1943 Pontiac

If anyone has a 1943 Pontiac Please take a picture
of it and post it, it would be interesting to see.
If there is a 1943 Pontiac it was not made in the
U.S. I could not find any history of Pontiacs
built anywhere but the U.S. in the early years.

Here is a little history of Pontiac. A partial
from Pontiac's Timeline. Pontiac ceased production
of automobiles on February 2nd 1942 for the war
years. The Canadians seemed to be the largest
buyers of Pontiac's for a few years.

1934 Pontiac, along with other GM lines,
introduced independent front suspension. Top
models were embellished with Silver Streak
styling.
1935 Technical innovations for Pontiac (shared
with other GM models) were an all-steel roof,
hydraulic brakes, safety-plate glass, and a
synchromesh transmission.
1938 Pontiac introduced the first column-mounted
gear shift.
1941 A straight-8 returned to the engine lineup.
Pontiac began manufacturing Swiss-designed
Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft guns for the U.S.
Navy. After car production ceased, Pontiac
manufactured cannons, torpedoes, tank axles, and
various military engine parts.
1946 The first post-war Pontiac was a 2-door
Streamliner fastback sedan.
1949 New downsized Pontiacs were available with a
Hydra-Matic automatic transmission.
1950 Pontiac's attractive Catalina 2-door hardtop
arrived.

1926–1942


1928 Pontiac


1936 Pontiac Master Six Coupe
The Pontiac brand was introduced by General Motors
in 1926 as the companion marque to GM's Oakland
division. Within months of its introduction,
Pontiac was outselling Oakland. As a result of
Pontiac's rising sales, versus Oakland's declining
sales, Pontiac became the only companion marque to
survive its parent, with Oakland ceasing
production in 1932.



Pontiac began by selling cars offering 40 hp (30
kW) 186.7 ci (3.1-liter) (3.25x3.75 in, 82.5x95mm)
L-head straight 6-cylinder engines in the Pontiac
Chief of 1927; its stroke was the shortest of any
American car in the industry at the time. The
Chief sold 39,000 units within six months of its
appearance at the 1926 New York Auto Salon,
hitting 76,742 at twelve months. The next year, it
became the top-selling six in the U.S., ranking
seventh in overall sales.[1] By 1933, it had moved
up to producing the least expensive cars available
with straight eight-cylinder (inline eight)
engines. This was done by using many components
from the 6-cylinder Chevrolet, such as the body.
In the late 1930s, Pontiac used the so-called
torpedo body of the Buick for one of its models,
just prior to its being used by Chevrolet. This
body style brought some attention to the marque.
An unusual feature of the "torpedo" body
exhibition car, was that with push of a button the
front half of the car body would open showing the
engine and the car's front seat interior.[2] In
1937, the eight-cylinder had a 122 inch wheelbase,
while the six-cylinder had a 117 inch wheelbase.
[3] On 2 February 1942 a Pontiac was the last
civilian automobile manufactured in the United
States during World War II, as all automobile
factories converted to military production.[4]
For an extended period of time—prewar through the
early 1950s—the Pontiac was a quiet, solid car,
but not especially powerful. It came with a
flathead (side-valve) straight eight. Straight 8s
were slightly less expensive to produce than the
increasingly popular V8s, but they were also
heavier and longer. Additionally, the long
crankshaft suffered from excessive flex,
restricting straight 8s to a relatively low
compression ratio with a modest redline. However,
in this application, inexpensive (yet very quiet)
flatheads were not a liability.

Dad had a 1936 Pontiac; it was a rugged machine. He bought a 1946 Pontiac that turned out to be just junk.

