1968 Pontiac LeMans

I purchased this car from the original owner in 1999 with approximately 141K original miles on it. It spent its life from 1968 until 1999 in Monrovia, alifornia. It remained in southern California until I moved to Idaho in 2010. It was in original, rivable condition but the stock hood and right front fender had damage from vandalism. I have the original owners manual, indow sticker and build sheet (the build sheet is a little rough, t was under the back seat).

I spent about 3 years restifying the car. I specifically purchased a LeMans instead of a GTO so I could play with it. I originally built this car with the Silver State Classic Challenge in mind, ut never got around to running it.

INTERIOR: The red interior is original except for new carpet and padding (including insulation and sound deadening material underneath), ew front and rear seat foam and seat covers (I also added headrests and 3-point seatbelts to satisfy the Mrs. for child transport, ut the two front seats still have the lap belts as well), new dash cap and Pontiac steering wheel. I still have the original steering wheel. I also added oil pressure, ater temp, nd voltage gauges as well as a factory tachometer. It has an aftermarket single DIN in-dash stereo.

EXTERIOR

This was originally a black car. At the time I built it, already had one black car that I couldn’t keep clean, o I didn’t want another one. A complete color change was done. You won’t see a speck of black on this car. Original Parts Group GTO hood (they look better, K?), ight front fender replaced with a factory 68 Pontiac fender from scrap yard, umpers re-chromed by Bumper Boys. Except for a couple of minor parts here and there, verything else on the exterior is original. Beautiful PPG single stage paint job. There is one small ding in the right front fender where something fell on it in the garage. I have extra original paint and reducer, o a repair would be no problem if it bothers you. I have the original stainless fender trim and it is in great shape, just liked the way it looked without them. I also have the original LeMans badges and many other original parts. The car currently sports 1968 vintage Idaho license plates, ut I also have the original black California plates.

SUSPENSION: Hotchkis designed Edelbrock upper and lower rear control arms with braces, ront and rear sway bars, ront upper A arms for tall spindles. GM B body front spindles, tock lower front A arms, A-1 coil-over adjustable front shocks, A-I gas adjustable rear shocks. Edelbrock rear springs. Everything has Energy Suspension bushings, ncluding all new Energy Suspension body mount bushings. Lee Manufacturing quick ratio steering box.

Custom, 7” Ken Esajian wheels with Nitto NT555 tires – P235/45ZR17 front, 265/40ZR17 rear.

BRAKES: Front- GM B-body spindles with 1LE Camaro rotors, -body GM calipers. Rear- Master Power Brakes (Cadillac ElDorado calipers) rear disc conversion kit. New 9” master with adjustable rear proportioning valve.

DRIVETRAIN

ENGINE

1974 Pontiac 455 bored to 462ci built by Rock & Roll Engineering 506HP on engine dyno. It is a pretty mild motor, uilt for reliability. Cam specs, tc. available upon request.

Rock & Roll Engineering CNC ported Edelbrock aluminum heads, .5 roller rockers, omp Cams camshaft, delbrock Torker intake manifold with custom fuel injection rail, 000cfm aluminum throttle body, SD 6AL ignition, SD Blaster 2 coil, ccel distributor, am Air Restorations ceramic coated CNC ported exhaust manifolds.

Fuel Air Spark Technology (FAST) SEFI 8Lo self programming sequential fuel injection system with wide band O2 sensor and FAST software.

Be Cool aluminum radiator.

The car is a factory A/C car and I rebuilt the entire A/C system, ncluding a changeover to R117, hen I restored it. I charged it, ut never hooked it up to the dash controller. I’ve never really needed it.

The motor was built at 142K. I put the ported aluminum heads on it at 146K and freshened up the lower end bearings and such while I had it apart. The car now has 148,765 on the clock, o less than 3K miles on the motor over the last 8-10 years.

TRANSMISSION

GM 4L80E transmission with independent computer controller

REAR END

GM 12 bolt, aton posi unit, erformance axles.

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE

If I were to keep the car, here are a couple of things I would do to it – 1) Install the windshield and rear window inner trim strips. I have them but never put them in. 2) Replace all of the hard brake lines; they are the stockers, ) Tinker with the hot/cold starting programming of the FAST some more, nd 4) Put a set of Baer or similar brakes on all four corners. But none of these things HAVE to be done.

SUMMATION

The car runs and drives great. It looks great and turns a lot of heads. It is fast, olid, andles like a slot car and stops well. The car has ALWAYS been covered and garaged. It has never been driven in the rain or snow since I have owned it. It has been driven very little since I finished it and I now have to sell it as I am moving to a new home that will require the driving of four miles of dirt road to get there. Not conducive to a nice classic car. I hate to see it go but my circumstances dictate it.