Setting Priorities

With high temps for the next week or so predicted to only be in the 40s and 50s, I need to make sure I can use the garage as a paint booth. That means I need to get the LeMans drivable, even if it's just in and out of the garage. Since I recently completed the carburetor rebuild, "all" that's left to get a running, stopping car is the following:

Fuel:

• Come up with a temporary, gravity-feed gas tank so I can bypass the existing fuel lines and tank
• Install the rebuilt carburetor

Spark:

• Clean the points and re-set
• Clean the spark plugs and check gap
• Check the plug leads for damage
• Clean and install the rotor and cap
• Find the ignition key

Interior:

• Bolt down the driver's seat
• Bolt the column support to the underside of the dash

Brakes:

• Check the  fluid level in the master cylinder
• Inspect the lines
• Do a hard, harder, HARDER test on the brake pedal
• Check the parking brake

Once all that is done, the car should fire up and idle so I can adjust the carburetor. I'll then say a prayer and put the transmission in gear. To check the ATF level the transmission should be warm and in Park.

I bought a tube of Bondo hardener to replace the failed one (see my video). Now I can finish off the Bondo in the can and smooth out the passenger door. Next , I'll need to shoot some coats of hi-build primer before I can lay down any paint. Speaking of paint, I've narrowed the color choice down to  Wild Pomegranate Metallic and Go Mango (or some orange close to this like Kirker's Atomic Orange Candy).



A hard decision I've recently made is to stick with front bucket seats like the car came from the factory with. The deciding factors for this were 1) I really like the stock, '65, parchment, vinyl interior, and 2) I'd really like to put a manual transmission in this car someday. I am having SO much driving my stick-shift Mustang, I'd love to have the same experience when I'm finally behind the wheel of the LeMans. There's a pedal conversion kit available, but I'd still need to source things like the transmission, bellhousing, clutch, and shifter. That project is for another day, but now I can accommodate it.

Slowly, but Surely

Last Sunday I was able to work on the LeMans. I continued working on the doors, this time pounding and prying the dents around the side view mirror on the driver's door. Click here to watch the YouTube video I posted. At the end of the video, I've finished applying the Bondo, but that wasn't the end of my car work for the day. After setting aside the driver's door, I moved on to the passenger door with it's nasty crease. Not shown in that video, but in a video that's in the works, is my whining about how hard it would be to deal with the significant crease in the lower part of the passenger door. The following images are screen captures from the raw video and compare the bad (creased) to the good (factory-made).


After spending some frustrating moments trying to pound the crease out from the inside of the door, I gave up and decided there had to be way, using my MIG welder, pull out the dent. I needed to do it on the cheap, so that's what I searched for a day later. Not surprisingly someone had made a video of their cheap and effective means of pulling dents out of car panels. I will make the lever shown and use washers I've got lying around. It looks like the only thing I'll need to buy is the s-hook.

Then, for something completely different, I proceeded to remove the carburetor and disassemble it. I'm going to give it a soak in carburetor cleaner before putting all back together with the new thermostat coil and rebuild kit that I picked up at the Hershey Swap Meet.

Bench or Buckets

Way, way back in the day, I had high hopes that the LeMans would be on the road before my daughters grew up. I thought, back then, that seating for six was an imperative, so I bought a bench seat and a steering column out of a mid-60s GM A-body (I think it was a '66 Buick Special - my memory is hazy on 20-year-old events). Well, time has flown by and the daughters have flown the coop, so it's just the lovely Loriann and me. Now that I’ve finally gotten serious about getting this car back on the road, I needed to do some online shopping for upholstery. Since it was my intention to still use the bench seat (so I could have the lovely Loriann snuggled up next to me during our rides together), I went shopping for a parchment (white) vinyl bench seat cover that matched the pattern my car came with.



Exhaustive searching ended up being more frustrating than fruitful. All I could find were the following images online without explanation as to whether it was original or reproduction. I had some hope that, since Pontiac made a front bench seat in vinyl, some vendor would reproduce it.



