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I like it!! :icon_thumright:
Any thoughts on these mods to the EXPRESS....?
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Homstead
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Yup I like it better than the Cougar tail lights! Your onto something good!
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Star Wars
You know, I have been wracking my brain trying to remember what the back of the Express reminds me of every time I look at it with the red lights all across it. I finally got it. The Millennium Falcon space ship. It has the same look when it's hauling *** away... funny.
You know, I have been wracking my brain trying to remember what the back of the Express reminds me of every time I look at it with the red lights all across it. I finally got it. The Millennium Falcon space ship. It has the same look when it's hauling *** away... funny.
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I like the Bird lights too. I've always done subtle mods to most all of my cars. Most were hardly noticeable unless you looked and knew what the car was supposed to look like. I guess the most non subtle mod was a plastic 1/2" mesh grille painted black in a 66 Belvedere and I wired up the parking lights to burn with the head lights. The mesh came out of a bank's elevator. Just happened to look up and see it and thought it would work very well. Was surprised how easy it was to get down too. 
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Ha.ha! Cool. I'm like that too, always seeing stuff that could be used for some thing else. I took an old hard back rake head and hung it upside down for coat hooks. Too easy. I think my penchant for doing this comes from the military, we were always told to use " field expediency" when you needed a solution and didn't have one.
I like the Bird lights too. I've always done subtle mods to most all of my cars. Most were hardly noticeable unless you looked and knew what the car was supposed to look like. I guess the most non subtle mod was a plastic 1/2" mesh grille painted black in a 66 Belvedere and I wired up the parking lights to burn with the head lights. The mesh came out of a bank's elevator. Just happened to look up and see it and thought it would work very well. Was surprised how easy it was to get down too.
Much better! Those tailights look right at home in there..... I'll walk past correctly restored cars all day at shows but stop to check out the ones like yours everytime. Loving the idea's!
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Customs...
Me too, I have seen all of the plain factory correct Mopars I need to see. If the car is spectacular in paint and finish i'll look but I go for the customs every time. Here are some pics of the front fender mod. Got one done except for a bit of filler. Thinking of placing "Express" in the center of the lights. Got the seat back and it will go as seen here, with a shaped panel all the way back to the glass. What say you?
Me too, I have seen all of the plain factory correct Mopars I need to see. If the car is spectacular in paint and finish i'll look but I go for the customs every time. Here are some pics of the front fender mod. Got one done except for a bit of filler. Thinking of placing "Express" in the center of the lights. Got the seat back and it will go as seen here, with a shaped panel all the way back to the glass. What say you?
NCC1968
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That was such a good idea I should charge you for it LoL
Looking forward to the final result.
Looking forward to the final result.
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It was!! I thank you...really. It's why this site is so great, everyone helping each other out. Priceless.
HYRDGOON
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Love what you got goin on here Ghost!
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I went back upstate to Gates Salvage with my buddy today and we poked around in all of the really old cars from the 30's and 40's and 50's for awhile. Very cool styling back then and ideas abound. Found a "Christine" car. I picked up the two center trim pieces for the 66 tail lights that I stupidly left laying in the trunk of the 1958 Olds parked behind the T-Bird. He pulled the outside door window trim pieces from a 73 Charger SE for his 73 SE. We had fun checking out the rides, I found a 1965 Lincoln Continental 4 door, suicide doors, with a 460 4V in it, just sitting there gaining patina, complete inside and out, not a scratch or dent on it. White with black interior. Also another Conny but a 1965 two door coupe missing only the left quarter panel and rear bumper that somebody took. Pristine otherwise. Another guy was found poking around in the old trucks section named Jim, he was looking for a Ford pickup tailgate from the '40s with Ford in script writing instead of block style letters. Said he had looked at everything in there and just stopped by on a whim hoping to magically find one he missed. He's building a RatRod. As it happened I had just moments before peered into the cab of an ancient truck and noticed a Ford tailgate just laying flat across the seat face up. Just like he was describing. I took him over to the truck and you would have thought he had won the lottery. Dancing around, huggin me. Said he had looked at that truck a dozen times but never thought to look in the cab. Been sittin there waiting for him the whole time. Funny. Was a good day.
440ronnie67
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yep, own a small diesel shop in harker heights. Top Frog Diesel
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Mods...
