Mopar Muscle Association UK

Well, boys and girls here's alittle progress report on the '66 Coronet that my mate Rupert and I bought back in August.

It's a '66 Coronet 440 Auto with a 318 up front, not a 273 as 1st thought.
After our 1st look at it in poor daylight, we went back a few days later around lunchtime and gave it a real good inspection
Things looked alot better than they did a few days before now that we could see properly
Here's a few pics taken of it then.
Don't worry about the masking tape on the drivers door, it was because it wouldn't latch closed.....

I don't think I've ever seen soooo many spider's webbs in 1 place before! Certainly not in a car anyway. (I'll come back to them later)
It turned out that there were no keys for the car, so we couldn't hear it running.

It was imported in early 2003, and no-one had tried to get it running in that time.
The car was bought from a guy in the US who had parked this up in his field 5 or 6 years prior to it being purchased and shipped here.
Also me and my trusty screwdriver were the 1st ones to open the trunk since it's been here too.
Engine bay looked all there, but the carb had definitely seen better days!

One thing that did take us by surprise was considering the old girl is 45 years old, it's virtually rot free
It's been a Californian car all it's life, so I guess thats why.
Bottoms of doors / hinge areas / wheels arches all very straight!

When we got it back to my place I gave it abit of a wash.
We are really pleased at just how straight the body is.
All the exterior trim is complete except the front screen chrome.

Now the fun begins.....
After putting in a nice big order to my supplier in the US for lots of new goodies for it, I tinkered away at the '68.
(always plenty to do round here).

Eventually a nice big box arrived, and I set about doing the brakes, which brings me back to the spider's webbs......
I've never seen anything like it, they're just everywhere!! It'd definitely been stood for a while!!
I think the scariest thing about it was that even after all this time the one's on this rear drum were still slightly sticky!!!!!
Gees how big were those buggers that spun them.

Here's a few videos of it.
After giving it a service and an oil change, I got the oil pressure up, changed the carb and poured a bit of fuel down it.
This first video is it's 1st chug in about 14 years!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--Qnn1o- ... re=related

After plumbing in a fuel line I gave it another go.
It sounds real sweet
All seemed fine so I got the camera out again.
Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUuUGMh1t8

Interior's all out now too. Floors show that it's never been welded

Behind the door panels still had the plastic on!

Fuel tank's out.
Inside's clean which is good to see.
New sender is on it's way over

Dash and column are out too ready for a clean-up and a grease up / free up or what ever it needs.

I'll get some more pics by the weekend I hope, but this little lot should keep you going for now !

Jules

Tidy looking car mate, nice one

SWEET!

Now THAT'S original! love it Jules

Fantastic find there

I notice you took the 'after' pics while the cars was still wet but I expect it'll polish up nice

Great looking car.

Numpty question.....What does the 440 stand for as its a 318??

Dave81 wrote:

Numpty question.....What does the 440 stand for as its a 318??

Its the model option, a bit like GTX or Roadrunner being variants of a Satilitte

Dont worry Dave, that confuses a lot of people!

Dodge used other (presumably) random numbers for various models during that era, like 330 and 500.

On the 63's the 330 was the low-spec version and the 500 wass the top of the range. I think the 440 falls somewhere in between... unsurprisingly.

So it's just the car's 'trim level' like L, GL, Ghia etc on old Fords


Unless I'm much mistaken