Intro
My first car was a '68 Charger which I bought (in 1976 when I was 18) for $800. It was not in the best of shape, but it was painted bright blue and was an eye catcher and I loved that car. I sold it a few years later and I have always wanted another Charger. After seeing this Charger R/T on Doug Panter's web site, I emailed him to see if he might be interested in selling. After a few months of talking back and forth, I bought the car from Doug in the spring of 2001. That summer I didn't do too much to the car except repaint the wheel covers and had the tail lights re-chromed and repainted. I drove the car to a few cruises and shows and had fun driving it.
Spring 2002
In the spring of 2002, some fellow Mopar fans encouraged me to repaint the motor and engine bay. They assured me that they would help and we could be done in a few weeks time. How could I refuse if they were willing to help me? Another Mopar buddy of mine suggested that as long as I was pulling the motor out, I would be wise to check the compression and get the valves reworked if necessary. And so the project began. Steve Gariani helped me do a compression check and one cylinder checked out low at 75 lbs compared to 130-140 for the others. The motor seemed to me to run very strong, but as long as it is out, now would be the time to get a valve job.
Spring 2002 (continued)
I took the heads to a local machine shop that replaced the valve seats, and reconditioned the heads and valves. Meanwhile I started the process of cleaning the block to repaint it. After discussion with my Mopar buddies I decided that again, as long as I have come this far, I might as well take the motor all the way down, get the block boiled and the cylinders honed(they did not need to be bored as they were still in very good condition). The crank turned out to need the thrust plate rebuilt and had to be re-polished and rebalanced.
Spring 2002 (continued)
We replaced the rings and bearings, as well as the cam and lifters (same specs as Doug had put in the car back in the 70's: 284-284-68* lift .484" intake and exhaust; centerline 108). I also replaced the original oil pump with a Mopar high volume pump, which still looks stock. I replaced the Edelbrock 600cfm carb with the original Carter 750 AVS which Doug had saved and I had rebuilt. Bob Hawthorn and Tom Rowles came over one Sunday in May and helped me pull the motor.
Spring 2002 (continued)
As I worked on the stripping the paint from the engine bay, I decided that now would also be the right time (with more encouragement from my Mopar friends) to pull the front suspension and get it sandblasted and powder coated and replace all the bushings. And as long as everything else was out, I might as well pull the steering column (which would be in the way of the repainting anyway) and restore it as well. Wouldn't want to get everything else up front looking good and neglect that, right? My son, Steve talked me into restoring the gauges as long as the steering column was out. So out came the dash and gauges. I ordered a decal kit from Performance Car Graphics and my Steve did the work of sanding the gauge faces down and installing the new decals. I left because I couldn't watch. When I came back home he was done and they looked super. One more item that I decided to restore (as long as it's out) was the steering wheel. Doug Lepak did the restoration work on the wheel and it looks awesome. I highly recommend him.
Winter 2002
Bob and Tom helped me re-install the motor in October. I reinstalled the grill, which I had restored, and they helped me reinstall the hood. All I need to do now is get the front end aligned and I will be back on the road. Unfortunately the snow is coming now as it is December so I guess the fun is on hold until next spring...
June 2003
Well Spring is almost over. Here is the progress to date. I got the front end aligned and bought a new set of Magnum 500 wheels. 15x7 on the front and 15x10 on the back. I had new BF Goodrich TA Radials mounted on them with 215x70R15's up front and 295x50R15's on the back. I like the stock look of the Magnums, but I always wanted wide tires on the back. The 295's fit perfect. I bought the tires and wheels from Harlow Racing outside of Detroit MI. Brian there is a Mopar owner and fan and great to do business with.
June 2003 (continued)
The motor went in in October as I said earlier, but other than getting it to run I never got to take the car out till this spring. I have not been happy with the way the motor is running since the rebuild. Played with the timing, checked the gap on the plugs, and double-checked the plug wires. Could not get it running right, and on top of that, it is starting to run hot which it never used to do. Several people told me I needed to get some miles on it so everything seats in, then worry about how it runs, but I am not happy. I drove it a few times and put about 300 miles on it and it is not running any better or cooler and the motor is knocking. I decided to take it to Matt Johnson's (a local performance shop) to see if he could get the car running like it should. Matt told me first off that the rocker arms were worn and should be replaced (of course one of the parts I did not replace). Matt suggested that I put in a set of roller rocker arms from Comp Cams and I agreed to do it.
