[b-man]

Here are a few pictures I took of the LeMans around 1998, about a year after I purchased the car. The grille and bumper are missing because the two front fenders were just hung on the car with a couple of bolts.

I had taken all the front sheetmetal off the car and removed the engine and trans so I could clean and paint the firewall and frame rails. I rebuilt the front suspension using all new rubber bushings and ball joints, replacing the original front drum spindles with '69 GP spindles and 11" disc brakes. I also installed a hastily-rebuilt 325 HP GTO 389 79J engine and matching auto trans in the car to replace the very tired 326.

I also repaired the passenger side footwell that had some rust due to a long-ago leaking heater core, using silver POR-15 and some fiberglass cloth. I did the same with the trunk floor, it was a bit thin from rust over pretty much all of it. In a couple of spots I used the fiberglass cloth to fill some holes about the size of a quarter.

Note the accessory luggage rack bolted to the top of the trunk lid, not sure if it was a dealer item or added later by the owner. Either way, it's not going back on the car.