Valigrunt Performance

Putting the Muscle back into Classic Cars

New floors and front end for WarSquaw

April 20, 2024

When we were sitting in the 1955 Pontiac 2 door before we stripped the interior the floor under our feet in the front felt a little crunchy.  After removing the rubber matting from the interior we discovered why.  Certain parts of the floor were rusted out and there were large holes, we were essentially driving the Pontiac Flinstones style.  Other then this rust the remainder of the car was in excellent condition, so out came the grinder and out came the front floors.  All of this action can be checked out on episode 3 of Rides Down Under Workshop Wars (on 7 Plus).

As replacement rust repair sections aren’t available for 1955 Pontiac we custom made floor sections out of Galvanised Steel, this way ensuring that these sections will never rust again.  These were fitted then we cleaned all the rust, dirt and insulation off the floor of Warschaw, treated every surface, including down into the sils and roof turrets with an anti-rust solution and then sound deadened the entire interior of the car.  

While I was busy with the floors, Shane was repairing the crack we uncovered in the front end when we cleaned it.  We also needed to rebuild the original King Pin Front end.  As there weren’t any extractors available for early Pontiac blocks Shane was also busy custom making a set of Stainless Steel extractors for WarSquaw and measuring up clearances in the engine bay with another Pontiac block.