Slammed into the weeds and rolling on modern 17 inch wheels and tires, this 1965 Pontiac Grand Prix in Costa Mesa, California exaggerates Pontiac’s Wide Track look, and its hand-rubbed two-stage black paint gleams. The upgraded classic can be yours for $25,850 right here at Barn Finds Classified. A 455 V8 from 1973 powers the big Poncho, and the gold interior pops against the black respray.
The giant two-tiered rectangular dash shows off warm wood grain and the gleam of chrome sets off the interior as an step up from bare-bones family transportation. Despite plenty of width for six, this Pontiac’s bucket seats and center console make this one sporty full-size.
Blacked out trim and smoked tail lights complete the monochrome look, and the debadging and lack of trim lets the car’s natural lines speak for themselves. Pontiac and General Motors styling in general hit consistent home runs through the ’60s. Details on what modifications resulted in the lowered stance escaped the listing, but it makes for a coherent look, a well-executed vision compared to some half-baked attempts we’ve seen. Hot rod builders nail the stance and wheel and tires early on, because if you don’t get those elements right, you’re building a shiny car with non-factory wheels and tires instead of a jaw-dropping custom creation.
A 1973 vintage 455 looks tight and leak-free. Billet accessory mounts add some bling, and the engine compartment’s daily driver look suits the asking price. Spend a few hundred hours detailing the engine compartment vying for car show accolades, or just check the fluids, drop the hood, and blast down the road. The seller says this GP will burn the tires “until you let off.” Cosmetic choices like decals are easily changed. Air conditioning might make some buyers’ checklist. Name one $26,000 new car that will turn heads like this ’65 Grand Prix.
It’s beautiful car! Personally, the shaved emblems/handles/etc, don’t really bother me, but I’m not a fan of the blacked out chrome trim and the 17′ wheels.
GLWTA!! :-)
Agree, beautiful car. On the fence about blacked out chrome but after looking at the wheel design they seem to fit the the theme of the build. Can’t say anything about the wheels being 17s as that’s what I have on my Chrysler van.
99% of the time, the reason for blacked out or body coloured bumpers is because the owner is too cheap to have them properly rechromed.
The interior made me want to puke 🤮
Was hoping to see a 4spd in there.
400 autoloader will handle the duties fine for the new owner.
Neat car.
Back in those long ago days, a neighbor and I (both single guys) were friendly competitors. He had a car similar to this one, I had a 65 Impala SS. He thought his car was more “babe magnet” than mine. In a “friendly contest”, we asked 15 single females in the apt complex which car would they rather ride in, and they voted (secret paper ballot) and put them in a hat. We picked one of the women to be the impartial judge by withdrawing one vote at a time, and then placed that vote in front of the respective car owner. My Impala won 12 votes to 3. But this is still a great looking car, I just liked Impala better
Not a fan of slammed vehicles Put it back to factory spec and it would interest me. As is, no thanks !
maybe you were just better looking and the girls knew who it belonged to. most will go for looks and not the car…..lol
Sinister looking car! But rather have poverty caps on it, dump the rims.
The Grand Prix was a luxury car. It was never offered with poverty caps.
You could option this baby with a gun slinging 421 in ’65 if you had the extra cash. I like the stock look better,but this machine still looks good.
I’m surprised someone couldn’t paint the water pump engine color when replacing it. Beautiful car & color. But I have to have my A/C
Beautiful car but let’s lose the fire chicken air cleaner
Nice car. The rims don’t bother me the blacked out trim doesn’t bother me either. But replacing a 421 or the 428 I can’t remember which year they used displacement. That bothers me. Nothing wrong with the 455. I just think it deserves to be a all 60s car. A good friend had a 428 GP it ran heads up with anything.
I had a ’69 with a 428… you are correct, it was fast as hell!!
I love those early to mid 60’s steering wheels. By far the nicest of all the 60s car manufacturers.
