1965 AFX Coronet

[funnykarman]

Hi Guy's ... Started this project 15 years ago , moved it 2000 miles and stored it until now. Almost sold it but when I pulled parts out and started to look at them I changed my mind. The car was started before I knew how the factory did them. It took a different route and it has worked out .
I will post pic's and try to explain the way I did it . Moving the front wheels forward I Cut the capture nuts out of a 4 door parts car someone gave me . I measured forward 10 inches and drilled a hole with a holesaw for the new forward location for the k member . I cut 1x3 slots on the side of the frame and stuck the capture nuts in the hole . after installing the k member and squaring it in the a , the nuts were welded in place . for the top control arms I cut the Upper clam shells out of the parts car and moved them forward 9.5 inches . This would help me put more caster in the car for handling. The steering box was sent out and changed from 24/1 to 16/1 for quicker steering .
I used universal joints to attach the steering box to the column . A`friend made me a white self lubricating piece to go into the end of the column housing to support the shaft . will change the u joint sout to stainless , some new stuff came out that will make it better.

 

[moparsteve636]

Curious as to what you did for torsion bars? Looks like the rear cross member is still in original position! After looking at the one pic. It looks like you extended the rear round mount!

 

[funnykarman]

Torsion bars

Glad you asked that question . That was my next thing to cover. First I had to figure out where to place the 2x3 square tubing for the rear frame rails to be welded to , I used S/W rear frame rails for a b body but moved the mount forward to account for the 15 in rear end movement , This would give me a place to weld the tubing from the trans crossmember back to . I opened up the crossmember and cut the 2x3 tubing so it would slide into the front frame rails , I then cut a hole in the inside of the front frame rails next to the trans crossmember on both sides . This would give me a 1/8 or 120 thousands thick surface to weld to for bracing . I took the torque tubes from the parts car and had them cut down and threaded with a grove in the end for the rubber boot that seals the torsion bar , I lined up the shortened tube with the existing one and but welded it together , then I cut a piece of 2x3x120 box tubing and cut one side off and welded it to the 2x3x120 thru the hole I cut into the ft frame . then welded it to the two torque tubes then capped it off with a plate . Before I put the floor pans in I am going to make a u shaped strap that will weld to the tubes and on top and bottom of the tubing that is welded to the inner frame rail . This way you can use the stock length t bars and you will just have to make a 10 inch spacer to go into the end of the torque tube to hold bars in place with the stock clip .

- - - Updated - - -

After getting the torsion bars in place I had to figure out how to use the 4 speed trans I had . Wanted to use a lakewood bellhousing but could only find a listing for 66 up models . I ordered one and found out that the motor placement in the 62 thru 65 model b body cars was 2 inches forward in the car and that in 66 they moved them back 2 inches . My car had a straight drive in it from the factory with a /6 . I had to flatten out the firewall and move every thing back to line up a z bar for a 68 b body . The trans hit the top of the trans crossmember so I cut it out and moved it up til it cleared . I used a 3/16 steel plate bent in a u shape and rewelded the rounded factory ears on the top of it. I filled up the trans crosmember with 1/8 flat plate across to the 2x3 tubing I welded thru the front frame rail for strength . I used a 69 trans crossmember for the bottom and cut the ears off and moved them back to line up with the trans . I used a Hurst push down shifter with the remore locating bracket and kit . This thing has a 3 in throw and sits right next to the seat .

 

[funnykarman]

Back half of car

Moving to the rear of the car , the frame rails from S/W Race Cars were placed about 5 inches higher than normal . i did this so the car would not sit up high in the rear . When you use Super Stock springs 002 and 003 they raise the rear up about 3 inches plus using a 33 inch tall tire will make it have a tail high stance . During the 60's we would turn up the torsion bars all the way and use air shocks to make our cars look like race cars but they rode ruff and were all over the road with bias ply tires of the day . I am going to add plates to the front spring boxes so they can be adjusted up or down . I built a bridge so the drive shaft and exaust could pass thru . I like to keep the exaust up and as far as possible out of sight . the dana 60 rear came from a mid 70's truck and was given to me ( free ) . It will have 4:10 gears and a track loc unit I have on hand , just need alxes make for it. The rear wheels were made by Bart Wheel co about 12 years ago , they measure 15x18 with 22.5x33x15 tires , mounted up they measure 23.5 wide thru the sidewall. I had Carolina Custom make me a set of wheel center caps for all 4 wheels . The wheel opening was stretched about 6 inches ,using parts from the parts car , still need to metal work on both sides to finish up ...

