Hues and Glosses

Now that I’ve really (and truly) decided on a color scheme for the LeMans, I need to find the paint to execute the plan.

For the exterior, I may have really lucked out in finding a great deal on the correct orange. My source for Kirker’s Wild Pomegranate paint, Bob at Discount Autobody Supply, just so happens to have a gallon of Carousel Red for fifty percent off. While they don’t ship gallons of paint, and his office is too far to drive to, he is going to be at Chryslers at Carlisle this weekend and that’s less than two hours from my home. The lovely Loriann has agreed to join me on my mission as long as I mix in some bike riding and a night at a nice hotel or B&B.

The interior is another story altogether. While the outside will be one-hundred percent gloss as most cars are from the factory, a correct interior is a mix of not only color (black and white), but also gloss. Paul Zazarine’s wonderful book “Pontiac GTO 1964-1972 Restoration Guide,” of which I own a copy, details all the different paint colors and glosses for the interior. His book says the upper instrument panel should be 0o gloss (flat) and the rest of the interior paint should be 60o gloss (semi-gloss). Black being black, finding it in flat and semi-gloss won’t be a problem. White, however, is not always white, and a search of the internet supported that. There is a multitude of whites available and a multitude of opinions as to which white is right. A number of restorers posted that Ford’s (gasp) Wimbledon White is a good match to the factory’s white. While I can find a spray can of that color, it’s for exterior touch-up and not semi-gloss.

So, when I visit the Discount Autobody Supply booth at Carlisle this weekend, I will try to get a pint of Wimbledon White, some flattener, and some instruction from Bob.

Orange You Glad You Went To Goodguy’s?

“Why did you pick that color?” the lovely Loriann asked me when I was showing her my paint plan for the LeMans. At the time, she was pointing to the swatch of Wild Pomegranate Red Metallic. That question has been haunting me ever since.

This past Friday I met my buddy Bill at the Goodguy’s car show in Columbus, OH. Early in the day I told him about all the sleep I’ve lost while trying to settle on a paint scheme for the LeMans. Being the wonderful friend he is, he spent the rest of the day pointing out different colors and schemes, each time telling me that that green or blue or whatever would be the best color for my convertible.

As we walked around the thousands of cars, it wasn’t the red cars that grabbed my attention - it was every orange car. I’ve always wanted an orange car, but I’d never been able to find the right shade for the LeMans, so I’d settled on red.

Saturday afternoon, we were wandering around a corner of the fairgrounds, when up cruised a ’64 F-85 hardtop heading towards a parking spot. The ’64 Oldsmobile has a body much like my LeMans; the car was painted orange; and I was smitten. I accosted the driver as he exited the vehicle and asked him what color his beautiful car was painted. He replied with two words, “Hugger Orange.”


As I excitedly snapped photos of the car, I noticed the interior was black, and immediately I began to wonder how the orange would look with the white interior I had planned for the LeMans. Since Hugger Orange is a popular Chevy for the late sixties, it wasn’t long before we came up on a ’67 Camaro with exactly the scheme I’d now envisioned for my car: Hugger Orange body, white vinyl top and interior upholstery, and a black dash and carpet. It looked perfect to me, so that’s the scheme I’m going to replicate for the LeMans.


Hugger Orange also has a connection to Pontiac. Carousel Red uses the exact same code and was offered on ’69 and ’70 GTOs as well as ’69, ’70, and ’76 Firebirds. According to the internet, the same color was also known as Medium Orange, Firecracker Orange, Ontario Orange, Monaco Orange, and Red Orange and offered on other GM products throughout the seventies.

So, for the time being (and I hope permanently), the paint scheme of orange, white, and black are set.

It Was a Good Friday

With a full social calendar and rain predicted for most of the weekend, I decided to use some of my precious vacation to spend some quality time shooting primer on the LeMans’ body parts and primer and Pontiac blue paint on the engine.

In preparation for the big day, I went out to the garage the night before, rolled the car out into the driveway, and set up all the parts for their date with the paint gun. The fenders and grill supports were placed on sawhorses and an old engine cart, while the doors were hung from the rafters. Next I rubbed all the exposed metal with Ospho to deal with flash rust that had formed over the period since the last sanding had occurred.

With body parts staged, I used the rest of that evening to finish pulling parts off the engine (carburetor distributor, vacuum lines and hoses, and the throttle linkage), and masking holes and screw threads in preparation for thorough cleaning and the next day’s rattle can encounters. Prior to removing the distributor, I turned the crankshaft until the scribed line on the harmonic balancer was directly under the  pointer, and then took a photo of the orientation of the distributor and rotor to make sure I get everything back exactly as it was. I stuck rolled-up paper towels into the coolant openings on the timing chain cover, and then proceeded to empty a can of Gunk Engine Degreaser. With a nylon bristle brush, I carefully scrubbed all the wet surfaces before hosing the whole thing down and letting it sit for the night.

The next day, I brought all the body parts out to the driveway and thoroughly hosed and wiped them off to remove any residual Ospho and dust. As they were drying, I turned my attention back to the engine and re-coated it with a second can of Gunk and let it sit the requisite fifteen minutes before blasting it with the hose. That was followed by a twice-over with compressed air to remove any of the last, loose bits.

With the engine prepped, I spotted the fresh air grill (the panel that sits at the base of the windshield) leaning against the wall. Since the afternoon was still fairly young, I grabbed the grill, my grinder with the wire wheel attachment, the electric DA sander, and a bunch of course sandpaper and set up on the back lawn. An hour or so later, I had the top-facing surfaces down to bare metal and all the loose stuff removed from the backside. Getting down into all those openings was a real pain in the butt, but I got them all before blowing all the dust off and hanging in the garage.

Back to the rest of the body parts. I moved them from the driveway where they’d completely dried and back into the garage and gave them all a good wiping with some Wax and Grease Remover. After donning a head sock, long-sleeve shirt, air mask, and latex gloves, I mixed up a batch of Eastwood’s black epoxy primer and gave all the parts a solid coat. Sadly, I hadn’t ordered another quart of catalyst, so I ran out before getting to the fresh air grill and the inner surfaces of the doors, so I made a quick run to Advance Auto, bought a couple cans of zinc-rich primer, and raced home to shoot the last prepped panels.

Since I was on a roll, and the doors, grill support pieces, and driver’s side front fender were all ready nice and straight, and I knew I only needed to wait about a half-an-hour for the primer to be cured enough to paint over, I pulled out my gallon can of PPG hi-build primer and catalyst and kept shooting. Four coats later, those parts were nice and gray. I’ll let that primer cure for a few days before I wet sand their surfaces smooth.

I then moved back to the engine and emptied a can of rusty metal primer all over it including the power steering pump and the front ends of the chassis rails where the radiator support mounts. Reading the label, I knew I could start shooting the topcoat fairly soon after, so I did some cleanup for the hour I needed to wait and then grabbed a can of Pontiac blue engine paint. I gave as much of the engine that I could get to a light coat of blue. After another half-hour or so, I finished off the can with the second, heavier coat. It turned out quite nice. It’s wonderful finally having some color on the car, even if it’ll eventually get covered by hood.

