I am new to AACA and I have a 1950 2 door Pontiac Silverstreak 6 cylinder, which I bought about a year ago. It seems to be hard to find a lot of information on this car and I am unclear if "Silverstreak" is the Model name of the car or the trim package. My radio says chieftan. Can anyone explain the models of this year and where mine fits. Most part are listed under Chieftan and I rarely see anything about Silverstreak.

Also, I still have a 6 volt set-up. If I change to 12 volt do I have to change all the wiring in addition to the bulbs. The car is mostly oringinal so I don't know if I should spend the money to change to 12volt or keep it original??

When I have the headlights on and just idling at a light my "charge" is in the negative. Is this normal ??

Thanks,
Christopher

Chrisopher
1950 Pontiac Silverstreak
Jacskonville, FL

Christopher,

"Silver Streak" referred to the chrome or stainless strips that ran the length of the hood and sometimes the trunk. They were a distinguishing design feature for Pontiacs starting in 1935. They had them in various widths through 1956. A member of another forum I belong to said that after 1951 they weren't referred to as Silver Streaks anymore even though the streaks were still there.

In 1950 the two body styles were Chieftain and Streamliner. The Streamliner was a "fastback", and the Chieftain was a "notchback". Both could be either 2-door or 4-door. The 1949 and '50 models had the label "Silver Streak" on the sides of the front fenders. If you had an 8 cylinder, it would read "Silver8Streak". I believe all the basic radios were labeled "Chieftain" even if they were in a Streamliner.

Someone with more expertise than me can probably help you with your electrical questions.

Can you post a picture of your car?

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for your info! I will try to post pictures ASAP. Mine is the notchback so I guess it is the Chieftain. It is painted silver and really looks like a silverstreak. Such a cool art deco period for automobiles.

Do you have your streamliner pictures posted? It is nice to have some other Pontiac owners to converse with about my car.
Thanks again!

Christopher, Go to the subject "Post a Picture of your Car" in this forum. A photo of my car (and one that belonged to my parents) is in the 8th message down from the top.

Bill

Hi Christopher, my name is Lukey and I drive a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain. Glad to see you here. My car is a 4 door delux. What is the style number of your car (mine would be 50-2569D)? There should be a tag on the firewall. If you include the paint and trim codes I can tell you even more about your car. Sure, the car will discharge at idle with the headlights on. That is no big deal. I still have all the original 6 volt stuff in my car and I have no problems at all. I look forward to hearing more from you... Lukey

GM never ever refered to "Silverstreak". Designers and reporters refered to the waterfall chrome mouldings on the hood and grills as "silverstreaks". Common usage or should I say mis-usage led to people refering to their Pontiac vehecles as silverstreak as if it were a model number. Just the same way as people refer to a pre 60's car as having a "VIN" rather than a serial number, or calling a four door sedan a four door post or a two door sedan (coach) a two door post. What they are trying to differentiate from is a four or two door hardtop. If you want a differential carrier for you car most back yard mechanics in north america will call it a "pumpkin". We both above and below the 49th have bastardized the English language.

It seems that Pontiac, atleast, refered to this car as the "Silverstreak" long enough to write it in chrome on each side of the car! This indicates something different than "never, ever." Not quite sure what you were trying o communicate with your response??? Maybe you could elaborate.

Luckey,
Nice to see another 1950. Look forward to chatting with you. Do you have a 6 or 8 cylinder?

I assume mine is a chieftain just didn't know if the streamliner could also have "silversreak" on the side as well.

Do you have any suggestions to get anymore power out of the engine? any other suggestions or advice? How fast are you able to go? I top out at 65-70mph but I don't know if I should push it that high. Driving awesome now that there is a rebuilt carb, new exhaust and radial tires.

It was not used in any literature put out by GM. It does not appear in any parts or shop manual. It is not a model designation.
By the way I drive my Pontiac daily (about a thousand miles a month) and cruise in the 55 to 60 mph range and top out about 75.

OK, this is why I had such a hard time finding anything online or parts when I was first looking.

What year and model Pontiac? Got pics on the site?

Top of the page under photo gallery there are a couple of pictures of my Pontiac. My signature telly you what it is. My daily driver for 49 years today.

Christopher, OK, My '50 is an eight cylinder with a hydromatic transmission. Usually I try not to drive over 60 MPH, but the car will go faster. How fast? I don't know. I would say it will go till it runs out of power. 80 mph is possible I'm sure. If you look in the photo section my car is the second one, it's dark green. Be carefull with the radial tires. The radials put a lot more stress on the suspension because you will naturally drive the car in a more aggressive manor and secondly the sidewall of a radial puts increased load on the rim in the area where the bead seats. Rim failures are pretty common and as you can imagine, a catastrofic rim failure at speed can lead to a crash.IF you get a chance post a picture of your car as we are all eager to see it... Lukey

Hello everyone. I am a new owner of a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain 4 Door Deluxe and I am new to this forum. I happened upon the forum while 'Google-ing' for info. I've enjoyed all the info thus far and am sure to have lots of questions when I start tinkering. I will be taking Pete's advice and joining the Early Times Chapter after I get setup with POCI if I can ever get on the website which keeps crashing on me. I'll also post some pics once I figure it out. Glad to have found you all.

