My Son and his 71
 

My son rescued this 71 parts car that I had when he was about 6 ( his is about to turn 15 in a short bit) and decided he wanted to restore it too. Turns out it was actually an interesting car 71 Lemans sport 400 4bbl, 4spd, air 3.36 gauges car in silver. Well it needed a bunch and we bought a shell to donate some parts from a board member and he has been tearing into it. So I guess it is the start of another project to go with the 2 I am working on now. He is motivated to do it and seems to be borrowing my parts quite well but I am glad he has an interest in it too.

That 3rd pic looks great.New metal or did he paint it? I would be happy to donate what ever parts i may have for his project.

400 4spd LeMans Sport, that a rare one. Way to keep your son involved in the hobby.

It is a fairly rare car, non endura. I have a correct date motor for it that came from poncho mike, the body shell came from a board member, one of my local friends gave him a carpet. He has one NOS fender and the other is really nice, a decent trunk lid, the car has all it's interior it is not great but it is all there. I bought him a header. he is on the hunt for a core suppt. and valance panel eventually and I will keep an eye out for a driver quality bumper. Overall he has most all he needs and he has been plowing driveways with our Kubota to pay for things. Mom keeps him out of the college acct, a buddy of mine is going to let him do so work and teach him (he is a plumber) so he will have some cash so he has a strategy. Another friend gave him a set of 15 inch rallys and my brother gave him a set of tires. It is fun seeing him work through it and learn and thanks for the offer of parts he may need it as I don't have everything for him. Mark

That floor is the original, he cleaned it to absolutely spotless in 2 days and painted it.

hi, guys I'm the kid who owns the car and thanks for the help offers! i will certainly need all the help i can get. Mr. Joe, the floor has been painted by hand in Por 15 black rust protective paint. thanks again for the help. Jon

Nice job!Hard work pays off and it shows!

i parted a 71 4 speed Lemans Sport a few years ago..it was a loaded up car.

i have grilles if you need them..for free if you use them, maybe some other stuff when ya get to the point ya need them...send me a list...id like to see the stuff get used..

thank you for the offer of the parts and the praise on the work. the goal is to have this primed and some more of the dents pulled out before the end of thanksgiving so it can get put away in the garage. i will upload pics when its ready to go in. if you guys want to upload some reference pic, that would be helpful. thanks, guys. Jon

some more pics of the kid in action

we pulled most all of the major dents with a stud welder and welded some old slide hammer holes in, hammered and dollied out the others that we could to minimized filler and with the good weather were able to put it in epoxy primer followed by a layer of high build primer.

Damn that's looking good! I'll poke through my hoard later this week and see what I have that you could use. I have to run up to Cape Cod in the next week or two and could probably drop the stuff off.

:thumbup:

that's great! i can use all the help i can get. thank you. Jon

I am excited to see him growing up and trying to be responsible, it is tough with all of the distractions out there. I think a goal and working towards something is important, I did this when I was a kid, I was given a 52 ford 2 door sedan (it was really too rough to do anything with but I tried (and failed)). My dad gave me some parts and a really cool dealer light up sign that I still have. I learned about car guys and started making some really cool friends and continue to meet interesting people through the hobby. It is nice to have a network of people (my wife says enablers) to lean on for knowledge and parts to put one of these back on the road.

I see the motivation too. Your car lineup is appealing to him I bet....start on this one and dad will let me do a roundy next. Seriously you have a great kid there!

We have our issues but he is actually a great kid, volunteers at the VA to take the hospital bound vets out on outings and does a bunch for my elderly family members when I am not able to. The weather is getting harder to deal with here so he has slowed down for a few days. We are going to work on it this pm a bit and over the weekend carve some space in the garage for him to get in and work on it. He has to fight his sister for the cars, she worked on the judge with us a bunch. He likes the 70 and wants a blue round port TA. The daughter likes the GT-37 and the 70 Judge. Funny they are both not killing each other over the 69 judge or the SD? He will be and has been involved with restoring all of them, I have a picture of him at probably a year old trying to drive the GT-37, the huge smiles tells the tale. I will have to post that one on here as it is funny.

