Spring is here and while for some of us it doesn't look that way I assure you warm, sunny days are close at hand. And, to celebrate this fact, I felt it important to feature a convertible for April.  Shawn Dunnett owns this beautiful 1967 Pontiac Parisienne 2+2 convertible featured this month. I'll let Shawn fill us in on the details

In July of 2011 I began my search for a mid to late 60’s convertible. I owned a 2004 Mustang at the time after making many modifications to it I had pretty much run out of things to do. So, I began looking on Winnipeg Kijiji for just the right car, while also putting mine up for sale. Within a couple of weeks of looking, I found a 1967 Pontiac Parisienne 2+2 convertible for sale in Morden/Winkler, MB. I loved the look of the car and it appeared to be in pretty good shape. I quickly emailed the owner asking if he still had the car and if so, if he was open to possibly trading for my Mustang as we were both looking for the same kind of money out of our cars.

A couple of days later, I received an email from the owner stating he had looked at the ad for my car on Kijiji and he was interested. However, he stated that he would only consider the trade if I threw in some cash as well. I declined as I explained to him that as we were both looking for the same kind of money for our cars, I felt that a straight trade was fair.

Believing that this deal had fallen through I continued my search. September of 2011 found me doing the single Dad thing as my wife had deployed to Afghanistan, so I was working and getting my son to hockey and other activities so my time spent on Kijiji looking for a car had kind of dropped off. Shortly after my wife deployed I received an email from the owner of the 2+2 wondering if I was still interested in his car. I advised him that I was, but that I was looking for a straight trade and that there would be no cash involved. It was then that he apologised for the previous interaction I had with his son, who apparently had some money tied up in the 2+2 and he was looking to get his money out of it. The owner assured me that the car was in his name, not his son’s and that if I was interested we would meet as soon as I was available to go to Morden/Winkler.

In early October I drove down and met with the owner at a local garage where the car was going through safety. While on the hoist, the garage owner invited me out to look at the underside of the car, which was rock solid! He assured me that he’d have no qualms about purchasing the car, even though it needed a couple of minor issues addressed before it passed safety. I then spoke with the owner and advised him that once the minor issues were addressed I would be happy to execute the deal.

A couple of weeks later, the owner called and said the car was fixed and it had passed safety. We set a date for him to drive the car to Winnipeg, and we’d swap keys. A week later, the car was mine and parked in my garage.

As you can see it just fit in my garage. Lesson learned, always measure your garage AND the car before you pull the trigger. This way you don’t wonder if it will actually fit! So once I had the car home, I began searching on line for information on the car and quickly found Canadian Poncho. Within hours of joining Stevenson was looking for pictures of the car and specifically the cowl tag so it could be deciphered. It turns out the car was an original Manitoba car, equipped with a 327/Turbo 400, painted Nantucket Blue with a white top. Unfortunately, along the way the 327/T400 had gone AWOL and a 307/T350 had found its way into the car. Stevenson then mentioned a 67 327 that was sitting on his garage floor and that if I wanted would be made available to me for a modest sum.

It wasn’t much later that I agreed to buy the engine and begun planning out the upcoming “restoration” The body was pretty good as was the top and seats. The carpet was pretty rough so it would need to be replaced. The car “floated” pretty well on the highway so I thought we’d need to replace the shocks and springs as well.

In early January, the car was taken to my friend Lyle’s garage to begin the strip down in prep for receiving the new engine and other parts.

Once the engine was delivered, (It was kinda like Christmas a white haired guy in a reddish truck brought it right to the door! Thanks again Carl!!) So it was stripped and sent out to Brazier’s Race and Machine where it was cleaned numerous times (4 to be exact) checked for any cracks and the bored 30 thousandths over. The crank was then checked and polished. Once George was finished with the block and crank it was given to Lyle to begin the rebuild. The heads, (194 Camel Humps) were then taken to Brazier’s and were checked, given a five angle grind and then and then stuffed with all new valves, springs and retainers. Hardened seats were not installed as it was felt that as the car would not be a daily driver, it was an expense that just was not warranted. Once the heads were completed they were brought to Lyle so he could complete the engine build. Oh and we used the L79 cam, added an Edelbrock Performer intake and upgraded to a Holley 600 CFM Carb. George Brazier, owner of Brazier Race and Machine put’s the compression ratio at 10.1 to 1 and conservatively rates the engine at about 350 hp.

While the engine was at the machine shop, we decided concurrent activity was required. So we swapped out the stock steering wheel for a custom one, added some gauges and did the suspension work.

So as the months passed my wife and I learned we would move from Winnipeg to Edmonton in July of 2012, so the rush was on to get the car back together in time so I could drive it out. What better break in that to drive the car across right?

Needless to say we got it all done and we drove the car without issue. In fact, I entered the car in its first car show in Lloydminster as we came across!

Shortly after arriving in Edmonton I upgraded the rims to Rallye’s with Beaumont caps, (15x7 front, 15x8 rear, Shod in BF Goodrich rubber) upgraded to an aluminum rad with pusher fan to deal with overheating issues (fixed!) and replaced all door/trunk/top and window seals.

Here are some pictures my wife, an amateur photographer took of the car.

As for future upgrades, I hope to finally get a new fuel sending unit installed so I can actually have a working gas gauge, as well as upgrade the 12 bolt to posi and maybe change the gearing so the car has a little more grunt off the line. Finally, I would like to swap out the carpet again for something a little nicer as well as the right colour.

I’m thankful to all those that helped with the build and to all those here on CP who continue to be a source of information and inspiration.