1974 Pontiac Ventura                        page 2

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It's always amazing to see how nice some of these cars turn out...the interior of this car is one of the most inviting I've seen...it says "get in and drive me...really fast!" 
"These are some pictures of my '74 Ventura. It has a 69 Pontiac 400 with Edelbrock heads, Warrior racing tunnel ram, topped off with dual 670 cfm throttle body fuel injection units that are laptop programmable. The transmission is a street/strip turbo 400.The rear end is a 12 bolt with 4:11 gears,c-clip eliminators and Strange axles. The interior has a hand fabricated aluminum center console holding the electronic controls for my under car LED lights and LED interior lights. If you would like to see more photos go to www.marodders.com . Keep up the good work getting the Ventura name out there. Thanks, Dan Poole ( dpventura@comcast.net )"
Tyler Thompson ( HoTrOdS4LiFe69@aol.com ) has been saving his hard-earned dough over the course of 3 years to bring this '74 Ventura project back to life.

"This is my 1974 Ventura Custom that my dad bought me for my 16th birthday and in 3 years all I've been able to do with it is replace both quarters, outer wheel houses, bucket seats, Hurst speed shifter, Flow Master exhaust and Craeger rims. It is almost ready to primer, and the paint I'm using is a midnight metallic blue/purple made by House of Color . Along with silver rally stripes, I think it will look really good."

Encouragement from other Ventura owners really keeps these project cars moving forward.  Tyler and his pal look like true hot rodders...can't wait to see how this car turns out!
"Hello...I would like to tell you that I really enjoy your site and would like to contribute to it. I have purchased my friend's 1974 Pontiac Ventura and have a lot of plans for it. He bought this car back in 1982. It was his first car and drove it in stock condition for one year back and forth to high school. It came with a 350 and a 4-speed. He pulled out the engine and installed a freshly built 1969 Pontiac 400 Ram Air III, along with a Turbo 400 trans. Shifting is done with a B&M Mega shifter T handle with Line lock button. It uses a Torker manifold with a Holley 700 cfm carb and a Carter electric fuel pump. It has headers, 3 "exhaust going through Flowmasters dumping out just before the rear end. He removed the rear end and rebuilt it with a full posi unit with Richmond gears  3:90 to 1 ratio. Its a 10 bolt 8.5 unit....wish it was a 12 bolt....oh well....hopefully it won't be a weak link. He used Lakewood U-Joints at that time also.

It has frame ties and is structurally very, very sound....He drove this car during high school and then parked it and only drove it occasionally once or twice a year since. It has Lakewood traction bars with newer springs and air shocks on the rear. The front end is all stock and has NO power brakes / drums all around. I think I will be updating these even though they work good, I have plans for some major drag racing with this car. My plans are to go through the car and bring everything up to date as in wiring, fluids etc...I have purchased a new Coan 3500 10" converter, Competition Engineering 3-way adj. shocks., coolant overflow catch can, 13 1/2 inch 3 spoke Grant steering wheel, AutoMeter 5" Sport Comp Tach with shift lite ( going to retire the old school tach on the dash).  I have also purchased a drive shaft safety loop and a set of Hoosier Quick time Pro's 27 X 10.5 X 15, which will be mounted on the Weld Drag Lites that are on their now.  It has Moroso long studs and racing open style lug nuts on it.

So as you can see, eventually she'll be in the body shop getting massaged with a new Pro stock style fiberglass hood, trunk lid and bumpers. I plan on having it painted blue, something similar to what it is now. I want it as light as possible, but still retain the Ventura look..... I haven't decided on what hood to go with exactly, maybe you or someone else can direct me to a company that makes what I'm looking for.  I would like to retain the stock hinges and use lighter springs.  Bracket racing with friends is going to be fun, I'll keep you updated with everything.
I hope you can share some of my pictures with everyone and possibly tell a little about what she's been through and what's in store for her in the future. Thanks again for a wonderful site. Jeff Mentzer, Kalamazoo Michigan
cbrman@chartermi.netI think that should answer just about any possible questions...thanks Jeff! -Ro

 A selection of '74s from sales ads.  The running parts car went with the GTO clone out of Longview, Washington.