Today I worked on the trunk seal lip and figuring out the access to the mounting screws. I removed the light panel after cutting four 4"x1/2" slots on the inside face of the mounting channel body to gain access to the lower mounting screws. I had planned to reach up from underneath and remove them with a ratchet handle screw driver but no dice. So now its easier. I noticed that I had managed to end up with the passenger side of the lights slightly lower and slightly rearward of the other side, so I had to back up and fix that first. Once I had that out of the way I cleaned up the trunk seal lip that I removed earlier, taking the welds off and trimming a bit. I mocked it up on the top edge of the light panel frame and thought about how to attach it and where. After placing the trunk lid on the car I got under and up through the hole in my trunk floor with a light and made sure that the lip would end up in a place that I could make work with the lid as cut. I decided to weld it back to back with the light frame edge after slicing out parts to leave access to the screws and the two bolts that stick up from the frame. I ground down everything and wiped with Paint prep and got to tacking it all together. I still need to trim the lip underneath on both sides an slide a few bits of metal under the lip body to tack in place to fill a couple of open spots. After I grind all of the welds down and sand everything and prime/fill it the thing should look pretty factory from inside the trunk. Next up is tacking in a filler panel along the bottom and cutting the old lower edge of the trunk lid to fit in and welding it in place. Then on to the extensions. After ALL of that I can continue on the other wheel tub, the other fender, the seat back panel, the Audi interior, the passenger floor pan, the spring relocation, the narrowed rear end, and on and on and on......lol. Here's some pics..
View attachment 291531View attachment 291532View attachment 291533View attachment 291534View attachment 291535
Today I worked on the trunk seal lip and figuring out the access to the mounting screws. I removed the light panel after cutting four 4"x1/2" slots on the inside face of the mounting channel body to gain access to the lower mounting screws. I had planned to reach up from underneath and remove them with a ratchet handle screw driver but no dice. So now its easier. I noticed that I had managed to end up with the passenger side of the lights slightly lower and slightly rearward of the other side, so I had to back up and fix that first. Once I had that out of the way I cleaned up the trunk seal lip that I removed earlier, taking the welds off and trimming a bit. I mocked it up on the top edge of the light panel frame and thought about how to attach it and where. After placing the trunk lid on the car I got under and up through the hole in my trunk floor with a light and made sure that the lip would end up in a place that I could make work with the lid as cut. I decided to weld it back to back with the light frame edge after slicing out parts to leave access to the screws and the two bolts that stick up from the frame. I ground down everything and wiped with Paint prep and got to tacking it all together. I still need to trim the lip underneath on both sides an slide a few bits of metal under the lip body to tack in place to fill a couple of open spots. After I grind all of the welds down and sand everything and prime/fill it the thing should look pretty factory from inside the trunk. Next up is tacking in a filler panel along the bottom and cutting the old lower edge of the trunk lid to fit in and welding it in place. Then on to the extensions. After ALL of that I can continue on the other wheel tub, the other fender, the seat back panel, the Audi interior, the passenger floor pan, the spring relocation, the narrowed rear end, and on and on and on......lol. Here's some pics..
View attachment 291531View attachment 291532View attachment 291533View attachment 291534View attachment 291535
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Express update..
Hello all, I have changed seats in the Express several times and I now have the ones I like and that are way comfortable. I am going to stain the leather a darker brown color....maybe. lol. I hated the headrests however and vowed to change them somehow. I had a bright idea this morning and tooled over the local salvage yard and took the headrests from the previous contenders that I really liked so I could somehow marry them up with what I had. The bars turned out to be wider and longer on the ones I hate so I cut all of the foam crap off and sliced them just above the first bend. I also cut out the flat brace in between the bars higher up. I pulled the covers off of the ones I want and cut down into the molded soft foam until I could slid the bar out. Then I cut a tunnel of sorts that mimicked the shape of the wider bar and slipped it inside the foam. A bit of fiddling around and it fit okay. I pulled the cover back over it all and pushed/punched around till it smoothed out and filled the cover right. Zip it up and hooray! Workable rests that I like. Here's some pics, and, I know that this is the wrong way to do it all of you upholstery guys out there, but, it works for me. The gray ones are the ones I like and are about 5 inches shorter than the weird alien looking ones from a Volvo.
