1968 Coronet 500 Project

[Mike67]

Loking good Jim! Congrats!

 

[JimKueneman]

The K-frame is ready for paint. I think I am going to order a quart of SPI black Epoxy Primer tomorrow. It is a matte black when dry and is UV stabilized. You can use without a top coat.

I also hung and epoxy painted the major front end components this weekend including the brake drums... this is one HEAVY rack of parts!

And just in case I forget which side is which Ma Mopar is there to help...

 

[JimKueneman]

While I had the Epoxy Primer mixed I used my home made "spot sprayer" I made out of a cheap undercoating gun and a piece of irrigation hose. This was to poke down in the areas around the welds of the inner wheel tubs and quarter panels to try to get epoxy to flow/ooze into these weld areas. This was a Pennsylvania car and it did have the starts of some body cancer that I did fix where it needed it but there was surface scale rust in the weld seams in these area. I sprayed enough in till it ran all over the paper I put on the floor. I hope I got it sealed up enough to last another 20 years.

 

[JimKueneman]

Last thing I did before calling it a weekend was paint the front end components. I painted the brake drums in Seymours Cast Iron spray paint and the rest of the parts in Seymours Stainless Steel. The brake backing plate I hit with SEM gloss black.

I am experimenting with some gold mag wheel paint to simulate Zinc Chromate and Cosmoline coatings for the lower control arms. It looks better in person, the flash really make it shine. It needs a mist of a duller yellow/gold to flatten it out a bit.

 

[68sprtsat383]

Nice work

 

[JimKueneman]

I am the impatient type. Energy Suspension/Hotchkis bushings and upper ball joints installed. Staged for installation after I get the K-frame painted

 

[Sixtynine_Bird]

Awesome! Looks just fine!

 

[JimKueneman]

Well so far it has been all show and no go.... Time to dig in....



1968 318 is suppose to be the highest HP 318 by the specs. The ads claimed 220HP. Time to see if the numbers make sense....

Ok this old girl was not running very good, way to rich! A little cleaning and measurements:

2843675 head casting (I think) 127cc typical (60cc min)
Deck Height ~0.045; quite good for a 318 from what I am reading.
Gasket thickness ~0.30; not bad...

Off to the calculator ....

5.6:1 ?

Really that seem really low...What am I doing wrong?

I am looking at KB pistons and they have a compression distance of 1.81" vs 1.72" so that is almost 0.100"! yikes that would take the top of the piston above the top of the head.... that seems like a bad idea....

 

[JimKueneman]

Ok this says a lot about it:

http://www.valiant.org/valiant/V8.html

So I got the 127cc from an argument on the A body forum. One guy says that casting is 60cc and other say they have always measured 127cc...

back to the calculator...

Ok that gives it 9.7:1 but I am not using any CC for the pistons (assuming flat top but stock do have the value reliefs). Lets guess 5cc for those depressions.... 9.16:1. Sure seems like the guy with the 60cc number must be right.

 

[JimKueneman]

The 318 is off the the hospital for surgery...

 

[JimKueneman]

Oh and the surgeon is one of our own here, 69Bee.

https://www.facebook.com/precisionmachineserviceaz/?fref=ts

 

[jason79]

Getting ready to sand and buff yet? Looking good as always Jim.

 

[JimKueneman]

Getting ready to sand and buff yet? Looking good as always Jim.

Gathering the needed items. I am buying the 3M Trisect system for the sanding and the Chemical Guys pads came earlier in the week for the 3M polish system. I have a few touch ups under the hood and in the trunk I want to do before I dive into that. If I get overspray on the outer body it won't piss me off as much as if I did it after cutting and buffing

 

[JimKueneman]

I decided to just to a stock rebuild on the 318 to make it a dependable runner. I am going to put the TTI dual exhaust 2.5" pipes on it. the Dyno software showed that was the biggest bang for the buck at the higher RPMs. When done I will be able to say it is a 100% number matching Coronet 500 with custom paint.... if anyone would care ;)

 

[JimKueneman]

I finally realized why I am enjoying the reassembly so much... It is the ultimate version of this!

 

[1967coronet]

You have done a great job Jim, that coronet shows all the time and effort. The wet sand and buff out will be the fun part, just watch the ridges and edges and don't let the buffer heat the paint up. keep moving.
Its great to watch a project get finished, you owe yourself a big pat on the back, many start but a lot of guys don't finish.

 

[JimKueneman]

You have done a great job Jim, that coronet shows all the time and effort. The wet sand and buff out will be the fun part, just watch the ridges and edges and don't let the buffer heat the paint up. keep moving.
Its great to watch a project get finished, you owe yourself a big pat on the back, many start but a lot of guys don't finish.

Your encouragement and insite on the body work was invaluable. Old guys with Coronets rule

 

[Tonybolton]

Man...... you have been busy......great job....I will call you and talk.....nice,,nice...

 

[JimKueneman]

Alright it was a week off of working on the Coronet to do this in Colorado..

Now back to the Coronet.

 

[JimKueneman]

Went and bought the goodies to cut and buff the paint. The SPI Universal Clear has sat for about a month now in the garage so it is set up nicely to wet sand. Here are the results. I did the left half of the trunk deck and the left rear quarter panel. I got some ugly pig tails in the black on the truck stripe but it could use a bit more wet sanding for orange peel anyway. The quarter panel looks sweet and was well worth the effort.

You can really see the different between the door and quarter panel in these photos. Door has lots of orange peel.