1965 Pontiac Le Mans Convertible.
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images of my car.
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Skip ahead to 1984. I'm married with an entry level engineering job. Since we had just bought a new car (don't ask what kind), my wife's back in school, and we're paying Silicon Valley rent, money is tight. During one of our weekly dinners at my parent's house, my mom mentions that Mr. Hayes had passed away a few months ago. I had noticed that his car had been sitting in his driveway for quite a while with four flat tires and holes in the cloth roof. I looked at my wife, and asked her if I can buy the car. She replied that our checking account had $150 in it and I could only have half. So I got up from the table, walked down the street, knocked on the door, and bought a 1965 Le Mans Convertible for $75. Now the fun began. I told Mrs. Hayes that I would be by the next week to move the car from her driveway. I then rounded up a buddy of mine and had AAA meet me at the car. AAA put enough air in the tires to get the car rolling, and Steve and I pushed the car down the street. The next week I rented a tow bar and after putting more air in the tires, I pulled the car the fifteen miles to my two-car carport using my parent's Caprice. Next on the agenda was getting the car to run. It had sat for so long that the antifreeze had coagulated into a greasy mess. I flushed out coolant system as best I could, changed the oil, topped off the other fluids, cleaned the plugs, put some oil in the cylinders, turned the engine by hand a bunch of times, and started it up. It ran, but a banging noise was coming from the bottom end of the 326 cid V-8. Just about the time I turned the key to off, the engine seized up. I rented a cherry picker, and with my dad's help, pulled the engine and tranny. After tearing down the engine, I determined that one of the rod bearings had spun. I had the block hot-tanked and the crank turned 0.010 under. Again, bear in mind that I was under a very strict budget. I rented a ridge-reamer and honer and cleaned up the cylinders. I borrowed a friend's valve lapping tool and lapped all the valves to the heads. I bought the cheapest rebuild kit that PAW had (gaskets, rings, timing chain, bearings) and rented a rting compressor and put the engine back together. I borrowed a cherry picker, and my dad and I put the engine and tranny back into the car. Then I put everything else back together, and started it up. Ran great. Hurray!! This was done during late summer and early fall in carport. It was real fun during the fall because I had to sweep leaves out of the way before I could proceed work each day. With California's lenient safety laws at the time I was able to drive the car around during the summer with the cracked windshield. We left California in '87 and moved to Pennsylvania. My employer paid for moving the two old cars (also had a '62 Corvair by that time). They were driven into the moving van, platforms were placed over them and all our belonging were packed on top of them. Other priorities kept me from replacing the cracked windshield, so I was never able to legally drive the car in PA or in MD after we moved there in '89. Now we live in Virginia, and I've got two other old Pontiacs, but I haven't forgotten about the Le Mans. I've actually done some work on it recently. My hope is to get it running again and license it as an Antique Vehicle. That would mean that I was exempt from inspections, but I could only drive it under special circumstances. That's okay for now. |