1951 Pontiac Chieftain

1951 Pontiac Catalina Cheiftain Additional Info:

1951 Pontiac Catalina. Barn find! Been sitting under a cover, in a garage for the past 15 years. Has been cleaned, buffed and brought back to life. Runs and drives beautifully. Has a few blemishes, but definitely no deal breakers. Tempting for me to keep, knowing I may never come across a car this nice again.I ended up finding this car by accident! Through friends of a friend, I came to hear about someone giving away a 25ft toybox trailer that had been sitting untouched, unmaintained, for over 15 years. The only contingency, I had to take the old motorhome sitting next to it also. Ok, no big deal. Only a short several miles away, I pulled up to the house on a 10,000sqft lot, with an RV access on each side. Through the RV accesses, there were car parts, motorcycles, this, that, and the other thing. A Very straight, rust free 1965 thunderbird rest next to the trailer. Turns out, the old lady who lived there, was selling the house and needed to be out in two weeks. Her and her kids had neglected liquidating. So I went to work! Behind the house was a decent sized workshop with two roll up doors. I entered the shop to find her late husbands tools, toys, collectibles and consumables. Most of which they were going to pay someone to take. Behind all these various garage goodies, tucked into the far corner, as close to the wall as possible, a covered vehicle. I only had to lift one side of the cover before I knew to make an offer. The Old widow didn't let it go cheap, she knew what she had. She told me if I didn't give her the price she was asking, the car would be the only thing she took with her when she left. Ok, Deal. She told me her husband was the second owner. He had restored the car a decade or so before it was parked.Ball park 25 year old restoration.Probably just outer paint and reupholstered interior, if I had to guess. On closer inspection, after detailing, the paint on the door jams looks to have been brushed on. Under the hood, its been cleaned up and kept clean. Nothing looks perfect, but does look like how a car thats been driven should.I need to look into the paint codes, but as far as I can tell, besides the obviously missing fuel filter and spare tire, this car has been kept original.No leaking, No drips, Runs strong, smooth. s1244 http