I took out the already cracked windshield as practice and started to clean the lip around where the new glass will go. I also started tearing into the old donor car yesterday, and i will post pics of that after i finish. after finishing the windshield area, then comes the cleaning of the frame and fire wall. i have fenders that need to be stripped and reprimed and a passenger door as well as the trunk lid, but the driver door is stuck shut and is nice but won't come off without taking off the junk fender. oh well, such is life. the nose is wrong on the donor, but the bumpers are ok and the dash came out with 3 minor cracks. the next project is to find a decent core support. the shell has found its home in the barn. Jon

Rear bumper is ok as a core, front is rusted through, most likely not even good as a core. He has it inside so things are moving along for him and he can work better this way anyhow. Mark

Is there any rust or holes in the windshield rail? I had a couple of pin holes that had to be filled.
I'm reassembling the 71 Convert. Can you take a picture from under the car? I need a good pic of how the fuel lines attach to the body. They meet above the rear axle in the center. There should be a total of 4 lines going to the tank. One attaches to the end of the tank going to the front. I can't find the pics from before I took it apart and just want to make 100% of their locations.

I have a couple of pics of my son who was 14 when he bought this LeMans He's 33 now. He was doing the exact same thing as you in the interior!!

Hi I will try to get some shots from under the car later for you, Things are busy yesterday and today and the kido has been very busy with homework so not too much being done in the shop in the last few days. Mark

some pics
 

some pics of the lines, may be hard to see but I am trying.

more for you
 

I hope this helps.

it does!! Thanks i really appreciate it.
Matt

So after digging into it all we have determined for sure that he needs inner fenders, hood and a core front bumper by the looks. I found a valance for him and I bought him a header pannel a while back, he has fenders and doors. Core support is toast bad too so the parts hunt will begin. In the mean time he is working on the pass fender right now, goal getting these parts into primer and set aside until he can get a repairable core support.

the GTO repop is good enough for a lemans..you just have to put the top plate on it to work

finding a good core support is very difficult, they all have issues..

I know they are hard to find. The between all he has the one on the 71 was replaced with a 72 and it is really bad, I can fix a bunch of stuff, graft in metal as needed so what most would think of as Junk I will fix if need be for my son, but make no sense to fix something that is not right. Being from New England I have grafted, welded and generally built a bunch of things that most people just shake their head at. I can use the bottom rail from the one that he has to fix another, but it is missing 4 inches of upright structure on the battery side.

Boy am I glad that mine was in great shape. Only minor rust in the bottom corners.

So this is the 72 core support, probably could be fixed but not what I need so will save and look for a repairable 71. And a picture of the tearing down part.

I have a 71 core support, bumper brackets, and a good bumper core for rechroming. Shipping I think would be the issue though. I have inner fenders too.

The core only has some rot right where the bushing was on the driver's side, easily repaired.

I have top trim and full length door/body moudling if you're interested. And a bunch of other parts too.

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I have a full A/C setup too, evap box, evap, POA, matching heater box, and fresh air assembly. Have the controls, cables, etc too.

Have a usable dash that is driver quality, has a cap on it but looks very good.

Gauge cluster too.

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Have an extra set of strato buckets too that are easily rebuildable.

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Hi Right now the inner fenders and core support are the biggest things holding me back, being as I am 14 ( will be 15 in a month or so) I cannot drive to get it but my mom has family down that way so maybe I can see if she wants to visit them. I am not sure what you are asking for these, but I have to take on odd jobs as I am not quite old enough to work yet. When it snows I will be able to make some money shoveling and plowing. Please let me know what you want for these. Jon

For the cause, very inexpensive. Saving a Pontiac and bringing it back to life deserves recognition, and I'm all about the cause.

