The chief
The story
the first time i set eyes on a 59 Pontiac i fell in love. I thought it was the most beautiful car i had ever seen. it was huge, it was long as fuck, it was black, it had a wide front end with split grilles and this shiny huge arrowhead that wrapped around the front edge of the hood, it had a 455 with dual quads and a 5 speed transmission, the engine compartment was so big a grown man could sit inside it and work on the motor, it had a bubble top with a ton of glass all the way around, the interior was beautiful classy and loaded with chrome, it had these V shaped tail fins that ran the entire length of the rear quarter panel, the "catalina" emblems that were on the rear quarters were in this beautiful chrome script. i immediately knew i wanted one, but i was like 18 years old and never thought i would be able to afford one, but fast forward to 2020 and i stumbled across the perfect one, so perfect in fact that i broke several of my car buying rules.... #1 never buy a car sight unseen, #2 never wire someone full payment for a car without even seeing it, #3 don't purchase a car without knowing how much it is going to cost to ship it home, #4 d0n't purchase a car without a title, plus the owner was a really stand up guy who really helped me out with everything. the project is going to take a while as i live 4200 miles away from where the car is and i only get to work on it a few times pr year, but i have a burning desire to get it done and i am collecting parts for it year round.
the car
the car is a silvermist gray 59 catalina 2dr sedan that came from the factory with a stick shift and metallic blue/white bench seat interior. the texas sun has kept the car solid, baked the interior and has now blessed the car with patina. when the car is finished it will have gray/white interior, i think it looks better than the more common blue/white
the mission
once the car is finished we will be taking it on a huge cross country road trip which will include seeing all forms of bitchin americana such as the obvious Route 66, seeing both coasts, a ton of iconic dragstrips and eateries, many national and state parks, a lot of historical and cultural monuments
warrior's revenge
The story
in 1992 the gto association of America hosted their "drag day" portion of their national convention at great lakes Dragaway in union grove, wi and that was the first time i witnessed several of the big Pontiac drag cars in action, Larry Kaufman, joe Zajac, and rick Johnson's 61,62, and 63 Catalinas absolutely blew my mind! at the time i had a 67 Pontiac tempest which ran respectable 12.0x's which i thought was a pretty good accomplishment since it was a pump gas 400 street car, but these Catalinas were so much bigger than my tempest, ran mid-high tens, pulled the front wheels and were stick shifts! Joe Zajac's beautiful 63 Catalina made such an impression on me that I knew one day i would have a 63 Catalina, but at the time it seemed impossible to own one of those amazing cars, and i wasn't willing to part with my tempest to get one, so i kept racing that car, and at the Jefferson swap meet in the spring of 1996 there she was! this white 63 Catalina 2 dr ht was sitting on a trailer for sale, i spoke with the gentleman who owned the car, i had nowhere near enough money to buy it, but where there's a will there's a way. he gave me a price, i somehow came up with the rest of the money in the next few days and off to green bay my friend jon and i went, unbeknownst to me the price we had agreed upon at the swap meet a few days prior had changed, as that was the "if i don't have to drag it back home price" he also had a few other parts i needed and we worked out a deal on those as well, luckily my friend jon had a few bucks on him and loaned it to me so i could get everything in one trip. we loaded everything up and headed home. the whole ride home i was dreaming of how the car would turn out once done, I decided to build the car to resemble the baddest of the bad factory built race cars, the swiss cheese lightweight super duty cars that Pontiac built 14 of, they were max effort lightweight cars which had such items on them as aluminum hood, fenders, bumpers, and other misc pieces, came from the factory with plexiglass windows, and many more light weight options.... the one i fell in love with was arnie beswick's "Passionate poncho III" that car resonates with me to this day! so the project began!! and since i loved the Nostalgia super stock class it was a done deal!! i stole all of the parts that would fit on the Catalina off of my tempest, built the rear end for the car and we were ready to go to the track! the first time the car went down the track it was at an nmca race 400+ miles away in Norwalk, oh. everything went good, i ran the car like that for 97 and 98, then did a frame off restoration on the car, built a new motor, bought a jerico 4 speed trans and a bunch of other things and ran the car like that in 1999 and 2000, then the motor broke at the Pontiac event in joliet, il and the car would sit 13 long years in my shop until i was able to put it back together and started getting some seat time in it again!
the car
the car is a 1963 Pontiac Catalina 2 door hardtop
the car came from the factory as. a cameo ivory with turquoise interior 389 ci 2bbl automatic
the car came from phoenix and the arizona sun had baked and cracked the paint and took its toll on the seats, dash and package tray (which is extremely common for cars from az) but the door panels, dash and other misc items were good, so i found the pieces i needed and a good set of seats and it's a beautiful interior now