My 69 Coronet project

[CoronetDarter]

I'm a long timer lurker, 8 month member with my 69 Coronet 500. The car wasn't bought as a resto project, instead I was planning on driving and enjoying it while making periodic upgrades. The Coronet was originally a T7 Dark Bronze, 383 2V with a 727 on the column, bench with a buddy seat, saddle tan interior. In it's day a pretty pedestrian car. Somewhere along the way a 1976 440 truck motor was swapped in. The TF feels like it has stock stall and the 8.75 has a SG with 3.23's. All in all a nice cruiser to compliment my 68 Dart that has a 380 hp 360 crate motor, tremec 5 sp and 3.54 SG 8.75 rear end. In fact my wife is a confirmed Mopar gal and the Coronet was for her to drive. (I know, usually the wife drives the A body but she digs the B body).

The Coronet was a purely spontaneous E-bay purchase; Maria left me by myself for the weekend while she went to Tahoe with the girls. I told her not to leave me alone with a computer and internet connection.:toothy10:

I love the 3 light tail panel on these cars! Back in the 70's growing up my aunt had one and ever since then I've wanted one.

 

[69Coronetrt]

You have very good taste!

 

[Dennis H]

Oh yeah on the tail panel.

 

[themechanic]

That Coronet 500 looks very clean. I love those 68-69 Darts, too.

 

[Propwash]

Nice looking rides!

 

[Darius]

A couple of beauties!

 

[CoronetDarter]

View attachment 196547 Oh yeah on the tail panel.

Hey Dennis, love that car. For those that don't know Dennis' car, its a 500+ hp 440 with a tremec 5 sp, A/C, electric cutouts. The tail panel is the view most people will see if they go up against it.

- - - Updated - - -

So here's more pics. The PO had the car for 10 years and put less than 1,000 miles on it. He had the interior redone shortly after he bought it, so it's 10 years old but it was in great shape. At the same time he had the vinyl top redone and changed colors from tan to black.

A saddle tan interior, and someone dyed the dash pads black. And the mini-tach has to go!

 

[CoronetDarter]

The PO sent the invoices for all the work he had done on the car - from what I can piece together he put a lot of work into the car in the beginning - interior, vinyl top, brakes, some front end work, new kick-down linkage to the tranny, new tires. And then he stopped, either bored or maybe ran out of money. And the car, with few exceptions, sat for a decade.


The engine is basically a stock low compression '76 440 with an Eddy Performer 440 intake and a new Eddy 650 carb. The stock log exhaust manifolds drop down to a 1 3/4" dual exhaust.


Because the intention was for this to be my wife's driver the car had to be safe and reliable. So the first thing to go was the stock point type distributor; replaced with a Pertronix III with Flame thrower coil. And yes, the ballast resistor is by-passed.

 

[CoronetDarter]

So what's the project?

I know, I know, I'm leading up to it. So the original intent was to fix the car up to make it safe for Maria to drive. On the immediate list was converting the front drums to disc, changing out the 22" in rad for a 26" with fan clutch and shroud, replace the worn out shocks and rear springs. And then this happened while test driving after the Pertronix install:


The gory details can be found in my other thread: http://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showthread.php?61699-Best-to-check-those-lug-nuts!

What a bummer! Thank goodness I was driving the car at the time and not Maria. And thank goodness I pulled over when I did; I was still going about 30 mph, but man, it could have been really bad. As it was it felt like I was hit with a canon ball; the front end hit the ground so hard the car bounced and my head hit the roof.

So at this point I'm thinking repair, not restoration. And let me back up - props to Hagerty insurance, they took care of me every step. The towing was free and the settlement was fair. In fact because I was going to do most of the work myself, I could have done the repair for less than the claim. In fact, later on more damage was discovered and Hagerty stepped up again.

So now I have a crumpled fender, dented rocker panel, damage to the upper cowl area, etc. etc. To put thins in perspective: the Dart was built when I bought it, and except for some minor work, all I had to do was drive it. Prior to the Dart I had owned a '69 Charger R/T SE, from 1979 to 1990. Marriage, kids, mortgages, etc. got in the way and I sold it, and like everyone else, regret it to this day. But the point is I hadn't worked on a Mopar in over 20 years. I had basic hand tools, mostly metric from working on modern cars, so I was way out of touch. Fortunately I had been subscribing to Mopar Action and Mopar Muscle for a few years so at least I was plugged in to the vendors that supported Mopars, and of course FBBO and FABO. Thank God for you guys out there or I would have been lost.

I quickly found out that no makes repop from fenders for '69 Coronets. If I owned a Road Runner, Charger, or even my Dart, no problem. As it turned out a FBBO member was selling a front clip for a '69 Coronet at the time of my accident. Problem was he was in Tacoma, WA and I live in Lincoln, CA (right outside of Sacramento). Fortunately a good friend of mine owns a flat bed trailer, and he love road trips! :icon_cool: So at 4:00 am one fine Saturday morning in November we head out for Tacoma. The plan was to grab the parts, make it back down to Portland, OR and find a motel for the night and get back Sunday afternoon. Well, we got to Tacoma by 5:00 pm and the guy had the whole clip: fenders, hood, grill, valance, bumper and a few misc parts thrown in, all for $750. I was finding clapped-out fenders on E-bay for $450 - $600 so I figured this was a bargain. It took less than 1/2 hour and we were back on the road.

