Happy New Year!

 It's my pleasure to begin 2021 by featuring this great '69 Beaumont Custom belonging to Calvin Benson. Calvin LOVES Beaumont's and while he tried to pacify himself by owning some other brands of classic cars, the desire was just too strong to deny himself of a nice Beaumont. As luck would have it he found one close to home late last year. You know with such a passion for the brand this '69 is in great hands! Calvin give us all the details:

The History:

It all started about 35 years ago in 1984.  My older brother had a 69 Beaumont, jade green (I didn’t realize then it wasn’t a stock colour). I still remember the gold modular wheels and the rumble of the exhaust that captivated me whenever I was taken for a ride.  One day (too young to drive yet) my friend and I were cruising the streets on our BMX bikes when we heard the roar of an engine and screeching tires. Just up the road we saw my brother’s car come screaming out of the local pub driven by some older mustachio’d redneck.  We raced home to tell my Brother his car was stolen only to be informed he had lent his car to his future father in law for a beer run!!  

Fast forward to early 2016 and after college, two kids, a solid career and a new paid off house I finally had the time for something for me.  I found a really clean 1968 Beaumont Convertible in Medicine Hat AB which I purchased site unseen and enjoyed immensely.  In a moment of weakness in early 2017 I decided I would sell it to purchase a ‘new’ muscle car that I could just jump in drive so the Beaumont went on the market.  I knew I made a mistake the minute the buyer sent me the deposit but went ahead and sold it to a fellow out of Whistle. He was a really nice guy that said I could drive it any time I visited.  He promised to sell it back to me when the time came so I kept bugging him every 6 months but kept browsing for cars literally daily anyway.  As my car appreciation isn’t relegated to just one brand/model I filled the car void with a super clean 65 Mustang convertible. After a short few weeks I realized my heart really lay with 66-72 GM A/F/X body cars so I sold the Mustang without even insuring it.

Next up came the 68 Camaro convertible. It came up on FaceBook Marketplace and I've always loved first gen Camaro’s (I had a 69 in 1993 which was sold to buy our first house). It was a Convertible and 4 speed to boot.  Against my better judgement but after few lengthy discussions and photo sharing, I E-transferred a deposit and made the 8 hour drive to pick it up from Central/Northern BC.  I liked the Camaro but knew it would be going on the block eventually as I continued to browse CL, Kijiji and FaceBook Marketplace as much as a hobby as actually looking for my next car.

The Find:

So this all brings us to the present.  Checking my FaceBook Dec. 8th a 1969 Beaumont came up as a "trade only" request for a newer muscle car and as a bonus it was in my town!!  

As I often do I save ads from cars I’m interested in and there’s not a lot of 69 White Beaumonts around. I checked my archives and sure enough I was fairly certain this was the same car I had seen for sale in 2017 just weeks after I stupidly sold my 68 Beaumont Convertible.  The car was originally listed on CL for $12K and posted to CP as “Granny’s Beaumont for sale in BC”.

Unfortunately the ad was deleted shortly afterwards so I wasn’t able contact them in time.  The car surfaced again about a month later in July 2017 on Used.CA albeit with a $8K price increase though some improvements may have been made by current owner. I chalked it up to a ‘flipper’ as you could tell it was the same car. It really intrigued me as it was originally sold here in my hometown of Chilliwack.  For the 2nd time though I missed out on viewing the car and I put it out of my mind as I forgot about it for 3 ½ years until Dec. 8th this year.  This time I was determined not to miss out so I contacted the owner to see if he was interested in selling as I didn’t have trade he was interested in.  He said he would let me know the next day and gave me a trade price range so I knew it was a number I would pay if he was interested in just selling the car.  We connected the next day and by then he had almost 70 calls!!! People reach out and he was overwhelmed and a little freaked out by the response as everyone wanted to come look at the car, offering full price over the phone and wanting his address etc.  He has 2 small children and after looking at FB profiles of some interested parties didn’t want just ‘anyone’ coming to his property to look. I shared the 2017 Used.CA ad so he knew I was legit and he decided he wanted to sell the car locally preferably so he didn’t have to deal with those ‘city folk’ lol. A good friend had stumbled on the same FB ad and was interested in it for himself too (he just wanted anything 66-72 Beaumont/Chevelle) but knew I was looking for a 69 specifically so he stepped aside. I really appreciated this!

