The Yankee Express.
Ghostrider 67
10-22-2021, 02:35 PM
Hello all. Thanks for looking.
The Yankee Express is my 1967 Dodge Coronet 500 resto mod. Dozens of modifications have been done to it by me over a 7 year period. Here;s the list of mods that have been completed:
Starting platform was a 67 Coronet 500, 69,000 miles, A/C car, tinted glass, yellow cream colored, black/black interior, buddy seat column shift 727, 318 V8 2bbl. Complete car missing no parts, drivable. Everything worked.
Mods:
Front to back------ Front bumper sectioned, shortened, turn signal rectangular holes filled, recurved to fit the new fender noses and to hug the sheet metal. Also enlarged the center license plate cut out into a ram airduct.
1967 Charger grill and revolving headlights. Custom elec motors, mounts and linkages.
Front fender noses swept back to a 90* angle ( Think 70 Road Runner).
Front disc brakes swap from a 76 Aspen.
All rubber bumpers and bearings replaced.
Inner fender close out smooth panels to hide wiring etc.
Smooth firewall with relocated wiper motor to under dash as is everything previously on the firewall.
Battery to box behind passenger seat.
Wiring pass through tubes running along outside of inner fender just below the fender mounting flanges and into the cab through the firewall.
Wiring passthrough boots in the door frames.
2004 Audi A6 Quattro dash/console /steering and center pull E Brake. And everything in/on the dash console too.
Audi door panel elements fabricated into new panels that align with the Audi dash.
Puddle lights and rear facing marker light on the rear face of the inner door surface so it can be seen when the door is opened.
Power everything.
Custom steering linkages.
dual M/C and new hoses/lines.
10 way, power/heated bucket seats leather.
1967 Plymouth Sport Fury rear seat topper mounted just behind bucket seat tops and close out roadster type panels from there to the back glass. (Think 59 Corvette)
Audi armrest with 4 analog gauges hidden inside.
GPS speedo
spare tire under the roadster panels in what would have been the center of the rear seat. Close out panel between cab and trunk.
Fabricated shift linkage and lever. Hand made pistol grip and reverse lock out.
Fake quarter panel side scoops opened up.
dual motorcycle pop up gas filler caps, one on top of each quarter near the trunk lid front corners.
fabricate he entire rear face of the car to accept 1966 Thunder Bird tail lights.
Trunk lid on gas lifts
17 gallon fuel cell with dual filler necks.
trunk close out panels
rear wells tubbed
leaf springs relocated to under frame.
center pull E Brake cables
move spring perches
remove spare tire well
1970 Road Runner rear bumper lengthened 4 5/8" and recurved to hug the sheet metal. TTI exhaust to exit through those back up light holes.
Remote trunk release.
'shave gas filler door
ditch the 318 in favor of a built 440 Magnum, and build a 727.
As stated, the car was 100% complete and running/drivable at the start. I was about to retire from the US Army after 30 years service and my wife was on the lookout for a project for me to mess with out in the garage to keep me out of her hair. She saw the Craig's List ad about 20 minutes after the lady who owned it posted it up. I called her and told her to hang on to it because I was on the way with a trailer and cash. She agreed and my pal, Rick and I hit the road to way upstate NY. We got it back to Vermont with no problems and unloaded the old girl.
It was October 2014.
The Yankee Express is my 1967 Dodge Coronet 500 resto mod. Dozens of modifications have been done to it by me over a 7 year period. Here;s the list of mods that have been completed:
Starting platform was a 67 Coronet 500, 69,000 miles, A/C car, tinted glass, yellow cream colored, black/black interior, buddy seat column shift 727, 318 V8 2bbl. Complete car missing no parts, drivable. Everything worked.
Mods:
Front to back------ Front bumper sectioned, shortened, turn signal rectangular holes filled, recurved to fit the new fender noses and to hug the sheet metal. Also enlarged the center license plate cut out into a ram airduct.
1967 Charger grill and revolving headlights. Custom elec motors, mounts and linkages.
Front fender noses swept back to a 90* angle ( Think 70 Road Runner).
Front disc brakes swap from a 76 Aspen.
All rubber bumpers and bearings replaced.
Inner fender close out smooth panels to hide wiring etc.
Smooth firewall with relocated wiper motor to under dash as is everything previously on the firewall.
Battery to box behind passenger seat.
Wiring pass through tubes running along outside of inner fender just below the fender mounting flanges and into the cab through the firewall.
Wiring passthrough boots in the door frames.
2004 Audi A6 Quattro dash/console /steering and center pull E Brake. And everything in/on the dash console too.
Audi door panel elements fabricated into new panels that align with the Audi dash.
Puddle lights and rear facing marker light on the rear face of the inner door surface so it can be seen when the door is opened.
Power everything.
Custom steering linkages.
dual M/C and new hoses/lines.
10 way, power/heated bucket seats leather.
1967 Plymouth Sport Fury rear seat topper mounted just behind bucket seat tops and close out roadster type panels from there to the back glass. (Think 59 Corvette)
Audi armrest with 4 analog gauges hidden inside.
GPS speedo
spare tire under the roadster panels in what would have been the center of the rear seat. Close out panel between cab and trunk.
Fabricated shift linkage and lever. Hand made pistol grip and reverse lock out.
Fake quarter panel side scoops opened up.
dual motorcycle pop up gas filler caps, one on top of each quarter near the trunk lid front corners.
fabricate he entire rear face of the car to accept 1966 Thunder Bird tail lights.
Trunk lid on gas lifts
17 gallon fuel cell with dual filler necks.
trunk close out panels
rear wells tubbed
leaf springs relocated to under frame.
center pull E Brake cables
move spring perches
remove spare tire well
1970 Road Runner rear bumper lengthened 4 5/8" and recurved to hug the sheet metal. TTI exhaust to exit through those back up light holes.
Remote trunk release.
'shave gas filler door
ditch the 318 in favor of a built 440 Magnum, and build a 727.
As stated, the car was 100% complete and running/drivable at the start. I was about to retire from the US Army after 30 years service and my wife was on the lookout for a project for me to mess with out in the garage to keep me out of her hair. She saw the Craig's List ad about 20 minutes after the lady who owned it posted it up. I called her and told her to hang on to it because I was on the way with a trailer and cash. She agreed and my pal, Rick and I hit the road to way upstate NY. We got it back to Vermont with no problems and unloaded the old girl.
