balthazar

My core favorite years are '59-68. Also have a strong attraction to the '57-58s. After that, I tend to float earlier. The '70s stuff does VERY little for me, and most everything after that grows increasingly dreadful. There are exceptions and qualifiers, of course.

Light is not currently good in my study, so the pic isn't great. I've seen more than this, elsewhere, will poke around some more :

Head is the same for all non-SD '61-62 Pontiacs; 538177, but yep, that's a 425A manifold. 425A cars were either 333 HP (4bbl) or 348 HP (3x2bbl) 389s, very strong performers, and not common. Silver Ventura looks to be decent, curious (via the photos) that the seller claims the red car is the builder. Complete powertrain in the 425A car plus the 2nd car is well worth the $4K, IMO.

It's worth a half-grand in scrap. It's definitely worth a grand from what we see.

It is, of course, erroneous to portray the name of the Buick model as a 'Riviera'. I like them all, a really do. Given free money (my choice of model/body style tho), I would buy in order : 1. Cadillac 2. Pontiac 3. Buick I would not buy the other 2, tho to rank them I'd go : 4. Olds 5. Chevy In terms of styling, I would actually rank the Olds below the Chevy, but the Olds has mad character and a funky dash.

You don't happen to have pictures to scan, would you? No scanner, but I could try and take a pic tonight.

^ you are GRUMPY today!! .... unless you're being serious. The '57 Pontiac is in my top 5 favorite designs. I LOVE the grillework/bumper, flows awesomely, is so unique. Among GM Divisions, it's my #1 in '57.

^ Without pulling books out, Ford had a Model T Roadster pickup (car based) at the same time they offered the Model TT (definite truck). I know there was a TT in at least '17, T debuted for '08... so the car-based pickup is pretty early. Someone else could've been there well before Ford, too.

I've been hard on cars on occasion, yep. Point being tho; you have a big bucks invested in the engine, sometimes you aren't as comfortable relying on original OEM gauges to monitor it. My B-59 won't be factory original/correct inside, but it'll definitely be strongly period, with the exception of a few quality gauges to watch the percolator underhood. I could quickly spend over $12K for the engine I want in my car.

This is up for auction @ B-J later this month: In the day custom (don't kno when) :

Not aware of any 3-D concepts for an Elky-esque vehicle from any of the GM studios circa '55, enlighten me please. I've seen a handful of sketches for the '55 Chevy Cameo, which looked to be quite low like a car, but these were 2-D only and undoubtedly would've been truck-based had they seen 3-D light.

^ Seems natural that mercedees would go for the huge fleet volume here too, being as how they continue to chase volume.

Some folk dream of such a cosmetic resto on a drivable vehicle, here it is on a BBQ grille.

IMO, in general, '55 is a toss-up, '56 goes to Chevy, '57 goes to Pontiac

So does a grenaded motor.

Yeah; not into such repurposing...

G8 doesn't interest me, so if that's the justification for a thump, you get a pass. I like the late model GTO, tho. RE the slight thumbs down on this wagon, you are entitled to yours. I think the color scheme, povertys/rings/red rims, makes for a sharp look. I gots no problems with it, other that '56 is a bit cluttered and I'd prefer a '57. The '55 Chevy is nice too, but I grow tired of Chevys, you know that. Doesn't mean they aren't sweet, just common. I look down my nose a bit on the Tri-5s, but my buddy has a '56 Bel Air coupe, and whenever I go over there, I circle it and smile. Camino, we're usually on the same page, so we can split hairs between Pontiac & Chevy and still 'agree'.

I have seen a number of '50s Buick 'Elky's, '54-57, for some reason. Haven't seen the same with Olds, tho.

And when it's on the showroom floor, it'll be 'why argue about something we can't change- let's focus on what's to come in the future'. Why discuss anything at all.

what a gorgeous machine!

I'm downright disagreeing on the "known" 450 HP Chevy sports sedan.

^ Again- wrong. You cannot seriously be proposing zero overlap in HP by marque- that's insanely divided from reality. Try again. G8 & GTO weren't Chevy's; therefore not the volume brand.... never mind clearly not volume models.

http://wn.com/Wood_stove_in_Volvo Sorry, it's in German.

^ It has nothing to do with V8s, it's the HP issue, esp when at the mega levels. You are twisting my post.

1500s definitely need a diesel, whether small 8 or a 6.