Ok - it NOT a Pontiac,
And It's not a Chevy
It's an Acadian!
Here is a little history lesson:
The Acadian was produced by General Motors of Canada from 1962 to 1971. The Acadian was introduced so that Canadian Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealers would have a compact model to sell, since the Pontiac Tempast was unavailable in Canada. Plans originally called for the Acadian to be based on the Cheverolet Corvair, which was produced at GM's Oshawa plant; however, the concept was moved to the Chevy II platform to be introduced for 1962.
The Acadian was a Division of GM at the level of Chev, Pontiac, Buick etc.
In 1972 Pontiac took over the Acadian.
Acadian went from being is own Division to being a model line of Pontiac's
Initially, Acadians were retrimmed Chevy II's, offered as a base model, mid-priced Invader and top-line Beaumont. While the car used Pontiac styling cues such as a split grille, Acadian was considered a separate make, not a Pontiac model.
For 1964 and 1965, the Beaumont name was moved to a retrimmed version of the intermediate Chevy Chevelle, at which time the name Canso was applied to the top-line compact model,
equivalent of the Nova.
Glove box find - The original owners manuals! 
The word "Pontiac" is not on the Manuals
But Acadian Dealer IS
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For more proof on this subject see page 6
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'64 Acadian
The Acadian is the Canadian cousin to the Chevy Nova.
Most parts are interchangable, only the tail lights (much cooler) the grill (cast aluminum not tin) and some trim is different.
Bought as a rough basket case. Shown is with body work 3/4 done,
Have new metal rear quarter panels yet to go on. Car is a 4-door and came with the rear door handles shaved.
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Now THESE are COOL tail lights!!
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..................CHOICES.................
For wheel choice I have to decide between these old style Center Lines.
Or these '67 SS Nova caps
or maybe these '66 SS caps
Or these caps which would have came with the car originally back in '64 I bought both sets of hubcaps locally on e-bay
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Delivery Day
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The car was originally bought by my nephew as a parts car for his '63 but It was straight and complete and I could see the "diamond in the rough" ok VERY rough.
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Interior
Before
Note the doorpanels - the upper blue vinyl was in perfect condition as well as the doors blue paint.
But the plaid was rotted and had to go.
Replaced the rotted bench seat with some buckets and added some attitude to the door panels.
This was our first attempt and the leppard stayed for 3 years
Door panels redone, blue is 45 years old.
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A pic I like to call...Before, During and After
Interior pic - showing off Classic chrome AM radio and 8-Track player with Tom Jones tape. It's old school! Don't forget to rate this sound system 5 stars under "Overall A/V"
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The "theme" of the car is "Early 60 Custom" I have some period items like this Hula Girl which was a required back window piece. This one has been in my wifes family since the 60's. Under the grass skirt is a spring that allows her to sway with the cars movements - yes I peeked
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Very cool bottle that was found under the hood of GM vehicles back in the early '60's
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Found this like-new compass locally on Ebay. This compass is what was on the dash of a lot of cars back in the day, I can remember one on my Dads car. This, (as I explaned to my son) is the GPS of the 60's. But while GPS is accurate to within 2 meters - this compass is accurate to within 2000 miles! But back then Men Were Men and didn't ask for directions
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Every old s'cool car has to have a "nodder" in the back window,
This one meets the approval of our Spike.
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Grill
A little "Old S'cool" on the grill. The chrome knobs came from my in-law's house they are the kitchen knobs from 1964 - the same year as the car. They replaced them in the 80's and put them in a box, I found them recently and put them on my car. The whole grill weighs 22 pounds
Please ignore the battered white hood, I have a faded black/grey original 40 year-old paint hood that I'll put on after the engine swap ( which I changed again to the perfect gold one when body work started )
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Engine Before
Car came with a mid '70's truck 250ci straight 6 who's only redeeming feature is that it ran. Car had sat literally " behind the barn" for 7 years when my nephew found it, dropped a battery in it and she started, he then drove it 150 miles home!
A V-8 would not have done that
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Engine Pull
Out with the greasy truck engine.
