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1977 Pontiac LeMans - "High Speed Pursuit" Of HappinessChasing Black Trans Ams Was Never So Much Fun From the December, 2010 issue of High Performance Pontiac By Christopher R. Phillip Photography by Christopher R. Phillip
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This '77 Grand LeMans looks... This '77 Grand LeMans looks like a scene out of Smokey and the Bandit, and for good reason. Co-owners Adam Harder and Clint Clausing turned a 16,000-mile, four-door bore into a tribute of Sheriff Buford T. Justice's high-speed-pursuit highway enforcer. The Smokey and the Bandit-era Trans Ams set the standard for the T/A's iconic image in the eyes of the American public. A total of 42,205 S/E Trans Ams-as Pontiac officially called the black-and-gold Bandits-were produced between '77 and '81, and today their reputation is legendary. But there's another on-screen car from the hit movie Smokey and the Bandit that has a legend of its own-the '77 LeMans four-door sedan made famous by Jackie Gleason in the role of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. "What fun is a Bandit Trans Am if there's no Sheriff Buford T. Justice chasing it?" Adam Harder, a 30-year-old car restorer in Hartland, Wisconsin, and Clint Clausing, a 38-year-old engine builder and speed shop manager in Butler, Wisconsin, tell High Performance Pontiac. "That's why we teamed up to build a tribute to Buford T. Justice's high-speed-pursuit highway enforcer from Smokey and the Bandit. Back in '77, the Grand LeMans... Back in '77, the Grand LeMans was a comfy cruiser for grandma to buy at her local Pontiac dealer and take to her neighborhood grocery store. This Buford T. LeMans hints that it's packing more than the 135hp grandma was accustomed to, as evidenced by its dual 3-inch, chrome-tipped exhaust. Clint and Adam plan on swapping out the "campaign" straw hat on the rear package tray for the actual-style hat worn by Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit. Adam explains how the idea was born: "Clint and I decided to buy this car while we were on the Hot Rod Power Tour in June 2008. After following some slow-moving Corvettes on a two-lane road through the hills of Missouri, the road opened up to four lanes; I got in the left passing lane and let the horses run free on my '78 Trans Am. Clint [in a '69 Camaro SS] got caught behind some other cars and I was out of his sight. After he caught up with me five or six miles up the road, we pulled off to get some gas. That's when he said, 'If I have to chase a black Trans Am around the country, I'm building a Smokey and the Bandit sheriff's car.' That's how it started-right there at that little gas station in Branson, Missouri." Two months later, the men located a 16,000-mile '77 Grand LeMans in San Antonio, Texas. It was only 350 miles from the real Montague County, Texas, the jurisdiction of the fictional Buford T. Justice. The men took it as providence that they had found the right LeMans for the ho-hum to high-speed highway-pursuit conversion. "We knew that the vehicle model used in Smokey and the Bandit was the LeMans, not the Grand LeMans, and that the movie car's interior was Blue, not Buckskin, but the Grand LeMans was in such incredible shape that we figured we would never find another one so clean," Clint says. As homage to Smokey and the... As homage to Smokey and the Bandit's title character, Adam and Clint had this magnetic bumper sticker made, which reads, "Sheriff Buford T. Justice Retired." "It's also to keep the police from turning their own light bars and sirens on us," Adam laughs. "The sticker reminds them that we are not attempting to impersonate law-enforcement officers." Like many of the 13,165 Grand LeMans produced in '77, the donor four-door came factory-equipped with a 301/two-barrel engine rated at a dismal 135 hp, a Turbo 350 column-shift transmission, and a 2.56 open rear. "All that was going to change," Adam says. He and his friend Tom Bumann decontented the Grand LeMans by removing its trim, welding up the trim holes, removing its Cordova top, and filling in the body seams. They sanded and stripped the body of its original Bahia Green Poly paint and confirmed the car's pristine condition. "The body was very nice and rust free, and didn't require any restorative work," Adam recalls. The Federal Visibar main bar,... The Federal Visibar main bar, track, and mounting bars house the rotating light assembly. Clint found this NOS example in his hometown of Butler, Wisconsin. Tom performed the paintwork. He primed the Grand LeMans with two coats of U-Tech E350 Epoxy Primer. Following block sanding, he applied Spies Hecker HS Premium Surfacer, and then Spies Hecker Permacron Vario Surfacer. Afterwards, he applied two coats of Spies Hecker Brentwood Brown Poly base, followed by three coats of Spies Hecker clear. (Adam chose Brentwood Brown since it's a '77 Pontiac offering and likely could have been used on the movie car, but he wasn't able to verify this.) Adam's brother Dan Harder wet-sanded the painted body with a progression of grits, up to 2,000 and polished it with 3M products. Designing the door decals to mimic Buford T.'s movie car proved to be a challenge, Adam admits. He used a digital camera to capture still images of the LeMans onscreen and then used the digital photos as reference to redraw the decals. "They're really close to the originals-nobody but whomever was involved with the original decals' production would be able to tell the difference," he says. Chasing Bandits was not meant... Chasing Bandits was not meant for the faint-of-heart factory 301/two-barrel engine that powered this proletariat Poncho when it was new. Clint built a stroked 400, displacing 495 ci, to better handle the call of duty. It's topped with Edelbrock heads, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, and a Holley 850-cfm double-pumper carburetor. Notice the Hydratech braking system in place of the factory power-brake booster. (The owners plan to reinstall the A/C soon. Due to time constraints, HPP photographed the engine compartment as is.) The cabin retains its factory-issued, Code 64W Buckskin vinyl interior, door panels, dash, carpet, and trim, which, as Adam already stated, is one major area where the tribute differs from the actual movie car (which had a Code 24R2 Blue interior.) Chris Lawson from Waukesha, Wisconsin, added the in-dash Pontiac 120-mph speedometer and 6,000-rpm tachometer, rally gauges, a Pioneer AM/FM/CD stereo, and a Uniden 40-channel CB. Of course, the Buford T. LeMans interior would not be nearly as realistic without a siren-/light-control system, which Adam found in a police surplus store and he and Chris installed. Next came the engine. "We really wanted to make the LeMans more powerful than any Bandit that it may have to chase," Adam says. "It shouldn't come as a surprise that we yanked the 301 out. What may be shocking, however, is how extreme we went on the engine build."  Does this look like a typical...  Does this look like a typical Vehicle Emission Control Label (VECL) from the '70s? You better look closer. Notice the 495ci designation and the "Hot Pursuit Certification." Adam had T/A Graphics in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, custom-make this decal and installed it into the VECL's original location.  Smokey and the Bandit fans...  Smokey and the Bandit fans remember Arnie Wise, the actor who told Jackie Gleason onscreen, "You can't drive this piece of s**t on my highway." Mr. Wise autographed his name and famous line from the movie when he caught up with the Buford T. LeMans at the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum in Jupiter, Florida, as part of the 2010 Bandit Run.  The low-mile Grand LeMans...  The low-mile Grand LeMans had a mint, all-original Buckskin vinyl interior when Adam and Clint bought it for the movie-cop-car conversion, and that's why they decided not to color-change the interior to match the movie car. They added a Pontiac in-dash 120-mph speedometer, tachometer, and Rally gauges; a Code 3 law-enforcement siren/light control unit; a Pioneer AM/FM/CD stereo; and a Uniden 40-channel CB radio. Clint took days of custom linkage fabrication just to get the 700-R4 to work off of the LeMans' original column shift.
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