1966 Coronet 440 field find

[gdrill]

A smidge more color on the car..............I'm not sure why I covered the roof area. It will be getting some paint, but only so the vinyl glue has a better base to adhere to.

 

[gdrill]

And.... This is the best example so far of how much the color changes.

 

[jusglazin]

What color is that? Looks great.

 

[gdrill]

Thank you. It is a generic color. It is simply called Blue / green metallic. It took me hours to choose! It was really hard to see the effect on a color chip. But I am very happy with the way it looks so far.

 

[gdrill]

Small things add up! I painted the hinges the other day and the inner doors today. I'm pondering blue upper door panels to avoid the 3rd degree burns of the hot summer days. I really have to think on this one. Most interiors with color I have seen, have colored seats to match. Mine are black. Then I blasted and cleared the door mechanisms. I cleared them because I believe they were just the color of the metal from the factory.

 

[gdrill]

Almost forgot!

 

[Charger72]

Looking good!

 

[gdrill]

Been tinkering here the last few days. Nothing major as it has been quite warm and my shop does not have AC! So I do a little then take a break and so on. Anyway, I installed the doors. I'm very happy with how the hang and the lines, but that may change once I get the fenders on. Then I painted the inner areas on the fenders so they can be installed. I also had to re-attach the headlight pots as I had cut them out when I was going to convert the grill to a 67. I started cleaning up my rear wheel well trim too. They aren't perfect by far, but they are pretty nice. The rear upper trim is done now. This may change if I decide the interior is too bright with all the turquoise in there! Then I sandblasted and painted the hood latch crossmember. I kinda duplicated where it was blacked out but I''ll see what really needs it once it's all together.

 

[gdrill]

Dug out some of the dis-assembly pics and replicated the black out. The aluminum rad however may pose a problem. It might have to get a dusting of black.

 

[Photon440]

I'd recommend this for your rad painting.
https://www.dewitts.com/products/blackice

 

[gdrill]

Well, I'm committed now. I yanked the K-member and started assembling the replacement. I got it from a member here. It is powder coated. I didn't buy it for that reason, it was just a reasonable price. I think it will be too shiny down there, but that will where off with the gavel and the dust! I blasted and painted the steering box, it sure looks better.

 

[gdrill]

I got the K-member in tonight. I had to wait for lower ball joints as I didn't have any tucked away here. In the meantime I found the aftermarket spindles I purchased were slightly defective. Not real serious, but the bolts would not pass all the way though the holes. They hung up at the shoulder of the threads. The machining process was inadequate and I had to run a 5/8" bit through the micro inch at the end that was too small. Other than that, everything went together nicely so far. It sure looks good in there!

 

[gdrill]

Closer......Installed new upper control arm bushings. What a pain with the keeper sleeve on there! Got them but had to push the rubber out and then cut a slot in the outer sleeve in order to remove it. Got it though. Then packed my bearings and stuffed it together. I have to look through my calipers to see if I have any good ones before I do brakes and or go buy new ones. She will be rolling again later tonight anyway.

 

[conv67bdere]

Holy cow . . . don't know how I missed this build, but that's some great looking progress on the car . . . I'm impressed . . . I'll need to check in more often on your progress . . .

 

[gdrill]

LOL, you didn't miss it. It's just been 3 1/2 years since you peeked in! The build took a fairly big pause, but it's back on track now. I am going to assemble everything and ponder what to do for an engine. I have a '66 383 and a '68 440 to choose from. I'm just not truly sure of their conditions. Both were runners but not by me. Anyway, thanks for popping in again and checking out the car.

 

[gdrill]

Found out a good thing tonight. While cleaning up the torsion bars to put away into storage, I found out that they are not /6 bars. They are 778/779 - .90" bars. Big block! 383 and 426 anyway. Cool stuff. The car must have been ordered with heavier bars, the factory ran out or screwed up, or they were changed out. I kinda doubt they were changed as the lady who owned it only put 75,000 miles on it and likely wouldn't have done that. Oh well, doesn't matter, my gain.

 

[moparjohnny]

Found out a good thing tonight. While cleaning up the torsion bars to put away into storage, I found out that they are not /6 bars. They are 778/779 - .90" bars. Big block! 383 and 426 anyway. Cool stuff. The car must have been ordered with heavier bars, the factory ran out or screwed up, or they were changed out. I kinda doubt they were changed as the lady who owned it only put 75,000 miles on it and likely wouldn't have done that. Oh well, doesn't matter, my gain.

another fantastic job by you on this car.

 

[2quick]

Great job job, Coming together nicely.

 

[gdrill]

Thank you guys. I am enjoying seeing it take shape as a car again. Last night I put the fenders and the hood latch support on. I'm happy with the way the passenger side is, but the driver side fender is out quite a bit compared to the door. I played with the adjustment but didn't get enough. I'll try again and then possibly try a different door too. This is the original door, but the fender is changed. On the passenger side both are changed out. The fenders both are out a little from the doors, but the driver gaps are worse than the passenger side.

Driver

Passenger

 

[Brandy]

Wow! That's worse than mine. You might end up skimming some filler across those and waiting for it to set up half way and then running a couple of razor blades clamped to either side of a match box square down along one edge to get a perfect gap. Especially along the cowl to fender to hood area. I would cut along the cowl edge as a guide and have the filler extend from the fender edge. That way you can pull the fender out to match the door plane. Also check the bolts on the door front face and see if the door is adjusted all the way in towards the car top and bottom.