Hi all, I've been hanging around here for a while & posted an intro a bit ago, but I wanted to post my project here. I know this is a bit of an odd project for this place, but from searching around I see there's quite a diverse amount of knowledge & talent here! Anyway, I picked up this 1962 Tempest LeMans from my neighbor's father-in-law about 6-weeks ago, with some far-out ambitions to work it up into a vintage road-race/tarmac rally car, and eventually(as in, 10+ years when the kids are grown)run it in some events like the Targa Newfoundland and La Carrera Panamerica. I know I could have found a better suited car, but the price was right, I knew the seller & have a pretty detailed history of the car for the past 20+ years. It's a 4-cyl with a 3-speed trans. I drove it the 10-miles home without any real issue. It's a pretty solid car, especially for Illinois. There's a couple rust holes in the trunk, one in each wheel well, and one spot in the floor. The rest of the car is solid - but there's hardly a straight panel on the car! I've never had any body-work experience, but I have friends, which helps. Besides, all I'm really shooting for is a "racecar-quality" paint job when I'm done. lol For now, I've been working on the rear end - both trying to straighten out some body damage & previous *repair* work, and on the suspension, by lowering the rear to de-camber it, as well as fabbing a swaybar. I've been using truck bedliner to coat the gas tank & underbody for now, because it was on sale nearby & I figured it would be durable. Here's a few pics.
Looks like a good project. I have a 62 convertible that I hope to get around to restoring for my wife before too long...
My roommate in trade school had a similar one and I can tell you from experience the drive shaft and transaxle don't take well to abuse or hard driving. It could be a slick little and somewhat economical cruiser though.
Those are great looking cars. It's a nice size. Light wt. Not real common. I think you have the start to a cool project.
Didn't those have rear mounted transaxle with some sort of stranded rubber drive shaft?? And some funky single pivot swing arm rear suspension?
Thanks for the replies! Yes, it's a rear-mounted 3-speed transaxle, tied to the engine with a 5/8" steel shaft. The rear is swing-axle, very similar to early Corvairs(the ones Nader was so fond of...). I know swing-axle cars can be built to handle well, just look at early Porsches, of course they had a better design than the Tempest, so I know I'll have more work to do. I'm not too worried about over-powering the transmission. They were reported to handle 225hp or so, and since I won't be doing any 1/4-mile launched, I think I'll be OK. I'm not sure about the u-joints on the axle shafts though, but I figure if I start breaking them, I could modify it to heavy-duty CV joints. I'm going to take it to a couople autocrosses this summer as I sort out & build up the suspension. It seems like I'm pretty much in uncharted water with this build - which, while exciting, certainly has it's bad points. There's just not much history with these cars on a road-course, and there's no do***entation(other than a couple pictures I found on here)of their entry at Sebring(?) BITD.
I remember hearing about this '64 Tempest in Trans-Am, photo credit said Bob Tullius, he was a long time T/A compe***or. Good luck with the '62 Pete, sounds like a neat project.
I had what I think was a (possibly SD) 4 cyl. 4bbl. 4spd. '62 LeMans about 16 years ago. The odd shifter position right next to your leg might make shifting in hard left turns kind of interesting. Mine was all kinds of squirrely with 185/80-15s on the original wheels, things got much better when I put on some bias ply tires... You could probably get some wider Ford wheels and do better with radials. I never had any problems with the driveshaft and I would regularly chirp second gear. I I once had it up to 110. Things may be better now, but finding consumables like brake shoes then was a *****. That was before the interweb... Speaking of that, you may want to check the Clarks Corvair site, they make a COG lowering kit for the Corvair rear suspension, you may be able to adapt the design and make one for your car... it's just a small bracket for the rear lower control arms. http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/cat...o&catalog=SPECIALTY§ion=OTTO&page=OTTO-30
I thought I'd post an update. I got the car back on the road tonight, but still have a bunch of work to do. I ended up cutting the front springs 1.5 coils, but they're still pretty soft. I imagine I'll eventually go with custom coilovers when I'm ready to make the jump from street car to road-race car. I need to adjust the brakes, valves & I think the carb might be out a bit. Overall it runs & drives pretty well though.
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