Do you remember the '62 Catalina...
Do you remember the '62 Catalina Bubbletop from back in the day? If so, you better double-check your memory. Pontiac never made one! This one-of-none example (actually, two were built) was created in 2007 by Don Blind and David Greene (Greene's Classic Cars) of Lenoir City, Tennessee.
For '61, Pontiac introduced American car buyers to a brand-new, sporty-looking hardtop featuring the third year of the Bubbletop, which it made available on its postless two-door Catalinas, Venturas, and Bonnevilles. For reasons attributed to GM Director of Styling Bill Mitchell's desire to move GM brands to a new-for-the-'60s flat-roof, the '61 Pontiac Bubbletop was the last iteration that, in retrospect, is considered by many Poncho purists to be one of the most significant and awe-inspiring classic cars of all time.
Unlike Chevrolet, which continued to produce '62 Bubbletops in its Bel Air and Impala lines, every '62 full-size Pontiac featured a fresh-design multiplane roof with a convertible appearance. That makes finding a '62 Pontiac Bubbletop coupe impossible-or does it?
If you've been to any of the national Pontiac shows over the last four years, you may have seen a Starlight Black '62 Catalina Bubbletop or a similar-looking Cameo White Nostalgia Super Stock '62 Catalina Bubbletop, and wondered, "Did Pontiac build these beauties or did somebody else?"
Here's their story: Both '62s were converted by the team of David Greene (Greene's Classic Cars) and Don Blind of Lenoir City, Tennessee. We saw Don's Cameo White '62 Catalina at the '09 Ames Performance Tri-Power Pontiac Nationals and asked him how both cars came about.
"We started our first '62 Pontiac Catalina Bubbletop conversion in 2006," Don says. "People had asked us for years: 'Why didn't Pontiac get a Bubbletop in '62? Chevrolet had them, but why not Pontiac?'
 It features a real 421 SD...  It features a real 421 SD block with 421 H.O. heads supplied and built by Jim Taylor Engine Service of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and upgraded
with two Edelbrock 500-cfm carbs mounted to a vintage Offenhauser 2x4 aluminum intake. Jim estimates the Pure Pontiac engine to put 495 hp at the crank. |  Don took an active role in...  Don took an active role in building this Nostalgia Super Stock show car. Even though it has yet to be raced on a quarter-mile track, he enjoys testing its temper by firmly planting his right foot on the go-pedal. |  Pontiac racers often installed...  Pontiac racers often installed factory Super-Duty hoodscoops onto their rides back in the early '60s, even if their cars weren't SDs. Pontiac sourced the pieces from Ford. N.O.S. examples, like this one, are still easy to come by today. |
"After hearing the question so many times that we got sick of it, we came up with the idea of converting a '62 Pontiac into a Bubbletop. We saw one such conversion in a magazine. Then we compared the rooflines, A-pillars, support structures, sheetmetal, and glass of both cars and figured we could graft a '61 Bubbletop roof onto a '62 Catalina, too. The dimensions looked like they would line up, so we decided to give it a go," Don says.
"It wasn't as easy as just removing the '61 roof section and welding it on the '62," David, who gets credit for the majority of the fabrication, continues. "We also had to change over everything that remotely came into contact with the '61 roof section-that included using all the inner sheetmetal from the door posts to the rear of the back seat, to allow the changing of the rear side glass and window regulators, the rear-seat bracing, and the trunk-to-rear-glass sheetmetal from the donor car."
Since Fisher Body stamped Bubbletop body shells for Pontiac, Chevrolet, Olds-mobile, and Buick, the men didn't have to chop up another Pontiac to deliver their dream. "The Chevrolet roof section works just fine," Don says.
Their first Bubbletop took hundreds of hours of fabrication work, plus the typical amount of time, labor, and materials you'd expect for a frame-on restoration. When it was completed, "It was unbelievable to see the '61 Bubbletop on the '62 Catalina," Don says.
One year later, Don saw the historically significant '62 Packer Pontiac 421 SD Catalina at a Mecum Auction and the idea came to him to build another '62 Bubbletop; this one would be a Nostalgia Super Stock show car so accurate in its detail that you'd think it had come right from the Pontiac special-projects department for '62. He went back to David and asked him if he'd get involved in the project.
"He was happy to come onboard," Don recalls. "The response to our first '62 Bubbletop was overwhelming; it was easy to get him to pick up the torch-literally-for another one."
 David Greene carefully cut...  David Greene carefully cut out the opening for the SD hoodscoop and molded in a household A/C return duct, which uses a replaceable paper filter. The design may be unusual, but it looks great and is functional, too. |  From this view, the '62 Catalina...  From this view, the '62 Catalina coupe shows off how its Bubbletop mates to Pontiac's clean, crisp body lines. The car rides on 15x6 factory steel wheels wrapped in Ranger H78-15 bias-ply and M/T 26x10.5x15 LT cheater slicks. |  One look at the undercarriage...  One look at the undercarriage and it's easy to see the amount of detail Don Blind and partner David Greene put into this Catalina's presentation. |