June 2003 (continued)
I also decided at that time to take the Carter carburetor back off because I couldn't seem to get it to pull like the Edlebrock did, but I replaced it with an Edlebrock 750 carb. We also replaced the old distributor and box with a new Mopar unit. When I checked on the car later that week, it was still running bad: knocking, over heating, dieing at stops. Matt checked the compression and found that each cylinder was running about 190 lbs compression. That is why I am getting the pre-ignition and overheating. The most the car should run, according to my shop book is 165. Matt thinks the cam must have been put in one tooth off. (I forgot to mention that the mechanic that reassembled the motor for me last fall has since moved to Mississippi.) So now the plan is to take the front of the motor off and degree the cam to see if that solves the problem. After that I will pull the heads and have them re-measured to see if I need a thicker gasket to reduce some of the compression.
June 2003 (continued)
Prior to taking the car to Matt's, I decided to get a little bodywork done. While the motor was out, I had a neighbor who is an out of work body guy spray the engine bay. He did o.k., but I had to have him spray it a second time because the first was too thin. After he did the second spray it looked good. I decided to have him spray the underside of my hood. I had done all the prep work on the engine bay, but left him to clean and spray the hood. Well he did a lousy job and in the process scratched the hell out of the outside of the hood, which was in very good shape. He said he would fix it after I pointed it out, but I told him I didn't want him to go near my car again. Now I know why he is out of work!
June 2003 (continued)
Anyway, so I decided in May to get the hood fixed by a reputable shop and have a door dent taken out and get the trunk sprayed. I took it to a shop called Memory Lane and they did an awesome job. I had the car back in three days and it looked great. I was really feeling good about the car until I realized the problems with how the motor was running. I have missed a couple great car shows and it is getting frustrating as hell. Hopefully Matt will call me with good news soon. In the last week of June I picked the car up from the shop and it sounds a lot more solid than it did. Still not idling quite right. Matt thinks the carburetor has a stutter in it and he wants to send it back and get another. I took the car in the meanwhile to drive it a bit. Changed out the spark plugs to see if that helped. It did a bit, but still not quite right.
July 2003
First week of July took the car back to Matt's and he adjusted the timing again, and adjusted the rocker arms again. I picked the car up and as soon as I pulled out of his drive, I was sitting in traffic and it was in the 90's. The car ran fine, but got hot. My gauge showed the temp was going over 220, but the car didn't seem to run any worse. Even so, I got home and shut it down. I took it out again a few nights later in the evening when there was less traffic. It ran good and didn't over heat. Ran somewhere around 190-200 most of the short trip, but started going a little higher at the end while I was sitting in traffic again. But I must say it ran very strong. I count that as progress.
December 2004
I haven't updated in a while I see so this is to bring the story up to date. While I had the car in at Matt Johnson's he suggested that I should have my transmission reworked and put in a stall converter. Well I didn't get around to doing that for several months.
October 2005
Through my friend Jerry Brown, I met a couple more Mopar fans. Gabe Brand is a young Mopar fan who lives in Alton, IL. He is about 30 years old, but is a very big fan of Mopars, and really gets into the details, numbers matching, specs, and the history of the cars. He owns a 69 Coronet R/T convertible, a 70 Challenger, and a 70 Charger. He also is a pack rat for Mopar parts. Not that his place is messy because it definitely is not, but the guy is like a warehouse for parts. When you have 8 extra fenders, 6 carburetors, 4 grills, 8 wheels, and on and on as well as tons of trim parts in your basement, to me you qualify as a pack rat or a warehouse. The only difference between Gabe's and a warehouse is that Gabe doesn't want to part with anything.
