1939 Pontiac Custom Roadster Ute Project

Todd's choice of a "later" era base for a hot rod than the usual '28 - '34 Fords and Cheys was inspired by the '39 model Chevs his father had when he was growing up. The car he found online in late 2007 was a 1939 Pontiac, so the year matched, if not the model. Todd liked the shape, the advert read well, and it didn't look too bad in the photos. However, when the Pontiac arrived, after a mate freighted it up from Victorian seller, Todd said the car definitely didn't look alright in the metal!

Given the state of it, Todd reckons it must have been parked near a river - which flooded many, many times! To make matters worse, the bootlid from the "fairly rust free" sedan didn't even make it to Sydney! Todd was told it parted company with the rest of the Pontiac somewhere between Swan Hill and Cowra! Closer examination of the rusty body revealed that it had suffered considerable damage at some time in its past, and a LOT of lead had been used to fill the dents and creases in just about every panel. So, given what he had to work with, Todd's plans for a quick build went out the window.

Pontiac project 'Stage 2' started with cutting down the Pontiac's salvageable panels to make a roadster-style ute, rather than rebuild it as a sedan or even a coupe. Todd surmised the car must have had led a hard life, as not only were a lot of the panels irreparable, but the chassis was beyond salvation, too. After a session with the cutters, all that was left were some rough front panels, bonnet, cowl & 'screen, plus the rear guards to build a car from. A friend's Hilux provided the new chassis for the Pontiac, which with the loan of another mate's excavator, was removed from the body. In case you're wondering, Todd did actually buy the Hilux off his friend - he didn't just strip it down and leave his mate with the dregs!

The next step was to build up a primary frame for the body panels from steel tube, then position the straightened front panels and remaining rear guards to suit the wheelarch dimensions of the Hilux chassis. The floors, firewall and basic dash structure followed, with a 5.0 litre Commodore V8 engine topping off the initial phase of the build.

In the months that followed throughout 2008, Todd devoted a lot of time to panel repair - the Pontiac definitely needed it! Luckily, Todd was able to find a better-quality '39 driver's side front guard to replace the shabby original, but it still needed some repair sections stitched in. The trim piece running down the centre of the bonnet was filled and smoothed at this time, too. With work commitments, it wasn't until December of 2008 that the front structure of the body was repaired and beaten out to Todd's satisfaction. Some windscreen wipers, courtesy of a Triumph 2500, had been added, with the rear section also framed out and a tailgate (skinned with a VL Commodore bonnet) hinged and hung by the time the project racked up its first birthday.

In April of 2009, work on the ute rear section started in earnest. The rear quarter panels and back were actually made from roof skins - Camry wagons, to be precise, while another Commodore bonnet was the donor for the rear rollpan. While this may sound easy, Todd assures us it wasn't. Some hand-beaten sections were required to jigsaw the pieces together and have them fit neatly to the original rear guards. A lot of hammer time later, the rear end, including wheel tubs in the tray area and custom-made running boards, was looking close to complete.

With the basic body structure completed by the latter half of 2009, Todd could start thinking about some of the details of the project. A bunch of trips to 'Pick and Payless' provided all the bits and pieces to make the Pontiac drivable, and by November, the car was running. At this point, Todd called in his Certifying Engineer to confirm the build would get approval. The chassis, body and basic running gear all passed inspection, so Todd could now focus on finishing the project and getting it on the road.

Over the Summer of 2009/2010, all the panels were removed for cleaning, prep and painting. All the original Pontiac guards had the surface rust media blasted, which was a time-consuming process. After a couple of months of prep work, the panels were smooth, gaps were even, primer had been laid down and rubbed back, so the body and panels were ready for paint. But what colour to choose? Todd was keen on olive drab, and ended up making his own by combining a few different pots from Auto West. Todd was pretty happy with the finished result, especially given the fact that his garage was so small that he had to paint a few panels at a time, then remove them to make space to paint the rest. A chequerboard firewall is the classic hot rod touch, but took a bunch of hours to do, too.

At the same time as the painting was happening, Todd was working on the lights and wiring loom, while Bathurst Glass had been given the job of cutting some new glass for the windscreen. The wiring, as you'd expect, was fiddly and took a few months of stop-start work to complete, but by August of 2010, had been completed, along with the paint. After a relocation of the front indicators (too low, apparently), and the fitment of an additional muffler to pass the decibel test, the Pontiac passed its second engineering inspection with no dramas. Needless to say, Todd was rapt, but the project wasn't finished yet.

With the Pontiac registered and all the 'outside' done by late October, it was time to focus on the 'inside', but not before a test drive! Driving a roadster in the rain may not be the best idea, but as Todd found out, if you drive quick enough, you don't get wet. There was no proper interior to speak of at this stage, so there was nothing to spoil on the inside anyway!

Getting the interior finished involved fitting a new carpet set and recovering the Commodore bucket seats with a custom set of fitted covers. The custom-made dash featured an instrument panel from a late model Statesman, which was a requirement for rego, given the late model chassis. The rest was kept simple, but there is provision to cut a glovebox into it, should the need arise. The basic steel wheels were painted with black POR15 rust preventative paint, then finished off with a set of chrome spider bullet caps and wrapped in fresh rubber.

As Todd described it, life got in the way for the next few months, and the completed Pontiac wasn't given a "proper" drive until April, 2011. A trip out along the West Head Road through Akuna Bay, where some of the photos shown were taken, proved that Todd had got all the body and chassis geometry right, while the performance delivered by the Commodore V8 and T5 manual transmission also exceeded his expectations of how the finished article would perform and handle. A couple of minor changes to things like the pedals and seating position added to the driving comfort.

Fast forward to 2012 and, as is often the case with projects like these, Todd has had precious little time to enjoy his creation since completing it. So rather than having it gather dust in the garage, he's decided to put it up for sale for someone else to have fun with it. See the details below if you're interested in adding this unique Pontiac project to your garage.