Peter Barwick’s Pontiac 2+2 Catalina Convertible

Earlier this month Peter Barwick stopped by the OPGI showroom to pick up a convertible slide rail for his Pontiac. After speaking with Peter we came to find out that this vehicle was one of one, made special for a GM executive and originally finished in a 1965 Cadillac color!

“I first heard of this 1965 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 convertible in January 2015 through Les Kasten at Pontiac Paradise. I had just bought a 1965 2+2 hardtop project car from Frank’s Pontiac Parts in 29 Palms, California. It was missing the 421 engine and I saw an ad that Les had listed a 421 engine for sale. We got to talking about this project and it had an interesting story…which is always a good thing when buying a car. After doing a little research I did a deal to trade the ’65 hardtop I’d just bought plus some cash for the convertible.
As far as history on the convertible goes, we know it was delivered new to Taber Pontiac Inc in Atlanta, Georgia. Les mentioned it was supposed to go to Alabama but was delivered to Atlanta by mistake. Anyway, it remained in Alabama until about 2010.

When I first saw the car it was a  teal color with a black interior and white top. Too much bondo, the wrong bucket seats. A big project…but I’m not one to shy away from a project, and so began the long journey of restoring the car. Les recommended Bruce Tschida from Lake Marion Collision in Lakeville, MN. Bruce did an amazing job of restoring the car, Les helped find and source the hard to find parts, he also raided his own collection of parts for anything that is impossible to find these days.

It had so many options, fully loaded with a 338 horse 421, 4bbl, Turbo 3 speed 400 trans, factory air Comfortron (super rare in any full-sized Pontiac), power steering, power brakes, power seat, power trunk, power antenna, a reverb, rear seat speaker, factory buckets and console. The car has been PHS’d and mentions special paint, we didn’t know the exact color until the chrome came off the windshield and the original ‘Samoan Bronze’ was seen for the first time since the car was painted, it turned out to be a ’65 Cadillac color.

The car was media blasted down to the factory metal and it was worse than we had initially thought. I ended up buying a donor car for parts like the rear fenders that nobody remanufactures for the full-size cars. The floors are original but came from a rust-free 4 door spares car that Les was parting out. Over the next few years, I bought parts and trim from OPGI, other suppliers and even other Pontiac owners (via various Facebook Pontiac groups).

It took about 4 years to restore, with a little gap of about 16 months in the middle when the car had to go on hold due to a change of job and I had to move countries. The car was finished in June 2019 and was taken to the Ames Pontiac show in Norwalk to be shown for the first time. As with any long term restoration still have small things to do, like fitting the original fender skirts, get the AC to work (missing a small seal), fix a couple of small issues with the rebuilt carb when starting in the morning and fit the convertible top boot cover…but where do you stop?

My plan for 2020 is to fix these small issues and use it as much as I can, it’s not just going to be a show car as I plan on using it and enjoying it. It can only get better.” – Peter Barwick.