Member: Ray and Karen Juneau
Car: 1969 Beaumont
Car: 1969 Beaumont
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The car hobby bit me many years ago as a youngster and I can still recall standing on some milk crates at the local body shop in Grimshaw Alberta, watching Ed Harris painting a 1970 Nova purple with fish scale flames. Yes I am a little dated! Over the years some of the cars I’ve had have been all over the board with every big name brand but mostly Chevy.
A career in the trucking industry led me to believe that Hot Rodding in my lifetime had gone the way of the dodo bird as there never seemed to be enough time in one day to warrant buying a car and never really having time to work on it. I actually thought that this stage of my life was over and even went so far as to give away all of my parts that I had collected for many years. Boy was that stupid!
I went from being Hot Rod less to having a 1969 Chevelle and a 69 Beaumont rag top as well as a 69 hardtop. The Beaumont went to Faust a buddy’s body shop where the body was torn apart and stripped down. New rear quarters and inner wheel houses were installed. A hundred calls later had me a new set of GM fenders as well as inner fenders so things were shaping up quite well. I took the front and rear bumpers into Edmonton and had them straightened and show chromed. One big problem with Beaumont’s is the availability of grills as no one reproduces these. While the body was being massaged, I was busy either cleaning or polishing all the trim as well as many late nights at the work bench and kitchen table using my modeling skills from many years past, hand building my grill inserts from as many broken pieces I could find. I still to this day grab even the broken ones. I’m not sure of how many hours I have into them but its lots.
The car originally was gold and I wanted to go that way but the wife said no. I settled on 2 Ford colors and away we went with painting. I also wanted to do something different with the hood as almost every Chevelle and Beaumont you see has a big block hood and I wanted something different. While attending a swap meet at Powerama in Edmonton a deal was struck on a 2.5 inch 69 Camaro cowl induction scoop. This looks right at home and is different yet subtle enough that it leaves some guys questioning what looks so different. The fact that we also installed the 50 series tires on the car and pulling the quarters out is a little trick and allowed me to run the big tire without carving into the wheel wheels. Looks really good and I have a ton of clearance. We rounded everything out with a set of Torque thrust wheels that really compliment this era. At Country Upholstery, all the seats were torn down to bare steel, re-sprung and built back up from the frame. New underlay and carpets etc were installed. We rounded out the interior in parchment white.
Last winter I got the itch again and a built up 383 stoker along with a built up the 700R4 that now resides in the Beaumont. A new aluminum rad set-up complete with electric fans was installed along with Hooker ceramic coated headers and dyno flow mufflers that exist through Flowmaster coated piping. A full set-up of MSD fired components rounds out the electrical providing super spark for the new engine. For stopping power I converted the front end over to a disk brake set-up and then concentrated on the rear diff. The 10 bolt was tired so out it came and a new stud to stud 12 bolt with Eaton posi and Richmond gears with a 373 ratio were installed. I also did the entire suspension front to rear with polyurethane bushings.
The engine I bought was actually built running a small blower however I did not want to cut up my hood and didn’t want to have a blower sticking out so I sold the blower and installed a new Edelbrock dual quad set-up. It looks fantastic and really turns on. We still have a few minor glitches to work out such as installing adjustable torque arms on the diff as I now have wheel hop and suspect it being due to the pinion angle being off. The other thing I have planned before summer is a refurbished dash with aftermarket auto meter gauges and I don’t wan to say it but I think we may be done! I don’t think one is ever done but it is looking real sweet. Oh yeah…want to detail the trunk….hmmmm guess we’re not done!
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