Untitled

Pete's 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ

Photos page # 1

Photos page # 2

Photos page # 3

Photos page # 4

Photos page # 5

This is actually my second 72 Grand Prix. The first one I had for almost 30 years and had taken it apart to restore it. However life got in the way and shortage of funds made it a tough go. A few years After I moved to Edmonton I managed to find this 72 Grand Prix { pictured above } and the price was very right!!!!, I couldn't refuse it so I bought it.

This one was a Model J and my last one was a Model SJ, it was a plain jane car with only power steering and power rear window defoger, and nothing more than a split bench seat. It did have a 455ci originally but someone replaced the motor and they put a 1974 455ci block and heads. I had it rebuilt after I tore the car apart . It had a speedometer that went up to 140 Miles Per Hour,

Well, I needed to make a decision and came to the conclusion that I would take the best out of the 2 cars and make one good one. { not that this one really needed much work } I took all of the SJ options and put them into this GP, I just haven't installed the 250HP 455ci engine yet Currently has an all original 250HP 400ci motor that seems to be really strong and reliable. I may not swap the engine out and just sell the 455.

I have a vinyl top for it, as it had one originally and I have one that I bought for the old GP, the problem is that the guy I got this car from decided to use a grinder to grind off the pins for the stainless trim that connects to them and hides the edges of the vinyl top, he then tried to put bondo on it and there are a ton of grinder marks on it that will need to be addressed and some parts of it re-painted. I did manage to find and order replacement pins but they are a screw in type and will need sealing to install them.

I converted the whole car to LED lighting except the front signal/park lights, this included all the interior bulbs in the dash as well as all of the courtesy lights, all tail lights and backup lights where changed to LED as well, I also installed a third brake light on the inside of the back window and Day Time Running Lights juast to bring it up to date.

I added blue accent lighting under the dash and front Bucket seats, Installed 4 LED stip lights into the trunk and attached them to the trunk light switch.

The trunk release was from the old Grand Prix and I installed the wireing as needed and the stock push button switch for it into the console glove box, also ran a set for the new speakers, including a sub wire set.

I added a pair of Ghost Lights , one into each door so that when you open the door it shines the Pontiac Logo onto the ground.

The 2 bumpers and the grills from the old Grand prix were re-chromed and so far I only have the rear one installed, will install the front one in the spring.

I will try and fabricate a new licence plate surround piece, they want almost 400 dollars for a replacement plastic one.

The tail lights where refurbished by myself including the reflective inside. I polished up the lenses and painted them as close to stock that I could.

The story so far:

There is a lot of things I would like to do with it, Unfortunately my health says otherwise, I'm limited to what I can do since there isn't anyone to help me do any of this.

I bought a small Bluetooth receiver and a small power amplifier, custom installed it into the center console. Covered some interior parts with 5D Carbon Fiber Vinyl.

Oh Ya, I almost forgot..........the front windshield was leaking from all over the place and I had a new one put in, the corners of the dash were rusting so needless to say I had a lot of surface rust to clean up and prep for the new windshield.

Since I had the console out I took the shifter out and tore it apart to clean and re-grease it, moves a hell of a lot easier now.

I removed the original power steering pump and gearbox and rebuilt them both, just haven't installed them yet, I'm hoping to do that as soon as it warms up some and have someone to give me a hand with them. At the same time I will be replacing the water pump since it decided to start leaking from the weaping hole..... better now that later when everything is back together. While I'm at it i need to replace one stupid little o ring gasget that goes from the intake manifold to the water pump, of course you have to remove the whole intake manifold just to replace that one little gasget, that also means new intake gasgets and the usual headaches that go with it.

Ended up replacing the master cylinder last year, it was leaking out the back since the day I got the car, now, having turned a Mac's convieniance store into a drive through once before, I wasn't taking any chances of that happening to me again. I've got one brake line bled and still have 3 more to do, kind of hard by yourself lol.

One good thing is that someone in Norway is buying my old front bumper as soon as I can get it off the car. I'll have to crate it up for shipping, he's arranging the shipping and pickup by the shipping company when I'm ready.

I will update this as soon as I can......so stay tuned.......