Curbside Outtake: 1964 Pontiac “Rattlelina” – Got Visibility?

I was walking along a back street in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, where a lot of the guys in the neighborhood look like former extras from The Sopranos. Outside Steve’s Carburetor Shop I saw a rust-colored Pontiac which immediately reminded me of CC.

In fact it was not just rust-colored, it was 100-percent rust. The paint had been meticulously and totally removed, and the model name had been rewritten as “Rattlelina.”

When I went into the office to ask if I could photograph this piece of reversed-restoration, Steve (at least, I assume it was he) offered to open the hood for me.

“How long have you owned it?” I asked. To which he replied, “I’m not sure.” After some head-scratching, he decided it had been ten years, or maybe fifteen.