Classic Pontiacs ReSales

2 door hard top purchased in Wixom, Michigan March 6, 2011
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New Owner, Kenneth, on condition of car “8 out of 10”

“All this is based on photographs: paint 9 out of 10 – small areas of rust on bottom edges of both front fenders; no visible rust at the traditional place where the vinyl top ends.

body 9 out of 10 – no visible dents or dings; missing LR corner bumper filler and RR bumper filler is missing a chunk. Both will have to be replaced. all other trim pieces, mouldings, marker light lenses, etc, are all there and intact.

interior 8 of 10 – upholstery is in original pattern (diamondback/buttons on seatback, cushions are unadorned) and might be slightly faded since it's 31 years old. The rest of the interior is in like new condtion, with the interior door panels and the headliner both in particularly good shape.The factory radio has been replaced with an aftermarket Sony AM/FM cassette. Seller also says the far righthand side of the top of the dashboard is cracked, but the center is not. Seller has stated that of the 4 HVAC fan speeds, only speeds 1 & 3 currently operate.

engine 8 of 10 – only cosmetic assessment until I see it in person. It appears someone tried to replace part of the original snorkel on the air cleaner with aluminum foil.

transmission – won't know until I drive it, but I understand it's hard to kill a THM400!

body integrity – won't know this either until I get it home and can do a top to bottom inspection.”

“I bought my 1974 Grandville convertible for $6,000 in January, 2005. The guy I bought it from purchased it for $5,500. He is a dentist, and a friend of his from England asked him to buy it. They only bought it to drive from California to Chicago, Illinois and back for a Lou Gehrig disease fund raiser. They put over $7,000 in repairs into the car.
His friend went back to England and he didn't need the car any more, so he put it on Ebay. I bought it and got a really Great car!! He only lived 200 miles from me, I'm in Fresno and he lives in Carmichael, California.
So I took the train there and drove the car back. He gave me all of the receipts, and what he paid for the car. Here's what he had done to the car last year: rebuilt engine and trans, new coil springs, new power brakes and master cylinder, rebuilt radiator, all new hoses and belts, new alternator, new seat belts, and turn signals. It still needs things fixed - the air doesn't work, needs shocks, a sticker in the glove box says it has super lift shocks, but I don't see them, and it rides too mushy, the steering doesn't feel right either. It feels too easy with no feel of the road. And the last 2 things are the driver's side power windows, they work but don't line up right when raised all the way. And that's my classic!”

“Here is some info concerning my recent purchase. I bought the car from a guy in Ohio for $6,100 on e-Bay. I'm the third owner. I live in Colorado. The NADA range for this car is: Low - $4,225; Average - $8,385; High - $12,220

Here are the details you asked about: Pontiac, 1972, Grand Ville, 70,000 miles, convertible.

Standard Items: Vinyl interior, custom carpeting, custom cushion steering wheel, clock, trunk mat, wheel covers (have two sets of these!), 4bbl 455 V-8 engine, Turbo Hydramatic transmission, power steering, power disc brakes.

Options: Manual A/C, AM/FM radio (non-stereo), power windows, tilt wheel, rear seat speaker, LH remote mirror, body side mouldings, Soft Ray windshield, 6-way power bench seat, Super Lift shock absorbers (these were not on the car when I bought it), front and rear bumper guards, rubber bumper strips, Rally II wheels (these were in prime, unpainted condition when I bought the car), G78x15 fiberglass tires (the car had belted radials on when I bought it).
The car was bought from Willoughby Pontiac in Willoughby, Ohio. The base price was $4,768 including destination charges. The options added another $1,239 to the price for a total of $6,007. So I paid roughly the same as the price, but in today's dollars.

The car's engine, transmission and suspension had been overhauled and have maybe 500 miles on them. The paint job was the same as the original color (GM Cardinal Red) but was done with an enamel paint, so the original paint was bleeding through the second crummy paint job. There were small rust bubbles on one edge of the trunk lid and some rust on the door skin to door joints. A minor amount of pinhole rust was in the trunk on the passenger's side. There was some filler in the hood, but this did not show up until the car went to the body shop a few weeks ago. This was very minor.
The tail light and turn signal lenses were pitted, worse in the rear than the front. The side body mouldings were not attached, but included with the car. The windshield has a small patch about the size of the palm of your hand on the driver's side where the internal plastic layer appears to be bubbling away from the glass.
The top and power windows worked when I bought the car, but the power seat would not move forward or backward. The interior is in great shape with no rips or tears in the seats. The top and window were new, but the weatherstripping is old and crumbly.
I'd give the car an "A" for the condition of the mechanicals and a "C" for the body. The interior I would say is a "B" as I bought it, but it came with a lot of NOS parts that I have since installed; new carpeting, a clock that works and some other bits.
The car came with a bunch of NOS and repop parts that probably cost the previous owner around $1,000 bucks or so. Some are still readily available, but others are difficult to find - mostly exterior parts like bezels and lenses.

