Car: 1964 Beaumont Sport Deluxe Coupe
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A friend of mine knew I was looking for a restorable Chevelle to duplicate the 67 Chevelle SS I had back in 1968/69 and thought he had found one when he saw this one (he's a Chrysler fan obviously). Taking his word on this I bought the car sight unseen. Imagine my surprise when we pulled up with the car carrier in an early show storm to find this beat up rusty "Acadian". This car looked sad, the interior was full of old leaves, car parts, tires and various unidentifiable "things". An old V8 block and automatic transmission were jammed into the trunk. Which when removed revealed nothing but ground. Well, we all need challenges so we loaded it up on the car carrier and hauled it home.
My interest in the vehicle picked up substantially after I received the information on this little Acadian. I discovered just how rare it was, this did not however diminish the task of restoration at hand. I found out the car was originally sold new in Saskatchewan in November of 1963. The original owner drove it for a number of years and old the car in 1973 to a fellow in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The Beaumont was broken badly in a collision in early 1975 and parked in a field on a mink farm outside Slave Lake at that time.
The Beaumont had sat outside, uncovered resting on four pine stumps for twenty three years. Two of the stumps had rotted away, dropping the rear of the car to the ground allowing the entire truck floor to rust away. Retained moisture in the carpets had done similar damage to the front and rear foot wells. Surprisingly the frame rails were intact as the number of years running on gravel roads had filled them with hard packed clay dust. This had also preserved the quarter panels, rockers and doors enabling us to utilize all the original sheet metal.
The front end was destroyed by the accident and the right frame rail was badly bent and the cowl area pushed back. I disassembled the car completely to inventory what was restorable, what needed to be found or fabricated. What a task. Nobody told me how difficult it was going to be to locate parts for a 34 year old vehicle made only one year and only made to be sold in Canada. The available information at the time made me think that job was insurmountable. While I rebuilt the car for my own pleasure I look forward to the Westaskiwin History Road display in June, and I hope to drive to the Three Hills show as well. Through the Internet I stumbled upon the club and promptly joined. The club magazine was a great inspiration to continue!
Here's how my Beaumont Sport Deluxe came from the factory
Options:
·A02 Tinted Windshield · A51 Front Bucket Seat · C14 Two Speed Wiper Motor · D99 Two Tone Paint Mouldings · F40 HD Front & Rear Suspension · M20 Muncie Wide Ratio Four Speed Manual Transmission · U16 Tachometer
Original exterior paint colour was Saddle Tan (lower body) with Desert Beige (upper body) and a Saddle vinyl interior.
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