[Jeff Hamlin]

O.K. here is what I will call “Sleeping Beauty” this ’63 has been on standby for over 5 years now and I have nudged the owner to wake her and get her back on the road.

It’s been about 7-8 years since the body was stripped and the minor rust issues have been address. The man who did the metal work was an old school retired body man who would do small jobs out of his garage from time to time. This guy truly had the Midas touch as this body is well done. But she wasn’t a rust bucket to begin with either.

Then a very close to factory color was applied along with many NOS and/or restored trim parts. The interior was cleaned preped and painted then all soft parts re-installed.
Had to go with carpet as the rubber mats are almost none existent.

But then time stopped for this car.

Fast forward to earlier this year and she is now home in Virginia where this little Tempest journey had begun.

Sort of working backwards the engine was lifted out and being freshened up.
She's a low mile good running car but a LEAKER. This could not remain so the engine is the current part of the project.

Now waiting on some parts and pieces so we can get the engine up and running again.
The bulk of parts have been sent out to the blaster are due back soon so hopefully we can hear her purr again!

Then it’s time to finish off the front end and adjusted everything as needed. Over all the paint has been cared for with only a few points of touch-up due to storage shuffle that she has been going through up to this point. Luckily there is still some of the paint with the car.

She’s not a point resto, but sure is a Great looking Tempest that deserves to be shown off and driven.

At this point the focus is to get her back on the road and not wait for the absolute correct parts; we are not cutting any corners just using functional replacements until correct parts possibly ever become available.

Come Hell or High water this Pontiac will be on the road this summer!

[xlrate]

Well Gary (blueghoast) has been busy with my 63

Engine is done ... ready for the test stand! (455 .060 over, forged rods, pistons, ported 6x-8s, 041 cam, Rhoads lifters, Roller rockers, Performer with 800cfm Edelbrock carb, Ram air exhaust Manifolds, Dizzy by Dave Ray, ect) should be a nice pump gas cruiser in front of my 700R4 Street Fighter Package from TCI. Sand blasted my rear (8.5 4:10s) and will be ready to install my Checkered Racing coil over ladder bar setup.

Have all the parts for the conversion ... cant wait for blueghoast to finish up body work .. for cruizer!

Check out the progress:

[blueghoast]

1974 Duster Wheels fit great and look pretty good too.

GT.