Member: Chris Fluter

Car: 1966 Beaumont SD

Shortly after my Dad passed away my younger brother, Rick, and I were sitting around reminiscing about the old times and remembering how we never did follow through with the idea of doing a resto project with Dad. We continued to talk about the “good old days” growing up in Regina; cruising and racing in our ‘60’s muscle cars. We pulled out some of Rick’s Auto Traders and continued to discuss cars for the next few hours.

The reminiscing and my upcoming mid life crisis (49 which is close to 50!) initiated my search for something from those good old days. The project I never had the chance to do with Dad! After several months of looking and searching through Auto Traders I made the decision to actively look for a ’66 Beaumont SD. In the Auto Trader I noticed an Ad for the Canadian Classic Chevelles and Beaumonts. I had nothing to loose so I phoned the two contact numbers. I probably talked Don and Dave’s ears off. I received lots of good information and ended up with a club member’s name in Sherwood Park Alberta who might know of a ’66 Beaumont for sale. As things often happen, I was unable to contact the guy and tucked the paper with the name and phone number into my wallet. One thing led to another and buying a car was put on “the back burner”.

”. A friend of mine re-kindled my interest a couple of months later when he asked if I wanted to go look at a couple of cars with him. He had found a “sweet” Malibu SS in Wetaskawin and another car in Edmonton. He knew I was interested in Beaumonts so thought this Malibu would be for me! It turned out to be a real nice car, however, something wasn’t quite right for me so I decided to pass it up and headed to Edmonton with my friend. He ended up making a deal on the vehicle so we had to stay overnight in Edmonton.

Feeling somewhat left out, I headed to the store to pick up a paper to check out the classifieds. When I reached into my wallet a piece of paper fell out; it was the forgotten Beaumont contact number in Edmonton! “ Devine intervention” I thought! I called and luckily connected with Mark Stubbington. As I had found out before Mark is a hard guy to contact because he is usually on the road. I met Mark and he showed me a car that he was considering selling. The ’66 Beaumont had a 427 tucked under the hood and when we took it for a drive the memories came flooding back and then I realized this was the car that connected me to my teenage years! As it turned out, the Beaumont SD was originally sold in Regina at Midwest Motors; I had probably seen it cruising on Albert St. Mark and I discussed the car and decided to “sleep on it” before making a decision re selling/buying.

In the morning, my buddy went to complete his car deal and I went to meet Mark. We both decided that it made sense for us to do the transaction. I was now the owner of a ’66 Beaumont SD. I had gone to many car shows over the years with my son and my brothers and enjoyed looking at all the classics and muscle cars. Now, I was going to be the owner of one. I most be dreaming I thought as I headed back home to Ft. St. John in my ’66 Beaumont SD. The thumbs up along the way made me feel great! After two years of cruising and generally having fun with the Beaumont I decided to do some work on the car.

I had a two week plan; this was going to be a busy two weeks working on the Beaumont. I drove to Calgary and put the Beaumont into my brother’s garage. A frame off restoration wasn’t needed, however, we immediately started to work; removed front clip, removed rear window (been leaking) and removed all the bright work and interior. There were only a few minor rust repairs that Rick handled (he’s an autobody tech) and the Beaumont was then on its way to A1 autobody where Doug Hummelt got it prepped and Chris Graham applied the red with bronze pearl paint. The Beaumont isn’t a numbers car so I felt OK with doing a little customizing by adding some liquid flames on the hood. As promised, in ten days the Beaumont was back in Rick’s garage where we worked night and day to get things back together including a couple of new things; an original tach and 12 bolt rear end. Special thanks to my son Richard and brothers Bob and Rick for the hours of work. I must also mention Rick’s very understanding wife Karen. She had to put up with all of us!

Once everything was together we headed across the mountains to Ashcroft BC to enter the Beaumont in the Old Time Drags where I could legally race some other muscle cars! Talk about mid life crisis! I didn’t build the Beaumont to tear it apart, however, I do like to “get at it” once in awhile! My best time was 13.37 @ 104mph.

On the return trip to Calgary I had time to consider getting Chris to add a few more flames. The flames received lots of compliments so I decided to get some flames on the interior metal trim and the door jambs. For the last bit of distinctive styling I added 15” Pontiac Rallys and capped them off with some baby moons. It was a great holiday and now $10000 lighter and with 3400 miles on the Beaumont I headed home to Ft. St. John BC for the annual July long weekend Classic Cruisers show.

The car was well received at our local show. I reflected how some of the best people in the world attend car shows and I knew that my Dad was smiling on this day also! As the ad states; spending time with family fixing cars, talking cars with folks at the shows, driving a Beaumont-- priceless!!

My Beaumont’s personalized plates proudly state I-M-CDN

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