 

[Budnicks]

cool ride, good luck

maybe share this in the racers hangout forum too

 

[poly1963]

thanks for the comments nice to see that I am not the only one bitten by the awb bug love the car :icon_thumleft:

- - - Updated - - -

Hi Guy's ... Started this project 15 years ago , moved it 2000 miles and stored it until now. Almost sold it but when I pulled parts out and started to look at them I changed my mind. The car was started before I knew how the factory did them. It took a different route and it has worked out .
I will post pic's and try to explain the way I did it . Moving the front wheels forward I Cut the capture nuts out of a 4 door parts car someone gave me . I measured forward 10 inches and drilled a hole with a holesaw for the new forward location for the k member . I cut 1x3 slots on the side of the frame and stuck the capture nuts in the hole . after installing the k member and squaring it in the a , the nuts were welded in place . for the top control arms I cut the Upper clam shells out of the parts car and moved them forward 9.5 inches . This would help me put more caster in the car for handling. The steering box was sent out and changed from 24/1 to 16/1 for quicker steering .
I used universal joints to attach the steering box to the column . A`friend made me a white self lubricating piece to go into the end of the column housing to support the shaft . will change the u joint sout to stainless , some new stuff came out that will make it better.View attachment 232826View attachment 232825View attachment 232827View attachment 232828View attachment 232830View attachment 232831View attachment 232832View attachment 232833

I welded mine to a strip of flat bar and inserted them from the front

 

[Propwash]

Looks like one heck of a cool build. Hope the rest of the project goes pretty smooth for you.

 

[funnykarman]

I bought the car from Billy West , He drove the Virginia Twister AFX car for Kenny Warren back in the mid 60's . He was a great friend and one of my hero's . We lost Billy to cancer a few years ago the car has a personal attachment to me . their car was painted blue , so I am going to paint it like the Ramcharger's car white with blue stripes . The car is going back to NC and go to my brother , I am going to turn him to the dark side , ( he's a chevy nut ) :upside down:

 

[funnykarman]

Steering column mods .

The next problem was with the steering box and steering column getting them to align properly.
the gear box was higher than the column and the steering rod in the column was supported by just one small bearing at the top of the column . First I was going to use a roller bearing pushed up in the bottom of the column tube and held in place with 2 short pieces of exaust pipe . While talking with a friend of mine about it I mentioned that a piece of nylon might work better . Dave was the head of engineering where he worked and the next thing I knew he had 1 made from a piece of self lubing material they used in the manufacturing of their machines . He used the same thing on his AFX dodge wagon . I used weld on u joints to start with but will change to the stainless double d joints on both ends along with stainless dd shaft in between. will have to have my shaft end machined to fit the dd joint.
I had my share of rust in the car , the firewall and floor pans along with the driver side cowl panel. I flattened the firewall out and closed off the air vent in the cowl panel as well as the inside air box under the dash .... it looks like I might need to move the stock gas petal ove some to give me room for the trans tunnel will have to see . or I might have to use one for a street rod , they are a little more compact...pic is from my other project

 

[funnykarman]

Dash , and front fenders

The dash that came in the car was wasted , broken and could not be fixed . I got the guages that I wanted and had carolina Custom make me a custom dash set up for it . They added metal to the bottom of the old dash to make the new one tilt out so the guages were not looking at the floor .
The front fenders came from a man in texas making them . At the time he was the only one doing the altered fenders . The old ones that came with the car were eaten up with rust . When I received the fenders I was not to happy with them . They would require a lot of work to make the right . They had flat spots next to the door and warped from the headlight buckets across wheelwell opening , will just take time to work out .
The dash guages are fuel level , fuel pressure with a isolator out side the pass. compartment , volt meter , speedo , oil pressure , boost or vac. , engine temp. along with a big tac . Put a vintage air control panel to run a heater and defroster that will be installed later . Tunes will come from a JVC head units . Switches on lower panel are for engine fuel pump , fan 1 and 2 , Nos actvation on , fuel pump 2 for Nos and a momentary switch for purge Nos system .
I forgot the hood came from the same guy and was OK , The hood scoop is a AFX one from Sled City Fiberglass . Hood and fenders are street thick Glass , but hood scoop is about half as thick , I wonder how it will hold up to 140 mph top end run ?

 

[super-bee_ski]

Looking good!
Great "Fab" work...
Great thread!

 

[747mopar]

Cool project, looks like you've been enjoying the fab work!

 

[jj426savoy]

Nice project......i will definitely be following this thread..........jay

 

[funnykarman]

More odds and ends , Seat , Radiator , roll bar and engine parts that will be used

Ok a little bit more of the things I had bought and did before it went into storage in 2005 . The seat being used will be the same bench seat that it was born with , it went to Raleigh Auto Interiors and was covered with Gray and Black cloth , I used what I had on hand , it was rolled and pleated with 1.5 pleats . Had them put map pockets on the back of both seat backs . I had buckets on most of my cars and thought that this would be a change of pace .
For a radiator I found a universal aluminum unit that measures 31x19 with 2 one tubes , made by northern radiators for about $120.00 on Ebay , the same company made the dual fan shroud . It has two 12 inch Spal fans on it ,they were about the same price .. To use this unit the side of the frame would have to trimmed down about 1/2 and welded back up. Both sides of the sheet metal had to be cut back to expose the face of the radiator to incoming air flow . I also took the top radiator support of the parts car and cut it out and mounted it with sert nuts so it could be removed when the motor needs to be installed or removed. I ran into a problem with the lower neck on the mopar styled radiator after it was purchased . it ran into the steering box no way around it on the lower driver side . So it will be used on my other project car . by using a chevy style radiator ( lower neck on the passenger side ) and using a water pump housing from a truck , rv , or c body car it will work out perfectly .

