Frosty

I stopped to visit Indyman Joe today. I found him working on his oldest daughter's 2010 Vibe. Seems she played Dances with Deer with it (GE would be proud). Joe was dismantling the damaged left front sheet metal. He got some expected help from Remy...a.k.a. Remington, his black lab puppy. it almost looks like Remy wants to to play so badly that she is playing with Joe's face!

Sure. Try to collect. I'm bet he can afford way better lawyers than you can.

It must be nice to have that much cash that you can really afford these kind of eccentricities. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43063379

I still do - in a way....just got watch the used car market at this point and snatch one up on the cheap(er). Actually I'd rather have the G8 GXP instead. Good luck finding one of them cheap. True enough but a lot of writers like to blame the Aztek for Pontiac's fall, which I think is total horse hockey. A single vehicle, albeit ugly, was not the death knell for an entire division. There was a lot of collective mismanagement to screw up Pontiac over the last several decades. Okay I will stop whining (for now).

I am inclined to agree with Last Indian on the Chevy SS. The thing about the Chevy SS is that it was suppose to be the heir apparent to the Pontiac G8 (or so some Chevy execs would like me to believe anyway). Once again, virtually no TV or magazine advertising for the car to the general public to say that it even existed beyond making it Chevy's Sprint/Monster Cup car representative for NASCAR. So there was no real awareness of the real car to anyone there. No TV exposure. Finally it was an over priced performance luxury car. It had a $48k starting price. Stupid pricing. Unforgivable marketing. Still it was a badass car that no one bought because it didn't exist in the public's eye. Not to mention GM shut down it's entire Australian manufacturing operations (e.g Holden). GM has to get out of the mode of assuming that all performance / luxury cars sell themselves with no marketing dollars. Granted Corvette and Camaro do well with little real marketing dollars because they get so much exposure in the automotive performance magazines and social media outlets. However, price and the lack of awareness can kill just about anything. Hard to imagine a car with an LS3 6.2L and six-speed automatic would not be a blast to drive and own. Still if no one knows you exist, you can't sell 'em. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Did I mention stupid?

The only car on the list that I will miss is the Dodge Viper. Only reason being as it was a good halo car for Chrysler. It's hard for me to shake the image of a V-10 Viper motor. A lot of people thought it might seriously rival the Corvette (it did and it didn't - enough said there). The rest are going off to automotive Valhalla for good reasons.

Agreed.

I am always willing to learn my friend. I've seen Gene Winfield chop a different car every year at the Detroit Autorama for the last 5 years at least. One year its a '49 Mercury, a '63 Starliner, a '52 F-1, etc. Each chop is different and brings its own unique set of challenges to complete it and make it look right. What amazes me is that he and his crew of local high school/local tech school teachers and students start and complete the chop in one weekend! So I do appreciate all the little things it takes to get it done right.

This is an interesting idea for automotive restorers if the concept proves truly viable. Certainly replicating plastic and some metal parts is doable. Electrical and moving parts are more difficult or problematic. Still if the part is no longer in production - anywhere in the world, this could be the next best thing, and relatively economical depending on the size of the part and assuming the CAD data needed to produce the part already exists. https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1115295_3d-printing-allows-porsche-to-create-obscure-parts-for-classic-cars

I can't wait for your next update. You have made some great inspiration statements too. At first I was worried by your thread's title. I was afraid that GuitarsExtreme was bragging about another roadkill he got with his 20008 Challenger. He has literally put "kill" stickers on that car he's hit so many critters - including 5 deer. The folks at Petty's Garage in Level Cross, NC call it the Deer Slayer.

If we can win the proxy votes or win over the board of directors, I am so there gents.

Okay maybe I'm not quite done but I will to try to bring this back or more back on topic, I honestly don't see GM ever bringing Pontiac as a viable division or marketing division back. GM is making more money now than they have in decades. However I think there is way but I doubt GM would ever do it. GM could bring back a car line or two- for example the Firebird/Trans Am since the Camaro is already in production. They could create a GM Legends Collection (GLC) or Heritage Collection (GHC) of cars. Use existing platforms to produce them to minimize costs, GM could bring back retro-styled Firebird or Trans Am off the Camaro platform, a GTO and a 442 off the CTS/ATS platform. The GLC/GHC series could be sold through the existing Buick/GMC dealers. No Pontiac or Oldsmobile names are ever put on the cars. Just the trade mark arrowhead or circle/dash emblems are on the car. This would draw back certain disenfranchised Pontiac and Olds owners The downside is GM would have to tool up for more models and therefore incur more costs. The added cost is something I think prohibits them from moving forward with an idea like this. Also I am sure someone will argue that the GLC/GHC series will cannibalize sales from the Camaro and ATS/CTS. It's just my two cents mind you.

Last Indian - I am proud to say I knew many a UAW machinists in my working career. Most of them were working in either the AC Spark Plug Model Shop (prototype tools, die, and parts), Powertrain V6 Engineering CNC/CAD/CAM shops, or Flint Engine South and Flint North production machinists. My paternal grandfather was a tool and die-sinker for close to 51 years when he retired from Buick Motor Division in May 1971 (he lied about his age and started working at 16 so the family story goes). The tool and die-sinker trade position no longer exists at GM. They always had my respect in the ways they could shape and cut metal. They respected my computer / IT abilities. We treated each other with respect and concern for one another. I never once cared if I was white collar and they were blue collar. I would further add that we, as a society, don't encourage skilled trades as a legitimate alternative choice to a formal college degree. I was reading an article this morning about the sad state the United States aging infrastructure (roads, bridges, power grid, airports, docks, etc) is. Assuming we as a nation choose to fund these repairs, who do you thin will do that repair work? Accountants? MBAs? CEOs? Nope blue collar workers. The question will be - do we have enough people in this country to do this work? I rather doubt it. Kinda sad when you stop to think about it. Okay, I'm off my soap box too.

