MN6WS6
Active Member
In 1964, my grandmother and my father went to Standard Motor Company in Baton Rouge, LA and she bought a brand new 64 Dodge Polara 500. The car spent 48 years on a carport, the first 25 years of which was at my grandmother's house. In 1989, my dad and I had to take the car from her due to medical conditions which caused her to lose her mobility and affected her memory, and it was unsafe for her to keep the car because she would drive off and get lost. My grandmother passed in 1994. The car was only driven once since 1989, and parked on my parents' carport for 23 years. In 2012, my parents had to build on to their house to move my mother's parents in with them, so the car was moved to my house, where it has been in my garage for 3 years. Unbeknownst to my dad, I have started the teardown and resto-mod of this vehicle so that I can present it to him (hopefully) on his 76th birthday in March of 2016.
My dad was a bit of a hotrodder back in his day, starting off with cars from the 30's because they were cheap when he was a kid. He served for 9 years (I believe) in the Navy reserves and the Navy, trained as a Reconnaissance Attack Navigator in the RA-5C Vigilante, and did three tours in Vietnam back-to-back-to-back. The first was on the ill-fated Forrestal, where, in his words, "everybody instantly became a firefighter." The next two tours were on the Kitty Hawk, where he flew 150 combat missions in a plane with zero weapons and no way to defend itself other than absolute speed. The Vigilante was the largest and fastest plane to ever fly combat based on an aircraft carrier, with a top speed of nearly Mach 2.5 (disclosed that is...) It is also the highest loss rate aircraft ever used in battle, because of the way it was used. The Vigilante flew recon missions, but the real losses were experienced during bombing missions. The Vigilante led the run, filming the entire path, then after the bombers and the smoke cleared, was sent back down the exact same path to record the damage. The Vietnamese picked up on this, and when the Vigilante came through, they would move anti-aircraft weapons off the run, then set them back up after the run with the sole mission of destroying the Vigilante, basically putting the bird in a shooting gallery. 150 combat missions, and my dad NEVER got hit. Zero damage to any bird he left the deck with.
After three tours, dad hung it up because he wanted a family, and didn't want to drag them around the globe hoping he came home (he'd seen enough of that with the guys he served with.) He became a salesman, in both the food industry and automotive. When I was born he was working for Lipton, then he moved into automotive, selling engine analyzers for Sun (you old guys remember those), and also over the years worked for Bear, Hunter, and several other service-related companies. Later, he went back to food with White Lilly, Sunbeam, and his final job was with Zatarain's, which is notorious in Cajun Country. The older auto shops still know him by name even though he hasn't sold any equipment in almost 20 years, and the grocery store owners still knew him by name when he came back after almost 15 years of selling auto equipment. He's one of those guys that knows so many people he can't go anywhere without seeing somebody he knows, or that knows him.
During that time, he's owned all kinds of stuff. before we got the Polara, he had owned (over the years) a 66 Mustang Fastback, a 58 Corvette, a 62 Corvette, a 54 Mercury truck, 66 International Scout, 70 Camaro Z28, and that's just the ones I know about. He is the man who taught me how to work on cars, because that's the only way he could afford to keep them running! Many times we diagnosed our cars with the equipment he was selling, or had taken on trade for newer stuff, and he still talks about how an oscilloscope can diagnose more problems than any of these $10,000 computers could even dream of catching.
So, that is just a sample of who my dad is, and why doing this car is important to me. You don't see a lot of family heirloom vehicles anymore, and for one to stay in the same last name for 50+ years is extremely rare. This car will never leave this family as long as I walk this earth, and I hope to be able to teach my 2 year old nephew the importance of this vehicle and how to work on cars (which his dad, my brother, did NOT pick up on) so that it can stay in the family long after I'm gone.
Earlier, I said resto-mod, so let me explain why. As I said in the story, my dad was a bit of a hotrodder, and one of the things he had spoken about over the years was making this car fast. If he had his way (and a blank check from Bill Gates) he would probably put a 426 hemi, 4 speed, and Maxx-wedge clone this thing with a REAL aluminum front end, but that's not going to happen! With sitting unmoved on a carport for 23 years, it had quite the rats nest under the hood, so much so that moisture had gotten trapped on top of the engine, and rusted out the intake manifold, valve covers, and the engine is seized. Finally, I have no patience for carbs and my dad is WELL past his tuning years, so EFI is the way it will go. Probably going 318 or 360 with a 4 speed automatic, so I will be hunting a 94-2000 Dodge truck, Durango, or Ram Van for a donor swap. The engine and transmission will not be going very far, as I have PLENTY of shop space, so I'll arrest the rust and wrap it up so it will always be with the car as long as I'm around.
Here's some pictures of the car at it's starting point from my garage. The car is 99%+ complete, even carrying the ORIGINAL spare in the trunk, and the OEM jack instructions are still stuck to the trunk lid. I think what remains of the Monroney label is in the glovebox, but the heat has gotten it pretty well. Although the rats were living under the engine, they didn't chew through a single wire or hose on the entire engine, and never got inside the car at all. There's only two rust holes on the entire car, on below the left taillight due to the rubber gasket that goes between the bumper and the body, and one on the right rear lower edge of the widow behind the chrome, due to dirt and leaves pinning moisture to the body. All the glass is original except the windshield, which was replaced before 1989 by some imbecile who just gorilla snotted the chrome back on instead of replacing the clips.
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This is where I'm at now. I just started on this last weekend, and I'm 8 bolts away from having the cradle/suspension/engine/transmission out of the car at this point. Hopefully that and the interior will be out by the first week of November.
