A comprehensive restoration returned this 1926 Pontiac to its glory days

Billy Durant may have created General Motors, but it was Alfred Sloan who made it the corporate powerhouse it became. At the heart of the Sloan conception of GM was the idea of "a car for every purse and purpose." The divisional structure at GM was intended to push one up the corporate hierarchy as one's means increased—when you worked in the mailroom, you drove a Chevrolet; by the time you made it to the boardroom, you owned a Cadillac.

The trouble was, back in the mid-1920s, there were some pretty significant holes in the GM lineup, including a big one between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. Another gap existed between Olds and Buick, and a larger one came between Buick and Cadillac. A 1925 ad illustrates the issue. "General Motors," it said, "offers 46 types of open and closed cars, ranging in price from $525 to $4,485." It then went on to mention Chevrolet models from $525 to $775; Oldsmobiles from $875 to $1,115; Oaklands from $975 to $1,295; Buicks from $1,125 to $1,995; and Cadillacs from $2,995 to $4,485.

To deal with those holes, without badly disrupting the status quo, the corporation introduced its companion makes: La Salle, Viking, Marquette, and Pontiac. La Salle bowed for 1927 and was priced at $2,495 to $4,700. The V-8 powered Viking came out for 1929, with a factory price of $1,595 for any body style. Marquette was the latecomer: Its models, priced $990-$1,060, were available only for 1930.

Viking and Marquette, which were paired with Oldsmobile and Buick respectively, didn't last long at all. Both were discontinued after 1930, wiped out in the first dip of the Great Depression. La Salle, a kind of junior Cadillac, did well enough to hold on through 1940 (and persisted long enough to be considered for a revival in the '60s, before being name-checked in the theme song to All in the Family), but the lasting member of the quartet was Pontiac—which outlived its parent, Oakland, entirely.

Modern enthusiasts are most familiar with Pontiac's post- 1954 offerings, thanks to Bunkie Knudsen's dramatic reimagining of the moribund marque as a performance division. Pontiac would never have made it out of the 1930s, however, if it hadn't had a lot to offer to buyers looking to move up from Chevrolet but not quite ready for even the cheapest Oldsmobile.

Perhaps the secret of Pontiac's success was its early debut. It was the first companion make to arrive when it came out for 1926, and it offered only two body styles initially—a two-door coach (sedan) and a coupe, both priced at $825. The Fisher bodies were very similar to their Chevrolet counterparts, but Pontiac offered a 40-hp flathead six-cylinder and a 110-inch wheelbase, versus Chevy's $645 Superior V coupe with a 26-hp OHV four and 103-inch wheelbase. It was quite an upgrade for $180 (about $2,700, adjusted for inflation).

The most striking feature of the Pontiac engine—a fresh design from the engineers at Oakland with a block cast by Campbell, Wyant, and Cannon, in Muskegon, Michigan—was its split cylinder head. Although the six was of an inline configuration, it actually wore two heads—each covering a trio of cylinders. In the small middle gap was the distributor, which could be removed without disturbing the heads and vice versa. Easy head removal was a key feature in the mid- to late-1920s, thanks to the era's terrible gasoline quality and the need to frequently scrape carbon buildup from combustion chambers.

The split-head six displaced 186.5-cu.in., courtesy of a 3¼-inch bore and a 3¾-inch stroke. It developed its 40 horsepower at 2,600 rpm, thanks to 4.8:1 compression. The critical specifications of the Pontiac engine would remain identical until the 1929 model year, when its displacement was increased to 200-cu.in. and output jumped to 60 horsepower. Along the way, some GMC trucks also utilized the design.

Aside from the longer wheelbase, the 40-hp Pontiac brings to mind Ford's Model A. A coupe like this one weighs 2,270 pounds, while a 1928 Ford Model A coupe with a rumble seat weighs a comparable 2,265 pounds, suggesting that it shares the A's renowned acceleration while simultaneously offering a more comfortable ride.

It takes 14 yards of fabric to cover the interior. Luckily, Helen Reinhold was able to source 17 yards of the correct material from an upholsterer going out of business. The horn button is one of the few reproduction parts on the car.

Unfortunately, one rarely sees 1920s Pontiacs today. That is partially attributable to their relatively small production numbers: Only 42,000 or so of the earliest-design Pontiacs were constructed, and when the "1926½" cars built between August 1926 and January 1927 are included, the number jumps to 207,553. Compare that with more that 500,000 Ford coupes produced between late 1927 and early 1932.

James Martin, the owner of our feature car and the driving force behind its restoration, also points at low survival numbers as a big factor. "As best we can tell, there are fewer than 50 1926 Pontiacs existing today. I've been able to identify about 33 that are currently, or were formerly, registered with the AACA and Pontiac- Oakland Club International."

It was through the POCI that James found this car, which had been advertised in the club's publication, Smoke Signals. The seller, Glenn Kundell, was the son of a St. Helens, Oregon, Pontiac dealer. Glenn's father had purchased the car in 1950, in Portland, and had displayed it in the showroom to celebrate the division's Silver Anniversary and show how far cars had come in that time.

Considering the scarcity of first-year Pontiacs, James' find was remarkably intact. "The car was about 90 percent complete," he recalls. "It had some superficial rust. The floorboards were warped from age, but the wood in the Fisher Body was in excellent condition because the car was stored under cover from 1986 until I purchased it in 2003. It had one hand-applied brown coat of paint; the rubber top had been replaced by a cloth top. The corduroy interior was dirty and brown from age."