During my search I did unearth the following image from Pontiac’s Color and Interiors Brochure where they presented the offerings for ’65 A-bodies. This showed that only the LeMans and GTO got the top-of-the-line vinyl (Morrokide):




So, currently, the only ’65 front seat upholstery available being reproduced is for bucket seats. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I imagine most, if not all, LeMans and GTOs were sold with the sporty buckets, so the demand for a replacement bench seat cover is probably pretty small.

From everything I've read and seen, at least '64 thru '66 used the same seat frames, so I  expanded my search and came up with another option. YearOne and Ames Performance sell '66 Tempest seat covers in black, red, metallic red, and gold vinyl that will fit my front bench and rear convertible seats. I'm thinking the following combination may work.

Does the pattern in the seat complement the pattern in the door panels? That is the deciding factor. I just sent a technical request to YearOne to confirm the same gold viny is used in both their '65 and '66 upholstery. We'll see.

In the end, is the best choice to stick with bucket seats?

I Hate Making Decisions

It seems like every video I've recently posted on YouTube contains some mention of my struggles to settle on the right paint scheme for the LeMans. It's been a monthly, if not more frequent, activity scanning the web for different colors. Currently, at the top of my list is Sunfire Red, offered by GM in 1964 on Pontiacs.



It was code WA3240, which also appeared on Buicks as Coral Mist.

Last spring I went to the Charlotte Autofair with my buddy, Bill. My shopping list included paint, so, with the above two images residing on my phone, I wandered the rows of vendors at looking for an affordable source for this color auto paint. Early in the afternoon I came upon a table stacked high with mixed cans of auto paint. Each can had a color name, but nothing else to indicate what shade lay within. The booth's salesman wandered over, and I showed him the GTO photo on my phone and asked if he knew if there was a match on his table. After a bit of searching, he unburied a quart can of Wild Pomegranate Red Metallic. He then produced a paint chart that convinced me to spend the $35 for the paint plus catalyst. Discount Autobody Supply carries Kirker paints, as does a number of other online sources.

The more I stare at it, the more I like it better than Sunfire Red. It's got some orange and gold to it.



These are the other colors under consideration.

Iris Mist

Go-Mango

Spicy Orange


Next I need to lay out the interior decisions that have to be made. Arghh!

This Must’ve Happened on Long Island

I was just going through photos on my computer and came across a directory called Carburetor. Since it was under the My LeMans directory, it was definitely important. Upon clicking on the icon, the following photos appeared. Sadly, I have no recollection of taking them. At first I thought they were from Blacksburg, but the 631 area code on the newspaper in some of the photos indicates it was circa Long Island (2001-2002). I vaguely remember working on the fuel system trying to get the car to run there. A new fuel pump comes to mind, but not much more. I guess I pulled the Carter AFB and took these pictures before doing a rebuild. It’s nice to have a pictorial record of where everything went.















This brings to mind one of my “Bubba” moments (I’ll admit I’m stealing this derogative term from TheCorvetteBen whose series of YouTube videos are entertaining as well as inspiring). During the engine teardown circa California, I broke the choke tube right where it enters the intake manifold (circled below). I’m not sure how it happened, but instead of replacing it, I just left it. Now, thanks to Ames Performance, I can get a replacement for less than $20, and that includes the other choke tube. Part #N147D is now on my shopping list.

It’s Accessible

Last Friday afternoon, the LeMans saw the light of day for the first time in nearly thirteen years. After filling the tires with air (TYL that they held air), it only took an hour to clear a path and yank the car out of its long-term slumber.





I made an attempt at documenting the event on video and have posted it on YouTube (click here).. Part of the video is a walk-around with narrative. A couple movie-making issues I need to address are the remote start/stop fob that came with the tripod and the difficulty in seeing the display outside. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a dedicated digital video camera, but that’s money better spent on the project. I’ll keep my eyes on Craigslist and maybe something decent will show up for a steal of a price.

