Hello fellow Pontiac enthusiasts, I have recently purchased my dream car, a 1959 Parisienne, and figured it takes a village to raise an idiot so here I am. Looking forward to you all solving my problems for me, and hopefully I can help with some of yours. I worked for a couple of auto wreckers on the west coast for a few years so I know a fair bit about taking things apart, and a little bit about putting them back together.
Probably not the best place to ask but does anyone know where to get a fuel sender unit for this vehicle? The gasket was leaking so I had it out the other day and replaced it ( I had to make one myself out of felpro cork rubber gasket) but it's leaking out of the outlet as well. It looks the same as an impala/biscayne from the same year but I can't be sure. They are available in 5/16 or 3/8 so I will measure mine to get the right one. Please help get me back on the road.
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"If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red Green
The original sending unit (assuming your car is not a station wagon and assuming it was not built with a 348 or dual exhaust) is 6428051. It fits 58-60 full size Chevrolet and Canadian Pontiac.
Spectra Premium makes your sending unit. FG142A is for 5/16" line, FG142B is for 3/8" line. Here in Manitoba we have Auto Value parts stores and they sell Spectra. I'm not sure what you have there but I'm sure someone like Lordco (I think you have those on the west coast?) sells Spectra.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
Wow thanks for the reply, looks like I came to the right place I belive the id plate says it's a 348 but I have no idea if it had duel exhaust? It does now!
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"If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red Green
Oh and yes we have Lordco, Auto parts plus, and some other independent stores. And not a single one has the ability to find a single part for a 59 Parisienne. I'm going to call around with those part numbers tomorrow and see if anything turns up. Thanks for the info.
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"If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red Green
The frame and mechanical parts on the 59 Parisienne are the same as Chevy 59-60, a lot of the parts are the same for many many years.
A 59 with factory dual exhaust had a 3/8 fuel line routed through the driveshaft tunnel to avoid the heat from the exhaust. Duals came with high performance 283 or with a 348 and would have factory style exhaust hangers on the passenger side, the same as those on the passenger side.
Rockauto has a very good parts lookup site, I use it all the time to check for parts and with a brand and part number, sometimes you can find a part locally at auto value and other places, even Canadian tire. Rockauto are also a good place to buy parts. In the Lounge forum here you will usually find a 5% discount code. Use the 59 impala section and the Cdn Pontiac section too in rockauto.
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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
I would recommend you pick up the 1958 shop manual and the 1959 shop manual supplement, available used the the Canadian Pontiac, most of the American Pontiac is very different from the Cdn model.
Id also recommend you buy an assembly manual for the 59, buy the reproduction Chevy manual if you cant find one for the Cdn Pontiac, it shows things like the dual exhaust routing. I couldnt find an assembly manual for my 63, Im not convinced GM made one for it so I bought one for the Chevy.
Post pics and tell us more about your car and welcome to the site.
Don
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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
Thanks for the reply. I've been to rock auto, not a lot shows up fitting the Parisienne. I wasn't sure about the tank because impalas are center fill tanks behind the license plate, and the Parisienne is slightly right of center. The sending unit looks to be the same but I wanted to be sure. Where did you say I could find the manual? I've been looking for one for a couple of weeks and could only find one from Franks Pontiacs, but it's all US Pontiac stuff.
Here's a pic. You might recognize it as I bought it from a member of this site.
Oops, don't know how to post pics yet. Will put one up as soon as I figure out how. Cheers
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"If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red Green
I'm sure Lordco will be able to get the appropriate Spectra sending unit for you. Just determine whether you've got 5/16" or 3/8" line coming out of the sending unit.
The manual is likely available via Kijiji for the Pontiac, the Chevy assembly manual on eBay, maybe Amazon, or Chevy suppliers.
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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
Pics are uploading fine now, must have been something with the interwebs. Just wanted to say thanks 4Speed, got the sender ordered thanks to you. The part number saved a ton of time. And thanks everyone else for the other info and helping me spend all my money.
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"If they don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy" - Red Green
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
Pics are uploading fine now, must have been something with the interwebs. Just wanted to say thanks 4Speed, got the sender ordered thanks to you. The part number saved a ton of time. And thanks everyone else for the other info and helping me spend all my money.
Good stuff! Keep us posted.
And I'm betting if you are willing to take a bunch of pictures and write up a story about your car (when you got it, how you got it, any history you know about the car, options etc, any details about the car) Todd would love to feature it at the top of the page for a month.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars