Member: Bob Freer

Car: 1968 Beaumont SD 396

Bob & Jeannette Freer’s 1968 Beaumont SD 396

I will never forget the first time I saw a 68 Beaumont SD 396. I was with a friend and we were driving along the waterfront in White Rock BC. The Beaumont was parked down by the pier, so we stopped to have a good look at the car. It was a dark blue car with white stripes, parchment interior with a four speed; she was a real beauty! As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. Since that time many years ago I have only seen a few ’68 SD’s.

In 2001 my Mother passed away and left me a small inheritance and I ended up buying a red 1978 L-82 Corvette, as this was another car that I always did like. I still had thoughts of finding a Beaumont though.

In June of 2003 as I was driving down Island heading for a business trip to Vancouver, I picked up a Vancouver Island Buy & Sell to read during the ferry trip. When I got on the ferry I started to read the paper and came upon an advertisement for a ‘68 Beaumont SD 396. I had never seen one of these cars for sale before and I knew that I would need to find out more about the car. That night I called the owner from my hotel room in Vancouver and he told me all about the car and we made arrangements to meet at the A & W in Duncan BC on the following Saturday.

My wife and I arrived at the A& W just prior to the owner of the Beaumont. I saw the car coming up the Island highway from the restaurant; the SD was a dark blue just like that first one I saw and looked very nice. We met the owner, had a discussion with him and then went out to look at the car. The body was in fair shape, the interior and headliner were very badly worn and needed replacing. The car had an after marker high rise manifold, Holly carburetor and braided wire rad and heater hoses as well as a lot of aftermarket chrome under the hood. The drive train, frame and suspension were in very good shape. I took the car for a spin; it felt very solid and it went very well. We gave the owner an offer, which he accepted. The following Monday my wife and I went to Victoria to pick up the car and brought it home.

Over the next couple of years we found the proper manifold and quadra jet for the car and put them on as well as the proper hoses and other parts to make it stock again. In the spring of 2006 we made the decision to sell the Corvette and do a restoration on the Beaumont. While talking to local people we were referred with high recommendation to Dave Purvis a good bodyman and painter who sub contracts for Comox Valley Automotive.

We met Dave and he looked at our car and after a good discussion we decided to proceed with the bodywork restoration. Prior to turning the car over to Dave, I stripped the whole interior out of the car. Once Dave got it, he started to strip off the old paint and disassemble the car.

We ended up replacing the floor pan brace, the driver’s side floor pan, the driver’s side full rocker panel, trunk filler panel, inner and outer driver’s wheelhouse, firewall cowl/windshield panel and both fenders. We took all the factory lead out of the car and replaced it with all metal filler. The gas tank was taken out the car, cleaned and painted. While it was out, we completely painted the underneath of the car and frame and then undercoated it. We changed all of the seals, weather-stripping, and rubbers in the car and also had both bumpers re-chromed.

We were going to paint the body dark blue again, but Dave talked us into painting it the original coded colour “Tripoli Turquoise metallic”. We started the bodywork restoration in early April and by the beginning of September the work was done.

We then took the car up to Class A Interiors in Campbell River to have the Interior work done. This included a new headliner, door panels, carpet as well as rebuilding all the seats. The Interior is back to original with black dash, console and carpet, with parchment seats, headrests, door panels, armrest and headliner.

We did end up spending more then we had planned to have the car done, but it is all done right and it is even better then we ever had hoped for. We are really glad that we did paint it back to coded colour, as it looks just awesome. We plan to spend many years enjoying the car and entering it into many car shows.

The car was built on April 19, 1968 in the Oshawa Ontario plant. It was shipped to Carter Motors Ltd, Kelowna B.C. on May 1, 1968 and came with the following options:


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