Did you ever verify when and what issue your car is going to be in? I am still checking the newstands. Found this on the inter-web. Seems appropirate...just need to change the color from B5 Blue to Hemi Orange and Plymouth to Dodge. I think you need a Roadrunner shifter too GE!

Good work so far. You are committed at this point.

A "hold ma' beer! Watch this !!!" moment? I'll bring the popcorn.

We can still agree to call it patina.

Still no launch. https://www.sciencealert.com/this-flat-earther-has-failed-to-launch-his-rocket-again-and-now-we-re-kinda-sorry-for-him

Anyone, besides me, going ?

True that. Rust is now called patina. So a "patina" car sitting next two non-"patina" cars might as well be invisible or in stealth mode.

Funny story about Mike Rowe. He explains what happens in his own words. What makes this weirder for me is that the twins are related on my wife's side of the family. Now imagine going to the family reunion and having them show up.....<sigh>.

Interesting point Ringo. I grew up in Flint, Michigan in the 60s and 70s. That was the peak of the US auto industry. In those days, as a high school graduate you had a choice. You could go to college, get a degree, and get a salary job at GM. Or you could go to work in the shop, join the UAW, and possibly get into skilled trades and start making really good money right away. Both choices were considered equally acceptable to the community. My how times have changed. After about 1985, getting into the shop was difficult since GM simply was not hiring union workers anymore. There were enough closing factories and "bump" privileges that GM just brought employees in from local plants that were closing. Salaried then became about the only way to get into GM. One celebrity that is campaigning for blue collar jobs and vocational school training to Congress is Mike Rowe, from "Dirty Job".

Wow! It's amazing how much we think alike. It must be because we are "old school", non-millennials, whatever. I applaud Two Lane for bring up the lack of skilled trades these days. Damn few men and women are going into these hardcore technical fields because, as a society, we seemed to have ridiculed or thumbed our collective noses at blue collar work. It's not as glamorous or they shouldn't be paid the same as white collar work. It's dirty work. It requires weekend and evening work, not 9-5. Whatever. Long term, we will pay the price for that lack of vision, for sure. It started with pagers and now it's cell phones. These modern conveniences are still huge source of interruption - as long as we permit them to be. If work rules are made such that personal phones must be on vibrate or turned off during core working hours. Emergency calls must come into the main office, etc. Then modern workers might learn a tad bit of moderation. The workers of today have very little attention span unless it is something they really want to do Two Lane. I've noticed that with my own son. With all the video games, TV shows and movies at his disposal, he'd rather watch YouTube videos. He is easily bored. Outside of playing baseball, he has very little interest in anything else. So the lack of attention seems to be a collective generational thing, not something you are doing wrong. Last Indian, while in spirit I agree with you. GM should have never let the government axe Pontiac. However, car czar Steve Rattner was a financial adviser and a bully for the Obama administration. He was wielding a $82B bailout stick. He made GM and Chrysler jump through hoops to cut costs dramatically, arrange for them to quickly go thru bankruptcy. He also bullied GM and Chrysler's creditors to accepting the bankruptcy deal. SO he played both sides of the fence. They say the sign of a good compromise is when no one is very happy with the deal. I truly believe Bob Lutz had the right vision for Pontiac, turning it into a niche performance brand. The two decades of mismanagement before it, the lack of overall "brand" profitability and then GM's lack of vision and cash to adequately market the models that it had at the time ultimately doomed Pontiac. The one remaining question I would like answered is why wasn't Pontiac put up for sale like Hummer, Saturn, and Saab? There was someone who was interested in buying it but GM never considered it. I'd like to know why. My working theory is Hummer, Saturn, and Saab were not as vertically integrated into GM as Pontiac was. Hummer, Saturn, and Saab were more easily separated from GM than Pontiac and GM didn't want to be bothered with the effort it would take to separate Pontiac from Chevrolet and Buick at each and every platform and assembly plant that was shared. That's my guess anyway. Lastly, I agree with you regarding the learning from history and being "the arsenal for democracy". We have to learn. Our child and grandchildren have to learn too.

I did not forget about Australia. If GM Korea folds, then China and Thailand (Rayong) will be the only Asian factories left. Obviously Mary Barra is willing to sell or cut brands that aren't performing profitably. Something many of her predecessors weren't willing to do, feeling GM (as a global company) needed to have a presence in every market, even it was at a long-term loss. Daewoo, as a brand, could be the next casualty. Opel and Vauhall are gone. Holden, as brand, still exists even though the vehicles are made elsewhere now.

A couple of kudos 31pontiac. 1. I really appreciate the fact that you had to pie cut the doors a tad to make the chop work and make everything fit. Most folks don't think of pie-cutting the doors until they have to do it. It is not something you see photographed or talked about it most of the write-ups. I've seen Gene Winfield do it since he chops the top of a car every year at the Detroit Autorama. 2. Re-purposing a 2-speed chrome shifter to work with a 3-speed tranny. That is what hot rodding is all about. I will have to remember this particular trick.