Member: Randy Jethon

Car: 1964 Beaumont convertible

Randy Jethon's 1964 Beaumont

In the fall of 1996 my wife, Betty, and I made the decision to buy a new home in St. Albert, Alberta. I've been an auto enthusiast ever since I can remember and I've owned some very nice vehicles, but when we sat down to plan the house, building a garage large enough to house both our vehicles and a classic was the farthest thing from my mind. However, in May of the following year, I first came across what was to become the newest member of our family. I pulled into the parking lot of a customer that I had done business with for several years and there it was - a weathered, rather worn, 1964 Beaumont convertible. I realized it was a diamond in the rough, quite literally, and asked the young lady who owned it if she would consider selling it. Her answer was a resounding "no!" but I persevered and in September she finally agreed to sell. Once around the block in the car with the top down was all the convincing Betty needed as the tour brought back memories of the 65 Impala convertible we owned when we were first married. Little did we realize the work in store for us.

Once at home, I started to go over my little gem a little more closely. Under the badly worn carpet, I discovered the front floor section was rotted out. The carpet went into the garbage and out came the grinder to see just how bad the problem was. It turned not to be as bad as I thought it was and a few days later a friend of mine, Bill Kerekes who owns Street Heat in Calgary offered to weld in a new floor for me. Bill did a great job. Winter was on it's way though, so the car went into storage. During the long cold winter I acquired a complete 350 4-bolt main, tore it down and proceeded to rebuild it to L-48, 300 horse specs.(The original 283 was tired and, as we all know, you can never have enough power.) AMS in Edmonton did all the machine work on the engine and through the winter I carefully assembled all the parts. April didn't arrive soon enough, and when it did, the car came home and the transplant was performed. What a difference! Even with the Powerglide, the tires broke loose with only the slightest pressure on the pedal. With all that performance waiting to be shown to the world, a facelift was an absolute necessity for the car.

I had started putting away a little cash each month once I purchased the car, knowing full well that the paint and body would be a major expense. I made arrangements at Sturgeon Auto Body here in St. Albert to do the work. There had been some rust in front of the rear wheel wells and I had visions of major repair work and major dollars. However, Larry Ketsa from Sturgeon called me the day after I dropped the car off to let me know the rust was really very minor and would require very little work. He also advised me that, if I wanted to, I could come down and take pictures of work in progress. A little over two weeks later, a shiny new silver blue metallic 64 Beaumont convertible rolled out into the sunshine from the depths of Sturgeon Auto Body. The body looked great but the interior left more than just a little to be desired. Still, we were rolling, and for the first time in a long time, we could cruise. And cruise we did, mostly down to Soda Jerks, where I met Dave Weir for the first time. I had joined the club in the spring of 98 and talked with Dave, Rick Outingdyke, and Don Earnshaw over the phone but never met any of them. Dave was running from Chevelle to Beaumont, from Beaumont to Chevelle, cataloging the serial numbers for reference. He was pretty much like the proverbial kid in the candy shop but had a wealth of information on the cars we love. Summer came to an end quickly but we managed to cruise right through to the end of October before storing the car away for another winter.

In April of '99, the Titanic (as my son liked to call it) rolled out into the spring sunshine and then right back into the darkness of my garage to have what was left of the interior gutted. Over thewinter I had obtained a set of original 64 Beaumont bucket seats in Manitoba, a Turbo 350 transmission, and an automatic console and shifter from Stu Edy at Custom Engine in Red Deer. Stu is an avid Chevelle and Beaumont collector and has helped many locate hard to find parts for these cars. A couple of quick calls to R.E.M., National Parts Depot, Year One, and The Muscle Factory and I had all the parts I needed to replace seat covers, door panels, carpet, convertible boot, and weather stripping, plus lots of little items that I would use later on. I went to work on the interior, then the tranny swap. Before long the car was back together ready for our first longer cruise, a trip to the Three Hills Cruise. The car performed very well, despite overheating while moving slowly up the main street of that great little Central Alberta town. This event is a must for anyone even remotely interested in the automotive scene. That year we would also take in the Super Run at Saskatoon, and the Columbia Valley Classics 10th Annual Cruise and Car show in Radium, B.C. as well as numerous events around Edmonton. This past year we've been to Three Hills, the Reynold's Museum's History Road, the Super Run at Red Deer, Rockin' August Nights in St. Albert, and Radium again. The car is pretty much complete now and I think another project may be off in the wings somewhere.

On any given night in the summer you'll find us cruisin' down to Soda Jerks in St. Albert. It's the greatest weekly free car show in "Alberts". The comments we hear always make us feel proud of our Beaumont. A lot of thanks goes out to the people and companies we've mentioned in this article and a lot of thanks goes out to Dave Weir and the Canadian Classic Chevelles and Beaumonts Club. Although I've never met many of the members, the articles on their cars and the information provided in the newsletter makes me feel as though I am part of a large extended family of Chevelle/Beaumont fans. I try to never miss an opportunity to pass out membership information packages to anyone I come across that owns or is interested in owning a Chevelle, Beaumont Acadian, El Camino, or Sprint. I've met and become friends with club members from the Edmonton, Alberta area and always try to meet any club members I can when at cruises or show'n shines. Do yourself a favor - wear your colors - a Canadian Classic T-shirt, hat, jacket, or window decal. Let the other members know who you are. You'll meet some great people.

This car came from the factory equipped with the following

Additions


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