GM may have axed the Pontiac brand a while back, but there are still plenty of enthusiasts who remember when it was the performance division of the company. Most people think of the GTO when they hear Pontiac today, but there is much more to its history than that. This 1929 Pontiac has supposedly been parked in the corner of this barn since 1949, so it might present a good opportunity to take a glimpse into the past. Find it here on eBay in Pennellville, New York. Thanks goes to Charlie H for the tip!
General Motors went on a buying spree not long after the company was formed and the Oakland-Pontiac brand was one of their acquisitions. The GM built Pontiac featured an inline six and was meant to slot below the Oakland, but it ended up selling better the higher priced model. This example may look rough today, but when new it provided a nice mixture of performance and economy. The six cylinder engine generated respectable power and the price wasn’t bad for a closed car. As a result GM went on to sell a ton of them.
With no photos of the interior or the engine, it is hard to determine the scope of this project. Any car that has sat in a barn for over 60 years is going to need lots of help though. This is one of the early cars that helped Pontiac become great so I hope someone is still enthusiastic enough about the brand to save it. The Pontiac name came from a famous indian chief who eventually lost the war, so perhaps it was fitting for GM to use it. The marque did well for a while and had many followers, but in the end, it too lost the war. The similarities are a little eerie actually…
Ridiculous to even think of bidding without more pics or info. It looks like it sunk down to where it was resting in the dirt which means lots of moisture in the metal/wood structural components. (Don’t forget, lots of wood in this era’s cars!) Also, you would expect the interior would need complete restoration but it would be useful to know if the engine is present and complete…
I still think GM should bring back the Pontiac brand, always thought that the pontiacs looked a lot better than their Chevy sister cars
I agree! It would be nice if they would start with just a single model each of both Pontiac and Oldsmobile, both of which were more that just clones of other GM models wearing different grills, and sell them though the existing GM dealers. May, someday, if GM gets well enough!
For that matter, I wish they had kept the Pontiac brand and dumped the Buick.
I agree, it seems that the modern Buicks are little more then rebadged Vauxhall/Opel cars
Buicks cost more than Pontiacs, so if you still believe in the old GM logic (does anyone?) and you want to trade in your Chevy and move up to a Buick, you get to pay double for your Buick badged Chevy! I read somewhere that Buicks are the top selling GM product in China, so there you go…
another very interesting car that is short on photos and text. this car should sell and bring good money but the seller needs to put more work into the listing. i do hope it gets saved and not just used for parts. a very nice find.
I agree that the car would have a much better chance of selling with some more pictures and information. The to successful sales is marketing, or so I’m told…
Lucky the roof is ok. I saw a 1929 DeSoto the other day and the wood roof was sunk bad.
I had to read that list of mechanical features twice.
I’m not sure how many of those were unique or a first for Pontiac but some of them sound like you are reading about a lot newer car.
For example, a cross flow radiator..when did those become common place? not till a lot later.
GM had been developing the Buick name in China for a few years before they collapsed, when they did dump Pontiac it was outselling Buick in this counrty.
GM (as well as Ford and Chrysler) lost brand identity in the ’80s.
Remember around 1992 when they had the $19,995 car offerred from Buick, Pontiac and Olds? Could you tell what make it was from 20 feet away?
Look at how many Ford products used the Crown Vic chassis, ford, Mercury and the X type Jaguar. Plymouth-Dodge?
Too bad they didn’t bring back the Solstice under another name.
The car in the ad must be the original amphicar, flip it over and it’s a boat.
Good one Dan!
I love that rear window!.
Does anyone know whether this has a wooden buck under sheetmetal or is it metal on frame?
Hi CD. I don’t think that GM went to complete steel bodies until ’37. I came across an old ad (’37) introducing the ‘ALL NEW STEEL BODY BY FISHER.’ I saw a ’35 GMC that was recently restored and it’s got lots of wood in the body.
they started in 33 with sheet metal floors still had some body wood and in 34 gm got rid of wood except in the doors not sure you may be right about 37 being the 1st non wood body
these cars had a complete wood body structure under all the sheet metal from cowl to back end and entire floor except under seat and trunk which had a piece of heay sheet metal and wood from cowl to trunk including roof with wood strips chicken wire cotton wadding broad cloth and sealed cover over that for roof restoring one can take several months to years depending on the scope of the restoration a rebuilt engine is 3,800.00 a good used tranny is pretty cheap the problem with all these pontiacs there are no companies that sell body wood kits and hiring a wood worker to fabricate the wood @ 70.00 per hour that is why most people if there good at wood woring are looking for one that the sheet metal is the issue just body work and most of these cars if moisture did not get to them the termites or carpenter ants i found one that had been in a barn for 50 years
I have restored 1926 to 1931 Pontiac’s coupe’s sedans & roadsters all the same metal frame complete wood structure bolted to frame and sheet metal bolted & nailed to wood including floor and roof it takes considerable time and effort to restore these cars normally 2 to 4 years and time consuming remember it is one of gm’s that there are no wood kits available to purchase you need the place and tools to make each piece by hand to fit and knowledge only ash should be used for wood structure and need to be sealed to keep out moisture for long lasting structure and kept out of weather should be good for 10 to 15 years every year resealed
Buick sells very well in china…so pontiac was ended. And really…pontiac..olds..buick..chev.. main differences were trim packages…..alot of money went into extra tooling for sheet metal…but it was fun while it lasted!
SOLD! For $4,995 with 22 bids.