"Them Dukes, them Dukes..."

[Manfred]

More parts arrived today and went to the yard harvesting little bits. The yard I got the car from is crushing out and will be a much smaller operation soon. I found missing emblems, front door pull, rear view mirror, side view mirror ( non adjust right side!), and the 3 missing wheel trim. If the weather holds I'll get work done on Saturday and post some pictures.

 

[WileERobby]

I'm confused. Who's "Manfred" ? Where did he come from ?

 

[Ariana]

I'm confused. Who's "Manfred" ? Where did he come from ?

That's my friend; he's the one I'm working with on all these projects.

I didn't realize until he told me this morning that he jumped into the thread entirely unannounced

 

[yasser48]

Looking forward to your project progress

 

[Manfred]

So i've been watching lots of Dukes of Hazzard and it turns out the Choctaw County Sherriff has ( had, they wreck it of course) a 75 Coronet in the fleet , gold with white top. Since they rolled it it looked to be a 318 car like this one we are patching up. Lots of B body action in that series, mostly small Furies in various police and government surplus badging. Daisy runs a 74 RR and then a 71 painted up to look like a RR.

 

[Ron_M]

IIRC and FWIW, Sheriff Little in Chickasaw County had a green car of some sort.

 

[Manfred]

Not much new, got new hood springs on and ordered new front tires. The floors are a real mess, its just going to get a patch job for now with rivets, seam sealer, and oil based paint. Dry Colorado weather will let get away with that for awhile. My avatar picture is the donor that provided a 400 4bbl ( its starting to turn!) and a 727 that may go into Roscoe depending on how the engine sounds. If its all good the 400 goes into a 75RR I have that is mis-behaving. I've been looking into side pipes and man have they become pricey! I'll have to build my own. Roscoe will look great with them. Maybe life will let me start it up soon!

 

[Manfred]

Not much new, got new hood springs on and ordered new front tires. The floors are a real mess, its just going to get a patch job for now with rivets, seam sealer, and oil based paint. Dry Colorado weather will let get away with that for awhile. My avatar picture is the donor that provided a 400 4bbl ( its starting to turn!) and a 727 that may go into Roscoe depending on how the engine sounds. If its all good the 400 goes into a 75RR I have that is mis-behaving. I've been looking into side pipes and man have they become pricey! I'll have to build my own. Roscoe will look great with them. Maybe life will let me start it up soon!

Well made some progress! I patched up the floor "Dalton style" ( any Pole Barn Garage fans?), using a stainless steel trash can, aluminum flashing and a section of roof from a VW Bus. I had a bit of plum crazy paint left over to hide the horror. The seat got new foam and a fine seat cover ( head rests were damaged so they had to go). Best of all it runs and drives!!! Did a China carburetor replacement and some used plug wires. Still have to sort out some wiring, but it charges, holds temperature, and no leaks of any kind. The brakes are still OK after 30 years in the junkyard! Colorado is easy on cars.

 

[chargervert]

This is the first four-door in the fleet! I just watched my first episode of the Dukes of Hazzard last night and saw one of these cars in action! Roscoe and Boss Hog remind me of Taggart and Hedy (Hedley!) Lamarr from Blazing Saddles

It's a 318/904 car, which should keep up with the Dukes' Charger since those were all Chevy 350-powered (I bet you didn't know that!!)

Not on the Dukes of Hazzard. The Chargers were all Mopar powered. In the Fast and Furious films after the first one, they were powered by small block Chevy engines. The first Fast and Furious movie had Mopar powered Chargers.

 

[Manfred]

I've always been curious about the engines used in the cars on the show , especially the General. The 4 doors used in Hazard seem to be mostly cars with custom trim, but no vinyl roof. The flipped cars show dual exhaust/dual cats so I assume 440 patrol cars. Some are single exhaust. The General has a strange plasticy air intake set up , never really get a clear shot and oddly the cars are never referred to as "Chargers".

The Sweetwater County cop car is also a copper colored Coronet, so that may be a good direction for "Roscoe".

 

[Manfred]

I've also noticed that most 4 door Fury's in the show have the perforated "onion skin" type hub caps, as the episodes go on they resorted to poverty type dog dish caps. Did they run out of patrol cars? Also noticing they like to use AMC Matadors in some of the jumps rather than the B body 4 doors. 401 matador is certainly a capable car ( LAPD loved em). Almost every episode has the same plot..."out of towners ( fill in the blank). Its kind of like the Smurfs ( bad things happen when you leave the village). There will never by TV like that again, what a shame, it was fun and did not require a ton of brain power to follow along. Roscoe gets garage time this weekend to sort out electrical then some light driving in the neighbor hood. I'll completely redo the brakes before any real traffic interaction. For being in a junk yard for 30 years its amazing how little it took to get it mobile. Why did it end up there??? just an unwanted car in 1994 I guess.

 

[Manfred]

Made progress yesterday, the cross over pipe was badly crushed so we PBG'ed a dual exhaust with parts on hand and 2 glass packs. Much better! Also had to replace the master as the old one was dumping into the booster. Its up in the air so I'll grease the front end and check the differential. the car has a faded Hill AFb sticker on the bumper , wondering if it was a governmental service car? Would the fender tag show a call out? Ari C has been super busy working 2 jobs w/o much time to help but I'll get her to shoot a video soon.

 

[YY1]

"The movie" although much maligned, actually has a plot true to the series and a decent car chase.

Relatively easy to watch and IMO highly under rated.

 

[Manfred]

Yes, the movie was good fun. Like the series, it is what it is. Critics miss the point, I mean nobody watches the Smurfs and expects a purity test....

 

[Manfred]

Well its running and driving nicely. next step is sourcing a windshield and title work ( Colorado makes it rough). Also need to locate the headlight relay switch, got nothing right now. It will be a daily driver by fall.

 

[Manfred]

OK, found a new headlight switch at Rock Auto, I have headlights, interior lights, and a tail light or 2. Time for the boring task of cleaning all the connectors. Its running and driving great. I do have a leak at the shift selector rod going into the transmission, my 75 RR has the same problem. I have a new seal and the fancy tool on order. Otherwise no issues, no water pump leak, no power steering leak, no oil leaks, no fuel pump leaks! After 30 years in a bone yard. The windshield is turning out to be a bugger to locate, I'll find one somewhere. I'm going to use a title service since Colorado hates anyone trying to actually use their cars on the road. I just did a title recovery on another vehicle, 7 months of run around and $350 bucks. I'd rather just pay Boss Hogg and be done with it!