It was October 2014.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 12:00 PM
I'm going to post up pictures in order from start to today. So, here's how she looked when I rolled her off of the trailer....
Plus one of her in my garage where my pal set a pair of 340 Duster scoops on the hood just for fun. We agreed immediately that that would NOT be one of the mods...lol.
Plus one of her in my garage where my pal set a pair of 340 Duster scoops on the hood just for fun. We agreed immediately that that would NOT be one of the mods...lol.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 12:19 PM
Notice that she has all of her trim in place. The trunk deck is covered in surface rust. She has the factory wheel covers and the factory green tinted glass since it's an A/C car. Not a bad buy at $3750. I drove it home from Ricks place, about 2 miles, and into the garage. Drove fine, ran well and everything worked. Not much power being a 318 car and so heavy. Steering was a little loose. Suspension bottomed out. Smelled like an old car. lol.
So after getting her home and into the garage a few decisions needed to be made. First of all, What do I want to do with this car? Then, Do I want to do this myself or hire it done?
In order to answer the second question I had to answer the first one. So, I sat down in a chair in front of the car and put on my thinking/ imagining cap. Over a period of a few weeks I and Rick thought about all of the many directions I/we could take this car in. I settled on a full on , One Off, custom Resto mod. At that time Rick had some issues to deal with on his own hotrods and bowed out except for moral support and to be a sounding board.
I began to make a list of the changes I was imagining and it got pretty long. After a convo with Rick I began to cross things off. It was becoming strange. Too many changes.
I adopted the mantra that the changes that I would make HAD to be ones that blended in with the original design from Dodge, and, they had to be ones that were not so noticeable form the viewpoint of the average onlooker. No gaudy over the top bullshit. No dumb changes that were sticking out like a sore thumb. More like ones that were , "What IF Dodge had done this?"
In that spirit I made a start. First I composed a list of the parts on the car that I no longer needed. These parts were set aside for sale to help finance the build. 1967 Coronet parts are like hens teeth. Very little is repopped. So these parts had value.
Thus started the disassembly.
I took this car apart down to the bare shell. Literally. Bare. Everything got boxed and bagged, tagged and labeled. Pictures were taken of subassemblies. Some parts were traded for ones that I knew I would need to make some of the mods a reality.
So after getting her home and into the garage a few decisions needed to be made. First of all, What do I want to do with this car? Then, Do I want to do this myself or hire it done?
In order to answer the second question I had to answer the first one. So, I sat down in a chair in front of the car and put on my thinking/ imagining cap. Over a period of a few weeks I and Rick thought about all of the many directions I/we could take this car in. I settled on a full on , One Off, custom Resto mod. At that time Rick had some issues to deal with on his own hotrods and bowed out except for moral support and to be a sounding board.
I began to make a list of the changes I was imagining and it got pretty long. After a convo with Rick I began to cross things off. It was becoming strange. Too many changes.
I adopted the mantra that the changes that I would make HAD to be ones that blended in with the original design from Dodge, and, they had to be ones that were not so noticeable form the viewpoint of the average onlooker. No gaudy over the top bullshit. No dumb changes that were sticking out like a sore thumb. More like ones that were , "What IF Dodge had done this?"
In that spirit I made a start. First I composed a list of the parts on the car that I no longer needed. These parts were set aside for sale to help finance the build. 1967 Coronet parts are like hens teeth. Very little is repopped. So these parts had value.
Thus started the disassembly.
I took this car apart down to the bare shell. Literally. Bare. Everything got boxed and bagged, tagged and labeled. Pictures were taken of subassemblies. Some parts were traded for ones that I knew I would need to make some of the mods a reality.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 12:28 PM
more disassembly pics...
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 12:38 PM
As far as damage to the body is concerned, there wasn't much. More than met the eye at first viewing, but not as bad as many that I see others buying. The right end of the cowl was an inch deep in filler where something round fell against it and they just slathered filler over it. The passenger floor pans were mildly rusted and needed to be replaced. The trunk deck surface and a few other small spots. Both front fender noses had been smacked and also the right rear quarter panel.
The fender noses needing repair drove one of the mods decision of sweeping them back to 90* with the front of the hood. I could cut out much of the worst crinkled up metal this way. Bonus. This mod was about ditching the angled nose on each side where the hood contour lines flowed into the fenders at a 45* angle, I had never liked that look. I wanted them squared off, more like a 1970 Road Runner look.
The spare tire well in the trunk was also rusted and I cut that out of the floor to facilitate another two mods, dual exhaust that would flow out of the back up light holes in a 1970 Road Runner rear bumper.
The fender noses needing repair drove one of the mods decision of sweeping them back to 90* with the front of the hood. I could cut out much of the worst crinkled up metal this way. Bonus. This mod was about ditching the angled nose on each side where the hood contour lines flowed into the fenders at a 45* angle, I had never liked that look. I wanted them squared off, more like a 1970 Road Runner look.
The spare tire well in the trunk was also rusted and I cut that out of the floor to facilitate another two mods, dual exhaust that would flow out of the back up light holes in a 1970 Road Runner rear bumper.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 01:14 PM
To start at the beginning i'll talk about the front bumper. Since I decided to sweep back to 90* the fender noses the front bumper ends now were hanging out in space, far from the sheet metal. Plus, due to yet another mod, the swap out of the 67 Coronet grill and headlights for a 67 Charger grill and revolving headlights, I no longer needed the turn signal lenses to be in the bumper face. The Charger had them up at each end of the grill.
So those rectangular holes would need to be shaved as well. After studying the bumper and how it aligned with the body I determined that the bend in each side of the bumper had to go, plus the end section on each side would need to be sectioned and reshaped to hug the sheet metal more closely. So, I cut the bumper up. Changing the bumper meant that the mounting brackets would also be needing some work in order for the mounting holes to align with the new sections locations.
So, you see that the initial list of mods doesn't tell the whole story, MANY smaller mods had to be done to facilitate the larger ones.
Anyway, I hung the middle section of the cut apart bumper back on the car and then made many measurements before trimming little by little and trying each section back against the car before tacking it back together. The result is a bumper that looks killer on the car, hugs the fender lines closely and mirrors the contours, and looks RIGHT when looking at the car. Someone who has never seen a 67 Coronet before wouldn't know the difference. Someone who has seen one would scratch their head and wonder, What had changed?
