I am redoing the suspension on my beaumont as some of the components are worn out. Rockauto doesn't list any parts, however they do list parts for chevelle.
I understand that there are differences IE emblems, bumpers, grills, interior, but in a mechanical sense are there any? I recall trying to replace the antenna with a chevelle one and got caught off guard when I found out that it wouldn't fit. For this reason I ask in an effort to avoid any surprises. Ordering is online is cheap so long as you get the right parts.
I got moved it over to the Beaumont Chassis forum, thanks for pointing that out Clint.
Blackbird307, for any of your chassis stuff you can order for Chevelle. If you lift the body off a Chevelle and the body off the same year/model Beaumont, what's left sitting on the ground is the same.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I believe there may be a difference with the upper control arms on the earlier Beaumonts. You didn't mention what year you had but on my 1965 Beaumont, the upper control arms used a bearing assembly as opposed to the bushings in the Chevelle.
I ended up putting in aftermarket control arms so it didn't matter. Also my inner tie rod ends come with grease fitting in the wrong location and I couidn't use them as they hit the cross member. The original ones had the fitting facing the side of the car and the aftermarket facing the back.
My problem is that the beaumont section of rock auto is very sparse in terms of parts selection. That goes for suspension components, which lists control arm bushing in the sections entirety. If a manufacturer says something will fit chevelle, but no metnion beaumont, rockauto won't add it to the section. Even though it will fit. This is why made the post just to confirm that the parts I was buying from the chevelle section would fit.
I also noticed that there is a physical distance between the upper control arms of the chevelles and beaumonts.
I have a 1966 beaumont.
Thanks again,
-- Edited by blackbird307 on Sunday 17th of January 2021 02:07:03 PM
I am in the middle of doing my 69 Beaumont chassis everything i have purchase so far bushing,seals, ball joints, steering components and brake components for chevelle and they are the same just check your front control Arm bushings before purchasing as they have Oval and round styles, mine were round.
Alright, so I am going forward with rejuvenating the suspension and chassis on my beaumont. There are a few differences I noticed. The lower control arm uses different bushings according to rock auto. One of the bushings is an oval shape compared to round on the chevelle. As for the brake shoes, there is a significant visual difference when I compare the 1966 chevelle brake shoes (see images below of Dynamic Brake shoes). These are probably being phased out soon along with many other parts, and soon I am thinking we're probably going to have to manually rebuild the asbestos material on brake shoes soon. Maybe if the axles are the same and we wanted to use chevelle brake shoes could probably swap hubs, dust cover, and drum brake hardware from chevelle to beaumont, as I am sure if the shoes are different, everything else would be different.
Given these differences, I would also like to replace the coil springs. All the chevelle coil springs do not cross reference 1966 pontiac beaumont. Is this because they dropped support listing, or is it because they're actually not compatible. I suspect there might be a difference as the fact that the lower control arms use different bushings may suggest that the control arms are different in some other aspect that they effect the coil spring dimensions. The coil springs may fit the beaumont, however ride hide may not be original.
I was under the assumption that the majority of the parts made for chevelles would work on beaumonts, however now I am not too sure if everything I order is exactly compatible with pontiac beaumonts. Would hate to order a bunch of parts which don't fit.
Instead of cross referencing every part for chevelles to see if they are compatible or not, blindly trusting manufacturer support, is there a list out there that lists what is interchangeable between the 1966 pontiac beaumont and 1966 chevelle? I see there is one for 1968-1969, but I wasn't able to find any others.
OPGI doesn't even list Pontiac Beaumont.
Thanks agian,
-- Edited by blackbird307 on Thursday 12th of August 2021 08:30:06 AM
Also worth remembering assembly of lemans/gto in in Oshawa didnt start until 1968. Beaumonts on the line up until then had either a Chevelle or Beaumont in front or back!
Weren't the A-bodies brought in CBU post-'69, including Chevelles? I think Oshawa assembly was doing full-sized Chevrolets and Pontiacs, exclusively, in the early '70s.
I also wonder if the differences cited are more U.S. vs Canadian-produced cars, rather than Beaumonts vs Oshawa-built Chevelles. And, of course, as our cars have gotten older, the differences may have been bolted on long after they left the factory(s).
I followed the link above provided by Paddycanuck regarding the rebuilding of control arms. In my opinion it is really well done and a must read for anyone considering this work for the first time. Thanks Paddy. Any other valuable links like this you can share?
Thanks. I went through all the confusion when I was rebuilding my front end with OEM parts. Really they all work just depends on bushing size And type. Somehow how found that site. my control arms are 72 Monte Carlo. Disc brake spindles and disc brakes spindle and brackets dust plate are 69 Chevelle. Rotors and calipers pads locally sourced. Quality Moog bushings and parts for front end and upgraded to 1 inch swaybar up front. Really happy with it.
