Lucy; 1968 Coronet 440

[BMosely]

New build. Father/son (15 yr old, first car) hopefully more son than father but I know how that goes. Car history. My FIL drove home from the dealership in a 1968 Dodge Coronet. He drove it every day (250,000+miles) until 1994 when the tranny finally started slipping and he parked it in the garage. The picture below is the first time nice 94’ that it has seen daylight.

1968 Coronet 440. 318, 727, 3.23 rear end one wheel wonder.

 

[BMosely]

Week 1.

 

[BMosely]

Week 2

Did I mention no keys were available. After we wrecked the inside, someone smaller than me had to squirrel into the trunk. Bonus; Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 with Donkey Kong in full working order.

 

[Jerry Hall]

Been some time since I have seen a 68 that solid. At least it looks like it from the pictures.

 

[BMosely]

Week 3.
20 + year old gas is pretty offensive. I assumed the tank was trash but looked just in case. I think we will buy a new one.

 

[BMosely]

Week 4.
Got tired of laying down inside. Started fighting all of the hen pecks outside. Most were just hen pecks as anticipated, but some were deeper wounds. Since we are on a 1 year build schedule, anything we opened up we addressed and primed to buy some time.

 

[BMosely]

Test fitted some 35’s in case we wanted to go Baja Coronet. We will keep it on the street.

 

[BMosely]

Week 5.
Lock and load. It is fixing to be a party.

 

[BMosely]

Week 6.
She is on the deck.

 

[BMosely]

Week 7.

K frame is on the deck.

 

[BMosely]

Week 8.
Lots of action. Interior prep and sealed with POR. LCA prepped and brace welded in by the kid. K frame dressed and painted. LCA’s dressed and painted. Air box pulled. Steering column pulled.

Raining this weekend. 10/10/20. Eveantually I have to work on my own crap.

 

[Ironbuilt]

Talk about an awesome 1st car!! Since he's doing a lot of the work himself, he will appreciate that car when it's finished.

 

[BMosely]

Poor welding skills can always be complimented with great grinding skills!

 

[furious70]

Very cool, my first was a 69 Coronet that I still have. Was more uncle nephew though.

 

[BMosely]

Got some parts rolling in this week to support the now typical Saturday, work on the Coronet activities. I made some calls on bigger items today and it appears every B Body produced is now being restored. Motors out 3 months, steering boxes 2 months, and even sway bars are hitting over a month. I guess we will have plenty of time to do body work. Vendors must be pretty happy about right now.

 

[BMosely]

Parts hit so we worked the front end this weekend. Steering box is out about 4 weeks and rotors are inbound. My early guess was 600 man hours for this rebuild. It will be all of that.

 

[CoronetDarter]

Interesting contrast on the struts. I like it. This is a great resto thread - thanks for sharing.

 

[BMosely]

15 year old minds can get creative. Again, we are building this to be driven. No show dogs.

I asked in the suspension section about the pivot shaft and got many thoughts on how these things rotate. Now that I have it together it appears that the bushing is subject to some rotational forces. I see why (1) they do not last very long and (2) why you can’t torque the shaft nut down until you are loaded at ride height. I used the original pressed in bushing but a great argument could be made for the poly with greasable shaft. Noted also was that the strut rod bushings take a bunch diagonal force as the LCA moves thru it’s movement limits.

 

[The Rebel]

Great looking car! These are also wonderful memories you're making with your son, time well spent! Sell the computer stuff for money for the build.

Looking forward to your updates!

 

[MADCIMA]

Nice car, superb, color!