In addition, as an after thought, I widened the center license plate cut out and increased the height of it to form a ram air duct.
So those rectangular holes would need to be shaved as well. After studying the bumper and how it aligned with the body I determined that the bend in each side of the bumper had to go, plus the end section on each side would need to be sectioned and reshaped to hug the sheet metal more closely. So, I cut the bumper up. Changing the bumper meant that the mounting brackets would also be needing some work in order for the mounting holes to align with the new sections locations.
So, you see that the initial list of mods doesn't tell the whole story, MANY smaller mods had to be done to facilitate the larger ones.
Anyway, I hung the middle section of the cut apart bumper back on the car and then made many measurements before trimming little by little and trying each section back against the car before tacking it back together. The result is a bumper that looks killer on the car, hugs the fender lines closely and mirrors the contours, and looks RIGHT when looking at the car. Someone who has never seen a 67 Coronet before wouldn't know the difference. Someone who has seen one would scratch their head and wonder, What had changed?
In addition, as an after thought, I widened the center license plate cut out and increased the height of it to form a ram air duct.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 02:04 PM
The bumper bracket ended up being a simple sectioning of the outboard arm.
The turn signal mounting holes got the inner edges sliced away to provide a squared off edge to weld new metal too. Two plates were fabricated and trimmed to fit before being welded in place. Some filler and grinding later and a few coats of primer and Bob's yer Uncle.
My last name isn't Trepanier or Foose so the bumpers will either be body color or chrome wrapped. I cannot afford the chrome work.
Next up was the 67 Charger front end. It's all of a piece with the fender mods and bumper mods so I dove right in. I sold the Coronet items for a great price and bought a used set up from a 67 Charger. The parts are interchangeable with a few pieces being different like the lower grill support bar is model specific, as is the surrounding trim, although both bolt right up to either car. The sweeping back of the fender noses caused the Charger "C" trim on each end to be out of location. I solved this by slicing away a small portion at the rear inside edge so they too could be swept back to match while still being reasonably aligned with the trim section across the front.
The 67 Charger revolving headlights are a handful to get assembled correctly when you don't have another assembled example sitting in front of you. lol. Lots of trial and error.
The way they are manufactured doesn't lend itself to customization. For instance, the center revolving axis/axle is maintained by the clunky 50+ year old motors being bolted to a "donut" through which an axle finger/post protrudes from the each bucket. The motor axle/shaft pins onto this post. I had no desire to use those clunky old motors which caused me to have to design a way to keep the buckets revolving around a centered axis somehow. I burned a lot of brain cells on this mod.
Problems seemed to cascade from each solution. "This will cause that", syndrome. Which, truth be told, is the fun part for me. Figuring it all out, designing from scratch.
I had first to select a new set of bucket drive motors. I searched for a good week or so before finding a set that had three post mounting arrangements that would withstand the initial drag of the heavy buckets rotation. That would fit in between the mounting place and the radiator/transmission cooler and had the umpf to turn the heavy buckets.
There's very little room in there.
Then once that was worked out I had to design and fabricate the linkages to connect them to the buckets while also supporting and maintaining the center axis.
I started with the outer ends, the buckets themselves. Once I had finagled around the many parts that comprise the framing and spacing of the buckets between the grill ends and the turn signal housings on either end I moved on to axis rotation. How to keep that center post that's bolted to the exact center of the bucket end face centered in the "donut" hole? I eventually settled on using hard nylon white bushings. They were hard enough to stand up to the work load, easy enough to resize to fit and drill out the centers to fit the existing parts. I sanded down a set to hammer into the donut center holes so they wouldn't spin and then drilled out the centers to fit the bucket post through them. next came the motor mounting location and distance from the post end.
They would need to be shaft centered, angled body to miss the grill mounting lower bar AND the trans cooler face behind them. Also they needed to be where there was a flat place to bolt up the mounting plate I would need to fabricate both above and below AND be far enough away to leave room for a connecting linkage that I would also have to fabricate. All out of thin air. lol.
After fooling around with several designs that wouldn't work well I found that I didn't have the skills to fabricate a one piece linkage. The main issue was that the electric drive motors have a small "D" shaft that needs to attach to a big clunky 3/8" 1967 era post with a set pin hole through it. Two piece it would be.
I used a couple of hunks of steel pipe that would slid within each other. I made them as short as possible while still being long enough to slid within each other and bolt down the set screws. On one end the ID needed to be 1/4" and the other 3/8". The 1/4" end had to have a set screw hole through with threads and the other end a smooth hole for a latch pin to slid through. The middle had to have holes through both walls to connect the two pieces together. All of this occurs within about 3 1/2"......lol. Keep in mind I'm doing all of this by hand with no computers or plasma cutters...lol. The number of times that I had that front assembly on and off the car blurred after awhile..
The assembly itself also needed to be restored. The buckets disassembled and cleaned, sanded down and repainted, the chrome refurbished the lights and light mounts inside the buckets taken apart and cleaned and oiled. The grill sanded down and repainted the chrome shined up.
The turn signal mounting holes got the inner edges sliced away to provide a squared off edge to weld new metal too. Two plates were fabricated and trimmed to fit before being welded in place. Some filler and grinding later and a few coats of primer and Bob's yer Uncle.
My last name isn't Trepanier or Foose so the bumpers will either be body color or chrome wrapped. I cannot afford the chrome work.
Next up was the 67 Charger front end. It's all of a piece with the fender mods and bumper mods so I dove right in. I sold the Coronet items for a great price and bought a used set up from a 67 Charger. The parts are interchangeable with a few pieces being different like the lower grill support bar is model specific, as is the surrounding trim, although both bolt right up to either car. The sweeping back of the fender noses caused the Charger "C" trim on each end to be out of location. I solved this by slicing away a small portion at the rear inside edge so they too could be swept back to match while still being reasonably aligned with the trim section across the front.
The 67 Charger revolving headlights are a handful to get assembled correctly when you don't have another assembled example sitting in front of you. lol. Lots of trial and error.
The way they are manufactured doesn't lend itself to customization. For instance, the center revolving axis/axle is maintained by the clunky 50+ year old motors being bolted to a "donut" through which an axle finger/post protrudes from the each bucket. The motor axle/shaft pins onto this post. I had no desire to use those clunky old motors which caused me to have to design a way to keep the buckets revolving around a centered axis somehow. I burned a lot of brain cells on this mod.
