Pontiac59

I know they're both GM transmissions; believe the OD unit is 55-62 Chevy. The floor shift may be muscle car era, that's a factory shifter. No ideas?

Gonna be a long trip to Argentina to check the engine for an ID.

Way nicer than what I need for this car.

I drove from upstate NY to central South Carolina last fall in a 22 year old van that pulls 15 MPG and stayed an entire week. The fuel and hotel cost me about $750. It was about 14 hours drive one way and I took my time and went down some US and state roads, hit the Petty museum, etc. Then I did a hobby show while I was in SC and made $300 or so back on my expenses. That doesn't count the things I bought to re-sell when I got home - out of that I sold another $350 on just three pieces. And it was just me, by myself, with money I made selling one of my cars. If I hadn't just spent a bunch at an auction an hour from me (and still need to make a 4th trip to get stuff from it) I'd go down here no problem and see how much I could fill my van with. If you can't find two or three things you can sell for enough profit to break even on your expenses, something is wrong.

Went to a salvage yard auction the other day and the scrap guys were buying most of the cars. They stole one from me that I won, too. They didnt' care what it was, I went back to get another car and the one decent F1 panel that was up there, they'd purposely smashed the rear doors on it.

8 hours is nothing, for the right NOS parts, you should be able to put a few things on eBay and be ahead on all of your fuel and lodging costs - which should be under $500 if you don't stay at the Ritz Carlton. I was up at an auction the other day and even with someone stealing some of my stuff I brought home six pallets of old parts with a total investment of around $400. If you want to sell it all, and fast, bring in a good auction outfit, one that knows to advertise to car guys for car stuff. and let them sell it all in lots.

Can't access their forum without joining the club. After about four windows trying to register I gave up without ever seeing a registration form.

Disregard any white numbers on them. They're auction lot numbers. The yellow markings may have some kind of meaning.

One is a 3-speed OD, one is a 3-speed with a floor shift and a raised pad with some stamped numbers. Can anyone aim me in the right direction?

Cheaper the better so long as usable, grille need not be '37 Terraplane, 38 or Hudson is fine. Radiator support would be nice too. Located upstate NY.

Well, nevermind that. Scrap dealer Murtagh (Rome, Fulton NY) stole it on purpose and trashed it. Cut open a tank truck and stuffed it inside to hide it. As sooin as we asked the broad who was telling them what to load she got all super defensive, but once they realized it was the one they hid they let us look and of course could not find it. Yard that held the auction couldn't bother to keep checking lot numbers on cars versus people's paperwork. I missed it by only a couple hours.

Is it possible that once they were renamed Erskines sat on the lot while people bought the renamed car, long enough to be retitled and sold as 1931s?

Just to remind folks, a doodlebug is when a car is cut down to make a tractor. There are almost no body parts outside of a cowl/dash and a very rough grille shell (no bottom and a chunk was cut out of the top with a torch at some point, almost looks like someone took a bite out of it). What I'm primarily selling here are mechanical parts - a complete engine and transmission.

I just bought what I believe is a '30 Studebaker turned doodlebug. It has a complete six-cylinder engine, transmission, cowl and dash, basically the front half of the car. Has sat outside for many years. The exhaust manifold is cracked. I bought it to use the frame under another car, so the rest of it is surplus and I'd be willing to part it out if anyone needs pieces. I haven't run the numbers/cowl tag data but it appears to be a Commander based on looking at photos. Appears to have a Mack Truck rearend in it, also.

IIRC the Buick has a 429 in it, I've seen that car at shows too, with a sign telling what the motor was. I remember being dissapointed it wasn't at least Buick powered.

That I know of no factory '59 or '60 console, either. But one out of say a '64 Gran Prix could have been made to fit it pretty easily. The shifter would even work on the trans. Pontiac got the 4-speed manual in '60 and I believe that could be had with a floor shift, as the column shifters were somewhat fragile and they were drag racing them at the time with some factory support. Personally I'd like to find a Star Chief or Bonneville Sport Sedan (2dr post, Star Chief only) or Vista hardtop (4dr with the flat roof), preferrably in Royal Amethyst with a white top; I drove a '60 Catalina for a daily years ago and I've never had a more pleasant car to drive - power, handling and comfort, it was ideal.

See, anybody can restore a complete rust free car. When you have to splice together pieces from multiple bodys and take them apart right down to factory welds and then some, well, that seperates the men from the boys. It would be amusing to keep the scoop and have a fake 6-71 on top of a stock 4-banger when it's done.

