Hello all.
This thread is about my build journey with this project. It's a 1967 Dodge Coronet 500 that I bought from a Craig's List ad out of NY State about 20 minutes after the woman placed the ad. She was divorcing her husband because he left her, too bad he didn't take the Coronet with him. lol. She posted it up and I called her moments later and said, " Don't sell it, I'm on my way from Vermont with a trailer and cash money." She agreed and my pal Rick and I hooked up the trailer and hauled ass North.
The car is/was a 100% complete example, running and driving. Two owner, titled, Cert-i-card intact, A/C car with factory tinted glass, crème colored body, black/black interior with Bench/buddy front seat, no console, column shift, 318 V8, 727 auto, 8 3/4 non sure grip rear, drum/drum, PS/MB with 69,000 original miles on it. Built in Canada, sold in NC, moved to TX and back to NY, then I bought it for $3750.00
Rick and I pulled her all of the way back to VT and unloaded it at his pad and took some pictures. Fall of 2014.
I drove it the few miles down the road to my place and rolled it into the garage where it stayed until rolling back out as a rolling shell in the fall of 2019.
I had been awaiting medical retirement, after 30 years of service, from the US Army since the fall of 2013, it would be official in spring of 2015, five years after returning from Iraq. I needed a hobby and had been dreaming of what I would do to a classic once i had my hands on it. It's difficult to resto mod a classic car when you move to far flung locations every two or three years.
By the time you get your shop all set up you have to pack it all up to move across the planet.
So, now that I had the victim in my grasp, time to begin surgery...lol.
I sat around for a few days just looking at it and poking around to familiarize myself with this PARTICULAR car and to try to get together a preliminary idea/list of things I wanted to do to customize it. My direction would be to make the changes that I wanted but also to ensure that those changes would be harmonious with the original design AND that would be hard to notice unless you were looking for them. A casual look from a show attendee in passing should alert that person that there's something different about the car, but not be able to discern exactly what had been done to it.
I hope that I have achieved this.
Here's the list of mods that have BEEN done, so far...lol....
Front to back------ Front bumper sectioned, shortened, turn signal rectangular holes filled, recurved to fit the new fender noses and to hug the sheet metal. Also enlarged the center license plate cut out into a ram airduct.
1967 Charger grill and revolving headlights. Custom electric motors, mounts and linkages.
Front fender noses swept back to a 90* angle ( Think 70 Road Runner).
Front disc brakes swap from a 76 Aspen.
All rubber bumpers and bearings replaced.
Inner fender close out smooth panels to hide wiring etc.
Smooth firewall with relocated wiper motor to under dash as is everything previously on the firewall.
Battery to box behind passenger seat.
Wiring pass through tubes running along outside of inner fender just below the fender mounting flanges and into the cab through the firewall.
Wiring passthrough boots in the door frames.
2004 Audi A6 Quattro dash/console /steering and center pull E Brake. And everything in/on the dash console too.
Audi door panel elements fabricated into new panels that align with the Audi dash.
Puddle lights and rear facing red marker light on the rear face of the inner door surface so it can be seen when the door is opened.
Power everything.
Custom steering linkages.
Dual M/C and new hoses/lines.
10 way, power/heated bucket seats leather.
1967 Plymouth Sport Fury rear seat topper mounted just behind bucket seat tops and close out roadster type panels from there to the back glass. (Think 59 Corvette)
Audi armrest with 4 analog gauges hidden inside.
GPS speedo
Spare tire under the roadster panels in what would have been the center of the rear seat. Close out panel between cab and trunk.
Fabricated shift linkage and lever. Hand made pistol grip and reverse lock out.
Fake quarter panel side scoops opened up.
Dual motorcycle pop up gas filler caps, one on top of each quarter near the trunk lid front corners.
Fabricate the entire rear face of the car to accept 1966 Thunder Bird tail lights.
Trunk lid on gas lifts
17 gallon fuel cell with dual filler necks.
Trunk close out panels
Rear wells tubbed
Leaf springs relocated to under frame.
Center pull E Brake cables
Move spring perches
Remove spare tire well
1970 Road Runner rear bumper lengthened 4 5/8" and recurved to hug the sheet metal. TTI exhaust to exit through those back up light holes.
Remote trunk release.
Shave gas filler door
Ditch the 318 in favor of a built 440 Magnum, and build a 727.
I'm sure there is more but this is what I can think off as the major items. Lots of little things had to be made and figured out to make many of these mods a reality.
In subsequent posts i'll, go into detail about each mod and what had to be done to achieve it. I will also try to keep the photos in chronological order...lol.
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