Well after dealing with a stubborn fuel issue (Which turned out to be my fuel tank) I decided to pull out the old Flatty out and drop in my rebuilt 268 Straight Eight and 54 Hydra-matic transmission. The new engine is basically stock, but it is bored .060 over to a 278. Over all the job wasn’t that bad.

I had the old one out in a couple of hours

In with the new, now this was a little bit of a pain. It’s not that the job was tough or anything, but my cherry picker fell over and the engine landed on my toolbox and battery – both destroyed. I pulled the ol’ s10 around and chained the cherry picker to it and finally got the new Flathead in and bolted up.

Besides the engine falling over while trying to put it in, the only other problem I had with this project was getting the drive shaft yoke to slide into the transmission. I like to never got that sucker in there. I actually had to take a board and tap it in with a hammer. I spent overall about 3 hours working with the drive shaft. I spent more time on that drive shaft than I did actually putting the engine in.

After I finally got it in, made sure everything was tight and finally fired the engine up… I put it in gear and NOTHING – transmission is locked up! Turns out the 54 Hydramatic is junk…

So I pulled the 54 transmission back out – had it out in 45 minutes!

I pulled the old transmission off of my old engine and finally got it installed about a week later since I had to order the torus gasket. That transmission is heavy by the way… It was everything I could do to get it slid under the car and raised onto a jack to jack it back up into place. I think I had the transmission back in in about an hour or so. Wasn’t too bad.

In all, I had the engine swap done in about a day, but it took me 9 days to complete the project since I had to order that torus gasket before I could install my old transmission.

I’ve put about 2,000 miles on it since I did the engine swap and so far everything is great. The engine runs smooth and the transmission… well…it shifts haha.

I have everything to convert it to a straight drive car which I do plan to do, hopefully sometime this winter if I get a chance to.

Picked her up for $1000. Came with 5 new coker white wall 7.10×15’s, a new master cylinder, wheel cylinders, shoes, and brake hardware. All the trim, the grill and bumper that is removed in the pic, was in the car. The engine has been machined, but not assembled due to the machine shop finding a cracked crank. There was a EGGE master rebuild kit in the car, along with 8 new EGGE .030-over pistons, new timing gears & chain, reground cam, oil pump, etc. Pretty much everything to put it back together, except the crank. The plan is to get the brakes put together, check out the steering, and put a 350/350 in it TEMPORARILY, until I can get the straight 8 put back together, so I can drive it. My previous employment was as the head tech in a restoration shop, and now I sell Snapon Tools, so hopefully I can get old girl driving in a couple good weekends of work.

Here’s an update on my interior… June 2009 – It took me about 4 years to get around to doing this, but I finally bought the materials to put together some door panels for the old Chief. I got the panel board from Lowes for about $12 a sheet (If I remember correctly) and I picked up the material from a local fabric shop. I got 4 yards of black and 1 yard of red Naugahyde which is more than enough to cover all 4 door panels, my kick panels and the rear deck. I paid $8.99 a yard for the material.

I stitched these myself, it’s not the best job out there, but I did it… It took me a while to do all 4 of these though as I didn’t use a sewing machine. I did it all by hand.

Here are the pics…

This was the first door panel I completed. I have about 3 hours tied up in each of these door panels.

The seat covers were found on ebay and are only temporary. Someone purchased them before me and tore them on the bottom cover for the back seat, not really noticable though. These were NOS covers, but age has an effect on them… I think. They didn’t quite fit like they should have, but they look good for now – better than nothing at least.

Here is the dash also… I finally got around to painting the lower half black. This will get sanded and repainted later also when I get around to repainting the whole car.

In all, I think I have about $110-120 tied up in my door panels, kick panels and rear deck panel. That’s not including the trim I piece I lost and had to find and repurchase… that set me back an additional $47

I still have to do my wind lace, headliner and carpet… and I need to have my seats recovered right. I’m collecting parts to get those things done, but it probably won’t be until spring 2010 before I get around to doing that.

1952 Pontiac "Flame Job"

Well, I got bored and drew out some flames on my car a few weeks prior to painting them. I drove it around for a while with the sketch on it until I finally got the nerve to mask it off and spray them. They’re painted on with Krylon paint (cans) and I think they turned out pretty good.

I basically made me a pattern on some cardboard paper and used that to keep both sides symmetrical… I think they turned out decent for my first time ever trying to paint flames…

It was getting dark out when I finished so these pictures are a little fuzzy.

1952 Pontiac "Flame Job"

Hi All,
Just thought I’d make myself known to everyone. My name is Scott Baker and I live in Australia.
I’ve always been into American cars, and over the years I’ve imported quite a few. A 1959 Cadillac, a 1955 Cadillac, 2 1950 Buicks and a 1958 Buick, and now this 1951 Pontiac Cheiftian convertible (photos attached). I’ve sold on most of the cars (kept a 1950 Buick fastback) but I intend to keep the Pontiac.
My Pontiac is actually still in AZ at the moment (waiting on my transport company to pick it up!) but I expect I’ll take delivery of it here in Australia late Jan.
I just want to thank Dave for putting this great site together! I just love it.
Also thanks to Dave, and “The Cheif” for advice with the car, and also in the Cheif’s case, finding parts for my car and sending them to me (what a top bloke!). I just want to say I look forward to many years of happy motoring in the Pontiac, and many happy hours talking Pontiacs with you guys!
I’ll be sure to let you all know when my new toy arrives
All the best from ‘Down under’
Regards
Scott

Mattias’ 1952 Pontiac from Sweden.

This is Gary’s 1949 Pontiac Streamliner

PICTURES OF MY 51 PONTIAC I FOUND STORED IN A SHED FOR 36 YEARS.THE PIC. WITH THE HOOD AND TRUNK LIDS UP IS AS IT LOOKED WHEN FOUND. MADE IN CANADA,HYDRA-MATIC,8 CYL.,MODEL #27-07D….. THIS CAR IS RUST FREE…THE BODY HAS ONLY A FEW PARKING LOT DINGS. THE ONLY ORIG. PART MISSING IS LEFT TAIL LIGHT LENS
JACK

This is Marv’s 1951 Pontiac Sedan Delivery. He says it is sitting on a 1979 International Scout frame and has pretty much everything scout in it except the body.

Hi Dave, thanks for the reply. engine and tranny are in good shape,detail the engine and bay, interior needs to be totally redone I like the original maybe
vinyl,exterior i want to lower it 2 or 3 inches change the wheels(?) lake pipes
change some chrome bumper,etc,paint? That’s the plan for now the more I see this can change. I have another project 1972 buick skylark. so just collecting parts and idea for now. when i got my car and started searching the web i was excited to see this site thanks again Dave