VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION New User Forum 37 Pontiac

Good Morning. I just purchased a 1937 Pontiac 4 Dr Deluxe 8 Touring Sedan and am in the process of searching for restoration resources and expertise. This was a barn find and the interior has made thousands of mice a good home. It seems to be complete from bumper to bumper but it has some bumps and dings. The first thing I'm looking for is the right tail light assembly. Thanks in advance for your help and pointing me in the right direction.

Welcome to the Chatsite of the VCCA, Geargeezer. I'm not sure how many Pontiac experts there are around here, but we'll do the best we can to help you out. First off, we may need a little more info... like where was your car built. Canadian built Pontiac's are very different than American built ones, and share a lot of parts with the Chevrolet's of the same year. If that's your case,there may be a lot of help here. If not, give this site a crack... I know it's Canadian, but I believe there are also a lot of American built cars on it as well...

http://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/

Thanks Brewster! I'm pretty sure it's a USA car. The plate on the firewall shows the following.
Pontiac Motor Co., Pontiac Mich. Style No. 37-2819, Body No. 19522, Trim No. 43-V, Paint No. 8, Body by Fisher.
From reading as many forums as I can, like you said, many Chevy and Pontiac parts were interchangeable.

There are almost no parts on a 1937 Pontiac that interchange with any Chevrolet. The few little things that would be the same would be like some of the minor generator and starter parts.
In 1936 the transmission and differential parts were shared with Chevrolet and the enclosed knee-actions were almost the same . The general body hardware was the same and the bodies looked the same but actual sheet metal was different for the most part.
In 1937 Pontiac was all new and shared drive line and suspension parts with Oldsmobile and also the small Buick to some degree. Chevrolet was all new for 1937 with its own transmission and drive train. Cherolet had a general weight reduction in 1937 and the 1937 and 1938 Chevrolet bodies were not shared with Pontiac.
37-2819=8 cyl 4 door touring sedan (trunk back)
trim # =tan mixture pattern cloth
paint 38 =black with red srtipe.

I would suggest contacting the National Pontiac Club.

Thank you for the information. I will contact them.

I recently strayed from the straight and narrow and bought a 36 Pontiac Deluxe 8 Business Coupe. I joined the Pontiac Oakland Club International (poci.org), hoping it would be as good a source of info and parts sources as the VCCA is for Chevrolets, but soon discovered that the POCI is primarily focused on muscle cars--GTO, Firebird, etc. There is, however, a branch of the club, the Early Times Chapter, dedicated to the flathead cars prior to 1955. They have their own publication and hopefully will be a help in keeping my new Pontiac going.

My interest in old Chevrolets (and now Pontiacs) is in driving them lots of miles on the open road. Because of the ready availabilty of parts, NOS, NORS, and used, the Chevrolets are easier to maintain, and I intend to keep my 37 and 40 pickups. The Pontiac looks like it will be much more of a challenge. While my new 36 has been "restored", they kind of forgot to do the engine, and I'm going to be needing pistons, rings, valves, bearings, etc. Unfortunately, the 35 and 36 are mostly orphans within the Pontiac brand with respect to parts interchangability with other model years. It looks like the 37 shares lots of parts with later year Pontiacs, so you should have an easier time of finding what you need. Good Luck.

Mark

Thank you Mark. There is a web site called California Pontiac Restoration that has quite a inventory of parts. AJ