This 1956 Pontiac 870 Four-Door Sedan was made in – wait for it – Pontiac, Michigan, believe it or not! I know, right? There were eight GM plants making cars in 1956, but the letter P in the VIN makes it a Pontiac, MI car. This good-running four-door sedan can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Hurley, South Dakota, and they’re asking $5,700. Here is the original listing, and thanks to NW Iowa Kevin for the tip!
It’s hard to tell the 870 series from the 860 series, other than the telltale trim running across the bottom of the windows on the side, as seen above. The 860 didn’t have that, and the 870 also has full wheel covers as opposed to dog dish-type hubcaps. A few of you may remember that our family (you know, the “rich” family who bought their two spoiled kids a Schwinn Varsity) had an old ’56 Pontiac very similar to this in the mid-1960s, but in place of the Terragon Green seen here, ours was Raven Black. The light portion was the same, as you can see in this pic of our car at my dad’s dad’s house in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, probably around 1967. I’m the one towards the house.
Needless to say, I have a thing for the ’56 Pontiac in a four-door sedan, four-door hardtop, two-door whatever, or any other configuration. You can see the chrome taillight “hoods” or visors, whereas the 860 models didn’t have that chrome piece. That’s another quick sign as to what model it is. We don’t get to see inside the trunk compartment, which is a shame for a dealer who is consigning a vehicle for someone else. I’d bet that they would send any interested parties any additional photos they might ask for, but that’s just a guess.
Our car also had a Hydra-Matic transmission, but a 3-speed manual with column shift was also available. The seat fabric could use a good cleaning, although after 70 years, I’m guessing it’s a little “tender,” so I’d go easy on it. The back seat looks great, other than the windlace trim around the doors, but that often needs replacing after so many decades. Pontiac made 22,082 examples of this model in 1956.
The engine is Pontiac’s 317-cu.in. V8 with 205 horsepower and 294 lb-ft of torque when new. Passing through the automatic to the rear wheels, the seller says this car has been taken care of over the years, it’s in good condition, and it runs well. Our car had optional power steering, and that made it a really nice-driving car. At 3,800 pounds, they aren’t modern SUV-like, but they’re still heavy. I hope this one doesn’t end up like ours after my dad cut it apart (that’s me at the wheel) and turned it into some oddball creation. Here he is looking like Charlie Steampunk, complete with welding goggles, and a Hamm’s beer bottle on the hood, the only piece of sheet metal left. Are any of you into 1950s cars like this Pontiac?
It looks like its Old Memory Lane week here at Barnfinds. This must’ve been some looker in this color scheme when it was new. Its neat seeing your parents ’56 Pontiac with you and your brother with it too. It sure seems your Dad was a little heavy handed with a blow torch!! But hey, at that time it was considered a 10+ year old used car probably not worth much for a trade in. Its great seeing your old Ford pickup in the photo too. This is great Scotty and just totally enjoy write ups like this thanks!!!
An older couple I knew named Joe and Dottie Heilman owned one of these in the late ’60s. They were members of the congregation at the small church I went to as a kid. Their car was blue and white and looked pretty good for a 10+ year old used car.
Joe worked for the railroad and
Dottie was a beautician. And most every Saturday morning, my
teen age self would be looking under the hood doing minor things like checking the oil, water,
or maybe doing a tune up if it was
needed. As I’ve said before, I would service most all the cars the congregation owned every Saturday morning while the ladies would clean the church. Well, the Sunday the church gifted me with a brand new set of
Craftsman hand tools and two pairs of coveralls, Joe’s Pontiac blew an oil line running to the sending unit. I put on the coveralls, opened my new tool box, and proceeded to fix the problem. Being Sunday, I couldn’t
fix it properly as all the parts stores were closed so I asked the
ladies if they had any Kotex pads
on them. Yeah, there were gasps
from the crowd when I told them
what I needed them for. Wasn’t long before I had half a dozen maxi pads and a Brillo pad to clean the broken line so that the
duct tape would hold after I rolled
the pads tightly around the two pieces of line I had to work with.
All I did was make a bandage 🤕
that would last long enough for them to get the car home without
harming the engine. Joe would tell me later that his mechanic said that my home made bandage was the best temporary
repair job he’d ever seen. Coming
from a licensed mechanic, that made me feel ten feet tall! I’d be
the church mechanic for another
three years before I started touring and playing music 🎵🎶
over the road. And when I had time, I’d go to church on Sunday,
Bible in one hand, toolbox 🧰 in
the other. Boy do I miss those days.
What a great story Ken thanks for sharing it.
Nice clean old Pontiac here. This would make a nice weekend cruiser.
When we moved to town, our neighbors had a yellow/white version of this. What made it unique was that it was a deeper yellow than the other two ’56 Ponchos in our town. Yellow must’ve been a popular color back then because Fords, Plymouths, Chevys and Pontiacs were all available in yellow/white.
Somehow, this vintage of Poncho seemed to do okay despite the boxy appearance. They lasted a long time because I saw a lot of them go well past 10 years and keep on going.
My wife sure didn’t care for this vintage of Pontiac but when a ’57 became available, she couldn’t latch onto it fast enough…
odd color combo
Hello, hairyolds68! Not an odd colour combination at all, if you were around in 1956: this was almost “standard”, then. Pink and black was a common combination then, too. I much preferred the front end treatment and the side trim on the 1955 Pontiac at the time, and I never was nuts about pink; still, if it were closer to me, I would buy this and drive it in a heart-beat! They are only original once, and I would not change a thing. The only caveat would be, if it has been smoked in: that would be a hard pass for me. But a mid-1950s sedan ready to go as a turnkey proposition at THIS price? Admittedly, it’s not the SEXIEST 1956 ride on four wheels, but it looks like a bargain in every way to ME!