There is no 1943 Pontiac. Unless it was built as a staf car for the military. Out of 1941 parts. All auto production stopped in Jan/Feb 1942 depending on company.

its possible the car is titled as a 1943, sold new, but what it actually should be is a 1942, sold new in 1943, either to a defense plant, or certain types of factories and businesses were entitled to purchase limited vehicles, ie a car or truck, these would have been in stock 1942 models built in late 1941, but never sold,you really had to be a critical industry to get one of those, most everybody else had to use what they had or could build in house, by early 1942 all auto plants were into full wartime production of military equipment, and aircraft or ammunition

I worked for 2 out of the big 3, and model years always started in the fall. So a car built in the fall of 41 would have been sold as a 42? I do think auto industry changed over in early 42, but they might have assembled a staff car out of service parts or ?

they could have hand built one out of 1941 service parts, but i think i read someplace where the war dept " froze' all new vehicles sitting on dealer lots around the country,in early 1942, after the factories had been retrofitted for wartime production, these cars and trucks were sold on a 'critical need' basis you had to contact the war dept if you wanted one and i think you got 1 only, if approved,they had to consider your type of business, how relative to the war effort it was, and other things before allowing you to purchase one of these vehicles

My dad used to tell about when war started they had an old worn out Dodge. Grandpa was able to buy a new Ford ordered by a preacher who declined delivery. Grandpa was allowed to buy the car as he was a farmer and had sons in military service, thus demonstrating need for transportation.

I have never seen or even heard of a 1943 Pontiac, and did not know that any were made.

I taught myself how to drive and turn wrenches on a 1947 Pontiac with 239 F Head 6 and column shift three speed.

My father travelled and usually put over 35,000 miles on a car each year. He never traded-in a car but just parked the old ones behind the barn after they had 125K-150K miles and he needed something more reliable for work. When I was growing up there were usually 3 or 4 "old" cars behind the barn and I chose the 47 4 door because it was a deluxe model (rear vacuum wiper, fog lamps, underseat heater, push button radio, etc.) to be my "farm" car. I probably should have chosen the other 47, a black 2 door business coupe but I used it as a parts car instead.

Though it did not really need it, I did a valve job on the 47 when I was 12/13. Took me about 2 weeks, as I would usually stall out and need to wait for the weekend for help or advice from my father. I remember sitting on the fender with my feet in the engine compartment beside the engine turning wrenches. After removing all of the head bolts, I needed to wait for my father to return on the weekend to remove the head as I did not have the strength to lift if out over the fender.

When I had the head off, I had it milled .100 because I had read in the owners manual that Pontiac offered a high compression head for the 239 that raised the HP a bit. The local machine shop guy told me that the max one could mill the non-HC head was .100. I did not know if the car already had the HC head but told him to mill it .100 anyway. It may have been a HC head, as later, while "drag racing" my neighbor on his quarter horse in the hay field, I floated the valves and the exhaust valve in #6 hit the head and broke off. FWIW, the kid on the quarter hourse pulled me BADLY out of the hole, despite my snow tires, but I caught him in second gear running on 5 after over reving the engine in low and floating the valves.

I could have taken the 51 Buick Super with straight 8 as my learner car but the Dynaflow leaked. It had over 175,000 miles on it without any major work and still started and ran fine but, as a kid, I had no way to repair the leaking torque converter.

Later, my biggest mistake was not saving the 1958 Oldsmobile 98 with 371 J2 tri-power engine, 4 speed hydramatic and ALL factory options. This was the car that I (rarely) drove when in HS, and was the first air conditioned car that I had seen. In 1974 or so, after I had married and moved away, my father cleaned out the barn (where it was stored) and sold it. It still started and ran fine, and the AC still worked as it should but it needed brakes and complete dual exhaust.

Dad knew that I was fond of it and asked me if I wanted him to keep it for me but I was living in an apartment at the time and told him to go ahead and sell it. He sold it for $150 and the buyer scrapped it.

Oh, to have it now.

Dean

Seems I remember 42 model cars having plastic trim on dash instead of chrome. The plastic was somewhat cream color. Also MAYBE some outside trim also. Anyone remember this?