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Post Info TOPIC: Introduction waaaay too delayed


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Introduction waaaay too delayed


OK guys, 

I'm really sorry for having delayed this introduction so long but now here it is. My '65 Beaumont is undergoing MAJOR surgery. I was fortunate enough to get in touch back with a friend and he happens to own a body shope AAAND is a classic car fan too. So I embarked in this major endeavour of having the compleeeete body repaired, restored, overhauled blablabla. 

I purchased this car back in 2013 and it had been sitting waiting for the right moment for the restoration. I had a "project engine" sitting in a shed, which I had kept for even more years than the car. This is a 327 ci sbc which is overbored 040, got a new CompCams Factory Muscle camshaft, Hypereutectic pistons, Weiand intake and a custom widened oil pan, topped off with a holley 4 barrel carb to get the engine running. One little treat I learned from a previous engine I had is that I used heads that came off a 305 ci engine powered car so they have smaller chambers, valves are not really big ones but for a nice quiet street application they will work just fine. 

A friend of mine built a 1,82 ratio Powerglide completely over (of course with some improvements, hardened input shaft, stiffer springs in the control valves and so on) and I matched engine and transmission over a 2500 rpm stall converter. 

Engine/transmission combo went into the car almost 4 years after I already had the car, so that was quite a milestone into my history with the car. Although the car had a 190ci inline-six and a three-on-the-tree when I bought it, I wanted the full experience with a crispy 327 and a well worked on PG transmission. 

So now to the body part. The guys at the shop started laying their hands on the car 3 monts back and we've run into quite some suprises. The body came off completely from the frame. This was my idea all along to really know what I was standing in front off. We already had seen that the driver and passenger side floor pans would have to be made over, and as soon as the car was empty from a whole lot of s.... that was sitting in the trunk they had to start making over the trunk floor too. The frame also has some work in progress. The cabin mount holes on the frame have been made over and a couple of weeks from now maybe the body will get back to sit on top of the frame to square everything out again. The interiors will have to be done completely over again as well. I got to find a complete set of bucket, back seat and dash cover from another friends failed '65 project so at least now I have year-correct buckets, center console and rear seat. I'll have an upholster here in Chile get to fabricate the complete interior to 1965's correct interior design. I even got a Beaumont correct 1965 Acadian radio with the correct knobs, so no aftermarket radio for me. I'll try to figure out some how to maintain the complete radio guts and still get an external audio signal played by the original speaker (I think I figured out a couple of how-to's on Youtube). 

One week ago I received quite some parts from the US for the restoration. Main thing, I'm letting go of the old fiberglass hood due to that was unrecoverable. So a new sheetmetal hood got imported along with hood hinges, several Chevelle moldings, arm rest and pads, weatherstrip kits for the complete car, and some other stuff. 

So this is it fella's. Hope you'll enjoy the pictures and feel free to comment, let me know what you think of it so far. She's a trailer queen still, but on the way to getting back down on the asphalt again.

I want to keep this tread updated with pic's of the progress and also hopefully the final result. 

Everybody stay healthy and best of regards from all of us down south here in Chile. 

Claudio

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-- Edited by Beau_SD_65 on Saturday 9th of May 2020 06:57:14 PM

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Please, keep us updated.

These projects are worth it when they ate done.

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Wow neat to see. Ambitious project, good for you. Looks like you even have the rare lower SD trim. Welcome to the site.

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Jerel


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jmont64 wrote:

Wow neat to see. Ambitious project, good for you. Looks like you even have the rare lower SD trim. Welcome to the site.


 Thanks Jerel. Well as the title of the tread stated... this intro came way too delayed. 

 I'm actually having my thoughts on whether to keep those lower trims or no.. they're not in an excellent shape and I would have to have them restored. 



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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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ABC123 wrote:

Please, keep us updated.

These projects are worth it when they ate done.


 No worries I will. I still hope to get to the point of being able to drive the car for the first time every. It wasn't when I bought it and I wouldn't  put any money in it just to drive a lame inline six.

Just saw your post on the GP (it IS a GP right). Pretty impressive too. Congrats!



-- Edited by Beau_SD_65 on Saturday 9th of May 2020 07:07:15 PM

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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"it IS a GP right ?"

My car is a regular, almost "no optioned" Parisienne.

But I took some liberties on the restoration.

US, Bonneville rear antenna and the 1969 Grande Parisienne/Bonneville grill

The grill has parts from Canadian Poncho members and my 1969 Grande Parisienne that I had 35 years ago.

Now, back to your car,

Lot of really good people here who own cars like yours.

Lots of help and advice here if you need it.

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Good stuff! It's always interesting to see cars like ours that were sold in other countries.

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Canadian Poncho wrote:

Good stuff! It's always interesting to see cars like ours that were sold in other countries.


 Yeah... I thinks it's awesome to have this type of connection through our car history to the canadian car history in such a special way.. such a special car brand, right?



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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Those lower trims are quite valuable, don't be quick to toss them away!

Are those exhaust manifolds going to work in your Beaumont? You know those are not the originals I imagine?

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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



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4SPEED427 wrote:

Those lower trims are quite valuable, don't be quick to toss them away!

