1965 Plymouth Satellite

Ok, first, I'm going to start with a little history on this whole situation....

I grew up around old cars/muscle cars. My father is a car nut. Only thing is.....he's a Chevy nut! I was brought home from the hospital in a gorgeous black '65 El Camino with a 327 and a 4 speed. He still has the same '64 Impala SS that him and my mom bought as their first car together. So naturally I was a Chevy guy. All was well until one sunny spring day. I was a Junior in high school and the last bell rang for the day and we all go piling out of the front door of the school, down the sidewalk and out to the parking lot. And there was the bitchinest car I'd ever seen. I didn't know what it was at the time but I found out really soon. A guy in the class ahead of me had just bought (must have just bought cuz I'd never seen it before) a maroon '65 Plymouth Satellite 2 door hardtop. I remember just stopping dead in my tracks as he started it up. I sounded SOOO mean. He backed it out onto the street and as soon as he got it straightened out and in Drive, he laid 2 black marks that looked like parallel lazy S's and ran it down the street out of site, pipes a-blarin'. OH MY GOD!!! I was bitten. And bitten REAL hard. I HAD to have a Mopar!! I instantly hit the search and ended up finding a pretty clean '69 Dodge Coronet 440 2 door hardtop with a 318/auto. Now imagine this: Me, trying to convince Mr. Chevy guy (dad) that I just had to sell my 68,000 mile, all original '71 Nova SS and buy this Dodge that I found in a field. I still don't know to this day how I pulled it off but he agreed. He must have seen how badly I wanted it....

So anyway, I drove the car throughout the rest of my Junior year and well into my Senior year when low and behold....that same '65 Satellite that bit me was sitting out in front of the kid's house with a "For Sale" sign in the window. I had to have it!! I sold everything I owned, mowed every lawn I could, used all of my graduation money and borrowed from everyone I knew and I bought the car. It had a built 440 with a 727 Torqueflite. Dana 60 rearend with 3.55 suregrip. It's no wonder it was able to rip up the asphault that fateful day!! Here it is the day I bought it, right after her first wash job with me.

I absolutely loved this car and drove it everywhere. Many street races and other unspeakables :) but this car and I were inseparable. Here it is right after a wheel/tire change.

And here she is all cleaned up for a night of cruisin' and street racing along with a buddies '69 Superbee...

Kool

I owned the car for about 2 years and there was a problem. One of the previous owners had installed a B&M ratchet shifter in the car the B&M shift cable would always get hot from the headers and the cable would pop out and the car would be stuck in whatever gear it was in when it melted. It was a real pain in the a**. I would have to order another cable from Jegs and it would show up a few days later (me not being able to drive the car in the meantime). I would rap the headers, re-route the cable, whatever I could to do to prevent the next cable from melting and sure enough, it would happen again. My 5th cable melted. I worked all day. It was hot as hell and I manually shifted the car into drive and disabled the nuetral safety switch. I drove it out to the Ford dealership that my buddy worked at and we replaced the cable yet again (I had learned to order 2 at a time so I had a backup). Backing the car off the rack, my plastic line for my oil pressure gauge decided to snap and oil shot everywhere. Being about 11pm and us both having to work the next day, we called it a night. Back out there the next night with plastic line in hand, we replaced the oil line and I drove it home. I pulled up to the gas station right down the street from my house, I went to put it into park and I felt the shifter cable let go! AAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!:mad: I had to manually shift it into drive again and left the gas station MAD!! I'm two blocks from my house. It's 10:30 pm and I'm coming up to an intersection. BAM! My headlights both go comletely out and a cop is pulling up to the intersection. I got pulled over and I explained to the cop that I only lived a block and a half from where we were. He let me drive it home and I went to bed. The next day I was off and I just so happened to see an ad in the paper for a guy looking for a '62-'65 Plymouth. I called him and we met. He bought the car on the spot. She was gone.

Fast forward about 10 years. I have regretted selling this car everyday for the last 10 years. I looked everywhere for a replacement but I always found the right car across the country or the wrong car next door. I was able to get in touch with the guy I sold the car to and we talked on the phone for a couple of hours. It turns out he still has the car but he has completely rebuilt it. He was nice enough to send me pictures of what the car looks like now.

and one of the same a**-whoppin' 440 that was in her when I had her

So finally...after 13 years...I found another one 2 states away. Here are 2 of the same pics I was emailed. I bought it over the phone.

She finally showed up July 1st, 2010 and I instantly put the kiddos to work. We scrubbed and cleaned her up as good as she is going to get!!

a couple more...

So this is the plan. I am going to restore this car and make it exactly what I wanted the first car to be. It will be big-block powered. Streetable, but pretty nasty. Maroon with black interior. Cragar SS wheels. And gorgeous! And I wont be selling this time!!
I am going to restore it kind of backwards. Because of my job, I never know where I'm going to live or for how long. I could be moving tomorrow or in 3 years. So, I'm not going to tear the car completely apart and start on the body first like most do. I'm going to take a piece off, restore it, and then put it in a box and on a shelf. There are two reasons for this. 1) I wont have to worry about trying to move a car that's in a million pieces if the phone rings tomorrow. 2) When the body and paint's all done, all of the pieces will be ready to go right on so the car will go together pretty quickly. I will post photos of every step I take right here. I hope that I can get some advice along the way and maybe we can all learn and get some enjoyment from this project. And if anyone wants to kick in some $$$$....please let me know! :rolling:
I am in the process of collecting some of the pieces that I am missing right now so it might be a little while before there's a bunch of progress. Anyway, stay tuned.....

well good luck looks like you have a nice starting point

Great Story Greg... Looks like you got yourself a real nice project to get the ball rolling on. Best of luck on your resto and hope she brings the same or more joy than the first.