Member: Brian Pochodaj

Car: 1968 Beaumont Convertible

My love for Beaumonts began at a young age when my father owned a 1968 Beaumont Custom 2 door hdtp. I remember it had every option available for that series of Beaumont. Unfortunately my father did not take care of it and used it as the family car and truck. Needless to say over time the Beaumont was not looking as great as it once was.

The small block 327 was burning more oil than fuel and the interior and exterior; well you can imagine for yourself! However, as a 15-year-old just a year shy of getting my license, I could still see the beauty in her and was hoping my father would pass the car down to me. To my surprise, however, he sold the car to an auto wrecker for $50. It was a sad day as I watched the car being towed away on the back of the tow truck.

When I finally got my license I really wanted to buy a Beaumont. I looked at a few but I did not like what I saw. My father persuaded me to look at other makes of cars. Being a teenager with a licence and no car was tough so I settled on a 1979 Camaro. It was in great shape and I had lots of fun with it. I modified the engine and left the rest of the car alone. It ran a 12.90et on slicks and a 10.95et on nitrous at the local drag strip. Not bad! Everything was great until one night on a deserted rural road I was testing some changes I made with the nitrous system and I had a backfire through the carburetor, which in turn started a chain reaction that would eventually see the car burn to the ground. I found out the hard way not to leave my fire extinguisher at home!

There I was back with no wheels again and thought maybe it was some kind of sign that I should have bought a Beaumont instead of that Camaro. Who knows, however, this time I was determined to find my 68 Beaumont. I looked for about a month and finally found the one for me. It was burgundy in colour with bucket seats and a non-matching # big block 396. I was hooked and took every last cent out of my savings to buy it. I was so happy to finally own my own Beaumont. I drove it just about everyday and I remember using any loose change I could find for fuel just to drive it.

After a couple of years I noticed the rear quarter panels were starting to bubble and a few other places were also needing some attention too. It ended up there was a lot of body filler in the car; this was something I never noticed before I bought it or I just turned a blind eye to it because I was in love with the car. I had some serious thinking to do in what I was willing to put into the car. I loved to go fast and so I went with the strip/street car theme. I got rid of the 396 and dropped in a mildly built 604cu.in.engine backed by a turbo 400. I half tubbed the back end with 11x30 slicks, full race cage and a lot of fiberglass body panels where I could. A treat for me that year was having her painted in Porsche Guards red. I left the interior in black the way it came from the factory but changed the stock bucket seats for race seats instead. What you see in the pictures of the Beaumont did not happen overnight as it took many, many years to get the car completed. Things like getting married, buying a house and having kids pushed back the completion of the Beaumont. I have not had a chance yet to find out how fast the car is in the quarter mile; I am hoping that day will arrive soon!

After the completion of the hardtop Beaumont I thought it would be neat to own a 68 Beaumont convertible. I convinced my wonderful wife that it would be great to own a rare Beaumont convertible that she could feel comfortable driving too. I started my search last year and ended up finding one on e-bay in Ontario. I won the auction and had the car shipped out to B.C. It needed lots of cleaning and some fine-tuning. It came with a 6-cylinder engine with power glide transmission a bench seat and power top. It also came with all the original manuals in excellent condition. As a gift for Father's day my wife sent away the VIN number from the convertible to vintage services at G.M. to have it decoded. It turned out we were the owners of 1 of only 42 convertibles with a 6 cylinder and also found out they made just under 500 68 Beaumont convertibles in total. I knew they were rare but now I really know how special these cars are.

My wife was the first one to drive the convertible with her friends and came back to tell me it was a real beauty. So I said that we could name this one Beauty and the other Beaumont the Beast; the names have stuck . We own Beauty and the Beast. Our plans for the convertible are to do a frame off restoration and drop in a mild small block. I want to wait until my two young sons are old enough to help with the restoration and it also gives me a chance to save up the money for it. I want to keep Beauty somewhat original so the entire family can enjoy it.

Brian.

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