October 2005 (continued)
Gabe introduced me to a guy named Steve Schone. Steve used to rebuild transmissions as his line of work. Now he is starting to get back into it as a hobby on the side, just the old trannies from the muscle car days. Well we get talking and I decide to have Steve rebuild my original transmission (which Doug had given to me along with the car when I first bought it) and put that back in the car. After discussion with Steve and Gabe, I decided to have Steve put a shift kit in, and also install a B&M 3000-rpm stall converter. I also bought a mopar deep transmission pan from Year One. Hopefully this will help keep the tranny running a little cooler. I already have a transmission cooler installed in front of my radiator. Not having any experience with this, I asked Steve if he thought this would make much of a difference. He assured me that I would be happy with the results.
October 2005 (continued)
I said Steve would rebuild my tranny, but actually Gabe did the work under the careful guidance of Steve. Gabe is trying to learn all he can about all aspects of the cars and Steve is teaching him how to rebuild transmissions. Well it was a week or two before Christmas and Gabe called to tell me that the tranny was done and ready to swap into the car. We decided that I would drive my car over to Gabe's garage to do the work. Gabe has all the tools available as well as room to work. They had rebuilt the transmission at Steve Schone's garage, but there was no way we could put the transmission in my car there. The best way I can describe Steve's Schone's garage is if you remember Mr. Magoo's closet. Remember when he would open the door and everything would come falling out? Well nothing came falling out when Steve opened his garage door, but there was literally just a walking path from the front to the back area where he worked, and that area was only about 6x6ft. WOW! Parts and tools piled (and I do mean piled) everywhere!
October 2005 (continued)
Steve says he knows exactly where everything is. I'm glad he does because no one else could ever find anything in there. My original tranny and the new 3000 stall converter sitting in Gabe's garage before install. So anyway, the car goes to Gabe's and he gets the tranny installed. We take the car out for a test drive and it runs the best I have ever seen it run! I get into it and the back end starts getting squirrelly. Hey! This is fun!!! MAJOR IMPROVEMENT! The car is idling better and runs 100% better. Gabe says he can tell I am happy with the improvement by the smile. That's the good news, now the bad. (Why is there always bad news to go along with the good?) While working on the car, Gabe noticed that my fuel pump is bad, and my rear end seal is also bad.
October 2005 (continued)
So I need to put in a new fuel pump. I think I am going to swap out to a 3.91 sure grip third member as long as the rear end has to come apart. That way I can keep the 3.23 to swap back if I want to. But the other bad news is that my head gasket is leaking! Great! Now the heads have to come back off! What next? You know: as long as the heads have to come off, I think I am going to check into a set of those Edelbrock Performance heads. They are aluminum and besides being lighter, they are supposed to add 40-horse power. More is always better. I hope I can get this stuff done before Spring so I am ready for shows and I really want to take the car to the track once I get everything together right to see what it can run. Unfortunately my wife has informed me that we have spent more than expected on Christmas and other car repairs and the credit card is getting up there. I have to get that paid off then see if I can fund this next step.
October 2005 (continued)
In February Jerry Brown and I went up to a Mopar swap meet in Columbia, MO. It was the first year for the meet and I think it was a pretty good start. I found a 3.91 sure grip third member which I gave $350 for. It turns free and the gears appear to be in good shape. If I get lucky, I can clean it up and run with it. I have been pricing them and to have a new one built would range from $750-$1000, so I will be thrilled if this one is good. If not, worst case scenario is to have it rebuilt for a few hundred bucks.
October 2005 (continued)
(2/20) I cleaned the pumpkin all up and painted it, and will call Steve Shone to get it swapped into the car. I have also ordered and started receiving all the parts I need to restore the interior of the car. I ordered them from Legendary Interiors. I am getting all the upholstery, headliner, carpet, door panels, and package tray replaced as well as the vinyl top. I have talked to Dan at Memory Lane about taking off the old vinyl top and cleaning up the roof and repairing the panel behind the rear window in front of the trunk lid. I am also going to have him install a new windshield. And before the car goes to the upholsterer, I am going to strip it out and have Dan spray the inside with a sound deadener. He will also remove the doors and spray all the door jams and hinge areas and inside of the doors. Once again, I hope I can get this done before the cruising season hits.
