balthazar

First year model. No production figures, but total light-duty GMC production (calendar year) was around 140K.

Force-fit the nose onto a period ElCamino, mod the tailgate/taillights, swap the powertrain over, and Camino is happily occupied for the next 12 months or so. I remember a buddy test-driving one of this powertrain at a classic used car lot, but turned it down as 'too much car'. He had been driving an ancient VW Dasher at the time....

Cool for the '90s. Isn't the '90 / Trofeo the elongated rear deck model? Olds did wonders for the Toro visually when they stretched it whenever they did.

Wife's '03 GP turned 100K today. B-59's odo broke at 95K (IIRC), previous owner said it had either about 103K or 105K. It will be rolled back to 00000 (the car will be all brand new). Since I will never sell it, who cares; call the Feds.

The one I miss the most that I got rid of was my '57 F-250. That truck just had... presense. $450, went somewhere in north Jersey in '94. The one I miss the most that I still have would be my '64 Catalina- my daily driver for 2 years. I'd say the B-59 but I hardly drove it before tearing into it.

>>"There's a part of me that wants to make a Cuban Hot Rod out of the B-59 and drop the M.B. 5-cylinder turbocharged diesel in the old half-century old girl to essentially almost double my fuel economy. Balthazar would probably hunt me down & bop me over the skull with a 3/4 inch box wrench, but I think it would be a very cool "hybrid" solution."<< Bopping you over the head would be the 'period' to the 'novel' I would do to you if you replaced a Nailhead with a german bratsmoker. And no- it would NOT be "cool", it would ruin the car. Leave the smoker in the merse. -- -- -- -- -- Old friend of mine has restored an old '60s ferrari- front brake re-do priced out @ $5K, and this is at least 6 years ago. I can buy brand new front aluminum Pontiac 8-lug drums for $670. Add in hardware, rims, lug nuts & center caps and no doubt you could re-do the front there for under a grand.

But volkswagon is 'the car' !

May have replaced the hub for nothing: trailing arm bushings on that side are going. Car 'clunks' over harsh bumps, and you can rock the rear tire east-2-west while the car is on the ground. As it's only 3 bolts, I will tackle it in my shop next week. 2 bars are $204 thru dealer- should be able to scare them up elsewhere cheaper. Dealer wants $190 for the labor.

Had a minute-long 'rain-induced tantrum', got all set up to vacuum out the wife's car and it started raining AGAIN, so I threw a few things violently and felt slightly better.

Saw a GTR last week, very dull shade of dark grey. Didn't recognize it until I saw the tails. It has no presence. Rough '64 Galaxie convert on a trailer, project car. Gorgeous '68 Catalina (maybe a Bonne) fastback, gold, classic plates. Local dealer has a Solstice Targa on the 'display rack' on the corner of the lot, silver, pretty neat.

I'm generally cheerful, but these last 2-3 weeks of rain & heavy overcast have been mind-numbingly depressing.

Super clean '70 Malibu 2-dr, yellow, no rot or damage, in the inner city, no 'classic' plates; just a very well preserved daily.

CaddyXLR-V - >>"And what would make a young professional choose a Buick, over a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes?"<< Because those brands, in general, are 1 - 2 price segments higher, and many YPs aren't dropping that kind of coin like they used to ? >>"Seems like the only younger people considering Buicks are people who already own other GM products."<< Didn't the Enclave disprove this already? Let's see what the Regal does...

>>""People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects""<< For years I have joked about belonging to PETI, and now here it is. Supreme Being; help us. I would love to see these folk out in the Arctic wilderness with an incessantly-pursuing, ravenous polar bear on their trail, as they blubbered & prayed for a wayward hunter with a loaded rifle and a keen eye.

All good (duh!) info. I'm just not 'in synch' with modern iron. IntraWeb states only the GTP had them standard in '03. Traced the brake lines- no 'box'. Didn't see any wire to the rear hub either. Had the dealer run the VIN- no ABS. Both service counter guys were surprised. Non-ABS bearing/hub assembly from NAPA : $88. Looks simple enough to install, but I'm desparately short on time, will swallow the $180 labor (ABS hub- maybe non-ABS hub will be a few bucks less). Thanks.

Will check it in the AM & report...