With a piece of cardboard masking off the now-blue engine, I shot semi-gloss black on the power steering pump. My plan is to go back, once all the paint is dry, mask off the engine and pump and shoot the harmonic balancer and pulley wheel in semi-gloss black, as well as the brackets that are now sitting loose. Then I’ll bolt the accessories back on.    

A Slippery Slope

As regular readers of my blog know, my plan for the roadification of the LeMans has been quite fluid. I had thought, many months ago, that having the car back on the road by the beginning of summer was a possibility, but that’s not happening. Then I had thought that I could just whip out the bodywork on a couple of doors abnd shoot them in paint by early spring, but, thanks to constant rain, that’s not happening either. Now, I’ve decided that the interior is going to change color, so that should be dealt with before the exterior. So, where does my current plan stand? Here’s a clue - I just received a new water pump and heater core.

How does “slippery slope” fit into this? Well, for me, it goes like this: Remove the doors, so I should also paint the inside of them. Remove the fenders which required removing the fenderwells, so I should also paint them. The fenderwells look so nice, I should also paint the radiator support. With the radiator support out and the fenderwells off, I should also paint the engine. Before painting the engine, I should replace the leaking water pump.

So, there you go. From a simple shooting of exterior paint to the exterior, interior, and engine bay all re-done. That is the slippery slope.

As of today I’ve got the wheelwells primed and painted - each underside with satin black and each topside (facing the engine bay) with semi-gloss. The radiator support is also primed and painted with semi-gloss. The radiator has been drained and removed. The water pump, alternator, and power steering pump are all off the engine.



Now I need to determine what parts of the engine get Pontiac blue paint applied to them. From photos on the web, I see that the block, harmonic balancer, heads, intake manifold, oil pan, timing cover, water pump, and valley pan are all painted Pontiac blue. The water pump’s pulley wheel, the two alternator top brackets (bent sheetmetal), air cleaner, and the power steering pump are semi-gloss black (60% gloss officially). Finally the two large, cast brackets (A/C compressor and alternator/power steering) are left natural. Now on to the cleaning.

More Cars From My Childhood: The Bus

I know many people who purchase a new car every couple years. My folks were not like that, hence it’s easier for me to remember the vehicles that I rode around in, and, subsequently drove. The final car I wrote about in my last post was the blue Beetle. My memories of that car end with my dad telling me he had to get rid of it before the seized spark plug needed replacing. I then remember being at the Mezzetti Volkswagen dealership in Fremont, CA and coming home in a brand-new bus (Type II / Transporter). Like the one in the photo above (not the exact vehicle), it was blue with a white roof. The interior, however, was black with black vinyl seats and black rubber floor mats.

Soon after getting the bus home, my dad started to make modifications to accommodate our travelling and camping needs. He transformed the sleeping platform that was used in the aforementioned Beetles into one that replaced the bus’s back (third row) seat and extended the floor over the engine compartment. This made a nice full-size bed for my parents. Then he added a couple thermos-holding straps that were just cut-down bicycle wheel inner-tubes screwed to the inner sheetmetal of the bus near the front passenger’s seat. This kept the water jug and coffee thermos in place while travelling. The piece-de-resistance was the camping box. Dad constructed a long plywood box that replaced the middle seat when we went camping. It was roughly the same height and depth as the stock seat, but it extended across the entire car rather than just the two-thirds the factory seat span. It had four legs that could screw on or off, but I remember that most of the time, when we were camping, it sat on the campsite’s picnic table. The box had a flip-down front door that exposed multiple storage compartments while serving as a kitchen counter.

The trip I remember most in the bus was one into Canada. Part of the trip was passing through Yellowstone and Glacier Nationals Parks, but the portion I remember most vividly was driving on a forestry trunk road in Alberta. I can’t remember the length of this all-gravel road, but I do remember getting a flat tire nearing the halfway point. Fortunately, we then came upon the only service station between the start and the end of the road where they put in a tube so we’d have a good spare tire again.

One time my folks loaned the car to my Uncle Vic to do some sightseeing. Since it was summer and I was out of school, I tagged along with him and his family. I found it amusing that he had a LOT of difficulty getting the car to go into first gear, so most of the starts were made in second with significant clutch slipping.

Once I learned how to drive a stick, I was able to borrow the bus to haul around my group of friends. This was in the days before every family owned a mini-van, so it was something special taking seven to a movie in one vehicle.

Three engines and over three hundred thousand miles later, my dad finally sold the bus back in the early 2000s. I’m sure he only got a few hundred for it. Given it’s rust-free-ness, today that bus would probably fetch five grand or so.

More Memories

I really enjoyed walking down memory lane in my last post sharing some memories of the initial work I did on the LeMans back in the mid-80s. Given that the initial post of this blog glosses over a lot in the interest of space, I figured I’d elaborate in some more posts. Another reason is I want to keep the blog going even though work on the car has stalled (more on that later). Let’s start at the beginning. In my first post I wrote:

When I was a child growing up in California during the late 60's and through the 70s, I would play in the front yard and watch the cars go past. Often I'd see a neighbor, Mr. Hayes, drive by in his convertible, and I would think what a nice looking car he had.

I also remember that the top was always down, and I could easily see the contrasting parchment interior against black exterior. I was struck by how shiny the black paint was except for a large patch on one rear quarter panel where the paint had lost is shine – like something had spilled on it. At this point, all the paint is in pretty rough shape, so I can’t tell which side the dull patch was on.

I’d like to share the cars my parents owned during my childhood. While I can’t remember anything of the first two cars I ever rode in, I’m sure they had an impact on my current car-craziness. The photo to the left is of my mom and dad getting ready to head out in his Triumph TR-3 shortly after they were married in Denver, CO. After my birth in the hospital in Frederick, MD in 1961, my dad drove my mom and I home in that TR-3. I doubt the top was down, but it was early April so it may have been (perhaps my first experience in top-down motoring). Soon after, he traded in the TR-3 for one of the first TR-4s imported into the US. When I was eighteen months old, I rode in the space behind the seats all the way from Maryland to California. There's a photo somewhere of my standing up on the driver's seat and smiling with both hands on the wheel. I need to get my dad to dig it up and send me a scan. My sister’s arrival a couple years later meant it was time for a family car, so the TR-4 was replaced by an early-60s VW Beetle. I don’t hold step down against her anymore.

At some point, before I was five, I do remember riding in the front seat of that Beetle when my mom rear-ended a ’64 Chevrolet (no, it wasn’t a Corvair – it was a Bel Air or Impala). I can still see in my mind’s eye the basically undamaged Chevy pulling away and turning left after the collision. I don’t remember what the front of the Beetle looked like after the incident, but I do know my dad had to come and got us in one of the county’s cars (he worked for the county health department), and that the gray Beetle was replaced with a newer, blue one soon after that event. Another poignant moment from the collision is my mom’s version of child restraint. This early-60s car did not have seat belts like most in that era (and before), and when my mom knew she couldn’t stop in time she flung her right arm out and held me back enough to keep my face from hitting dash board. I’m still impressed by the power of adrenaline.

Another memory of the gray Beetle is my dad building a platform in the back in place of the rear seats. This gave my sister and I a place to sleep when we went camping (which we did a lot) while my parent slept in a pup tent. The platform made a great play area where we could while away the hours as we made our yearly drives to visit relatives in other states or did our weekly summer trips up to the Sierra Nevada mountains for weekend fishing and camping (in that order).

