1968 Pontiac Parisienne Restoration

While we’re at it… Chapter 1

Chapter: 1 | 2

The '68 Pontiac just after unloading off the trailor at home

This is a little story about the "partial" restoration of a 1968 Pontiac Parisienne, which like many new toys, ends up becoming just a little more involved than one had planned, much like this story…

We had been sort of sniffing around for a new family car and every day driver to become a replacement for our old VK Commodore, still a mostly reliable car and no slouch with it’s factory fitted V8 and manual trans, although rather un-interesting to look at and often embarrassing when taken out on a club run.

We own a 68 Vette, but we also own two young kids, so it’s been either hassle good old grandma again to baby sit, or miss out on some great club runs. We are not really into newer model cars, the VK being the most modern vehicle we’ve owned, so after spending many a time looking at some of our fellow club members ‘full sized’ cars (the boot space is important to the missus as those who have young kids would know), we opted to narrow our search down to a late ‘60s Chev. I preferred a Chev due to being familiar with the mechanicals and already having spare bits that I’ve hoarded. It was pointed out to me along the way that Aussie assembled Pontiacs had Chev running gear, which then broadened the search.
The missus said her preferred car was a ‘57 but I quickly pointed out the fact that these were not really suitable as an every day driver for us, and considering what they are now worth, I could almost buy that aircraft for not much more!

After looking at a couple of cars, one ‘68 Belair non-Pillarless and a Pillarless ‘67 Ponty, unfortunately both needing serious rust repairs, the Pillarless idea became embedded in our brains, so the search criteria narrowed once again.
We hadn’t been hunting the classifieds at all, as we were in no hurry, just putting the word out around the members we knew in the club, and eventually it paid off.
The last car we found out about was only ten minutes drive from home, but after our previous car inspections, we learned that there are not too many classic cars under ten grand that don’t need a heap of rust removed, so we didn’t get our hopes up.

After a fairly thorough inspection it turned out to be a reasonably clean and original car with the only obvious problem being a dead engine.
No problems, I said to her, I’ve rebuilt many of these Chev engines as she knew I had, so a deal was made and the missus was the proud owner of one 1968 Pontiac Parisienne 4-door Pillarless, and I was now in the good books as that particular Sunday was mothers’ day, and all I’d got for her was a card!

OK, OK, I’m getting to the restoration bit, be patient!

The engine coming out

The first job was to pull the engine and find out if it was rebuildable, as after verifying that it was the car’s original 327, it would be nice to keep it matching.
Apart from every small gadget known to man being fitted to the car, switches, gauges, and a pile of other small bits, all was original right down to cast iron manifolds and the factory radio. Let’s make it stay that way if we can!
I had noticed the compression way down on two cylinders and after pulling the engine down, found the valves had badly sunken into the cylinder heads probably due to a LPG system being installed some 9 years ago, so off to the engine guy, Lou at Dandenong Engine Reconditioning in Carrum Downs for some machine work and some new bits.
My plan was to totally rebuild the engine, which looked a little tired anyway, rather than simply do the heads and slap it back together… The first ‘while we’re at it’ bit!

327 engine on the stand ready for teardown

After a cleanup and inspection, I was relieved to find that the little 327 was able to be rebuilt without replacing the block, and the heads could be saved by installing new hardened valves and seats (required for LPG anyway) together with all the other usual stuff like guides, surfacing, springs etc. The bottom end’s getting a big birthday also with some new pistons, rings, bearings, cam, lifters, timing chain, and every other replaceable component, and yes, all this was to be expected so no surprises here with a 37 year old engine!
Leaving all this in the trusty hands of the engine machine shop guys, I then turned my attention to the rest of the car.

Now having a big space where the engine used to live and you would think that you wouldn’t consider putting a nice freshly rebuilt and painted engine into an old engine bay, it was time to give that a birthday also’ another thing I had actually planned for.
Well having pulled fronts off many HQ to HZ Holdens in my time and realising how easy it then is to get access, I thought the best way was to pull what was left of the front off the car, as the bonnet was already up against the wall. The second while we’re at it bit!
I must admit this was the first car I needed to use the block and tackle to lift off the front bumper. Well we did buy a Pontiac!
The plan was then to simply remove all the added under bonnet gadgets, clean off the old paint from the firewall and inner guards, strip the entire front suspension as the ball joints and bushes and brakes would most likely need replacing anyway, clean up everything and repaint the lot. A bit of work I thought but nothing I hadn’t done plenty of times before and at least the under bonnet stuff will look pretty and everything fixed and reliable when I’d finished. Like I said that WAS the plan…

Chassis, firewall & under body cleaning

There it was, the rest of the body outside the workshop, the front up in the air on stands, nothing from the firewall forward except the chassis with just enough bits still fitted to keep it rolling, while I blasted away the years of grease and dirt with the pressure cleaner.
After removing as much gunge as I could from the under-body in the position it was in, I rolled it back inside and got it high up on stands all round for a closer inspection of underneath. So far so good. No signs of serious rust, damage or any other nasty stuff, just in need of some new paint on the chassis, which after 37 years had none, and the floor pan, which could do with some protection also.

The body being lifted (by an 8 Year old!)

Having also lifted many Holden bodies off chassis over the years, I then started to look over what would be involved in doing the same with this Pontiac.
Not so hard I thought, surely I’m not getting too carried away am I?
No problems, just undo the fuel and brake lines, steering column from the box and a couple of other things, unbolt the chassis mounts and then lift off the body.
Here comes the next ‘while we’re at it’ bit!

This car had a huge Hayman Reece type tow-bar, which had to come off first, and then the rear bumper as well. A minor snag but all’s still looking OK.
Well we now have a car that’s taking up two car spaces in the workshop.

And finally, out comes the chassis!

Now, the new plan is to strip the chassis, work out a shopping list for suspension, steering and brake bits that need replacing and order what’s needed, and get the chassis and other stuff down to the sandblasters so I can concentrate on what’s left, as the sandblaster guy that I know, John from Peninsula Sandblasting in Seaford, much like the engine guy, does a good job but if you want it done right, you need to wait, and wait.
Unfortunately I can’t afford to wait, as I’ve plenty to do before the chassis and engine parts are ready to pick up again so back to the grind.

Ready to see where we are now with the resto?… Click here for Chapter 2

Jon and Ellen – Members 3082 & 3560