Are you sure about that, VDC? I own Chevy and Pontiac vehicles from that last decade and have the factory manuals (with body /platform designations) for them and as their chief (only) mechanic, I am fairly familiar with these vehicles.
Trust me, I would not have spent the additional $150+ for manuals if I could have used one to cover more than one vehicle.
That said, if you had mentioned similar characteristics and parts between Pontiac and Buick for that decade, I’d go for that. My Bonneville, for instance, is a LeSabre in wolf’s clothing. CSA
I miss the 1940s through the mid 1960s where the GM makes were truly different. Chevrolet had an OHV inline 6, Pontiac had a flathead 6 and flathead 8, Oldsmobile offered a different flathead 6 and flathead 8 that was different than the Pontiac’s engine. Buick had an overhead valve straight 8 and Cadillac had a flathead V-8. In 1949, Cadillac division introduced an OHV V8 as did Oldsmobile, but these were completely different engines. Buick began offering its “nailhead” OHV V8 in 1953 which was different than the engines of Oldsmobile and Cadillac. In 1955, Chevrolet and Pontiac introduced OHV V8 engines and these engines were different from each other and any other GM OHV V8 engine.
The automatic transmissions differed. The 4 speed Hydramatic that had s fluid coupling rather than a torque converter was available on the Pontiac (1948), Oldsmobile (1940) and Cadillac (1941) while Chevrolet offerrd an automatic transmission that depended on a torque converter PowerGlide (1950) and Buick offered a similar transmission called Dynaflow (1948). The Chevrolet and GMC trucks had different engines. In 1955, the Chevrolet pickup had the optional V8 engine that the Chevrolet cars used while the GMC optional V8 was a version of the Pontiac engine. In the early 1960s, the standard engine in the Chevrolet pickup was an inline 6 while the standard engine in the GMC was.a V6.
As we moved into the 1970s and later, the differences in the nameplates began to disappear and ultimately the different brand names were gone–no more Pontiac or Oldsmobile.
The same thing happened at Chrysler and Ford. I think the lack of differences among the nameplates and the disappearance of the DeSoto, Imperial, Plymouth, Mercury, as well as the GM brands hurt the U.S. manufacturers. The internal as well as the external competition kept these manufacturers in their toes.
Pontiac seemed to be the Guinea pig for weird engineering. Making a huge 4 cyl engine by leaving off one bank of the big block V8 but keeping the massive crankcase, The OHC cam 6, the front engine read drive car with a curved driveshaft and a rear transaxle.
By the way, Pontiac pioneered the stamped rocker arms on pressed in studs that the Chevy small block became famous for. It was GM management that make them share it with Chevy.
If you think the old Silverado bench seat was comfortable, you should experience any 46-54 Chrysler Corp car except the 53-4 Plymouth.
Back in high school, one of my friend was handed the keys to a truck with bench front seat and he took us out to lunch in it. On our way back to school, he took a right turn a little too fast for a truck. Not fast enough to get it on 2 wheels, but fast enough that the 2 of us riding on the couch slid to the left and were pinning him against the driver’s door and he was just hanging on to the wheel. He didn’t release that wheel, the truck kept turning right, rode up a dirt mound on the right and landed on it’s left side.
10 years later, I had to avoid someone who ran a stop sign from the right while I was doing around 40. I pound on the brakes and it was apparent that we weren’t going to stop. But the buckets kept me and my dad in place as I cranked the wheel left and right trying to find a way out. We ended up on the wrong side of the road but didn’t hit a thing. The seat belts, the seats themselves, and the stability control did their job.
Another story that I have is not safety related. At our last job, my last company offered a shuttle (it was a ford transit with a 5 speed stick) from the train station to the factory. I was at the front seat waiting for the ride to leave until the last guy who was about as tall as me showed up. So I took the center front seat and off we went…for about a block. My knee was blocking the shifter and the van could only go into first and third. The driver asked one of the shorter females to trade seats with me but those managers and directors were too special to listen to the lowly shuttle driver. So off we went again, using only 1st and 3rd.
So I gotta ask, what is so great about a couch like bench seat?
You girlfriend could snuggle right up to you. Life isn’t ALL about cars!
The shift lever on the column was made for bench seats and every regular sedan used to seat 6 people. I drove like the wind in those 40s cars and never once lost control because of the lack of a bucket seat. Those old cars handled a lot better if you accelerated into the turns to transfer some weight to the rear because they were all nose heavy, yet rear wheel drive.
Front drive is better for winter traction, space efficiency, fuel mileage etc. but rear drive is a lot more fun, especially on dirt or in the winter/
Just thought of a couple more. An exterior full width sun visor. they not only kept the sun out of your eyes but kept the interior cooler. That coupled with flow through ventilation made A/C unnecessary in my part of the country. If you were tall like me, you needed the small prism on the dash that showed you the traffic light.
The pass forward mirror. Great for passing on two lane roads. It had an outboard mirror 6’-8" outside the drivers window facing forward and a rear facing mirror just outside the glass that gave you a view down the road around the car in front of you. It worked like a sideways periscope.
Have you noticed that people get upset these days if you pass them on a two lane road. They act like you are doing something illegal even though they are going 10 mph under the speed limit.
Not so in Texas @oldtimer-11. Two lane highways there have a passing lane paved on long inclines. The highway is widened with the shoulder paved and slower moving vehicles will actually move to the right to let you pass and the drivers don’t need to be prompted. If they see you approaching from the rear they just signal and move over. It’s a big state and I have preferred to avoid Dallas-Ft Worth and Houston traffic and saved some time and grief taking farm roads. The GPSs demand traveling Interstates to get from Austin to Shreveport but Hiway 79 is a much more pleasant drive.
I miss the windshields that opened from the bottom as it did on my grandfather’s 1938 Ford. I also liked the windshield wipers that were suspended from the top of the windshield and driven by separate motors. There was no linkage to break. Also, one could just run the left wiper. If that motor wore out, it could be swapped with the right wiper motor.
Also, these were the original interval wipers. They were powered by engine vacuum and the driver controlled the interval they wiped the windshield by letting up on the accelerator.
Yes, but…
I distinctly recall riding in my brother’s '54 Ford, which was equipped with vacuum-powered wipers.
We were driving up the road that clings to the side of NY’s Storm King Mountain when a torrential rain storm started. The steep nature of that narrow, unlighted, curving road made it impossible to let up on the gas, and we were driving blind for much of that climb. And–no–we couldn’t pull over because there were no shoulders!
I haven’t been on the Storm King road for several decades, but I assume that they must have improved it, hopefully to the extent of widening it and installing shoulders.
I think so, too, but for the benefit of the younger forum members who have never experienced the “joys” of vacuum-powered wipers, I thought that I would provide some reality.
We have a lot of areas like that in t he White mountains…and it’s extremely RARE for slower traffic to move over. I’ve driven in the right lane passing vehicles in the left two lanes doing 10-20 mph BELOW the speed limit. It’s extremely annoying.
@texases@VOLVO_V70@VDCdriver
Yes, I was joking about vacuum wipers. The school buses that I had to ride to school had vacuum wipers. One bus was a Wayne body on a 1939 GMC chassis and the other was a Superior body on a 1946 Chevrolet chassis. On both buses, when it rained, we would almost get motion sickness as the drivers would have to keep letting up on the accelerator to make the wipers clear the windshield.
I think back in the day, vehicles had generators as opposed to alternators. When the vehicles were idling, the generator couldn’t supply enough power to charge the battery. Some cars had a vacuum booster on the fuel pump which did keep the wipers moving under acceleration. This may be why vacuum wipers were used so that the electric draw on the generator would not be as great.