I arranged to see the car Dec. 10th after he was home from work. As I mentioned the car was in my area and ended up being less than 15 minutes from so my house. Although daylight was already fading when I drove into the driveway my heart skipped a beat when I saw the car.  It was one of those moments where I knew I would be buying it even before I got out of my truck.

We talked about the car a bit and he explained he had purchased it from the Used.CA ad owner. I looked over and under the car as best I could in the fading light and he offered to go for a quick spin. He drove and car pulled hard, sounded great and seemed quite solid. I knew if I didn’t pull the trigger I would likely lose my chance (again!) so I just went for it and made the deal and gave him a deposit.  Of course I subsequently noticed a couple of ‘suspect’ areas when I reviewed undercarriage pics at home hence my CP post Dec. 10th asking about frame rust issues.  In my usual fashion I started to second guess my decision and asked to come look again the next night and the owner was very understanding even though he had others in the wings impatiently waiting on confirmation the car was sold.  The car was in his impressive and expansive shop and he felt comfortable enough with me to let me just view in his shop this time.  He had a super clean C10 pickup on a lift over the Beaumont, multiple dirtbikes, mountain bikes, expensive power saws etc. so I can see why he was paranoid about having just anyone come onto the property. In the end the couple minor areas weren’t enough to deter me and he even sold it to me for $1K less than the price he had posted as he just felt it was going to the right home.  I thanked him immensely and responded that he was the exact type of person I like to buy from as well!  

The Beaumont Goes Home

So now I had the car and had to make room in the garage for it. I feverishly cleaned out the opposite side of the garage to make room for it before it rained again (an extremely common occurrence here on the ‘wet coast’ in December); moving my motorcycle, bicycles & misc. ‘stuff’ that always accumulates.  After I shoe horned it in I jokingly said to my wife "See they both fit?!” and bless her heart she said “Just keep them both then”.  As tempting as it was it didn’t make sense so I sat down Sunday Dec. 13th and figured I would put the Camaro on FaceBook Marketplace. I post the ad around 9:30 AM that day for $29,900 keeping it just under that $30K mental ceiling and essentially enough to recoup my investment including taxes which was my goal.  I typically assume I’ll have to lower about 5-10% when the negotiating starts so I set my price accordingly.  Well I obviously underestimated the market (which I do follow) as by the time noon came I had 20 people wanting to look and by the time we returned home from shopping the number had grown to almost 40!!.   A couple were full price offers over PM from Alberta plus many others that seemed very legit.  Now I’ve bought and sold enough to know that 25% are dreamers, 25% low ballers, 25% are flakes that will never show up but that still leaves a lot of legitimate interest.   While I was trying to figure out the best approach I received another PM from a fellow asking if the last 3 digits of the VIN were 530 (I posted my VVS document blocking out the last 3 digits) as his mother sold a similar car in 1997 and sure enough they were correct. I had several bills etc. from late 80’s/early 90’s with his mom’s name on it as well. It turns out his mother had sold the car shortly after he was born and they had been looking for the car for quite some time since the son was quite into cars.  He even sent me a pic of him at about 2-3 years old in a booster seat in the back of the Camaro!!  She bought the car shortly after high school in 1984 and sold it when the family was growing.  With all the interest I said I couldn’t in good faith hold off others much longer so the son, his sister and his dad drove out that rainy Sunday night to see the car.  His dad was in shock as other than the new black top (original was white) the car was exactly the same as they sold it right down to the unique Corvette luggage rack on the back and the 80’s Alphasonick Alarm still in the glovebox. When they checked the Odometer only 2,500 miles had been put on since they sold it 23 years earlier and probably half that was me!!  They happily agreed to my full asking price and thanked me for the first chance to buy the car back. I told them I was so happy the car was reunited with a previous family as I can only imagine the feeling of getting my 68 Beaumont back some day! I could have likely gotten more for the car if I had played that ‘game’ but I never want to be that type of person and sometimes it’s about more than money.  

