66vertplum
Member
Hello to all. Here is my Mopar story. I worked at Westside Plymouth, Akron, OH 1967-1968 under Charles Shaw, parts manager. I bought a 60 Catalina for $150, added tripower and instantly became a Pontiac person. Then I was at East Town Plymouth 1968-1969 under parts manager, Frank Rhinella until I was drafted into the US Army. So yes, I was close to Mopar and loved them, but was a Pontiac person. Arlen Vanke was buying from West Side then and later was sponsored by East Town while I was there. He bought a ton of hemi engine parts as you might imagine. I must have sold him a couple dozen hemi K members, a zillion windage trays, rocker arms, valves and springs, valve train stuff, dual point distributors, wires and such. He would get top priority. He would call, Charlie would order at Solon, OH, and off I would go to immediately get the stuff to have it back by 5:00 pm no exceptions. I saw the East Town sponsored cars at the dealership many times and they were beautiful blue. Being at the dealerships, I got to drive everything at one time or another and yea, I enjoyed it.
More car stuff: I went for a 69 Le Mans 350 3 speed floor manual in 1972-1979. It only got a T10. Cars were history. Right?? Along comes 1982 driving past Haydocy Pontiac in Columbus, OH I see a 66 GTO and crane my neck going by. My wife says, “If you like it, then buy it.” You mean right now? Yes and we loved it. Maybe car stuff is not dead? Next came a 60 Corvette in 93. This car got a total restoration and it was my first attempt? The Corvette was a great learning experience. I do everything except machine shop stuff. The Corvette saved my behind when I got fired from my job in 2006 and pick up some cash to keep the bills paid. I bought an A car, a 67 Buick Special 2 dr sedan 300ci auto CA car, to use as a winter driver in 1987. It went from pee green to blue metallic in 90 and it got a ZZ3 350 crate motor, T56, and 12 bolt posi, in 93. I loved this because at that time all the rage was T5. I knew T5 was weak and questionable. The results were stunning. I put over 200k miles on the car as a daily driver until it was crushed by a tornado destroying my building. Then I did a full resto on a 56 Buick 2 dr sedan. We drove that car all over the country. Then we did a partial resto on a 73 Opel GT. Then a 67 Impala convertible. Then a 58 Pontiac Catalina 2 dr ht tri power CA car. Then a 64 GTO 428 clone. Then a 56 Lincoln Preimere 2 dr ht that got a 460 C6. Then a 1980 MGB survivor original paint. Some where in there we got our Mopar.
My project story: It is a 66 Coronet 500 convertible born pp1 red 318 auto black interior. It came very disassembled and missing stuff. No motor no trans no rt fender, etc. But it also came with a 383 727 from something. What has happened? It got more disassembled. It got paint stripped with zip strip. It got dad with 80, 4 floor pans welded in, lt rear frame rail fabricated and welded in, rear 6 leaf springs from kc springs, front suspension to include I think 1.06 440 torsion bars, torsion bar cross member replaced, Summit sway bar very nice, lower control arm reinforcements welded in, upper arms, disc brake conversion, ball joint stuff, bushings and stuff, steering linkage stuff. And there it sits waiting for another go around. Coming up is plum crazy to engine bay and trunk from Summit. Maybe the quarters to finish the main body. Engine and tranny will be nice. I just have cores that I know nothing about. A 440 ci would be nice.
In conclusion to this intro: I hope to like this mopar so much I will ask myself, “Where the hell have you been the last 50 years???”
More car stuff: I went for a 69 Le Mans 350 3 speed floor manual in 1972-1979. It only got a T10. Cars were history. Right?? Along comes 1982 driving past Haydocy Pontiac in Columbus, OH I see a 66 GTO and crane my neck going by. My wife says, “If you like it, then buy it.” You mean right now? Yes and we loved it. Maybe car stuff is not dead? Next came a 60 Corvette in 93. This car got a total restoration and it was my first attempt? The Corvette was a great learning experience. I do everything except machine shop stuff. The Corvette saved my behind when I got fired from my job in 2006 and pick up some cash to keep the bills paid. I bought an A car, a 67 Buick Special 2 dr sedan 300ci auto CA car, to use as a winter driver in 1987. It went from pee green to blue metallic in 90 and it got a ZZ3 350 crate motor, T56, and 12 bolt posi, in 93. I loved this because at that time all the rage was T5. I knew T5 was weak and questionable. The results were stunning. I put over 200k miles on the car as a daily driver until it was crushed by a tornado destroying my building. Then I did a full resto on a 56 Buick 2 dr sedan. We drove that car all over the country. Then we did a partial resto on a 73 Opel GT. Then a 67 Impala convertible. Then a 58 Pontiac Catalina 2 dr ht tri power CA car. Then a 64 GTO 428 clone. Then a 56 Lincoln Preimere 2 dr ht that got a 460 C6. Then a 1980 MGB survivor original paint. Some where in there we got our Mopar.
My project story: It is a 66 Coronet 500 convertible born pp1 red 318 auto black interior. It came very disassembled and missing stuff. No motor no trans no rt fender, etc. But it also came with a 383 727 from something. What has happened? It got more disassembled. It got paint stripped with zip strip. It got dad with 80, 4 floor pans welded in, lt rear frame rail fabricated and welded in, rear 6 leaf springs from kc springs, front suspension to include I think 1.06 440 torsion bars, torsion bar cross member replaced, Summit sway bar very nice, lower control arm reinforcements welded in, upper arms, disc brake conversion, ball joint stuff, bushings and stuff, steering linkage stuff. And there it sits waiting for another go around. Coming up is plum crazy to engine bay and trunk from Summit. Maybe the quarters to finish the main body. Engine and tranny will be nice. I just have cores that I know nothing about. A 440 ci would be nice.
In conclusion to this intro: I hope to like this mopar so much I will ask myself, “Where the hell have you been the last 50 years???”