PM on it's way...

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If you need any little stuff just ask, I have a 72 parts car out back (not much left) and have a lot on the shelf. Its looking good, keep up the hard work. Darrell

Car is coming along, keep up the good work ! My son and I may have extra parts, that you could use.

So my son has been busy he chiseled out the bucket seat floor brackets blasted and painted them, did the floor plugs and some other small parts. He is working on cleaning out the window channel, we got the other windshield out without breaking it. We are working on a trip later in the month (moms relative and linking up to get parts from one member). The grills I was going to giver him were not as good as I remembered (missing tabs) so Marx those would help. Snow is coming so he will have some $ if it does to buy some things. thanks Mark

most recent progress
 

First off I want to thank Mike (HWYSTR455) for really hooking the little guy (he is not so little anymore) up with a ton of stuff. He is now set on a core support and inner fenders along with some Trim a bunch of mechanical parts and too much stuff to mention. He still has some needs but wow did Mike not only come through but more than he could have expected in his wildest dreams. I am really glad to see him so happy, he said wow dad he treated me like I am a car guy. I told him well I guess that is because you are now. I hope the lesson sinks in and he can help someone later. Mark

On a progress note he is working on the bucket seat brackets and a friend is teaching him how to fabricate from scratch the lower fender patch and a section of brace. He is a talented resto shop owner so he is learning from one of the good guys. I will post some pics Wed for him. Mark

Some more pictures of my progress on the fender, with some help I fabricated the brace myself, it came out fairly good.

Nice! You go! Might even be ready for color here in the spring!

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hard at work
 

He has been scraping and cleaning

hard at work parting the parts car
 

Some of the latest progress and his adventures in taking apart rusty stuff to salvage the good.

wow, he has some major work to do on that!!! Good thing you can buy replacement panels and floors.

I still can't believe the condition of my 71 compared most others. The lack of rust leads me to think it spent its life in another part of the country. Here in the East, most cars look like yours.

No he is not fixing that one, the trunk floor and frame also have issues so there will not be a whole bunch of rust repair in his future. He did have to do a fender heal, some dent repair on a front Valence, depending on what he does for a trunk lid there is some work needed there as well. He is still in the hunt for a hood as his is fairly tough. He has the driveline all set and most of the interior, he may need a carb depending on which way he goes.

Yeah, thought I saw some floor cleanup at the beginning of this thread, was a little puzzled there!

He should keep a running list here, of stuff he needs, so folks can keep an eye out.

I have to go over to the body shop, there's a big pile of aftermarket stuff, control arms, panels, some OE, etc, but would be better if I had an idea of what I was looking for.

How's the drivetrain look? Have that figured out?

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Well so far I know he is going to need a hood, a 71 4spd carb to go with the motor and an intake, if he is trying to get it close on dates (not sure how far he wants to go there) I will have to get that. He still has not figured out what he is going to do for wheels, I offered him some 77 15 in rally wheels. I think he will also need a clutch and shifter. I gave him a flywheel and a Muncie, h is good there.

So the list right now is:
71-2 plain lemans hood (not an endura car)
clutch&PP (course spline)
Factory shifter
Carb and intake
There will be more that he will have to pick up like brakes, rotors, seals bearings, needs a rear pinion seal etc but those can come from the parts store.

So some progress updates are in order, He finished the parting out process and the rusty shell went to scrap, he finished the pass fender and has a good dr fender, last PM he was tin knocking the valence panel I gave him and it is starting to look nice. I think next he will start on doors and trunk lid at that point we will have the start of a complete body. He also spent a big portion of the weekend cleaning the new inner fenders, he is making slow and steady progress while keeping up with school and chores.

Inner fenders, needed some clean up and welding then some paint. He had fun with the undercoat.

Som parts from his parting out adventure
 

Some of his stash

and now the pics