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I guess it's a car guy / mechanic thing in that I like decorating the tool chest with logos, badges, etc. for various groups, items or organizations I support. That said, here is a picture of my newest addition:

Hello all! Another Pontiac Tojan owner here. Discovered this forum because of the other Tojan owner’s post. My car has been in the family almost since new. Based on the Firebird Formula, it is one of a handful of convertibles built, originally with black leather interior. It was first owned/used by a company my dad was part owner of. The sales rep for the company put the bulk of its 140k miles on it, then it was used as a loaner for business associates until the late 90s when it was gifted to me. By this point the Tojan back plate had been stolen and replaced with a piece of plexiglass. I started fixing it up and learned about the rarity of it while in high school. My parents thought there were thousands of them, not hundreds, they were shocked to find out that less than two dozen were convertibles. After learning about the rarity they garaged it and used it as a second car for a number of years, also fixing the fiberglass, new paint, and the interior redone. I got the car back a few years ago and am slowly doing electrical and mechanical repairs my parents neglected. One of my dad’s business partners was in contact with Russ Knudsen back in the mid 90s, he gave me some of the documents that were sent to him from Knudsen Automotive. The convertible top uses the same conversion performed on Cameros from the mid to late 80s. I always thought that it looked kinda funky, which is part of what I love about it. And even with the somewhat anemic 305 it has a great exhaust note and is fun to take out for a weekend cruise. I plan to continue to fix my Tojan up and hope to start taking it to some shows this year.

Ok guys, thank you again.

Yes sir, it was bored out .30 over, factory crank ground .10 If I remember right. New pistons, cam, lifters, timing etc. Long tube headers, duel exhaust with series 40 flowmasters. I was trying to stay close to stock with the cam so I didn't have to put in a big stall and this was Comps recommendation.

The 55 started out with a 327 and 4 speed setting on the shop floor. I acquired the complete front suspension off of a 66 or 67 corvette whichever was the first year for disc brake in a horse trade involving a lot of stuff. It was complete with rotors calipers, even had the brake hoses. So here is this pile of parts with no home. A good friend of mine gave a pretty nice 55 210 post to his little brother but Joe wanted a hardtop. I heard about it and called him up to see what he needed for the 210. I used to be pretty good with a dumore grinder so I ported a set of heads in exchange for the 210 which had been pretty well pirated. Fortunately he left the interior alone. So I am looking at the Corvette suspension wondering how do I adapt it to the 55. Seems that the 55 inner cross shafts fit in the corvette lower arms, they use the same bushings and are spaced the same. That bolted the lower arms to the 55 but the ball joint stud was one inch farther out and two inches farther forward than the location of the original. By machining out a tapered shim for the stud I used the 55 upper arm but with the upper mount in the stock location the front end would not align. So I ground off all the welds on the upper mounts and with the car on the hoist all the suspension parts bolted together and the hoist holding the car at the correct ride height I put an alignment gauge on the front wheels and moved the upper mounts around to where the wheels would align. clamped it down and welded it on. as a consequence the front wheels were farther forward in the wheel wells and looking at it you knew that something was wrong but just could not figure out what. There is more to the dual master cylinder than the failure of half the system there is also the residual check valve. The Corvette calipers were a 4 piston calper with spring loaded pistons. With the residual check valve in the master cylinder it ate up the first set of brake pads in an oil change. So by now I have figured out that somehow I need to eliminate the residual check valve and without a proportioning valve the rear end can get a little squirrelly under certain hard braking. The 55 rear wheel cylinder casting came in about a half dozen bore sizes so I just got the smallest they made, think it was 3/4 inch, used eis expander series springs and cups to hopefully keep the rear cylinders from sucking air without the check valve and keeping the rear brakes adjusted tight it worked. I drove the car for a couple of years and at the time I had 4 or 5 cars sitting around. Came home one evening from work intending to go somewhere and there was not a car in sight. Only thing I had to drive was my work truck which I had the only set of keys for. My ex wifes worthless relatives were driving ever one of my cars. The next week in a fit of rage I sold them all. The 55 went to a friend that had a 63 409 horse 409 hardtop in the back yard. The one with the dual AFB's and the huge cast iron headers. The impala had encountered an elevated railroad crossing at about 105 and when it finally came back in contact with mother earth the results were not happy. The front tires had about 15 to 20 degrees of negative camber and the middle of the frame was about 5 inches closer to the ground than it started. At the time Mike was going to college and drove the 55 with the 327 and T10 4 speed until the next summer. Apparently he spent the entire school year wondering about the 409 in the 55. Come summer it was pretty much established in his mind that it would happen. Being tired of the third pedal commuting to and from school he did some horse trading and came up with a B&M turbo 400. Here is where it gets interesting. I do not know if you ever saw a 409 in a try year chev but to install one you had to set it high because it would not fit down between the upper control arms, HOWEVER because the upper mounts on mine were moved out with the disc brake install there was just enough room to sit it in with about a quarter inch of clearance on either side. I don't know who built the 409 but whoever it was knew what they were doing. This thing was fast and you could not keep the rear end on the ground. Mike did not want traction bars on the bottom that showed so we built bars over the housing that were not visible. It was an interesting system, when you stood on it the whole car would raise straight up and level driving the rear wheels down hard. I would like to say that it was engineered to do that but it just happened. We put 4-11 gears in the rear and the first time Mike stood on it in front of the shop it hooked up so tight that it sheared off all 10 ring gear bolts. we had to replace them with grade 8 bolts. There used to be a shop out here called Herbert and Meek. Hot Rod magazine often did car shoots there and Mike was looking for something so he stopped by Herbert and Meek to see if they might have whatever it was. HRM just happened to be doing a shoot so mike parked and just stood out by the car waiting for them to get done. He saw the photographer do a double take of his car and knew why so he just stood there trying to be nonchalant when the photographer wandered out for a closer look. The car had the early rallye wheels on it so you could see the disc brakes through the holes in the wheels and when he got close enough to see the disc brakes he looked under the car saw the three inch head pipes with that he straightened up and said OK kid what is the story with this car. Obviously the hood went up and the photographers first remark was I have seen a lot of 409's in a lot of Chevys but this is the first one I have ever seen that looked like it belonged there. I took that as quite a compliment from a guy that had probably seen more hot rods than most of the population ever would. They had a lengthy conversation about the car, who built it how it came about etc. I wondered for a while if it might make it into the magazine but it never did. I reacquired the car but a divorce required much liquidation and it was my understanding that the new owner wrapped it around a phone pole. A sad end. So that is the saga of one of the two cars I have owned that I wish I still had. The other was my first ride, a 56 Corvette. What is it that they say, you never forget your first love.