Problems seemed to cascade from each solution. "This will cause that", syndrome. Which, truth be told, is the fun part for me. Figuring it all out, designing from scratch.
I had first to select a new set of bucket drive motors. I searched for a good week or so before finding a set that had three post mounting arrangements that would withstand the initial drag of the heavy buckets rotation. That would fit in between the mounting place and the radiator/transmission cooler and had the umpf to turn the heavy buckets.
There's very little room in there.
Then once that was worked out I had to design and fabricate the linkages to connect them to the buckets while also supporting and maintaining the center axis.
I started with the outer ends, the buckets themselves. Once I had finagled around the many parts that comprise the framing and spacing of the buckets between the grill ends and the turn signal housings on either end I moved on to axis rotation. How to keep that center post that's bolted to the exact center of the bucket end face centered in the "donut" hole? I eventually settled on using hard nylon white bushings. They were hard enough to stand up to the work load, easy enough to resize to fit and drill out the centers to fit the existing parts. I sanded down a set to hammer into the donut center holes so they wouldn't spin and then drilled out the centers to fit the bucket post through them. next came the motor mounting location and distance from the post end.
They would need to be shaft centered, angled body to miss the grill mounting lower bar AND the trans cooler face behind them. Also they needed to be where there was a flat place to bolt up the mounting plate I would need to fabricate both above and below AND be far enough away to leave room for a connecting linkage that I would also have to fabricate. All out of thin air. lol.
After fooling around with several designs that wouldn't work well I found that I didn't have the skills to fabricate a one piece linkage. The main issue was that the electric drive motors have a small "D" shaft that needs to attach to a big clunky 3/8" 1967 era post with a set pin hole through it. Two piece it would be.
I used a couple of hunks of steel pipe that would slid within each other. I made them as short as possible while still being long enough to slid within each other and bolt down the set screws. On one end the ID needed to be 1/4" and the other 3/8". The 1/4" end had to have a set screw hole through with threads and the other end a smooth hole for a latch pin to slid through. The middle had to have holes through both walls to connect the two pieces together. All of this occurs within about 3 1/2"......lol. Keep in mind I'm doing all of this by hand with no computers or plasma cutters...lol. The number of times that I had that front assembly on and off the car blurred after awhile..
The assembly itself also needed to be restored. The buckets disassembled and cleaned, sanded down and repainted, the chrome refurbished the lights and light mounts inside the buckets taken apart and cleaned and oiled. The grill sanded down and repainted the chrome shined up.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 02:23 PM
[QUOTE=Ghostrider 67;7229970]The bumper bracket ended up being a simple sectioning of the outboard arm.
The turn signal mounting holes got the inner edges sliced away to provide a squared off edge to weld new metal too. Two plates were fabricated and trimmed to fit before being welded in place. Some filler and grinding later and a few coats of primer and Bob's yer Uncle.
My last name isn't Trepanier or Foose so the bumpers will either be body color or chrome wrapped. I cannot afford the chrome work.
Next up was the 67 Charger front end. It's all of a piece with the fender mods and bumper mods so I dove right in. I sold the Coronet items for a great price and bought a used set up from a 67 Charger. The parts are interchangeable with a few pieces being different like the lower grill support bar is model specific, as is the surrounding trim, although both bolt right up to either car. The sweeping back of the fender noses caused the Charger "C" trim on each end to be out of location. I solved this by slicing away a small portion at the rear inside edge so they too could be swept back to match while still being reasonably aligned with the trim section across the front.
The 67 Charger revolving headlights are a handful to get assembled correctly when you don't have another assembled example sitting in front of you. lol. Lots of trial and error.
The way they are manufactured doesn't lend itself to customization. For instance, the center revolving axis/axle is maintained by the clunky 50+ year old motors being bolted to a "donut" through which an axle finger/post protrudes from the each bucket. The motor axle/shaft pins onto this post. I had no desire to use those clunky old motors which caused me to have to design a way to keep the buckets revolving around a centered axis somehow. I burned a lot of brain cells on this mod.
Problems seemed to cascade from each solution. "This will cause that", syndrome. Which, truth be told, is the fun part for me. Figuring it all out, designing from scratch.
I had first to select a new set of bucket drive motors. I searched for a good week or so before finding a set that had three post mounting arrangements that would withstand the initial drag of the heavy buckets rotation. That would fit in between the mounting place and the radiator/transmission cooler and had the umpf to turn the heavy buckets.
There's very little room in there.
Then once that was worked out I had to design and fabricate the linkages to connect them to the buckets while also supporting and maintaining the center axis.
I started with the outer ends, the buckets themselves. Once I had finagled around the many parts that comprise the framing and spacing of the buckets between the grill ends and the turn signal housings on either end I moved on to axis rotation. How to keep that center post that's bolted to the exact center of the bucket end face centered in the "donut" hole? I eventually settled on using hard nylon white bushings. They were hard enough to stand up to the work load, easy enough to resize to fit and drill out the centers to fit the existing parts. I sanded down a set to hammer into the donut center holes so they wouldn't spin and then drilled out the centers to fit the bucket post through them. next came the motor mounting location and distance from the post end.
They would need to be shaft centered, angled body to miss the grill mounting lower bar AND the trans cooler face behind them. Also they needed to be where there was a flat place to bolt up the mounting plate I would need to fabricate both above and below AND be far enough away to leave room for a connecting linkage that I would also have to fabricate. All out of thin air. lol.
After fooling around with several designs that wouldn't work well I found that I didn't have the skills to fabricate a one piece linkage. The main issue was that the electric drive motors have a small "D" shaft that needs to attach to a big clunky 3/8" 1967 era post with a set pin hole through it. Two piece it would be.
I used a couple of hunks of steel pipe that would slid within each other. I made them as short as possible while still being long enough to slid within each other and bolt down the set screws. There also needed to be a bushing as a locating spacer between the end of the bucket post and the outer side of the donut face to maintain the correct spacing so that the fins on the bucket face would align with the grill ends for that smooth one piece look across the front. On one end the ID needed to be 1/4" and the other 3/8". The 1/4" end had to have a set screw hole through with threads and the other end a smooth hole for a latch pin to slid through. The middle had to have holes through both walls to connect the two pieces together. All of this occurs within about 3 1/2"......lol. Keep in mind I'm doing all of this by hand with no computers or plasma cutters...lol. The number of times that I had that front assembly on and off the car blurred after awhile..
