I knew a guy in Dunedin with a green one. He and his two brothers own Regent Oil Refinery (polluting the local stream) at the end of our street. They were all into older American cars ??
elect70,
May 11, 3:39am
Great back seat in themforabit ofhowsya father .Mate used to borrow his old mans & we woulkd cruisearound welly in it on friday nights .
ladatrouble,
May 11, 6:29am
Ok Chev body shell with Pontiac grill, tail lights and hub caps. Same as Austin/Morris or Hillman/Humber. Made in Canada, assembled in NZ. Thing is, the American Pontiac used a different body shell and engine.
grandmasue1,
May 11, 6:39am
Yes i think so but thats not me.
rob_man,
May 11, 6:43am
And doors, rear quarters, boot lids, front guards and bonnets. Maybe the roofline was the same but nothing else on the exterior was.
ladatrouble,
May 11, 6:47am
I said body shell. I think the paint might have been different too.You got a hair up your arse that needs splitting!
grandmasue1,
May 11, 6:48am
Over the years we have owned and driven many 'yank tanks' my husband had a "47 Chev when I met him, then a 52 twin Spinner which we used when we got married, 52 Chev, 54 Chev, . I think we had about 50 cars in the first 10 years, 52 Buick Straight 8 (auto), Plymouuth, 62 Chev, various Fords including a Fairlane. My 50th birthday present was a 1960 prefect 100E, sold it a few years ago to a young teenage girl, she has kept it original and we see it on SH1 most days. Don't laugh but my favourite car is now a 95 Honda Odysey, the car we have owned the longest except for Ponty. about 10 yrs now.
rob_man,
May 11, 7:53am
You were a bit up the creek, sorry to be of help.
grandmasue1,
May 19, 4:41am
I had another admirer come in off the street to look at 'Ponty' he was a real Elvis fan and reckons Elvis had a Pontiac. Not sure myself but there you go.
ema1,
May 19, 5:52am
It was a CKD kit from GM Oshawa plant in Canada, most here new were but some Parisienne Pillerless models came in built up on special order and were available through GM agents in NZ from 1960 up to around 1970 or so. We had a low mileage used one at our local dealership, I think it was a "built up"1971 in 1973 when I first started working there. Damn nice car too I recall. It was like all the Canadian Pontiac's of the time Chev power trains and running gear even the dashboards were direct lifts out of Chev Impala's of the time. RHD Impala's were assembled in NZ too around the time. There were Dodge RHD Phoenix cars from Chrysler Australia which were infact the same body pressings as Plymouth Fury models etc for a few years too, had an Uncle who owned a 1965 one 318cid "Poly" V8, would have liked thaty even now. In Canada various Chevrolet models used the Acadian name tag for some years. Buicks were built there too from way back as well as other GM range makes. The buicks pre WW2 were Mc Laughlin/Buicks and were back then considered superior to the USA Flint Michigan built Buick,s., even British royalty used them pre WW2
ema1,
May 19, 5:52am
It was a CKD kit from GM Oshawa plant in Canada, most here new were but some Parisienne Pillerless models came in built up on special order and were available through GM agents in NZ from 1960 up to around 1970 or so. I serviced several Pontiacs and Chevs at our dealership plus the odd Cadillac and Buick too around the 1970's when I was there. We had a low mileage used one at our local dealership, I think it was a "built up"1971 in 1973 when I first started working there. Damn nice car too I recall. It was like all the Canadian Pontiac's of the time Chev power trains and running gear even the dashboards were direct lifts out of Chev Impala's of the time. RHD Impala's were assembled in NZ too around the time. There were Dodge RHD Phoenix cars from Chrysler Australia which were infact the same body pressings as Plymouth Fury models etc for a few years too, had an Uncle who owned a 1965 one 318cid "Poly" V8, would have liked thaty even now. In Canada various Chevrolet models used the Acadian name tag for some years. Buicks were built there too from way back as well as other GM range makes. The buicks pre WW2 were Mc Laughlin/Buicks and were back then considered superior to the USA Flint Michigan built Buick,s., even British royalty used them pre WW2
rob_man,
May 19, 6:29am
Thanks for clearing that up, I knew our Pontiacs had the Chev motors and dashboards but I didn't realise it was a Canadian standard.