May 2006
Late in May and I still don't have much done. I sent my headers back to Jet Hot to have them recoated and they came back looking very nice again. Meanwhile I ordered a new mini starter from Summit. I wanted to do a compression check before I reinstall the headers because Steve and Gabe think I have a head gasket leaking. Then I met with Paul Jones who lives just a few houses up the street. He is into racing and I showed him my car. He offered to put the headers back in at his dad's shop. I accepted since working on the car in my garage is a pain and Linda wants her garage back to park her car. He will also install the 3.91 sure grip third member that I picked up at the swap meet back in February (Steve Shone had lots of family problems and just didn't have the time to work on the car). On Memorial Day Paul and his dad, James, took the car to James' shop to work on it. James called me a few hours later and told me that the terminal on my new starter was broken, so I will have to send it back. In the meanwhile James will pick up another one from his supplier.
May 2006 (continued)
Paul did a compression check and said it was fine. As soon as James finishes the work on the headers and rear end, I plan on taking the car to Dan down at Memory Lane for a bid on the bodywork. I had talked to another shop in Arnold called Arnold Collision. Rich there has a very good reputation for quality work. Unfortunately he has a very bad rep for taking forever to get any work done. Now I am thinking about going to Dan like I had planned in the first place. After that I will take it to Rolling Auto to get the interior done. When will I just get to drive the car???
May 2006 (continued)
Paul did a good job on the rear end and the car is running great. I really launches nice and hooks up well now. With the old rear gear (3.23 open) the car would spin tires from now to next week. Now it hooks up and goes. That's the good news, and I always have to balance good with bad.... the car still is running hot. I need to find a good solution to that problem. Paul Jones suggested putting in an aluminum radiator, but I really want to keep the original look to the car. My cousin Ken (mechanic) suggested I go back to Phil Fuller's Radiator shop where I had the radiator boiled out, and ask him if he has any suggestions. I have gone to a couple Dairy Queen Shows during the summer, but I have not taken the car to Dan at Memory Lane for the body work yet.
May 2006 (continued)
In January, '06 I took the car to Bob at Rolling Upholstery shop. He pulled the vinyl top off and pulled out the passenger and back seats. Then I took the car to Dan at Memory Lane and he cleaned up the roof to repair some rust and sand, prime, and seal the roof to ready it for the new vinyl top. Dan also pulled out the windshield and back window. He will have to do some clean up around the windows due to some minor rust issues. I am pleased to see that the rust is minor. Dan will paint the deck behind the rear window also.
May 2006 (continued)
I purchased a new driver's side mirror because mine has lost its shine. Also purchased new door seals and trim pieces for rear window interior. I bought some Landau Black spray paint and repainted the dash panels that I had not done before (I had only sent off the gauge trim plate for restoration. I think I will also run some speaker wires to the rear deck while every thing is opened up. My radio does not work, but I imagine someday I will install a stereo in the glove box or restore my original radio and will want the speaker in back to work. Might as well run the wires now. Dan is supposed to finish with the car on Tuesday, so then it will go back to Bob at Rolling to finish installation of the carpet, headliner, seats, and door panels. It is now January 14,'06 and hopefully this phase of restoration will be done in a couple weeks.
April 2006
Side note: I drove the car up to a church function and a guy there named Greg Stevens walks up and starts checking out the car. We get to talking and he tells me that his brother had owned a '68 Charger back in the late 70's. His brother drove it for a few years, and then sold it to Greg, the guy I had just met. We get to comparing notes and come to figure out that his brother had bought his car from
ME back in '78. The next week, Greg brings me a photo of the car from back when his brother owned it. Small world. It was fun exchanging stories about that car.
March 2007
I had James Jones hook up the heater again... I had disconnected it when we first put the rebuilt motor back in and capped off the water pump outlet and inlet. James hooked it back up and it works fine. James also made a bracket to hold my transmission cooler on to the frame rail in front of the radiator. (I had it held on with a couple zip ties). Looks better and won't wobble around now. I also asked James to figure out what the noise I was hearing in the suspension was. I hear it every time I apply the brakes- it's a loud clunking noise. It turns out my driver's side lower control arm is slipping on the bushing and every time I brake, it slips about 3/8 inch...not good. Either the bushing is bad, or the lower control arm is bad. What next.