The assembly itself also needed to be restored. The buckets disassembled and cleaned, sanded down and repainted, the chrome refurbished the lights and light mounts inside the buckets taken apart and cleaned and oiled. The grill sanded down and repainted the chrome shined up.[/QUOT
pics....
The turn signal mounting holes got the inner edges sliced away to provide a squared off edge to weld new metal too. Two plates were fabricated and trimmed to fit before being welded in place. Some filler and grinding later and a few coats of primer and Bob's yer Uncle.
My last name isn't Trepanier or Foose so the bumpers will either be body color or chrome wrapped. I cannot afford the chrome work.
Next up was the 67 Charger front end. It's all of a piece with the fender mods and bumper mods so I dove right in. I sold the Coronet items for a great price and bought a used set up from a 67 Charger. The parts are interchangeable with a few pieces being different like the lower grill support bar is model specific, as is the surrounding trim, although both bolt right up to either car. The sweeping back of the fender noses caused the Charger "C" trim on each end to be out of location. I solved this by slicing away a small portion at the rear inside edge so they too could be swept back to match while still being reasonably aligned with the trim section across the front.
The 67 Charger revolving headlights are a handful to get assembled correctly when you don't have another assembled example sitting in front of you. lol. Lots of trial and error.
The way they are manufactured doesn't lend itself to customization. For instance, the center revolving axis/axle is maintained by the clunky 50+ year old motors being bolted to a "donut" through which an axle finger/post protrudes from the each bucket. The motor axle/shaft pins onto this post. I had no desire to use those clunky old motors which caused me to have to design a way to keep the buckets revolving around a centered axis somehow. I burned a lot of brain cells on this mod.
Problems seemed to cascade from each solution. "This will cause that", syndrome. Which, truth be told, is the fun part for me. Figuring it all out, designing from scratch.
I had first to select a new set of bucket drive motors. I searched for a good week or so before finding a set that had three post mounting arrangements that would withstand the initial drag of the heavy buckets rotation. That would fit in between the mounting place and the radiator/transmission cooler and had the umpf to turn the heavy buckets.
There's very little room in there.
Then once that was worked out I had to design and fabricate the linkages to connect them to the buckets while also supporting and maintaining the center axis.
I started with the outer ends, the buckets themselves. Once I had finagled around the many parts that comprise the framing and spacing of the buckets between the grill ends and the turn signal housings on either end I moved on to axis rotation. How to keep that center post that's bolted to the exact center of the bucket end face centered in the "donut" hole? I eventually settled on using hard nylon white bushings. They were hard enough to stand up to the work load, easy enough to resize to fit and drill out the centers to fit the existing parts. I sanded down a set to hammer into the donut center holes so they wouldn't spin and then drilled out the centers to fit the bucket post through them. next came the motor mounting location and distance from the post end.
They would need to be shaft centered, angled body to miss the grill mounting lower bar AND the trans cooler face behind them. Also they needed to be where there was a flat place to bolt up the mounting plate I would need to fabricate both above and below AND be far enough away to leave room for a connecting linkage that I would also have to fabricate. All out of thin air. lol.
After fooling around with several designs that wouldn't work well I found that I didn't have the skills to fabricate a one piece linkage. The main issue was that the electric drive motors have a small "D" shaft that needs to attach to a big clunky 3/8" 1967 era post with a set pin hole through it. Two piece it would be.
I used a couple of hunks of steel pipe that would slid within each other. I made them as short as possible while still being long enough to slid within each other and bolt down the set screws. There also needed to be a bushing as a locating spacer between the end of the bucket post and the outer side of the donut face to maintain the correct spacing so that the fins on the bucket face would align with the grill ends for that smooth one piece look across the front. On one end the ID needed to be 1/4" and the other 3/8". The 1/4" end had to have a set screw hole through with threads and the other end a smooth hole for a latch pin to slid through. The middle had to have holes through both walls to connect the two pieces together. All of this occurs within about 3 1/2"......lol. Keep in mind I'm doing all of this by hand with no computers or plasma cutters...lol. The number of times that I had that front assembly on and off the car blurred after awhile..
The assembly itself also needed to be restored. The buckets disassembled and cleaned, sanded down and repainted, the chrome refurbished the lights and light mounts inside the buckets taken apart and cleaned and oiled. The grill sanded down and repainted the chrome shined up.[/QUOT
pics....
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 02:33 PM
more pics...
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 02:49 PM
Two more...
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 03:03 PM
Using this design I was able to reuse the limit switches and stop blocks on buckets. Ensuring that the buckets make the proper half turn and stop with the fins in alignment with the grill when open and closed.
Moving on from this big modification I turned to inner fender close out panels. The front two corners being smacked caused the top shelf of the inner fenders above the shock towers to wrinkle a little. Rather than replace the inners I designed and fabricated close out panels to cover a lot of ill's. 20ga sheet metal, bent on an 8' brake and trimmed to fit. They are mounted on hard nylon bushings underneath to separate them from the inners by 1/4" so I can hide wiring under them. Chrome plated Allen head bolts fasten down through the bushings. I have not decided yet whether to paint them body color, paint them body color with an electric blue MOPAR symbol on each one or some other color/design.
Moving on from this big modification I turned to inner fender close out panels. The front two corners being smacked caused the top shelf of the inner fenders above the shock towers to wrinkle a little. Rather than replace the inners I designed and fabricated close out panels to cover a lot of ill's. 20ga sheet metal, bent on an 8' brake and trimmed to fit. They are mounted on hard nylon bushings underneath to separate them from the inners by 1/4" so I can hide wiring under them. Chrome plated Allen head bolts fasten down through the bushings. I have not decided yet whether to paint them body color, paint them body color with an electric blue MOPAR symbol on each one or some other color/design.
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 03:06 PM
Inner panel pics...
Ghostrider 67
10-23-2021, 03:13 PM
More front end pics...
