**New pics of my second hood**
About this Mopar:
I anticipated..... kids, me getting older, time, kids, life situations, kids, other stuff,...ooohh.... did I mention KIDS? LOL....anyway, back in March, when I learned of a super MOPAR show coming to THE TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY on August 5th, which I conviently live 20 minutes from, I knew this was going to be THE show my Coronet was going to "deput" after being off the road now for......w0w..... too long.....about ten years ! So, even though the calander showed over four months, I knew better, and that it would go fast for me having limited time to even GO out in the garage to get busy.This show, called, WAM2, (We Are Mopar2) was the second of a continuing series of gatherings started by the president of DFWLX mopar club of Dallas..... I purchased my entry early, (March), not only because it costed less, but, also solidified that I must go!** I brought home a "Top 100" award,and out of 1900 mopars, that's pretty friggin good!** So, over the next few months I pushed myself to get all the things done that needed to be done.... Full interior, from the headliner to the floorboards,which included dynomating the whole floor, inside the doors....extensive wiring for the Sun gauges, switches,etc...all interior trim installed , door panels completed, which entailed Legendary "500" panels, even though it a "440", I opted to buy the "500" panels,way nicer with carpet along the bottom, and chrome trim up top, but also was ALOT of work, not only switching over the metal at the top from old to the new, I also had to locate all the trim! As luck would have it, I was able to "pilfer" this trim, along with a pile of goodies off a '65 Coronet 500 donor ( this all happened back in NY, from where I moved from 2 years ago)..including a console that still needs to be finished... since the car in NOT original, I pretty much add what I want....**I totally appreciate and admire factory correct**, but since this was a "plain-Jane" ,I changed things way early after purchasing it 25 years ago, for $300..( floor was all good, just had typical rust repair at the bottom of front fenders, quarter panels, some ripples down the sides, really was in GREAT shape !) Having said that, Here's the deal: This car was born a "273" 2 cable shift Auto on the column, bench seat, open 2.91 rear, light teal car..... Got it running, ran the 273 for maybe a year, bought a donor '67 Newport, and dropped the 383/727 and radiator in with a light freshening, bought a set of buckets/rear seat form a '64 Plymouth Sport Fury, installed black carpet, painted the "440" door panels black.... later swapped out the rear chunk for a 3.23 suregrip, installed a Hurst DualGate floor shift, also installed a manual column ( can't stand just pulling the shift lever off and leaving both the auto sleeve, and gear indicator there when switching to the floor!)I also ran this car from early on with a vintage set of 15" "Super ET" torque thrust wheels...they were kewl as hell, the only issue was the rears were 10" wide with the offset outwards more than this body style needed( obviously bought used, they were what they were !) soI had to raise the rear via a shackle kit, supported by air shocks....heh hehh.....boy, it looked cool! So, I drove my Dodge for years in the summer basically like that... at one point, .I bough a set of original 14" Chrysler road wheels and put them on....until one day while out, I smoked the trans, I limped it back to the garage...didn't even touch it for awhile....finally, threw it up on stands, dropped the trans out....this is where everything "snowballed"....How many of you have had this happen: "me thinking": well, gonna have the trans rebuilt..... well, ya know, the 383 is a bit tired, smokes a bit, maybe should yank that and do something with that too ( didn't owe me anything, that '67 Newport set me back $75, and the engine, trans, and radiator went at least 8 years!)....then, me thinks, "well, since the engines coming out, might as well paint the engine compartment......so I have a local shop whose owner I knew, take a look, gave an estimate to do the engine compartment, since it was going to be in the shop, let's straighten up the sides, was to be a " partial paint" job....meanwhile, I decide I didn't want to drop money in the 383, I locate a '69 440 listed in the local paper, in pieces......yup...bought it..... took the block and crank into a veteran engine builder and had him do the bottom end....meanwhile, the Coronet ends up in the body shop, things ramp up then!... I proceed to have the entire car done, and, the right way.....,all boltables, come off, each massaged into shape......extensive straightning happens to the rest... ( I sent it in stripped of everything pretty much) then I decided to go with some custom, radically changing color too.(car was basically a medium dark blue)...3 stage custom mix (I call it burnt-orange-cinnamon) and, a custom stenciling of the "God Smack" sun on the hood, done in a "flip-flop" paint that changes colors as you walk around the front end... 6 coats of premium clear, she looks great! So, by now I have stockpiled a ton of goodies over, well, prolly five-six, maybe more years to go on putting it back together.( good thing I did stockpile, cause that was "no kid" time, later, two kids !)...but once I got it back into my garage, (was in the body shop way longer than expected: over a year!) time just ripped me up....had baby x 2 during the last seven years, while I ain't blaming them, it certainly played a major role in the "barely going anywhere" syndrome ....I did get things going, rebuilt the whole front end with ALL trick stuff...Magnum Force red powder coated tubular control arms with heim joints, PST 2" drop spindles, greasable/adjustable PST strut rods with heim joints,PST aluminum tie rod adjusters,PST geasable lower control arm pivots, 1.03 torsion bars, places that still had any bushings, got red polyurethane , slathered with Super Grease, Hellwig 1 7/8" anti-sway bar front/1" rear, bilstein shocks, ( I did install a Flaming River quick ratio manual steering box, but later went back to power!) only stock parts are the tie rod ends themselves. Took all of about the last five years to get that this done: brand new brakes,disc convert. in front,upgraded to 8"chrome power master cylinder, B&M trans cooler up front, gas tank, door handles, bumpers re-chromed, some trim sent out to be straightened, re anodized, new 17" American Racing wheels shod in Z-rated rubber, 440 has March serpentine pulley system, March chrome power steering unit, power master alt.,starter, Optima yellowtop mounted in trunk, 4 row aluminum radiator,duel electric fans controlled by durale, quick fuel️ 750 vac secondaries covered with K&N with top. Milodon 7 at. pan, Mopar Performance torque strap, kept my vintage M/T rocker covers that rode on the old 383,Tti 2" thermal barrier inside, polished ceramic outside headers, followed by 3" Tti X pipe/ tailpipes, with delta Flowmaster mufflers, Caltrac traction system.....installed smoked black, flat headlights with led bulbs, and "devil rings around all four, controlled inside by a matching illuminated switch,led parking/turn sig. bulbs, also all interior, gauges are led.... a vintage walnut steering wheel that came from an old NY "driver simulator"... it's about fourty years old and kewl!.....electric antenna.....recovered the buckets/replaced foam with legendary stuff (whew, tough work!).... there's more but I think you get the point, heh heh....so, here it is, not perfect, but really is more than I ever thought I would ever do, really......
things to come: ** installed Thermal flex wrap on the 3”” tti pipes, flowmaster heat shield above the mufflers**——on the way is the rear bilstein shocks taking place of the old Gabriel air shocks..rear seat to get the new legendary covers on..*** purchased the Fitech EFI 600 hp system, and “command center”.... but have decided NOT to use the “command center”, going with an inline hp fuel pump instead***...I have a " one of" original e body pistol grip I grafted into the old Hurst duel gate(pictured, not in yet) now, I have to graft THAT into the original 500 console then install it all, will be sweet! Thanks for reading my long rant, almost as long as it took to put the car together!