# The budget beater 66 Lemans



## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Figured I'd start a post here for this. About 8 months ago, actually on Christmas Eve, my buddy texts me a Facebook Marketplace ad for a 66 Lemans for a great price. Of course, being in the Christmas Spirit I jumped on it and bought it right there. And it has sat in my driveway ever since. Well, it is so straight that I decided to actually start working on it so it doesn't melt into the ground. 

It is a teal on teal car, 326 2bbl with automatic. Four wheel drums, etc. It has very little rust and is an extremely solid car. VERY restoreable. 

My kids weren't crazy about it, they liked it but not as much as our other Pontiacs so I debated selling it. Finally my 12 year old son said every time he sees it, it gets cooler to him and he wants it. Well, can't argue with that, good excuse. I'll make him pay me back for it one day. 

So the plan is to get it road worthy. It runs but only with gas poured down the carb. The gas tank was crushed and the fuel pump dead, so first order of business is to replace the tank and pump. I have the old tank out and am putting the new tank in. Had to buy new straps because I had to cut one to get the old tank out. Should be here soon. Going to replace the rubber lines with something that ethanol won't turn to tar and then swap on an old Edelbrock P4B intake I have here with a good 600 cfm Edelbrock carb in my shop that needs a home. 

Eventually it'll get a big Poncho and a 4spd, but for now I just want to get it on the road so we can enjoy it a bit rather than leaving it sit. 

My son's plans are:
2" drop kit
Disc brake conversion
Redo it all in the teal color, inside and out
Nice set of vintage wheels
I'm sure he'll want a nice stereo too. :grin2:


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## Lemans guy (Oct 14, 2014)

That is the smart way to do it, get it going and make it fun. On mine I put in .....Out of Site Audio....google it

It is a Bluetooth box that can go anywhere in the car, I put mine in the trunk, you never touch it once installed works off your smartphone.

You do not have to touch your original dash radio, or crawl around under the dash. That radio will still work.

You just feed it power and ground and speaker wires. I putt a couple of good quality ones up in the back tray and two kick panel speakers they custom make them to fit the 66 Lemans. Google them might have been year one but not sure. Leave the radio speaker alone you won’t need it.

The out of site audio was about $150 probably went up some. But you do not need an amplifier, it is plenty loud you can here the music at 70mph with all the windows down.

You can then use your own music, I use Spotify, and put an I phone mount on the dash...”..Thoughtout “company makes some of the best ones.

You could enlist your son to help install it and if you get it running with cool tunes you may never get it back!!

:nerd::nerd:


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Man, I like that idea. We put a Bluetooth stereo in my daily driver S10 Blazer and I never listen to the air anymore, everything I stream through my phone now. That sounds like an awesome idea!

My son is almost 13, so I'll at least get a few years to drive it before he claims it all to himself. LOL. At least it'll keep his hands off of my 500+hp 98 Trans Am!


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

So got some parts in for the car last night. New stainless gas tank straps, intake manifold gaskets, and a couple smaller bits and pieces. 

Also think I am going to try and stick a set of 63 Grand Prix seats I have here in it for the time being. They are really comfy and I actually have a back seat, which is missing from the Lemans. Figure might as well try.

Also, nice shiny carb on a marginal intake in a beat up car. Perfect logic. Good upgrade over the crusty 2bbl though. 

Also bought a set of 15x7 front wheels to match the 15x10 rear slots I already have. The set I have has 14x6 front wheels, which I always thought looked dumb, so I scored these for a pretty sweet deal. If anyone wants some 14x6 slots, I'll give you a good deal on them, otherwise I'll make a cool beet holding table for the shop with them. LOL


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

BREAK IT INTO SMALL PROJECTS AIMED ON GETTING IT ROAD WORTHY AND ONCE YOUR SON DRIVES IN IT AND SEES THE LOOKS YOU GET HE WILL BE HOOKED....sorry for caps keyboard has mind of its own.
Heres my budget Tempest custom, restored body on 9 years ago with the help of all the great guys on here.

Get it to drive and enjoy it, very clean foundation, i would just buff it up , people love to see original finishes on an honest car.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

LOL I was thinking, damn, stop yelling. You sound like how my friends yell at me when I tear a car completely apart. Haha

The plan is to do small projects. Gas tank and fuel pump first, run it on the 2bbl just to see it run longer. We've had it running by pouring gas down the carb, but the carb is junk. Then we'll do the new intake and carb. Then HEI conversion. Then interior.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Well, nevermind on those seats. When I finally decided that no one was going to buy this GP and I was going to tear stuff off of it, someone texted me and wants it. LOL]

Back on the hunt for a rear seat!