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Here is the rats nest on the engine, after cleanup, and the tiny rust hole I found. Car is amazingly solid, but I have found that these 50 year old unibody cars don't like 2-post lifts. You lift it up, and you can hear things creaking that shouldn't be creaking. I only leave it up about an hour at a time, and leave the doors shut. I know it won't rip in half because it has absolutely zero rust through underneath it (just surface rust) but I'm not taking any chances.
My dad was a bit of a hotrodder back in his day, starting off with cars from the 30's because they were cheap when he was a kid. He served for 9 years (I believe) in the Navy reserves and the Navy, trained as a Reconnaissance Attack Navigator in the RA-5C Vigilante, and did three tours in Vietnam back-to-back-to-back. The first was on the ill-fated Forrestal, where, in his words, "everybody instantly became a firefighter." The next two tours were on the Kitty Hawk, where he flew 150 combat missions in a plane with zero weapons and no way to defend itself other than absolute speed. The Vigilante was the largest and fastest plane to ever fly combat based on an aircraft carrier, with a top speed of nearly Mach 2.5 (disclosed that is...) It is also the highest loss rate aircraft ever used in battle, because of the way it was used. The Vigilante flew recon missions, but the real losses were experienced during bombing missions. The Vigilante led the run, filming the entire path, then after the bombers and the smoke cleared, was sent back down the exact same path to record the damage. The Vietnamese picked up on this, and when the Vigilante came through, they would move anti-aircraft weapons off the run, then set them back up after the run with the sole mission of destroying the Vigilante, basically putting the bird in a shooting gallery. 150 combat missions, and my dad NEVER got hit. Zero damage to any bird he left the deck with.
After three tours, dad hung it up because he wanted a family, and didn't want to drag them around the globe hoping he came home (he'd seen enough of that with the guys he served with.) He became a salesman, in both the food industry and automotive. When I was born he was working for Lipton, then he moved into automotive, selling engine analyzers for Sun (you old guys remember those), and also over the years worked for Bear, Hunter, and several other service-related companies. Later, he went back to food with White Lilly, Sunbeam, and his final job was with Zatarain's, which is notorious in Cajun Country. The older auto shops still know him by name even though he hasn't sold any equipment in almost 20 years, and the grocery store owners still knew him by name when he came back after almost 15 years of selling auto equipment. He's one of those guys that knows so many people he can't go anywhere without seeing somebody he knows, or that knows him.
During that time, he's owned all kinds of stuff. before we got the Polara, he had owned (over the years) a 66 Mustang Fastback, a 58 Corvette, a 62 Corvette, a 54 Mercury truck, 66 International Scout, 70 Camaro Z28, and that's just the ones I know about. He is the man who taught me how to work on cars, because that's the only way he could afford to keep them running! Many times we diagnosed our cars with the equipment he was selling, or had taken on trade for newer stuff, and he still talks about how an oscilloscope can diagnose more problems than any of these $10,000 computers could even dream of catching.
So, that is just a sample of who my dad is, and why doing this car is important to me. You don't see a lot of family heirloom vehicles anymore, and for one to stay in the same last name for 50+ years is extremely rare. This car will never leave this family as long as I walk this earth, and I hope to be able to teach my 2 year old nephew the importance of this vehicle and how to work on cars (which his dad, my brother, did NOT pick up on) so that it can stay in the family long after I'm gone.
Earlier, I said resto-mod, so let me explain why. As I said in the story, my dad was a bit of a hotrodder, and one of the things he had spoken about over the years was making this car fast. If he had his way (and a blank check from Bill Gates) he would probably put a 426 hemi, 4 speed, and Maxx-wedge clone this thing with a REAL aluminum front end, but that's not going to happen! With sitting unmoved on a carport for 23 years, it had quite the rats nest under the hood, so much so that moisture had gotten trapped on top of the engine, and rusted out the intake manifold, valve covers, and the engine is seized. Finally, I have no patience for carbs and my dad is WELL past his tuning years, so EFI is the way it will go. Probably going 318 or 360 with a 4 speed automatic, so I will be hunting a 94-2000 Dodge truck, Durango, or Ram Van for a donor swap. The engine and transmission will not be going very far, as I have PLENTY of shop space, so I'll arrest the rust and wrap it up so it will always be with the car as long as I'm around.
Here's some pictures of the car at it's starting point from my garage. The car is 99%+ complete, even carrying the ORIGINAL spare in the trunk, and the OEM jack instructions are still stuck to the trunk lid. I think what remains of the Monroney label is in the glovebox, but the heat has gotten it pretty well. Although the rats were living under the engine, they didn't chew through a single wire or hose on the entire engine, and never got inside the car at all. There's only two rust holes on the entire car, on below the left taillight due to the rubber gasket that goes between the bumper and the body, and one on the right rear lower edge of the widow behind the chrome, due to dirt and leaves pinning moisture to the body. All the glass is original except the windshield, which was replaced before 1989 by some imbecile who just gorilla snotted the chrome back on instead of replacing the clips.
- - - Updated - - -
This is where I'm at now. I just started on this last weekend, and I'm 8 bolts away from having the cradle/suspension/engine/transmission out of the car at this point. Hopefully that and the interior will be out by the first week of November.
- - - Updated - - -
Here is the rats nest on the engine, after cleanup, and the tiny rust hole I found. Car is amazingly solid, but I have found that these 50 year old unibody cars don't like 2-post lifts. You lift it up, and you can hear things creaking that shouldn't be creaking. I only leave it up about an hour at a time, and leave the doors shut. I know it won't rip in half because it has absolutely zero rust through underneath it (just surface rust) but I'm not taking any chances.
