A couple weeks ago the package that my friend Dan has assembled for me with the new floor plates and spare parts from the donor car, had arrived. Also, a service manual from 1958 for the old Pontiac !

Last week i brought the engine to a friend of mine who volunteered to rebuild the engine. Today i went there to pick up the valve heads, intake, exhaust manifolds, etc...
The parts are going in a chemical machine that can clean them completely. The next problem is the motor block. It seems that the engine has been stuck for a long while. Unfortunately, through the years of standing still, moist has been sitting on the cylinders, but that is just a matter of getting it cleaned off. The bad thing is, that
when we tried to start up the engine before, the cylinders came looser, but also left bad scratches on the inside of the cylinder walls. Now my friend and i are debating on what could
be a good solution. We could hone the cylinder walls and hope the cylinders will run smoothly or bore out to a next size up. So, from the original 370ci to 400ci. If the honing method
would do the job, we would need other cylinders and they are realy hard to find for an original 370ci and cant just be ordered out of a catalogue. Cylinders for a 400ci are easy to order. Anyway, we are going to search on line to see if someone else has had the same problem and going to contact some people for ideas.

The time had come to take out the 370ci V8 engine. My dad had made all preparations, like undoing all lines and electrical cables etc... and we had an overall look to see if everything was clear to pull the engine and the transmission out. We hooked up the engine to the hoist and started lifting step by step. It was weighing more than i already was expecting. Half way we had to angle it as much as possible to get over the steering bar. After that, the engine was free and out.




My dad built a frame on wheels and welded supports for the engine and transmission to sit on. This way we can clean up the whole thing and give it the original colours it deserves. We are also going to install a support for the radiator, so we can fire it up whenever we need to and let it run long enough to get the right temperature and we can still see if everything is alright. Hopefully it does not need a complete rebuilt.
Will see...

Here we are cleaning out the water cooling channels etc... and putting new oil in the engine. When opening the thermostat, which was not easy as the bolts where very hard to undo, we where surprised to see how much gunk was sitting on the thermostat. Luckily that gunk was stopped by the thermostat and going into the channels to much, but we needed to clean the whole engine out anyway. The carburettor was a problem as it is completely stuck and even after putting it in an oil bath, only a bit of the mechanism was working again but the inside mechanism would not function enough. On line i found a lot info about carburettors and people with the same problem and all recommended to replace it with an Edelbrock 1406. I bought one on ebay and let it ship over. I had to use an adaptor, which was included, cause the valves where just touching the intake holes and this seemed to be with most engines.


 After installing the carburettor, hooking up to a good battery and new fuel, it turn around very good but would not want to start. The fuel pomp would not get enough fuel up. So a friend of mine loaned his electric fuel pump and it started and ran for a few seconds. We could not start it again, as the starter motor had suffered to much after starting so often. But my dad still has some other starters from Chevy and so, where we can use the inside mechanism from. Now that the engine started, we sort of know what we all need to do to it and want to take it out soon and install it onto an open home made frame where we can work on it and let it run.

3 weeks before i had to collect the Pontiac, at the end of June (2010), my dad had a stroke and was rushed to hospital. He was really looking forward to come along and help out to pick up the car in Germany, but he had to stay in the revalidation centre until the end of August as he had trouble walking and using he's left arm.
After that he was aloud home again and is seeing a physiotherapist at the moment. At this moment i did not have much time to start working on the Pontiac, but ever since my dad is home he is made a good start on the car and started dismantling. 

The day i got the car home from Germany and after all the waiting and frustrations at the customs, it was midnight and i really needed some sleep. But next morning i was exited to check out the car proper and if all the parts where there.
 Mmm...just look at that !                                                                            Dreams and ideas come to mind!
Nearly all parts where there and not only the original ones, but some chrome parts also include new ones.

Clearing out everything to have a good look at the actual body work...
                                                                      Good solid doors, no major rust issues anywhere except two rust holes at passenger and driver seat position. Someone who owned it before has covered that with fibreglass and needs to be repaired. My friend "Dan" has a parts car that he stores with him in Canada and it came with new original floor plates that now will come in handy.