[kylek350]

Just a little over a month ago, I brought home my favorite car of all time...

My dad's first car was a Granada Gold '70 Tempest Post Coupe that he bought new. The car got wrecked when I was two, but I remember it on the back of the tow truck dropping my dad off at home after the accident. That's my earliest memory.

Growing up, that car was like a ghost to me. While we would see similar cars from time to time, we never saw one exactly like his.

In '07, I bought a '70 LeMans 2 Door Hardtop which was mechanically sound, but ultimately lipstick on a pig; typical rusty northern car, but this one had all its exterior sheet metal patched and painted. It looked like a decent car, but the whole underside and frame were a rusty mess. A transmission problem parked about three years ago and a new house and child meant that it was going to sit.

About two years ago, I bought a '70 GTO 455 4-speed project car. It's going to be a long term project, but the LeMans will now be used as its parts car. I still couldn't get the idea of my dad's Tempest out of my head, so the search continued.

After so many years, I had never seen a Tempest Post Coupe in person, or one that was for sale. Then, after doing a series of national Craigslist searches, I found one! Long story short, she's in my garage now! Barring one repaint, the car is essentially original. Being from Kentucky and having low miles (the odometer reads 31k, but that's not verified), this car is super solid top and bottom. It's Baja Gold with a Green interior. I'm sure that's not popular combo by today's standards, but I dig it. I love the cloth inserts on the Tempest interiors! Between that and the post coupe body, it's just something you rarely see at the shows. The car is bone stock (350 2 Barrel, TH350, drum brakes), and that's just the way I wanted it. It's wearing Rally IIs, but originally would have had XE steel wheels and Deluxe wheel covers. I was happy to see that the original XE spare wheel is in the trunk.

Here she is! The last picture is of my dad helping me detail it for the first time. Having bought it so late in the season, I missed the show season, but I'm looking forward to doing some mechanical assessments and maintenance over the winter to be ready for next year!










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[goatless]

Wow! That looks nice! Congrats on finding your dream car- and in such nice shape.

[indymanjoe]

Very clean looking car.Great find.

[muscle_collector]

very nice looking. congrats

[kylek350]

Thanks, guys!

One thing that I find interesting about this car is that it's a very late build (3rd week of June, '70), but it's a Tempest, not a T-37. According to the Production numbers in "The Standard Catalog of Pontiac", it seems that there were no T-37 Post Coupes in '70. Ironically, there "27" and "37" body code (Post Coupe and 2-door hardtop respectively) GT-37s made in '70! This car seems to support the notion that the Tempest name by itself lived on past the introduction of the T-37/GT-37 models, but would make this model truly the last of the Tempest line.




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[Shiny]

Wow, that's awesome, thanks for sharing.

Congrats on not only finding your dream car, but one so amazingly nice! Chrome and rocker trim look like new. I believe 31k, especially if the cloth seats held up.

I'll bet your dad was shocked to see it. Has to be a scarce car today. Rare at the shows is probably an understatement for an untouched Tempest in that shape. I would enjoy seeing pics of the interior, especially if it's as nice as the outside. I love the $18.96 option price for the carpet!

Your story was great, especially about a car being your earliest memory. You're pretty sharp to remember anything from 2yrs old. Must have been traumatic to see the aftermath of the wreck.

We owned a 70 Tempest around '78, was also a post car with cloth interior. Your pictures reminded me of it, but ours never looked that good!

[65blackplate]

Very nice!!Great score

[goatmanmitch]

Looks great!

[barrierblue66]

Looks great and brings back memories! My first car was a Verdoro green 70 Tempest. My uncles car that had taken a hit in the fender that I was given, fixed and had fun with through high school and beyond. One of my favorite years.

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[kylek350]

Thanks for all the kind words! My dad was pretty floored to see it for sure. I had him take it for the first drive around the neighborhood when we got home and off the trailer. He said it made him feel "old" to be that guy reminiscing about a time that still doesn't seem like that long ago to him.

I still don't have many great pictures of the car, but here are some of the interior. I love how the seat fabric is monochromatic, but the pattern gives it a two-tone effect when the light hits it.

In the last picture you can see the only issues with the interior. The cloth on the driver's seat area is tearing and the dashboard has some pretty serious cracks. Other than smelling like moth balls, I'm really happy with the condition!

While no one (that I know of) sells a Tempest interior kit, supposedly SMS sells recreation seat fabric. Maybe when the GTO's done, I'll be inspired to replace the front seat cloth insert.

Over winter, I'll be checking out the brakes and suspension. The heater core is currently bypassed, but the seller included a brand new core. The front panel alignment isn't great, so I may take the opportunity to tighten up the panel gaps since I'll most likely have to pull the passenger fender to do the heater core.

Eventually I'll source some steel wheels to put back on her and I plan to get these dual white stripe G78-14 BF Goodrich bias plies from Coker. I was planning on putting the Deluxe covers back on, but I really love the look of poverty caps!




















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['ol Pinion head]

Beautiful car!

Believe the seats are dark green parody cloth, same stitched design pattern insert as used in '71, but no dark green for '71.

[784mula]

That's a great looking car. I remember those types of interiors fondly.

[Gordon Church]

A breath of fresh air....what nice car and color combo. "Cream Puff"

[Shiny]

Thanks for the interior pics. Nice!

Door panels look near new, and the steering wheel seems to still have all the grain!

I didn't remember the vertical pleats in the seat backs, so found that interesting. Hope you can find the fabric.

[The Boss]

Nice car - enjoy!

[Greg Reid]

That is a seriously nice car! SO hard to find them in that condition any more!

[Engine-Ear]

Kyle drove this to my place last month and I can vouch for the time capsule nature (NOT like the '57 Dodge buried in Tulsa that Boyd Coddington bought!) of this Freedom Machine.

Not sure if you covered it but what's also interesting about this car (body style) is that it doesn't have the Astro-ventilation grilles in the door jambs. We speculate that's because it has wing windows.

The only things I would do to it is change the timing chain and CAM timing gear, have the speaker reconed and add a RediRad.

[kylek350]

Haha, yes, the car desperately needs its AM radio and speaker gone through over winter!

Here are couple shots from Matt's Badger State Chapter POCI event at the Wreck Room. Check out the '71 GMC Sprint! I never would have expected to see one of those!





And because this post needs more Tempests, Engine-Ear's Ramblin' Rose:




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[kylek350]

And, Matt, it was a '57 Plymouth Belvedere, not a Dodge.


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[ged2227]

Nice find!! Looks like many items that need to be replaced are *easy* to find.. LOL.
As far as the seat... Take it to an 'old shool' upholsterer. I found a local 'retired' guy that was able to save my original seat using the sewn in 'extra' material from it.. Worth a shot .

Congrats!!