Our November Feature Car belongs to Glenn Musgrave. Glenn's 1962 Pontiac Parisienne still has a way to go before it's ready for the road. While many of us would have thrown in the towel finding what he did when he tore the car down, Glenn has continued to press on, doing extensive body and mechanical work to the Pontiac. I have no doubt this Poncho will be a real show stopper when it's completed! Here's the story as told by Glenn:

The Classic Car Hobby – From Dreams to Reality

I always enjoyed working on cars beginning around the age of 10 helping my dad fix the family car. Over the years I took a lot of courses and had a lucrative side gig fixing anything that came my way. I gave it all up in 1997 and sold all the parts and pieces I gathered over the years. Against my wife’s wishes instead of selling my library of manuals and tools I put them in storage in case my boys wanted them someday.

Fast forward to September 2017 when our son Blake began sending me ads for old cars. He said "Dad, I’d like to do an old car together so I can learn about points and stuff that I don’t know.".  Being an old car junky I was an easy mark and became reinfected with the old car bug. He then sent me this ad from Hemmings:  https://www.hemmings.com/stories/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1962-pontiac-parisienne/ 

Hemmings Find of the Day - 1962 Pontiac Parisienne

By Daniel Strohl on Sep 10th, 2017 at 9:00 am

Here is the description as it appeared in Hemmings:

"283 ci V8 2 spd powerglide automatic Power Steering, Power Brakes.

This is a totally original car just out of 30 years clean, dry storage. Car is

all original the way it came from the factory with no modifications or aftermarket parts. Everything works..... all the gauges, speedo, radio with factory rear speaker, clock, courtesy lights under dash and headliner. Just removed the clear vinyl from the seats that were factory/dealer nstalled when car was new. The body and paint is original except rear quarters and rockers which was done before put into storage. Motor has great compression and runs but needs carb kit and tune up. The transmission works flawlessly. Car has new master cylinder and brake cylinders. New fuel pump and some fuel lines along with refurbished gas tank. Car needs floor work and small amount of frame work."

The seller lived in Port Hope, ON and was asking $4,995.

I called the seller. I learned the car spent its life in Peterborough. The original owner had polio. The selling dealer modified the dimmer switch so he could use his hands to operate it. The car supposedly spent the last 30 yrs. in storage. Somewhere in time it changed hands. The 2nd owner lived in Cobourg, Ontario and took it out of storage in April 2017 and sold it to the guy I bought it from almost immediately. He put a fuel pump on it and claims he found the car of his dreams. I gave up on this one.

I sent him a $1,000 deposit…. Oh my! I always advised against this and yet, here I was.  Old car sickness makes a man do silly things! My wife and I drove to Port Hope. I prearranged a cash deal with a car hauler to bring it back to Nova Scotia. My eyes glazed over when I saw the car and I didn’t pay much attention to the body other than to feel it was in decent shape. After all my skill set was mechanical.

It fired right up but wouldn’t keep running in warm idle. I put a carb kit in it in the guy’s driveway while it was raining and I got it to run on its own. It was quiet, smooth, and zero smoke but I knew that blob of grease of a motor needed a timing chain. The seats, dash, and headliner were amazing!  Like a kid on Christmas Eve instead of sugar plumbs I had visions of me taking it to car shows next summer were dancing in my head!

I felt like I was 16 and was just a dumb.

I videoed the car being driven onto the car hauler at Port Hope, ON and couldn’t wait for it to arrive in Halifax. Days later we went to pick it up.  It fired up but when I put it in reverse the brake pedal went to the floor and the car didn’t move. The hauling company disavowed any knowledge or responsibility for what happened. The rear brake line burst and it appears the driver jammed it in park to stop instead of using the emergency brake (which worked fine).  Every gear in the rear diff was blown up and the parking pawl and other transmission parts were toast.

My dreams for the following summer were beginning to fade.  Still blinded by the dream I began fixing the brakes.  

I changed out the blown 3:36 rear end with a rebuilt 3:08. Next our attention went to pulling the beautiful seats out to see what was involved in fixing the floor. Once the floors were exposed my dreams were crashing hard.  

