1970 Pontiac Catalina

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/cto/4877456911.html

For Sale- 1970 Catalina Wagon. No visible rust, I am the second owner, the car lived in Bakersfield since 1970. One repaint in original #25 Bermuda Blue, with blue interior. Original seat upholstery and carpet in good condition. Headliner is falling in a few spots. Factory AC intact, but not working. Heater works great. Tires are fair. Has full factory gauge pack as well. Really a sweet looking car.

Now the bad part. Original 400 2bbl, but has internal noise under load. Almost sounds like a rod knock, but oil pressure is good, and oil is clean. Would be perfect to drop a 455 into. I just spent $400 on having the original Harrison radiator recored to a 4 row. The car runs pretty well though. Only a slight tick at idle, could even be a sticky lifter. Everyone has told me they believe it's either a tuning issue, and the noise is ignition knock, or something else, such as a loose flexplate, harmonic balancer, etc.

In all reality, it probably isn't a rod knock, but I just want to make it clear, that there is definitely some mechanical work that will be needed.

Price is $3100. Clean CA title in my name, current registration.

 

Car has some issues, and he could probably be gotten down from his $3100 asking price, which really isn't too bad to begin with. Looks like a good car for someone to restore. I do like the color.

 

Looks like a great car, I wish I wasn't so far away, I'd buy this in a heartbeat if I had storage somewhere handy to its location. Does anyone know if there is reliable/reasonable storage in the LA area?

 

Lots of places to choose from - Google it. Unfortunately, I can't give you any personal recommendations.

 

Thanks Krash, Google's a good thought, just thinking someone might have a recommendation.
I did contact the seller tonight. Hope to hear back from him shortly.

 

I got a lot more info on the car and more pictures. it seems like there's rust around the rear windows inside and some across the second seat-back despite the description from the owner that the car is rust-free... underside of the vehicle looks relatively solid.

My biggest concern other than the engine work required is that the rear window won't go down (from both the keyhole and the dash switch) and he admits there's some surface rust around the "inside frame of the rear window" and the rear tailgate gasket is out of place, so I would assume that maybe there was some moisture damage to the electrical... the spare tire well has some significant rust at the bottom, visible from both the interior/exterior. Its too bad because the owner said he can bring it to Las Vegas and my feeling is the price is right if there wasn't the rust and the engine knock... he wasn't sure the car was worthy of the 4hr drive from San Clarita to Vegas because of the tires, engine knock and lack of A/C.

Been trying to convince myself all week to pull the trigger and just buy it and throw it into a storage unit in Vegas until I'm ready to put some time into it- can post the pics if anyone is interested.

 

additional pics

Pics of the exterior/interior additional to the ad... will post the underside next

 

more exterior pics

Here are the rest of the exterior pics...

 

underneath

here are a few of the undercarriage

 

more of the underside

last ones...

 

Does have what appears to be minor issues. With some TLC this long roof could be a keeper. Like the color.
Hope you get it!

 

Thanks Chefdough, I'm really mulling it over... I can definitely see the potential in this car, and I love the 1970 Pontiac full-size wagons. Will post one way or the other when I decide. Talking to the owner again tomorrow.

 

It's an attractive and fairly rare wagon.

 

Everything was looking pretty good in those photos until I saw this one:





I can't tell. Where is that rust-through? The spare wheel well?

 

Boy that thing looks pretty solid aside from the spare tire well. You didn't show any of the rust around the back window. The guy is in LA though so he probably doesn't know what real rust is.