# 71 Lemans driver project



## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

Always been a huge fan of Pontiacs, and I finally picked one up for myself a 1971 Lemans.

Pictures from the ad where I found it:


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## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

Had a Jeep wrangler for sale and ended up having to deliver it 4 hours from my house, so while I had the trailer on I called the guy to pick up the Lemans. All together it was a 16 hour trip driving.

The car was in better shape than I expected when I got down there though so I decided to get it. Previous owner said that it ran, but we couldn't get it running that night.

Got her home and off the trailer, started diagnosing the no start and found that it was completely out of fuel. All of the rubber lines leaked fuel when I filled it up so I replaced them and it started right up.


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## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

Started to dig into the rust and damaged hood, the hood latch had stuck and the previous owner had tried to pry it open damaging the front of the hood and cracking the fiberglass on the grille, and hit the hood with what i assume was the pry bar. When that didn't work they cut a square hole right over the latch.





The bottom rear of the front fenders was rotted pretty bad and had a ton of bondo in it


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## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

As I was tearing into the car more and more I realized that I could go two ways on this car, I could replace everything that it needed and make it perfect and spend a lot of time and money in the process or I could patch everything up and have a damn good driver that I wasn't overly concerned about being perfect.

So I threw some patches on the fenders




Also welded a new fender lip on the quarter panels and fixed a few small spots behind the rear wheel well, but unfortunately didn't get any pictures of that.

Got a weld on hood scoop to try to help cover the previous owners mess on the hood and started to get it ready for primer


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## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

I've never painted a car, or much of anything besides with spray paint before, but I decided to just jump right in. I chose a Summit Racing kit because they're cheap and have pretty good reviews on them.

Primed



And Painted!







Primer went on flawlessly, the paint had a little orange peel to it but that was entirely on my lack of skills


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## hondarider2289 (Oct 16, 2017)

Tucked her in the barn next to finish all the detail work and put the bumpers in glass all back in.


Took it for the first drive


And had a little fun


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