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 09:15 AM
Next up , although I thought of it and did it much later in the timeline, are the wiring passthrough lines along the front fenders underneath. I used some old CPAP mask air lines and fittings. I encased the plastic tubes in metal where they cross above the tires to protect them from debris. These allow me to route the engine bay wiring, at least some of it, and the front headlights wiring around the engine bay rather than through it.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 09:28 AM
Another mod at the front of the car was a disc brake swap from drums. The B Body cars are heavy and came with notoriously underwhelming brakes. Since I swapped in a 440 Big Block with massive HP & torque I felt that disc brakes were in order if I wanted to be able to stop this train. Fortunately MA MOPAR had some foresight and kept parts interchangeability through the years so that cars from the 1970's had sub systems that would bolt right up onto mid sixties muscle cars. I picked up a set of 1976 Aspen front spindles & caliper mounts. I bought new rotors, powder coated calipers, hoses and hardware to go on them. Easy swap. Cheap.
Also on the front of the car I wanted to smooth the firewall. I also wanted to shave the wiper motor divot in the top edge of the firewall where the big clunky motor sat like a wart. I moved the wiper motor to under the dash, mounting it in a fabricated mounting bracket that places it upside down near the center of the firewall and allows the arms that actuate the wipers to move freely. No problem. I fabricated a patch to shave the divot and formed a new edge along the top. I also cut out the cowl ends and placed smooth metal on those spots. I cut the firewall out of the car by slicing away everything that protruded out past the base plane of the wall. I then cut and fit a sheet of 18ga steel with a bend across the lower 1/3. It was interesting to place the Master Cylinder mounting holes in the right spots and figure out where to cut a hole for the steering shaft too. I left as much factory firewall metal attached as I could for strength.
Also on the front of the car I wanted to smooth the firewall. I also wanted to shave the wiper motor divot in the top edge of the firewall where the big clunky motor sat like a wart. I moved the wiper motor to under the dash, mounting it in a fabricated mounting bracket that places it upside down near the center of the firewall and allows the arms that actuate the wipers to move freely. No problem. I fabricated a patch to shave the divot and formed a new edge along the top. I also cut out the cowl ends and placed smooth metal on those spots. I cut the firewall out of the car by slicing away everything that protruded out past the base plane of the wall. I then cut and fit a sheet of 18ga steel with a bend across the lower 1/3. It was interesting to place the Master Cylinder mounting holes in the right spots and figure out where to cut a hole for the steering shaft too. I left as much factory firewall metal attached as I could for strength.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 09:41 AM
Pictures of firewall and brakes.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 10:28 AM
Upgrade the brakes equals upgrade the Master Cylinder too. I got a dual chamber unit so it will supply enough pressure to use those discs. Also I placed a proportioning valve down on the frame. The rear axle got a complete overhaul and new drums, shoes, cylinders bearings, springs and retainers and painted. Also new lines and fittings.
Moving along on the mods list the entire interior of the car got sold off. I wanted to do a modern dash/console as well as 59 Corvette style roadster panels behind the bucket seats. No rear seat IOW.
So...once I made up my mind to do this I needed to figure out what car would be the donor of an interior. I took measurements of the Coronet cab between the A pillars and floor to dash top height etc and took them along with me on a search through several salvage yards around the area. I looked at hundreds of cars and trucks. Nothing really caught my eye although there were a few candidates that would work. While I was thinking it over I made a list of cars that I had owned over the years, figuring that if I liked them enough to buy them once, perhaps I would like them again for this.
One that got my attention was a 1985 Audi 5000 Quattro that I bought from a West German dealership while stationed there. It was a very good car. This jogged my memory about an Audi that I had ignored, thinking it was too small, sitting in a yard close by. I went back and low and behold there it was, windows up, doors closed and complete. The tape measure came out and it was a match! Go figure. 2004 Audi A6 Quatto All Road wagon.
I even liked the color.
So after haggling a great price for the parts I came back with my pickup and some tools to spend a day disassembling it. I took it all from the rear seats forward. It had longer trim panels on the rear doors so I took those too thinking about how BIG the Coronet doors were compared to these.
I took the wiring and harness hardware, door wiring pass through boots and hardware, puddle lights and marker lights from the doors, steering column, power windows and locks, console tower and rear console with center pull E Brake, floor shift and the heat and A/C unit. I left the seats because they were too small.
Once I had it all home I began the mock up process.
Right away a whole list of problems cropped up. It's never as easy as it seems at first.
To begin with, the windshield on the Audi is smaller and the curve at the lower edge is much tighter. So this dash needed to be trimmed to fit the wider/slower curve of the 67 Coronet windshield. Fortunately the Audi dash is deep front to back. There was lots of extra along the front edge to cut away without causing any issues. Once that was done, and the dash mocked up into place, more issues became apparent.....lol.
The dash itself was the right width but the SKELETON the dash is mounted on isn't, by a long shot. The Audi dash is mounted to an aluminum skeleton that in turn bolts to attachment points coming off of the A pillars. Those attachment points didn't exist on my car. The pads on either end, where they bolted up, were hanging in space about 5' away from the pillars. Dang it.
Additionally there needed to be consideration of where exactly the dash ends would sit in relation to the door panels because the panel elements flowed across from the doors into the dash contours. This meant they had to line up perfectly, spatially.
Also the console center tower had to bolt onto the main dash body at the correct height so as to not bind or hang up AND the rear console portion had to mount up to the tower at the correct angle for the trim and panels to align. Whew! " Leg bone connected to the hip bone etc..."
Burned some more brain cells on this deal....lol. After much fooling around with juggling all the elements I found the optimal position for everything to come together. I fabricated a couple of brackets out of 3/16" steel plate that I welded to the A pillars at the right spots to meet the skeleton ends and bolted the dash main body into place.
The tower came next and then the rear console. The console needed mounting points fabricated to the trans tunnel in a couple of spots as well as a mount for the center pull E Brake handle assembly to pull from. Lots more juggling and scrutiny later those were fabricated and welded into place.
One of the issues that cropped up here was that the very deep Audi dash made the console set rearward about 13" from where it would be on a Coronet floor console. This meant the shifter base and linkages were also this far out of place. As were the bucket seat bases. I solved the shifter issue by building my own pistol grip shifter and marrying it to an Inland Shifter base out of another B Body. The linkages were simply an issue of lengthening the connecting rod to land at the right spot to catch the torque shaft to the tranny coming up through the floor in the stock location..