Hi Lukey, as prev mentioned I also am a new owner of a 1950 Chieftain 4 dr Deluxe. I found info on the first four digits of the serial number but was wondering what the last 5 digits stand for. Also you mentioned you can decipher the firewall tag; Style No is 50-2569D just like yours so I know what that means. Body No. appears to be BL 10858? Trim No. 71? and Paint No. 5010? I put question marks because there is a buildup of paint on the tag and its a little hard to read. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Cristopher. Your car is a twin sister to mine. your car was Bershire Green when it was new, which is what it looks like still. The wheels should also be green. The interior would be different shades of grey wool. I just got home from the POCI convention so I am a little behind and super disorganized. I'll get back with you on the body number when I get a chance... Lukey

Thanks Lukey. I'm not Christopher though...he's the first guy who started this thread, I just jumped in as I bought mine recently and figured I'd take you up on your offer as well with the codes. My car does look very close to yours as posted in the pic section. She has been repainted once it would seem. The headliner is immaculate which I was so surprised to find and it and the back seat portion you lean back on are made of a Gray Wool material as you speak. The entire front seat and the part you sit on of the rear seat are also gray but lighter in color and I would compare it to a suede material.

Hope you had a blast at the POCI convention! Was wondering where all the Pontiac folks have been lately.

My bad... Lukey

OK Lukey,

I finally have the numbers from my car:
Style No: 50-2511D

Body No: P29110
Trim: 71 ???
Paint: 10 ???
Top: ACC K ???

Maybe you can give me info on my car. I am going to finally post pictures. Sorry for the delay.

Thanks
Christopher

This time it is really you Cristopher? OK, a 50-2511d is a Chieftain 2 door sedan delux. Paint: 10, that is Bershire Green, which is a dark green. The most popular color that year! Those should be green wheels as well on your car. Trim 71 is two tone gray wool interior. I'm still thinking about the top. Good to hear from you again... Lukey

Yes it is!
I was told that the car was originally red. Infact I have found some untouched and unpainted areas that show the red. Also, the wheel are red. The numbers were worn but I was pretty sure it said 10. Repaint?? What was the code for Red? Could I have mistaken this for 10?

well its silver now. Have you had a chance to see the pics I finally posted?

Thanks for all of your great info Lukey!

Christopher
Jacksonville, FL

In 1950 it would have been "Rio Red" and the code would have been "06". This would have also been a car equiped with black wheels. Hope this helps... Lukey

hi guys! just thought i'd tack this post on to the string of 50 chieftain posts already running rather than start a new one. just found this site and registered today. my 50 chieftain 4 door deluxe is taragon green... a repaint about 20 years ago, i gather from a show brochure written by the original owner. he states the original paint formula is no longer available and provided the one he used to get a close match. she's a beutiful car, one-family-owned for 58 years!! i've been going through all the electrical, just cleaning the terminals and repairing a few bad "twist and tape" jobs on a couple of wires. other than that, the car has no issues and drives great! i spent a couple of days de-musting the underside of the dash, with pine-sol to get 58 years worth of dust out of there, rubbed out the dash with polishing compound, and polished all the chrome first with turtle wax chrome cleaner/polish, then a second pass with a polish called maas, which i got at the hardware store. this stuff comes in a toothpaste tube and works great on chrome, stainless, brass, and copper. the original hood ornament was solid chrome and in perfect condition; but i found a nicely rechromed light-up one and put it on. now i'm looking for the lamp socket and wire to illuminated it, though i did make a nice one with a single-wire socket from an auto parts store. i modified this socket so that it has a better ground than that provided by the mounting clips which catch the hole in the stainless hood panel ( i believe that is stainless, and stainless is rather resistive ) to make a better ground, i drilled into the side of the socket just below the contact disk and attatched a seperate ground wire using a sheet metal screw. i made one other improvement in a ground for the hydromatic shift indicator lamp, which also relies on good continuity through the indicator housing to the steering column tube. i took a short piece of brass strip and locked it down to the indicator with the lamp housing mounting screw. the other end of the strip runs down 1 1/2" and brushes against the inside of the indicator housing plate. this is a better ground than the factory set-up, which relies on current to pass along the plated indicator needle body. i was getting about 4 ohms across this plated piece and of course now almost 0 ohms across the brass strip. i could tell that the original circuit was resistive because the spring-loaded contact was pretty green compared to most the other terminals and contacts i've been over--even the ones under the hood looked better than this one. anyway, blah-blah-blah!! just wanted to say hi to everbody and offer what i could as a newcomer. from what i have read, the name silver streak refers to the engine, not to the body syle. i think i read this on the wiki site, thought i know those contributions are not always athoritative. markss8

Hi guys..My first post on this forum..I recently aquired a 50 Streamliner silver streak. The numbers are 50-7507
P 3731
Paint 00
top acc K It looks like it was a black car and has a 6 cylinder engine in it

Hi Andy, Are you sure the model number is not 50-2507? That would be what Pontic calls a "Sedan Coupe" And yes, your paint code would indicate the car was originally black. By the way Andy, Welcome aboard... Lukey