While I don’t remember much else about the gray Beetle, I do recollect more about the blue one. It was a few years newer (I think it was a ’63) and my dad bought it used. The platform fit in place of the backseat just like it did in the gray car. The car had a cream-colored interior and my spot was always sitting behind my dad on the driver’s side of the backseat. I thought the strap hanging from the top of the b-pillar was neat, but to this day I don’t know what purpose it served other than having a small boy hang from it. I remember one night when I was seven or eight my dad opened the rear engine lid and explained how the last mechanic that replaced the spark plugs put one in too tight, and now it wouldn’t come out. It was time, he said, to start looking for a replacement.

Soon, the rest of the cars of my childhood.

I promised I'd talk about why there's been no progress on the LeMans. Well, family life has taken a huge chunk of my spartan spare time, and Mikhaila's Golf is still not road-ready.

Memories - I've Still Got Them

A few months back, while filming a segment on repairing a wire harness, I shared views of the notes I'd taken during the early years of working on the LeMans. These included what I bought, how much things cost, what I measured, as well as the successes and failures I experienced. The great thing was, while reading my notes, I was transported back to the mid-80s and our condo's carport. I could, in my minds eye, distinctly remember events just as I wrote them. Events like buying the car, getting my buddy, Steve, to help me push it down the street to my folks' house, getting the engine to first run for a few minutes before it seized up, borrowing a cherry picker from a neighbor and removing the engine for the first time, loading the bare block and crankshaft into my dad's VW bus and taking them to an machine shop for work. I remember using the lovely Loriann's sewing machine to sew a navy blue, tonneau cover for the salon of the car since the top was in shambles, and I remember the frustration of the day I spent trying to get the newly rebuilt engine to start, and how, after a phone call to a car buddy, I turned the distributor 180 degrees and immediately the engine fired up. I remember storing the heads and the manifolds in the rusty trunk and praying they didn't break though and damage the fuel tank, and I remember painting the empty engine bay. Something that didn't make the list, is my trip to an exhaust shop where I can still picture the craftsman creating exhaust pipes using a pipe bending machine and a card with lengths and angles on it. I'm not sure what I paid to have the two pipes made, but I bet it wasn't any more than $75. Try having that done for triple the price today - if you could even find a shop that had the cards.

Speaking of the cost of things, check out the prices I paid for some of the items. $43 for a title, registration, and plates. $27 for a good, used radiator. $107 to the machine shop for boiling the block, installing new cam bearing and freeze plugs (including the price of the parts), and turning the crank journals. Crazy!

I'm so thankful I still have those memories in my head, since no Instagram or YouTube existed back in the day.