Dwight, I would love to hear your story of Tri Five Chevy! I see you’re 75, I thought you might be, you know, Old Guy 44! I’m right behind you, 68. I’ve built a lot of cars and modified even more which includes designing and building my own brake system from scratch for my “69 z/28”, so yes I would believe and understand using a single stage master cylinder! I’ve done the same! The only real reason to use a duel stage is so if there is a failure of one wheel you at least have the other set to stop with, it really was a fail safe reason! That said, I don’t have all the specs, but with respect to the brakes, I think the front spindles of the Catalina are pretty darn close to my Zs spindle configurations. If you could get a hold of a spindle for the first Gen F body you could compare. They used that spindle on 67-69 Camaro’s and 68-79 Nova, Omega, Phoenix, Apollo, Venture. So honestly I think the setup I spoke of just might work for you. Likewise the air shocks from the back of the Z just might work on the front of the Catalina as well! I think they will fit inside the spring I.D. and they would have the threaded stud setup at the top to attach at the frame bracket. If that were to prove out, you would just have to make the dog bone to go through the lower eyelet for attachment at the Aarm. You would also have to install the shock at the same time as the spring due to the air shocks size. I didn’t take a lot of pictures in those days, but this is one taken of the front brake setup I designed and built for the Z. The back was very similar just thinner rotors. If you look close you’ll see that they were a three piece rotor, sorry I mean caliper. They were full floating with the actuating bolts set in double shear. The are also an all aluminum caliper.

Nice! We need to get you a high quality sticker 👍

I've never been much of a basketball person (in any form) but I, too, was shocked and saddened by the news. Heartbreaking that his daughter was with him along with those who are left behind.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28569438/kobe-bryant-dead-helicopter-crash Being a basketball player myself, always respected his talents but never liked his personality. Tragic death and sad to see that happen to anyone. RIP and thoughts out to his family and friends.

Dude had mad skills, but as Ringo said, I was never a fan. Very sad for his family and fans.

