Junkyard Find: 1960 Pontiac Ventura
There’s a tendency to assume that a battered but reasonably solid Detroit car from the chrome-and-tailfins era is always going to be worth a bunch of money, but the real-world value of such cars turns out to be quite low in most cases. A ’57 Chevy coupe or ’59 Cadillac in fixer-upper condition, that’s real money, but a 1960 Pontiac sedan that’s been sitting for decades is lucky to fetch higher-than-scrap value. That’s a shame, because the ’60 Pontiac is a great-looking car.
Judging from the thoroughly roasted interior and quantities of dust on everything, this car sat outdoors on the High Plains for at least 20 years. Some surface rust, but no real cancer.
Perhaps someone restoring a GTO will grab this 389.
The CONELRAD markings on 1950s and 1960s car radios are always good for a Cold War flashback. CONELRAD was phased out by 1963, but my ’69 Toyota‘s radio still had the markings.
The upholstery is toast, but plenty of salvageable interior trim components remain. I hope someone rescues the good parts from this car before The Crusher eats it.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Back in 1960 i didn't a yellow bottle of "big shot". but today? well even the blue buttons dont help much either.
Why doesn't our old friend Paul (Niedermeyer) over at Curbside Classic (CC) know about this?! He has often professed his love for the 1960 Pontiacs over at CC!