I have invested about $2,500 in parts and labor to fix the fuel gauge, the A/C (converted to R134), some A/T and engine leaks, install new tires on the new rims that came with the car, the bench seat, install the carpeting and a bunch of other small items. I also had to fix the exhaust system as the carrier who delivered the car backed off the carrier too quickly and rammed the exhaust pipe into the tarmac, causing the muffler and pipes to break apart.
The big project now is to have the body work done. This will probably be in the range of $9k because of the crappy paint job that was laid over the factory paint. When this happens, you have to take it down to the bare metal and start over again, otherwise the factory paint will bleed through the new paint and you're back where you started from.
Because it will be a bare-metal job, I will be changing the color to something other than red - gold, most likely, but one that will be close to the original gold selections. Will also be having the bumpers pressed and re-chromed. That will bring the tab to around $17k to $18k for the car. But it will look great and run great for years. I hope! :-) The car is a looker as it is - get lots of thumbs up and smiles when I drive by, and not just from folks in my decrepit age range; kids and adults both love these old cars and, I think, appreciate them.
Below are some pics. The first is how the car looked when I bought it, the second is how it looks at the body shop as of last week. I had the body side moulding rivets ground off the sides as I don't really care for the body side moulding look. The next model year they went with stick on mouldings, which are much easier to apply and easier to find. I'm toying with the idea of re-badging the car as a Bonneville as that name has more meaning to me than Grand Ville; G'Ville sounds kinda old mannish to me, where Bonneville is a name Pontiac has had for years and kept, not to mention referring to the Bonneville salt flats. I'm not one to go overboard on keeping things all original, but if I do re-badge the old girl I will keep the original Grand Ville badges just in case. I never intended for the car to be a show car anyway - just my cool ride for cruising and maybe the occaisional car meet, but mostly to see other people's cars and what they have done with them.”

“I have a 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville. White top, deep red color, white pin striping. 400 4 Barrel. Everything is original except tires, exhaust, and stereo. We bought it in the early 90's for approx. $3200 from the owner of Fair Oaks Ford in Illinois. Has 58,000 original miles. No clue what it is worth now. Worst I have placed in a car show was 3rd.”

“I am outside the lines a bit with my '69 but I paid about $9,500 for my old girl. She is a Bonneville convertible with a 428 (fairly rare these days) and factory air. 70K original miles, NO rust, re chromed bumpers and a beautiful metallic light blue paint job. Maybe I paid too much but I had to have this car. I passed on a '68 for $4,000 back in 1986 and had always regretted it. Stumbled onto this beauty literally right under my own nose about 5 miles from my house while on a quick afternoon cruise with my wife (she is actually the one who spotted the car). Two weeks later it was mine. Barely fits in the garage and looks absolutely mammoth next to my old Jaguar.
I am off to Carlisle in April to find some rally II wheels and vendors for some specialty work. When I am done this beast is going to look as good as new and run even better.”

“In April of '04 I bought a 74 Grandville convertible. It was originally sold in Iowa, but soon after was in Hot Springs Arkansas and seems to have spent most of its life there. It came up for sale at a farm auction in Wisconsin. I bought it for $6400.00.
It is in great shape for a driver! The car has been repainted at one point in time but was kept the original color. The car has the original interior. Brownish /Tan Pleather. Seats and carpet are in great shape; some of the door/pillar seals needed replacing. The dash had a crack that was previously repaired. Tilt/Cruise colum-cruise works! Power windows with A/C. The compressor leaks and will be replaced and upgraded to C134 this year. I have upgraded the sound system - Alpine/Infinity but did not alter the dash in any way! NO EXTRA HOLES DRILLED ANYWHERE! The original delco is still in the dash. The top is virtually new being replaced sometime in '03 in a tannish color that goes well with the car. I have the original top boot, in great shape!
We have a 455 dual exhaust with a turbo 400, both original and work great! The car still has Goodyear Polyglass tires on it and they are in good shape so I'm sure I'll run them again this year. The original Pontiac "mags" are still on it and all trim rings and center caps are intact. Other than that this was not a highly optioned car. It was appraised at $8800. I was told my biggest point deductions were for the pits in the t-lamps (the cast housings) and the cracks in the front parklamps. I have noticed they do come up on ebay now and then. The odometer says 32k but I'm sure its 132. The car resides in Milwaukee Wisconsin.”

“I bought my '70 Catalina 4-door hardtop in December, 2003 for $3250. It had 135,000 miles on it and is an all original car except for the paint and the frontbench ( which comes from a Caddy Eldorado ). This winter it's getting a new coat of paint, and I'm gonna do a re-wiring under the dash. For the Netherlands it was incredibly cheap ( @ £ 2500 for a rustfree fullsize classic Pontiac in #2-3 condition ). By the way, it runs on LPG ( Liquified Petroleum Gas ) now, because at > 4.68 per gallon, you'd have to be a very rich dude to drive it on regular fuel ( LPG goes at > 1.73 per gallon ).
For a picture of my car, see the 1970 B-body Gallery”.