[LarryF]

I am going to be building a clone of a 63 super duty Lemans post coupe. What I'm wondering is what exactly are the differences between the Tempest and Lemans options, besides the tail lights and emblems (including interior)? Do you have a rough idea of what the parts would cost to convert a Tempest to a Lemans? The only reason I'm thinking about this is that if I find a Tempest in good shape at a good price it might be worthwhile to convert it instead of looking only for a Lemans. Also, what is a decent price for either a Tempest or Lemans in good condition (straight body, little or no rust, good interior)? Thanks.

-Larry

[LarryF]

I am going to be building a clone of a 63 super duty Lemans post coupe. What I'm wondering is what exactly are the differences between the Tempest and Lemans options, besides the tail lights and emblems (including interior)? Do you have a rough idea of what the parts would cost to convert a Tempest to a Lemans? The only reason I'm thinking about this is that if I find a Tempest in good shape at a good price it might be worthwhile to convert it instead of looking only for a Lemans. Also, what is a decent price for either a Tempest or Lemans in good condition (straight body, little or no rust, good interior)? Thanks.

-Larry

[Doug]

Larry,
I think Tempest had bench seat and Lemans buckets. The panel where tail lights are mounted are quite different (round holes for Tempest, long holes for Lemans, etc.) I don't know much about trim options but I have a Lemans without chrome drip edge molding. ( I originally thought all Lemans had that trim.) I wouldn't think there would be enough difference in price for Tempest vs Lemans to make it worth the conversion. A guy named Claude Perdue in Columbus, Ohio has (had?) a Tempest set up with a 421 2x4 Nascar engine for sale about a year ago. I think he may have been asking about $10,000.
( He is a POCI member. Check old Smoke Signals.) I think the altered wheelbase car that Joe Cochran built was a rusty old car Joe bought from Claude's brother several years ago.

I'm in a long drawn out process of putting a tweaked tripower 428 4spd in a street Lemans with a 57 Poncho leaf spring setup.

I built one similar in the early 70's. With stock 1957(3.42? ratio) non posi I got it to run a best of 13.28@108mph quarter.

Getting drop-in fit exhaust headers for these cars is a problem.

One thing to remember if you are doing any leaf spring mounting in the rear is "THE DRIVER SIDE FRAME RAIL IS OFFSET QUITE A BIT MORE TO THE OUTSIDE THAN THE PASSENGER SIDE IS." You can find that dimension in a 63 chassis manual. Their reason is that it is offset to allow for the gas tank filler. I found that curious since the 61 and 62 filled at the side and the 63 fills at the license plate. ( I finally realized that the 63 wagons still filled at the side.)

Have fun. Doug

[Doug]

Larry, I don't know if you have ever seen the Bill Blair car (Serial #1) of the super duty Tempest cars but I thought you would be interested in this bit of info. Blair's car has a wraparound rear window ( the ends curve around into the rear pillar posts). I don't know if any other cars had this wraparound but my Tempest has a "flat" glass just like a Lemans. I don't recall ever seeing another wraparound car. It may be that this is a one-of-a-kind but it could be that some of the other Tempests had it. If I can dig up a picture of Blair's car I'll let you know and send it to you.
I guess I'm saying that if you are going to clone a super duty I would suggest that you check out about this wraparound car and see if you could find one to work over.
Later, Doug

[tom s]

the lemans does have buckets,the window dif is the lemans and the tempest sport coupe has the small window,the std. tempest has the large back window.If you are going to do a 63 SD clone it is easyer to use a ford 9in and a ladder bar coil over like Dave Johnson has on the White Warrior.He uses a 33 in ladder bar.I have copied his in mine and it works real well.The reason for the 9in is the early big car pontiacs are gettingreal hard to fund gears other than 3.08 and 4.10s and 4,56s.The side gears in the posis are even harder to get.I used the big pontiac and it is the only thing I did that I regreat.If you guys need any info please email or call.Tom

[Scott Misus]

Guys:

The drivetrain has absolutely nothing to do with the body style. They made a Catalina in both a 2 door hardtop and a two door sedan style in '63.

Same goes for the Tempest line.

2117: 2 door "Sports" coupe(flat back window)
2117: 2 door coupe (big back window; this is what Bill's car is)
2217: Lemans 2 door coupe (only available with "flat" back window.)

They offered lots of different body styles back then, usually variations on the two door and four door (hardtop vs sedan) styles.

By the way, Larry, they're ALL post coupes!

[This message has been edited by Scott Misus (edited 02-21-2000).]