St Therese or Oshawa?

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

St Therese or Oshawa?

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Great photos !

To the question, Ste. Therese opened for production on October 12, 1965 so they were likely building 1966 Biscayne and Strato Chiefs, not 65s. I'll say photos are from Oshawa.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Yes, some more information on Ste Therese here-

Ste Therese assembly plant (Translation would be nice?) - Canadian Poncho

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

100% Ray.

These are the only images I've ever seen of the 65's in Oshawa.

First image, a 283 or 327?

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Signage in the last photo appears to be in English only.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

MC wrote:
Signage in the last photo appears to be in English only.

Not so obvious as I first thought Mark. English signs were everywhere in Quebec then, hit and mis, lets say 50/50? No real language rule as of yet so who knows.

But yes, you'd think the safety signs would be at lest in french in a Quebec factory.

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

I agree with Ray. I say Oshawa because of the Canadian Pontiacs. It appears to be a 1965 Oldsmobile Delta 88 behind the Pontiac. Oshawa built select mainstream Oldsmobiles.

I think that Ste. Thérèse was dedicated to producing U.S. - spec products for export to the U.S. to offset the U.S. cars coming into Canada under the new 1965 Auto Pact. They used lacquer paint with a "3" as opposed to a "9" (I have to verify). 1967 I think was as it was in 1966. In Quebec they produced 40 SS 427 coupes for the U.S. while not offering them in Canada. By the 1968 model offerings they did offer the SS 427 in Canada. The Tripoli Turquoise convertible that passed through our scrutinization a bunch of years back on here was a Ste. Thérèse car sold new in Haliburton, Ont.

By 1970 the Catalina was part of the lineup as a normal offering. It was interesting to learn of a 1970 wide-tracker that was built in Ste. Thérèse, a Catalina 400 coupe.

In 1967 Oshawa built approximately 19,000 Chevelles. By 1969 they switched to lacquer paint, received black firewalls & spatter-paint trunks, started using smog pumps, and built approximately 43,000 just for export to the U.S. This is Oshawa I'm talking about. A big switch in allocations.

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

Didn't St.Therese only build 4 door cars back then? I see a two door in the photos.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

4SPEED427 wrote:
Yes, some more information on Ste Therese here-
Ste Therese assembly plant (Translation would be nice?) - Canadian Poncho

" Until now, only four-door Pontiac and Chevrolet Sedans, Strato-Chief, Laurentian, Belair and Bis cayne series, have been assembled there. Some 14,600 cars have already left the GM plant in Ste-Thérèse since it opened in September 1965."

65 SD L79 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Canadian Poncho wrote:
Didn't St.Therese only build 4 door cars back then? I see a two door in the photos.

they built 40 Z24 427 for the US as Cam posted so yes they built 2dr

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

Oh ok. I'm sure I read they only built 4 door models somewhere- perhaps up to 66?

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

cdnpont wrote:
MC wrote:
Signage in the last photo appears to be in English only.
Not so obvious as I first thought Mark. English signs were everywhere in Quebec then, hit and mis, lets say 50/50? No real language rule as of yet so who knows.
But yes, you'd think the safety signs would be at lest in french in a Quebec factory.

Yeah, I just stated it as an observation without a conclusion. If it were exterior identification signage I wouldnt have batted an eye at it. However, being safety signage in what I think would be an almost entirely francophone area, I would expect at least some French language on the signs?

That said, I wasnt there and know virtually nothing about the plant. So it is just an opinion. Maybe safety protocols were not so stringent back then and GM just shipped them the standard factory signage that they used everywhere else.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Yes, I thought exactly the same Mark. But there was that little "not so sure" in my mind.

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