Where are the other cabriolets?

So how many 1936 Pontiac Cabriolets still exist? And where are they?

Rick Bodziak has done some research that says the industry average of convertible production was 0.7% of all cars made. Pontiac made 178,496 cars in 1936, which by that formula translates into about 1,250 convertibles but let's say perhaps as many as 1,500. [All of Pontiac's production records were lost in a fire, so no cars per model numbers are available.] By contrast, Chevrolet was the sales leader in 1936, building 975,238 car (so maybe 6,850 of them were convertibles).

It is hard to know how many still exist, but here are three I can account for.

The first is Mike Kearney's Deluxe 8 that is beautifully restored. It is painted Silver Streak Metallic, a greenish color that Andy Lee says is quite striking. Everything about this car has been done to a "T" and Mike has won many trophies with it. I hope to get down there – High Springs, Florida – to see it and photograph it close up in April.



Gary Schug in Chadd's Ford PA as has a Deluxe 8, this one with the optional side mount tires. It is not an original color, but still quite striking.



A 36 Buick Roadmaster convertible owner in PA, John Shore, says he saw a Pontiac convertible from New Jersey this summer at a car show in Delaware. I learned about one in Ontario, a barn car needing restoration, but haven't found the owner. Rick says there is a nice original Deluxe 8 in California that the owner may have street rodded. He also knows of another car in British Columbia in rough condition, missing a door among other things.

And Sid Hall in Portland, OR, owns this street rodded cabriolet (originally a Six):





A vendor told me he had a customer in New York with a 36 convertible and Rick once knew of someone in Massachusetts that had one as well. Rick had a rough car that he has since sold. That makes eleven (maybe), although surely there are others out there somewhere. If a reader knows of any others, please post a comment telling me what you know about it.

Probably most of them ended up like this car:




This car was in a mid-coast Maine junkyard, that had 3,000 pre-1959 cars, including six 1936 Pontiacs. This car supposed came from Canada, was tagged 36-2667A, which means a Master Six, but it had an 8-cylinder motor. As you can see it was pretty picked over by 1985 when this picture was taken. 10-12 years ago the owner, John Monroe, died. His sister inherited the propery – beautiful and very valuable oceanside property – and had all the cars crushed! I had gotten a lot of parts from it over the years, but wish I'd gotten more.