Task	Date	Cost
Bought car, filled tires, removed driveshaft, checked battery, checked electrical	11/19/1984	$75
Got prices for water pump and battery (Grand Auto $13.83 + $5.00 core (pump) / Sears $38.08 (48 month batt.)	11/20/1984	$0
Attempted to straighten hood hinge with some success	11/26/1984	$0
Finally moved to home	12/08/1984	$20
Removed water pump hsg.	12/09/1984	$0
Removed seats, carpet, padding, and center console. Threw out carpets and pads.	12/12/1984	$0
Checked all spark plugs; put on other hood hinge; took pictures of car, engine, and interior; attempted to turn engine w/ starter (no luck); attempted to lower roof (no luck); radio works (sort of); removed battery plate.	12/23/1984	$0
Changed title	01/02/1985	$16
Re-removed hinge, raised front end onto blocks, took valve cover bolt.	01/14/1985	$0
Removed oil from pan, checked spark plugs (need new ones), checked rear brake liners, cleaned carb.	01/26/1985	$0
Cleaned under pan and suspension. Bought engine cleaner. Removed alternator.	02/09/1985	$3
Bought 8 spark plugs, timing kit, oil filter, carb cleaner, wire brush.	02/16/1985	$15
Removed air conditioning comp., power steering (moved), cleaned engine completely.	02/18/1985	$0
Replaced plugs, points, condenser, cleaned carburetor, adjusted points.	02/23/1985	$0
Changed oil filter, filled with oil, attempted to start.	03/02/1985	$0
Set points correctly, got spark to 4 right bank plugs, assumed other 4 ok too. Checked fuel line (no fuel in tank).	03/17/1985	$0
Replaced fuel filter. Got a gas cap for free (wrong size). Tested compression. All about 90 psi, suspect tester wrong. Found there was gas in lines & tank. Hooked up plugs. Turned engine with oil in cylinders. Started engine. Ran few seconds and I turned it off due to automatic trans. shooting out. Tested radiators. threw out one with hole. Remounted alternator and power steering units. Flushed out engine coolant system with garden hose. Quite dirty, but ran clean after a while.	05/25/1985	$5.05
Connected transmission fluid cooling lines to radiator. Flushed coolant lines in engine again. Started again. Took a while and a lot of B12 (starting spray), but finally ran. Made a lot of grinding noises, but I figured it's now or never. Smoothed out after 10 seconds. I turned it off soon after that and found that transmission fluid was leaking at the splined driveshaft connection. I jacked up the rear, bolted up the shaft, removed, filled, remounted the two rear wheels (one was completely flat). Lowered back onto cinder blocks. Will start again after I get some gas or quick-start.	06/03/1985	$0
Loriann bought belts & water pump	07/17/1985	$30.88
Attempted to install, no bolts, need 5/16 fine X 1 1/2 L (7). 1 nut same thread, 1 3/8 course bolt.	07/27/1985	$0
Loriann bought bolts and nut. I bought gasket sealer. Bolts wrong size. Should have been course thread	07/30/1985	$4
Installed water pump with fine bolts. Made new threads. Holds well. No problem. Taped roof. Bought ATF, bolts for pulley wheels (5/16 fine X 1" L), quick start, and funnel. Put on pulley. None of the fans fit. May need to move power steering pump because it might be in the wrong spot. Fan says FORD on it. Must check w/ twin by work.	08/12/1985	$102.97
Returned core of water pump. Went to Milpitas Auto Dismantler and found a '65 LeMans coupe in perfect condition. Bought a side view mirror and two window rollups. Went to Tex's Auto Wrecker and bought a fan, extension, and 4 bolts. Put the fan and mirror on. Hooked up hoses and belt to alternator and steering pump.	08/17/1985	$15
Filled up radiator and watched it leak. Also found leaks in heater core and timing chain cover. Removed the radiator. Removed the alternator and power steering ump to make timing chain cover more easily accessible.	08/18/1985	$0
Bought gasket set.	08/19/1985	$13.85
Removed alternator bracket and filled up with water again. Assumed that leak was in timing chain cover gasket. Took out front seats and swept out interior.	08/21/1985	$0
Rented electric impact wrench, hub puller, and socket.	08/23/1985	$16
Removed everything for timing chain cover; (see page 1165-1166), found holes in cover; will replace, $25 at Tex's Auto Wrecking	08/24/1985	$0
Cleaned half of rear seat. Looked great.	08/26/1985	$0
Old timing chain cover stolen. Don't have a match to use at Tex. Need to find a cover on the engine to assure the right match.	09/13/1985	$0
Went with Dad to wrecking yards. He had called and found that a wrecking yard at the end of Mowry had some 326 cu. in. engines. We went and found two. A '64 Tempest & a '65 Tempests. Pulled the cover off the '64 along with a hose off the '65.	09/13/1985	$21
Installed timing chain cover and fuel pump. Before I did this I investigated removing the oil pan to investigate brg wear. Impossible.	09/13/1985	$0
Bought Sear's DieHard Battery. Old battery tested, "no good."	10/13/1985	$59
Removed heater core and bought mat'l. for cover.	10/20/1985	$6
Bought MAP gas, solder, flux, and spare key. Attempted to patch heater core, no luck. Will try again.	11/02/1985	$10
Bought more solder. Worked on cover. Bought grommets.	11/16/1985	$2
Finished cover. Disconnected power top cylinder rods. Dropped 7/8 socket into car. Must remove cylinder. Put cover on - looks good. Needs hooks for center of dash. Bought battery cable ends.	12/08/1985	$1.5
Bought used radiator. Bought caps for water pump and block to bypass heater core. Bought radiator hose (1 3/4" dia X 1 1/2" dia. X 22" long). Bought coolant flush and anti-rust. Discovered that auto-trans. lines' fittings are too small on new radiator. Cried. Remounted the following: alternator, power steering pump, a-c condenser. Put on battery cable. Put on caps. Removed socket.	12/28/1985	$39.3
Bought 5/16" dia SAE inverted flare to 5/16 hose fittings, 4 clamps, and 3/8 dia fuel hose. Sawed off a-t lines. Connected all up including radiator hoses. Will fill up in daylight tomorrow.	01/03/1986	$5.5
Filled radiator after attempting to flush the engine. Hooked up fan and fan belt. Started and ran engine. Made noise like nut grinding in pan. Stopped after a while at bottom rpm. Need to time tomorrow and adjust valves.	01/04/1986	$0
Started up again. Ran for a couple of minutes with intermittent clanking. A couple of times, the engine slowed. At the end, the engine just froze up. Wiped out brgs? Will ask for suggestions as to what to do next.	01/05/1986	$0
Rebuild costs (check Car Craft mag.) Kragen: $38.99 set bearings, main, $40.00 gaskets, $30.00 rings.	01/05/1986	$0
If rebuild is necessary, the following steps shall be followed. 1) Remove carb. 2) Disconnect lines, linkages, etc. and follow instructions on pg. 1162. Removed intake manifold and heads first, if possible.	01/05/1986	$0
Drained oil, will save, removed converter cover, removed starter, loosened some oil pan bolts. Found how to lift engine and remove mount bolts.	01/08/1986	$0
Removed a starter bracket, 17 oil pan bolts, jacked up engine as far as it would go, broke pan loose, can't remove unless engine is removed, too much in the way. Next step is to remove a head to see the condition of the cylinders. This will tell me whether I'll need to replace the pistons. bolted the oil pan with 4 bolts, put 13 in a coffee can w/ all the starter & converter cover fasteners & hardware. Disconnected one exhaust pipe. Found I need to borrow Rob's torque wrench, maybe next weekend.	01/12/1986	$0
Removed timing chain cover.	01/19/1986	$0
Took out seats and rear arm rests. Wire brushed loose rust from back 2/3 of salon. Bought rusty metal primer & brush. Applied.	02/08/1985	$5.28
Bought (2) 20 gauge pieces of sheet metal 24" X 24" to put into rear floor pan. Borrowed Rivet Gun from Jerry Smerecky.	02/28/1986	$15
Wire brushed front half of salon and underside of holes. Swept out. Bought caulking.	03/01/1986	$1.69
Painted w/ rusty metal primer the front half of salon. Repacked front wheel brgs.	03/02/1986	$0
Removed Emergency Brake to de-rust. Put seats back in.	03/03/1986	$0
Borrowed electric sheet metal cutter from Steve Downs. Cut some holes in the floorboard. Bought distributor wrenches.	03/04/1986	$2
Bought black paint, a brush, and paint thinner. Cut out one patch and shaped it.	03/08/1986	$6.97
Cut and shaped the second patch. Primed and painted the bottom of the patches. Painted the area in the car where the patches go.	03/09/1986	$0