 A 6-banger out of Farmington, New York

 (L) A big old boat out of King George, Virginia.  Someone needs to jack this thing up and really give it a radical makeover.  Imagine a 4-door, 4-wheel drive Ventura.  Scary?

 (R) A fairly decent looking '74 for sale in Garden Grove, California.  The original photos off the sales site were pretty bad, I've tried hard to restore them for you.  Asking price was $1500.

Joe Velazquez provided these shots of his new project vehicle.  This Texas car came dressed up in Buick sport rims!  Looks to me like he's got a solid car to work with.
 (L) Maybe some day this site will have nothing but shiny, totally restored cars...but until then, I will do my best to capture the Ventura for posterity.  This East Coast car bears the scars of its battles with road salt. It's teetering on 15" rims with high-profile tires.  Can this car be saved???

 (R) Some dedicated web surfing turns up a few more nice '74s

 This Michigan car was just about to be posted on this site in August, to be sold for parts.  Fortunately, it appears that someone came along and bought the car with the intent of fixing it up.  Thanks to Mike Morgan  for these nice shots.  The rest of the parts were stuffed in the trunk.  About the car, he writes: "Don't get too excited about these pictures. The car looks awesome on film. A teenager was fostering with a family who owned a body shop. He completely stripped the paint off to bare metal, then lost interest. The owner of the body shop shot it to keep it from rusting."

 (L) From the Michigan car above, I wanted to include this because this car has a console shifter with bucket seats and what looks like an original sport wheel.

 (R) If you can believe it, this Sprint-striped '74 from Oklahoma has only 16,000 miles on it!

 A bit-a-Bondo has been used to patch up this car from the Portland area.
 Ron Richardson ( ron.richardson@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca ) of Ontario, Canada found these vintage photos of his long-lost and much-missed '74 Sprint.  This is a great color! 

He'd sure like to find his original car, or another Sprint.  Give him a yell if you've got a spare car parked out back :-)
 More photos from Ron.  Here are the original manuals..."don't be fooled by cheap imitations!"
A nice study of the '74 from San Diego, California.  Note that the 6-cylinder version does not have the engine displacement emblem on the front quarter panel.  Pics salvaged from e-bay.
 (L) Front and rear of a dealer postcard submitted by fellow Venturaholic Carl (red 71 Ventura)

 (R) What happens when Ro has too much time on his hands, or too little sleep...

 (L) Here are the sales ad details I promised:
“1974 PONTIAC VENTURA WITH ONLY 32,000 ORIGINAL MILES! This car was purchased from the widow of the original owner... this car runs and drives like a new car, the motor is whisper quiet and the suspension is very tight. It is powered by a 6cyl with auto trans. The body needs minimal bodywork and paint to look like a show car. The interior is all original and looks good, no rips in the seats, only the dash    pad is cracked from the sun. The floors are rock solid the trunk is solid as well this is a nice virgin car to either restore or make a street rod out of. Instead of a dime a dozen Nova try something different!”

(R) A little more bodywork has been done, and a lot more motor work on Tyler's '74.  From the look of that intake, wide open throttle is gonna be the order of the day.

(a few months later...) Tyler Thompson ( hotrods4life74@yahoo.com ) and crew have been primering and block-sanding their way to superstardom...here are a few of his latest shots, and the final gleaming result.   He says:

"She's been done for a while now, I still have a lot of interior work to do but for now I'm satisfied.  I took fiberglass bumpers and molded them to fit and I really liked the turn out of the look.  Hope you like them, Tyler"

     

Your photos will be wildly appreciated by all, just forward them to Roland at pontiacv@pontiacventura.com   (jpgs work best).