The engine had to come out over the side due to my tiny garage and sloped driveway, If I had pulled it out straight the engine and hoist would have run down the driveway and down the street!
It took some planning to get that LONG 6-banger out and it was even harder to get the new engine AND tranny in from the side without scratching anything! But my son and I we managed to GITTERDONE
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Found a freshly rebuilt 194ci 6, the correct engine for the car.
See the bottom of this page to see the cherry car it came out of.
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And so in went the pretty orange engine. My assistant is Jay my 12 year-old son who is very helpful in getting bolts into tight places that bigger hands don't fit.
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THE ENGINE IS IN!!!
A Lucky Lager can worked just fine as an overflow canister,
But I recently changed it to a Carona bottle so I can keep an eye on the amount in the overflow - just happened to have one handy in the garage.
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Compare these with the BEFORE pic
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Recently changed out the constantly leaking - cheap chrome valve cover for the original one. Painted the old one up and added a retro looking sticker.
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Latest engine bay pic
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How she's lookin' now with the "new" hood
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Shiney new gas tank solved many sputtering and clogged filter issues
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Every project car has to have several "donor" cars:
Here are the cars that gave generously so my car would live
Arriving at the junk yard at dawn - Having your 12 year old to carry the toolbox - PRICELESS!
those of you familiar with Car Crazy might have seen this pic
a 63 acadian 4 door my son,my nephew and I stripped in the middle of a cold northern Alberta winter, This car gave up the hood,valance,that shiney rear bumper, and many small pieces.
Left-This is one of my favourite car pics
Right-The grumpy guy in the skull touque is me
Left- This car was as solid as mine!!
Right- My nephew, Greg, dressed for Success and the weather. The red car is a 65 Chevelle with several more Chevelles beside it, on the other side of the Acadian is the bones of a 67 Nova.
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The Junk yards Web site:
www.aldonauto.com
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The above car,also a 63 4-door was a lucky find. My wife spotted it in the back row of an industrial area. The owner had bought it only for the hard-to-find back window, NOTHING else was missing! After 5 months of negotiations he let me take "what ever I wanted" for $150. I really got my moneys worth out of this donor, I filled my Nissan pick-up TWICE, on the second day it poured rain and what was ankle deep mud on day one was now 3 inches of water on top of the mud. Fortunately my son saw it as an "adventure"
Found a '63 Nova at the local "pick-a-part" Got the new exhaust system that the previous owner must have just installed before junking the car. Got many other parts too
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This Cherry sweetheart gave up her equally cherry engine.
The current owner bought it 2 years earlier off of the original owner. current owner was about to pull the 6 to go V8ing and yours truly was first in line to scoop up the 6 with rad and exaust - I even got to see and hear it run first, big bonus!
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This car is mentioned on page 13 from when it belonged to a friend.
After it was in an accident and written off I bought it back, (after chasing it for 7 months)
The car was fully optioned including factory blue tinted glass!
It even had a brand new windshild.
A comparison pic showing the blue tint
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Two junk-yard cars still had their original AM radio so now I have 2
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MY CAR COLLECTION
Novas Only.
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Takes up a lot less room than the real thing.
Mostly Hot Wheels with some original redlines.
Gentlemen, a word of advice, If you have a wife who will let you put all the wedding china into storage so you can display Hot Wheels in the china cabinet - you have a prize catch on your hands and you should continue to do what ever you can to keep her happy!
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See page 1 -For pics of my car today
See page 3 -For pics of the body work
See page 4 -For pics of the brake/front end rebuild
See page 5 -For my Dad's story
See page 6 -For some vintage Acadian ads
See page 7 -For some Nova stuff
See page 8 -For pics of the cars I used to own
See page 9 -For pics of my nephews car collection
See page 10 -For some of my nature pics
See page 11 -For pics of my car at shows
See page 12 -For My 5-Speed Transmission swap info
See page 13 -For "Novas I Know"
See page 14 -For CHROME!
See page 15 -For Cruise Night!!
See page 16 for Pinstriping by El Gordo!
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