1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode one

October 5th, 2024:



October 6th, 2024:

Episode two.

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For a solid year I cut and welded and sanded on a derelict 1967 Pontiac Lemans and chronicled it in this blog over 14 episodes. I sold that car 6 months ago and the shop space was empty (first picture). I thought I was done with rusty hulks. But for reasons I don't understand, even after swearing off involved and difficult car restoration projects, I bought another. Another, as in another 1967 Pontiac Lemans (second picture).

What have I done?

This is the disease, the infection, the affliction, and once caught, one can never be cured of it. I have this disease, yet despite the pitfalls I'm actually glad I have it.

Here is the new acquisition:

Overview

This car showed up on Faceborg marketplace. What caught my eye, beyond the very familiar shape, was this car had a steering wheel. Yes, that was what first drew my attention. Plus, it had seats. And a dash. And (gasp!), an engine. This was a largely complete car, which was a great improvement over the previous Lemans project, which was little more than a body and a frame.

O, black Lemans, you had me at "hello."

Actually, the car was originally champagne with the same color interior, which is a dated color not really in vogue these days. This has a 326 2 bbl and a column-shifted automatic. It has power steering and manual disc brakes, a surprising find. The radio is gone, and the only other option shown from the cowl tag is bright trim on the roof gutters.

This is a basic car, but I imagine when new it was quite a looker. Sadly, years of neglect has left it looking pretty rough. But once you get past the garish color variations and dents, underneath there's a pretty solid car. At least, that's the way it seems at present. 

That's what I aim to find out, and to fix what I find.

Some prior owner wanted a hot rod, so the bench seat was replaced with later model buckets, air shocks were added to the back, and the power steering was disconnected and plugged. He also equipped the car with some wide meats on the back, which necessitated rolling out the lips of the wheel openings to make them fit. Arrrgh! But this area nevertheless seems generally solid on both sides, as do both wheel houses. 

The the point where the lower front of the quarters meet the rockers looks good, but behind the rear tires there's noticeable bondo. And, the rear window lower lip is also filled with bondo. Not good signs, but they were known issues before purchase.

The relative lack of rust means my starting point for this car is 6-8 months ahead of the previous Lemans. 

Inventory

So, what did I start with? Here's the list:

• A surprisingly rust free body
• A very good frame
• All the front suspension
• A seized 326, probably the original
• An automatic transmission, probably the original powerglide
• A driveshaft
• An intact rear axle and suspension

• A good hood
• An extra trunk lid
• An extra rear bumper
• An extra driver's fender
• An extra core support 
• An extra dash pod
• A questionable drivers door
• A good passenger door
• A pretty bad passenger fender
• Four tail light assemblies
• A gas tank
• A pair of repairable front inner fenders
• Good roof, dash, rear seat brace structure with a cut package tray
• A good cowl structure, firewall and dash
• All the side glass and window risers
• Both door latch mechanisms
• Inner and outer heater box
• Most of the bright trim
• Seats (fronts are from another car)
• Power steering and column

What do I need to buy?

• Radiator
• Driver door?
• passenger fender?
• Grill
• Grill nose piece
• Wheels and tires
• Brakes/shocks
• Wiring
• exhaust
• rubber parts
• Locks
• Heater motor
• Driver's side inner fender splash shield
• Various exterior trim pieces
• A thousand other little parts

What parts of the body need repair?

• Quarter skins - repair?
• Driver door - repair?
• Passenger fender - repair?
• Radiator core support - repair
• Various small rust through spots - repair
• Front inner fenders - repair

The Plan

What am I going to build? Not a restoration, because it's just a garden variety Lemans. Plus, they made a little over 75,000 of them in 1967, so they are by no means rare. But I do want to retain as much of the original feel as possible since it's really a beautiful style, which means no shaved door handles or mini tubs, no leather interior, no bags, and no billet aluminum pieces. 

At first I thought I would take a different approach from the previous Lemans. That car was solely a rust repair and panel replacement project with no attention given to the non-existent mechanicals. However, this Lemans won't need much panel replacement, if any. Since this car has its running gear, my plan at first was to make the car run and drive.

Well, plans have changed, because that seized engine is not savable. I'll cover that in episode two.

After consulting with my wife, the course I'm now taking is to repair the various minor rust issues. After that, I don't know. Maybe address some of the more serious collision damage. Or source the mechanicals.

Rust Repair

• The quarters. Sigh. When the wheel opening lips were rolled they were cut loose from the wheel houses. They aren't rusty, but I can't have them loose like that, and I can't have debris coming up through the gap. Plus, the lower areas behind the wheels is bondo'd. So I'm really hoping they are are good enough to repair. I really don't want to replace them, having done this on the previous Lemans.

• The lower back of the passenger wheel house has some rust through. It will be an easy repair. 

• The rear window gutter. This area had bondo slathered on it. Having chipped some of it away, I can see the damage underneath is severe but localized. It may be easier to replace the panel.

• Taillight panel. There's some rust holes around both taillights. Not severe, but they need to be fixed.

• Both front fenders have rust on the lower area behind the front wheels. Typical. 

Summary

I'm hoping that once I dig in I won't find many surprises. Since I won't need to buy a bunch of expensive replacement panels or do so much metal work, the total expenditure on the car could be less than what I spent on the previous Lemans. 

As before, I will document the progress of this project. Thanks for reading.