The fact that I had chance to buy a car I missed out on 2 times previously combined with the opportunity to have the previous owners being reunited with the Camaro just seemed like fate!!

My New Car

Now back to the car itself.  I’ve only owned 2 weeks now so haven’t even checked the tire pressure LOL so I’ll explain what I know.   The previous owner proceeded to make some improvements to personalize the car to his liking very shortly after purchasing in 2017.   Though the original 307 had been recently rebuilt he pulled it and had a healthy Vortec based 350 built for it complete with Alum. Heads, ceramic coated headers, digital ignition, Quick Fuel carb etc.  The engine was built by a very well known performance shop here in Chilliwack called Fortins and dyno’d at over 400 HP. It’s pretty healthy but still very streetable.

I have the receipt so I’m going to ask the shop for more information as the paperwork doesn't break it down in detail. There is also a new full dual exhaust system with Flowmasters which I personally love so that’s a bonus! The car also came with the aforementioned rebuilt 307 complete on a crate. It's a neat conversation piece for the corner of the garage!

The original THM350 auto was rebuilt and upgraded with a shift kit of some sort and a higher stall converter. The original 10 bolt rearend was also rebuilt and upgraded with a Duragrip posi traction and 3:73 gears. 

The wheels were upgraded with 17” US MAG Bandit rims with 245/45ZR17 front and 275/45ZR17 rear Falken tires for that ‘Pro Touring’ look I guess?   Originally I was sure I would replace with Corvette rally type rims with Derby or Disc caps but the wheels are starting to grow on me and as they do have an ‘old school’ look. The lower profile tires do handle nicely and aren’t too harsh on bumps…..at least in the whole 15 minutes I’ve driven it so far Ha Ha!  As with the original engine I was also given the original 14” rally wheels, tires and caps.

The car has had a couple changes from the way it was "born". The D99 trim between the upper & lower paint is missing, the interior was redone at some point and changed to black from the 795 Midnight green and power brakes added.  The latter are still 4 wheel drums but are surprisingly decent likely because I understand a full brake job was done quite recently. 

As I mentioned previously the car was originally sold in my hometown of Chilliwack at a now closed dealer called Buchanan Pontiac Buick which I had browsed dozens of times in my younger days.  My family had bought a number of vehicles from this dealership. I also have the original manual, warranty card, Protoecto Plate and even the old key pouch.  I love this kind of stuff which made the car even more appealing to me.

The body and paint is pretty nice and I have some older pics of when it was restored with 1999 written on back so for 20 year old body and paint it’s definitely stood up well so there must of have been quality work in my uneducated opinion.

The Future

For future changes and upgrades I’m still thinking that over. I'll likely do a front disc brake conversion, and maybe pop for actual Wilwoods and tubular A arms too since I’ll have it apart anyway.  There is a temp gauge which is good but I would like to keep an eye on oil pressure too. I have a new Autometer Temp & Oil Pressure gauge I bought for a previous car so I’ll likely install those.  I would also like a tachometer but never liked the "strapped to column approach" so I might try and put it in place of the non functioning clock. Possibly other CP members have some hints here?  I may look into one of those retro type hidden stereo systems too so I can crank the 80's metal I grew up with which in my opinion suits the car. On the other hand the sweet sound of a Flowmaster equipped small block is music to the ears too!

In the end I feel it was "3rd time lucky" situation for me as I was finally able to buy the car and thought it was fate that the car ended up back in Chilliwack with the current owner.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my car and the story behind it!!