ema1,
May 19, 6:39am
A lot of Chrysler product from Canada and sold there eg Plymouth Valiants in the 1960's used a mix of Dodge Dart body panels on Valiants as in the mid '60's they would use Dodge Dart coupe rear sections ( quite different to the USA Plymouth Valiant of the time) with Valiant front clips. Even Chrysler Australia's Chrysler valiant 2 door hard tops VF & VG models were actually Dodge Dart LWB bodies from Chrysler Dodge division even the tail lamps were Dodge items and Chrysler Australia fitted the Dodge Dart bodies with Valiant VF and later VG front clips and Chrysler Valiant dashboards to get the Valiant 2 door hard top we got here. Even back in the Valiant AP5 models 1963-65 they even used ex Chrysler USA components like the manual gearboxes with LHD>>RHD conversion crossover rods on them and automatic gearboxes the electrics which were pure USA Prestolite alternators and wiper gear that parked on the opposite side of the screen "a la" as on LHD cars. Chrysler Australia changed the wiper gear on Chrysler Valiants to conform with RHD in very late 1964 early 1965 AP5 models not long before the AP6 Valiants were introduced. Some of the early Safari Valiant wagons of the AP5 Valiants were actually USA body pressings, their rear doors were different to the AP5 sedan.( mainly in the profile of the window frame shape using a smaller more angular quarter light glass.) The rear doors of later AP6 and VC Valiant Safari wagonsused the same rear doors of the sedan models. Interesting thing in the USA Plymouth and Dodge did NOT produce wagon models in their 1967 and onwards Plymouth Valiants and Dodge Darts Canada I think may have but Australia designed their own wagons from the VE-VF & VG Valiants onwards and were peculiar to Australian Chrysler production and possibly Chrysler South Africa which barstardizedValiants and Darts from all over the world to get their cars produced. In the USA PlymouthValiants gave way to Plymouth Volare & the Dodge Darts to Dodge Aspen models from late 1974-5 year. All very interesting huh!
ema1,
May 19, 6:39am
A lot of Chrysler product from Canada and sold there eg Plymouth Valiants in the 1960's used a mix of Dodge Dart body panels on Valiants as in the mid '60's they would use Dodge Dart coupe rear sections ( quite different to the USA Plymouth Valiant of the time) with Valiant front clips. Even Chrysler Australia's Chrysler valiant 2 door hard tops VF & VG models were actually Dodge Dart LWB bodies from Chrysler Dodge division even the tail lamps were Dodge items and Chrysler Australia fitted the Dodge Dart bodies with Valiant VF and later VG front clips and Chrysler Valiant dashboards to get the Valiant 2 door hard top we got here. Even back in the Valiant AP5 models 1963-65 they even used ex Chrysler USA components like the manual gearboxes with LHD>>RHD conversion crossover rods on them and automatic gearboxes the electrics which were pure USA Prestolite alternators and wiper gear that parked on the opposite side of the screen "a la" as on LHD cars. Chrysler Australia changed the wiper gear on Chrysler Valiants to conform with RHD in very late 1964 early 1965 AP5 models not long before the AP6 Valiants were introduced. Some of the early Safari Valiant wagons of the AP5 Valiants were actually USA body pressings, their rear doors were different to the AP5 sedan.( mainly in the profile of the window frame shape using a smaller more angular quarter light glass.) The rear doors of later AP6 and VC Valiant Safari wagonsused the same rear doors of the sedan models. Interesting thing in the USA Plymouth and Dodge did NOT produce wagon models in their 1967 and onwards Plymouth Valiants and Dodge Darts Canada I think may have but Australia designed their own wagons from the VE-VF & VG Valiants onwards and were peculiar to Australian Chrysler production and possibly Chrysler South Africa had wagons which barstardizedValiants and Darts parts from all over the world came together to get their cars produced. In the USA PlymouthValiants gave way to Plymouth Volare & the Dodge Darts to Dodge Aspen models from late 1974-5 year. All very interesting huh!