Riveted the patches in.	03/12/1986	$0
Painted the floorpan flat black. Put hooks in the car cover. Works better.	03/16/1986	$0.89
Returned sheet metal cutter and riveter. Borrowed valve spring compressor from Al Schafner. He made offer of use of valve lapper. Removed carburetor, intake manifold, valve covers, rocker arms and valve lifters.	03/17/1986	$0
Removed 10 head bolts on P-side. Removed P-side head. Step on cylinder and cylinder bore look good.	3//19/86	$0
Removed D-side head.	03/23/1986	$0
Borrowed ID mic. from Paul in 2-1. Dimensions as follows:	03/27/1986	$0
3.7231 / 3.7230 / 3.7230 / 3.7212_() front of engine	03/27/1986	$0
3.7230 / 3.7240 / 3.7230 / 3.7220 () front of engine	03/27/1986	$0
3.7230 / 3.7240 / 3.7180 / 3.7190 remeasured	03/27/1986	$0
Called dealer and found that bore should be 3.717, therefore oversize from .004 to .007. Good news. Talked to the Eugene Yu about borrowing his cherry picker. He says no problem. Took off the #8 valves. Broke the retainers. Need to price replacement.	03/28/1986	$0
Took off clamps for P-side exhaust and tailpipes. Found that Midas welded the muffler on. Removed the drive shaft. Drained the A/T. Some metal flakes. Disconnected the A/T linkage, speedo (see bracket), some wire , mount (2 bolts). Got cherry picker. Removed hood. Lifted engine and removed oil pan and splash pan. Put engine back in, while losing the rubber mount for the A/T. Put in box. Punctured oil filter accidentally. Replaced hood.	03/29/1986	$0
Removed all pistons and rods. Rod brg #5 had spun. Small step, must measure OD of crank and ID of rod, might be able to get away with just going to an oversize brg. Removed the rest of the valves on the P-side head. Seals and locks replaceable. Fond '66 Tempest Shop Manual at Mtn. View Library. Checked out.	03/31/1986	$0
Removed all valves from heads. Bought oil.	04/01/1986	$6.6
Thoroughly cleaned heads.	04/07/1986	$0
Thorough cleaned valves, springs, etc.	04/08/1986	$0
Lapped the following. Bought paint and oil filter.	04/09/1986	$6.29
Intake 1 3 5 7	04/09/1986	$0
Upper dia .34 .34 .34 .34	04/09/1986	$0
Lower dia .34 .34 .34 .34	04/09/1986	$0
Exhaust	04/09/1986	$0
Upper dia .337 .34 .34 .34	04/09/1986	$0
Lower dia .334 .341 .34 .34	04/09/1986	$0
Intake 2 4 6 8	04/10/1986	$0
Upper dia. .34	04/10/1986	$0
Lower dia. .34	04/10/1986	$0
Lapper broke!	04/10/1986	$0
Bought the right paints. 2 cans and a smaller wire brush. Bob's Auto Parts. Lapper broke again.	04/11/1986	$9.62
Lapped last valves. Loosened main bearing caps. Took off distributor and timing set. Bought valve seals.	04/12/1986	$4
Cleaned oil pan and intake manifold.	04/13/1986	$0
Removed engine. Separated tranny from engine. Removed crank.	04/19/1986	$0
Rented ridge reamer and glaze breaker and used. Removed main bearings and camshaft valvetrain.	04/21/1986	$10
Brought block and crank to Calaveras Auto Supply for work. Loriann bought me 3 of the correct hubcaps to complete the set.	04/22/1986	$25
Picked up block and crank. Crank ground .010 under on both mains and rods. Paid for block boiled, new freeze plugs, new cam bearings. Finished cleaning oil pan and timing chain cover. Bought engine cleaner.	04/26/1986	$110.4
Cleaned and painted heads. Painted oil pan, block, timing set cover, water pump, and intake manifold. Ended up being wrong color. Used anyway.	04/27/1986	$0
Bought timing chain and degreaser.	04/28/2008	$12
Bought the following: Gaskets, Bearings, Rings, Oil filter, and black paint	04/29/1986	$94.29
Cleaned A/T, oil pump, lifter cover, valve covers. Assembled heads. Cleaned engine compartment and some accessories on firewall.	05/06/1986	$0
Painted valve covers, lifter cover.	05/07/1986	$0
cleaned excess bolts. Installed lifters and camshaft and timing chain cover stud.	05/08/1986	$0
Received bearings, gaskets, and rings and cleaned and painted engine compartment.	05/20/1986	$0
Installed pistons, crankshaft, rod & main bearings, timing chain, and fuel pump eccentric. Had to rent ring compressor and buy gasket sealer	05/24/1986	$8.89
Installed oil filter adapter, oil pump (after putting it together), oil splash pan, oil pan, timing chain cover, dampener, weights.	05/26/1986	$0
Disassembled, cleaned, reassembled all the hydraulic lifters. Bought solvent.	06/08/1986	$3.5
Connected flex plate. Cleaned some heater and A/C stuff.	06/09/1986	$0
Put on motor mounts. ????? Assembled tranny. Drained converter. Installed motor with rented cherry picker. Installed drive shaft. Things went well excpet for reversed ????	06/10/1986	$23.5
Installed heads, lifting rods, rocker arms. Not fun fighting with the heads.	06/12/1986	$0
Installed coil, distributor, and lifter covers.	06/14/1986	$0
Installed intake manifold, fuel pump.	06/15/1986	$0
Cleaned and painted minor bolt-on pieces. Bought Naval Jelly and 4 qts A/T fluid and 3 cans engine cleaner. Wire brushed air cleaner and a valve cover. Painted valve cover. Installed Power Steering Pump and Alternator. Hooked up some wires (including battery wires to block and solenoid). Need to tighten nuts on solenoid. Bolted down carb., along with carb. accessories. Attached vacuum line for A/T.	06/29/1986	$13
Installed bracket for alternator. Installed small vacuum hoses. Need to replace the 1 hose (air from manifold). Cleaned the broken A/T fluid cooler line.	06/30/1986	$0
Connected up stuff	07/04/1986	$0
Connected up stuff	07/06/1986	$0
Finished everything except for Air Cleaner. Bought gasket (AT) and paint. Not enough amps to start.	07/12/1986	$6
Finished air cleaner. Removed starter. Suspect burnt out brushes in motor. Discovered broken brake line.	07/19/1986	$0
Removed rusted exhaust pipe with hacksaw. Removed broken brake line.	07/27/1986	$0
Bought new starter	07/28/1986	$30
Installed new starter. Got engine to turn over but there was no gas in tank.	08/12/1986	$0
Went to junkyard (ABLE). Bought brake line, battery tray, and hood hings. Installed hing. Bought gas. Started engine. Ran after turning distributor (thanks Rob Notman)! Installed brake line. Bought brake fluid, hose, air cleaner element.	08/16/1986	$27
Bled brake lines. Cleaned and installed emergency brake. Cleaned under carriage. Determined that two bias ply tires are needed. Checked seat, need spring to keep from sliding.	08/17/1986	$0
Adjusted timing and idle speed	08/19/1986	$0
Bought paint. Painted shroud and radiator holder.	08/20/1986	$6
Registered car. Brushed and painted battery tray. Painted shroud. Fixed driver's seat. Noticed tranny shifting problem. Cleaned wheel cover.	08/29/1986	$26
Bought A/T fluid and cover bolts. Drove car up ramps. Removed existing exhaust system. Put on torque converter cover. Have to fix leak. Cleaned trunk.	8/34/86	$8
Installed heater fan. Bought paint for trunk and wheel covers.	09/01/1986	$8
Installed heater ducting.	09/02/1986	$0
Bought oil pressure switch and thermostat	09/04/1986	$6
Installed oil pressure switch and crossed fingers.	09/06/1986	$0
Fit up exhaust system. Need to enlarge muffler pipes. Bought flange.	09/13/1986	$4
Enlarged muffler pipes. Bought clamps. Fit up and installed passenger side.	09/15/1986	$6
Fit up and installed driver's side. Drove to gas station. Noticed tranny slip between gears. Must adjust belts later.	09/16/1986	$0
Filled up A/T. Put gaskets on exhaust. Adjusted speed, timing, and fuel mixture. Bought primer for trunk.	09/20/1986	$9.09
Bought hood ornament, trunk mat, light bulb, flasher, tire hold down from junkyard. Loriann bought shocks.	09/27/1986	$28
Took out exhaust gasket on D-side. Switched all radials to back. Installed shocks.	09/28/1986	$0
Adjusted timing to 6 degrees BTDC and idle speed to 500 RPM in Drive.	10/04/1986	$0
Installed A/C compressor. Installed thermostat.	10/20/1986	$0
Found 2 radial tires in trash	11/10/1986	$0
Installed new tires on front	11/14/1986	$8
Bought thermostat hsg. (used)	02/12/1987	$1
Installed thermostat hsg. with new gasket.	02/20/1987	$0.85
Installed remote sideview mirror that I bought in CA.	05/08/1990	$10
Began disassembly of body. PF1 (Passenger Front #1): Screws to bottom of PF3 and pushes up into back of bumper. PF2: Clips to PF3 (3 up) and to bumper support that runs front to back and pushes up and in. NOTE that front turn marker wire goes thru hole in front firewall.	09/19/1990	$0