View attachment 291767View attachment 291768View attachment 291769View attachment 291770View attachment 291771
Hello all, I have changed seats in the Express several times and I now have the ones I like and that are way comfortable. I am going to stain the leather a darker brown color....maybe. lol. I hated the headrests however and vowed to change them somehow. I had a bright idea this morning and tooled over the local salvage yard and took the headrests from the previous contenders that I really liked so I could somehow marry them up with what I had. The bars turned out to be wider and longer on the ones I hate so I cut all of the foam crap off and sliced them just above the first bend. I also cut out the flat brace in between the bars higher up. I pulled the covers off of the ones I want and cut down into the molded soft foam until I could slid the bar out. Then I cut a tunnel of sorts that mimicked the shape of the wider bar and slipped it inside the foam. A bit of fiddling around and it fit okay. I pulled the cover back over it all and pushed/punched around till it smoothed out and filled the cover right. Zip it up and hooray! Workable rests that I like. Here's some pics, and, I know that this is the wrong way to do it all of you upholstery guys out there, but, it works for me. The gray ones are the ones I like and are about 5 inches shorter than the weird alien looking ones from a Volvo.
View attachment 291767View attachment 291768View attachment 291769View attachment 291770View attachment 291771
72Fourspeed
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Looks way cool. A perfect restoration is cool, but it's too much work for me. I want some personal touches.
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Me too, I have seen all of the factory examples of 67 Coronets I ever want to see. I applaud them for the dedication they showed by going that route. I tend to go more for the "one of" sort of path. Just enough to make guys start searching for what else is different once they notice the first thing and not so much change that it looks wrong. I go for symmetry. It has to flow together and look like something the factory might have done. I have changed my mind on placing anything in the clear middle back up light portion of the lens. Might be to much. Thanks for looking!
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Express update..
Hi all, I was able to clean up the shop today. Just kidding...I worked on the tail light mods some more, got the panel leveled up and bolted on. Cut some filler pieces to fill in the area under the light panel where the bottom of the trunk lid used to be. I added in some stiffeners in between the light channel and the rear wall. I need to add two more at the ends. I stopped by the local NAPA store and bought 16 new screws and washers to mount the light panel with since the 40 year old ones were in rough shape. I pulled the wiring harness and light bulb sockets off of the back of the buckets so I can rewire them with new wire. I researched the Audi harness and found the wires and number/colors of the leads that go to the lights so I can get them working off of the Audi steering wheel turn signal switch, and found a company that makes an electronic solid state light sequencer box with all of the wires done up for the 66 lights. $ 209.00 bucks but worth it. They also have a control box that you can add that is adjustable so you can slow down the blink-blink rate for a good show.
I sliced the right tail extension to fit and now need to fiberglass the new channel walls and end filler in place. I also bought some hanger bolts that have a screw thread on one side and regular threads on the other that I will put in place of the broken pegs on the extensions. I'll cut them off flush and drill a hole that I can tap and install the bolts. I got the 66 Charger front grille and hideaway headlights today. Looking forward to installing. The "C" trim fits perfectly on my modified front fender nose.
So it's coming along and I hope to be done with the rear lights by the end of next week. Next up is tub for the left rear, then spring relocation.
Here's some pics..
Hi all, I was able to clean up the shop today. Just kidding...I worked on the tail light mods some more, got the panel leveled up and bolted on. Cut some filler pieces to fill in the area under the light panel where the bottom of the trunk lid used to be. I added in some stiffeners in between the light channel and the rear wall. I need to add two more at the ends. I stopped by the local NAPA store and bought 16 new screws and washers to mount the light panel with since the 40 year old ones were in rough shape. I pulled the wiring harness and light bulb sockets off of the back of the buckets so I can rewire them with new wire. I researched the Audi harness and found the wires and number/colors of the leads that go to the lights so I can get them working off of the Audi steering wheel turn signal switch, and found a company that makes an electronic solid state light sequencer box with all of the wires done up for the 66 lights. $ 209.00 bucks but worth it. They also have a control box that you can add that is adjustable so you can slow down the blink-blink rate for a good show.
I sliced the right tail extension to fit and now need to fiberglass the new channel walls and end filler in place. I also bought some hanger bolts that have a screw thread on one side and regular threads on the other that I will put in place of the broken pegs on the extensions. I'll cut them off flush and drill a hole that I can tap and install the bolts. I got the 66 Charger front grille and hideaway headlights today. Looking forward to installing. The "C" trim fits perfectly on my modified front fender nose.
So it's coming along and I hope to be done with the rear lights by the end of next week. Next up is tub for the left rear, then spring relocation.
Here's some pics..
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