You won't find this custom...
You won't find this custom blue Tri-Tone Morrokide interior in any of Pontiac's '62 dealer albums or order forms, or on any other '62 Pontiac for that matter. Just like the never-produced-for-the-model-year Bubbletop, Pontiac never made this interior-trim choice. You could have fooled us! Notice the Hurst shifter and white shifter ball, which take the place of a column-mounted shifter.
The men sourced a rust-free Cameo White 389/two-barrel, column-shift-automatic Catalina from eBay, along with two junkyard '61 Chevrolet Bubbletops. Then David got to work. He removed the roof section and other necessary donor metal for the conversion in one piece from a Chevy and butt-welded it up to the roofless Catalina. After the transplanted metal was installed, David prepared the body shell with PPG DP epoxy primer, K200 filler, and PPG DP epoxy primer/sealer. He applied PPG Delstar Acrylic Enamel and PPG 2002 concept clear, followed by wet-sanding with progressive grits from 1,500-2,500 and 3M Perfect-It II polishing.
Custom vintage-style decals came next, giving the Bubbletop the genuine appearance of a period-correct Super Stock race car. Along the way, he also installed an SD hoodscoop, which he made functional by carefully cutting out its dimensions into the interior of the hood and molding in a custom air pass-through system.
"Underneath the hood and in the cabin, the car had to look like it was a performer, too," David tells us. "We upgraded its original two-barrel with a M/T Cross Ram intake with two 500-cfm Carter carbs, and converted the column-shift to a floor-shifted Borg Warner T10 four-speed." To facilitate the changeover, he cut the crossmember into three pieces and added two 4-inch, square tubes through which he could route the exhaust. He custom-built a shortened steel driveshaft and mated it to the Catalina's original rearend, which he upgraded with 4.56 rear gears and an Auburn posi unit. Finally, he cut and filled the steering column to remove the shifter hole and filled the dash shift-indicator with a piece of chrome trim. The pedals and Z-bar are aftermarket.
An original Pontiac-logo tachometer...
An original Pontiac-logo tachometer housing mounts on the driver-side A-pillar. It features an aftermarket gauge inside of it.
Interior work was sourced to CJ's Upholstery in Greenback, Tennessee, which replaced the original code-226 Light Blue interior with a custom blue/white Tri-Tone Morrokide design that looks like a bona fide factory option, but is entirely custom, with matching door panels and painted dash.
The suspension is mostly stock, with a factory power-steering setup replacing the manual-steering box; OEM replacement shocks, springs, and bushings (front/rear); and 1.125-inch and 0.75-inch sway bars, respectively.
This Catalina received enormous positive public reaction at Virginia Motorsports Park's Pontiacs in the Park and Norwalk, both in 2008, but the most common reaction was: "You've done everything else to it, when will you put in a 421 SD engine?"
Later that year, Don decided to rectify the criticism leveled at his Pontiac and locate an authentic 421 SD. He was referred to Jim Taylor Engine Service of Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where HPP contributor Jim Taylor promised to provide an ultra-rare 421 Super-Duty service-replacement block (code SRD 13U) under the condition that the engine go into the '62 Catalina Bubbletop only.
Jim offered to have his shop build the engine. Starting with the No. 544988 limited-production four-bolt main block, shop engine-builder Mark Erney stuffed it with a '63 short-snout, stock 4.00-inch-stroke Armasteel 421 crankshaft; 6.625-inch Crower Sportsman forged 4340-steel rods; and KB 4.15-inch pistons (0.057-over, 10cc dish). Jim supplied the vintage heads, too: a set of '63 421 H.O. No. 9770716 heads ("716"), which Mark ported extensively, then filling the exhaust crossover with aluminum, and replacing the factory press-in studs with ARP screw-in rocker studs, before installing Manley custom stainless-steel 1.92/1.66 valves, Melling pushrods, and Harland Sharp 1.5:1 roller rockers.
Jim hand-picked one of his in-house brand's off-the-shelf cams for the buildup-a TFX Cams solid-lifter grind, with 248/248-degrees duration at 0.050 and 0.525/0.525-inch lift with a 108-degree lobe separation angle.