Would Mine be the Only LeMans with Tartan?

With all this time NOT working on the LeMans, my mind is free to wander. Where did it go today? The Land of Tartan. The train of thought actually started, strangely enough, with thoughts of my next project – a track-worthy Corvair. Back in the day, Corvairs were referred to as the poor man’s Porsche, so why not incorporate some Porsche details into my modern day recreation of a period race car. Here are some interiors from Porsche. Then it hit me. Why not put some tartan in the LeMans’ interior?

Let me digress here and inform you, gentle reader, that I’ve tried my hand at trimming (the fancy way of saying upholstering). In fact, I bought a heavy-duty sewing machine. I’ve successfully sewn seat covers replacing rotted panels before. With YouTube’s help, I’m confident I could put together some acceptable seat covers for the LeMans.

As I wrote a few months back, I can’t find replacement front bench seat covers in parchment Morrokide. Making my own seat covers means I can go back to my front bench seat plan, which really has been my hope for many years. Coincidentally, during last weekend’s extraction of the LeMans from the garage, I finally decided to get rid of the front bench seat frame I’d been trying to get rid of, so now it’s lying out in the rain. Now, I may AGAIN decide to keep it. Argh!

The good thing about going with bench seats is that they do not require the expense of seat buns. Instead, you use some inexpensive padding between the springs and the upholstery. Also, it’s easier to hog-ring bench seat covers than it is buckets. Bucket seats require inboard hog-ringing to follow the contour of the bun and bolsters – been there, not fun.

So, I’ve got the sewing machine and a good source for the padding; all I need is material. To best go with the Pomegranate paint color and the parchment vinyl, I will be consulting with my artistic wife. I’m leaning towards this black, gray, and red plaid that was found on the first gen VW GTIs or one of the other Tartans I found online with the same colors. It’s still available by-the-yard from a number of online sources. Since stock parchment Morrokide (vinyl) is still the other material, SMS is THE source that’ll sell it to me by-the-yard. In searching their website FAQs, I found they’ll even be able to tell me how much I’ll need. I’ll be using some cheap vinyl and cloth to verify my patterns and sharpen my sewing skills. I’ll wait until Joanne’s has a sale.



Then there’s the question of the frames. The rear bottom and back are in good, solid shape, but the front sections need some help. I can buy some more zig-zag wires online and weld up any of the frame pieces that have rotted away. Then a good coat of Rusty Metal Primer followed by a top coat of whatever Rustoleum is lying around will be all that’s needed to get another fifty years of seating service out of the frames.

With the tartan inserts in the seats, I also want to do something with the door cards. Here’s a stock LeMans panel with an insert of tartan. I haven’t found the instructional that’ll teach me how to integrate cloth into a complete panel, but I’m sure that someone somewhere has created and posted a video or a how-to.

It’s a Process

As I announced in my 3-3-18 post, I’ve decided to bump up the priority of Mikhaila’s Corvair (named Scarlett) so that she can have it to drive sooner (within a few months) rather than later (within a few years). I should state here that, for the first time, one of my children has more cars than I do. In addition to the aforementioned Corvair convertible, Mikhaila also has her daily-driver MX-3 and the Golf GTI we’re working to put on the road. Speaking of the latter, this past weekend she and I got the new clutch installed, the transmission put back into place, and everything reinstalled and hooked back up. Yay team. We did all this in very close confines (see above layout). Once I confirm the clutch take-up is where it should be, I’ll drop it off the jackstands and drive it out of the garage. That’ll allow us to move to the next task, replacing the heater core. For that, though, I’ll drive the LeMans out of the garage and put the GTI in its place. There’s no way I can strip out the interior and dash in its current confines – it’ll take the entire garage.



During the, hopefully, short time the LeMans is outside, it’ll be under a tarp with most of the loose parts pieces piled in a corner of the garage.

Once the GTI has its heat restored, it’ll leave the garage and Scarlett will take its place. When Mikhaila’s not available, I’ll be working on finishing LeMans’ body and interior parts. Could be a busy Spring – I sure hope so.

Interior Color Scheme

To while away the hours until the GTI clutch job is done and I can get back to work on the LeMans (and write some blogs and post some videos), I’m trying to come up with things to write about.

To preface this post, I'll state that the body paint color current leading the race is Wild Pomegranate Metallic. Now on to the post.

Serendipitously, while on YouTube this morning, one of the recommended videos was of a beautiful ’65 LeMans convertible – red with a black top and white interior (is that black over red over white?). As I watched the show, I was struck by how nice the interior looked with the red body paint extended into the interior onto the doors and the bottom half of the dash. As I reminder, here’s what the factory intended for a white interior like mine has (photo taken off the web - not mine). Comparing this to the interior of the YouTube car, I like the bling.

versus

Some Here’s some more '65 interiors to feast your eyes upon. Nice stuff, eh?



Something else else that popped up on YouTube was a set of short videos of a low-mileage (68,000) '65 4-door with the original cloth interior. One thing I'd never noticed before was the Grand Prix style concave rear window that came on the 4-doors. So much of this car is so very cool.

Here's the link to the tour of the car's exterior.

Here's the link to the tour of the car's interior.

Here's the link to more of the car's interior, as well as driving.

Grandma’s Car

The second of the big-body Pontiacs that I’ve owned was a ’66 Catalina four-door hardtop. While living in Lynchburg, VA back in 1998, I was driving by an auto repair shop and, parked in their side lot, was a big, beige Pontiac with exactly the same front and rear ends as my Catalina convertible. There I was, thinking about replacing the rusty ‘vert with another big-body Pontiac. Here was a replacement basically in my backyard. I knocked on the door of the shop, and the proprietor answered. I got right to the point and asked him if the car was for sale. He replied that it was, and that he needed to get $750 for it. Coincidentally, that was exactly what I’d bought the convertible for, and was now what I was selling it for. The seller went on to tell me he’d been this car's mechanic for many years, as the previous owner was a local widow. He added that, once her husband had died, she rarely drove the car, hence the 85,000 original miles. I took the car out for a test drive and everything worked, although the engine was a little sluggish. A thorough body and frame inspection (I wasn't going to buy another flexible, rust-bucket) showed the body and chassis to be very solid. Figuring the stars had aligned, I told him I’d be back with cash the next afternoon.

At this time, I owned way too many vehicles. In addition to the Catalina and LeMans convertibles, I also had a daily-driver Mazda with a couple hundred thousand miles on it. With cars stacked up at the end of the driveway, there was a moratorium on adding any more vehicles to the stable. Being the optimist I was (and still am), I figured I'd be able to quickly sell either the Mazda or the rusty 'vert, so I went against better judgement and parked (read: hid) my new purchase at a friend’s house. Unfortunately, about a week later my friend needed the yard space for a new project of his own, so, tail between my legs, I fessed up to my lovely wife who was not happy about the situation. I told her that I was selling two cars since the 4-door would become my year-round daily-driver, but that didn’t really cool her down. I did sell both cars within a couple months, but Loriann was never a fan of the 4-door.


After registering the car, the next thing I did was buy a carburetor rebuild kit and deal with the 2-barrel Rochester. With the car running better, but still not good enough, I spent some of the money I got from selling the Mazda on a full tune-up kit. Then the engine was idling smoothly and pulling strongly.

About a year after getting the car, I was driving home from somewhere close by (fortunately) and pulling up to a stop sign, when the front end jerked accompanied with a bang. I got out of the car and discovered the right front wheel was now angled in severely at the top. I limped the car home where further investigation showed a broken (missing) upper control arm bushing. Kanter supplied the parts for the front-end rebuild which my buddy, Bill, and I did on the street in front of my house. Thank goodness I didn’t live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association.

I also fixed the clock. This was my first experience with an old car clock. I carefully disassembled it, figuring out how it all worked. Then I cleaned and oiled the pertinent parts, and put it all back together. Lo and behold, after grounding the housing and putting twelve volts to the lead, the electromagnet did its thing winding the spring, and the second hand started its rotation.

The car came with the fender skirts in the trunk – one of them rather mangled from some incident. After some beating and banging, I was able to get it to go on and stay on. To me that really completed the long, low look Pontiac designers intended for the car.

Some other features of this car I really liked included its size, the engine torque, the delicate shifter and blinker lever, and the color. I wouldn't have thought I'd like a boring light brown car, but when Pontiac's Mission Beige was cleaned and polished, I was a fan of tan.

