1926 Pontiac Hill Climber - The Original High Performance Pontiac?

Part II: Owning and driving a vintage racerPart I (August 2003) of this story covered the racing exploits of "Hill Climber." For Part II, we will discuss life in a modern world with a vintage Pontiac. One of owner Arnold Landvoigt's first dilemmas was how to restore the Pontiac. Should it be returned to period correct? Or, should it be restored to museum quality by using modern methods to improve upon what Pontiac and Willoughby, (the nationally-known coachbuilder based in East Utica, New York, that built the custom body) had created? Here is Landvoigt's take on the situation, "There was some debate in the AACA [Antique Automobile Club of America]-should it be restored to its racing glory days, or should I leave and preserve what was there? I believe that cars should be driven; they have no function or value if they can't do what they're supposed to be doing. Maybe it wouldn't be raced again, but it should be out and driven enthusiastically to let people see, hear and feel it running and driving. Some of the wood in the chassis was rotten, and if I was ever going to drive this car at all, it had to be restored to get new wood in there. At the same time, I wanted to avoid over-restoring. I mean, it would be criminal to take some of the dents out-they're part of the history of the car!"

Arnold was forthright with pointing out those imperfections, too. "The honeycomb in the radiator is too small," he told us, "but it's the third one I had made for it, and at least it fits the grille shell." We were just amazed to see that the earliest Pontiacs, with which we have admittedly had little experience, carried the honeycomb design feature through the years, to the taillights of the '02 Trans Am. Landvoigt maintains two radiator caps-the Indian head for show, a plainer one for go. The wooden rims look fantastic (though driving on them is another matter, as you'll discover shortly), but three of the four wheel centers are a little crinkled. "Have you ever tried to find '26 Pontiac hubcaps?" asks Landvoigt. (Newly re-wired 21-inch Buffalo wire wheels will be coming soon, not the least of which to aid driveability.) The grille shell is rumpled and hammered out on one side, the result of an incident that occurred during Hill Climber's days on the active circuit (Landvoigt: "The AACA deducts points every time I show it, but it's the history of the car! What am I supposed to do?") The license plate, though era-correct, wasn't ever on this car until Landvoigt installed it. And he also added a '20s-era temp gauge: "I gotta know what's going on in there."

The friction tape on the shifter dates back to the '20s-it's worn and shiny, and the friction is long since gone, but it's the original stuff. "That, to me, is magic," says Landvoigt. The rest of the shaft, once pitted with surface rust, was restored to like-new glory without removing the 80 year-old tape. Original bright white paint was uncovered by Arnold after some careful sanding with 600-grit paper. He also discovered that the original lettering had been sanded off prior to the application of the blue-green paint scheme, which it wore when he bought Hill Climber. Once painted, he had Roger Nelson of Onley, Maryland, redo the letters in a vintage single-stroke technique-the letters haven't been outlined and sprayed in, each letter on the car is a single brush stroke, the preferred technique back in the day. The odometer reads 22,450 original miles.