Back to the car. All was as I remember it. Dry storage appears to have been kind. Much kinder than the wet storage the car endured during its ten year tenure in Lynchburg. My current priority is pulling the drivetrain so I can rebuild the engine with new pistons, rings, and gaskets (remember this engine only has a couple hundred miles on it, so bearings should be fine). With the engine torn down, I’ll clean out all the passages. The transmission, a Super Turbine-300, will get torn down, cleaned, and reassembled using a rebuild kit. Having done the same thing to a Corvair’s PowerGlide, I’m confident I’ll end up with a nice shifting slushbox when I’m done. I’m not looking to race this car, just cruise, so the two-speed will suffice just fine.

So, the current plan is to focus on the car, not the workspace. The project to refinish the stall behind the garage is stalled. The car will stay parked in the portable garage and I’ll pull parts and pieces into the main garage to refinish or refurbish.

The next time I have a willing helper, I'll remove the hood. That'll cross the next item off my To-Do list.

Prepping and Planning

If the weather cooperates and the tires hold air, I’ll be moving old cars this Saturday morning with the help of family. Between now and then, I need to make sure the all the stuff that’s in the way is moved. That includes boards, car-top carrier, and homemade sandblast cabinet that are piled on top of the car; the wheels sitting on the hood; and the partial Corvair front end, wheelbarrow, garden-cart, and compost drum blocking the car’s pathway to freedom.

Last weekend the lovely Loriann and I tore out the cabinets from our old kitchen. Since we plan on re-using some of them, they went into the garage for temporary, safe storage. Now I don’t have room for the LeMans, so Plan B is being implemented. The new plan has the LeMans taking up residence in the portable garage – front end facing out. The Corvair will go back where the LeMans came from – buried and forgotten until the LeMans is done. For the time being, the garage will be used as a rebuild area. Starting with the engine and transmission and moving to fenders, hood, doors and trunk-lid. As pieces get finished, they’ll be protected and stored in a corner.

For years I’ve been watching, with great enjoyment, YouTube videos of regular people working on their cars, and I’ve decided I’d like to try my hand at creating a video documentary of the working on the LeMans. I’ve bought a tripod and am trying to figure out how to connect my Handycam to a computer or tablet. Two cameras (Handycam and phone) seem to be a good way to go. We’ll see how that experiment goes.

What Happened in Blacksburg?

One of my job changes occurred in 2003 and resulted in an extended stay at a rented home without my family. The lovely Loriann and I decided to keep the girls in school in NY, so they weren’t available to join me in Blacksburg, VA. With time on my hands and a single-car garage at my disposal, I moved the LeMans back to VA. For those of you keeping score, the LeMans had been built in CA, sold in VA, driven back to CA, moving-van”ned” to PA, driven to MD, driven back to VA, trailered to NY, and tow-dollied back to VA - but I digress.























With dreams of painting the car, I purchased my first air garage-worthy compressor and a basic set of accoutrements. With my new air wrench and the help of my best buddy, Bill, we tore down the car removing the bumpers, trim, lights, hood, front clip, windows, trunk lid, top assembly, doors, seats, interior panels, door handles, and the gas tank. Then it was time for some refurbishment. Since it’s been nearly 14 years, I’m a little fuzzy on all I did do, but I know I coated the floor with POR-15, coated the topside and underside of the trunk with POR-15, started up the engine, replaced exhaust gaskets and brake hoses, removed a bunch of Bondo off the tailpanel, and started stripping the paint and Bondo off the left quarterpanel. By the way, the Bondo was originally put in to deal with dents, not rust. It was at that point, I was informed the company I was working had been sold, and new owners were downsizing.

The family was living with me by then, and they all liked the area, so I searched long and hard for a replacement job, but it was a small market and there was nothing in the pay range that I had been enjoying. After getting a generous job offer back in MD, we made the decision to move again.





That meant I needed to put the LeMans back in movable condition. There was no way I could drive it the couple hundred miles to Baltimore, so I bolted on the fenders, hood, trunk lid, and top assembly and filled the trunk with doors and windows and the interior with boxes of everything that was left. She was rolled onto a U-Haul trailer and towed to a waiting spot in the garage at my current home.