"Jaime Melon" (jammemelon123)
11/28/2016 at 05:38 • Filed to: None

Hello All,

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I have recently acquired my first real American car: a Pontiac Lemans from 74 with a 390 V8.
As I live in Belgium, these are rather rare cars and I was wondering where to best get parts for a car like this.
The chassis is in pretty rough condition but I am in this project together with a professional car restorer (for citroen) and a mechanic.
As far as they are concerned, all we need to really do to get this thing on the road is weld a couple of spots, take the rust off of it and put some coating on it (apart from the usual restoration like changing fluids, checking brakes, ... for which I need parts).

Anyway, TL;DR: Looking for ways to get parts for a Pontiac Lemans from 74 in Belgium.

Some pics of my barnfind:

DISCUSSION (20)

pip bip - choose Corrour > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 05:55

welcome friend. as for parts, no idea.

i visited in Brussels in ‘96 , nice place.

Jobjoris > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 06:00

Hi! You’re lucky as the first Europpomeet will be in... BELGIUM . Well, partly. But I doubt you’ll be able to take the LeMans to that, right?

Where in Belgium are you? Parts shouldn’t be that difficult for a GM product. I only know a few suppliers in the Netherlands.

Jaime Melon > Jobjoris
11/28/2016 at 06:21

Hi and thanks for the reply!

Believe me, I’m wildly aware :D
I’m already in the mailing list ;)
By then I would hope to have the LeMans fixed up well enough to tow my race car, which is a fully prepped slalom (Auto-X for the Americans ;)) VW Lupo. If the Lemans is not yet finished, I’ll have to use the van to tow the Lupo to the meet.
I am right between Leuven and Brussels.

Jaime Melon > pip bip - choose Corrour
11/28/2016 at 06:21

Thank you for the warm welcome!

KnowsAboutCars > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 06:45

I think RockAuto is pretty popular source for US-car parts at least here in Finland. Then there are Summit Racing and Jegs, also eBay.

Steve in Manhattan > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 06:48

As others have said - online is your best bet, just shop before buying.

And yeah, we were in Belgium in 2007 for a wedding. Great country, and a urinating infant to boot. Good times.

PontiacAttack > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 06:49

Frankspontiacparts.com is a great resource for finding vendors and donor cars. Not too sure on international shipping but at the very least, could point you in the right directions. They’re great people and have been very helpful in my restoration.

My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 07:09

Since it’s an A body remember the Chevy Malibu, Buick Century, and Olds Cutlass share a lot of the parts in the suspension area, they were running different engines, but parts for that shouldn’t be a problem.

Oh and find some Leguna or Hurst Olds Swivel Bucket seats for that beast, 70s American Luxury at it’s Best (Worst)

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 07:10

Welcome! These aren’t all that common anymore in the USA either. ‘72 until mid 80's big American cars had engines and designs pretty that were compromised by the fuel crisis and emissions regulations. Many have been scrapped or left to rot. So parts might be a little tricky, but hunt online and join a club for old American cars. Also, if there is ever something weird that breaks and you can’t find a part, post here on Oppo. Someone may know of one in a local junkyard here in the USA if you’re willing to pay for private-party international shipping.

shop-teacher > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 07:34

Welcome to posting! Nice purchase!

Body and trim parts can be tough to find for these cars. They never developed the following that 60's-early 70's muscle cars have. As such, most of them have been long since crushed and I don’t believe anyone reproduces parts for the Collonade cars either.

Mechanical and suspension parts should be easy to source through online suppliers. Rock Auto, Jegs, Summit, etc.

LongbowMkII > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 07:58

Apparently they share front suspension parts with F-bodies (camaro, firebird) I figure they’d be more popular.

$kaycog > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 08:55

Welcome to Oppo! We always look forward to having a new victim friend here!

Also, nice purchase!

ttyymmnn > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 08:58

What gloriously hideous 70s colors. You should totally donk it.

Kinja'd!!!

Welcome! I look forward to reading about the progress.

AR24-7 > Jaime Melon
11/28/2016 at 09:09

Welcome to Oppo! Love that Pontiac dude!

Birddog > Jaime Melon
11/29/2016 at 02:13

Nice find! I can’t imagine too many of these made it over there.

The 73-77 cars have gained in popularity the last few years. If you’re on Facebook there are a couple of good groups you can join.

I know places like Desert Valley Auto Parts will ship anything almost anywhere. But, $$$..

The LeMans and Grand Am are basically the same for sheetmetal, trim parts and Pontiac specific interior parts. Some interior stuff and most chassis stuff is shared across the entire A/A Special line. There is even decent aftermarket support for suspension bits too. These can be made to handle pretty well.

Good luck on it!

Jaime Melon > shop-teacher
11/29/2016 at 10:53

Thanks shop-teacher!

Luckily the interior is in pretty good shape and all the trim-pieces are in there somewhere in the trunk.
Just have to clear the branches out and clean it.

The Body is in decent overall shape although there are some rust spots to attend to. One of my friends who works at a body shop said to just purchase a large piece of zincore (kind of sheet metal) and he would cut out the rust and replace it with a nice new piece of steel :)

The engine was replaced with a better performing 6.6l V8 (I think that is the 390?) with more aggressive cams and 4 carburetors (whether that is true remains to be seen). It started right up though and had a nice idle (although you could definitely hear the effect of the aggressive cams, or maybe that was just a rough idle).

Can’t wait to drive this sucker :)
Jaime

Jaime Melon > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
11/29/2016 at 10:55

Thanks man!
Luckily the engine was replaced with a bigger 6.6l V8 instead of the 5.7 and has been tricked out with aggressive cams and a custom exhaust manifold.
Can’t wait to see how it drives in a couple of months!

Jaime Melon > Birddog
11/29/2016 at 10:58

Thanks for all the tips!
Will definitely be looking at that Desert Valley Auto Parts shop for a wile :)
You have a good one too!

shop-teacher > Jaime Melon
11/29/2016 at 12:30

Sounds like you’ve got all the hard to find stuff then, that’s excellent. A 6.6 Litre Pontiac engine is actually 400 cubic inches, which is more and therefore better :)

Oh, and you only have one carburetor, but it has four barrels.

If you can find the archives for Popular Hot Rodding, they did a lot of tech articles on the Colonnade cars in the last few years before the magazine got folded. If nothing else, you can buy the back issues electronically.

Did you know the Colonnade cars had the first computer designed suspension? The suspension was designed at the height of the muscle car wars to be able to handle lots of power. Unfortunately by the time the cars came out, emissions and insurance regulations neutered them, and their full potential was never really shown. Nonetheless, your car actually had a pretty good suspension, and the wheel wells on those cars are big enough to handle a lot of tire without any modifications.

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Jaime Melon
11/29/2016 at 17:06

Yep the nice thing about the big engined American cars from the mid 70's is that with a few mods to heads/timing and exhaust to undo all the emissions controls they make decent power and boatloads of torque.