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ahnuld · 01-12-2012, 01:29 AM

http://autos.winnipegfreepress.com/n...icle/id-4247/#'Bad News' travels fast
Potent Pontiac brought back from near-basket-case condition
By: Larry D'Argis

Updated: January 6, 2012

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Aptly dubbed 'Bad News', owner Dan Jefkins of Winnipeg has brought this 1963 Pontiac LeMans back to life. It features a powerful 389-cu.-in. V8 engine under the hood.

Pontiac introduced their compact Tempest in 1961. Pure Pontiac in appearance with twin grilles and sculptured body panels it fit right in with the rest of the Pontiac line-up.

With an all-new unibody frame, it differed from other Pontiac models and was particularly innovative in its drivetrain offerings.

The base powerplant was a 194.5-cu.-in. four-cylinder created by cutting a 389-cu.-in V-8 in half. Dubbed the "Indy Four", it produced a respectable 120 horsepower. If that wasn't enough, there was also an optional aluminium 215-cu.-in. V-8 borrowed from the Oldsmobile F-85.

Where things really went away from the manufacturing norm was that the front-mounted engine used a long torque-tube driveshaft leading to a frame-mounted rear transaxle and independent suspension. The '62 model continued with only slight styling upgrades and sales increased nearly 40 per cent.

Buyers were greeted in 1963 with a full restyle, and the new Tempest now carried the term "Senior Compact". The engine changed as well, with a new optional Pontiac-bred, 260-horsepower 326-cu.-in. V-8 ($167).

There was also a new LeMans series available. Weighing in at just under 3,000 pounds, the V-8 powered LeMans coupe offered crisp performance for a compact. It didn't take long before racers noticed the performance potential and were swapping out the 326 V-8 for the more powerful 389-cu.-in. V-8 and even Pontiac's largest, the 421-cu.-in. Super Duty V-8.

While this was an easy upgrade since the engines had the same exterior dimensions, the added power led to early transaxle and rear suspension failures. To overcome the problem for all-out performance and drag-racing duty, many were converted to conventional transmissions and live rear axles.

In 1990, Dan Jefkins of Winnipeg started working for Barry Dawson at the Esso service station in Headingley. Jefkins' car-savvy father, Keith, told Dan he should ask Dawson about "Bad News", the old 1963 Pontiac LeMans coupe Dawson had in storage.

The car had been stripped out as a lightweight '70s drag car, with the original 326 V-8 and two-speed automatic transaxle replaced by a big V-8 and conventional automatic transmission.

After seeing the car, Jefkins had to have it, so he spent the next two years bugging Dawson to sell it to him. "My plans were to turn it into a street machine and an occasional drag racer in time," Jefkins says.

But the car turned out to be truly bad news. Primarily used as a drag car only, there were no rear brakes and the flat floor pan had been cut open to accommodate a transmission and driveshaft. It clearly wasn't ready for any street use.

The car sat in storage until 2005, when Jefkins went to work on it in an all-out effort. The entire car was dismantled and all the paint stripped off. Factory leaded body seams were cleaned up and permanently welded and the sub-frames were boxed and connected.

The rear quarter panels had accumulated enough rust to warrant replacement and, with none available in the aftermarket, Jefkins built his own and took it one step farther by widening them to accommodate larger rear tires.

A new floor was fabricated along with a new transmission hump and driveshaft tunnel and a roll cage was installed to stiffen up the car and provide added safety. VFN supplied the fiberglass hood scoop and Jefkins built a pan to supply fresh air to the carburetors, making the setup fully functional.

The body was bathed in a base/clear silver grey by Dave Perron and Jefkins spent considerable time wet-sanding and polishing the car for a deep, even shine. The aluminium grille was a lucky eBay purchase, and Bob Duncan at The House of Silver worked his magic restoring the rear pot-metal taillight housings.

Underneath, the LeMans was a total rebuild. The 10-bolt positraction rear axle was removed in favour of a beefier Ford 9-inch unit from a 1976 Ford Bronco with a 4.11: gear ratio. The rear suspension consists of ladder bars with coil over shocks and an adjustable panhard bar.

Up front, it's A-arms with custom-made springs and Competition Engineering three-way shock absorbers. Heads-Up supplied all of the brake parts for the front discs and rear drum system. Tying the LeMans to the road are a set of 10-inch steel wheels widened by Winnipeg Wheel Works that turn 12.5-inch Mickey Thompson radials in back and 15-inch radials in front, with the factory hub caps.

Power for the LeMans comes from a 389-cu.-in. V-8 overbored .030" with 11.0:1 compression pistons, ported and polished 389/421 Super Duty cylinder heads and an Ultradyne custom-ground performance camshaft. An electric fuel pump pulls the fuel from a trunk-mounted 72-litre fuel cell to feed the Rochester tri-power carburetion set-up. A Pertronix electronic ignition conversion ensures spark for the fuel mixture isn't a problem, and tri-Y exhaust headers lead the spent gases to a three-inch custom dual exhaust system with Thrush mufflers.

Keeping it all cool is a Griffin aluminium radiator, and an M-21 four-speed manual transmission with Hurst floor shift gets the power to the rear wheels.

The interior is understated, with aluminium door panels. The gauges are cleverly hidden inside the glove box and the fuel-pump shutoff and roll-control line-lock switch are hidden in the ashtray. A full carpet and headliner complement the brushed-silver and black-vinyl seat upholstery from R&R Upholstery.

Finished in 2011, Jefkins' LeMans is one of 45,701 coupes built in 1963 and the top-seller among the Tempest line. Today, few of these cars remain and those that do generally need a full rebuild. With literally no reproduction parts available, hunting down used and refurbished parts make a restoration far more difficult than other popular models.

Jefkins' LeMans is a real rolling piece of history, a testament to how a light-weight compact could be transformed into a performance machine.

In 1964, the LeMans grew in dimensions and had a separate body on-frame construction with conventional drivetrain engineering. It was also the body chosen to showcase a further model option, the legendary GTO.