My Star Chief story

I bought my 1959 Pontiac Star Chief at Kmart! Seriously I was driving through the Kmart parking lot and it was sitting with an old faded for sale sighn in the front seat. The auto shop next to Kmart worked on it and parked it in the parking lot next to them. I called the owner and he came down and we made the deal for $700.00 When he showed up he jumped in it and smoked the tires in the parking lot. I took her home and spent a whole day buffing the beautiful sunset glow paint. I went and had 4 whitewall tires thrown on it and I just happened to have some old stock 14 inch PMD spoke hubcaps that I had left over from my 67 Firebird so I put them on it. I have to say it turned out pretty good for one days worth of work. Here is a picture right after I finished cleaning it up

You wouldnt belive the people that came up to me and talked to me about the car every time I went in public. One day I was sitting in the park eating lunch and this little black kid come up to me and asks me to "hit the switches" because he thought it had hydraulics in it. He got mad and didn't belive me when I told him it didn't have any "switches"

Funny story the day I got it all cleaned up I was at Chevron filling it up all thinking I was cool standing there with the gas nozzle in the filler and all of a sudden I smell gas really strong and I look down to see a puddle of gas under my feet growing larger So I immediatley shut the pump off and get the hell out of there. The gasket between the filler neck and tank was leaking.

Ok since the day I got it and now my friends and I have had alot of fun in the car. I bought a set of Budnik wheels from my friend Paul and we lowered the car. One night we loaded up in the Chief with about 7 of us. We were cruising through town and Pauls girlfriend said hey my but is hot. I said whatever and went back home. When we got home Were all standing aroung and somoene said hey there is moke coming out of your car so we pulled the seat out and the stuffing was smoking hot from the driveline rubbing the floorboard and cooking the seat lol I guess her butt was hot. A few years later Paul passed away and I havent had the heart to take the wheels off the car. I took this picture Yesterday of the old Chief sitting in my shop.


Do you want to hear the story behind the bent front bumper and right fender? OK one time I was loading it up on my trailer and at the time the brakes were not working and I had installed a 2 barrel carburetor off my friends circle track car......oh yeah I had the typical broken drivers side motor mount.....can you see where this story is going? My roomate was standing on the trailer and two of my other friends were standing around watching along with my girlfriend. Well the bottom of the car got stuck on the trailer and the tourque pinned the throttle wide open. It started smoking the tires right up the trailer and right into the back of my truck. Yes it did smoke the tailgate and bed on my Dodge truck. I just got out and told my roomate. "hey can you get your truck and pull my car out of my effing truck please"

I will post the story about my 59 Catalina when i get some better pictures of her.
I will also post pics of the Star Chief before I did any work to it.

You know what I really love about the Star Chief over the Catalina is the trunk is about 7 inches longer and it has the long Boneville style taillights both wich i think really makes it a sweet looking car. I have a few extra sets of the long taillights and I think I am going to fit them into my Catalina.

I have had quite a few sweet cars and I really enjoy my 59 Pontiacs more than all of them.

Very nice ride! Your Star Chief is painted the way I would like to paint mine. Sunset Glow Poly on the bottom and white (ivory) roof. My 4dr sedan didn't come with the white roof originally but I really like the combo.
I am trying still to determine if my car has sunset glow on it now or not. I dont think it does because I have found what I think is original paint way down low on the firewall behind the brake booster and it has a lot more red in it than the rest of the car. The car seems to have Sunrise Coral on it, as it has been painted once.
Your picture of your Star Chief under the tree shows the hood to have a lot more red in it than the picture in the garage. Is that my imagination? A close up shot of your paint would be helpful if you have the time.
Here is mine.

The sunset glow is cool unique color (I think anyway). I liked it on a Bonneville that I saw a few years ago. I have to say Wydtrac's look's "richer" (that's a good thing) than what I remember on the Bonnie. PS the Wydtrac plates are most fitting!

A close up shot of your paint would be helpful if you have the time.
Here is mine.

I will get some close up shots of my paint and post them

Here is a not so close up of my first time out this spring with it. I usually will take a photo like this and save it to my computer, then zoom in on it with some software or windows. It gives a more accurate depiction of the colors. It still looks like Sunrise Coral to me...but? I had a detailer friend buff and wax it and that really helped the paint a lot. And it cleans up nice too.

I just had the carb rebuilts and started her up for the first time since then. She runs like a champ! Smooth as a babies butt! The new brakes stop straight as an arrow and no leakes in the fuel lines or brake lines that I replaced. We gave her a good bath and took her out for lunch. Got lots of looks on the trip. I have been detailing the underside lately and have three of the four inner fenders done. Will take the gas tank down again to do the underside of that next.
This picture doesnt show the color very well. The drivers side does, but the hood looks darker than it is just like yours did. I will get a better close up tomorrow in the daylight.

Very nice car! and great stories! How long have you had the car? Welcome to the site, I'm glad you have joined the fun!

I bought my Star Chief in May 1994. My ex girlfriend worked with the original owners brother I found out about 5 years ago.

Dang, so you've been into 1959s a while!

$700 !!! Damn!!! Nice ride

Welcome to the site.