1972 Luxury Lemans

The story...

I had a 1991 Lincoln Mark VII. Great car. 5.0 Ford engine, embarrassed some Mustangs when I was a youth. Then some lady decides she doesn't need to look both ways before pulling out into the street. There went my pride and joy in the flash of an eye.  Insurance company said "bent frame, here's 5 grand" to mom who promptly looked at my hair and said "no money for you you damn dirty haired hippy who will never amount to a damn thing!" So there I was, car-less with a job across town I needed to get to. Doesn't bode well. I borrowed Lisa's Honda Civic for a while, but wanted my own car. I was leaning for an early 80's car... but figured that since this was my car, I was going to be even more daring and go all the way back to the 70's (before I was born). I liked the 1975 era Buick Regal (big car, two doors) but not a single one was to be found. I wanted a Trans Am, but after my unfortunate incident in high school with one, I decided that I couldn't get one. Then I was flipping through the Thrifty Nickel one fateful September 18th in 1999 and found an ad for a 1972 Pontiac Lemans that "ran good, good student car." Hey, that's what I need! I remember my physics teacher in high school, Mr. Bell, had a 1971 Pontiac Lemans Sport in really really sad shape that I lusted after, so I knew what it looked like. I called the owner Saturday morning and went to check it out. Cracked white paint, some engine ("I think it's a 400" the owner told me, it was a 350 2bbl) that didn't like to idle cold (divorced choke setup that wasn't really hooked up to anything), and black interior. I drove it around the block and was sold. I called dad. Dad said "no, insurance will be too high." I cried. Lisa says "grow some balls you wussy" so we called USAA up and asked for a quote on the car. They said "$85/month." Most excellent! Called dad back. He was impressed I had grown a pair and did something on my own (I was too). I went and got the cash that day, except that every ATM in town was down, so I had to write two checks and give the guy my word of honor that the checks would clear (they did). $1200 later and it was MINE. It reeked of gas and had been driven by a the owner's daughter who had gotten pregnant and couldn't use it anymore (hard to put the baby seat in the backseat of a two door car like this). I love this car. It got me through 3 trouble-free years with no major work other than two valves needing reseating and a new distributor cap. Then I decided to get crazy once I had my own place...

Technical Documents\How-To's

455 Transplant

Progresses

Last updated April 10th, 2020