Now I'm sure some of you guys are getting a little tired of seeing so many 1966 Pontiac's as our feature car. So to all two of you I apologize . For the rest of you we have a '66 Grande Parisienne that I think is safe to say was brought back from the dead. Ken Yackimec was the savoir of this car. What I really admire about Ken is he's not afraid to drive his Pontiac across country, even with an Airstream in tow. That's what I like to see. Ken gives us the scoop:

The Big Yellow Barge.

When my dad finally got enough money together to actually buy a new car in late 1965 he decided to go with a Pontiac, because in our small town there was only one GM dealer and they offered Pontiac's, Buick's and GMCs rather than Chevy/Olds. I think in his mind the idea of owning a Buick was out of the picture as they were for sort-of rich folks like doctors and lawyers and teachers and such. Pontiac's were respectable, though, and the brochure that he brought home had pictures and tempting write-ups on cars that ran the gamut from sexy, powerful and smooth to the kind of car that reminded that you were a cheapskate every time you got in it. It is interesting to think from this vantage point on how insidiously clever the car marketers were back in the 60s as they knew that most guys didnt want to think of themselves as cheap so they offered many tempting but really sort of minor variations of the same basic body and frame and tons of neat-o options of all prices so that up-selling (known back then as going through the option list) was actually pretty easy.

It would take a pretty determined and unusual buyer to go though the whole process with a smooth-talking salesman and end up with a stripper 2 door Strato Chief without a single option.

My dad was playing it pretty quiet as we went to town to get this highly anticipated major family event ordered up and we three boys were hoping for the sexy 2 door hardtop but being a practical but proud family guy he went with a pretty upscale car in the line and ordered up a nice safe boring Parisienne 4 door sedan. It was a pretty nice car considering what we had before which was a well used 1953 Belair, but it was just so dull (except for the Regal Red colour choice).

A 4 door Parisienne with a 283 and Powerglide just didnt compare with the pictures in the brochure of the top-of-the-line car, the smooth looking Grande Parisienne with the way cooler grille and I have never lost my lust to have of those since then.

Over the years I saw a few of these shapely beasts around town as they aged. We actually bought one in the 70s to use as a parts car and trashed it thoroughly, which still makes me wonder about my intelligence. (It was a pretty much rust free 327 Grande with a 4 speed for Gods sake.)

In any case as life went on and I went through a lot of other cars and trucks over the years, it wasnt until 2002 that I learned of another Grande that was for sale.

I had mentioned for quite some time to my brother that I was kind of looking for one of these before they were all gone. He knew a guy at his work that was looking to sell his project so we got together and went down to Brooks to see it. It was looking pretty tired, mouse infested and partly stripped out and had been repainted at least twice poorly, but basically it was a fairly solid and well optioned more or less complete 396 Grande Parisienne!, (except for a missing gas tank for some reason) so we made the deal.

I had intended to get it going fairly quickly but I was building a house, a garage and a marriage so it wasnt until about 2008 that I started to get serious. I also have to give this forum and particularly Carl Stevenson credit for really motivating me as well. I remember his excited reaction when I first signed on in late 2008. I mentioned kind of casually that it was a 396 car with air conditioning not really thinking it was that out of the ordinary as I always the thought the prosperous east of Canada would have had hundreds of them. It was his reaction and few other responses that made me see just how unusual this thing was with only 23 of these cars having come with AC.

I ended up going through Vintage Vehicle Services to verify the car and it certainly turned out to be a well-equipped old beast even as it came from the factory in the fall of 1965.

(See Vintage Vehicles scan here)

The project went in fits and starts for the next few years like they tend to do when its a big one. What I wanted was a car that looked original that I also wouldnt hesitate to drive across Canada so I chose to leave it pretty stock as the factory engineering is usually the most dependable. (I have found over the years that almost every time I improved a car I ended up making it less dependable.) The only non 1966 era mods I made were using a TH700R4 in place of the Powerglide, using a Pertonix in the original distributor, putting in a 1967 dual master cylinder to help out the braking, and 15 x 7 rallys/radials using the original wheel cover spinners in the centre caps. Ive also recently got an OEM open element Aircleaner and NOS valve covers that I got chromed to maybe dress up the engine a bit.

I also chose to get a repaint in the original Lemonwood Yellow as it seems worthy to do this to this rare car. (plus the firewall was still in that colour so it saved a bit of work.)

I also caught a bad case of optionitus from Carl Stevenson as I also wanted a load of most of the creature comforts we take for granted today because this project was not really meant to be a muscle car, just a good cruiser.

(Pictured above, Carl's 396/4 speed 66, Carl, Carl's 350/4 speed 66, my 396/700R 66)

So over the years from the Carls and other sources I have procured and installed:

-The F41 handling package including the big front sway bar

-NOS cruise control.

-The American only speedo with oil pressure and temp gauges. Carl helped me wire it up.

-A factory tachometer

-Tilt steering

-AM/FM radio with reverb

-Reclining Passenger Bucket seat

-Trailing towing package with a heavy duty receiver hitch.

I have a few more things like a hood and trunk light and remote trunk release as well as a really cool gas gauge with a warning light (all courtesy of a Carl) but have yet to stick those on. I also have to admit I have yet to actually get the AC working but I hadnt really missed it until my trip to Winnipeg this year during July and then I REALLY missed it.

I still have to install the relay for the halogen headlights and Ive been seriously thinking about converting to front discs along with a few more details but overall its been a really good driver as it stands.

I took it for its first big test to visit Carl Stevenson and some of the Winnipeg guys in the fall of 2013 and refined it a bit and then used it regularly in 2014 to pull an old 23 foot 1951 Airstream Flying Cloud for my summer work around Alberta. This last couple of summers I used it again for my work and put on about 5000 trouble free miles. I also used it this summer as I have mentioned before to pull the Airstream to Winnipeg with no whining from the car at all. (just the driver.) Total miles since I got it running is about 10,000.

With the overdrive Im getting the best of both worlds with good acceleration with the stock 3:31 gear and open 12 bolt differential (although I have never really tried to smoke the tires) and really good mileage for what it is. (right around 20-21 MPG even at 120-130 kph sustained cruise) Its a heavy car though, with all that stuff on it tips the scale at around 4300 lbs.

I have to admit its not a great car around town though. It does not like to maneuver into tight places at all so Ive started called it the big Yellow Barge. I got roped into crawling along in the local Parade this year for A+W and it made it without vapour-looking during that hot day in what amounts to a 40 minute traffic jam (from the cars point of view) but it didnt like that occasion much either.

Over the years I have posted a lot of stuff about this thing as I worked on it and learned from you guys, but I thought I would summarize it all here..

I hope to be driving in Grande style for many more years yet. A cross country trip is still in the works so Ill be seeing some of you guys I hope!