Hi All,

I am brand new to this forum and very excited I found it. There is a plethora of great info and anecdotes. I picked up a 1962 Lemans Coupe on Sunday (V-4, automatic, 70k miles, in garage for ~25 years). The brakes are shot, therefore it will be my first project. After 3 hours of Googling to find part numbers (shoes and cylinders) and trips to the local shops, I have had no luck. It seems the information stream ends in 1964. So, I have been reading posts and am curious if anyone knows the part numbers for the original brake shoes and wheel cylinders or knows of substitute parts. After cruising the forum, I am also contemplating the switch to disc brakes.
http://www.freepgs.com/mlbishop/images/Lemans31.jpg

TIA,
Les

Hi All,

I am brand new to this forum and very excited I found it. There is a plethora of great info and anecdotes. I picked up a 1962 Lemans Coupe on Sunday (V-4, automatic, 70k miles, in garage for ~25 years). The brakes are shot, therefore it will be my first project. After 3 hours of Googling to find part numbers (shoes and cylinders) and trips to the local shops, I have had no luck. It seems the information stream ends in 1964. So, I have been reading posts and am curious if anyone knows the part numbers for the original brake shoes and wheel cylinders or knows of substitute parts. After cruising the forum, I am also contemplating the switch to disc brakes.
http://www.freepgs.com/mlbishop/images/Lemans31.jpg

TIA,
Les

Check out Scarebird.com for a front disk brake setup. If you are going to use this for a daily driver, this method for front disks appears superior in my opinion to the others I have seen. I have a set of them on my project and they look great.

If you are going to stay with the shoes up front, take the old set off, remove the old lining, sandblast the metal and have new linings riveted on. The wheel cylinders are available through Kantor. Their link is somewhere on this site. You should also check e-bay. They regularily have items like this for sale.

Nice little car! You may want to check out the Little Indians chapter of the Pontiac-Oakland club, it's specifically for owners of 1961-1963 Tempests and Lemans. http://www.littleindians.com/

The first thing you should buy is a factory shop manual. They show up on eBay, from online vendors and at swap meets. I believe you can get a copy on CD-ROM as well. A couple sources include Walter Miller at http://www.autolit.com/ and Bob Johnson at http://www.autopaper.com/

Kanter Auto sells a lot of parts for brakes, suspension, etc. http://www.kanter.com/

You can send a request to Automobile Archives at http://www.automobilearchives.com/ and they'll email you a list of all the new old stock parts they have on hand for your car. They're good guys to deal with.

California Pontiac Restoration (CPR) is another good company, although I don't know if they carry much for the early Tempests. http://www.pontiacparts.net/

East West Auto Parts in Tulsa has a lot of parts for early Tempests and Lemans, but I understand they're not particularly cheap...look in the archives to find out more. http://www.eastwestautoparts.com/

You can get master & slave cyl rebuild kits at NAPA. Any industrial brake & clutch shop can reline the shoes. Take the rubber hoses with you & get them matched up as far as fittings & length. You can go about 1/2 inch longer than stock length without any clearance issues. As Stuart said, get a factory shop manual. The CD rom is difficult to use. Follow the brake adjustment procedures closely.
There are numbers on the right front of the block right below the cylinder head. These numbers will tell you what compression ratio & horsepower the engine is. Look for a markings like 76Y or 79Y. Also contact Pontiac Historic services. www.phs-online.com For a fee, they can tell you just about anything about your car, date it was built, what options came on it, etc, etc.
An last but not least!!! WELCOME!!!!

Hi everybody,

Thanks for all the great info! I will put her up this weekend and hve the shoes relined and investigate the health of the cylinders.

MLB