Hmmm... certainly appears to be a 2-dr hardtop, tho I guess saying so in text was too troublesome. Some monkey-work done- what's with the (painted silver ??) trans crossmember ? Trunk pan looks like it might be fresh, not reassuring. This is without question an 'in-person' inspection..., expecting to be disappointed. If it's a 2-dr hardtop with a running, period Pontiac V-8 and no structural rot, I'd give him $900.

Is there a positive way to tell if an '03 GP SE has ABS or not? Code on the decklid code label? There's nothing hokey like "ABS" on the wheel centers or brake pedal. Bought a rear bearing/hub assembly as one in the rear is bad, counter guy asked if it has ABS & I assumed 'yes', but it's not standard on other than the GTP, and I'm wondering if it DOESN'T have ABS, that I'll need to swap it for another hub. Will possibly be replacing it tomm evening, so a speedy confirmation would be appreciated before it's exploded in the driveway. BTW- GM wanted $435 for this part, NAPA: $138.

Pretty small dia pipes, no? Are those 2" tails,... or am I just used to looking at the 3" pipes I have for my B-59? The tips dress them up nicely. I have to fabricate everything under there due to suspension/chassis changes, tho they'll end right before the rear axle this time, so I am jealous at anyone (which would be everyone) else who can buy a ready-made system.

RE: the stripe - I always associate that with the HO, but for '68, that's only the 350HO. But I see an option listed for "Rallye stripes for all Firebirds except the 350HO". I'm not sure what the structural differences are RE C vs. F. Seen plenty of Fbirds apart, but no Camaros up close. Pretty sure no Firebird monoleaf, but my BIL had a '67 with a factory traction bar-type device on one side in the rear.

datsun cube

>>"the Jerry Titus '68 Firebird (actually a Camaro) Trans Am race car..has the Chevy 302. Maybe this car is part of the urban legend of the 'Canadian Firebirds'."<< Great link! Prolly the catalyst for all the Canadian/Pontiac/TransAm/302 confusion/rumors. Makes more sense that the relatively unknown internal engine designations I mentioned in my above post. No- Firebirds were NOT part of the Canadian Pontiac line, but the '65 Trade Pact eliminated tariffs between the U.S. & Canada, which would allow tariff-free importation of U.S. Firebirds... at least technically. Not sure if they were, but they would've all been Pontiac-engined.

The '69 Trans Am 'pony car' circuit displacement limit was 305 CI. Chevy: 302, Ford: 302, AMC: 304. Pontiac technically had access to the Chevy 302 via it's Canadian Pontiac marketing arm, but this combo was disallowed. Pontiac elected to build a completely unique 303 CI tunnel port engine for the series. Early testing returned only 430 HP, vs. the competition's circa 475. It was decided to use RA IV heads, which returned 480 HP... but by this time, the season was half over and the T/A debuted with it's 400 (the 303 also was not homolgated (produced in street cars). The 303 tunnel port heads were abandoned as insufficiently developed, and a rule change that upped displacement limits rendered the 303 program obsolete. In roughly 20 years of studying Pontiac, I still have things to learn, but I can say positively that I've never heard of a Canadian T/A built, regardless of engine used. I would have to believe the rumor is confusion between the 302 & 303. Also, the '70 RA IV was coded as 'LS1', which again has potential for confusion with the Chevy 'LT-1' designation (and later LS designations). ('71 455HO was the LS-5, '73 SD455 was the LS-2. Clearly there were delays & changes for this non-chronologically numbered system to be logged.) In this period, PMD was doing all it's own engineering, which is another strong reason for me to discount any factory Chevy-engined race Pontiacs.

>>"Can't compare a G3 with a '60s Parisienne or Laurentian, though..."<< Both look like Pontiacs, but neither are. That was as in-depth a point as I was making. Those big Canadian cars are interesting, yes (academically), but they're still only Pontiacs in name. Heart is the chassis & engines, and they don't have them. A bunch of the sheetmetal also doesn't interchange due to wheelbase differences. A pale shadow of 'real' Pontiacs. I love '60s Pontiacs but would never buy a Canadian version in a million years. Wallowy, narrow track and a 283 underhood instead of a 389. No thanks.

PCS- you have the PHS documentation, I assume? Still, it's tempting to add a few options you might miss otherwise... tho there's nothing major that comes to mind for a '69 Tempest other than the hubcaps/rims. No to Rallye IIs then, too, eh? My '64 GP came with full wheel covers, but I have a set of 8-lugs that I'd certainly put on it if I ever get around to it's restoration. They are just too beautiful not to. Have Tri-P, too.