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hi i thought i would let everyone know my ride it is a 73 lemans. anyone with any ideas or tips is welcome to suggest im always open to new ideas. :welcomeFP:

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here is a pic of my 73 lemans im restoring it. still lookin for those interior peices.th_IMG00008.jpg?t=1295579523

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here is one of my ideas for what i want to do. photoshopped a black n white pic its a little rough but you get the idea.gtoblacknwhite.jpg?t=1296029240

here is a bigger pic of it now.IMG00008-1.jpg?t=1296029492

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hi i thought i would let everyone know my ride it is a 73 lemans. anyone with any ideas or tips is welcome to suggest im always open to new ideas. :P

:lol2:

My first car out of high school was a '73 Lemans Sport Coupe with a 350 2bbl, TH375 auto, air, PS, PB. It was Lucerne Blue with a white vinyl roof. So I can relate.

Nice thing is that there are plenty of Pontiac engine combinations available. So a 400 or 455 will fit perfectly in the engine bay. Lots of speed parts for Poncho motors. There are also some suspension and brake combinations for Colonade style A-bodies. Also, a lot of other parts interchange from the 68-72 models too. About the only thing you can't get readily is major sheet metal.

So what else would you like to do with it?

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here is one of my ideas for what i want to do. photoshopped a black n white pic its a little rough but you get the idea.gtoblacknwhite.jpg?t=1296029240

here is a bigger pic of it now.IMG00008-1.jpg?t=1296029492

Meh, I'm not a fan of 2 tone color jobs but this might work out for it!

:P

My first car out of high school was a '73 Lemans Sport Coupe with a 350 2bbl, TH375 auto, air, PS, PB. It was Lucerne Blue with a white vinyl roof. So I can relate.

Any pics of it? :lol2:

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:lol2:

My first car out of high school was a '73 Lemans Sport Coupe with a 350 2bbl, TH375 auto, air, PS, PB. It was Lucerne Blue with a white vinyl roof. So I can relate.

Nice thing is that there are plenty of Pontiac engine combinations available. So a 400 or 455 will fit perfectly in the engine bay. Lots of speed parts for Poncho motors. There are also some suspension and brake combinations for Colonade style A-bodies. Also, a lot of other parts interchange from the 68-72 models too. About the only thing you can't get readily is major sheet metal.

So what else would you like to do with it?

Mostly thinkin about an engine dress up cause it is the original 350 with only 73k miles, so i want to keep the engine mods minimal. Other then that mostly just a restoration with a custom stereo.

Meh, I'm not a fan of 2 tone color jobs but this might work out for it!

Any pics of it? :D

well the two tone is only one idea. the 73 also has a GT side stripe and trunk decal kit i was thinkin about on a solid color paint job.

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Sadly, I don't have any pictures of my old Lemans that I know of. There might be a picture of it somewhere in my folks pictures. Heavenly only know where that could be.

It was Lucerne blue with a white vinyl roof and a matching white interior. The carpet and dash were black. It was a console shift automatic. As a teenager, I put a Delco 8-track and later a Delco cassette player (out of a junk yard) in it with some better speakers. I had "14 Cragar SS rims in front, and "15 Cragar SS rims for the back. I purchased a Trans Am steering wheel to replace the stock steering wheel. It had the factor rally stripe that went from the peak of the hood to behind the driver door. It was a different shade of blue against the Lucerne blue.

It had some fender rust and I spent the whole summer of '79 grinding off the rust, bondoing, priming and painting it. When it came time to paint it, instead of Lucerne blue, I used the Lombard blue metal flake PPG lacquer that was used on the '77 & '78 Trans Ams. I did not put the factory stripe back on before I sold it. The stripe is being re-poped though. Unfortunately my hard work didn't last long enough. Some little A-hole keyed the car about 2 weeks after I finished it. It was at the local community college student parking lot too. Needless to say, I was seriously pissed and I had to spend the following summer re-doing it and then I sold it.

I still have the Trans Am steering wheel from it. It is now on my '72 Lemans Sport convertible. It too has a blue metalflake paint and a white interior (since it was one of the main reasons I purchased this car was the thought of my old '73). My dad kept my old Cragars in his garage all these years!!!! They are badly rusted up (since they are chromed steel) and I will get them cleaned up and re-chromed in a few years once I finish my exterior tweaking.

You can get dress up air cleaners like a '14 chrome air cleaner with "Pontiac" stamped into it off of eBay or swap meets. GM has discontinued carrying it from dealers directly. Reproduction chrome factory valve covers are available. GM and some other catalog/speed shops now carry aluminuim valve covers with the word Pontiac stamped on it for Pontiac motors. A factory 4bbl (non-HO or Ram Air) intake manifold can be purchased at swap meets for real cheap. There are a lot of aftermarket intakes out there too but if you don't have a ton of cash, a factory manifold will do very nicely on the street for a ton less money. Edelbrock and Cal-Custom finned valve covers are also available. Holley or re-built Rochester carbs can be found nearly anywhere.

I installed a Petronix Ignitor II to eliminate the points and condenser in the distributor. Igniter III is now on the market. Also, if the distrbutor is stock, consider replacing the vacuum advance with a new one to insure you have good advance. Also a lighter spring set on the timing weights will help bring all your timing in sooner. These weight kits are cheap.

