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| 1957 PONTIAC CHIEFTAIN "PLAIN JANE" |
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| This model is based on a real car from my hometown. It stalked the streets of our little town in 1966, mostly seen on Friday nights. Staging between the stop and go lights on the one way main street. This was not your fathers car! I built this model from memory. Watching this thing eat everything in its sight at the local painted off quarter mile that we fashioned on a straight stretch of two lane blacktop outside of town. The real car got its engine from a wrecked 65 Pontiac 2+2 with a 421 regular duty. The engine was then blueprinted and fit with factory 421 super duty heads and parts. Here is a sign of the times, you could still order this stuff from your local Pontiac dealer. The car itself was a very clean cheap model 57 Chieftain 2dr. sedan, the bottom of the line car. White vinyl with cloth interior, dog dish hubcaps, single exhaust 347ci. 2bbl., with a 3 on the tree. That of course was before the transplant work. It was painted in factory lilac and kenya ivory. It was originally solid gray. I started with a resin cast 2dr. sedan from The Resin Realm. I prepped and primed the body, smoothed the trunk. The real car was decked and just had the key lock. I then airbrushed the car in 5 coats each of lilac and kenya ivory, the paint is lacquer from MCW. The body was then detailed with Bare Metal Foil. The fender rockets are from a 62 Catalina and modified to closer represent the original ones. The door handles are from a Monogram 59 Chevy. This kit came with a dash and steering wheel. I used the interior tub and seats from a 55 Chevy and modified them to follow the design of the Pontiac interior. The dash was widened to fit the tub and fill the gap at the windshield. The interior was painted in white and flat gray to resemble vinyl and cloth. This was a sleeper car, so everything was left stock on the inside with the exception of a simple column tach, and a Hurst floor shifter. Front glass and rear side windows are 55 Chevy, and the back glass is 57 Chevy. The floor was painted in rubber as this was a base model car. I looked at different chassis options and decided the old tool AMT Trophy Series from a 57 Chevy fit the best, doing some mods to accept the interior tub and the 421 engine. Getting the 421 to sit right required some bending of the factory headers to fit between the frame rails. Some scratch building was done on the factory dump gates to mate the headers to the dual exhausts. The driveshaft is 62 Catalina shortened. Pontiac rated the 421 Super Duty with dual 4bbls. at a conservative 405 hp. The real car had a claimed dyno test of 457hp. The engine is plumbed and wired. Heater box and blower are AMT 57 Chevy. The carbs are Carter AFB'S. The master cylinder is 62 Catalina. Radiator and support are modified 55 Chevy. These are the type of cars we used to build as teens back in the 60's Working jobs part time and saving our pennies to pour into our dream cars. Going many Sunday mornings to a sanctioned dragstrip to wring them out. |