Some prefer specific makes, and models, but many times I find myself falling in love any classic car that is in excellent condition. This 1970 Pontiac Tempest is a beautiful survivor with only one owner all of its life. Now looking to part ways to a new owner this original condition, ready to drive, beauty is a very reasonably priced $6,500. Find it here on craigslist out of Plantation, Florida. Thank you Pat L for the beautiful submission!
Although green may not be everyone’s favorite color, Pontiac was spot on with their green color choices for this ’70 Tempest. There is always something so refreshing about seeing such a nice condition original. The bench seat and its fabric are excellent. It is clear the original owner took great car of this Pontiac. The flooring is a little dark and perhaps dirty, otherwise this interior is superb. Sadly there is no photo of the engine, but I am willing to bet it is clean enough to eat off of, if you don’t mind a few particles here and there in your food. Powered by a 350 V8 with an automatic transmission, this Pontiac is a base model with no air conditioning, and sadly no power brakes.
With a lovely glow, the metallic paint still shines like new. There is absolutely no evidence of rust, or body damage. The chrome is beautiful, and even the hub caps with white walls are tidy and clean. I am sold on this Pontiac for its condition alone, but I also favor that it has 2 doors, and a lovely green paint job. It would be a dream come true if this one was equipped with air conditioning, but compromises must be made when you find survivors like this ’70 Tempest. Are you tempted by this beautiful survivor?
I’m “green” with envy for the next owner. Nice car.
Love Ponchos period. I’m shocked a car in Florida with no A/C. I lived there for 1 year and the humidity was horrible. You had 2 seasons Snowbirds and Summer, one was a massive traffic jam and the other was humid as heck. But the car is super nice and I wish I had room for it.
Why are most of the nice cars green? I would kill myself before I got engulfed by that hideous green interior. I guess it was not Henry Ford you said “You can have it any color you like as long as it isn’t that putrid green they will put in the 1970 Pontiac Tempests 65 years from now” but he should have. That would have maybe stop FoMoCo from painting many of their cars in shades of green so distasteful as to remind one of prison food–which one would have to either be in prison or had been in prison, to remember. I have am not now or have ever been in prison, but I would think it would not be very good as the only thing the Chef’s there had ever cooked was meth. I have never taken meth either but were I to have to drive in that ugly green, I might.
I take it you don’t like green. Myself it’s my favorite color. A friend of mine has a ’70 LeMans Sport that was this same color. He’s owned it for about 35 years. Same shade of green, but he had it repainted blue some years back, I believe due to possible paint wear.
They are green and nice because the older folks liked green and actually maintained their vehicles unlike most today who are more worried about that text message on their phone and less worried about the vehicle that is driving them. And yes, the vehicle is driving them….
Do you like any shade of green?
Well, I like green also. Being it is Saint Patrick’s Day and my brother Pats birthday today, I am sure with my corned beef and cabbage tonight there will be some green beer consumed also.
I hope we get the thumbs back soon!
Very green – and yet they’re asking for a reasonable number of greenbacks. I can dig it.
The world needs more sellers who are in touch with reality… seems you’d be hard-pressed these days to repeat that deal on even a 4-door version!
No evidence of rust whatsoever? Look again at the rear quarters near the back bumpers. I see evidence of rust. Not much, but some.
I want to fly down there and drive this home to even more humid Minnesota.
I saw this car for sale outside of Rochester NY last year. Underside was really rusty. Needing floor pans and braces. Hopefully that’s been addressed. If not. Buyer beware.
Nice car …love it
Very cool. Worth the money at any color. Not a huge fan of the car but you cant buy original enough. Put some cool wheels on it, nice weekend driver. That 68 Firebird 400 Convertible in the background is killing me!!!!! (sorry, I lost my 67 400 Conv, loaded with 50K orig miles, to the recession to save my business along with my 72 454 M21 Stingray and my 59 El Camino). Sorry, just crying a little bit to a group who might understand! Ok, I’m done.
Brother Tom – You are correct in that you preacheth to the choir. Cars are like gold – a physical manifestation of assets. Consequently, people will exchange them for little pieces of paper quite readily. Your particular story actually caused me to go “Ugh”. I, unfortunately, know the feeling exactly.
1st pic is in a body shop , humm no rust maybe a good looking over with a magnifying glass .
Norm, what am I missing? All 6 photos are in the same place. Nice garage, home work shop, but clearly not a body shop.
I thought the Tempest wasn’t available as a hardtop except as a T-37?
The longer I live the more I have to keep remembering is that back in this era, you checked off boxes when ordering a car of EACH item you wanted and skip the boxes of what you did not want. You could get just about anything you wanted back then and NOTHING of what you did not want. Pretty cool. Those days are gone!
Wish the original owner checked the 455 box and the a/c box, but those could be added. I really like this one!
1970 Tempest initially was only available in the 2 door and 4 door models. Mid-year the 2dr hardtop was introduced as the T-37. I bought one. It had no PB or AC. Rain water would puddle in the concave back window, eventually leading to rust under the bright trim.
Also available was the GT-37, a T-37 with GTO trim.
Considering the GT-37’s standard engine was a 2bbl 350, I don’t think the characterization that it’s in GTO trim is correct.
