

    Noel Gratto