1968 Pontiac Catalina Base 6.6L

1968 Pontiac Catalina Description

1968 Pontiac Catalina convertible, affectionately known by its owner of 38 years as Miss Kitty*. Midnight blue Imron paint applied in 1980 shows its age but looks pretty good, considering. The exterior shows a few small signs of rust, but is mostly quite solid and very straight except for the hood, where stress cracks at the hinge mounts have caused considerable damage. As far as we know there’s no Bondo in the body, except where an earlier attempt was made to fix the hood. There’s a crack in the windshield, and evidence of leakage around its edges. The chrome is all straight, but there’s flaking & rust on the bumpers. White convertible top is from 1995 (?) and is in pretty good shape, though much of the weather-stripping isn’t. The top motor works fine and the intact plastic rear window is about as cloudy as you’d imagine. At least 4 tan Naugas gave their hides for the interior, which has seen far better days but is still more or less functional. Some electrical switchwork – dash lights, radio, heater, etc. aren’t working, though they all did when last the car was regularly driven. As far as we can tell the original wiring was never butchered or burnt, but it may have recently succumbed to corrosion or even mice.

The only really bad part of the car is the floor pans, which are pretty rusted. An inspection from below shows that the structural sills where the body attaches to the frame appear solid, as does the transmission tunnel. There’s some repairable rust on the lower firewall. Basically, this means that you won’t have to take the body off the frame to fix the rust damage – just cut out & replace the pans from above. A friend who is experienced at this and has inspected the car estimates $15-1800 for the job, including the reproduction pans, which are available. We’re not going to do that because fixing the pans without addressing the underlying problem, which is that this is a leaky 48-year-old convertible, would be an out-of-sequence repair that might get in the way of someone wanting to do the whole job right. It would be like putting a new kitchen in a house with sagging floors to improve sales appeal, and that’s just fundamentally dishonest. This car is imminently repairable and worth it to someone with the means and will to do it right. And it’s a really sweet weekend car almost as-is for someone who doesn’t want to do all that stuff.

The Piece Dee Resistance, as the French say, is the engine: 1967 GTO 400 CI, 335 HP, .040” overbore, “670” big valve heads, Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, Holley 750 carburetor, HEI distributor. We bought the engine, already rebuilt, around 35 years ago, and it probably has less than 10,000 miles on it. The owner had the hot-rodded engine built, crashed his GTO a few days later and sold us the engine for six hundred bucks, which is less than the heads are worth today. We’re not sure whether it has hardened valve seats, so it has always had lead substitute added to the gas. Octane booster may not be necessary at current conservative ignition settings, but 93 premium is a bit thin for this engine. We haven’t done a compression test recently (that is, in 35 years), but there’s no indication that it isn’t up to snuff. The prospective buyer is more than welcome to test it, or maybe we will and post the numbers.

Now this is a big, heavy boat, and even that very powerful engine results in a power/weight ratio on par with a new Toyota Highlander; let’s just say that power is more than sufficient. It has a recently rebuilt alternator & new regulator, good battery, fresh tune up, filters & fluids – starts instantly and reliably. Front disk brake conversion about 20 years and a thousand miles ago; all suspension bushings, shocks & joints were brandamnew in 1980. 15x7” Pontiac Rally II steel wheels. Original TH-400 3-speed slushbox transmission with recent service, original 10-bolt open differential w/ 3.07:1 gears that make for loooong legs. This car needs Z-rated tires (not included) to safely reach its limits. New KYB gas shocks in their boxes are in the trunk (and it really needs them), as is the old cast-iron intake manifold, Quadrajet 4-barrel carburetor and the original distributor.

You could slap a plate on her, replace the rotten tires with some safe over 20 MPH, attach the gas pedal to something other than carpet (an old license plate tacked to the floor ought to do it), and be reasonably confident driving Miss Kitty from Carolina to California as long as gas prices stay low and you can get octane booster to keep from having to retard the timing and lead substitute to protect the valves. Oh, and as long as you don’t mind getting a little wet in the rain.

*Disclaimer: This is Dear Li’l Sis’s first car that she bought in 1978, and I’d just as soon none of y’all yayhoos bought it, so I’m not sugar-coating it with any kind of sales spin. Everything I’ve said here is true and complete as far as I know, and you can trust it or not.