Hello, My name is David, I'm 42 and I live in Belgium. I have a wagon since 2006, that's a 68 Pontiac Catalina. I bought it here in Belgium to a guy who was a hearse fan, the car was sitting unused for 10 years. The Catalina has been previously used as a hearse but no modifications have been done to the car, except removing the original rear bench seat. I did some work on the car, brakes, maintenance, welding of the driver floor, I lowered the suspensions and added some 17" Cragar 390N. The original V8 had been removed in the 70's and replaced by a L6 Chevy...:banghead3: I found a Pontiac 389 ci, that I plan to use in place of the underpowered L6. For instance I had no time to do it as I have some other cars...that also need some maintenance and improvements - 72 Pro-Touring Buick Skylark coupe - 78 Dodge B200 Maxivan Shaggy van - 64 VW Cal Look Beetle - 89 VW Golf GTI +2 other.. I recently bought a Chevrolet malibu Wagon from 1979, It had been neglected for some time and out of the road since 1995.... I removed the vinyl top and made a good maintenance and parts remplacements on the whole car. I had to sold it to finance my next daily driver (also a wagon but Audi A4 B8)... A picture of the Malibu : Regards David
aboard David, I love the Pontiac wagon. The stance is great, I like the color and wheels. It appears to be in nice condition. Who in their right mind would put an inline 6 in a big Pontiac wagon...geez! Talk about under powered. I'm glad you were able to find a 389 to replace it with...nice going! I like the Malibu wagon. I might be a little partial to them... Just curious, does your Malibu have the Euro taillights? It also looks like you had small marker lights on the front fenders. Jack
Here are pictures of another Catalina I found some years ago, cars has been sitting outside and has been vandalized, but I managed to pick some missing parts for the white and I kept many body and mechanical parts, the rest of the body went to the crusher as it was too rusty. I just sold my Dodge Van, so as we have new member in the family (9 month boy) I plan on doing some work on the Catalina this winter to have a family car for the next summer. Here is the list of work : - five new blue seat belts. - new windshield - new carpet - new upholstery for the front and rear seat + cargo area sides. - new headliner - new front disc brakes - installing the 389ci with shorty headers and flowmaster exhaust line - sandblasting and epoxy paint for the chassis - cleaning of the underside and painting it white - I will see, but I would like to install a Ridetech But for instance I enjoy cruising in it....
That's a beautiful Pontiac. Thanks for sharing the photos. Good luck with all of your planned upgrades.
Really like the big wagon - I don't see many of those here so I can be magnificent ne the looks you must get in that there. I'll bet the trips for petrol are a time to dread.
No major news, I continue to order parts for the car.... I slowly receive parts ordered in your country They come by containers to reduce/avoid expensive shipping costs. I tried to fit lowered spindles from an Impala/Bel Air, so I bought an used pair on ebay with calipers adapters , both from CPP. I also needed steering arms, so I bought 59-64 bel air arms that nearly have the same length but fit the CPP spindles as the Pontiac don't. I checked the bearing diameter and they were the same...nice... The only thing I didn't checked was the axle length of the spindle....and ....the CPP one is shorter than the Pontiac. The problem is that I had already bought a disc conversion kit, and the disc doesn't fit the CPP spindle. To finalise this modification I would have to buy Chevelle discs (which don't have the good bolt pattern) and S-10 calipers but I don't think I will go further, ...I don't want to invest more money for something that will perhaps not be driveable ( I still don't know if the CPP spindle will not change the geometry dramatically) or at least I would have to find cheap/free used part to test fit the all thing.... the CPP dropped spindles the steering arms The front at full drop (the lower arm is almost touching the chassis) The engine block is ready to go to the machine shop as I received the new overbored pistons kit. I also have the new valves , so the heads will also go there... .
Hello and welcome. Nice bunch of cars you have there, feel free to post the pictures of them too. There is a Thread in the Lounge where non wagon pics can be posted and enjoyed. You are planning to paint the 2nd poncho white too? It sure would be a pretty set having one black and the other white...just saying. Nice to meet you.
You missed my sentence saying that the black one was too far gone and went to the crusher .. Concerning the dropped spindle project, my friend David give me his old front disc brakes from his Skylark to try them on the CPP spindles , they fit but they are 11", smaller than my new Pontiac 12"disc kit .... 11" is good for a stock Chevelle but not for a full-size ! If I want to go with dropped spindles, I would need to fit 13" Baer brakes...but the kit costs $1.795 ...too much for my budget, I don't want to go so far... I ordered an Airlift 3P suspension system from Bag Riders, there was a rebate until 02/28 on the price, so I get the 4 Dominator airbags included in the price ...