A couple years after getting the car, I accepted a transfer to Long Island, NY. The company was paying to move our household goods, but I couldn’t get them to foot the bill for moving the convertibles. By that time, we’d traded our MPV for a Suburban, so I rented a trailer from U-Haul. The big Cat’ was such a wide-body, that when I tried to drive it up onto the trailer, its wheels overhung on each side. I ended up driving it the nearly five hundred miles to our new home. No issues, thankfully. Sadly, my commute to work from our home in Port Jefferson was much longer than it had been in Lynchburg, so I made the hard decision to trade it for something far more frugal – a ’63 Chevy Corvair (a story for another blog).

The Catalina Convertible

Since work on the LeMans is at a standstill until the GTI clutch is replaced (kit arrives Wednesday), I thought I’d share the story of the Catalina convertible I owned back in the nineties.

At some point in early ‘97, as I looked out my kitchen window and gazed upon a Pontiac convertible (the LeMans) under a blue tarp and parked at the end of my driveway, I got it in my head that I needed another Pontiac convertible; a running, driving one that I could enjoy immediately, rather than one that was still many, many hours of effort from being roadworthy.

Twenty-one years have passed since I made the decision to bring a second Pontiac into the stable, so the details of how I discovered that someone in Arlington, VA was selling a 1966 Catalina droptop are blurry. I don’t believe it was Craigslist, even though the internet says CL was around then. How I was able to peruse the classifieds of the Washington Post is unknown, but I think that’s where I found it. I had a nice phone call with the seller, where he swore the car ran well and the power top worked, but there were some rust issues. After a conversation with the lovely, and supportive, Loriann and another phone call to the seller, and we were set for a mid-day Saturday meet-up.

After I loaded a jack, jackstand, and some cardboard to facilitate the upcoming inspection, we made the three hour drive up from Lynchburg, where we found the car parked on a residential street. The seller came out and I pored over the car inside and out. Yes, there was definitely some Bondo behind the maroon paint, but it seemed to be holding. The floors were intact, albeit with crude patches. The frame did have some rust through, however, but I quickly convinced myself it wasn’t terminal. The seller joined me on the test-drive where he shared how he didn’t have a place to keep the car, and, while he loved driving it, he wanted to move it on to someone who could take better care of it. During the drive the car ran fine - decent acceleration, smooth idling, and everything important worked as he’d promised. One event occurred during the drive that should’ve have warned me off the purchase – while driving over some railroad tracks I felt some flexing in the body. Not enough to cause a door to pop open, but certainly significantly more than normal. Since the test drive was made with the top down, spring was right around the corner, and the price was only $750, I was sold and bought the car.


The drive back home went off without a hitch, and, after transferring the title and getting antique tags, I had myself a wonderful daily-driver. My commute was less than six miles a day, so the ten miles to the gallon the car was giving me wasn’t a big deal. Sliding behind the wheel on the big bench seat, turning the key to fire up the 389 V8, and pressing a switch to drop the top is a wonderful way to start one’s daily drive.

There were many features of that car I loved beyond the droptop including the bench seat (room for our family of six), the slim, delicate shifter, the torquey engine, and the color scheme. I still remember family outings to the local ice cream parlor and being thankful for the easy-cleaning Morrokide upholstery.

A few weeks after I got the car, I visited a local body shop to get an estimate on patching the frame. The guy took a quick look at the underside, and told he wouldn’t touch the job. In fact he recommended I not drive the car. Something about, “one good bump and it’s going to break in two.” Well, I’d already put the car over far more than one good bump, so I didn’t heed his warning and kept driving the car. I did, however, make plans for replacing the frame. I’d found a wrecking yard down in North Carolina that specialized in older cars, and a phone call confirmed they had a ’66 Catalina convertible chassis he’d sell me for a couple hundred dollars. I rented a tow dolly, and my car-buddy, Bill, and I spent a Saturday fetching it. That adventure will be a blog post in itself someday.

The next step in re-framing the car was to look at what it would take to pull the body off the current, swiss-cheesed frame. I put the car up on jackstands and went looking for the body bolts. What I found instead was a whole lot of fiberglass. The forward portion of the trunk wasn’t metal anymore – it was now fiberglass. Much of the metal under the back seat was gone – it was now fiberglass. I was now afraid the body wouldn’t hold together if I tried taking it off what was left of the chassis. The whole “breaking in two” thing was a real risk.

So, what was I to do now? Keep driving the car every day of course. I enjoyed it for a second driving season before another ’66 Catalina – a low-mileage, only-drove-it-on-Sundays, our-door hardtop – joined the stable (a story for another blog post). At that point, I had to get rid of some cars, and, sadly, the flexible car as well as my previous daily-driver, an ’84 Mazd with well over two hundred thousand miles, had to go. If memory serves me I put the convertible up for sale on “Smoke Signals” (the Pontiac-Oakland Club’s monthly magazine). I listed it for $750 and threw in the replacement chassis for free. A couple months later, I got a phone call from a guy in Nashville, TN. I was very up front with him regarding the condition of the car, but all he seemed to care about was whether it would make the five hundred mile drive back to his home. I told him that, mechanically, the car was very reliable. That convinced him to buy a one-way plane ticket, and make plans for the next weekend when I picked him at the local airport, drove him to my house, accepted his pile of fifties, gave him the keys and the signed title, and watched as he drove the car heading east. I never heard from him again, so I guess everything worked out.

He did not want the chassis, so I changed my Smoke Signals’ ad to sell just the chassis for $100. No takers. After a couple months, I called the wrecking yard where I’d purchased it, and asked if he’d take it back and give me some credit towards other parts. He told me he wasn’t in the business of taking back parts, but he understood my situation and grudgingly agreed to give me one hundred dollars credit.

The following Saturday was cloudy and cold, but Bill and loaded the front of the chassis on a tow-dolly, Hitched it up to the family mini-van and drug it back to North Carolina. Once we arrive and unloaded the chassis, we went hunting for LeMans parts – specifically a bench seat and a steering column with the shifter. We found the former in a ’64 Tempest and the latter in a ’67 Skylark. Those and couple other little items were loaded into the MPV, and Bill and I drove back to Lynchburg.

Now I’m trying to get rid of the bench seat and steering column since I’ve made the decision to keep the LeMans as it came from the factory (bucket seats and console shift) rather than turn it into a six-passenger vehicle.

In my next post I’ll share the story of the aforementioned 4-door.

I Have a Plan

After Wednesday’s disheartening post, I’m much more upbeat. My change of attitude came, mostly, because of a phone call with my car-buddy Bill the next day. We went back-and-forth about what made the most sense for me at this time in my life; how I’d feel if, after 30 years, I get rid of the LeMans; is Mikhaila really going to find the time to help me get her Corvair on the road; are there any ways I can carve out more time in the garage. With his help, I came up with the following plan which really wasn’t any of my presented options.

1. Don’t sell the LeMans.
2. Finish the GTI’s clutch job ASAP and get it out of the garage.
3. Roll the LeMans, minus its doors, fenders, wheelwells, hood, and trunklid, out into the driveway and cover it with a tarp.
4. Put the GTI back in the garage and replace the leaky heater core and get it on the road.
5. Clean the MX-3 and sell it ASAP.
6. Move Mikhaila’s Corvair into the garage.
7. Put the LeMans back in the stall behind the garage.
8. Use my car-time to work on Mikhaila’s Corvair when she’s available and the LeMans body pieces when she’s not.

