Upside down Catalina

davepl · Poncho Master!

Upside down Catalina

North · Guru

People were braver then!

btw, note the body colored wheels with the dogdish.

davepl · Poncho Master!

Yup, I have a fully restored 1970 GMC Sierra Grande Custom Camper and put a trailer brake in it, but really wouldn't want to tow these days without ABS and stability control, etc.

There's only one part number for the basic steel wheel in '69 (3964071 I think), so I guess they're paint to match. But what did they do on the assembly line? There's no part number for "gold wheel", so what'd they do on the line I wonder?

I think the cap number is 9774609.

Other trivia: you got 5 wheels of whatever you ordered but only 4 caps. I also noticed that the caps, as noted in the parts book, read "Pontiac Motor Division" which you didn't usually see on the Canadian cars. I also see that the simulated wire wheel cover was available in both 14 and 15 inch... I thought it was only the latter until I saw that this morning.

-- Edited by davepl on Monday 4th of June 2018 10:40:01 AM

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Gas on the road. Then the Accident Investigator stands around the scene with a lit cigarette in his hand.

seventy2plus2 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Maybe it was just the ice melting out of their beer cooler that made the puddle.

North · Guru

If you look at the color chip sheet in the 69 Pontiac (US) sales album about half a dozen of the colors have an little star symbol, those are the colors that would also have the wheels painted body color by the factory if the car was ordered with only dogdish. Why in the world they bothered to do this I will never understand; why have the extra expense and inconvenience especially on a car ordered without profit enhancing wheelcovers?

davepl · Poncho Master!

Still, they didn't mask and paint them on the car - they must have had stacks of wheels in those various colors, and those wheels should have had part numbers. That's what's confused me!

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

North wrote:
If you look at the color chip sheet in the 69 Pontiac (US) sales album about half a dozen of the colors have an little star symbol, those are the colors that would also have the wheels painted body color by the factory if the car was ordered with only dogdish. Why in the world they bothered to do this I will never understand; why have the extra expense and inconvenience especially on a car ordered without profit enhancing wheelcovers?

True from a business standpoint, which is probably why they changed to all black in later years. That being said, I always liked the look of body coloured wheels with dogdish hubcaps. I think it improved the look vastly.

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

davepl wrote:
Still, they didn't mask and paint them on the car - they must have had stacks of wheels in those various colors, and those wheels should have had part numbers. That's what's confused me!

That's a good question. The wheels would have been paired with the car, so would they be painted on the paint line with the body, or were there lots of them painted at once? They would have wanted to have the exact number of painted wheels to match the cars being built, which leads me to believe they were painted on the line with the other body parts.

However, the wheels were already installed on the chassis when the body came down to be bolted to the frame, so they would have had to be taken to another station after the paint line. Not a big deal, but not so efficient.

I believe all wheels arrived painted black from the supplier, though. I recall reading that somewhere.

Hmmm...

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

First photo has to be Canadian as I see the orange engine being mated to the Pontiac.

Second photo, that's clearly not a Fiirebird in front of the red Firebird, looks like a Caprice to me, what factory would this be?

MC · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Keen eye, Ray. The orange block is one of the reasons why I chose this one to post!

I don't know which plants they are from as I found them on this internet site:

http://www.musclecarfilms.com/Pontiac_Production.html

Here's one that you might find particularly interesting:

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

73SC wrote:

First photo has to be Canadian as I see the orange engine being mated to the Pontiac.
Second photo, that's clearly not a Fiirebird in front of the red Firebird, looks like a Caprice to me, what factory would this be?

I am wondering Ste Therese maybe? We know they did B bodies and in later years didn't they do F bodies as well? So maybe they did B bodies sooner?

Is the Pontiac a 2 door post?

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

That LeMans stripe application shot is neat, especially given how uncommon that option was.

I did a little research and found that Firebirds and Caprice were built in 1969 in Lordstown and Norwood so the photo above has to be from one of those places. For Norwood the two were only built there in 1969, Lordstown did Caprice from 1966-70 and Firebird from 1967-69.

73SC · A Poncho Legend!

Carl Stevenson wrote:
Is the Pontiac a 2 door post?

On enlarging that photo I'd say yes it is, 1967 Laurentian V8 two door sedan.

North · Guru

I think the Firebird photo is Van Nuys, they also built fullsize chevy and F bodies in 69. I seem to recall seeing this picture in an article about the plant years ago.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Whoops, I was thinking the Firebird was in the Canadian Pontiac picture!