June 2008
I haven't updated in a while. I have taken the car to quite a few shows: several local cruises and a few bigger shows. Missouri Mopars show in Columbia on Fathers Day last year. Valley of Flowers twice- took 3rd in 2006 and 2nd in 2007. Monster Mopar Weekend- took 3rd in 2006 and again in 2007. The car is running good now and is a blast to drive. Tomorrow there is a small local show I plan to hit. Then the next big show will be Monster Mopar at Gateway racetrack in Illinois in August. Linda and I have also driven the car to Springfield, Illinois twice now for the Route 66 Mother Road Festival in September of 2006 and 2007. It is the best car event we have gone to. They close off the entire downtown area (about a 16 square block area) and only the show cars can get in. On Friday night they have a parade from the edge of town to the downtown area.
June 2008 (continued)
Last year I talked Jerry and Linda Brown into going with us and we had a really good time, even though we were both fighting electrical gremlins all weekend. We both made it up and back though on our own so I count that as a win. We went to another local show in Alton where we met a guy who collects mopars and sells restoration parts as well as cars. When I made a comment about another guy who said he had just bought his '68 Barracuda for $35K, Steve told me my car is probably worth $40K. Wow, values have really gone up on these cars the last five years or so. My muscle car has been a better investment than my 401k has been over the last five years. Linda says it isn't an investment unless you sell it. That ain't gonna happen.
September 2008
We drove up to the Springfield show with Linda and Jerry and Linda Brown again this year. While we were at the show, Mike Mueller, a professional photographer approached us both about photographing of our cars for a coffee table book he is working on. Mike did a full photo shoot of both cars at the Springfield stock yards. He said he would send us a copy if our cars made it into the book.
September 2009
I have had the 3.91 sure grip third member in and back out. The car launched like a beast with the 3.91 but was not fun on the highway if I was going any distance at all. I took the car to Jamie Hutchins at Dyno-tec to have him work on the ride quality. I am feeling a vibration on the highway that is really annoying. Jamie ended up replacing the tail shaft bushing in the transmission, balanced the rear wheels, replaced the drive shaft that was out of balance and worn badly and adjusted the pitch of the third member. Oh, and speaking of third member, Jamie said something was wrong with the sure grip unit. He said it was heating up badly. I still had my 3.23 unit and I liked it a lot better for highway driving so I just had Jamie swap it back in. Of course I spent more than I wanted to, but now the car is riding the best I have felt since I bought it. Highway driving is a joy now. Like I said, the 3.91 sure grip was fun, but this is a BIG improvement.
September 2009 (continued)
When I got home from work I found a package waiting at the front door. It was a copy of the coffee table book Mike Mueller had told us about. I searched through the book and found a two page spread of the Charger. The photos look fantastic. My son Steve also sent me a birthday gift in the mail. He had taken some of the photos that he shot of the Charger the last time he was in town and photo shopped a magazine cover of Mopar Muscle Magazine with my car on the cover. He did an awesome job and it is very cool. I framed it and take it to the shows now with the rest of my display pieces. Here are a couple pictures Jerry took while Mike Mueller was doing the photo shoot in Springfield in 2008.
September 2009 (continued)
Unfortunately, I received an email from Mike Panter, Doug's son telling me that Doug had passed away from cancer in January. Although I had never met Doug, I felt I knew him well and was very saddened by the news. I had always thought that one day we would get together and go for a drive together in the car. Doug was a good guy and I know a lot of people miss him. I looked up his obituary and it even mentioned the '68 Charger in it. I had emailed Doug last year about the book Mike Mueller was working on. Too bad he didn't get to see it; he would have really enjoyed it.
September 2009 (continued)
One more month and we will be going back up to the Route 66 show again. It is our favorite show. This summer Linda and I have made a car show or cruise every weekend. The weather has been fantastic and the car is really running good and looking good. The most fun about being at shows is someone always tells me a story about when they owned a Charger, or their brother or friend did and they loved it, and how my Charger is their favorite car in the show.
