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Kicking off our new section...meet "Mosstura",
a name coined by a friend of mine who saw these pictures. This '71
Ventura was discovered on a camping trip by Shawn Shay in WA, who noticed a
faded "for sale" sign still in the window. I really appreciated the chance
he gave me to get these photos...Ro |
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Yup, those are real (not Hollywood)
cobwebs under there. Shawn was busy trying to get the motor to fire
while I tried to stay out of his way. |
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(L) Mosstura's birth certificate is shown here
on the driver's side door. Manufactured in March of 1971.
(R) Looks like the old gal got too hot sometime in her
life. But we couldn't find any internal source of heat to melt the grille
inserts. |
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(L) Moss critters almost completely covered the
"Pontiac" logo on the taillight panel, but the "Ventura II" still stands out
boldly on the front quarters.
(R) Extra cooling tubes on the rear deck for the turbo?...nah, just a
bolt-on, like her twin trailer-towing mirrors. You can see the vinyl
top had been removed at some point, too. |
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(L) A bit of searching by a '75 Ventura owner
turned up some abused vehicles in Canada. Thanks, Adrien!
(R) Here are a few more cars in need of help, from the vast
pontiacventura.com archives (ha-ha) That '78 is a Phoenix, of course. |
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These compilations used to reside in the Olds
Omega section, but they really belong here among their friends.
Actually, at least one of these cars looks worth saving! |
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Shawn
Shay tipped me off about this '76 he found. I chanced to talk to the
owner, who was kind enough to tell me about the car and let me snap these
photos. This relic has the 260 Olds V-8. |
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The car
needs a lot of work. With the driver's window being busted out for a
long time, most of the interior will need to be replaced. Luckily the
floorpan hasn't rusted out yet. But you can see the 'Pontiac' emblem
has rusted right off of the hatch (lower right corner of the lid).
This car could still be saved, but time is running out. |
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(L) Dave
Lanzo (
d_lanzo@hotmail.com ) provided these first shots of his straight but rusty '74 GTO. He
plans to build a fresh GTO using the parts from this car. (R)
An early-model Ventura that had a rather nasty mishap. Courtesy of Jeremy at
72ventura.com This car was from the Chicago area, if memory serves me
right, and looks like it was in nice shape. The owner apparently was
not too hurt to contact Jeremy (whew!) |
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(L) More assorted relics off of the internet.
(R) You may recognize these prized
vehicles from our sales ads... I don't know the fate of the '71, but the '72
was picked up as a parts car by Sam "Marzipan" Farkas who has a
Ventura elsewhere on the site. |
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It's
probably safe to say that this car won't be making a comeback... here to
tell you more is owner John Tribbitt (
jtribbett3@comcast.net ) "(This
is) the latest addition to our family, a 74 parts car which I discovered in
a local junk yard, actually my sweet wife purchased it for me as an early
Christmas present (I am a lucky man), believe it or not there are some
salvageable parts left intact (front disc brakes)..." What a find, and
what a wife! |
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It
looks like the glass and chrome trim might also be worth saving, and that
rear bumper will do just fine for some folks, being a fairly rare item... Be
sure to check out his very cool red GTO on page 10 of the '74 GTO section.
I've had this old Nova pic lounging
on my PC forever, now it has a home. I believe the car is still parked
in the same spot as of Feb04. |
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Texan
Don Seributra was prowling the wrecking yards when he came across this
surprisingly straight '74 Apollo. Thanks Don! |
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Yours
truly spotted the nose of this '75 Omega 4-door jutting out among the debris
of a local towing yard. You always wonder what happens to these cars.
Lucky I carry a small digital camera with me almost everywhere I go
(Konica-Minolta Dimage XG, 3.2 megapixels). |
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(L) That
tarp will definitely 'seal in the freshness', or lead to a ripe-smelling
interior at any rate. I'm keeping an eye on this car as a potential
donor vehicle somewhere down the road for the site's 77x Project Ventura. (R)
Here's one Ventura that is destined to be saved...this is
Jason K's car (see his Scrapbook photos in the '72 section). He had
grafted some '69 vintage hood scoops onto the car before an unexpected
change of plans, but he's getting back to work on the car soon. Those
are the mountains of Utah in the background. |
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You may recall one shot of this relic from our sales ads...it never did come
up for sale, but these photos were too cool to waste. If
you look closely at the sideview, you can see that this car was originally
an attractive deep green color. |
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(R) A weather-beaten
car literally "out to pasture" in New Jersey |
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Chris Murrah ( cbmurrah@kih.net ) had
FOUR Omegas, in various stages of decay. Here's what he's got to say
about this thoroughly-rotted gem:
"The white rust bucket came from northern Indiana, I figured
it must have set next to a salt plant or something. But believe it or not,
it had the biggest bounty of parts. It had mint complete black interior with
bucket seats and console, tinted glass, ac, correct rally wheels and disc
brakes, most of which I am putting on my 73 Omega. It also has a Rocket 350,
but I never fired it." Why is he selling his cars?
"My wife is ready to string me up, so time to move some of
the cars." Good reason. And I thought only Fords could
rust like this...egad! |
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(L)
You know how we love these neglected hulks...the car sitting in the field is
wearing Sprint stripes and appears to be remarkably intact. Of course,
no one will ever tell you where a car like this is hiding, but maybe some
day it will be rescued.
(R)
Correspondent Al (
sailordoode@stny.rr.com ) from New York forwards these scrapbook shots of
some of his former Venturas...
"The first pic is my 72 Ventura, the day we pulled it out of
storage (had stored in that barn a few years, then guy decided to redo the
barn, and we lost space, so wound up parting it out :-(
Sad too, since it was very fixable, and I paid storage on it…
"Last pic is the 75 Ventura Custom while on way to the
crusher. Stripped it pretty good, you can see the rust, holes the size of
my fist in the sides under the landau padding, quarters, floors, all junk.
We did save the rear F41 swaybar, saved the seats which are going into my
(Nova) Medallist once recovered, nice console, dash cluster with gauges,
tinted glass…" |
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This lime GTO is from the Rust Belt, and its survival could be questionable.
This car has joined Joe and Lucille's Canadian Ventura fleet... (see the 74
Ventura and GTO sections) |
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Do you have photos of some neglected X-body vehicles? You can e-mail
them to Roland at
pontiacv@pontiacventura.com and see your name in lights (or pixels)
