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Party Barge: Who Built A Bright Orange, Six Door, Big-Block Pontiac Parisienne?!


Party Barge: Who Built A Bright Orange, Six Door, Big-Block Pontiac Parisienne?!

The fun I had with the Cadillac Limo last year was…well, it was an experience, for sure. I checked off a box on my automotive bucket list, I got to experience that 1980s Cadillac feeling that adults I grew up around swooned over (wasn’t that impressed) and I got to own a big-block Cadillac for a year (again, meh.) The hope was that I could find something fun to do with the car, but outside of some backyard grass drifting, a neutral drop or two and a few honestly frightening laps around NCM Motorsports Park, the limo was a bust. It worked better as a truck than it did as a car and as we learned once we turned it in for scrap money, it’s time was almost up. Still, it was fun in it’s own way

That being said, the one part of owning a limo that really makes sense, spending time with more than a couple of friends on the roads, was never realized. When we first dragged that three-ton pile home, one of the partners in the purchase had visions of an LS swap and Power Tour. A.n interesting idea, but one I was not going to have any part of…I know a full-blown dumpster fire fed by Jet A jet fuel when I see one. But the premise is cool…power, room, comfort, and plenty of stares from other people? I’d be all about it under the right circumstances. But picking the right car is crucial. Pick the wrong car, and you have a joke on wheels. Do it right, however, and you’re a freaking legend.

On the surface, then, this 1986 Pontiac Parisienne looks to be the wrong car. Wearing one of those rather strange knock-off luxury grilles, the same pumpkin orange paint code that my wife’s Mustang is painted, and sporting the stock Pontiac wire hubcaps, this six-door Armbruster-Stageway conversion looks like the furthest thing away from cool possible. But dig deeper, because this Caprice clone has a good amount going for it. There is a rearview mirror that sports a navigation and reverse camera display. There’s rear air conditioning to make sure that the entire cabin is cooled nicely. The sound system is fully worked. The interior is as good as it gets in stock form. But underhood is what seals the deal: an Oldsmobile 455 that will do what the original Olds 307 just wasn’t going to accomplish.

We’d find a stock grille to fix the front clip and put this car on air ride so we could dump it on the ground when parked, and would spin that odometer around and around in-between stops. Time to hit the road!

Craigslist Link: 1986 Pontiac Parisienne six-door conversion by Armbruster-Stageway


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4 thoughts on “Party Barge: Who Built A Bright Orange, Six Door, Big-Block Pontiac Parisienne?!

    1. Rick Loxton

      I suppose you\’d rather see an orange \’69 Camaro with Z/28 badges and an automatic transmission? Maybe a red \’57 Chevy? Let see more weirdness!!!!

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