The seats are not an issue as I can just run them forward to a comfortable place to reach the gas pedal. The steering wheel telescope's too so...plus I'm six foot one tall with long legs,,,,..
The Audi dash is nearly twice as deep as the Coronet stock dash so there was a lot of room under there to hide other stuff from the engine bay.
Moving along on the mods list the entire interior of the car got sold off. I wanted to do a modern dash/console as well as 59 Corvette style roadster panels behind the bucket seats. No rear seat IOW.
So...once I made up my mind to do this I needed to figure out what car would be the donor of an interior. I took measurements of the Coronet cab between the A pillars and floor to dash top height etc and took them along with me on a search through several salvage yards around the area. I looked at hundreds of cars and trucks. Nothing really caught my eye although there were a few candidates that would work. While I was thinking it over I made a list of cars that I had owned over the years, figuring that if I liked them enough to buy them once, perhaps I would like them again for this.
One that got my attention was a 1985 Audi 5000 Quattro that I bought from a West German dealership while stationed there. It was a very good car. This jogged my memory about an Audi that I had ignored, thinking it was too small, sitting in a yard close by. I went back and low and behold there it was, windows up, doors closed and complete. The tape measure came out and it was a match! Go figure. 2004 Audi A6 Quatto All Road wagon.
I even liked the color.
So after haggling a great price for the parts I came back with my pickup and some tools to spend a day disassembling it. I took it all from the rear seats forward. It had longer trim panels on the rear doors so I took those too thinking about how BIG the Coronet doors were compared to these.
I took the wiring and harness hardware, door wiring pass through boots and hardware, puddle lights and marker lights from the doors, steering column, power windows and locks, console tower and rear console with center pull E Brake, floor shift and the heat and A/C unit. I left the seats because they were too small.
Once I had it all home I began the mock up process.
Right away a whole list of problems cropped up. It's never as easy as it seems at first.
To begin with, the windshield on the Audi is smaller and the curve at the lower edge is much tighter. So this dash needed to be trimmed to fit the wider/slower curve of the 67 Coronet windshield. Fortunately the Audi dash is deep front to back. There was lots of extra along the front edge to cut away without causing any issues. Once that was done, and the dash mocked up into place, more issues became apparent.....lol.
The dash itself was the right width but the SKELETON the dash is mounted on isn't, by a long shot. The Audi dash is mounted to an aluminum skeleton that in turn bolts to attachment points coming off of the A pillars. Those attachment points didn't exist on my car. The pads on either end, where they bolted up, were hanging in space about 5' away from the pillars. Dang it.
Additionally there needed to be consideration of where exactly the dash ends would sit in relation to the door panels because the panel elements flowed across from the doors into the dash contours. This meant they had to line up perfectly, spatially.
Also the console center tower had to bolt onto the main dash body at the correct height so as to not bind or hang up AND the rear console portion had to mount up to the tower at the correct angle for the trim and panels to align. Whew! " Leg bone connected to the hip bone etc..."
Burned some more brain cells on this deal....lol. After much fooling around with juggling all the elements I found the optimal position for everything to come together. I fabricated a couple of brackets out of 3/16" steel plate that I welded to the A pillars at the right spots to meet the skeleton ends and bolted the dash main body into place.
The tower came next and then the rear console. The console needed mounting points fabricated to the trans tunnel in a couple of spots as well as a mount for the center pull E Brake handle assembly to pull from. Lots more juggling and scrutiny later those were fabricated and welded into place.
One of the issues that cropped up here was that the very deep Audi dash made the console set rearward about 13" from where it would be on a Coronet floor console. This meant the shifter base and linkages were also this far out of place. As were the bucket seat bases. I solved the shifter issue by building my own pistol grip shifter and marrying it to an Inland Shifter base out of another B Body. The linkages were simply an issue of lengthening the connecting rod to land at the right spot to catch the torque shaft to the tranny coming up through the floor in the stock location..
The seats are not an issue as I can just run them forward to a comfortable place to reach the gas pedal. The steering wheel telescope's too so...plus I'm six foot one tall with long legs,,,,..
The Audi dash is nearly twice as deep as the Coronet stock dash so there was a lot of room under there to hide other stuff from the engine bay.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 11:14 AM
The main issues were with the doors. The Coronet doors are huge rectangles and as flat as Kansas. The Audi doors are small and the panels are curved and contoured plastic. They had a weird shape too. The panels would not simply bolt up to the Coronet doors and align. Never.
So I ruined a set of door panels trying to cut and fit them to make the dash contours flow correctly into the door panels. It became frustratingly clear that this approach wasn't going to do it.
My pal Rick said, " Hey? Why don't you just cut those elements off of the Audi door panels and figure out how to mount them to a door card that fits the Coronet door shape?" That way you can customize them to fit perfectly."
I looked at him and said, " Just exactly who do you think I am? Chip Foose?" lol.
He was right though, I bought another set of identical door panels to slice up.
Once the elements were separated from the Audi panel I could hold them up to the dash ends in the correct position and at the needed angles so I could see what needed to be done to make them live there permanently. The part that meets the dash ends has the door pull release handle, a speaker and the trim piece on it. The door pull handle to pull the heavy door closed has the power windows and door locks on it.
The dash flows onto the doors at a compound angle. Never thought I would use that Algebra and Geometry I learned in high school. lol.
I determined the most low tech method of making those pieces stay in place would be to run 4 1/2" drywall screws down through them into plastic tubes that were cut to make them stand off of the door metal at the correct distances and angles thereby locking them down. THEN I could backfill with expanding construction foam. The screws would keep the pieces from moving because of pressure from the expanding foam and the foam would in turn fill in every cavity.
After it was all dry I shaped the foam to match the outline of the piece and coated it with filler to harden it up for vinyl later to cover it. The vinyl will also cover the screw heads. The pull handles were set in different spots on the card while I stood back and considered how they looked. I also sat in the seats and placed them in spots where they were comfortable to use as well as not interfering with the power seats.
Then came the issue of how to fasten that arm to the card and the card to the door. There's a sequence there. It has to be in order so the card, WITH everything mounted securely to it can be taken off and on the door panel later. And upholstered too.
There's also a 'cubby' that lives along the bottom of the door panel that tips out and also houses the power seat memory buttons. I have not decided for sure yet If I will use them. I cut the doors to use them but am still waffling about it.
