Acquiring another Pontiac station wagon

[mikerod51]

[Ringo64]

Nice wagon!

[64 kiwi boni]

Way cool 👍👍

[JUSTA6]

Sweet.   Welcome to the site.

[KiwiStarChief]

That's one nice looking wagon you have there Mike. Welcome to the site.

[Frosty]

Welcome to FP Mike. 

Since you're from Kingman, you are definitely no stranger to Route 66 and getting your kicks there on the Mother Road! Very cool.

You will have to keep us up-to-date on your adventures with the car and your car shows up and down the Mother Road.

[mikerod51]

I finally took a road trip to Sacramento and picked up my “new” 55 Chieftain Deluxe wagon and trailered it home to Kingman, AZ. It’s not perfect but I believe it will be a nice project to personalize and make it mine. It’s a mostly stock older restoration with a 347 engine and Hydramatic transmission. After playing with my Mopar and several Chevys I’m going to have a steep learning curve with an old Pontiac.  I’d like to install air conditioning, front disc brakes and power steering so if any of you Pontiac aficionados can help guide me I will certainly be grateful. I’m adding a few more photos I took after bringing it home. 

[KiwiStarChief]

I didn't notice it before, but the rear fender openings have been cut and radiused to match the front. They used to do this on the old gassers to get bigger tyres under there, or to make it look like a tri-five Chevy Nomad. Not saying it looks wrong, but just different.

[64 kiwi boni]

8 hours ago, mikerod51 said:

I finally took a road trip to Sacramento and picked up my “new” 55 Chieftain Deluxe wagon and trailered it home to Kingman, AZ. It’s not perfect but I believe it will be a nice project to personalize and make it mine. It’s a mostly stock older restoration with a 347 engine and Hydramatic transmission. After playing with my Mopar and several Chevys I’m going to have a steep learning curve with an old Pontiac.  I’d like to install air conditioning, front disc brakes and power steering so if any of you Pontiac aficionados can help guide me I will certainly be grateful. I’m adding a few more photos I took after bringing it home. 

Looking very cool Mike👍 welcome to the madness!! there is lots of information here and we are more thank happy to help where we can 

 i am really good at drinking your beer and laughing at the mistakes.

 But i bet that under all that Pontiac Chrome there is a lot of standard gm parts at we are all familiar with 👍

[mikerod51]

Frosty - you’re correct there’s lots of cool stuff to see on the Mother Road and I can’t wait for the Route 66 Fun Run coming up in a few weeks.  Hopefully will be driving the wagon that weekend. Stay tuned and I’ll post photos. 
 

Russell - that’s a beautiful 57 Star Chief hardtop you’ve got and I can only dream of having my wagon be that nice someday. Good eyes catching the radiused rear fender openings. I’m not wild about that but it is almost identical to how my old 55 Chevy Handyman wagon had similar rear quarters. I regrettably sold the Handyman twelve years ago and when I saw the 55 Chieftain I had to pull the trigger and buy it. I’ll post a photo of the Handyman for reference. 
 

If anyone can guide me I’ve got questions regarding installing new carpet in my Chieftain wagon. It seems that a carpet kit molded for a same year Chevy should be a direct fit however it seems like the rear cargo area is a bit different on the Pontiac as the spare tire well isn’t centered like I remember in the Chevy. Any suggestions are very much appreciated. 
 

Cheers from old Route 66!

[dualquadpete]

WOW!!!  A" more door Long Roof" Just love it!! Maybe I shouldn't have sold my 64 "long roof" last month" ?????  Welcom to the site ' Pete

[mikerod51]

Thanks Pete - I’m hoping to learn more about Pontiacs as this wagon is the second one I’ve owned. I sold my 63 Catalina “long roof” a couple years ago after getting frustrated with all the little things I didn’t know about Pontiacs.  It was a really good looking car but drove me nuts with all the non stop nuisance problems I had with it plus my wife hyped it. What I really was hoping to get was a 61 Catalina Safari like the one my parents had when I was a kid but I can’t seem to find one no matter how hard I look. I’ve mostly been a Chevy and Mopar guy but I’m hoping this 55 Chieftain will change that. I’ll post a photo of my 63 Catalina parked alongside my Mopar. I still own the 65 Plymouth Satellite as it’s the twin to the first car I bought in high school back in the late 60’s. 

[dualquadpete]

Love it!!  Close to my 64 Parisienne [Cdn] long roof, mine had a pretty stout SBC with Borg Warner 4 spd!! Sold this and my 64 Impala S/S 409 4 spd on the same day!!