1968 Coronet 500 Project

[Billccm]

Noticed your avatar update. The sign of old to new?

 

[HawkRod]

I have been very busy lately and have not had enough time to check out a lot of the build threads. Just found this one today and I am extremely impressed. Very nice job and attention to detail! Well done and I am now subscribed!

Hawk

 

[JimKueneman]

Noticed your avatar update. The sign of old to new?

Happy New Year. Out with the old, in with the new time!

 

[CoronetDarter]

Jim, I've been following your thread for a while now. Great job, fantastic attention to detail. I'm subscribed.

 

[JimKueneman]

Spent most of the day with the family so only found a few hours to sneak away into the garage. I bought another gallon of Aircraft Stripper. I would be lost without this stuff. Time = $$$ and this stuff saves a lot of time at the cost of $$$$ ($50 a gallon). I bought all the reproduction wiring harnesses I could find. The rest are items that would not be common in most restorations. The rear defogger motor harness, trunk light harness that hacks into the interior light harness at the left door switch, and the trunk light harness itself. I have found that the stripper has a way of "softening" the old wiring jacket so it is not so brittle. Plus mine had overspray from the 70's body work and mine. In the tray with stripper they all went.

Stirred it up with a parts cleaning brush and let it set 10 minutes. I then took it outside and blasted off the old paint and grime with a power washer.

Nicely cleaned harnesses.

I then used some metal polish, steel wool and needle nose pliers to get a few swipes of cleaning in the connectors.

A little cleaner they were almost like new. I would only do this to simple harnesses that you can't by new. Buy new ones where you can.

Next I installed them along with the new Year One rear light harness and rear speaker harness.

 

[JimKueneman]

Finished up reassembling the visors and rearview mirror after a bit of cleaning and refreshing with SEM paint where needed. It is dark and late. I will not chance poking the wrong holes in the headliner to install these tonight. I'll wait till next year to install them.

Also painted the fuel vent pipes with flat clear and installed the one in the trunk. Depending on the EFI or not this may or may not be functional but it looks cool. The small one I will not install till I decide on the tank (EFI or stock)

Last but not least the restored rear shelf is installed with the rear window defogger vent.

 

[threewood]

Great pic of that vent line in the trunk. I was wondering how that went as mine was mangled from a shoddy air shock line install sometime in the cars past.

 

[JimKueneman]

Another winter storm in southern Arizona. Rain and hail. I have a hard time wanting to work in the garage when I can't have the door open. Spent a few hours this morning but done for the day.

Most important thing to have when installing items in the new headliner is handy photos of where all the screw holes are!

I found the damn visor screws! I forgot there was a shoulder belt receptacle that bolted to the same place as the visor, the screws were in that bag... You can feel the hole if you use the reference to get in the right place and understand the other features hidden under the liner.

Use a pick to poke a hole in the liner before you put in the screws, if you don't the screw can grab on the liner and twist it and form a wrinkle.

Visors and mirror reassembled and installed..

The original seat belts were like new, just dusty. Cleaned them and reinstalled. I am not sure what those orange streaks are. They don't exist in the real world. Maybe the flash reflecting the orange off the floor boards.

Then installed the most important item... In case I ever go to a fancy car show where I am required to wear a jacket!

Thanks to the Beekeeper for giving me a photo to jog the memory as to where where these trim critters went.

Cleaned up the floorboards and started to fit the carpet. I have the old one but it was outside in the rain. Dragged it in and laid it out to dry but that is when I lost interest today.

 

[JimKueneman]

Sun came out and the garage warmed up. Tinkered some more. Used the original as a template for the new carpet. This worked perfectly, except I did it "freestyle" for the rear carpet and now have something to fix. More later.

You can probably already see where I screwed it up.....

Decided to restore the console and get it fitted in before commit to cutting the rest of the carpet. I had not looked at this in a while. The console is a snapshot of 1984, pretty neat. Even some touchup paint that is hard as a rock.

Here we go, see the mistake. There is enough material around the edges to cut off that I can make a patch. It is mostly under the seat so it does not need to be perfect.

I will work on trimming to fit tomorrow.

