1970 Pontiac LeMans...the second coming

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And for some bonus content - behold the Sport convertible I paid 500 knicker for:

Bought from the legendary Woolhouses yard in Barnsley, there was method in my madness.
There used to be a Yank importer in Darlington called Marjon Motors, who imported a ‘72 Sport convertible, which promptly had a carb fire when it got to Blighty. A lad called McGregor from Durham bought it with a view to restoring it, then lost his sh!t one day when he dropped the new screen he bought for it and cut it up with a Stihl saw (!) I bought anything that would unbolt - Full front end, doors, boot, trim, the lot. So, I thought, glue all of that to the gold turd and it’d be mint. Er....no. Woolhouses kindly mangled the front end when they pulled the engine, and somehow managed to crack the screen as well. Then I found out it didn’t have a bulkhead. It did donate a lot of trim to the coupe, and I sold a load of bits including an absolutely mint saddle coloured interior (which I reeeeaaaaalllllyy wish I had now!), then flat packed it.

I think we may have discussed the place before? I got the bus down to Donnie custom show once when I was 18, and called in on the way. Somehow I managed to blag my way in and took loads of photos (I’ll post em on here some time.) Years later I bought a 4 barrel inlet for the Pontiac, then the convertible. Went to the legendary Bungalow to look at the ‘vert! I wish I’d bought the ‘58 Plymouth I was offered minus engine for £500, but Steve wasn’t willing to tell me how knackered it was and I didn’t want a £500 pile of rust.

I do like a yank! worst thing I ever did was sell my 69 Chevelle!

I felt the same about my ‘70, although the last owner pulled it to bits and found it was rotten so maybe it was for the best! Always wanted a Malibu/Chevelle as they’re my favourite A body, but they’re just too much money now. Have had a 71 Cutlass coupe though, and nearly bought a 71 Skylark before the new LeMans popped up.

Shipping was a disaster...was expected end of September-ish. Went away for a week to Lanzarote with SWMBO around then, and made the mistake of checking my emails. US customs had pulled the container off the ship to conduct a random (or so I was told) search! Not only did it put shipping back by a month, it also cost me an extra £1500 as customs charge the owners of the container’s contents for the privilege!

Just to top things off, the vessel took an extra week to get here. By then, the whole experience was starting to sour - the bloody thing fought me to the bitter end. Got a date for delivery, took a days holiday - and waited...waited...waited. Spoke to the driver at 3.30 and he was just starting to unload a car in Leeds! ‘Call me back around 7.30’ he says. So I did, and he told me he’d decided to drop another car off 20 miles north of me first and now he didn’t have the hours to get back down to Shildon. I promptly went mental, to the point where my wife, definitely the angry one of our team, told me to calm down 😁

The next day, I didn’t hold my breath, but in the end, the transporter appeared:



Beautiful. But the bloody thing wouldn’t start. Then when I tried to get out, the door wouldn’t open. Definitely thought I’d inadvertently upset a gypsy at this point.

Managed to get it off the truck on the winch, then with the help of a neighbour rolled it into the drive, with the brakes grabbing like mad every time you touched them. The steering wheel fell apart in the process, destroying the horn wiring. At this point, I gave up, went in the house, and kicked things. And that’s how LeMans Mk2 made it to the U.K.

I think that’s what fascinated me about American cars when i was a kid, they were mind blowing compared to the British and European stuff that surrounded us. Remember going on a Trip to France from school when I was 11, and seeing a metallic blue ‘78 Firebird in Dieppe. Surrounded by all the little Renaults and Citroens, it looked positively space aged!

Cutlasses are another love of mine, had a yellow coupe affectionately known as Custard

It’s definitely been a ‘good news, bad news’ setup so far - but instead of doing the usual and selling it, I’ve decided to persevere 👍

I guess its always a risk buying anything without being able to touch it in the flesh, at least parts are reasonably available?