September 2009 (continued)
One thing the car is missing is the bumper jack. I have been looking at swap meets for one for the last couple years and if I find one, the seller thinks they are holding diamonds. I passed on one for $150 a couple years back, then $200, then $250. Every time I say I won't pay that price I get the same answer, "You will if you want one." A month ago I watched one sell on e-bay for $350! Give me a break! There were more than 17,000 1968 Chargers built, and all I need is one bumper jack. I had a lead on a jack in Kingdom City, MO and a coworker offered to stop there and pick it up on his way to visit his son. Turned out not to be a 1968 Charger jack. Not sure what it was out of, but not a Charger.
September 2009 (continued)
This year the Springfield show is the same weekend as Monster Mopar Weekend at Gateway. I hate to miss Monster Mopar, but we are committed to the Springfield show. Linda just found a news story on the web that a guy was just arrested today (the day before we leave) for trying to blow up the court building in Springfield. I am sure glad they caught the terrorist bastard. He would have ruined our show.
March 2010
I bought new stainless trim for the grill surround. To put the new trim on, first you have to pull the bumper off, then the lower valance, then the grill. Once the grill was off I started looking at the radiator, which needed some clean up. The more I looked around the engine bay, the more I saw that needed touch up. So I took a few vacation days to clean things up. I pulled everything out of the engine compartment except the motor. Then, after degreasing the motor I masked off the engine compartment with painters masking paper. I pulled the intake manifold and valve covers because there seemed to be quite a bit of oil leaking down on the valley pan. I took a lot of the small parts over to Jerry Brown's house where he sand blasted them. I took the valve covers to Fullers radiator repair where they hot tanked them to strip the paint off. Then I repainted the block and all the parts we had sandblasted. I repainted the radiator with heat resistant flat black paint.
March 2010 (continued)
I took the lower valance to Dan at Memory Lane for a repaint. I replaced the parking lights in the valance and the Charger R/T emblem in the grill after totally repainting the grill again. Hit the grill ribs with a silver paint pen. It really turned out great. When I got it all back together with Jerry's help, it didn't want to run. Jerry spent a day working on it while I was at work. When I got home he had it running great. I am really glad I took the time to redo the whole engine compartment because I think it looks even better than it did when I first restored it in 2002.
July 2010
Jerry and I have hit some cruises and a few shows. The car is running great and looks great. Of course, I always have more ideas to improve it. I am thinking that the next project will be to pull the doors off and repaint the door jambs. While the doors are off I will rebuild the window cranks, which are kind of stiff. And there is that chip in the driver's window while I am in that area. Not to mention that this would be a good time to have the vent channels re-chromed. See what I mean? It never ends... Looking forward to Monster Mopar Weekend and Springfield shows in September.
September 2010
Jerry and I took the cars to Monster Mopar Weekend in September. It looks like this is the last year the event will be held at Gateway in Illinois because the owner has sold the property and word is that everything will be torn out. It's a real shame because we had drag racing so close to home. While we were there I finally broke down and bought a bumper jack. Highway robbery; it made me sick to pay the money they asked but it's one of those things I need to complete the car. Chargers used a unique one year specific bumper jack in '68, but I think there were more than 90,000 Chargers built (17,000 R/T), so where did all those bumper jacks go? All I know is that the ones that you can find you pay a king's ransom for. Oh, well, it is done. Monster Mopar had a lot of really nice cars this year. The quality of restorations seems to get better every year. We went to Springfield in late September. We had a great weekend. A little cool but we had fun. No car problems which is always good.
February 2012
Wow, I didn't realize that I have not updated this all year. In 2011 we took the car to a Mopar show in Branson, MO in May and some cruises around town. My mom road with Linda and I to Branson and we had a good time. Mom will be 90 in July but still gets around great. We went to Springfield again with Jerry and Linda Brown, and Tim and Debbie Ranch and had another good time. On Sunday they award the prizes. Tim and I stayed back by the cars while the rest of the group went to watch the awarding of trophies. Linda came back with a trophy for our car! I was floored. I never expected to win anything at that show so I was thrilled to say the least. This past winter Jerry and I pulled the back end wiring harness. Jerry is going to manufacture one for me. To get the wiring out, the back seat had to come out.
February 2012 (continued)
While the back seat was out, I decided to have the trunk painted again, get the underside of the trunk lid repainted, and touch up some clear coat on the back panel behind the rear window. It cleaned up pretty nice. Once Jerry gets the new wiring harness done I will get it all back together. I picked up a couple parts at the Spring Swap Meet in Columbia. I plan to pick up a new vacuum canister for the front lights at the Indy show in March. Then I need to get the brakes done and I will be ready for the summer season.