Buddy of mine had a hitch put on one he eventually bought from a girlfriend and towed with it. But it was shorter, maybe 26ft tops. Not much longer than the car trailer. It would tow a steel car trailer loaded with a '53 Ford 1/2 ton bread truck full of car parts without any problems. He keeps it in Florida now to haul a stock car with. Gas milage will be in the crapper, though, these things never seem to get more than 10 even in a 1/2 ton pickup.

It would be interesting to see what the NADA books have to say. This car is a Tarrytown build if that makes a difference. The fenders and door all were originally black on an originally tan car; the hood is original to the car, so it's not likely it was wrecked, just rusty. But who knows if the grille was changed or not; I just know the nose has been off it before. Probably by whoever put the 235 in it that it had when I got it. That said, the numbers don't lie, I don't think GM shut down in July or August to retool to only build only 200 cars before Christmas, or even before December 2nd, and then apparently not sell any before the second week of January 1950. Espeically when the changes from 1949 to 1950 are so minor. The sequential numbers in the serial applied to every car they built, so car number say 1055 could be a sedan and 1056 a convertible. They had to build over 700 per day at each plant to meet the million and a half or so total 1950 Chevrolet cars produced (and that in one shift, working roughly 250-260 days a year). I'm not going to post the actual number on this car, but it works out to below 200 - the start numbers were all 1001. That would make it built before lunch on the first day - and given the greater number of dealers at the time, I wouldn't be surprised to find out it was the first '50 sold by one. But it also says it was made in December - not July, August, September, etc. - A late start on the 1949 cars, since it was a complete retool, is no surprise, and the further back you go the closer to the actual end of the year they did model year changeovers (even in cases like where Chryslers over serial number XXXXX would be titled as the next year with few/no changes, and a true next model not come out until midyear). Chances are I just need to hit a library with a decent automotive section and see what I can find there, or pick up a Standard Catalog Of Chevrolet. My guess is maybe the Janaury date is when they officially went on sale, but production began beforehand and either they did a soft transition, or they purposely built ahead of time so all the dealers would have plenty in stock. One thing seems certain, if I knew how many they built per day via a documented source, and exactly what day the changeover was made to 1950 production, I should be able to pin down both the day it was built and likely even come fairly close on what time it was completed. Which normally is not something you can easily do.

I'm a little confused. A couple of websites I've found say that Chevrolet began production of 1949 passenger car models on 1/7/49, and 1950 models one year later - both say almost the same thing word for word, which leads me to believe they both come from the same original source - perhaps a book like Krause's Standard Catalog of Automobiles? My 1950 contradicts this information. The serial number letter code for producton month is L - December. The numbers on it are too low for it to be a late car - it has a two digit body number and a 4 digit sequential serial number, that if you subtract the 1001 start number, makes it below 200. Chevrolet made around a million and a half cars that year, with 45,000 or so the same model as mine, so if it were a late car I'd expect at least a 4-digit body number and 5 or even 6 digit sequential number in the serial. (the original motor is long, long gone so no clues there, I think it was removed before I was even born). When I got the car it had a 1949 grille, but it also has had the front fenders and left door changed, so I assumed that was just what was available at the time. All of the other details, what's left of them - interior colors, stripes and such - match up to what's correct for 1950 and for it's original body color. This has me curious just what is correct and when the model changeover occurred - and also just how many the plants were building in a day at that time, as it would seem this car was built on the first day or so they made 1950s. But either I'm searching with the wrong terms, or this data is going to be found in a book somewhere that is not posted to the internet. Anyone have any ideas?

I know it's up there on a truck, I just have to get there before they scrap it. '55 like a 2-ton conventional cab. Might be a week or so, it's 45 miles away, but I have to go anyways, I need parts for my driver and they have the best price on what I need by a long shot.

I could get one, note my thread in the main Buick forum that I found one in a salvage yard. Probably would mail first class pretty cheap. Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

This car just might have cruise, there's some kind of vaccuum ball behind the motor with ball chains going into the linkage. I think it also has the Speed Alert, but I don't remember it saying that exactly on the dash - did Buick refer to cruise by some other name that year?

GMC used Pontiac V8s from '55-'60 or so, in 287, 317, 347, 370, and 336 variants. The manifolds and routing don't change much, both 55-57 cars and trucks the left manifold dumps at the front and wraps around to join the right on the right side of the vehicle. The truck in question is marked '55 and clearly has a Pontiac V8 in it (with GMC stickers on the valve covers).

No, air cleaner is there and a plain ol' round one. The car really isn't in that terrible of shape, although it has signs of being redone once and obviously repainted - but has sat for about 16 years judging by the inspection sticker.