This Champion was purchased from the original family, the uncle bought it new and owned it till he died, the father owned it till he died, the son owned it till his mom said it was time to get it out of the workshop.  It had been in the workshop for many, many years and the varmint nests attest to it.  So far we have found 5 nests and one of which was a rats nest, one of the nests was in the bell housing, yes, the bell housing.  The others were in the seats.

The car has 43,000 or so original miles and the drive line was in fair condition with the exception of the engine and the brakes which were in poor condition.  The engine was removed and completely rebuilt, rebored .030 over, crankshaft grind down .010, new gaskets, pistons, rings, bearings, valves ground, then reassembled.  After a through cleanup it was painted Alpine Green, then made ready for a few test runs.  I will document the testing later and display more pictures.  The original exterior color was blue and was painted a darker blue some years later, the interior metal is gray and the seat covers were replace a number of years ago.  The rest of the interior is tan.  The F1 designation indicated that it is a custom (Least Expensive) model and has virtually no exterior trim.  Bumpers, grill and head light rims are chrome, all the rest is paint.  This may be a blessing for us in the future because there are very few holes to develop more rust.

Our intentions at this time are to do just enough to get it on the road and enjoy it this summer then decide how deep into a restoration we want to go.  This would be our second restoration, we started a '65 Chevrolet Impala SS Convertible in '95 and finished in '00.  We really enjoy the convertible but the restoration cost is now past $15,000 plus and there is no end in site.  Our original estimate for the Chevy was about $5,000.

We are now in the middle of the brake restoration on the Champion and will attempt to drive it when this is done, the only thing we see that may hold this up is the wiring, it is cloth and in very poor condition.  If a rebuild of the wiring system is needed I will do it myself after moving the car out of the workshop so we can use the shop for other projects.