'65 Pontiac Wagon Trip a SuccessBy Freiburger Posted 01/28/09
Nine days ago we told you that I’d be making a trip north to Sacramento to pick up a ’65 Pontiac wagon that our friend Todd at MSD had scored sight-unseen on eBay. I came home from the trip last night at midnight.
As it turns out, the car is a Tempest and not a LeMans as previously presumed, but who cares? It’s a creampuff, the sort of totally rust-free California car that you Rust-Belters envy. It is powered by a bone-stock 326 and someone swapped in a 200R-4 auto overdrive trans. The car has one-finger power steering, power drum brakes, and no a/c. It’s had a 15-footer paintjob, and the interior is all original except the front seat that’s been recovered. The floor covering is the original rubber mat, but it’s a cool aqua-colored mat with Pontiac logos in it, not the black pebble-grain stuff we’re used to seeing.
The 400-mile trip home proved uneventful. Here are a few photos and captions of the mini-adventure.
Todd flew me to Sacramento, which has a really nice airport. I dug these cool columns of luggage in the baggage claim area.
Here’s the ’65 Tempest with its gennie black-and-yellow plates. It’s super straight.
The rear window has the typical scratch right down the middle, but the car came with a spare
The 326 is said to have been rebuilt. The wheels are 15-inchers.
My first stop was in Stockton, California, where I met up with Dave Wallace and his cool ’61 Plymouth. It’s a Slant Six, radio- and heater-delete car.
Here’s D2 himself in all his Hall of Famer goodness. We bench raced for 4 hours about my new/old gig at Hot Rod and other such industry gossip. See Dave at www.hotrodnostalgia.com.
The next stop was at Steve Dulcich’s place where I toured his collection of junk Mopars.
Somewhere on the Grapevine the car rolled 66666.6 miles. The trip home was almost exactly 400 miles.
I had no issues with the car whatsoever. With the overdrive trans, it got about 17 mpg at 70 mph.
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Written by 58yeoman Feb 01 2009
WAGONS RULE!
Written by DougBreithaupt
Feb 01 2009
GM' A Body wagons of the Bill Mitchell era were the best looking on the road. Your Pontiac is a wonderful survivor. I looked for one for years and finally found a '72 Buick Sport Wagon.
[img]http://www.breithaupts.com/72buick.jpg[/img]
Over the last few years I keep seeing more of these GM 'grocery getters' at car shows, finally getting the respect they deserve. Of course we still use ours to haul the garbage and go to the lumber store as well.
Written by N20Silverado Jan 29 2009
[quote author=Dave the Bartender link=topic=9424.msg185457#msg185457 date=1233232179]
Wow, So much cooler than the Stroller. (sorry new pig guy) Glad someone got it who will appreciate it . . . and drive it !
Drive it till ya wear the tires out, and good luck with it.
DTB
[/quote]
I see how it is. LOL I would had to be carrying a big club to leave in that one if you sold it to me wouldn't I? It's nice but I bet you wouldn't have half the stories you wrote if you were driving that instead of the Stroller.
Reading this makes me want to go out drive it but drift busting with drag radials and ET fronts would suck.
BTW the Stroller gets 17 mpg with a 283 and a 700R4.
400 miles is a day trip. The Stroller made it 2000. Thanks for and awesome car DTB!!
Written by fast Ed
Jan 29 2009
Good looking car, but 400 miles? C'mon, that's just an easy day trip.
Try 2,000 miles in an old Beetle that you just bought ... wait, I did that last fall. ;D
cheers
Ed N.
Written by squirrel
Jan 29 2009
Nice looking car! too bad it lost it's 300 trans....they're so relaxing, you just push the gas and wait a minute for it to make it's one shift.
Written by PigGuy Jan 29 2009
Wow, So much cooler than the Stroller. (sorry new pig guy) Glad someone got it who will appreciate it . . . and drive it !
Drive it till ya wear the tires out, and good luck with it.
DTB
Written by milner351
Jan 29 2009
Man you guys are killing me with these clean old cars you're using as "daily drivers" envy I tell you!
I hate driving my '97 powerstroke truck in the winter cause I drove all the way to banjoville georgia to pick it up and it's still rust free.
that wagon is tasty - and all the better than somebody already put in the 200R4 - 17mpg at 70mph - you'd be hard pressed to do better than that in one of todays big SUVs.
well done!
Written by NAS Backyard Jan 29 2009
WOW! Sweet Pontiac!. And I'm a big fan of 61 Plymouths also. Too bad I missed the post about your trip, I'm 15 miles north of Stockton , you would have been welcomed to a tour of my junk . Glad you made it back down OK.
Written by dulcich Jan 28 2009
"The next stop was at Steve Dulcich's place where I toured his collection of junk Mopars."
I would have went with, "... his sweet collection of vintage Mopar iron.", but I can live with that.;) The wagon a nice score.
-dulcich
Written by N20Silverado Feb 01 2009
[quote author=58yeoman link=topic=9424.msg187348#msg187348 date=1233506577]
WAGONS RULE!
[/quote]
Amen