My 1968 Coronet 500

[Chase383]

A couple weeks ago I picked up a companion for my 1971 RR,

Its a 1968 Coronet 500, factory 383-2 automatic car with factory A/C, power steering and power disc brakes, 5 speaker radio and the light package. It was triple green from the factory but will not be staying that way. I'd like to call it a poor mans Super Bee since it is only a 4 barrel carb away, but the truth is this car probably cost more new!

Here it is the morning after I got it home, and what a journey that was! The weekend I was supposed to go pick it up, DFW got slammed with an ice storm. The night before I was supposed to pick up the car the following week, my Ram suddenly refused to fill up with gas... forcing me to scramble and borrow my fathers' truck. But after a 15 hour round trip it was home.

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Second pic is after a couple weekends of cleaning.

I swiped the wheels and tires off of my 71 Charger parts car (and my friends wonder why I need more than one B-body around). The LT rear drum was seized, but some PB blaster and a BFH got it free. The lug nuts on the RT rear were seized up, so out came the torch to loosen them up, had to knock both RT side wheels off with the previously mentioned BFH.

 

[moparker]

You do know the drivers side lug nuts loosen the other way right? Not trying to be a jerk. I did the same thing when I was a kid. I don't know how old you are and if you have had a car that old. Looks like a great project. Enjoy!

 

[tallhair]

Thanks for sharing Chase I'm pretty excited to see another 68 Coronet on the forum. It looks pretty complete with from what you have shared so far .. let's see some more photo's. I presume it's bucket seats to go with those other cool options and I'm pretty sure it was more new than a Superbee as most didn't have many of the options yours has unless it was an ordered car. Are you staying with the auto or going to go with a manual?

Oh and that five speaker dash probably means it has/had the AM 8 Track stereo too

 

[Dennis H]

Man I love that rear valance on the 500. Sweet car. You have two of the high water mark Mopars. A coke bottle 68 and a John Herlitz designed 71. Nice! More pics please. Nice score and worth those challenges you had to get it home.

 

[BigBlock61]

Nice Coronet, I'm glad to see another one here. I feel your pain on the ice storm. The same happened to me the day I picked up my 69 Coronet except it hit on the drive home. (That was a fun ride!)

 

[Chase383]

You do know the drivers side lug nuts loosen the other way right? Not trying to be a jerk.

Yes..... this is my 7th old Mopar. The RT side of the vehicle is also the passenger side :icon_lol:

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Thanks for sharing Chase I'm pretty excited to see another 68 Coronet on the forum. It looks pretty complete with from what you have shared so far .. let's see some more photo's. I presume it's bucket seats to go with those other cool options and I'm pretty sure it was more new than a Superbee as most didn't have many of the options yours has unless it was an ordered car. Are you staying with the auto or going to go with a manual?

Oh and that five speaker dash probably means it has/had the AM 8 Track stereo too

Yes it did have have the AM 8 Track radio, I still have it but it is very bad shape since it was buried in dirt and grime in the trunk for the last 29 years.


I hope to eventually swap in a Hemi with an 18-spline 833 and a Dana 60.

 

[Chase383]

Here is the engine that will be going in the car for right now. It is a 66 383, the original short block was gone, and what was left was burnt by a carb fire and rusted up solid.... so into the scrap bin it went. I've been scraping years of grime of the outside trying to get it clean enough to open it up. I'm going to change all the gaskets for good measure, as well as the timing chain and oil pump. I've also got to swap oil pans since this engine came out of a C-body.

 

[Chase383]

Nice to finally have a car with factory disc brakes... of course rebuilding these Bendix brakes is gonna be $$$$.


And it just wouldn't be a classic Mopar project without a little of the factory "build quality". That is not a shadow behind the shock tower... that is a weld burn through on the RT front frame rail, must a been a new guy welding that day.

 

[Chase383]

Two more pics for now.

I removed the 500 emblem from grille.... I'm not overly fond of it as in my opinion it looks like it was tacked on as an afterthought. I may add a smaller 500 emblem to the LT side of the grille.


And lastly the interior. When I bought the car the front seats were missing, a fellow FBBO member kindly offered his front seats at a very fair price. I have the original steering that will go back on to replace the parts store "sport" wheel that is on the car right now. I also was to covert to the car to a Rallye dash, but I know finding a rallye, a/c, 3 speaker dash frame will be tough.

 

[tallhair]

Or you could look for a 150 rectangular speedo and leave it as is. R/T's didn't have rallye dash standard. I've had 2 R/Ts with the optional Rallye dahs and the present one w/o.

 

[Chase383]

I have considered doing that, but in the end I really want the rallye dash. My current dash is in rough shape due to some wretched little turd shooting out the side glass while the car sat. After getting the car home and doing some sluething..... I believe the car was parked do to an underhood fire. The engine harness is cooked and it makes me suspect all the wiring in the car. I know I have to pace myself with some purchases (ex my Hemi) my goal is to minimize purchasing things twice. Since my wiring is cooked I might as well do the swap.

 

[tallhair]

I don't recall who but someone has done this and there's a fairly recent thread. Try doing some searches

 

[BumperMan]

Man the back of that car looks mean, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing those pics

 

[Cranky]

I've seen a few welds like that before lol. Nice find!

 

[Chase383]

This weekend update:

No pics but I rolled the car out into the driveway and gave the car its first real bath in years. After coating my entire driveway with black muck and debris, I was rewarded by the sight of original gray dip primer in the rails. Now for the funny part, it started getting dark on me before I finished, and I was having lots of trouble keeping the quarter drains clear. So I simply stuck the hose in the trunk, kept one quarter at a time flooded and reached under and kept the drains clear by hand. I kept thinking to myself... "this stuff kind of feels like fur". Looking a the driveway this morning, it was fur, and I doubt it was from a house cat :laughing1:

Guess I can add that to my Mopar Bucket List.

 

[Ron 73]

Lol, At least its cleaned out and ready to start!

 

[tallhair]

Sounds like a nasty job but at least it done or you made a major dent in getting them cleaned out

 

[Chase383]

Not much has been going on with my 500,

Last month has been cold, rainy or both, and crazy busy at work. But in my down time I was able to think about the direction of this car a bit more, and I decided that building two cars as "1 of nones" was a bit repetitive, so I've decided that my Coronet will be a cross between a 1 of none and a Day 2 style hot rod. To that end, I've decided I want to run crossram Hemi with a Super Stock hood scoop and add a few tasteful vintage speed parts.


I've decided against swapping over to a Rallye dash, its simply too many parts to track down when I already have a complete dash with all the trim in decent shape. So now I'm on the hunt for a 150 mph linear dash... which is proving to be a bit tough. Considering that this was the only dash available in the Roadrunner and GTX, I figured it would be easier to find. That left me without a tach, unless you count the tiny one which replaces the clock.

Problem solved by my first vintage speed part. A Stewart Warner 9,000 rpm mechanical tach, and a factory Prestolite tach drive distributor to power it :headbang:


I may have decided on a new color as well. I've been asking my wife for input on this car, after all, she supports my hobbies that hemorrhage all my disposable income...

She wants to me to paint the car LL1 Turquoise... not sure what color stripe, top and interior though. No sure I want to have two cars with white vinyl tops and interiors to keep clean.

 

[tallhair]

Cool tach and dist. I'm with your wife on the LL1.

The only cars that got the 150 mph non rallye speedo were 68-9 GTX and 68-70 Coronet R/T (w/o rallye gauges). That's why you are having trouble finding one. Someone mentioned recently there was or is a decal overlay that would lay out the 150 lettering.

 

[mr. b]

nice project keep us posted