If you have never seen an example of this month's feature car in person it's not surprising! I'm sure it's safe to say that the majority of our membership hasn't seen a 1967 Beaumont station wagon given the extremely low production of this car. How many survive? Michael Aeberhardt's owns this beautiful surviving example of a 1967 Beaumont Custom station wagon. The car has been in Micheal's family since 1968 and has been meticulously cared for since. It's such a pleasure to feature this car and with such rarity it's likely the only such Beaumont that we will ever have in the spotlight. Michael tells us more:

The wagon was purchased in Nanaimo by my parents when it was about 1 year old and was driven mostly by my mother.  Dad drove a Hillman and had a mid 60’s SWB C10.

 Over its lifetime my father took meticulous care of the wagon and to this day I can still hear him saying make sure there is nothing sharp in your back pockets – the interior is original as is the rest of the car.

 I think the carb was off to be cleaned and serviced and that the tranny had the bands tightened at Marino’s in Nanaimo but basically nothing more than that.  The back window broke at one point in time and dad sourced one from the US (I believe) back in the days of no internet.

 The license plate is original to the car.  At some point in time my father had some minor body work done and had the car completely repainted but was then too concerned about scratches so the wagon was relegated to the garage where it sat for years.  It was hardly ever driven after that.  When my father passed suddenly my brother and I went through the car and made it roadworthy for his funeral.  After the funeral the car again sat for about 20 years until a few years ago when I had it brought back to life.  It created a bit of buzz at the mechanics shop because of the simplicity in this day and age of circuit boards.  So overall the car was in storage for about 25 years or so.

I have a copy of the original build sheet and the car is 1 of 325 so somewhat rare with a few nice options.

 Funny story about the color.  I had the car out recently and a chap stopped to look at it and we ended up in conversation where he proceeded to tell me that the car was originally blue and was quite emphatic about it.  Turns out that he was wrong !

A neat thing about the wagon is that I learned to drive in it back when I was 16 – took my exam in it too and hit the Cassidy Drive In a few times.  The Drive In is long gone now.

 I drove it to high school back in the early 80’s and can remember dad always saying park in the corner or on an end spot to avoid door dents.  Well I didn’t one time and came out and the car had been moved – thanks dad for instilling in me at an early age the value of looking after things.

Every once in awhile my mother takes the wagon out to coffee – she is in her mid 70’s.  Happened to pass her on the road one day – kinda cool to see her driving it.

Since getting the car back on the road it has been taken out only on sunny days – no surprise there.  I must say I am amazed at the attention it gets but even moreso how the car isn’t really that big compared to the cars on the road nowadays – my mom’s Mazda 3 is about 1 foot shorter.  I have had folks hang out windows and follow me home to chat about it – must say it brings a smile to my face and only wish my dad was around to partake in it.  

The 283 is all original – no work has been done to it and I have not done anything to clean up the engine bay.  Car is numbers matching with no accidents.  It needs some work done but not much considering its age.  The original am radio works rather well.  Some new rubber window seals would help but then again it is a summer ride.

The new rims and tires were purchased in Nanaimo - thanks to Tim Mitten at Big-O in Nanaimo for helping me to see the light about keeping it old school with the 15’s.  I was thinking 17’s.  The 14’s on there were kinda flat after sitting for so many years so the new rubber really did a great job of making it much more pleasurable to drive.  

Both my brother and I have a daughter each so not sure what will happen to the wagon in the future – I can’t imagine them being interested in it.  Now if it had a roundel on it well they would be I am sure.  For now it will enjoy summer outings for many years to come neatly tucked away over the cooler months.  Would like to take it up to Peachland for the May cruise event sometime soon.

Anyone interested in connecting is more than welcome to do so and can send me an e-mail at dempsterguy@gmail.com.

Michael