66 Coronet 500 Driver, Light Resto

[Encswsm]

I am really enjoying this thread. you seem to be having fun with your ride. I have a 66 Charger it came with the same style front seats as your car has. At some point the PO put seats from a 67 in it. I think the 66 Charger seats with 3 rows of horizontal pleats looks so much classier than the 67 with plain vertical pleats and a medallion in the middle. I have new upholstery on my list of things to do.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Well, I guess it's time to get started on the disk brake conversion.

I got one caliper in the box that came yesterday, so I tried it onto my caliper bracket that came with my disk brake spindles and it fit! So I am a go for this swap.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I am really enjoying this thread. you seem to be having fun with your ride. I have a 66 Charger it came with the same style front seats as your car has. At some point the PO put seats from a 67 in it. I think the 66 Charger seats with 3 rows of horizontal pleats looks so much classier than the 67 with plain vertical pleats and a medallion in the middle. I have new upholstery on my list of things to do.

Thanks! Yeah, my interior was like new before it sat out in the Florida sun for nearly 2 summers. I sat on bith and they instantly split. They feel like parchment rather than vinyl. Just add it to the list! Lol. You should start a thread on yours and document what you do to it. It's fun looking back and remembering what you did along the way.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I called Antique Automotive Radio today and they were quite helpful. They no longer retrofit your old radio, but the lady tech that I spoke to said my 2 RCA jacks on the back were inputs, so a few minutes on Amazon and I have tge appropriate cable on the way to attach my zune and a lighter plug adaptor to plug in USB charge cords too. All set. I also installed an LED bulb in the HVAC controls and the radio backlight. Should be like daylight inside at night now. Lol.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I decided to give the cluster bezel one more coat of chrome and I believe it turned out great. Only thing I would have done differently is I would have given it a bath before I started and perhaps used a scotchbrite pad on some of the more weathered areas. All in all better than it was, so I'm chalking that up in the win column!

 

[440 4 speed]

That's a good idea. Mine were chrome tho, unless you are referring to the gauge numbers and letters?

I was mainly thinking of the heater control letters.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I decided another coat of 'chrome' was necessary, so I got everything ready and carefully added it to the main surround and to some of the smaller ones inside. I also touched up the corner of the E in Dodge. Not perfect, but much better than before.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Next, I turned my attention to the headlight switch, specifically the dimmer circuit. I bought some WD contact cleaner, and the jury is still out, I need to connect it all up and test it's function. The LEDs won't dim unless they have internal circuitry to pwm themselves according to voltage, which is highly unlikely. I just want to make sure that the dimmer is clean enough to give steady power to the light circuit. This is spring loaded, so it can be pushed back to expose a slider contact ring and douse it with cleaner. Seems to look a lot better almost all of the green is gone.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I started laying out all the parts for the brake conversion. I confirmed Steve sold the correct spindles to me and also that my 66 ball joints will work with them by comparing part numbers on Rock Auto. Bearings also work as well as calipers. Let's get this started!

 

[Nxcoupe]

Today it was really humid, and just nasty outside, so after applying mud and climbing up and down the scaffolding, I decided to come inside and paint the gauge needles. They really needed it. I put wax paper under the needles to keep paint off of the gauge faces and then shook the paint up. I stirred it with a couple of tooth picks, but it still was kind of thin with not much thickness to it. I applied 2 coats and then cleaned everything up. I used Testors florescent orange paint. It turned out great.
Before:

And After:

 

[Nxcoupe]

After sanding my butt off on the wall where my porting bench is gonna go, I decided to get the coronet up in the air and inspect the fuel leak situation. It looks to be the rubber seal is leaking. Must be from when I reused it on the fuel pump module install. Oh well, nothing I can do about it with a full tank. Well, what's left of the full tank, lol. I got the tires off and proceeded to take apart the front end. I will have these 10x2.5" front drum and spindle assemblies for sale if anyone wants a spare set.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Lower ball joint was in good shape, but getting replaced while it is apart. Upper is a different story, it's garbage. Tie rod end has no boot so even tho it seems tight, it's been exposed to the elements and is getting replaced. I got the nuts off the strut rod on both ends and all the tension off the torsion bar, so next is to removed lower control arm nut and see how bad the bushing is. I had enough today, came inside to cool off and rest up for father's day dinner. More later.

 

[HawkRod]

Lower ball joint was in good shape, but getting replaced while it is apart. Upper is a different story, it's garbage. Tie rod end has no boot so even tho it seems tight, it's been exposed to the elements and is getting replaced. I got the nuts off the strut rod on both ends and all the tension off the torsion bar, so next is to removed lower control arm nut and see how bad the bushing is. I had enough today, came inside to cool off and rest up for father's day dinner. More later.

In general, suspension parts are (relatively) cheap - it's the labor to repair them that is a pain! So I usually replace everything once I tear things apart.
But then again, for my 69 Corvette, I bought some junk from a company called Mevotek that failed in short order and also has caused some hard steering. So my lesson learned is to buy quality suspension parts. I always swore by Moog, and I know many of them are no longer made in the US, but so far they have always worked well for me.

 

[Nxcoupe]

In general, suspension parts are (relatively) cheap - it's the labor to repair them that is a pain! So I usually replace everything once I tear things apart.
But then again, for my 69 Corvette, I bought some junk from a company called Mevotek that failed in short order and also has caused some hard steering. So my lesson learned is to buy quality suspension parts. I always swore by Moog, and I know many of them are no longer made in the US, but so far they have always worked well for me.

Most of my stuff is Moog. Thanks!