Trim refers only to the external appearance. The GTO and the GT-37 look alike. That is where the similarity ends.
Footnote: The GTO and the GT-37 look alike when they both have the optional ‘Judge” appearance decals on the side. The 350 2bbl was standard, but the 400 cu in engine was an option, L65 for the 2bbl, L75 for the 4bbl, and L78 for the ram air. The GT-37 was lighter than the GTO and would outrun a GTO with the same 400 engine. Full details can be found on Hemmings website.
This one is worth while. Very nice.
This car is not a survivor, it is a flip. This car was for sale for $4500 recently in Penfield, NY on another auto site online. According to the ad, this car received a repaint 10 years ago, at which time the seats were reupholstered. At the time of sale it had 98000 miles on it.
When looking at a vehicle online, use a search engine to look for similar cars. It took less than 5 minutes to verify the information above from looking at pictures. Just my two cents.
Here it is. It’s definitely the same car as it has the same rusty spot on the rear bumper at the right edge of the trunk, and the same rusty stain on the driver’s floorboard.
http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/pontiac/164675-1970-pontiac-tempest-2dr-350-v8.html
dgrass…….you……you’re good you! 2 cents = worth their weight in gold! nice investigative work!
if the underbody and the floor inside the car look that bad, what did the seats and original paint look like before they were redone! In MY opinion…..anyone who does this to a car cut every corner they could on the pre-paint body and prep work. that is why the bottom edges of the rear quarters are doing what they are doing. what is next? Original FL car YES, forgot to tell you it was parked in the Everglades frame deep!! No thanks.
Oh one more thing, the entire underside looks like swiss cheese. Have fun!
“Oh one more thing, the entire underside looks like swiss cheese” — boy you got that right. You got to feel real sorry for the buyer if they assume it was a 1 owner car out of FL. Just another data point that “If it’s too good to be true…..”.
Common problem with Pontiacs of this era. My 71 LeMans had this issue, fortunately replacement floor pans are readily available.
Wow good catch dgrass. As car guys we are probably all guilty of a little flippin. I fall in love and keep them way too long to be classified as one at least I think. . Don’t hate the flipper ,someone has to unearth these things, just hate the misrepresentation and exorbitant pricing. There ought to be a better word for conscientious resellers. It doesn’t apply in this case agreed.
“Chrome is beautiful”. Look at the right side rear bumper. It’s rusted where the trunk lip drain ran water on it for years or decades. Replacing the worn carpet would have helped him trying to pass it off as an unmolested classic.
So much for the “1 owner” comment since it looks like it’s on flip #2. If it came out of NY then the lack of engine and underneath pics makes perfect sense. Nice catch dgrass.
Makes me miss my 71 LeMans.
No power brakes? No problem. Easy to convert with a rebuilt booster which would come with a rebuilt M/C. But, why not convert to front disk brakes an any old car for use as a daily driver?
I don’t care for this particular car, but I think 1964 through 1972 GM intermediates would make great daily drivers with very little updating.
I believe this Pontiac is a LeMans, not a Tempest. That cloth interior was not available on the Tempest.
my first thought was that cant be the original seat cover and paint.. looked too good to be true and apperently it was.
I don’t think it has dirty carpet I think it has a vinyl mat…
JJS, the GT-37 and Judge do not look alike from the side because the GT-37 uses the 1969 Judge stripe, which also was available on the regular GTO. Only one 4bbl 400 was available, which was rated at 330 hp; the Ram Air 400 engine was not available. The L75 code was the 455 and was not available on anything save the GTO.
The 4bbl. engine with a stick was the same engine as the standard GTO engine, which was rated at 350 hp in that car. The automatics received small valve heads and was similar to what could be found in the big Pontiacs.
Trey,
An article in Hot Rod magazine confirms your comments: ” The 400s ordered with the manual trans received the GTO 350hp engine with the 067 cam and big-valve No. 12 heads; 400s ordered with the automatic trans used the Big-Car’s 330hp engine with small-valve No. 16 heads and the 066 cam.”
No mention of a ram air option.
Don’t rely on online magazines, as how do you reconcile the two sources? Your best bet is to look at the factory bulletins at GT-37.org.
For years, a Pontiac engineer claimed the RAIII without ram air was the engine installed in 400 stick cars, but time and evidence from surviving cars have proved him wrong.
Those seats remind me of that avocado color that was all over appliances in the 70’s. Ugly as hell on my moms kitchen . Only thing more hideous was that burnt orange color. This was an ugly time for style and I hope it never comes back.
Good suggestion. Only problem, the website is under construction. When I was doing the web search, I used any site that looked like it might provide information, including pontiacsonline.com. The most authoritive source I found was Hot Rod. My favorite source is oldcarmanualproject.com. For some car models they have the factory option list, which is the ultimate information source. They don’t have it for the Tempest and I have not be able to find it elsewhere on the Internet.
I bought the car for way lower than asking price. It’s was a flip like stated here in the conments. Englne painted while still in the car, paint on carb and everything. Underneith there was some bad patches done and a ton of bondo. A true American ”renovation
” as always on craigslist. Will be done next week and now it’s nice.