Before embarking on a restoration, James carefully evaluated what he had. The brown paint, applied directly over the original Sage Green, had actually preserved a great deal of information— most notably the factory-applied Faerie Red pinstripes.

"The original striping was apparent when the car was placed in the sun. Prior to stripping the paint (using industrial paint stripper), the car was put in the sun and the striping traced. Measurements and photos, along with original factory materials, were used to document the correct location of stripes."

The missing horn and starter were tracked down and restored but the bracket attaching horn to engine was fabricated. A tool set had to be tracked down one piece at a time. It consists of (clockwise from left) owner's manuals, tappet wrenches (straight and 30-degree), rim wrench, starting crank, jack, DOT lubrication gun, tire pump, spark plug wrench, and hub cap wrench.

The missing pieces were, perhaps, the most challenging aspect of the restoration. To complete the car, James needed to track down the horn and its bracket, four hub covers, the starter, the chassis oilers, the tool kit (a jack and its handle, a grease gun, tappet wrenches, a screwdriver, a hub-and-spark-plug wrench, and a tire pump), a window crank, the carburetor, and a correct battery. To aid him in this search, he enlisted Reinhold's Restoration. The 80-plus-year-old proprietor, Richard Reinhold, personally worked on much of the restoration himself, aided by his sons and a daughter.

Most of what was on the car was reconditioned rather than replaced, though some pieces, like the original horn button and the bracket attaching the horn to the engine block, had to be reproduced. The bracket was a relatively simple matter of metal fabrication, but the horn button comes from the new, high-tech friend of the restorer: a 3D printer.

Sheer good fortune also played a role, as James relates: "The car came to me with grease Zerk fittings. However, the first-edition Pontiac Six Repair Parts List specifies 23 DOT chassis oilers of five different design configurations. Where to find them? As dumb luck would have it, my brother and I were at Hershey, and during a rainstorm ducked under a vendor tent to stay dry. Unbelievably, a plastic bag of over 50 oilers was on the bench. I purchased them immediately."

Similarly, the missing trunk lock came up as an incidental aside with the man who repaired the original ignition switch. As it turned out, he had one available.

All this effort paid off, and the restoration process, which took from 2004 to 2008, created an incredible example of the first Pontiac. The car made its debut at the 2008 Fall Hershey AACA Show, where it earned its First Junior Award, the first of many it has racked up over the ensuing years.

Owner's View

I've always been a fan of '20s and '30s GM cars and trucks. Growing up on a farm in rural southeastern Pennsylvania, my father always talked about cars of this era and collected lots of items related to the period. The old-car interest and itch rubbed off and has stuck with me. Dad favored Fords, but I do remember him talking about how efficient Oaklands were at hill-climbing events. Today, most people connect Pontiac only to the great performance cars of the '50s and '60s. Few know the history of how Pontiac got to its heyday. I get a lot of pleasure watching folks' expressions when they learn this is the first year for Pontiac.

The original Faerie Red pinstripes telegraphed through the brushed-on repaint, especially in direct sun. To ensure that they were reproduced properly, the car was rolled into the open and their location was carefully recorded before paint stripping began.

Linseed oil was used to dissolve the brown paint to confirm the original color, just one of several clues indicating this car was produced before August 1926. All of the earliest 1926 Pontiac coupes were finished in Sage Green Duco Lacquer from DuPont.

The only chassis parts destined for replacement were seals, bearings, brake linings, tires and tubes, and the DOT chassis oilers. Those were among the most difficult of the missing pieces to source, as they had all been switched to Zerk fittings.

The 1926-vintage 12-gallon fuel tank was so full of holes as to be beyond repair. Reinhold's Restoration contracted with a local craftsman to fabricate a new one from scratch. The original filler neck and fuel level gauge assemblies were reused.

A Harrison-built "honeycomb" cellular radiator was original equipment on the Pontiac, but the design is difficult to clean and repair. James sent it off to be rebuilt using the original top and bottom tanks and a fresh core of the correct design.

Low survival rates of pre-1936 GM vehicles are often attributed to the wood framing inside the Fisher bodies—when that goes, it usually takes the rest of the car with it. Luckily, this Pontiac had been carefully stored and the wood was largely fine.

The channel-section frame with its three crossmembers was stripped of all other components and refinished to provide a suitable basis for rebuilding the rest of the car. Although nearly 80 years old, it required no straightening or crack repair.

New connecting rods and aluminum pistons were sourced from Egge Machine Company to replace the original semi-steel cast pistons and drop-forged rods. Remarkably, a replacement starter was located in a junkyard near Junction City, Kansas, and rebuilt locally.

The advantage of such a thorough teardown and rebuild is that every component can be treated to complete rehabilitation. This spread shows refinished pieces from the engine and transmission. Martin Senour automotive paint products were used throughout.

Twelve-spoke artillery wheels are typical of the mid-1920s. The natural-wood spokes were trendy at the time. Original tires were 4.75-20 from U.S. Tire, Kelly-Springfield, or Ajax. During restoration, Firestones of the correct size were substituted.

As the companion make to Oakland, Pontiac was named not only for the historic Native American leader, but for the city in Michigan that was both the seat of Oakland County and the location of the marque's factory. Pontiac radiator mascots are coveted.

The assembled chassis shows the level of hidden detail that goes into a thorough and correct restoration. Note the "split" head on the 40-hp, 186.5-cu.in. six-cylinder engine, which introduced several economies of manufacture and simplified maintenance.