- - - Updated - - -

A few more pieces of info . The roll bar came from S/W Race Cars just need to add side bars down by the seat and bent a little so my wife can get in without to much trouble ! The motor will be a 440 with aluminum heads , 10.5 to compression a Comp cam and eldebrock intake . Mopar Muscle ran astory in the December issue titled A regular guys 440 and I am going to follow their build pretty closely . 537 HP 540 torque .. should be just right . Oil pan is a Milodon for a 4 wheel drive truck , clears every thing , 870 cfm carb and performer intake I just picked up for a $100.00 ...
So my next steps will be taking every thing off the front steering and start to strip off 50 years of old paint and a lot of surface rust and start to prime and paint the front end . I had already gotten all the pieces from Moog to rebuild the front end with years ago . I found a specialtype of spray paint that works out great on suspension pieces . I have been buying it from motorcycle shops ..PJ1 It's a ceramic epoxy paint , a cople of medium coats will do it , tuff stuff stand up well with great shine ... SO Lets get busy and go get dirty will post updates on the fun ....

- - - Updated - - -

Oil pan and intake shot . P.S The motor I did have in it was A 472 crate Hemi .. but it went into my other project.... I will post pics of it a little later but it's an A body barracuda , Altered Wheelbase Stretched nose Street funny with a blown Hemi in it .. :headbang:

 

[Ron 73]

Pretty cool project!!! Nice work and look forward to updates, a mean machine in the making for sure! Best wishs...

 

[funnykarman]

Thanks, Will try and keep the update as current as possible ... JohnnyB

 

[funnykarman]

On last post about the other project....

When we lost Ronnie Sox in 2007 to cancer , He was one of my Hero's growing up watching him race , I had a bright and driving urge to start a NEW project .
I started looking for 1966 Barracuda's to build a altered wheel base stretched nose funny for the street . I ended up buying 4 parts cars some ok some almost junk .. Starting with the front stretched fenders to see if I could pull off a set of steel fenders , I used 2 sets of fenders , one set barracuda and one set valiant along with a set of doors for body lines . I was ready to start on a clone of Ronnies car but a chance meeting with Ronnies Widow at Mopars at the Strip , I explained what I was planning and she was happy until I asked if I could paint it Red , White and Blue . Her answer was NO , Because someone might think it was His old car :icon_pray: Being a gentleman I went a new way . Instead of EFI injectors I used a 6/71 blower and 727 t-flite . dana 60 4:10 gears , 4 link , QA1 shocks front and rear . Used pinto front crossmember with shortened control arms , Wilwood disks on all corners . moved motor back 10 inches . Don Garlits injector air cleaner ( looks like real injector hat )Carb goes inside it with K/N air filter . Ebay find whole lot cheaper .... than new one . Cragar SS wheels 4.5x15 and 15x14 widened to 15x17 .. M/T rear and front tires , bent my own roll cage ..did all the tin work ...moved front wheels 20 inches forward and rear 8 inches forward . All this took about 7 years ! I know that this is a B body only web site but I would like to share with everyone ...:hello2:

 

[funnykarman]

tear down day

Managed to find a little time to do work on the front end , stripped every thing off the steering down to the K member . Will spend a couple of days glass beading things and getting them ready to take to the powder coaters the first of the month . The K member , lower control arms , strut rods , drag link and the brake backing plates will be gloss black .
I needed to brace the steering box mount , when I cut the motor mount off sometime back and had a motor in the car , you could see the end of the bracket deflect when the steering was moved back and forth . I made a template up and cut a piece of 1/8 inch plate and welded it in along with a small brace across the top sides .
In the back I have to make up a shock bracket , being cheap I saved the old brackets . I cut them out of what was left of the rear floor ,, check out the rusted section that was the trunk pan . I will use a piece of 1x2x1/8 tubing to weld the old brackets to . The shocks I am using are Monroe Gas shocks made for a C body ( New Yorker ) if I remember correctly the 68 A body Hemi cars used these in the early days . They are 22.5 inches long , they give the SS springs plenty of travel so they could work.

 

[Shott17]

I love fab threads. Great project can't wait to see more.

 

[Ron 73]

That is a lot of stuff your doing and the powder coating will sure make it nice! Looking forward to seeing them,, id like to do some of that myself....