1972 LeMans Daily Driver budget project - Lateral-g Forums

Brad1970 · #1 01-27-2010, 09:32 AM

Here is the start of my project. 1972 Pontiac LeMans Luxury. 400ci, TH400 tranny. Not the original tranny & motor from what I've been told by the previous owner. Body is fairly good shape, not a lot of rust & runs great. I bought the car from a guy in Kentucky who bought the car from a guy in my home town here in Arkansas. He had moved to Kentucky from AR 4 yrs ago... small world.

Anyway drove the car 9 hrs back home & not a problem.

Got the car in Nov. & started in the trunk with a wire wheel taking off the surface rust & a bit more. Discovered a hole in the wheel well/trunk line (common spot) & in the rear close to the spare tire tie down ( few smaller spots) where the trunk brace is.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I pulled most of the interior & my Father & I removed the rusted out passenger side floorboard & installed a patch. I've been wire wheel brushing the floorboards & what not, & using rust inhibitor paint over the cleaned areas, then using flat black on top of that.

Last week I ordered some of the suspenion pieces I wanted & got in some of it today. For the front I went with Savitske's SC&C Stage 2 Plus, nascar style ball joint (screw in), lightweight arms, with SPC lowering springs 550lb front, 135lb rear & Polygraphite bushings for front lower arms. In the rear I've ordered Spohn upper & lower adjustable arms with Del-Sphere joints & Vari shock single adjst. I'lll get those installed in the next week or so...

**214Chevy** · #2 01-27-2010, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad1970

Here is the start of my project. 1972 Pontiac LeMans Luxury. 400ci, TH400 tranny. Not the original tranny & motor from what I've been told by the previous owner. Body is fairly good shape, not a lot of rust & runs great. I bought the car from a guy in Kentucky who bought the car from a guy in my home town here in Arkansas. He had moved to Kentucky from AR 4 yrs ago... small world.

Anyway drove the car 9 hrs back home & not a problem.

Got the car in Nov. & started in the trunk with a wire wheel taking off the surface rust & a bit more. Discovered a hole in the wheel well/trunk line (common spot) & in the rear close to the spare tire tie down ( few smaller spots) where the trunk brace is.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I pulled most of the interior & my Father & I removed the rusted out passenger side floorboard & installed a patch. I've been wire wheel brushing the floorboards & what not, & using rust inhibitor paint over the cleaned areas, then using flat black on top of that.

Last week I ordered some of the suspenion pieces I wanted & got in some of it today. For the front I went with Savitske's SC&C Stage 2 Plus, nascar style ball joint (screw in), lightweight arms, with SPC lowering springs 550lb front, 135lb rear & Polygraphite bushings for front lower arms. In the rear I've ordered Spohn upper & lower adjustable arms with Del-Sphere joints & Vari shock single adjst. I'lll get those installed in the next week or so...

1st...welcome Brad, 2nd looks like a nice project you have and a good starting point. I have a 1972 GTO that was given to me as a wedding gift by my father-in-law. He gave it to me as a wedding gift because he had two daughters and never had a son to give it to. I had begged for it for years and he kept saying, "No!" So, when I married his daughter it became mine.

Nonetheless, what are yor plans for the car? Pro-touring with rims & brakes, etc or pretty much the stock look with a few upgrades? Keep us updated. You will find out here on this forum we love pics more the life itself.

Brad1970 · #3 01-27-2010, 01:53 PM

Gonna go the Pro Tour route... Had I bought a GTO, it'd most likely stay original.

Suspension is my 1st upgrade/fix, wheels/tires next (18" x whatever), steering box/rag joint, interior (seats, ect..), transmission (T56), big brakes, then motor (LSx) & finally paint (silver {original color of the car}).

deuce_454 · #4 01-28-2010, 12:17 AM

i did the same on a g-body, which is basically the same chassis but a foot narrower.. and there are a couple of things you really should considder.. the first is a basic boly on and thats the wattslink marcus sells.. it makes a HUGE difference in the feel of the car, it becomes much more refined and predictable.. and faster in turns.. and the second one is almost a must.. boxing the frame !! cheap, fast and BIG difference.. i added solid bodymounts which helped even more and didnt make it noisy or horrible like people said it would. but poly mounts would probably appeal more to a bigger crowd..

an ls/t65 is a spendy route.. a tko 5 speed and a rebuild+heads/cam will give you the same horsepower, keep the car closer to original and could cost far less when you factor in all the little stuff you need for the ls swap.. headers, mounts, fueltank, pump, wiring, plumbing, ac, cpu, dynotime etc etc...

Brad1970 · #5 01-28-2010, 08:04 PM

Boxing the frame... doesn't that require taking the body off the frame? I bought poly body mounts, they'll eventually get installed...

I'm gonna stick with the T56 6-speed for the gas mileage improvement. Keeping the stock motor & building it up is definitely a good & cheaper alternative, not really caring much about keeping the originality of the car, if it were a GTO I would. Speaking of that I've purchased some GTO parts.. I think all I'm lacking at this point is fenders & a hood. The attached pics are just of the bumper stuff, I've also got some grills & the headlight deals...

Anyway the LSx motor is a nice future project to work toward.

deuce_454 · #6 01-29-2010, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brad1970

Boxing the frame... doesn't that require taking the body off the frame? I bought poly body mounts, they'll eventually get installed...

I'm gonna stick with the T56 6-speed for the gas mileage improvement. Keeping the stock motor & building it up is definitely a good & cheaper alternative, not really caring much about keeping the originality of the car, if it were a GTO I would. Speaking of that I've purchased some GTO parts.. I think all I'm lacking at this point is fenders & a hood. The attached pics are just of the bumper stuff, I've also got some grills & the headlight deals...

Anyway the LSx motor is a nice future project to work toward.

if you are going to lift the body 4-6 inches to swap the mounts anyway.. it isnt a big deal to box the frame, and it makes a BIG difference