Hello, new to the site. I’m eager to share a new addition to the car collection. After owning several cars from 1969 Mach1’s to 1970 RT Chargers, I was snooping around the internet looking for a 1966 or 1967 GTO. I also like the early 70’s Grand Prix’s, instead I come across this 1986 Pontiac Tojan. At first glance I thought it was one of those kit cars, and at 59 years young I’d thought I’d probably seen most all the standard production cars out there. Then I’d seen this Tojan. It’s agreed that it is a bit of an odd duckling. But it is growing on me every day. The best part is that after some research I come to find that it actually is a production car the GM contracted with Knudsen Automotive and hand built 136 units over a period of 6 years between 1985 and 1991, of those only 24 were T Tops and additionally 70% left the country after production. So I’m kinda excited about the limited production and believe that once enough exposure and interest is drummed up about this limited car it’s potential for collectibility and value will be very desirable. I love finding out about odd ball limited cars. I get bored with the mustangs and Camaros and chargers. Maybe because I’ve owned a bunch. I like odd ball stuff now. So if anyone has any interest or any info on these odd ball gems please let me know. Thanks john A couple more shots of it...

Love seeing more Tojans on the road. I remember seeing a Tojan GT on highways of Western, Massachusetts back in the late 90s. That was the only Tojan I’ve seen in person besides my convertible. I did not realize that most had left the country, but information about these cars has always been kinda scarce.

Way cool bird....I have seen one in a magazine one time...Never in person...I also own a very low production Firebird...Most people have no clue what they're looking at when they see it....I have a thing for odd obscure factory produced cars especially high performance base model strippers....Welome to the site.....

Dwight, this will take a few days for me to gather the info. In short, if you’re able do the mods or get someone to do them, then yes you can get the ride you speak of and brakes too.

I am new to the forum and have have a Pontiac 2009 g8 base model

oh and Jeff... a tux these days while driving a 64 bonni. would look pretty cool to me😎😎😁 am old school and really dont care what ppl think 😯 just have this thing for saving cool cars, like this 64 that most likely would have been scraped ....... stuff that !! i am going to rebuild it and drive it... 😉

That amount of weight on a road king front end, bet it feels really funky. Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy.....

I like the fuzzy seats.....

What not to do to a Fiero. https://lasvegas.craigslist.org/cto/d/pahrump-trike/7050613174.html $2500 Trike created from a 1985 Pontiac Fiero. Front end is from a Harley Road King (air shocks). Pontiac iron duke engine. Five speed manual. Was originally built by a local diesel mechanic. Alternator and battery new within the last few years. A/C has been converted and has a new compressor and accumulator. It still has a leak. Ran out of money before I could finish it. Heater works, has tilt wheel and power windows. Sun roof. It has the wiring for a radio, but doesn't currently have one. Starts and runs great. Is a blast to drive and handles well on the highway. The State of Nevada licenses it as a an assembled vehicle. Comes with lots of extra Fiero parts and manuals.

Welcome! America’s Heartland is called that for a reason, you represent us well!

Now in the engine compartment you need to take the ground cable up the firewall to the alternator bracket as shown in the picture that is provided below. This assures a good engine ground for starter/alternator performance. Likewise at the original battery location you can hopefully see that the two original bolt hold downs for the battery tray have been converted to battery cable connections/battery tray hold downs. The negative cable is pretty straight forward. Make a clamping washer/spacer, I used an insulating material, Ultem 1000, this material helps to reduce electrolysis at the tray due to it’s high dielectric resistance properties.The attaching bolt still connects the grounding flange of the cable to the frame. This is the original cable and connects to both the frame and starter as it originally did. As a side note I converted both holes to 3/8 x16 threads to use SS Allen head socked cap bolts. The positive cable coming out of the plastic plug should now move over towards the body frame, not the subframe, and run next to this body frame all the way up to the battery tray. At the battery tray the work needed here is to build a setup that clamps the battery tray while isolating the upper part of the setup from any possible grounding contact, yet providing a connection between the positive cable from the rear battery and the original positive battery cable that feeds the starter and the main fuse box. Again this setup was built using Nylatron. The negative spacer is 2” diameter and the positive spacer is 1 ¾ “ diameter, the 2” is Ultem 1000 and the 1 ¾ is Nylatron. The positive spacer serves two functions, the bottom portion is a clamping washer/spacer that uses the same size 3/8 Allen head socked cap bolt to clamp the battery tray. While the upper portion is configured to have a SS connecting bracket bridge across the top from side to side with a 3/8 diameter through hole to allow for the connection of the two positive cables to each other. If you have further questions just ask.

Hey All, Here's my Blue on Blue 04 GTO. This photo probably would have been better for the December or January POTM, but I just had to share it with you.