1965 Pontiac Catalina

Safari Wagon

389 4 bbl

Automatic

252355C1299383

Clear

This is a 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari wagon brought to Chicago from Rocklin CA two years ago. It's a 2 owner car not including me. I purchased from a friend that happens to be an expert certified mechanic and Pontiac collector. His Pontiacs have been featured in national magazines. This wagon is nowhere near a show vehicle but I mention that to illustrate that it had been owned by an enthusiast that knows his Pontiacs. This has been a CA wagon its entire life until I purchased it. It has been stored in the off-seasons and driven in nice weather regularly. It comes with two binders of paperwork that was saved over the course of almost 50 years. It includes original window sticker, build sheet, Pro-Tect-O-Plate, owner registration cards, sales flyers, a book full of hand-written maint notes, newspaper clippings, owners manual, receipts for nearly every tire, oil, windshield wiper blade, etc since it was new. The wagon comes with 389 4bbl motor, TH400 trans with trans cooler, tow package, AC (non-op of course!), Soft Ray tinted glass, Saf-T-Track rear end, dual exhaust, a set of aftermarket gauges under the dash, 8 lug wheels, power rear gate window, back-up lamps, PS, PB. Window sticker listed at $4805 new. I drive the car every possible chance I get. I coach my 2 son's baseball teams and load her up with our equipment and teammates and hit the road to practice. The kids LOVE it. It runs, starts, sounds, stops and drives great. It's not a new Cadillac by any stretch but does everything you could ask a 50 year old hot rod wagon to do. This was a 75% original paint wagon from CA that had baked in the sun for years. The paint was shot and all I did was D/A the paint off and put it in buff epoxy to seal it for our yearly Pontiac show that me and a friend host at his shop. (It's been featured in POCI Smoke Signals and will be in High Performance Pontiac's December issue. Look for the Full Size Pontiac Chi-Town Shindig.) There are no surprises. There are a few spots of ancient filler on the rear corners that are clear in the photos. I didn't fix anything. I just sanded and D/A'd it. There are plenty of dings and imperfections in the body but the most important thing to note is how rust-free it is. There is a TINY spot, perhaps 1.5" long that can be seen on the drivers side lower quarter and another perhaps 1/2" on the lower pass side door. It's so insignificant it can barely be mentioned. The one funky thing on the body is somehow the area along the drip rail on the driver side cargo area collected moisture and rusted through small rust holes along a nice flat and easy to repair area. Because this is a no roof-rack car, it's even more difficult to figure out how it even started. I'd guess that decades ago the sun baked the paint off and was repainted poorly to make it presentable visually but trapped moisture underneath perhaps. The areas around the driver side cargo area did get rusty under the stainless and came through in several small spots. See photos for detail. Doors open and close awesome. All the soft weather stripping is dry and needs to be replaced eventually. Lips, rockers, spare tire well, etc are all awesome CA clean. The original black plates still come with the car but I put my IL plates over so I could drive it. All of the chrome and stainless is driver quality. The glass is all great. 8 lug drums are great. It looks awesome from 10 feet away and everybody loves it. I have spent $900 on the dual exhaust, replaced soft brake lines, rear window motor, ignition module, fluids flush and replacement (including rear end) and greased front end. All lights, signals, gauges, etc work. Needs new wipers. I never take it out in the rain but tested them so I could include that info in the listing. Ran at 190 degrees for two hours in a traffic jam on a 95+ degree summer day. Rear window works beautifully. The original interior was absolutely sun baked. I purchased two gorgeous and complete sets of amazing door panels for the car out of CO for $300. It has an Ivy Gold interior originally but I planned on switching it to Medium Red Metallic. The car will come with the beautiful set of Ivy Gold panels I bought but the extra set of Medium Red Metallic can be purchased separately. Replacement non-AC dash pad is cracked but comes with the original AC pad core as well. No headliner. Carpet shot. Seat covers shot and simply covered to look and feel nicer than the ripped covers underneath. The cargo panels were all covered with the original vinyl that was dry-rotted and baked. I simply removed the material, D/A'd the panels, hit with self-etching primer and painted with a close match but non-original color that is a reasonable match to make it look nicer. The driver side panel as a few rust holes from the leaky window but no repairs have been made and nothing is being hidden by any crappy bodywork. Everything is there in the open so there are no surprises. Overall this is a super clean CA wagon that I drive everywhere and everyday without worry. Most of my driving is local but she's also been on 3 hr round trips on the expressway and loves it at 70mph or so. Runs great. The interior (other than my new door panels) is BAKED. It is nowhere near a show car and the price reflects that. This is a vintage CA wagon that you can beat on and love without worrying about taking it to the ball park. It's in buff epoxy but looks and sounds great and is too much fun to cruise in. $2500 purchase price. $1000 to ship back to Chicago$900 exhaust, brakes, etc.$300 CO door panel sets, arm rests, visors, etc$500 materials to D/A to metal and put in buff epoxy. The opening bid is $3900 with no reserve. A more affordable, CA wagon in the Chicago area of this year does not exist. I have lots of Pontiacs. I enjoy buying them, restoring them, driving them and starting all over again! My feedback is 100% for a reason. It's important to me and nobody wins if something like this is misrepresented. This is a fun hobby and I want to keep it that way! I am the creator and founder of the Full Size Pontiac Club. All that means is I live and breath this stuff. It's my true love. We're a small community and we all end up with the same car and parts over the years and we all become friends. The weather was terrible today but I couldn't put off the listing for another day. I had plenty of before and after shots of the car along with the close-ups of the "rust" and detail shots of dings, door lips, doglegs, etc. Please contact me for a FOTKI link for tons of photos of the entire car. I can't seem to add the link here and eBay sends me a message that I can't add "clickable links" in the text. I don't know how to make the HTML work. Sunday is supposed to be a nice day so I'll bring her out and get a full set of interior photos added asap. Trying to add the link here. Just cut and paste everything into your browser window from http.....safar/ and it should take you right to the photo album

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