Owner's Comments
I've owned muscle cars in the past, including a '65 GTO in the late70's, the last an '86 Grand National I oredered new but had to sell acouple years later. After nearly 20 years driving more "pedestrian"forms of transportation, this past summer the muscle bug hit hard, andmy search for another GTO began.
While looking through one of many coffee table muscle car books, Icame across a photo spread featuring a 1963 Catalina. Previouslyunaware of the beauty and incredible power Pontiac packed into thesefull size models, at that moment my search shifted from a GTO to a '63Cat. Living in the rust belt of western NY state meant lookingelsewhere for an unrestored original, preferably a southwest car.Preparing for what I expected to be a long search to find a suitablecar, I began my search on Ebay and the classified pages of Hemmings.
Magically, within a few weeks my dream car is listed on ebay...anoriginal California black plate car still wearing it's original, yetwell worn coat of Silverleaf Green. Incredibly, the car was locatedwithin a 2 hour drive of my home and was brought here in 1983, changedownership a couple times, but for the most part sat in dry storage themajority of that time and was last registered in 1992. No one was ableto meet the reserve but I was able to make a deal the day afterauction ended.
I ordered PHS documentation and learned the car was originallyequipped with a 421 4BBl, but had tripower added sometime ago. Helpingto seal the deal was a protecto-plate, 4 speed w/ bench seat, Venturatrim, rally guage cluster, PB, deluxe steering wheel, working AM/FM,Saf-T-Track, HD springs & shocks, HD frame, HD brakes w/ 15" wheels,tinted glass, etc.
As the pics show there's some surface rust but car retains all it'soriginal sheetmetal and is bone dry with only 70,000 documentedoriginal miles. I'll start the major phase of the restoration nextspring and plan to retain the poverty hubcaps and keep the car asclose to original as possible, and the only option I plan to add is a factory tach.
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