Repainted just the roof on this 55000 mi original car. 389 2bbl, runs nice, nothing like big inch torque
When I was looking for my first “nice” classic car in the 90’s I was looking at ‘66 Catalinas and ‘67 Skylarks. I looked at a couple Catalinas and then found and bought a ‘67 Skylark Conv and now I have several Buicks, a garage full of parts and i look at V8Buick every two hours.
I love the 64-66 Grand Prix if I do say so myself. Someone locally here has an unmolested 68 GP convertible. The body style changed drastically that year but I also like it.
I took it around the block before bringing it to the main building, smooooooth runner, second gear acceleration is strong, TORQUE
I agree that the 389 wasn't a bad motor - neither were any of the other Pontiac V8's of that type. The only consistent issue was the timing chain nylon camshaft gears. During my years twisting wrenches for a living, I'll bet that I replaced at least two Pontiac Timing chains and gears for every one of anything else. I don't know why Pontiac had that issue; perhaps the gear ran hotter or didn't get enough oil, but if I had anything to do with Pontiac's QC, the V8s would have gotten an all-metal gear.
I got drive a 64 Grand Prix that a guy I knew was doing some touch up work on friends. Standard 389 TH400? Had the 8 lug wheels. Was snappy for a big car but didn't know what gears it had out back, I layed into it shortly on a side street so I didn't get the full drive experience. The front brakes though were all over the place. Also had a friend who rebuilt his 389 in his 66 GTO that ended up putting it in 67 GTO convertible with a 4 speed and 3:55's out back. It had some goodies but was still on the stock pistons with a hone and new rings. The car being a vert and a little frame rust was kinda hard to launch like the body flexed and felt heavy. Motor ran great though. I noticed on the 2 389's I drove that they made torque but you had to keep the revs up to work the torque. Wasn't like my 401's where you could just about idle it.
Yeah 389 two bbl, T-400 probably high 2 series rear gear, I didn’t burn rubber lol, not my car but when it shifted to second I gave it some throttle and YEP, there’s the torque! You were pushed lightly into the seat back
'64 GP original auto is the Roto HydraMatic - [R at the bottom]. Many people hate on it mostly because they have a noticable RPM drop going into 2nd. The senior Pontiacs (Star Chief / Bonneville) had the Super HydraMatic 4-spd auto. I've had (8) 389 cars, and I still have my first car - '64 GP, all original. Upgrading to this when the engine gets out of rebuilder jail :
Roto HydraMatic 375 ('61-64) was a 3-spd (or sometimes termed; a '3-spd with a dual range 1st gear') with an internal torque converter. When you unbolt it, this is what you see: https://www.charlietranny.com/375RHM.htm
Wow I had not a clue.. As far as I remember it had the D 2 1 and I think it down shifted? This was about 24 years ago. I remember the GP owner had another 64 GP with A/C and the A/C car didn't have the really nice 3 pod gauge clusters. I didn't drive in that car though.
Pontiac used ‘D’rive ‘S’uper ‘L’ow markings. My GP is a factory A/C car- I never minded the center vent duct, tho I have thought it should be possible to delete just that vent and sub the gauges back in. Standard; those were merely the fuel/ clock/ ammeter- what would be the cat’s pajamas would be the quite rare Custom gauge cluster: oil pressure/ clock/ water temp.
