Some of you may know about John Hall's love for American built 1969 Pontiac's. John (a.k.a "North") has a fantastic collection of '69's that covers just about every model Pontiac released in the US that year. What he didn't have was a Canadian built Pontiac. I think the first Canadian built '69 John chose was a great choice. This 2+2 is an excellent example and with a little bit of John's attention to detail, it's that much better! John tells us more:

History:

I don’t know too much about the early history other than the original dealer was in Drayton Valley west of Edmonton and it was shipped in December 68 from Oshawa (built late November).  However the first owner bought it new in Hussar which is East of Calgary in May of 1969 and the Protecto-plate shows him as the first owner.  Perhaps it was a demo or it just was traded between dealers.  Regardless he and his son kept the car for over 45 years.  I’m the third owner with the second owner being a fellow near Calgary who owned it for a short time.

Options:

The 2+2 was more like a mid-70’s package than a 60’s performance package in that a 2+2 didn’t have any performance content, just an appearance package;  bucket seats and console, stickered striping, deleted rocker and side moldings, fake air vents on the ¼’s and a specific hubcap one notch up from the dogdish.  There were no changes to drivetrain or suspension as compared to the Parisienne it was derived from.

This car has an unusual option mix in that it has the typical “on the lot” options but also a bunch of small detail options not typically seen but no “high end” options like big block, AC etc. 

The color scheme includes the two tone option with Burgundy as the lower color and Palladium Silver as the upper color.

The car has the L-48 350 4bbl 300 horse (instead of the base 250 horse version) along with a TH350 automatic and 2.73 posi but oddly not dual exhaust.   Typical options include power (drum) brakes, power steering, AM radio, rear speaker, white wall tires, block heater, clock, tinted glass all around etc.  Some unusual options include F40 heavy duty suspension (as opposed to F41 ride and handling) which was basically station wagon springs to get the car higher, especially in back.  The car also has the speed warning buzzer, lamp monitor system, lamp group (rear view mirror map light, extra warning lights, under-hood and trumk lamps) and a rear mount manual antenna.

Condition:

Apart from some rust at the back corners of the front fenders the car was amazingly clean for a Canadian car.  The trunk pan is like new with original speckle paint and the undercarriage looks more like Arizona than Alberta.  I thought when buying it that the car was mostly original paint but closer inspection revealed that 90% of the car had been painted at some point but never a full paint job.  There was no rust repair anywhere, just 70’s era panel repaints due to fading, scratches are minor fender benders.  Last year I decided to repaint the car completely but only the outer panels.  The door, hood and trunk jams are all original paint.

We found remnants of the original two tone stripes in the door jams and combined with careful study of the assembly manual, brochure images and vintage photos we had new stripes made.  The remnants gave us the precise widths, colors and positions of each stripe segment but the front and rear tapering down of the stripes is our best estimation from old pictures.

The interior is 100% original down to the rug and apart from a bit of cracking in the driver’s seat upholstery everything is still very nice and everything including the radio works perfect.   

Apart from some light brake work, rad re-core and a new stock single exhaust the car needed no mechanical work.  It runs beautifully and our best guess is that the engine, tranny and diff have never been opened up.  The car drives as you’d expect for a non performance 60’s car.  Strong and torquey engine but not fast, smooth quiet ride but easily overcome by fast turns or rough roads, a real “boat”.