1968 Coronet 'Wanna Bee'

[MTUCJ7]

Hey FBBO -
I am in the midst of rotisserie restoration of a 1969 GTX and decided not to use the non-original running gear in that car. A friend of mine knew of a small block 1968 Coronet 440 that is going to be the perfect car to stick the 440/727 from the GTX into - or so I thought. We drove from Michigan to Kansas (via Milwaukee for a wedding) and bought the car. Way more rust than I was told - but at this point I was not going home empty handed. Got it back to Michigan and it sat for a while. I even thought of selling it! Sometime during this summer I decided to make it a sort of Super Bee clone, fix the floors and trunk and leave the patina. Here goes nothing!

 

[MTUCJ7]

Although there was a lot of rust on the car, it is very complete. Build sheet under the rear seat shows the options. 318 automatic, AC, shoulder belts, undercoated, fender mounted turn indicators and power steering.

 

[MTUCJ7]

AC Stuff all there although not going to be used.

 

[MTUCJ7]

No major accidents just lots of rust covered in bondo and primer. I love it.

 

[MTUCJ7]

The 440 of unknown vintage had been sitting for 15 years since I bought the car from a relative. It had been rebuilt prior to him buying the car and looked better than it ran. From the outside it had some goodies - old CH4B intake, Edelbrock carb, Mallory dual point dist & headers.

 

[MTUCJ7]

Turned out it was a mix-n-match rebuild that was not done correctly. Date matched to the GTX 906 heads, forged crank and LY rods. Badger 0.040" cast pistons sitting 0.105" in the hole and a VERY mild Erson TQ20H cam. The factory rockers and valve tips were way worn. No signs of balancing the rotating assembly at all.
Even the oil pump driveshaft bushing was missing!
There were likely only a few thousand miles on the rebuild.
Compression ratio was a calculated 8.2:1. No wonder it had problems doing burnouts back in 2001 when I put it in storage.

 

[MTUCJ7]

Now i'm getting in pretty deep needing to fix and replace all of these problems. So out the window goes the super cheap 'roadkill' style Wanna Bee. (I had not even seen Roadkill until months after I started this!)

Current Plan:
Leave the patina, fix everything underneath, minor interior work, make it streetable and long distance driveable.
Rebuild 440 with quality parts
Rebuild 727, mild stall converter
3.55 Posi rear
275/60/15 drag radial rears
black steel wheels
hemi hood scoop

 

[Basket case]

nice project

 

[65-440]

go for it !

 

[MTUCJ7]

So first up is obviously the most important - LOOKS! hahaha
I ended up finding the perfect used hemi hood scoop at Carlisle and sawsall'd my way to happiness.

 

[MTUCJ7]

Took off the Coronet 440 side molding and Super Bee stripe.... looking better!

 

[MTUCJ7]

much better

 

[Malicious]

You mentioned that your not going to use the AC gear, interested in selling some of it? I'm looking for a couple of interior side parts...

 

[MTUCJ7]

Back on this project - update soon!

 

[MTUCJ7]

Haven't posted on this thing for a long time but I did continue to work on it a bit last winter.
Replaced the torsion bar crossmember, floor pans and some other spot areas of rust. Also rebuilt the stock lowers with reinforcement plates and new bushings, etc.

 

[MTUCJ7]

floor stuff

 

[MTUCJ7]

Pulled the 318/904 and got another joyful surprise. You guessed it - more rust. Time to replace the shock towers, frame fix and other areas. At this point I really had to re-evaluate WTF I was doing with this thing. I decided to keep the top of the car as is and satin clear. The sides of the car would get paint since I had to replace the rear quarters. I'll do my best to match it in with the patina on the top.

but it will be fun....right??

 

[Basket case]

keep pluggin away, you have the satisfaction of being the one to put it back on the road, and when you're banging the gears, it'll be worth it.

 

[MTUCJ7]

satin clear

 

[MTUCJ7]

I saw a sweet 65 or so Nova wagon at power tour a couple years ago - sweet patina outside but completely refinished interior and engine compartment. So why not.....