[leecorrell]

Well I really don’t want to do this, but due to my financial situation I have to at least consider selling my restored 1967 Lemans. I have no idea what a full frame-off restored Lemans is worth, but I know what I need to make me consider selling it (which is something I never thought I’d even consider). Man, my heart is racing and my hands are shaking as I type this! I thought I’d put it out there and see if there is any interest or if everyone thinks I’m crazy for what I’m asking. This car was built to be what I wanted because I never intended to get rid of it – it’s not a concourse original type resto.

I’ve owned this car since December of 1991 when I bought it as a non-running fixer upper from a guy in my then home town of Wabash Indiana. My dad and I fixed it up and it was my daily driver for many years. I even brought my first 2 kids home from the hospital in this car – talk about some funny looks from the nurses! My wife and I took it on the 2002 Hot Rod Power Tour long haul from Nebraska to Ohio when it still had the 326 engine in it. It used so much oil on that trip that I decided to do an engine rebuild. Since it was about the same cost to rebuild the non-original 326 that was in it as it was to build the 455 I had tucked away, I decided to go for more horsepower. I researched the heck out of building Pontiac engines and was so impressed by the results of Jim and Floyd Hand that I decided to copy Floyd’s engine recipe. They and many others on these boards helped me build a great engine, and I think you all for that. I’m sure you can find a lot of history on my car by looking at my posts on these forum from the last 14+ years. Anyway, on to the details on the car…

The engine is a 1973 455 bored .060 over for 469 cubic inches. I had the factory crank turned .010/.010, went with forged H-beam rods, forged TRW pistons, zero deck height, all balanced to round out the bottom end. I used 7K3 heads that I ported myself per Jim and Floyd Hands instructions, Ferea valves, Crane valve springs, Crane 1.65:1 full roller rockers, polished combustion chambers, and milled flat 3 sides for 9.77:1 compression. It’s running a Crane H-296-2 cam with Rhoads lifters, 1979 800cfm q-jet that I modified with the instructional help of Cliff Ruggles, Crane Hi-6 ignition box with rev limiter, custom fabricated headers for max ground clearance, 3” X-pipe into flowmaster mufflers with 2.5” tailpipes out the back. I’ve never had it dyno’d or ran it down the dragstrip to know the exact HP, but I’d say it’s at least a conservative 450hp and sounds downright evil. I’m running an aluminum radiator with an electric fan to keep it all cool. The automatic transmission of course immediately protested all this newfound power so there is now a fully built TH350 behind the engine. The rear end is a 2.93 posi 8.2

I hit a deer with the car in November of 2004 which messed up the header panel, front bumper, and minor damage to the hood. It was the repairs from this accident that snowballed into a full frame of restoration from 2004-2010. The hood was replaced with an aftermarket VFN fiberglass GTO hood with open scoop, a good original header panel installed, a new aftermarket front bumper, and the Lemans grills repaired. The chrome eyebrow moldings are originals that I bought on EBAY that were supposed to be perfect, but are far from it – they were installed until better ones can be found and are still on the car now. The frame was sandblasted and painted with por15 along with the entire underside of the body (was supposed to be matte black but came out glossy for some reason). This car had typical midwest rust issues that was all repaired by cutting out the old and correctly butt-welding in new metal. The bottoms of the front fenders were repaired, bottoms of both doors repaired, rear wheel wells and lower rear quarters repaired, floor pans, trunk, and around the rear window all repaired with metal. I have 100’s if not 1000’s of pictures of all of this work to prove it was done right and the car is all metal. After extensive block sanding to get this car laser straight it was sprayed with the original Mariner Turquoise color in base/clear and then meticulously wet sanded and buffed for an incredible (although not flawless) finish.

The interior is all new in original turquoise except for a white headliner. It has Legendary upholstery and door panels, new armrest bases and pads, new carpet, new weather stripping, and new white headliner. The instrument cluster and steering column are actually 1966 parts and the dash pad has been eliminated. The instrument cluster was restored with paint, not re-chromed and has an aftermarket shift-light tach. There is a block off plate installed where the radio would be (no radio) with a manual override switch for the electric fan and a fuel ratio gauge installed. It has under dash aftermarket oil pressure, temp, and voltmeter gauges. This car does not have air conditioning.

I’ve never been able to actually complete all of the work I wanted to do. The remaining stuff is bolt on, hard to find parts. The door handles, headlight surrounds, and taillight surrounds are the originals with significant pitting of the chrome. I’ve never been able to find the rear “PONTIAC” tail panel emblem, so there are empty holes where it should be. Since there is no radio in the car I have never installed an antenna, so there is also an open hole in the top of the passenger front fender where the antenna should be. The rear bumper is also the original with significant chrome peeling and dings. The wheels are all cragar ss but the front wheels have significant chrome pitting and peeling, rears are new. I planned to replace these parts as I went along and could scrape together the money, but I’ve never been able to do so since the economy got so tight.

The car runs absolutely fantastic and sounds and looks excellent. I’ve taken it to several local car shows and have several trophies to show for it. However, I’m just not into the whole car show scene. I honestly regret restoring my car to this level now as it just no longer fits my lifestyle. It’s too nice to drive like I did before the restoration and I’m terrified of scratching or otherwise messing it up. Because of this the car probably hasn’t seen but maybe a few hundred miles in the last several years. I believe it’s because it sits in the garage so much that the tires have flat spotted because it has developed a teeth chattering vibration between 55-60mph. I have been planning to put new tires on it and replace the peeling cragar wheels as the next priority when I can afford it, but it again just can’t manage to scrape together the money.

I’ve done my best to fully and honestly describe the car – it’s not perfect, but has to be one of the nicest 1967 Lemans’ out there. It resides in my garage in Celestine Indiana about halfway between Evansville and Louisville. I’d like to sell it, use some of the money to pay off some debt, and pick up another project car that I won’t make the mistake of restoring to such a nice condition that I’m afraid to drive it. I may consider taking a project car as partial trade. I may also consider selling the car for less (if the offer is right) without the engine and transmission so that I can transplant them into my next project. I’ll need $25,000 firm out of it as it sits. I realize a Lemans may not be worth this to many people since it’s not a GTO, but this is what it’s worth to me and it’s not worth selling for any less. Pictures to follow.

[Redpiston]

Great looking Lemans. I am looking for a 67 vert. If it was a vert, we'd be talking.

[Chris65LeMans]

Nice looking car!

[leecorrell]

Still for sale. Here's a picture of the trunk. I'll try to post some pictures of the underside soon - it's darn near as clean as the top side. I'm ashamed of the way the engine bay looks right now because the paint burned off the headers and they surface rusted over the winter storage. I'll post some pictures of the engine after I get a chance to do something about that.