1951 Pontiac Chieftain
1951 Pontiac Chieftain with the 268 Straight Eight and 3 speed manual transmission. Runs and drives.
This car is very original, never restored. I put a new battery in it this year and over the past 11 years I have recored the radiator, resealed the fuel tank, new sending unit (doesn't read exact) new brakes, wheel cylinders, brake lines, brake hoses, carburetor was rebuilt, new pinion seal and more..
It does leak some motor oil and transmission oil, I always kept a watch on that, but didn't get to fixing those two leaks.
The body is very solid. No rust or patches in the floors, body mounts, doors, trunk or tail pan. It does have minimal rust above the rear wheels and in the left dog leg area.
The paint is mostly all original lacquer. The left front fender appears to have been replaced likely in the 1950's and likely during its police car days (the fender appears to have been white at some time). The previous owner in the 1970s had backed into a pole in a parking lot which pushed the right side of the rear bumper into the quarter panel and he had it fixed at the time and the rear bumper was replaced. The fixed area was repainted at that time. The paint on this car is in poor condition, but cleans and shines up decent and looks good from 20-30ft away. It has specs of surface rust over it, chips and cracking in the original lacquer paint. It needs a good cleaning and buffing again.
The interior is all original and in fair condition for being 75 years old. It has an actual police trim, all imitation leather interior. This was a police trim package option, a special commercial order and unlisted trim code. All sedans otherwise received cloth interior. Quite rare to find one with this interior.
This is a base model car with options not typically seen on a base car. It has a radio, deluxe steering wheel, day/night mirror, traffic light viewer with no visor, windshield washer, signals, chrome headlight bezels, accessory hood ornament, tissue dispenser, defroster and under-seat heater, and more..
This car is a survivor and is a driver, you can drive as is and improve on it as you go, or would be a great candidiate for restoration.
This car was being driven quite a bit with over 17,000 miles put on it since I pulled it out of a barn in 2015. I have not driven it much the past 2 years though. I do occasionally drive it to town still.
This car has been kept in a garage for 50+ years, but I'm not able to keep it inside of my garage due to limited space and I'm having to store it under my carport. It is still out of the weather, but the moisture in the air won't be good for it. That's the main reason I'm listing it for sale.
I do have another 268 straight eight engine I can include with this car. The other engine was rebuilt years ago and has about 20k miles on it. I had it in my daily driver 52 Pontiac, but I'm replacing it with an early Pontiac V8. I put the 20k miles on the rebuilt engine. I also have some other engine parts (intake/exhaust manifold, carburetors, etc..) I could let go with it that I won't need. I also have a set of 4 door shark fin belt moldings if someone would want to add those to this car. (base cars didn't come with them)
$7,500, it's not a must sell. I may consider trades or partial trades on another 50's or older car or truck, must at least run/drive. I have no way to haul anything though so trades would have to come my way.
The car is located at Lookout, West Virginia