Re: 1943 Pontiac

Posted by Dean on October 14, 2012 at 11:06:57 from (67.172.15.77):

In Reply to: 1943 Pontiac posted by JOB on October 14, 2012 at 03:55:44:

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

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