If all the rubber fuel lines are original - replace them ASAP ! The reason is the original factory rubber tubing was made to accomodate '73 era fuel formulations! Today's fuel have had the lead removed, and lower/different sulfer contents as well as different additives are included. Today's fuels will break down the old factory rubber from the inside out - which could (worse case) lead to a vehicle fire. Also, time, UV exposure, and usage all help to deteriorate the factory rubber. Modern rubber hoses can accomodate today's fuel. So replace all rubber fuel and vacuum lines that go anywhere near the fuel system. So fuel lines, brake booster, vacuum lines, evaporation canister, and the small rubber hose between the fuel tank and the hard lines should all be replaced ASAP!!! The hard lines should be okay unless they are badly rusted.

Here are a couple of pictures I found on the internet with the factory stripe. I like the white with the orange strip since that is sort of what the '77 Lemans Can-Ams were all about. The black GTO with the maroon stripe does not doing anything for me color wise, but it does give you an idea what the factory strip looked like. I also found a picture with the factory GT rally stripe. I also found a '75 Lemans with a paint scheme similar to what your proposed...albeit it is not orange/white or orange/silver.

White w/ Orange stripe - front view

1973_Pontiac_Lemans_Sports_Coupe_white.jpg

Black '73 GTO w/ Maroon stripe

1973_GTO_a.jpg

73 Factory Rally GT Stripe scheme

73LemansGTStripe.jpg

75 Lemans with similar paint scheme you had

75LemanswStripes.jpg

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You sure know your older pontiacs a lot of the things you mentioned like the valve covers i am already planning on getting, Ames preformance and opg have a lot of pontiac parts, not so much for a 73 but they do have some things. They have a lot of nice pontiac gear like front plates and hats and shirts, as well as fender covers for when your workin on the engine some of the other members might be interested in those things. They also have that GT stripe kit, which i am kinda leaning towards instead of the two tone but paint is a long way off in my restoration. I'm startin with the engine and trans cause if it doesnt run it doesnt matter what it looks like. As to the hoses most have been replaced but i appreciate your concern. I have almost all the paperwork on the car going back to the day it was bought brand new as soon as i get some pics of them i'll put them up, some of you may like to see a dealership sales reciept with a new car only costing 4 thousand.

oh and my origional plan was to clone the car into a GTO but i want to keep it a lemans cause you just don't see them any more.

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I really like the GT stripes but the two tone the more I look at it is growing on me. I really like this version that Frosty posted...

75LemanswStripes.jpg

Looks like a Pontiac dart on the front hood, which is mega win!

That' s awesome that you have all the documentation from original purchase, I may be repeating but what engine and tranny is in it?

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I really like how they did the two tone on this one but wish it was glossy.

hppp_0704_03_z%20pontiac_pavement_pounders_shootout_virginia%201973_pontiac_LeMans.jpg

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I really like the GT stripes but the two tone the more I look at it is growing on me. I really like this version that Frosty posted...

Looks like a Pontiac dart on the front hood, which is mega win!

That' s awesome that you have all the documentation from original purchase, I may be repeating but what engine and tranny is in it?

it has the 350 with 350 turbo hydramatic trans

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Thanks for the compliment.

Beware assuming it is a 350TH tranny. That is what I did on mine until I got a B&M shift kit for it. I installed everything on it and then installed the included gasket and it didn't fit correctly and fluid leaked over the driveway, which didn't please me or my dad.

First we thought it was a Chevy 350TH case. It wasn't. It turned out to be a 375TH, or that is what it was called in some of the parts catalogs. It is a 350TH case with some hardened 400TH gears. The tranny pan is slightly different to accomodate the small changes in the valve body. So the gasket was slightly (but significantly enough) different. So if you touch the tranny, make double sure you have the correct gasket.

As for suspension upgrades, you might consider replacing the steering box with a 24:1 or lower ratio. A 3rd gen Camaro/Firebird steering box with a 24:1 ratio bolts right in place of the stock unit. It reduced my lock to lock turns from 4.5 to 3.0 on my '72. Heavy duty front sway bars from 2nd gen Firebirds and Trans Am should bolt in place of the factory units. I purchased a 1 1/4 front sway bar from a '79 TA for $50 and bolted it right onto my '72. I am looking for a 1" or higher rear sway bar from a Chevelle or El Camino.

Popular Hot Rodding did a project with a Colonade style Chevelle Malibu and turned into a street driven Nascar tribute car. The brake and suspension pieces they used will bolt onto your Lemans.

I also installed Gabriel premuim ride front shocks and Gabriel air shocks in back on the '72. So if I carry a bunch of tools or people in back, I can air up the rear to handle to the load. I use to have QA1 12-way adjustable rear shocks but they didn't work well for the street (or at least for my taste). Plus the Gabriels are way cheaper.

I will admit that I do not like a car with "suede" or "primer" looking paint. I am enough old school to think that if it looks like primer, it just ain't finished. I know a lot of rat rodders like that look, it is just not for me, not matter how well pinstriped the car may be.

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crappy PS but you get the idea all the colors you love and this would look great! IMO

post-2-1296572790_thumb.jpg

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