So few pre-war Canadian Pontiacs have survived. I suspect it's due to wartime scrapping and of course, the salt we use on most of our roads. It's always a treat to find an early Canadian built Pontiac to feature. Hans Boks owns this rare 1937 Pontiac Model 224. Left languishing in a field since around 1959, Hans took this derelect Pontiac and transformed it into this sweet street machine over 20 years ago. Here's Hans to give us the details:
My 37 Pontiac Model 224:
I purchased the car for $200. in June 1972 from a farmer up in Chesley Lake. It was in the farmers field and was last plated in 1959. The farmers sons had used it as a field car until the engine seized. We dragged it out of the field with the farmers tractor. The tires still held some air, so we filled the tires with more air until they were up to a usable level. I was not terribly impressed with the poor condition of the car but it was complete and it was, after all, a coupe. I installed my tow bar and hooked it to my trailer hitch and subsequently towed it to Hamilton.
The car then sat in my backyard for about a year until I decided to start restoring the body. I went to the swap meet in Hershey to see what NOS parts I could find and had some success. I had discovered that the Canadian 37 Pontiacs are identical to the US car except for the engine which I had no plans to use anyway.
I restored the body and installed a Chev 283 engine with Powerglide transmission and started driving it in 1978. I replaced the transmission with a TH350 around 1980 for better performance but kept the 283 engine which was still pretty fresh. I also replaced the original front frame with a clip from a 68 Firebird.
The body was repainted several times and in the year 2000 I decided to redo the body and paint completely and stripped the car, re-did most of the bodywork, and repainted it the current colour which has been on it since 2002.
The car drives like a dream. so far Ive put about 160K kms. on it and drive it on average about 5K kms. per year. Has been driven to The Syracuse Nationals about 10 times, to NSRA Kalamazoo at least a 1/2 dozen times, Good Guys Indianapolis at least a 1/2 dozen times, To NSRA events in St. Paul, Memphis, Louisville, Columbus and many other events everywhere both local and long distance.
I have also organized quite a few cruises in my geographical area for Saturday mornings, going to shop tours and lunches at various restaurants. Overall, the car has given me many years of reliable service.
160,000 kms says it all, you built it to enjoy and its a real hot rod.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
Beautiful car, love the stance and obviously with 160,000 on it and counting a reliable and enjoyable ride! Incredible you've had it for 50 years, great story and history.
What an incredible service life this car has had! Driven as a regular car for 22 years, beaten through the fields for several years and then sitting until rescued, and then the many adventures it has been on in the past 45 years since being brought back to life.
Nice work, and congrats! Thanks for sharing your car's history with us.
Beauty job!! Just seems to all blend. From the outside mirror and door handle delete. The accents on interior and engine. Well thought out and it all jives together! Congrats on top of the page and good to see your enjoying your ride.
Thank you everyone for the nice comments. I really do love this car. Yes oshawacliff the device is an electric radio antenna that automatically goes up when I turn the radio on.
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