57 Pontiac "Zero Fox"

[ZooMad75]

Pontiac and Chevy as far as the the tri-fives share a lot in the body from the firewall back in the states.

It’s easiest to see in the wagons as the non-safari ‘56 wagons used similar taillights to the ‘55 Chevy. The Nomad and Safari shared the doors, roof, glass and gate also.

The Pontiac front suspension was different from the Chevy as well.

I do like learning the difference between them though.

 

[tRustyK5]

Yeah, mostly the American Pontiac has a longer front end, like the Buick.

The Canadian Pontiac trim names were: Pathfinder (150), Pathfinder deluxe (210) and Laurentian (Bel Air)

By '59 the names changed to Strato Chief, Laurentian, and Parisienne. That stayed that way until the mid to late 60's. After that they dropped strato chief and Laurentian and just had Catalina and Parisienne.

 

[ZooMad75]

One of m/y Dad's buddies from way back has a '57 4dr Bel Air Sedan with a fuelie 283/3spd column shift. It's an original car that's not modified but he's a nut for 4door cars. He sent me down the rabbit hole when I was a kid when he brought home a 4-door '56 210 sedan from Australia. All imported tri-fives back in the day were 210 4-door sedan cars. They were all produced in Canada, converted to right-hand drive, and shipped to Australia.

He paid for the two trips down and the cost of the car and shipping by stripping 4-door sedan Bel Air cars of the trim and selling them down under. This was when you actually still saw tri-fives in junkyards in the late 80's early 90's. I don't think there was a 4-door Bel Air in any Colorado junkyards that didn't get stripped.

The cars were similar, but all were equipped with a 6 cylinder 3-speed column shift. No V8 Tri-fives were sold back then. They had actual leather upholstery to deal with the harsh sun. The linkage for the clutch, shifter and throttle are Rube Goldberg feats of engineering as those still were on the left side of the trans, bell and engine.

Sorry for the tangent... All this Canadian tri-five talk triggered a memory.


Back to the regularly scheduled race car talk...

 

[max 02]

Went way back to the first few pages. You have had this car a long time… Reading Bobs posts made me miss him. He had some good stories!

 

[tRustyK5]

Most European imported Pontiacs were the Canadian versions too, just not right hand drive. I can't imagine the clutch nightmare on a right hand drive car!!

 

[bix]

I see a drag and drive event in the horizon..

 

[Bent77]

Today on Zero Fox Garage, we measure up the Pontificater to lose its virginity

 

[tRustyK5]

Right now the Zero Fox garage resembles an archeological dig site...so I best take care of that first!

As for Pontaliniac virginity...I guess it really hasn't been foxed with yet, so coming soon! "The 65 year old virgin!!"

 

[Bent77]

My garage will be a clean slate. Empty. The Furry will be the one and only project...easier for me to stay on track that way.

This didn’t age well…

 

[tRustyK5]

I did mention things have changed...

Anyways, I've been cleaning the dang garage on my week off. That will be my entire week off...but I'm making progress. Some parts showed up.



Transmission ships tomorrow.

 

[Bent77]

Ah yeas. Grey sticker with black letters

 

[ZooMad75]

Party time for sure...

Your feet will thank you if the flywheel lets go.

 

[tRustyK5]

Yeah, it's only my wallet that hurts right now. I'll get over that a lot faster than I will having my feet turned into hamburger if the clutch explodes.

 

[Bent77]

Yep. We use to pass down the expired stuff to the slower cars, just to have the coverage

 

[ZooMad75]

I don’t remember if I told the story here or not. Probably have. But my Dad witnessed a flywheel/clutch coming apart on a ‘57 way back in the day. It was a 8,000 rpm stroked 283 with injection. When it came apart it went through the floor, dash and windshield like a buzz saw. Straight up. Guy got really lucky.

 

[Bent77]

One heard stories of them going down and coming back up through the car

No thanks. I’ll take some 1/4” Steel can, pay the SFI tax on the flywheel, and hope for the best

 

[ZooMad75]

One heard stories of them going down and coming back up through the car

No thanks. I’ll take some 1/4” Steel can, pay the SFI tax on the flywheel, and hope for the best

Dad had said after he saw that he was on the lookout for a scatter shield. He couldn’t take it to the track much later after it as they required solid lifter manual trans cars to have one.

I know he does not have one on the car, but he may have bought a vintage one at a swap meet years ago. Still wouldn’t trust it if he did have one because the early ones were not the steel can like the one above.

That car will probably never be driven in anger again anyway so it’s pointless to even worry about it.

 

[82355]

Today would have been the birthday of a local kid I use to drink some beer with. He was working on a John Deere 4020 for his uncle several years ago, and the engine ran away. He was trying to shut it down when the flywheel exploded, and blew through the cast iron housing. Killed him instantly. The EMT's said it was the most gruesome call they had ever been on.

Martin

 

[max 02]

Today would have been the birthday of a local kid I use to drink some beer with. He was working on a John Deere 4020 for his uncle several years ago, and the engine ran away. He was trying to shut it down when the flywheel exploded, and blew through the cast iron housing. Killed him instantly. The EMT's said it was the most gruesome call they had ever been on.

Martin

Thats horrible! Sorry Martin.

 

[tRustyK5]

Today would have been the birthday of a local kid I use to drink some beer with. He was working on a John Deere 4020 for his uncle several years ago, and the engine ran away. He was trying to shut it down when the flywheel exploded, and blew through the cast iron housing. Killed him instantly. The EMT's said it was the most gruesome call they had ever been on.

Martin

That is just brutal, my condolences...