Pontiac Astre Wagon

I am going back to pick it up tomorrow. I will get pictures posted once I get it home

 

Just haul it over to my house. I'll toss on the GT wheels and put the panel express rear panels in there.

 

http://youngstown.craigslist.org/pts/5139731772.html

Here's 2 and they are complete (and cheap)
with inserts and center caps. I searched tire piles in boneyards for AGES to find all mine.

 

The only trouble that is yours have Chevy centers and the car is a Pontiac. Weren't there some 13" wheels that looked like the Ponch Rally wheels (just like Ford had 13" styled steel wheels that resembled Magnum 500s for Mustang II, Pinto, and Bobcat)?

 

Pontiac, Olds, and Buick used the same Ralley wheels but used a specific Center cap. Pontiac Also had 13" Aluminum Snow Flake wheels for the 77-80 cars. I have a set on my 78 Sunbird Wagon. The wheels are fairly easy to find, but the center caps are almost impossible to locate.

Congrates on the Purchase, Nice to have a 3rd Pontiac H-body on the site!

 

Not too shabby, but it must be murder getting body parts for these things. Even back in the '80s, the pull-your-part yards had signs- "No Vegas or Mazdas". I think it was one particular model of Mazda. One of my sisters had a Monza coupe with 305 from the factory, bought new. That thing would really move out. The other size V8 was the 262, as has been mentioned. Even the V6 cars went pretty well. Back in the '80s I used to buy fix and flip Vegas. Good times (=good money).

 

Oh come on now they never came with a 305! Cause the factory lit said so!

LOL I got told this on here when I know damn well a friend had a 305 factory Monza wagon!

 

That was me, most probably.....
All I know is what the brochures say........

The Vega wagon became the Monza wagon in '78, continued for '79 as well. The Monza was still around for the '80 model year, but the wagon version was killed. Chevy wagon brochures show various versions of the 151 cu in. 4 cylinder, 196 cu in (3.2L) V6 and 231 cu in. (3.8) V6 being available.

The Monza hatch and formal coupe models were built on a modified Vega platform, while the wagon was (obviously) not a modified platform, You could get the V8's in the hatch and coupe models. I wonder if the wagons were not assembled in the same place? Could that be one reason why the V8 wasn't offered in them?

Pages from '78 and '79 Chevy wagon brochures:
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/78cv9.html
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/chevy/79cv10.html

 

You could get the V-8 in the wagons. My friends had all the proper badges on it for the era. just like the nova's had

 

There's a couple people on the interwebs claiming they have one, but I have yet to see any proof. One guy in particular does have a V8 in a Monza wagon, and claims it's 'factory', but that's where his claim stops.

 

Won a top 45 award today with the wagon. Had a very knowledgeable Pontiac guy tell me how rare my lite wagon really is. Pretty cool to have a guy with a 1970 Mint GTO talking to me about my little wagon. 135 cars at the show and the wagon got one of the 45 awards. Pretty excited about that

 

For winning, here's another award...although they're VegaBombs in the pic, this is how they were shipped by GM and Southern Pacific RR:

 

Look at this Wiki page on "Autorack" railcars, marked "Vert-a-Pac" and "Stac-Pac:"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorack#Vert-A-Pac_and_Stac-Pac

 

And I was probably the other one. I agree with what Krash has said, and I am open to being proved wrong. And I would be more open to it if your friend had bought the car new. But you stated that he was not the original owner. All the parts from a V-8 donor car "bolt in" including the V-8 badges.

And being in the auto industry and knowing the expenses involved in emissions certifying a drive train combination for sale after the 1974 model year makes me even more skeptical. Any time you put a drive train in a different body type (the Monza wagon would be a different body number than the HB's or Coupe's) any time you change and engine, transmission, or even just the rear gear ratio on a previously certified Body/Engine combination it has to be recertified.

I just don't think GM in the era would have spent the money on a non Halo car that they would be lucky to sell a hundred examples of. That being said it is remotely possible it was a dealer installed combo. The EPA and DOT had not really started cracking down on all the dealers yet.

If your friend has some type of documentation even showing the VIN number I would love to see it. I haven't been wrong yet today, and seeing that it is after 8:00am I am over due for a big error!

 

My sister bought that '77 Monza brand new, and I tuned it several times over the term of her ownership. I was an NIASE certified, state-licensed smog mechanic in those days. Here it is from Wikipedia, YMMV...though I've found it to be pretty accurate most of the time. Turns out that the 305 V8 was "California only", and that's where we all lived at the time (I still do). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Monza