 

[JimKueneman]

By the way the carpet is from Classic Industries and is a OER part. I think it fits very well.

 

[Glenwood]

Looks great Jim!

 

[JimKueneman]

Few more hours in the garage. Needed to get the floor pan ready for leaving the carpet in permanently. Bought some SEM sealer. The original was black so that is what I used.

Then I bought some 3/4", 1/2" and 3/8" wire conduit to make the wire runs more clean and one more layer of protection. Also I decided to wire a pair of twisted 12 gauge wires through to be ready for EFI and a in tank fuel pump. Covered that with the 3/8" conduit and the original harnesses with the 3/4". I could not find a new harness to the console and it was not in bad shape. Ran that through the 1/2" conduit.

I twisted the wire by tying off one end to the wife car and spin the other end with my drill and the wires pinched in the chuck.

Unlike modern electronics these old beast used chassis for ground. Make sure all the paint is off so things get a good ground.

Now I have the EFI fuel pump wiring ready to go. Just need to decide how to get it through the trunk pan but that can be later.

Oh and my sealer job is much too neat to be OEM

 

[JimKueneman]

Lastly I opened the bag of reproduction body plugs. Mmmmm what I thought would obvious was not again. Back to the reference photos. I did not take specific ones of the plug but there were enough shots to figure it out. The big fat rubber ones go in the floor pan where the carpet is. I am assuming because they make a more watertight seal around the carpet area.

Also those medium sized rubber plugs are MISERABLE to get in. My fingers are raw. Using a heat gun helps soften them up to get them in easier. Also a little lube like your favorite Armor All type product works great.

And finally the carpet is ready to go in and stay once the sealer is dry tomorrow.

 

[Glenwood]

Good Idea, I like the split wire conduits!

 

[JimKueneman]

Good Idea, I like the split wire conduits!

And it is not that expensive. I think you are looking at about $15 worth of material. I got this idea when I pulled the car apart and found the speaker wire had escaped the channel and the sill plate screw was right down the middle of the 2 wires.

 

[JimKueneman]

Going to bring in some new 6 mil plastic I bought today and make some new door vapor barriers based on the originals while we watch a movie tonight. This will allow me to put the doors and quarter panel together permanently too.

 

[JimKueneman]

Setup under the Christmas tree with the plastic and the original templates. Since all I really need is 2 unique patterns and 2 more that are mirror images I just folded the plastic in half and cut both at the same time. As I worked around cutting I added tape to hold the bundle together behind me. Look like the real thing.

Done with the rear quarter

Doors done.

 

[threewood]

You're making me jealous, I so much want to start putting mine back together. Atleast your thread keeps me going. Nice work as always.

Are you keeping the inside door steel body color?

 

[JimKueneman]

You're making me jealous, I so much want to start putting mine back together. Atleast your thread keeps me going. Nice work as always.

Are you keeping the inside door steel body color?

You will get there. I am finding the reassembly goes a lot slower than I expected and does not have that "wow" factor like the bodywork and paint did. There is always a little detail item that stops your progress, and since I am 2 hours round trip to a store I typically have 4 or 5 projects going at the same time so I can have a list of items once I do get to town and not be completely stalled.

Are you talking about the center of the door/quarter where the factory masked off when they shot the interior color? I had thought about that in the past but had forced myself to say it is not worth the effort, I am not looking for points in a car show! Mine was more undercoating color and just sloppily oversprayed if this is what you are referring too.

 

[threewood]

You will get there. I am finding the reassembly goes a lot slower than I expected and does not have that "wow" factor like the bodywork and paint did. There is always a little detail item that stops your progress, and since I am 2 hours round trip to a store I typically have 4 or 5 projects going at the same time so I can have a list of items once I do get to town and not be completely stalled.

Are you talking about the center of the door/quarter where the factory masked off when they shot the interior color? I had thought about that in the past but had forced myself to say it is not worth the effort, I am not looking for points in a car show! Mine was more undercoating color and just sloppily oversprayed if this is what you are referring too.

View attachment 384576 View attachment 384577

Yea, the upper and lower portion which is suppose to match the interior trim. I still haven't decided if I am going to paint mine black or not.