Stupid behavior! Let’s go burn a couple of thousand miles worth of rubber off the tires, just to show off. Stick a big brute of an engine in the car so you you can waste money!
A fool and his money …
It’s their money and not yours….
Man alive!! You are the only person in all my 70 years that made a comment like that.Everyone I’ve ever known thru the years has enjoyed the fast muscle cars and hot rods with big and small engines loved to race and burn rubber.Extremely great times!!
Some People Find Fault
Like There’s A REWARD For It!
(I’ve had 6 Pontiacs of various flavors: GP, Bonneville, GTOs and 7 Oldsmobile… all “Not your fathers Oldsmobiles” Toronados, 98s, 442s)
Long live the 60’s!
The car looks great in the pictures right till you open the hood, the trunk, or the doors. There’s no way I would consider that price of $25,850 unless I was in Costa Mesa, California inspecting it myself first. Looks to me like maybe they ran out of money to finish the build, that might explain the weather stripping around the trunk, and some other things.
Wonder what they did with the 8 lug Kelsey Hayes wheels?
Love it. Need to finish this car. All new interior and get rid of the ode to the Trans Am under the hood. Man…..who thought of that!? 😬 SCARY. 🤣 Hope this gets to the right buyer
No mention of the brakes, I see the old single reservoir so I’m guessing drums all the way around…scary
Like the car, but kinda curious what it really looks like because whoever took the pics sure knows how to use the edit feature ion his camera to make it look better than I’d bet it does standing next to it. And definitely agree with “lose the chicken”! LOL, it ain’t a Trans Am.
When I first Started driving, I bought a 69 Mach l. It still stands as my favorite car. Every time I wanted to make changes to it, like wheels and tires, etc, my dad would stand there staking his head saying ” the engineers designed that car to be a well balanced machine (we know that’s not always the case) and if they wanted your help they would ask for it). In general he was right. Other than wheels and tires, I have learned to keep the car as factory original as it was when it left the assembly line. That said, the 1965 full-size Pontiacs, Catalina, Bonneville and Grand Prixs are one of the top 5 best looking cars of the 60s, and actually of all time. Every view is powerfully good looking and works together from front to rear. My favorite color for any car is black. That said, in this case removing the chrome, removed the necessary contrast between the paint and chrome, that changes the look of the entire car, and not for the better. Add to that how did that gold interior get in this car? Horrible, I have never seen a beautiful Pontiac botched this bad. Some people taste is all in their mouth. A beautiful Pontiac Grand Prix absolutely ruined.
My 65 Catalina 2 door post has more factory accessories than this unit. Beautiful car, except for the painted bumpers and rims. Amazing how many of this body style I have seen that were bare bones units. Personally for me I would not consider this car for the simple reason that it has no neat factory options. Sorry but the laser beam headlight gizmo and the giant chrome tachometer and all those chrome buttons that ran all the windows along with a wealth of other features is the draw to these cars for me.
I’m weary cars with monsters engines in these articles. Most of us drove Chevy 283s or Chrysler slant 6.
How about real cars we can relate to? I have no fantasies about a big block 396.
Guess I’m the oddball on that one. I’ve spent my life getting cars with the biggest engines available. Still doing it with a turbo Mini Cooper S and a Chrysler van with a big V6 and a 9 speed automatic that really moves it down the road.
I love the 1965 and 1966 Pontiac Gran Prix. This is a great looking car but blacking out the chrome bumpers and trim wasn’t a wise choice. I never understood why people black chrome out on a vehicle. There’s no more chrome bumpers and trim. Put the chrome back on this ride and a set of 7 1/2″ Cragar SS old school wheels with raised white letter F 70 tire’s and you would have a real head turner.
I’ve never driven a big Pontiac with drums all around but I have a 64 Riviera with drums and it stops on a dime. I wonder if the Pontiacs had big brakes like the Buicks?
I am not particularly interested in early to mid sixties cars but this one hits an out of the park home run.