Our June feature car is another Canadian Pontiac that is very rarely seen these days. Jake Huebner owns this sharp 1968 Pontiac Grande Parisienne. While he has only had the car since last year, Jake has already started to make improvements to the car. It's always nice to see a car like this in good hands and we can all be rest assured that Jake will ensure this car is around for several years to come. Take it away Jake:

This 1968 Grande Parisienne has made numerous cameos on CP site over the years, so I hope everyone will enjoy a little more information!  I purchased the car in early 2016 and it came with an operators manual and a 1968 Wide Track Pontiac sales brochure for the Grande Parisienne, 2+2, Parisienne, Laurentian, and Strato-Chief.  Prior to arriving in Winnipeg in 2016, its previous home was in New Brunswick and prior to that, it originated in Nova Scotia. 

According to the sales brochure, the 68 GP came standard with the 210 hp Astro Flash 327 but you could upgrade at extra cost to the 275 hp Astro Flame 327, the 325 hp 396, or the 385 hp Jet Flame 427.   This GP has the 325 hp 396 L35 engine with a Quadrajet carb and the intake manifold has Quadrajet Jet cast into it. The engine block is stamped with the serial number of the body vin so the engine matches the car body and the block also has also has T 11 08 IV stamped into it.  The block is T 3916323 casting with other casting info such as K 6 7, GM3, Conv 2 and PASS.  What does that all these numbers mean?  I believe that the T represents the production plant of (T) Tonawanda, (11) November, (08) 8^th day, (IV) 325 hp 396 with TH (TH400).  As far as the block casting of 3916323, it was a cast used for both 396 2 and 4 bolt mains in late 1967 and early 1968.  K 6 7 would interpret as being cast on (K) November (6) 6^th day, (7) 1967.  My research suggests that PASS represents passenger, GM3 is a casting mold identification for quality control and CONV2 means conveyor 2 and again apparently for traceability with regards to quality control.

As I look at the production body plate and attempt to decode, I come up with the following: 

A53 - bench seat, Astro type, C08 - vinyl top, M40 - Turbo 400, T-27 is black vinyl top.  Body Style line, 68 is of course 1968, 766 represents Grande Parisienne, 87 is 2 door coupe, OS is Oshawa.  On the Trim line, TR 556 I believe interprets as black strato bench, 2-11-15 represents the second shift, November 15, and 9 NN I believe is enamel (9) and (NN) represents Cordovan Maroon metallic paint. 

If I am not accurate in any of these interpretations, pls feel free to offer a correction, with no worries! 

So, as I look at these casting dates, the block was cast on Nov 6, 1967, got stamped with T 11 08 IV on Nov 8and then was mated with the body on November 15, 1967!  The actual build year would be November 1967 and the “68” in the body style line on the production plate is the “model year” or “style” of the car, which is the “1968” model.

BTW, I looked up November 1967 and the casting date of Nov 6 is a Monday, the block stamping date of Nov 8 is Wednesday and assembly date of Nov 15 was the following Wednesday!  Why are these dates important? Well, you know what they say, don’t buy a car that was made on either a Monday or a Friday!!  So, that puts my mind at ease!   Ha, ha, ha! 

BTW, the 396 block casting 3916323 was the first 396 block to accept a spin on oil filter!

This Sport Coupe GP has the extra plushness option of the Strato bench seats with bucket type sportiness and pull down arm rest!!  (That is word for word from the 1968 Wide Track Pontiac brochure!)  The seats are cloth and aside from the 325 hp Astro Jet 396 and TH400, I believe the only other factory options on this car were the vinyl roof, remote outer mirror, power steering and the Strato bench with bucket backs.  After looking at the standard features and the options in the sales brochure, how could power steering not be standard equip for this 3953 lb car??  I think if I was ordering a Sport Coupe today I would upgrade to the 427 Jet Flame, buckets, console, TH400 (or maybe the 4 speed fully sync’d trans would be more fun, yes, I would totally go 4 speed!) air, power windows, disc brakes up front, and power steering of course.  That would be a real sporty car!  As per the brochure, some other options available in 68 for this particular car were: two tone paint, trailer hitch and car to trailer wiring, (we go camping so that would be a good option), air lift rear shock absorbers level control (that should stiffen the back suspension up even without trailering), safe T track rear axle(what’s that?), tilt steering, (oh yeah, I would order tilt as well), stereo radio (I would upgrade to stereo as well), and dual exhaust.  So, the question is, what options would you order on your 1968 Grande Parisienne??