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

if you can find GM compatability list, you will find that the same seat frames were used accross many models. My fronts came out of a 65' Corvair and are identical to the GTO accept the inside side plate is black on the corvair and chrome on the GTO. Paid 250 for them with anything comparable with the GTO label were 3 times as much.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

I need to find one for the back seat, then. That is my immediate concern, I have two kids and only two seats in the car. Neither of them is old enough to drive to between them and my wife, looks like this car is date night only. LOL. And I'm sure she'd rather take one of the nice cars for that. 

I got the gas tank and fuel pump in the car last night. I still need to finish mounting the gas tank though, the strap bolts that came with the NPD stainless strap kit were an inch too short so I only had one of the old bolts that was halfway usable and stuck it up there with that. Went to the hardware store and got what I needed this morning.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

I hear you, just got the daughter to allow the 4 year old Grandson to go for a ride in "Pop's Hot Rod"! have the recarro racing child seat with side bolsters forward mounted to her strict standards... Gotta Love Her. First thing he said was "Nice steering Pop's"...lol. And of course me and Grammy are corrupting him with phrases like "lightem Up" and "Burnout" and the Thumbs up. Last week he helped me pull it out of the barn and we turned the wrong way and took a ride around the Sub with him steering. Met a truck at the stop for a turn and i waved them through, the 3 teens inside saw a little man driving and started cracking up...returned to the drive way after a little burnout at the speed bump to his mom shaking her head. 

The only way these cars we love will be kept alive is by the next generation having an interest in them...face it guys, we are getting old!!! My car was made the year i was born. I loved them because i seen them in the old 8mm movies of when i was a baby and toddler. My parents and grands always had Pontiacs and the lines drew me in. We were at dinner the other day and leaving as a 2-3 year old was walking beside me, his eyes were GLUED to the car from nose to tail . Perhaps he will remember that when he is older and a car buying consumer and help continue to preserve our Desolved Brand....they are like land, "they ain't makin no more"


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Haha yup. My youngest is 9 and I overheard him talking to a kid he was throwing baseball with. The kid asked him what he likes doing besides baseball. He said working on cars. Then he was like "do you know what Pontiacs are?" LOL. Unfortunately the other kid said no. He had to explain it was a really cool kind of car.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Tank is mounted, fuel pump in and new rubber lines routed. Car runs like a top. The carb is complete junk, not worth rebuilding, but at idle it purrs. 

Transmission on the other hand......it whines and squeals, all signs pointing to that being the reason the car was parked. Ugh. Guess it is 4spd swap time.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Got the tank mounted and fuel pump done and new rubber lines. Fired it up and it purrs like a kitten. Carb is junk and cuts out when you try and give it any quick go, but easy into it and it runs good with no noises. 

Although speaking of noises, the sounds coming from the transmission puts all signs towards that being the reason the car was parked in the first place. Yikes.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

If it were me i might Find a used BOP T-350 (direct bolt in) and throw it in there until im ready to do the final motor swap and trans combo, that way the 4 speed conversion can be done when the motor is out of the car. At the end you can sell the T-350 and re-coupe some money while getting the car on the road a little quicker. Or you could run an auto with the his and hers shifter and a manual shift kit to have the best of both worlds (what i did With and old B&M ratchet shifter)


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Instg8ter said:


> If it were me i might Find a used BOP T-350 (direct bolt in) and throw it in there until im ready to do the final motor swap and trans combo, that way the 4 speed conversion can be done when the motor is out of the car. At the end you can sell the T-350 and re-coupe some money while getting the car on the road a little quicker. Or you could run an auto with the his and hers shifter and a manual shift kit to have the best of both worlds (what i did With and old B&M ratchet shifter)


I have a few ST-10s here and some bellhousings. Really just need to buy the pedal and I'll have it all for the swap. If I'm going through the trouble of pulling the trans I won't be putting an auto back in there. I hate automatics, I swap everything to manual. LOL


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

So it seems like the whining noise from the transmission is not the transmission after all. The key switch wasn't kicking back to run position and the starter was staying engaged causing the whining sound. I replaced the ignition switch assembly and it works like a champ now. The carb has met it's maker and has started spewing fuel so it is time to get the new intake and carb on there.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Also needed to put a new brake master in there since the one on the car was disconnected and it looked like someone had started trying to replace it. Tons of air in the system so it'll take a little bit of bleeding. 

I'm debating going ahead and doing a brake swap with parts off of my 98 TA (I swapped on C5/C6 brakes a few years back) or some off of a 2009 G8 GT I parted out. 4 wheel drums suuuuuuck.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

Bled all the brakes in the car, the pass side front won't bleed. I'm not going to spend any time redoing drums so I am going to swap the front over to the LS brakes off of my 98 TA. The rears I'll also swap to my old brakes when I get time.


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## 4birdman (Apr 22, 2016)

So I test fit the wheels off of my 98 Trans Am on the car. They are 18x9.5 with 35mm offset and 275/35/18 MT Street Comps. The back fit with about a half inch clearance and the fronts did too with a 1/2" spacer. I have plenty of space to run a 10.5" wide wheel and hopefully a 315.


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