taipan4,
May 19, 6:56am
a wealth of knowledge there very informative +++++1111111111
taipan4,
May 19, 6:58am
& of courseP O N T I A C =POOR OLD NEGRO THINKS ITS A CADILLAClol
rob_man,
May 19, 8:45am
The Valiant crossover with USA Mopars runs deep. I knew a guy who bought a Plymouth Duster with rusty doors for bugger all because he had spotted the fact that Valiant doors were the same even though the cars don't actually resemble each other. The Valiant doors were cheap and bolted straight on.
ema1,
May 19, 10:47am
I actually had a lot to do with a 1964 Plymouth Valiant Signet 200 2 door h/top LHD when in the motor trade days and it was converted by us to RHD using AP5front suspension beam complete with arms and even the front brakes, straight bolt in job ( actually the Slant 6 engine in AP5-6 & VC as did the 273V8 in theAP6 & VC sit in a slightly different mount positions in LHD cars compared to RHD thus using the complete front RHD suspension beam sorted the difference in one move.) The dashboard, complete steering system was swapped out with odd box mounting provisions done to mount RHD steering box, the RHD wiring loom and various other parts were used to complete the conversion successfully. We left the LHD pattern wiper gear in the car as most AP5 Valiants used the LHD pattern wiper gear anyway. RHD headlamps were used from AP5 to replace the opposite dipping beams of the LHD lamps. We even used the Australian 14" wheels in place of the USA Plymouth Valiant 13" ones, a straight bolt up. Rear axle and brakes were left unchanged as both were identical 3.23:1 diff ratio to the AP5 units. No problems were had withwindow gear as they were manual winders. The push button auto trans selector button panel and operating cables were basically mirror image between LHD & RHD versions . The steering wheels were identical but AP5 steering column was used as the LHD column was a mirror image in having the flasher stalk opposite side. Funny thing actually the Torque Flite push button Valiants flasher stalks were opposite to the normal in each case ie being on left side for RHD and right side for LHD so you wouldn't get fouled up when operating the auto trans push buttons. Provision for the steering column aperture through the firewall was sorted by fabricating from sectioning the cannibalized AP5 firewall, brake pedal pivot mount swapped with the odd provision made to mount it all up and all else as far as I remember was OK, that was about 1970 that I had a big input on that car, odd details I may have forgotten to mention, funny though just thinking about it .it seems like yesterday I was involved with it. Damn nice car too 225cid slant 6 it was, it had the factory Chrysler Chico AM/FM radio along with an 8 track stereo of the vintage in there and it performed well . Nice light metallic green it was and the interior was a two toned green with a silver type sheen vinyl/cloth mix upholstery, very tasteful at the time. Pity though that car got written off a couple of years on when a bus clobbered it after slipping on ice.I still have the Chico radio out of it somewhere here.
ema1,
May 19, 11:02am
And to Dodge a Ford .buy a Dodge!
ema1,
May 19, 11:15am
Interesting coincidence I have just spotted a Valiant Signet LHD 2 door listed on here actually and it was similar to the one I talked about in my post #44 That one looks like it has the 1965 USA Plymouth ValiantBarracuda grill in it as it has the seperate centre section which the USA 64's didn't have as far as I know! Silly price on it I must say! Listing #: 467336515
ema1,
May 19, 11:34am
The Canadians had some Pontiac models we never saw here and were built up as LHD only, namely Strato Chief and Grand Parisienne we only got the Laurentian and Parisienne not the Grand version. 283cid V8 & 327cid V8 Chevrolet division engines were seen here in Pontiacs 1960 to 1968 or so, some special orders could post 1969 be had still NZ new with 307cid and 350cid V8s, but in Canada the 427 was a special order option on the Strato Chief models only! Chevelles over in Canada were rebadged as Acadian Beaumonts and the Chevy Nova11 was also done as an Acadian model can't remember it's model name though! We had all the literature/brochures etc to paw over at our GM-H dealership that I workedfor years ago, interesting stuff this thread has some memories of it all come flooding back.thanks for that, good days they were.
hyphen,
May 19, 10:19pm
Hey ema1, the Pontiac that looked like the Chevy Nova was called Acadian Canso, a mate had one back in the day and I always thought it was a strange name for a car
lookoutas,
May 19, 10:25pm
Re the Oz USA connection/pilfering. Oz Ford & Holden aren't immuned from this either.
ema1,
May 19, 11:35pm
Nice one lookoutas that was a good era 1963-4 model.
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