I drool over that car every time I see it Jerel. I can't imagine a nicer colour combination for it.
Getting to know you here has been a pleasure. You've certainly been a great contributor to this site and it's great to see you get some recognition for it.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Wednesday 6th of June 2012 07:54:30 PM
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I have to admit I'm embarrassed to have not really taken notice of Jerel Forsberg's beautiful 1964 Beaumont Convertible in the four years that Jerel has been a member of Canadian Poncho! Then, a few weeks ago I took notice of Jerels avatar. In that avatar was a photo of his Beaumont. It was at that point I knew we were long overdue in featuring his car. Jerel did a fantastic restoration on this rare car and I'm privileged to feature it this month. Jerel fills us in on the details:
I purchased the car in 2004 after my next door neighbour had told me about it. The car had been taken to a body shop in the late 90’s for a frame off restoration which they had a good start on.
The metal work had all been completed and the frame was painted plus the brakes and front end had all been replaced.
The owner ran into some financial difficulty so the body shop sold it to a guy to recover his costs. It then sat in his garage for a few years and after him acquiring too many projects the car came up for sale. Also in the time that the body shop had the car the body shop had relocated which caused a few of these rare parts to disappear. So along I come and try to take it to the final stages.
I can usually do okay if I can see things as they are and take them apart but this was just a pile of car parts, some labelled and some weren’t. To make it interesting they had also thrown in some other GM parts but not from my car. One example was when it came time to slip the drive shaft in it was a few inches short. Sort of a shame as they had given me a nicely painted one.
The body shop had sprayed the body in high build primer when they quit working on it so I got a friend of mine to take it back to metal and finish it off and spray it.
Was sort of interesting when I started out in construction on my own one of my first projects was an addition on his parent’s house and he was probably 4 or 5 years old. He had since grown up and was just starting out with his own body shop and my car was one of his first projects. I have been very happy with the job he did. That was the easy part, just had to lay out some money. Then came time to start putting this thing back together. You never know what you are missing until you get to the area where you need that part. My manual became my best friend and I was fortunate to find a neighbour 5 minutes away that has a 64 four door that I was able to go look at a few times as a source of information. On a couple occasions when I found pieces that I were missing I was able to go back to the original body shop and find them but he wasn’t too keen on spending any time looking for them and I don’t blame him.
I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time on the computer until I started to source missing parts. One part that was tough for me was the front hood trim. Tin Man just had a damaged one at the time and I tried all over the place. Finally located a pretty nice one in Alberta and had it shipped out. 2 weeks later I run into an older guy at a local grocery store who used to have a wrecking yard. Yard had been closed for a few years but he had alot of old stuff. Asked him if he had any 64 Beaumont parts. No, but I’ve got some 65 stuff. Asked him if I could come see what he had and he said no problem so I went up there in the next week or so. Soon as I walk to the back there is sitting a complete 64 four door that had been hit in the back plus he had a full 64 front clip with grill and all the trim. Was fortunate to pick up some spare parts from him and his yard was less than 10 minutes from home. Took me at least 6 months to find one hood trim and within 2 weeks I had 3 of them. Lots of interesting stories like that. Many times I would hear, you know they only made those for one year. A couple times I was able to make contact with guys that had 64 parts for sale on ebay and then ask them if they had the part I was looking for. While trying to upgrade my spinner hubcaps I came across a very nice one that was in Texas. Guy was wondering why the spinner didn’t have Pontiac Motor Division on it like the GTO ones. Was able to buy it and another one out of Texas from another seller which was sort of fun. Found an NOS beaumont script from a lady in the eastern States and all she asked when she sent it to me is what the heck is this thing from.
The original engine was found to have a cracked block so I picked up a 250 six that was supposedly rebuilt and I thought it would get me going until I found a 283 for it.
Turned out the engine must have been done and it has performed very well. I do have a 283 sitting on the stand now if down the road I decide to change it out. The car is 1 of 128 but was very basic as far as options.
It is the Sport Deluxe but has just standard steering and brakes and manual top. I had picked up power steering for it and have since sold it as the car steers so well on the highway. Just makes for a little exercise in the parking lot but I need that. I have been fortunate to put on quite a few miles going to shows as far south as Portland and back up the Oregon coast, to the west coast a couple times, and as far east as south of Calgary.
The car gets driven pretty much every day of the summer unless there are showers pending. My wife is just blown away how much interest you get while parked at a light or in a parking lot where people come up and say either they had one of these or are just interested in it.
It may not be a fancy car compared to many of the other classics out there but we do have fun with it and it gets driven. Thanks Todd for the offer to share my story of our car here.
Beautiful car... Beautiful location... Beautiful guy! Great choice Todd. Thanks for the write up Jerel!
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"So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think... The good outnumber you, and we always will." Patton Oswalt
Yes a very impressive restoration, beautiful car, I hope to see it in person one day. It's great to see the "in progress" shots to show what can be done and inspire us all. I too enjoy the search for the elusive part, it can lead you to some great people. Thanks Jerel!!
Wow, an excellent example of a really nice and rare car. I love the colour combo. You did a great job bringing it back, good for you! There is something that people forget and that is many, if not most of these cars were very light on options when built. Was this originally a 194 six? The 250 is an instant upgrade, and they run better than you might expect in these relatively light cars.
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
Jerel strikes me as a very modest person ... a very nice guy. His car is a great car, very fitting of the owner.
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.
Well thanks for the comments on the car. As I said to another member and it gets said many times, every car has a story and fortunately for the cars that are preserved the story can be a little longer. As for the answer to CdnGMfan regarding the engine, yes it originally had a 194 cu. in. in it.
Very nice car! I got a little chuckle reading about the parts in boxes, some marked and some not. It's hard enough figuring where everything goes when it's all bagged up. It must have been a real challenge looking for stuff that wasn't marked. Anyway, you did a first class job, it's a great looking car.
VERY NICE CAR JEREL! I HOPE TO SEE IT IN PERSON SOMEDAY. GREAT PICK FOR THE FEATURE CAR TODD.