October 2012
We didn't hit too many shows this year because it was God awful hot most of the summer. We did attend the Valley of Flowers, our home town show in May. Then we went to a show in Hannibal MO which was fun. Monster Mopar was in June this year at Gateway which was nice. The weather was good then. Other than that we made a couple little cruises. We did return to Springfield IL for the Route 66 Mother Road Festival. I think this is the 7th year we have gone and it is our favorite show. Would have liked to go back to Branson again this year, but it didn't work out. I saw that they had a tornado which tore the town up quite a bit so it is probably just as well. Maybe next year.
October 2012 (continued)
Other updates on the car; I mentioned that Jerry redid my wire harness for the taillights. I had the trunk repainted while the wiring was pulled out. I also bought new glass for the driver's quarter window and replaced it and removed and restored the crank mechanism. That was a jigsaw puzzle but it was fun. I bought glass for the driver's window which has had a rock chip in it since I bought the car, and new vent glass for the driver's side. This winter I plan to replace that glass. I would love to get the door jambs painted at that time, but will have to see. Unfortunately Supervalu (who owns my company Shop 'n Save) has managed to drive the value of the company into the toilet. The whole company is up for sale and I hear an investment firm is looking to buy it and immediately split it up and sell off the parts. Not knowing where that will leave me has me hesitant to spend much money on car repairs right now.
March 2013
Jerry and I attended the Mopars at Indy Trade Show at the Indianapolis Fairgrounds. I purchased gaskets for the driver's door window. I have the window all pulled out on the driver's side. I had the vent window frame re-chromed at St. Louis Plating. They also polished some of the stainless trim for me. I took my bumper to them but they don't do much chroming that size so they sent me to Gateway Plating which is south of 44 off Jefferson. The bumper should be done by April.
March 2013 (continued)
My reproduction battery sprayed acid all over the inner fender so I talked to Paul Jones about repainting the inner fender and repainting the driver's door jam and inner door while I have everything apart. I need to drive the car to his shop so I can get a bid from Jesse who does their paint work. The weather is not cooperating so far. I was supposed to take it today, but it's raining. Looking forward to the show season to start up again...
June 2013
I ended up taking the car to Kenny Pondrom who owns Guys Auto Body in Florissant. His dad owned the shop before him and it has been in operation in Florissant for as long as I can remember. Oddly I didn't know of anyone who had used his shop. I told my brother that and he replied that he had Kenny do some work on his Mustang several years ago and was happy with the results. I ended up having Kenny paint the inner fender on the drivers side, both fenders, the hood, both door jams, and the inside of the drivers door. I removed the grill and front bumper before I took the car to Kenny. I got my chrome back from St. Louis plating. Jerry sand blasted the window crank and the slides. We reinstalled the window with the new glass that I had bought last year. I also had the front bumper rechromed at Gateway Plating in St. Louis. St. Louis Plating said they don't do big pieces like bumpers.
June 2013 (continued)
While the grill was out, I did a little touch up work on it and pulled the radiator and repainted it. Then I gave the motor a good cleaning and masked off the engine bay again and touched up the motor like I did in 2010. Next year I am going to rechrome the passenger side window chrome and have Kenny paint the inside of the passenger door and the outside of both doors.
June 2013 (continued)
The Valley of Flowers show was a rainout this year so we didn't attend that. We have gone to a couple shows. We went to Hannibal again. Then we went to a show in Union MO, and one in Greenville, IL. At Greenville, Donna Douglas did a celebrity appearance and autograph signing. Donna played Ellie May Clampitt in the Beverly Hillbillies show which ran from 1962 to 1971. On the way up to Greenville, I noticed that my clock had stopped working. I haven't looked yet, but I hope the wire just came loose from the back of the dash. If not, I will have to send it back to Real Time Restorations to get fixed again. Linda and I also went to the Mopars in Branson show, but we didn't take the Charger this year because once again they were calling for very bad weather. As it turned out, it was a nice weekend.