Jules 68 Coronet

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:14 pm

Work has started on the Coronet sooner than intended in the end.

The garage build has been put on hold for a while as we moved house late last year, and as things have been needed for the house, we've had to prioritize things a bit (or rather she has), so rather than starting the garage, I've decided to have a tinker on the car instead.

I took out the gas tank to cut out the rot in the trunk 1st, only to find the tank had a massive hole in the top. What a great start!

(I hope it helped you out Del?)

Anyway, after cutting out the rot in the trunk, I had a mad 5 minutes with the grinder and cut out the rest of the tin worm in the floors inside the car.
.... so much for doing it bit by bit

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:21 pm

I had a new rear floor section floating about in my spares corner that I never used in the Charger which fitted nicely on the drivers side,
but all the other panels I had to make up.

I borrowed a welder off my mate Darren (owns the Sox & Martin Superbird) and started renewing the panels.

The weather has played it's part in delaying work on a few weekends

but progress has been steady.

All the floors and trunk are now welded in, primed and painted.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:25 pm

When I bought the car, 1 thing not mentioned was the total cock up someone had made around the drivers door catch area.

All the photos of the car I had showed the drivers door being ajar.
Naturally I just thought that he hadn't closed it properly after exiting the vehicle to take the photos.
Hopefully this'll be the only horror story I'll come across.

This is what greeted me when it came over!

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:33 pm

The catch, rear plate and screws were either on the floor in the rear of the car (luckily they never fell out), or in the rear quarter area itself behind the (missing) door panel.
No sign of the shim though, so 1 was ebayed in from the states.

The b post also had a split at the top.

A few hours playing with the welder and grinder soon sorted that out.

The door catch has also been fixed and now works like it should! At least the door stays closed now.

A big thankyou to my mate Roo for the extra pair of hands with that job! (cheers fella

)

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:43 pm

Saturday I fitted the new gas tank and sender.

Also I changed all the bulbs to new ones as the 1 or 2 that needed replacing just spun off the glass bit in my hand leaving the base still in it's holder.

Also earlier in the week I replaced the headlights to Halogen bulb type rather than sealed beam units.
Thanks to Nick Eagle with his 68 RR project for the heads-up with these lights.

(Thanks for the link Nick, they were the cheapest around I could find

)

I've just got to sort out the relay conversion thing for them, rather than having all the power going through the switch

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 8:50 pm

Sunday I filled a few gas cans up from the local dispensary, filled the new tank up and fired the old girl up $\:D/$

Fingers toes and everything else were crossed at this point praying that the tank didn't leak the liquid gold I just poured into it

Thankfully my prayers were answered for once. All dry as a bone up under there. Sender and pipes all in as tight as a ducks derriere.

Roo popped over again in the afternoon, and we removed the rear drivers window mechanism as it had a slight bend in 1 of the arms,
causing the window to be pushed towards the outside of the car when winding it up.

Although it was hardly noticable, it was causing uneccessary stress on certain rollers etc. which I believe to be the cause of why 1 of mine was broken.
All straightened up now, cleaned and nestled back in place for now, ready to be aligned, greased up and the glass re-attached.

Time ran out on us so that's the next job to complete.

....to be continued

Jules

Mick70RR · Post by **Mick70RR** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:07 pm

Nice work Jules, can't beat a 68 Coronet, that'll be a cool car when it's all done.

Post by **MattH** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:12 pm

Nice work Jules, how long did the floor welding take, it reads like you did it in no time at all.
That is quite inspiring to see it come together so quickly.

Charger · Post by **Charger** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:18 pm

great work Jules

have you got the link for the halogen head lamps please?? cheers

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:25 pm

MattH wrote:Nice work Jules, how long did the floor welding take, it reads like you did it in no time at all.

All the work has been done over a period of around 2 months, baring in mind I'm learning as I go.
Not every weekend was spent on it due to the weather and other commitments

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:26 pm

Charger wrote:great work Jules

have you got the link for the halogen head lamps please?? cheers

See below

Post by **MattH** » Mon Jul 11, 11 9:27 pm

That is good going, especially if you are learning to weld. The B post repair is very neat.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Mon Jul 11, 11 10:14 pm

Looks better than when I saw it

you've done a good job in a short time. Post the headlight link so we can all see it.

Jules · Post by **Jules** » Mon Jul 11, 11 10:30 pm

Derek wrote:Looks better than when I saw it you've done a good job in a short time. Post the headlight link so we can all see it.

Cheers Del

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0804780703

These are the lights we both bought.
There's other sellers on there selling them in pairs etc., but when you take into account that this guy supplies ALL bulbs too, with shipping he's the cheapest.

These have the side light in the outer headlights like the old Capri's and Cortina's which will help for the MoT showing a white light forward, enabling you to keep the orange ones in your indicators working too

Charger · Post by **Charger** » Mon Jul 11, 11 11:06 pm

cheers Jules