Yeah, I hear you. Adding a car project right after complaining that I don’t time for the LeMans – that is dumb. Here’s the reasoning behind the new plan. As I’ve whined about countless times, the LeMans is taking much longer than I’d expected. As Mikhaila gets older, her car-time availability is shrinking. I‘d better snag it while I can. Also, since I’m focused on the LeMans’ body panels I don’t need the rest of the car in the garage while I’m stripping, priming, straightening, and painting the removed panels. The Corvair is significantly smaller than the LeMans, so I can better work on the panels than I currently can.

Does this mean I’ll be maintaining two blogs at once – Tom’s LeMans and Corvair Fleet Maintenance? Definitely. Will I also be shooting Corvair video and posting it on YouTube alongside the LeMans Restoration video? Probably. Only time will tell.

Am I at a Crossroads?

As I started drafting this missive, one word kept coming to mind – disheartened. It’s been one year since I posted the first video in my LeMans restoration series - the one where I extracted the car from its stall behind my garage and rolled it into the sunlight for the first time in nearly ten years. What have I accomplished in that year? Two doors and a fender have primer on them. That’s about it. At this rate, I will be in my eighties when this car is finally roadworthy. There’s just too much going on in my life so I can't devote enough time to this project to complete it in a reasonable amount of time. The original plan to have it painted, upholstered, and running by this spring was a folly I quickly replaced by hopes for its rollout in the Spring of 2019. At my current crawl, however, that, too, is a joke.

Then there’s the Corvair that sitting behind the garage with a bashed in front end. Repairing that is supposed to be a father-daughter project – one I promised myself wouldn’t occur until the LeMans is on the road. Will my youngest daughter, Mikhaila, still be willing to work on it with me in two years (or more)?

Now I’ve got another project crammed into the garage next to the LeMans. I recently bought a ’96 VW Golf GTI for Mikhaila. Her current daily-driver has over two-hundred thousand miles and, while it’s been reliable lately, it is showing signs of possible issues that will sideline it. I got a good deal on the GTI since it needed a water pump, a clutch, and a heater core. The water pump’s been replaced, and the car is currently on jack-stands in the midst of the clutch replacement. It’s going to take another couple of weeks just to finish that project, and then the heater core job will be an additional eight hours of removing front seats, console, and dash just to get to the leaky piece before putting it all back together. Once it’s done, I’ll trade her for her Mazda MX-3.

So what’s a very frustrated car-guy to do? What’s a new, near-term plan that’ll remove “disheartened” from my vocabulary? Is racing part of the solution?

Fortunately, my current daily-driver Mustang is not part of the equation since it’s: 1) a blast to drive, so my credo (“Life is short, drive what you like”) is met; 2) reliable, so I never have to spend time fixing things; 3) rust-resistant, so I can happily drive it year-round; and 4) practical, so I can haul bikes, pull a trailer, fill it with camping gear, etc.

What else can’t change? Getting the GTI on the road must take priority. With all that being said, here are what the options I came up with.

Option 1 is to just come to grips with the current state of things and consider myself very lucky that I have a nice, newer Mustang as my daily-driver and a desirable car in the works, albeit a long time in the works. The MX-3 will be sold; the LeMans will take as long as it will take; and Mikhaila’s Corvair will get attention. At this point, I’m not considering putting the Mustang on a road course, so my racing would be limited to autocrossing and drag racing.

Option 2 is to swap Mikhaila’s Corvair for the LeMans, so she and I can get that car back on the road before her time is harder to garner. Once that work is done, I’ll be at a crossroads again, but at least I’ll feel good about getting a car on the road and I’ll free up space behind the garage to provide more options. The cost of this option is some paint to re-spray the front clip (sheetmetal in front of the windshield) once all the welding is done.

Option 3 answers my desire to have a track car – one that I’m willing to risk on a roadcourse. Think “Zoom-Zoom.” I’d keep the MX-3, squeeze it into the garage, strip out the interior, lower it, install a GUP (Good Used Part) seat and harness, GNP (Good New Part) shifter bushings, decent tires, and hit the track. Yeah, yeah, I know it has a lot of miles on it, but a replacement engine from a junkyard is a small investment. An upgrade to the V6 with it’s commensurate 20% increase in power is feasible or maybe a turbo. Stock these cars are lightweight (around 2400 pounds) and handle like a go-kart (Zoom-Zoom).

Option 4 is the dramatic one. Assuming I’ll never get the personal satisfaction equal to all the hours and dollars the LeMans will suck up, I’ll sell it. What could I get for a running, driving (after I bolt on the fenders and doors), rust-free 1965 A-body convertible? Hagerty says ten grand in fair condition. Even though it’s not restored, the rust-free-ness of it should cause it to hold its value, but let’s say I get $8500 for it. What would I do with that much cash? There are many, many fun vehicles that would be on my track-car list. It’d have to be a smaller car to better fit in the garage, so no Camaro or Mustang. The candidates would include the aforementioned V6 MX-3, the first-gen Tempest I've written about, a V6 MX-6, a Miata, a Corvair, a Triumph GT6, a Triumph Spitfire, an MG-B, and maybe even a last-year Fiero.

Hmmm. Quite the crossroads.

Metal and Weather Get In The Way of Painting Progress

For a while now I’ve been talking about my struggles with paint color and how I believed that shooting a door or other body panel in each of the top candidates would make it apparent which color I should go with. I wanted to have done it sooner rather than, what it’s turning into, later. What’s been hampering my progress? Well, it IS winter and I don’t have a heated paint booth. Even if I did, though, I’m still struggling to carve out enough time to properly prep both doors for primer. I’m also working on the front fenders hammering out dings and patching a rusty area. All these efforts are documented in my YouTube videos which now number 21 episodes. The latest ones are: 19-Sanding Bondo, 20-Fenders, Doors, and Gauges, and 21-More Sanding Plus Making a Patch.

With my progress drawn out, I’ve had the opportunity to fall in love with another color. Recently, I read a Facebook post from Rusted Iron Customs showing their beautiful 1963 Tempest convertible. The paint job was flat black over House of Kolor’s Tangerine Kandy. I asked their painter, Matt, what color primer this was shot over and he replied PPG K36 (gray). I’ve done some more research on the paint, and it’s recommended that the transparent paint be shot over a silver or gold basecoat. From the photos, though, it sure looks gorgeous over the gray. I’m toying with the idea of getting a pint of the paint off eBay for $30. I’d also need a can of reducer ($25) and one of catalyst ($50). That’s $105 I could easily spend elsewhere, so this color may be off the table just due to the cost of painting a sample panel.

I’ll be getting some time in the garage tomorrow evening, so I plan on finishing the patch job on passenger fender by cutting out the bad metal to match the patch I’ve made, welding it into place, and grinding back the weld flush. The five day forecast has daytime temps in the high-forties and low-fifties this weekend, so I might strip the outside surfaces of the fenders, finish sanding the doors, and shoot all four pieces with epoxy primer. When motivated, I can work in an un-heated, well-ventilated garage in that kind of weather.