1958 Pontiac Star Chief
VIN: W858H6663
This Pontiac Star Chief has been in the Reichgut family since it was first purchased. It is now owned by Mitchell Reichgut, a Black Horse Garage client. Mitchell has told the story of this 1958 Pontiac Star Chief in his own words:
On June 24, 1958, my grandfather, Joseph Reichgut, walked into the Flood Pontiac dealership in Washington D.C. and purchased a brand-new four-door Pontiac Star Chief.
At the time, the Star Chief was considered a top-of-the-line luxury car. Decked out in chrome and stocked with power features and extras, it was known as a “hard top convertible” because the side windows are flush and roll down to open up the whole side of the car.
Joseph passed away a few years later, leaving the car to his wife Rebecca who kept it garaged and (literally) drove it to the grocery store and back until her death in 1980. When my father, Dr. Martin Reichgut, and I returned to his childhood home and brought it back to our house in Westport, CT. The car had 55,000 miles on it.
We had the Star Chief serviced by a local mechanic, and one of my father’s patients who owned a body shop in Bridgeport offered to restore the body for us. (My dad and his partner often saw patients who couldn’t afford to pay, and so people were always sending us things and offering to do things for us).
My dad must have stitched that man up well because the car came back sparkling from bumper-to-bumper. He matched the original colors perfectly with rich lacquer paint, re-chromed the bumpers and trim, and even replaced the interior top. It was glorious – except for one thing: Rebecca had scraped the passenger side of the car on the way out of the garage some years earlier, leaving a crumpled tract of chrome along both doors. Even in 1980 we could not find any pieces to replace the damaged parts.
Two years later, my dad was at a medical conference in Georgia. He took a wrong turn on the way back to the airport and happened by a junk yard. There, atop a giant pile of old cars, was a four-door 1958 Pontiac Star Chief.
When he came home that evening he looked at me and said, “I have a surprise coming for you in the mail.” Ten days later I got off the school bus and found a big box sitting in the driveway. Dr. Marty had paid the junk yard owner to strip off all the chrome and ship it back to us.
The night of my senior prom was the first time I was allowed to drive the Star Chief. My dad threw me the keys and said, “Don’t forget to put some gas in it.” I didn’t know what his wry smile was about until I got to the gas station. Standing there in my tux, I could not for the life of me figure out where to insert the gas pump nozzle. After a while, a mechanic from the gas station walked out and helped me look. We were both stumped. Soon, others stopped by and there was a small crowd looking high and low for the opening to the gas tank. Finally, someone suggested we open the trunk. There, we saw that the gas cap was hidden behind the driver’s side reverse light, which opens on a hinge!
Dr. Marty maintained the Star Chief for many years, always keeping it garaged and driving it sparingly when the weather was nice. He had seat belts put in, and he had the windshield replaced with custom-made safety glass.
In 1997, my wife and I moved out of NYC and bought a house in Wilton, CT. (One of my criteria for any house was that the garage had to be big enough for the Star Chief). My dad gave us the car and I’ve been driving and maintaining it ever since. I replaced the carpet and the leather seats, which had dried out and cracked over time. (The upholsterer found some of my father’s childhood toys from the 1950s inside the back seat!)
The Star Chief had the expected mechanical issues on-and-off over the years, but the beautiful paint job my dad’s patient did looks as good now as it did then.
In 2015, I met the wonderful folks at Black Horse Garage. Over the course of several months, John and his crew went through a list of things I would never trust anyone else to touch: the transmission, the valves, the power steering, etc. By the time they were finished, the Star Chief purred. My dad took it for a spin and said that it hadn’t run that well since before his father passed away.
Now, my wife and I are moving from Wilton and after 40 years it’s time for me to part with this amazing vehicle. Along with the car comes the original bill of sale, cuttings from the original leather seats, and handwritten tags from the factory (also rescued by the upholsterer), all framed. The car still has the bicentennial DC license plate on the front.
Mitchell Reichgut
June 2023
PS. Dr. Marty stopped practicing medicine many years ago. He enjoyed retirement for about 45 minutes and then went back to school to become a social worker. He’s 85 years old now, and onto his third career teaching Tai Chi in Sarasota, Florida. I recently told him that I was thinking of selling his father’s old Pontiac. He took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, you’ve been hogging it up long enough. It’s time to let another family enjoy it.”
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If you would like to make an appointment to see this 1958 Pontiac Star Chief in person, please call 203-330-9604 or send an email to [email protected].
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