1963 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon Project + 2 Parts Cars

1963 Pontiac Catalina Description

1963 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon – Project + 2 Parts Cars

Low mileage - less than 47k miles showing on the odometer

Original Saddle Bronze (Gold) paint (except for replacement fenders)

I bought this Safari wagon a few years ago with plans to build a restomod. The full-size 1963 Pontiacs are especially cool because of the GTO-like front-end styling. I’ve come to realize that I have too many projects and I’ve decided I’m going to move this one down the road.

The car was “lightly crashed” by the family teenager in the late 1970s and has been in dry storage ever since (last inspection sticker was 1977). The car originally came from dry and dusty Idaho and I moved it to Kentucky when I bought it a few years ago. Between the dry Idaho climate and many years of inside storage, he car is unbelievably solid for a car its age. The Saddle Bronze paint (gold) is the original paint. The great thing about original paint is it is easier to see what you are getting into and you know it’s not hiding poorly done repairs.

The floors and trunk are rock solid.

The transmission tunnel was “mechanically clearance.” Pontiac offered a wide variety of transmissions in 1963 and in my opinion this was done at the factory to provide clearance for the transmission this car was originally equipped with. When I took the car apart, t did not look like it had ever been apart before. A photo of the transmission tunnel is included.

The doors look very solid even the bottoms. There is a little rust in the dog legs behind the rear doors. The jam area around the tailgate appears to have some surface rust and the jam and inside of the tailgate may be a little pitted.

Make sure you check out the photo of the super clean firewall still in the original body-color Saddle Bronze paint.

I found a core support, ront fenders, nd inner fenders from a very solid California car and have loosely fitted it to the car. I also have the hood from that car but the original hood was not damaged in the crash. Once I hung the fenders I came to the conclusion that the right frame rail had been tweaked a little in the crash. I took the car to a local body shop and they gave me a quote of $800 to fix the frame saying it was an easy pull. In the meantime I got busy with work and other projects and never got back to this one.

The windshield on the gold wagon is cracked but the gold 4 door windshield appears to be in good condition.

There are 2 parts cars included: (1) a Saddle Bronze 4 door; and (2) a white Safari wagon.

The Saddle Bronze 4 door is a factory air car. It also has a lot of great interior parts. My intent was to use the factory air and some of the interior parts in the wagon. The trunk floor has been cut out of the 4 door parts car.

The white wagon is a complete car from Virginia. It has a 3rd row seat which I intended to put in the gold wagon. There are some sheet metal brackets missing from the 3rd row seat. I have reference photos for the brackets and intended to fab them up to complete the installation of the 3rd row seat.

If the auction hits my reserve, ll 3 cars will be included. If it doesn’t hit the reserve I will consider selling them separately. I am not going to disclose the reserve in this auction. Please feel free to let me know if you have an interest in any of the cars individually.

I intended to put a 4 speed in the gold car and it currently has a set of 4 speed pedals installed.

There are 3 engines included (389s) and 2 automatic transmissions included. I believe (but don’t know for sure) that the engine out of the gold wagon has less than 47k miles on it. The engine out of the gold 4 door has less than 81k miles on it. The white wagon parts car was “running when I parked it” but its current condition is unknown as it has been sitting outside for a number of years.

I have included some photos of the car before it was taken apart for reference.

Please send me a message with any questions or call or text me at: (270) 791-3210

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I am getting questions about mileage on these cars. Please read the listing as it contains useful information.

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The odometer on the white wagon reads as follows: White Wagon: 88,282
I took some additional photos of the white wagon today. Text me an email address and let me know what photos you would like to see and I'll do my best to get them to you. I focused mainly on rust and dents around the outside of the white wagon. The white wagon should be viewed as a rough parts car in my opinion. With enough time, alent, nd money, lmost anything can be restored these days but I would use this car for parts to restore the gold wagonand sell what I didn't need.