1959 Pontiac wagon from Beaufort, NC / Afghanistan

Hi all,
I recently purchased a '59 Pontiac Catalina wagon for my wife as a wedding present. We wanted a nice cruiser as we have 4 boys and love going to car shows and we all can't fit in my Studebaker pickup. I ended up getting a 4 door vista roof paresienne parts car that has all the nice trim thats the same as a Bonneville. It had a little rust in the wheelwells and the right quarter so I searched around and found another 59 Catalina Safari for parts, but it's actually in decent shape. I'm gonna combine the best of all three into a nice driver. I have a few questions for some of you experts, but I'll post them on the main board.

Matt

 

Awesome. I have four kids and went with the 1964 Catalina Safari. Almost ready to drive.

I'd really love to see those wagons and I want to see these beauties come to life.
Good choice on the wife, she didn't attempt to kill you for getting an old car for a wedding gift?

 

If that Parisienne is in reasonable shape it is a rare car. They were a Canadian only model. Also, you will find the drive train is pure Chevrolet, the track will be narrower than the American, the wheelbase is a shorter, and the front fenders will likely not fit an American Pontiac, either. Because so much of our country is rust belt, finding one intact now is very hard to do. I would give serious thought to saving that one as well as the wagon, and have a pair of 59 Pontiacs in the driveway!

 

Here's the first one that I picked up while home on leave. It's complete but the right hand rocker is pretty rough. Its a Pennsylvania car so it's seen some salt. I'm originally from Texas so I'm not a fan of these rusty east coast cars!!



Here's the pics of the "parts" car. It's rough looking, but it's really not too bad. I've worked with less!





I'll get some better pics when we strip them down when I'm home on leave. I'm not a restorer so this wagon will be LS powered and more of a resto-mod type build. I know Pontiac built wagons in both Canada and here and wonder if I have one of each? If you look, the front of the "fins" on the first wagon unbolt from the back door, but on the second car, they are part of the door....weird! Any ideas??

 

Unfortunately, it's REALLY rusty. I knew of the differences, but it's really eaten up. Its still a driver, but I'll pull the wild interior and drivetrain and part/scrap the rest. Might be cool to build a 4 door hardtop wagon!

 

from SC.

 

Welcome negativematt!

 

Matt...you don't sound negative at all! It does sound like you are serving your country overseas...koodos for that.

Nice intro and thanks for the pics...best of luck with your projects!

 

Welcome to the forum Matt! Looks like a great project!

 

Welcome Matt! I love your idea! It would be the coolest! You could use the hardtop doors, combine them with that wagon doors where there are any differences, and if you need to alter the windows at all, they use flat side glass and chrome frames, so you can change those to fit.
Do it!

David

 

and for the Ugly Country Rocky Hill 'n Desert Duty Matt. I love the cute little "Twin Finz" on the '59 P-Carz

 

David,
I know that there are differences in the size of the side windows. I believe the hardtop car windows are two inches shorter than the wagons windows, but I'll do some measuring when I get back home. We'll see what I figure out!

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody, I'm excited to get to work on this wagon and get it on the road. I ordered a ciadella interior kit already, and drop spindles and a brake kit from fatman's. I'll probably swap out the rearend for an s10 zr2 with discs. It's roughly the same width as the "wide track" rear although not as strong, but I won't be racing this car! I have a turbo 5.3 in my Studebaker but i'm just going to do a regular 5.3/4l60e in this one. Might just give it a CLR bath for now until I get it ready for paint.

I'll post pics when I get all of them together and get started on the project. I've got a couple months to get things together!

Matt

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Another '50's Pontiac wagon .

Glad you found the forums. Sounds like you are not shy of taking on projects. Looking forward to your posts as you do your build.

 

Yeah, I'm no stranger to crazy builds. I've been building cars as a hobby for quite a while, and I do enjoy the one off's and unique builds.

Here's a quick shot of the cab of my Studebaker when we picked it up. No chassis, lots of rust, missing most everything....


And here it is as I get ready to start prepping for paint. 5.3ls, turbo, 3 link, wilwood brakes, etc...