Hodge Podge Poncho

FRANKENSTEIN'S PONTIAC

I was driving aimlessly through the furthest reaches of Queens recently when I found myself revisiting the oft-ignored neighborhood of Broad Channel. This out of the way little 'hood is located on an isthmus in Jamaica Bay that connects Howard Beach to the Rockaways. I pulled an egregious u-turn when this beast appeared:

Whoa! This is most likely a 1974 Pontiac Luxury LeMans in various shades of primer. The grill we see here was only for 1 year; in '73 the grill wasn't deeply inset like this one, and in '75 it had the addition of a single horizontal bar in the middle. Upon further inspection however we can see that this car contains bits and pieces from other years and models.

The hood scoop confounded me at first glance. There was an optional hood for this year that had dual scoops set into the hood but there was a space between them of about a foot. Finally after scratching my head and searching I realized this is a 1965-'67 GTO scoop grafted on to a '70s hood. Why not?

This era is known as Colonnade styling from GM (the word means a row of columns supporting a roof). Most of the 2 door Colonnade cars had a large 3/4 window and very thin roof pillars. The Luxury LeMans of '74 and Grand LeMans of '75 had these smaller rear quarter windows. Some models like the GTO and Grand Am had louvered 3/4 windows that are awesome!

The first year of this body style had a pointy rear end. The trunk lid and lower quarter were at steep angles and there was no noticeable bulge for the trunk at all. That pointy styling was polarizing and after '73 Pontiac went to this more conventional look.
*Big shout out to the '75-'79 Chevy Nova 4 door in the driveway.

The trunk lid looks to be the factory color Lakemist Green. The taillight surrounds and rear valance not only look to be the introduced-in-1975 color Arctic Blue, but also from a Grand Am as opposed to Luxury LeMans. The Grand Am taillights from '74-'75 consisted of these 2 vertical lenses on each side in a waterfall design whereas the LeMans had a solid lens on each side. 

That little Pontiac Arrowhead emblem was only on the right side of the trunk for '75. There must be a couple of 1975 parts cars laying around here somewhere!

The wheels are Rally IIs that were standard on the Firebird and Trans Am but optional for other models. Those little metal side mirrors are bogus as all Colonnade Pontiac coupes had body colored aerodynamic versions.

When I'm way off the beaten path I get a bit more nervous about actually placing my phone against the window for an interior shot so this isn't the best. The steering wheel looks more like an Oldsmobile version from this distance though.

This car has so many different donor parts that it could almost be anything really. Maybe it's a '75 with a newer front attached?Looks like a Cameo White front fender made its way home on this side.

That unapologetically massive bumper is '74 or newer.The '73 was big but had turn signals on the sides, not in the middle.

Well that'll about do it for Frankenstein's Pontiac. I love Pontiac styling and feel that GM in general weathered this unfortunate malaise-era better than the other Big 2. Even though it's massive and has guardrail bumpers this car still has a hungry aggression to it. When and if it becomes a single color I'm sure it will turn heads again. Good luck Pontiac!