Now traveling 600 miles and owning $750 worth of unobtainium parts on a flat bed trailer tends to alter one's thinking and all of a sudden I was not thrilled with leaving my parts out behind some flea-bag motel overnight at the side of the freeway. Fortunately Steve didn't want to get back Sunday afternoon either, so it was a unanimous decision to do a turn-and-burn and head back to Sac. Besides, what would the night clerk at the motel think when two guys come in at midnight asking for a room? :eusa_whistle:

Long story short, we made it back to Lincoln, dead tired, at 6:30 am Sunday, but not before hitting snow flurries and dense fog going over the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. I owe Steve big time.

 

[CoronetDarter]

So the repair project was underway. Another friend of mine, Mike, is a body man and has done several gorgeous restos over the years (Chevys, but hey, nobody's perfect) and he agreed to help put the Coronet back together in my garage; I would pay him hourly for his time. Mike in turn has a friend that has a paint booth so once the panels were prepped he would color match to the rest of the car.

Going back to my Charger days, I did a lot of wrenching on that car, including pulling the motor twice. The second rebuild I did myself in my garage, with a friend who knew a little more about engine building than I did. But we did it and I drove that car for about 1K miles before selling it. In retrospect, it's amazing that I didn't know what I didn't know, and so I just dove into things. Now I know what I don't know and it holds me back sometimes.
Regardless, I had zero experience with body work. But I still had the 69 FSM from 25 years ago so armed with the book, lots learned from everyone on FBBO, I dug in and removed the grille, hood and front fender. Not bad!

 

[Ron 73]

You do have two great looking cars, and as you said lurking hear you have learned anything can be done and ill bet you have it good as new soon, That Coronet is one nice car and i do wish you luck getting it back where she should be!

 

[BigBlock61]

That's a good looking Coronet and I had never noticed that no one repops fenders for the 69 Coronet. From the pics it looks like your fender can be worked back into shape with a little time and effort. Good luck,

 

[Coyoteduster]

Very nice Coronet! My first car was just like it, the only difference is that it was a convertible with a white top and white interior. (Man, what I wouldn't give to get that one back ... :sad10: ) Props to your bride for supporting and sharing your love of muscle cars, a lot of guy's don't have it so good. ;)

 

[CoronetDarter]

That Coronet is one nice car and i do wish you luck getting it back where she should be!

Thanks for the encouragement Ron. Stay tuned, there's lots more.

- - - Updated - - -

That's a good looking Coronet and I had never noticed that no one repops fenders for the 69 Coronet. From the pics it looks like your fender can be worked back into shape with a little time and effort. Good luck,

Thanks BB. I thought the same thing, but I was told different by several people and not having the body skills I went ahead and got the front clip. It turns out the replacement fender needs massaging before going on the car so it's a wash. Eventually I will sell off the excess parts and recoup some of the investment.

 

[CoronetDarter]

So after taking off the LH fender it was apparent there was some damage to the upper cowl where it meets the A pillar. RGAZ noticed it in the Lost Lug Nut thread.
On the upper cowl there was bubbling under the paint by the vents and around the windshield moulding. This is starting to look serious. At that point, still in repair mode, I figure it's gonna be hard to match the RH fender and cowl anyway, so off comes the other fender to see what's going on.

Say 'Hi" to Mike; you can tell he's wondering what he got himself into!

Backing up to the beginning again, the Coronet came without a heater box installed although a brand new one still in the box was in the trunk. During the fender removal I took a flashlight and looked up underneath the dash on the passenger's side - dreaded rust on the inside firewall. I took off the kick panel and found more rust. The rust covered almost the entire area from the RH A pillar to the middle of the firewall. It's feeling like a rescue mission now.

 

[boandluke]

Good luck with your fix / restoration! You have 2 beautiful cars

 

[CoronetDarter]

Good luck with your fix / restoration! You have 2 beautiful cars

Thanks. Now I'm down to one beautiful car and one soon-to-be-beautiful again car. lol

- - - Updated - - -

 

[CoronetDarter]

The worm turns

So at this point the front of the car is disassembled and the windshield is out. This marked the turning point in the project. As I posted before, under the dash was rust infested and on top of the dash where it meets the glass and also the edge of the dash pad had rust spots bubbling up. With the windshield out it was easy to see against the tan paint. Also, the trunk had rust issues too (go figure). The PO was up front about it and posted pix on E-bay so it wasn't a surprise. The PO had applied POR-15 in places and also laid down seam sealer.

Mike and I took stock of where we were. Every time I pulled back another layer from the onion, I was finding more rust. And I figured if we patch up the front and re-paint; then the engine compartment will look like crap when the hood's opened. Can't have that. So early one March morning I arrived at the WWOFBBOMD (What Would Other FBBO Member's Do) moment. I must restore!

 

[1971 plymouth roadrunner]

I like the color, it reminds me of root beer

 

[Dennis H]