I believe that’s a very light tan color that looks pinkish under those lights. If you look at some of the photos, they look white; it could be sodium vapor lighting or whatever is being used in that warehouse. Our ’56 was stark white and black, no pinkish hue at all.
Your wife has good taste Geo. Bought a ’57 Star Chief 4-door hardtop from a friend of mine back in ’74. It was his wife’s car,
and when she passed away, he couldn’t bring himself to even go
near it. For a 17 year old car, mine was in really good shape for
what it was. I let my Mom use it
when the Machinists Union gave her a lot of grief over driving her new Chevy LUV pickup to work as
the factory she worked for forbade it’s workers from driving
anything but American vehicles no matter how bad they were. It
really pissed me off because Dad and I spent a lot of money buying
the truck and tricking it out for her. Anyhow, my car was a deep brick red with a cream top and side spear. It ran a 347 V-8 and 4
speed Hydramatic. It also had a
hi lift cam and 3 deuce manifold that were factory stock. It was my Mom’s week day driver until the Supreme court said that the ban the Machinists Union had on
foreign cars was unconstitutional
after several employees sued the
company and the union. It wasn’t
long after that that Dad put Mom
into a new Datsun 610 sedan that
started rusting away as soon as he bought it. But that’s another
story.
Hey Scotty, my first car was a ’55 Pontiac. So yes, I’m a BIG FAN of that era, that style. I got my ’55 Pontiac when I was 14 (1963). I went to the library for a Chilton’s Manual and proceeded to take the car apart. Over the 2 years until I turned 16 and got my license all my free time was in disassembling and reassembling that car. As soon as I turned 16 I was licensed and driving my first love. What a great experience!!!! By the way I returned the Chilton’s manual to the library about 3 years after taking it out on a two week loan ;)
I can only imagine the fine you had to pay for that one! Almost bought a bottle 🍾 green ’55 4-door sedan by the time I got around to it, the car got scarfed up and I missed out on that one.
I missed my ’57 so much that I wanted another one. The guy wanted $350 for it and yeah, I had the cash In the bank, but I went on tour before I could buy it
Always had a soft spot for these
cars too. If they ever make peace
with Cuba, there’s a red and white
’55 sedan I’d love to get my hands
on. You see it in almost every Cuban car video you see up on YouTube. I’d leave it just the way
it is now, get it tagged and insured, and just enjoy it for what
it is. And I can almost guarantee
you that I’d have the only one around! And yeah Lakota, I was
just a skinny legally blind kid who
did what he loved best–fixing old
cars and having fun.
I bought my running driving 60K mile ’55 Pontiac for $10 in 1964. After putting it back together and getting on the road and having it on the road and my license in my pocket for 4 days, I was cut of by a half blind old-timer on the highway and rolled it ( the car is still stored under the barn at what was the old family home). I bought a ’55 Chevy and and a ’57 Pontiac Starchief and had a blast with both (did not roll them). . . However my girlfriend (who has become my wife) drove the Starchief to Boston with no brakes. She downshifted to slow down and used the emergency brake to stop, went slow and kept distance form the car in front. . . . We certainly did (and got away with) some remarkable or crazy things back in the ’60’s!!!
Dad drove my ’52 Chevy sedan like that. I too got lucky and bought it for $10 after being told about it by my aunt, who knew the man it belonged to. We aired up the tires, tuned it up, changed
the oil, added fresh gas, and then
went on our merry way. Our friend Don Grimm drove the chase car and we used walkie talkies to keep in touch as we drove back home. As I said before, my Mom had a fit when we pulled the car into the driveway. She was having a yard
sale and she didn’t want her customers to see that dirty, grimy,
and smelly old car that we just came home with. I named the car Lazaurus because we brought him back from the dead.
We took ol’ Laz’ and parked him out behind the garage to park him
and get him ready for his first wash in unknown years. Did that
Sunday after church and boy, did he stink! No one ever told me that chicken 🐔 crap would start
stinkin again once you doused it
with soap and water. I kept Lazaurus for another 2 years before I sold him to s good friend
of mine who needed something
reliable to get to and from work.
I would see Lazaurus again 15 years later at our neighborhood
gas ⛽ station. I went inside to pay for a full up when I saw the car pull up to the pumps. It was him! It was Lazaurus! And shiny
from nose to tail. Seems that the
friend I sold him to restored him from top to bottom and now, his
son was driving the car pretty
much the same way his Dad did.
That was 1986, and not long afterwards, my wife and I moved to Florida and I never saw Lazaurus again. At least now he’s a family heirloom that’s still
running and driving somewhere.
Do you and your Mrs. still have the Star Chief? And if you’re anything like me, you’ll get around
to restoring it someday.
Hey Ken, that Starchief is long gone, I’m quite sure. That was back around 1967. The old ’55 Pontiac that I rolled is still in “storage” in the basement of what was the old family homestead but I have not seen it in 20 years. it went under there in 1966 and has never come out. As a 16 year old, I always thought I’d rebuild/restore it one day but life got in the way and it just sat there and sits there still.
These are great cars and you can’t go wrong with a Pontiac at this price! With the v-8 this will make a great addition to any collector car person although not as sharp and valuable as a hardtop or convertible where can you find a 70 year old car complete and solid like this -car will sell quick if not already sold…
Sold, sold, sold! I knew this seemed like a good deal.
If it’d been closer to NH, I’d have bought it for that low price.