Are those exhaust manifolds going to work in your Beaumont? You know those are not the originals I imagine?


 Yeap. I already had them off in order to make the engine fit in the engine bay. I'm not going to install cast manifolds though. Still having some issues to get the mid-length headers into place but we'll still get there. 



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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Ok, I kind of figured that might be what would happen!

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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



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Welcome Claudio from Canada's east coast. Lots of nice work! You stay safe also!



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'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.



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Anytime a new member with a Beaumont from Chile shows up, our eyes widen!

Welcome Claudio.



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cdnpont wrote:

Anytime a new member with a Beaumont from Chile shows up, our eyes widen!

Welcome Claudio.


They do? Thanks for the good vibes to everybody. 

I know of a couple other '65's down here, but I don't think they're ever gonna make it to register on this page and post something. 

 



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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Well what can I say guys... I just made a finding worth every penny, every headache, every worry with my Beaumont which I've not been able to drive since I bought it...

Some background. I don't how it works in Canada but at least in the US, you can choose what your rear license plate says. Here in Chile it's so much more different. You can't choose what your rear license plate says and both front and rear plates must have the same letters and numbers. Also, you can't decide what the letters or the numbers will be, that is just determined by the transit department. Finally, the license plates STAY ON THE CAR... no matter who the owner is. They are, in a certain sense, the car's ID for life.

Now how cool is this. The license plate of my Acadian... IS ACTUALLY "CP 1606"

CP

CP

Is this like a sign from heaven or something? Or am I just too freaking lucky to own an Acadian Beaumont which's license plate is actually short for "Canadian Poncho"... HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



-- Edited by Beau_SD_65 on Sunday 10th of May 2020 09:13:21 PM



-- Edited by Beau_SD_65 on Sunday 10th of May 2020 09:14:05 PM

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Got some pictures from the shop. Frame got painted as well as the engine and the body's lower side also got sprayed with a sound-deadening and splash protection. Body is sitting back on it's place with new body to frame mounts. 

 

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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That's looking great!

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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



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Oh Claudio you are off to a great start. Keep the pictures coming.

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Jerel


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Sooooo... where were we? Oh yeah. The body sits on the sandblasted and painted frame along with the engine and transmission, right? Oh god, this is almost a year ago... or better, OVER a year ago... with pandemic and all that on top of it.

So anyway, progress has been quite slower than intended by the owner (me) and the bodyshop guys but... progress has still been made. This post will be the first half of the year that has gone by so feel free to comment/ask/trash/etc. me. Hahaha.

The new hood had to be modified slightly to go on, due to that it's a Chevelle hood, so the holes for the chevelle molding were blocked off, and also the holes for the Chevrolet letters. The complete front end of the body was also squared off and here's the result.

IMG_1386.jpg

 

The interior got peeled off too and I imported an original '65 Acadian Beaumont radio from a fella that had some for sale on ebay. I just had to present the radio in there just to take a picture of it and kinda feel that the car was getting back it's identity. 

IMG_1393.jpg

 

No idea yet if the radio actually works but I guess I'll find that out when I install the wiring. 

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The driver's side driprail had to be replaced/redone 'cause it was all cracky and rusted. The rear-window-to-trunk-lid panel reinforcement was also shot so they had to fabricate a new reinforcement. The panel itself was ok but both side ends had to be redone as well.

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The paint rests had to be sanded down to get to the bare metal so that a wash primer could be applied to prevent rust from reappearing from the metal through the primer. 

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So this next picture is before the master fabricator made his ways with the panel

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Pretty ugly huh? But I was most impressed with the result of this gentelman's expertise.

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So finally the car got some primer on and the time felt right in order to make a decission, one of the most fun ones but also one of the quite expensive ones. 

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Those ugly steelies had to go and I had to meet a decission on what wheels the card would get. From some images I had searched on the interwebs I had already decided that I would NOT put on 15 inch wheels but a bigger one instead in order to make the car look like a little bit "stealthier" (is that even all right?). So I figured a 17 inch wheel would make the wheel wells look full-er but I couldn't make my mind up on what rims would look best. We have an AmericanRacing Wheels importer here in the city so I went down there and asked the guy what 17 inch options he had. Unluckily, he would just have two options so let's see what the public's opinion would be. Let me know which of the following two rims you guys would think look better on a '65 Beaumont. I'll post some more pictures of what the car finally looked like, later. 

(for those of you you see the tag on the wheels, the width is not important at this time, nor is the bolt pattern)

 

7F487EC9-11D2-473C-ACC8-5D138CA1A3F0.jpg 



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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Excellent update, that's progress!

As far as the wheels, both look great but I would say my personal opinion is the top one gets a 49% vote, the bottom one gets the 51% vote. But it's YOUR car, pick the one YOU like most.

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1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



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Thanks a lot Carl,
And thanks for the comments on the wheels too. The saying goes like... There's nothing written about taste, right?

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Nice progress!

Of course the Torque Thrust has my biased vote.



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Thanks for the comment Mark.

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Claudio

Trying to make some history with a '65 Acadian Beaumont SD south of the Equator line...



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Looking good!! I'm with Mark on the rim choice.

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