This GP has dual exhaust but I am not sure if it was a factory order.  In an effort to verify exactly how this GP rolled out of the factory, I tried to locate a production build code printout.  First, I started by removing the front seat bucket backs, then the entire front seat, followed then by the back seat and finally the upper rear cushion, but was not successful in locating the production printout.  Then I read one of the CP members posting suggesting he found a production printout under the dash so I performed a body contorting act in order to try and look up under the dash but I could not find the production code printout there either.  Getting back to order options, the under dash GM air conditioner in this GP is obviously a dealer installed unit and not factory but it still works today with the occasional squeak of the fan. 

Since I acquired this 68 GP, I have changed out the left hand door window to the correct window that has the “Astro Ventilation” bonded to the window as well as door weather stripping, roof rail stripping, cowl strip, and a yet to be installed trunk weather stripping.  I found a front licence plate bracket to replace the incorrect one that was on the car, cleaned it up and installed the licence plate on it on the front valence.  But, I think there were licence plate guards that were an option as well but I have not located one of these guards.  I also replaced the remote mirror as the control mechanism was broken, so the remote mirror is now fully functional. You can see that I took a picture of the roof rail clip holding the roof weather stripping.  These clips were very rusty and with detaching rubber so I removed them, cleaned them in Metal Rescue and dipped them in Plasti Coat.  I thought they turned out ok.  I have also cleaned up other areas such as under the battery compartment where the battery must have overcharged and boiled over and there was some corrosion.  I also just removed the front wheel well chrome trim and wheel well and fender bolts and cleaned them up and reinstalled.          

The car had a resto about 15 years ago or so and I was able to find out some history in that matter.  I was informed that the Cordovan Maroon Metallic paint was replaced with a 2000 model year GM maroon paint code.  I was informed which GM model it was from but now I am drawing a blank as to which model!!  (LOL) Anyways, the car has had the rear left quarter panel replaced at some point in time and the driver’s door window had been changed out at some point as well.  Maybe that whole left side had a previous occurrence. Anyways, the underside of the car is very clean, solid and black.  The engine compartment is clear coated black, including the valve covers, and when you open the hood there is lots of shiny black paint!  But, there are a few areas that will need to be addressed.  L  I have a shot of the lower door pillar just below the door hinge bolts and you can see a pin hole!  There was a paint bubble there so I went ahead and poked it!  Yep, as you can imagine, my “rust free” east coast car apparently has some rust!!  After some further inspection, both sides of the door pillar / lower cowl are rusty!  L  There are a few other areas that will need attention as well, like a small section of the trunk weather stripping channel right in the curve of the lower left rear area.  But overall the car is definitely a good solid platform to have some fun with!

I plan to upgrade the front drum brakes to a C3 disc brake system that I have already acquired and is waiting for installation.  The info available on CP regarding front disc brake conversion was very helpful however I haven’t installed the disc brakes yet because as I look more closely at my upper control arms, I can see some of the rubber bushing starting to squeeze and roll out of the bushing itself.  So I have to wonder how tight are these 49 year upper and lower control arms are today??  I think perhaps when I decide to do the disc conversion, I should just likely be installing new stock control arms or something a bit more performance minded like a Golden West upper and lower control arm.  If I had set of pristine strato buckets, a tilt steering column, a complete floor shift console, and dash, I would upgrade it to the buckets / console model but all of that is hard to find and would be a bit of work to change out.  Along with the brake upgrade and potential suspension upgrade, I would also like to cheer the engine up as well one day.  Through some research, I have learned that this engine has been apart at some point in time due to a “turned bearing”.  This 396 runs good and cruises nicely in its current form but I feel the need for a bit more power.  If I do cheer it up, I think I will just try and use the parts that are in the engine and stay with the 396 3.76 inch crank, cam it up, add a performance intake manifold, clean up the heads and put on some headers.  Then, I will stick the 396 in the corner of the garage and drop either a 454 or a 496 in it!  That sounds like fun!   

I know this 68 GP has been on the Canadian Poncho site numerous times over the years so I hope you all enjoyed the pics and some of the history of this 1968 Grande Parisienne!  I want to thank Canadian Poncho for featuring my Grande Parisienne and enjoy the CP site and its members.  As I mentioned earlier, the wealth of knowledge on the site is enormous and I have enjoyed being a member!

Jake