Wow, that is SO 70's! I can just feel that polyester leisure suit I had back then...

Looks like the wiper arms and the back of the inside rear view mirror are paint body color....nice touch!

-- Edited by 409Safari on Monday 6th of November 2017 09:05:53 AM

The Pontiac ashtray...

Pontiac died in the mid 70's, nobody noticed until 2009.

norontcan wrote:

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Way too dressed up! Too much makeup on this one! Front bumper and vinyl top are way over done.

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 Agree,way to much makeup on it. Thinking of a owner..these girls popped into my head.

When I saw the topic I almost expected to see an Astre hatchback with a full vinyl roof cover (non-padded) with segmented side quarter windows. I remember some local dealers were offering such a model as a dealer special back in '74. The quarter window had a vinyl-covered insert that revealed the quarter window in 3 segments. This was an addition to the production vinyl roof cover and it was done in the same vinyl. Sorry, no pictures but if someone has an old Hamilton Spectator from the fall of '73 there would be ads for it.

 

There are some nice elements to that car, but not the vinyl roof cover. The wheels look like Appliance Wiremags which are neat. Elements of the side stripes look o.k. and almost look like a Native Indian motif (on a Pontiac? ). I must have missed the CNE in '74 (I went in '73 & '75 etc.)

 

 

Hey, Ford has the 74 Grand Torino Elite, so we have to latch onto this trend as well!

If only just had it been powered by a 305 V8...now that would have gained it some respect.

MC wrote:

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That photo is an extremely cool time capsule.

But it would be disingenuous of me to avoid saying that I really was not a fan of the padded vinyl roof/opera window fad of the seventies.  Trying to adapt the 'personal luxury' look to vehicles that weren't designed for it (unlike the mid seventies Monte Carlo and Grand Prix), tended to be a 'fail' in my mind.  The Monte and GP looked good with it, but for example the Lemans and Chevelle/Malibu, and Nova/Ventura didn't... IMHO.

It's neat that GM Canada made their own show car like that.  Any idea if the US did a similar thing with the Vega?

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 They were of their time, just like bell bottoms. Chevy did offer the vinyl "toupee" on the Vega:

http://oldcarbrochures.org/index.php/NA/Chevrolet/1976_Chevrolet/1976_Chevrolet_Vega_Cabriolet_Brochure/1976-Chevrolet-Vega-Cabriolet-Data-Sheet-01

 

Another special edition Vega was to commemorate 1 million Vegas produced by 1973. It was called "The Millionth Vega" (it even said so on the exterior door handle inserts). They were nothing special except for Hugger Orange paint (by '74 the orange was a stock colour) and the fact that they were loaded GT Hatchbacks with a/c. These cars weren't bad looking at all.

I agree with a number of you, the Vega was a nice looking car. Nice lines.

But as said, that powertrain, oh man. It's funny how fast I turn my head now if I do happen to see a nice stock Vega. Rare to find one not hot rodded.

I dunno George, I always thought the 67-68 Firebird tail lights were a nice feature of the 1974-onward Astres. The 73s were just a token effort at making them unique and they didn't fool anybody. They were pretty hastily created after the Firenza debacle.

I can still remember the jingle on the TV ads for the 74 Astre; "Let yourself go in an Astre, let yourself go in an Astre. Let it all begin with Astre".

The TV ad for the 1974 Parisienne Brougham featured Gordon Jump (remember him from WKRP in Cincinnati or being the original Maytag Repairman?)

 

 

Carl Stevenson wrote:

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long stroke wrote:

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I was never a fan of the Astre, the Vega is much better looking. 

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Oh man, I always thought the Vega was too plain looking. The Astre had some class to it!

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 It is that grill that never made it for me on the Astre. I have never in my life seen a done up hot rod Astre, on the other hand tons of Vega's. I know that they built far far more Vega's over Astre's but you would think by now i would see some souped up Astre's. Maybe other folks feel the same way in that regard. Cheers.

long stroke wrote:

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. I know that they built far far more Vega's over Astre's

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I think part of that is because at the beginning, the US didn't have Astres from what I remember. Seems to me they might have been able to buy them in later years though.

I had a few Vega's in the late 80's. A 71, a pair of 72's and a '73. I only ever liked the first three years looks wise.

My '71 I did the most with. I bought it from my girlfriends Dad for the outstanding towing bill on the car. $36. He had bought it for his older daughter and the engine packed it in at 34,000 miles and was towed home. It was a pretty early car in the production run...the only one I ever saw with a three speed manual. I added a 229 cid Chevy V6 and a Saginaw 4 speed. Getting better parts for the V6 was a chore but it did eventually get a cam, and a Holley 500. It was a case of the perfect amount of power for the car in my opinion. Anything more would have required beefing the structure of the car significantly. I lowered the car about an inch and a half and added some Eagle GT gator backs the same width at all four corners. That made it handle very well.

I'd love to do another one, do the chassis work and drop in a 5.3 LS with a T5. So hard to find a decent Vega anymore though...