Brought in the red 64 Grand Prix from South Dakota. Put it up on the lift only to find what I had suspected earlier….the frame is toast and the body itself is not worth fixing. Enter good friend Tom gardner from Bend, OR. Tom recently brought me a mint 66 Grand Prix trunk floor. I am going to try and find someone here in the Twin Cities to re-pop these or I will use it in a car that needs it and hope someone eslse re-pops these. A lot of time & money to be spent here. Anyway, Tom sold me a 64 Grand Prix non-air decent body on a nice rolling frame and it will be here next week. Plans are to send the car to Milt’s and have the underside and frame blasted and sealed just like the 66 Grand Prix I did before and transfer the rusty GP’s guts into the the Oregon car. It will be made into a four speed with tach and Rally gauges. I have a mint set of doors and fenders for the new car. The red car also had A LOT of hail damage. The red car will be scrapped.
The 66 Nevada Grand Prix has yet to return to Milt’s as it has taken quite a long time to get certain parts and do the labor needed to get it rolling. I scrapped a 62 blue four door Catalina to get the air dash and column for the 62 Bonnie ragtop project (the burner!). The frame was toast as was most body parts. Everything that was good was saved. Anyway, the 66 GP now has a completely rebuilt front end with new springs, brake hoses and shocks. I need to remove the interior, lube the transmission and fix the stuck parking brake. I am also changing the firewall pad as the one in the car is shot. The new gold cad plated power assist and master cylinder will also be changed out. Found a fair amount of gas in the oil and assumed the fuel pump was leaking gas. It has been replaced. Once all this is done, the car will return to Milt’s for glass removal and a trip to the media blaster. Then it’s time for the new black vinyl top and repaint to black. I hope to have the car up to Milt’s by 6-2-2009. Upon return, the car will have 8 lugs installed and then it’s off to the interior shop. Thanks to Les Kapaun for his help on making tooling to press out the front end bushings on this car. He helped remove and install the new bushing in the a-arms too. Les recently drove over his 1966 Buick 225 convertible. He’s owned it for 20 years and has done major amounts of work to the car. Now that he is retired, he can really get some stuff done.
In the first bay, is Les’ 64 Bonnie ragtop from Sacramento, rust free but not yet running. The car showed with the 389 somewhat disassembled (intake and distributor removed and missing!). Options are PS, PB, auto (see ya!), PW and an AM-FM. The car is Fontane Blue and will remain that color. I have a 64 320 horse 421 35S engine just now starting thru Kelley’s Machine Shop to do for the car and of course, it will become a bench seat 4 speed car! The car will have it’s 389 compression checked before pulling it out.
Once the Black Missouri 64 red GP clears the garage, Matt’s 64 Catalina 4 door sedan will be brought in for a complete inspection, especially the frame and I will disassemble the car for complete restoration. I expect to work on the car all summer and into the fall. My good friend, Les Kapaun has been coming over and helping me now & then also. I am having a hard time working due to my injury at the railroad last summer.
My daily driver white 64 Bonnevile tossed a starter this past fall. I have my 64 Brougham parts car here on a trailer to remove all the factory air components and wiring for the 64 white driver. Although the car is from California, someone has cut EVERY wire to the a/c. along with EVERY cable. The car has nice 1972 400 with a correctly installed short shaft Turbo 400 with a beautiful exhaust system.
I recently picked a 1969 428 engine for use in my 64 Bonnie Superior 9 passenger Limo from St. Louis. Wanted more power and will also install a Turbo 400 for better control of that power in the car. Using #16 heads, the car should move right along. This fall should see the start on my 64 Ventura four speed hardtop.
I recently purchased a black 64 Grand Prix from Enid, OK that was “supposed” to be a 421, 4 speed car minus engine, trans, tach, buckets and console. There were no 421 emblems on the car. Anyway, once here, I PHS’d the car and lo and behold…it’s a 421 HO car! Wow! OK, I have everything to stuff back into the car except the correct 45S 421 HO engine. Help!
I also have a really nice rust free 1966 Bonneville 2 door hardtop coming in from California. The car is off white with a black bench seat interior. It had a 389, automatic with steering and brakes. The engine and windshield have been removed. I have a 1966 WG 421, 338 horse engine for the car along with a long shaft M-20 four speed. The car will become a 421 bench seat four speed fun car using factory parts along the way.
Well, that’s about it. Take care. LMK 5-28-2009