JimKueneman
Well-Known Member
I may as well start sharing some of my trails and tribulations on this journey. May 2016 I decide the kids are grown enough and my promotion at work warranted a serious look at a classic Mopar. My teenage years in 1980 found me with a 1969 Sport Satellite Convertible with a '70 front end and shaker hook. I sold the car and moved west in 1981. Fast forward to 2016. I started to look for a Sport Satellite Convertible. I found a few but I was not willing to shell out $25k for something that in mind needed to be gone through to be what I wanted it to be. I decided I would start small and see work my way in slow. I found a '69 Satellite in Phoenix that was a good project car but it clearly was not from the desert. I did not want to spend my time and money doing sheet metal work as I don't have the tools to do it right.
Only days after starting to looks seriously I saw a small Craigs list add that went something like:
For Sale: 1960's Dodge Coronet $6500 New title, text ***-***-xxxx. No calls.
Long story short this was a car that a couple bought in 1968 in State College Pa and they moved to Arizona in 1985. The car was put in storage and never registered in Arizona (hence the new title required). The guy took the car in trade for some work he did not the lady's house and wanted to sell it to get his money for the work. It appeared very solid with some small areas of bubbling of of the paint here and there. There was nothing missing from the car it was 100% there. It was fun looking at the contents of the glove box and trunk once I got it home, it was an early 1980's time capsule. I never started the car and gave him $6000 and loaded it on the flatbed.
It is nothing special under the hood. It has a 318 2-barrel with a 904 and 8-3/4" rear end but it is the 714 casting so it has the smaller pinion shaft. It was the 500 model with bucket seats and console and a few interesting options. AM/FM with a rear speaker and fader switch on the dash. Factory AC (required in Arizona!) and a rear window defroster (blower motor under the package shelf, not needed Arizona!).
Since I had not had a Mopar since 1980 I did miss a few things I now understand what I should have looked for. I thought it had the original paint. Now that I am smarter I know what to look for and it did not have the original paint, but that is a story for a future post.
This is my first attempt at a restoration of an automobile so be gentle
Only days after starting to looks seriously I saw a small Craigs list add that went something like:
For Sale: 1960's Dodge Coronet $6500 New title, text ***-***-xxxx. No calls.
Long story short this was a car that a couple bought in 1968 in State College Pa and they moved to Arizona in 1985. The car was put in storage and never registered in Arizona (hence the new title required). The guy took the car in trade for some work he did not the lady's house and wanted to sell it to get his money for the work. It appeared very solid with some small areas of bubbling of of the paint here and there. There was nothing missing from the car it was 100% there. It was fun looking at the contents of the glove box and trunk once I got it home, it was an early 1980's time capsule. I never started the car and gave him $6000 and loaded it on the flatbed.
It is nothing special under the hood. It has a 318 2-barrel with a 904 and 8-3/4" rear end but it is the 714 casting so it has the smaller pinion shaft. It was the 500 model with bucket seats and console and a few interesting options. AM/FM with a rear speaker and fader switch on the dash. Factory AC (required in Arizona!) and a rear window defroster (blower motor under the package shelf, not needed Arizona!).
Since I had not had a Mopar since 1980 I did miss a few things I now understand what I should have looked for. I thought it had the original paint. Now that I am smarter I know what to look for and it did not have the original paint, but that is a story for a future post.
This is my first attempt at a restoration of an automobile so be gentle