Oh, karma. You have decided to visit me once again, I see. Back when I was in middle school, I helped turn a Catalina just like this one in light blue into a ragged-assed demolition derby car. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Catalina when it showed up on the lot. There was no reason to immediately rip it around the motorcycle track I had going at the time. But it happened: the interior was gutted clean, the engine was tweaked into a monster, the door bars were installed and the hood was vented to keep the engine happy, the wheelwells were radiused and some chunky all-terrains on basic black wheels were fitted. Slathered in blue and yellow paint, lettered up one afternoon, shifted via a bit of bar stock bent into a handle, the Catalina was someone’s dream machine for the track that ultimately was done in by some late 1960s or early 1970s Mopar product that might as well have been blowing nitrous fire out of the exhaust when it impacted.

Now, I can see why a car like a 1979 Catalina is overlooked. All that’s missing from this one are the UPS decals on the door and this could be a rural delivery car. If it was a four-door, it’d be a fleet vehicle. It’s plain as the day is long…which, nearly forty years after it was churned out of the factory, means that something’s up. This car didn’t make it this long fully original.

Of course it didn’t. 468 cubic inches of unrestrained anger is hooked up to all of the goodies, like a new transmission, a 4.10 equipped rear axle yanked out of a 1992 Caprice, and a fuel system that could feed a B1-B on startup. Look very close for the details, because on the surface, there’s not one tell. Even the interior, with it’s kind of brown, kind of green carpet, shows no symptoms of what’s going on. Just a hustler, baby…

Craigslist link: 1979 Pontiac Catalina