(Driver’s side front floor)

(Passenger’s side front floor)

(Under the back seat; even where it looks good a screwdriver is easily pushed through)

(quarter by rear driver seat)

I don’t know how we didn’t fall through the floor! The photos show areas of missing metal, but the rest was about to fall on the ground in the very near future.

Time to slow the dream down and take a critical look at we had. We realized we needed new floors from the firewall to the rear bumper. Classic Industries had the 3 pans with factory welded braces that would do it all. Of course they were for an Impala. Installing all that floor and trunk in just 3 pieces meant it had to come off the frame. During disassembly I learned the body (which I thought looked decent) was a patch work of patches that were bronze welded in. The fill was put on by a master. It was over ½” thick in places and didn’t wave at you when you looked down the sides.

(Drop downs were baked.)

(Right side, in front of rear wheel)

Taking the body off the frame was something we weren’t equipped to do but it would make it easier to fix the frame. Right???  We soon learned the frame was beyond repair. Reality set in and we knew we were in for a long expensive road to save this old girl. I had to save my pride and the $4,000 I paid for it. This was December 2017.

We found a parts car outside Douglas, Manitoba. It was picked clean but we were assured the frame was excellent and arranged to have it shipped to NS. 

A more accurate description would have been the frame is repairable. It required 6 – 8 fairly small patches. We cut out the rotted areas and welded in new steel.

(Just below the firewall, left side.  This was the largest hole.)

As I began to clean it up I discovered the engine cradle was baked. Luckily the grease ball of an engine compartment in the white car had preserved the engine cradle but the right front horn was soft.

After a lot of careful measuring, mixing and matching pieces, and repair work we have that excellent frame we sought.

I made the decision to do a full rebuild on the factory 283 and cast iron glide.  Factory rated at 170 hp the plan was to get it up to the 1961 4 BBL 283 spec of 230hp. You can follow the engine rebuild here at https://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t66993139/engine-refresh-upgrade/ I am now anxious to get the car on the road and put on a dyno. The changes may have exceeded the factory 230hp.  If you want to watch the initial start up or hear it running click here: https://youtu.be/szAhlnjdNMQ

Every non-welded piece that connects to the frame was removed, professionally sandblasted and treated with 2 coats POR-15. We then did a heavy application of Rust Check inside the channels.

Reassembly was done using a completely new factory spec suspension.

Body panels, rocker panels and rear wheel wells are not available for 62 Pontiac’s. The lower half of the quarters and rear wheel wells were cut off the parts car, repaired and installed.  We used panel bond in places when installing the rear wheel wells. The new patches hide the braces they were to be welded to and panel bond made it that much simpler in those hard-to-reach areas. All others were welded.   The full details of the build are here https://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/t67278149/glenns-62-parisienne-rebuild/ 

I rebuilt the transmission & steering box.  The wiper motor core was sent out by NAPA and rebuilt.

All the floor pans were blasted to remove the EDP coating then treated with 2 coats POR-15 inside and out. Next I applied 2 coats single stage Ermine white on the underside. After a good deal of modifying the main floor pan was welded in.

The pan over the rear wheels fit right in. The main trunk pan required a lot of modifying.  Both pans and rear wheel wells were eventually tacked in place using self-tapping screws. The next step was to ensure everything will lined up on the frame. On October 07, 2024 we used the engine crane to lift the body and then slid the frame under it.

The body mounts bolted up without issue. We were super happy! We began welding it up in preparation for the move to the rotisserie to finish the rebuild.

Once on the rotisserie the welding will be finished; complete rocker assemblies to be made for both sides; new lower fender mounts installed; small patches on the bottoms of each front fender; a couple minor repairs to the door skins. We hope to have this all done by late May but that might be optimistic.  

Most people buy an old car (us included) and figure on after a month or two work you’ll be driving.  In September this saga started its 8th year. This feature article gives you some insight into why I call it ‘My New 62”.  Once its on the road and the feeling of that kid on Christmas Eve returns it will be hard to see the car for the wide grin on the faces of the two guys in it!

  To be continued......