MNBen
New Member
Hello everyone, I've finally joined FBBO after reading posts from this site for many years.
The way my parents tell it, my first word as a child was "Car" while pointing out the family room window at a neighbor driving by. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can say that throughout my life cars have continually captured my interest often bordering on obsession. While my taste in cars is quite eclectic, old Mopar steel has had a special place in my eye for quite some time. Way back in high school my best friend got his first car before anyone else I knew, it was a 66 Coronet 500 (housing a 440). From then on I was completely hooked. We wrenched and tweaked, did way too many things that could have gotten us killed, but overall had a blast with that car.
Fast forward a couple of years and after saving up from various minimum wage jobs and being extremely thrifty I was able to scrounge up ~4K to buy the 69 Coronet 440 pictured below.
While kinda ratty, slow, accident damaged, and incomplete, it was fun to have something classic to call my own. This purchase was done 2 months before I graduated high school back in 2002, while getting ready for college and still working part time near minimum wage jobs. Needless to say, funds were tight and upgrades had to be chosen carefully.
The first thing I wanted to do was swap out the mid 70's 318 that had found its way into the engine bay. Through my friend with the 66 Coronet I met an older guy (to us at the time anyway, probably only 35-40) who had inexplicably taken us both under his wing to teach us the way or the Mopar. He knew I was looking for a bigger engine and hooked me up with a 440 that was supposed to be ready to go and turn key. Turns out that after taking the valve covers off we saw 4-5 bend push rods just hanging out in the valley. Since the idea of just throwing the 440 in the Net and having fun got squashed, I decided I might as well rebuild it. Long story short, I had the machine work done by a shop, then assembled the motor my self having never done something like that before. The random older friend helped me a ton by showing me how to rebuild a tranny, with various upgrades of course.
With the motor and tranny all put together and installed in the car. We fired her up and broke in the cam. She ran soooo smooth, it was awesome. Without any exhaust I drove to a shop (20 miles away) to have a 2.5 H-Pipe system fabricated/installed. After it was finished is when I could actually hear the extremely loud rattling. This was around 2003 and the whole lack of zinc in old thing was quite new and hadn't made its way to my ears yet. Take a guess what the cam/lifters did without proper lubrication.
Being that I was still on a near minimum wage budget, and stupid, I decided to pull the wreaked cam/lifters and just replace them. I knew it wasn't the best way to fix the problem, but did it anyway.
It worked for a while, but never had any power, and was obviously messed up.
Fast forward 10 years and after finishing college, starting a career, getting married, buying a house, and getting sick of looking at the 69 coronet sitting next to the garage rusting away I have decided it time to either $h!t, or get off the pot. I am trying to figure out if I have the skills necessary to restore this car back to a half way decent driver. No show car mind you, just a fun car to drive that I am not embarrassed to be seen driving.
Been looking at all of the great restoration threads from many of the members on here and I am gaining confidence, but obviously have a long way to go.
So my question to you is this, how did you know when you started your restoration that you would be able to complete it? Were all of you just born Mopar gods who could resurrect any old pile of rust with no worry?
Thanks guys! I am so very grateful that this awesome site exists. I have already learned so much from my countless hours of reading.
The way my parents tell it, my first word as a child was "Car" while pointing out the family room window at a neighbor driving by. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can say that throughout my life cars have continually captured my interest often bordering on obsession. While my taste in cars is quite eclectic, old Mopar steel has had a special place in my eye for quite some time. Way back in high school my best friend got his first car before anyone else I knew, it was a 66 Coronet 500 (housing a 440). From then on I was completely hooked. We wrenched and tweaked, did way too many things that could have gotten us killed, but overall had a blast with that car.
Fast forward a couple of years and after saving up from various minimum wage jobs and being extremely thrifty I was able to scrounge up ~4K to buy the 69 Coronet 440 pictured below.
While kinda ratty, slow, accident damaged, and incomplete, it was fun to have something classic to call my own. This purchase was done 2 months before I graduated high school back in 2002, while getting ready for college and still working part time near minimum wage jobs. Needless to say, funds were tight and upgrades had to be chosen carefully.
The first thing I wanted to do was swap out the mid 70's 318 that had found its way into the engine bay. Through my friend with the 66 Coronet I met an older guy (to us at the time anyway, probably only 35-40) who had inexplicably taken us both under his wing to teach us the way or the Mopar. He knew I was looking for a bigger engine and hooked me up with a 440 that was supposed to be ready to go and turn key. Turns out that after taking the valve covers off we saw 4-5 bend push rods just hanging out in the valley. Since the idea of just throwing the 440 in the Net and having fun got squashed, I decided I might as well rebuild it. Long story short, I had the machine work done by a shop, then assembled the motor my self having never done something like that before. The random older friend helped me a ton by showing me how to rebuild a tranny, with various upgrades of course.
With the motor and tranny all put together and installed in the car. We fired her up and broke in the cam. She ran soooo smooth, it was awesome. Without any exhaust I drove to a shop (20 miles away) to have a 2.5 H-Pipe system fabricated/installed. After it was finished is when I could actually hear the extremely loud rattling. This was around 2003 and the whole lack of zinc in old thing was quite new and hadn't made its way to my ears yet. Take a guess what the cam/lifters did without proper lubrication.
Being that I was still on a near minimum wage budget, and stupid, I decided to pull the wreaked cam/lifters and just replace them. I knew it wasn't the best way to fix the problem, but did it anyway.
It worked for a while, but never had any power, and was obviously messed up.
Fast forward 10 years and after finishing college, starting a career, getting married, buying a house, and getting sick of looking at the 69 coronet sitting next to the garage rusting away I have decided it time to either $h!t, or get off the pot. I am trying to figure out if I have the skills necessary to restore this car back to a half way decent driver. No show car mind you, just a fun car to drive that I am not embarrassed to be seen driving.
Been looking at all of the great restoration threads from many of the members on here and I am gaining confidence, but obviously have a long way to go.
So my question to you is this, how did you know when you started your restoration that you would be able to complete it? Were all of you just born Mopar gods who could resurrect any old pile of rust with no worry?
Thanks guys! I am so very grateful that this awesome site exists. I have already learned so much from my countless hours of reading.
Thanks for sharing...