The Audi doors had these little rectangular lights, one red and one clear, the clear one pointed down towards the ground as a 'puddle' light and the red one facing rearward as a marker light to show the door as being open for anyone looking from the rear. They are just little plastic lenses that pop into a rectangular cut out in the sheet metal so I placed the same cut outs on my doors and popped them on. Coolness. The wiring for all of the door stuff passes through he A pillars into the door cavity via a rubber boot that snaps onto these little plastic collars that, again, snap into oval holes in the sheet metal. Easy,. I cut the same holes in the right spots and put them together. Worked like a charm. I transferred the door card clips to the new cards so I could attach them to the Coronet doors and cut a slot for the power window harness to come through.
Another issue was the release handle for the door latch was now in the opposite corner of the door from the latch. I had to fabricate a linkage to connect them that wouldn't interfere with the window glass or the crank assembly. ' The seats are from a late model Volvo, 10 way power . heated. leather buckets.
So I ruined a set of door panels trying to cut and fit them to make the dash contours flow correctly into the door panels. It became frustratingly clear that this approach wasn't going to do it.
My pal Rick said, " Hey? Why don't you just cut those elements off of the Audi door panels and figure out how to mount them to a door card that fits the Coronet door shape?" That way you can customize them to fit perfectly."
I looked at him and said, " Just exactly who do you think I am? Chip Foose?" lol.
He was right though, I bought another set of identical door panels to slice up.
Once the elements were separated from the Audi panel I could hold them up to the dash ends in the correct position and at the needed angles so I could see what needed to be done to make them live there permanently. The part that meets the dash ends has the door pull release handle, a speaker and the trim piece on it. The door pull handle to pull the heavy door closed has the power windows and door locks on it.
The dash flows onto the doors at a compound angle. Never thought I would use that Algebra and Geometry I learned in high school. lol.
I determined the most low tech method of making those pieces stay in place would be to run 4 1/2" drywall screws down through them into plastic tubes that were cut to make them stand off of the door metal at the correct distances and angles thereby locking them down. THEN I could backfill with expanding construction foam. The screws would keep the pieces from moving because of pressure from the expanding foam and the foam would in turn fill in every cavity.
After it was all dry I shaped the foam to match the outline of the piece and coated it with filler to harden it up for vinyl later to cover it. The vinyl will also cover the screw heads. The pull handles were set in different spots on the card while I stood back and considered how they looked. I also sat in the seats and placed them in spots where they were comfortable to use as well as not interfering with the power seats.
Then came the issue of how to fasten that arm to the card and the card to the door. There's a sequence there. It has to be in order so the card, WITH everything mounted securely to it can be taken off and on the door panel later. And upholstered too.
There's also a 'cubby' that lives along the bottom of the door panel that tips out and also houses the power seat memory buttons. I have not decided for sure yet If I will use them. I cut the doors to use them but am still waffling about it.
The Audi doors had these little rectangular lights, one red and one clear, the clear one pointed down towards the ground as a 'puddle' light and the red one facing rearward as a marker light to show the door as being open for anyone looking from the rear. They are just little plastic lenses that pop into a rectangular cut out in the sheet metal so I placed the same cut outs on my doors and popped them on. Coolness. The wiring for all of the door stuff passes through he A pillars into the door cavity via a rubber boot that snaps onto these little plastic collars that, again, snap into oval holes in the sheet metal. Easy,. I cut the same holes in the right spots and put them together. Worked like a charm. I transferred the door card clips to the new cards so I could attach them to the Coronet doors and cut a slot for the power window harness to come through.
Another issue was the release handle for the door latch was now in the opposite corner of the door from the latch. I had to fabricate a linkage to connect them that wouldn't interfere with the window glass or the crank assembly. ' The seats are from a late model Volvo, 10 way power . heated. leather buckets.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 11:22 AM
Pictures of the dash and doors..
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 11:37 AM
more interior pictures.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 12:21 PM
Nice to have a 160mph speedometer too!
The roadster panels were fun to figure out. I got the idea from seeing a classified ad on another car forum for a rear seat topper from a 1967 Plymouth Sport Fury. The thing looks like a set of wings and is designed to hug the tops of two faux bucket rear seats. Being out of another B Body car it was the right width too.
I envisioned it setting directly behind my FRONT bucket seats in the same way. That left filling in behind them.
I bought a 6' length of 3/16" angle and trimmed it to fit between the sides under the quarter glass. I drilled it for the mounting pins of the seat topper. I fabricated three pieces of sheet metal to be the panels behind it to the rear glass. I put the bows in them by carefully bending them against the upper edge of the front fender...lol. The center trough I bent up on a sheet metal brake. and curved it the same way. They will be stitched together and covered with vinyl. I toyed around with a center down panel between the seat backs but it interfered with my elbow when sitting in the seat and served no purpose other than appearance,.
The center trough just happens to mimic perfectly the contour lines down the centers of the hood and the trunk lid. Bonus!
Once the glass is tinted limo black it will a surprise for those who look inside. Underneath the panels will be a plate separating the cab from the trunk, carpet, a spare tire mount and the battery box. I'll hang black fabric down from underneath the topper to the floor to close it out. I will also place a couple of small dome lights under there with a switch located just under the edge of the seat topper.
The roadster panels were fun to figure out. I got the idea from seeing a classified ad on another car forum for a rear seat topper from a 1967 Plymouth Sport Fury. The thing looks like a set of wings and is designed to hug the tops of two faux bucket rear seats. Being out of another B Body car it was the right width too.
I envisioned it setting directly behind my FRONT bucket seats in the same way. That left filling in behind them.
I bought a 6' length of 3/16" angle and trimmed it to fit between the sides under the quarter glass. I drilled it for the mounting pins of the seat topper. I fabricated three pieces of sheet metal to be the panels behind it to the rear glass. I put the bows in them by carefully bending them against the upper edge of the front fender...lol. The center trough I bent up on a sheet metal brake. and curved it the same way. They will be stitched together and covered with vinyl. I toyed around with a center down panel between the seat backs but it interfered with my elbow when sitting in the seat and served no purpose other than appearance,.
The center trough just happens to mimic perfectly the contour lines down the centers of the hood and the trunk lid. Bonus!
Once the glass is tinted limo black it will a surprise for those who look inside. Underneath the panels will be a plate separating the cab from the trunk, carpet, a spare tire mount and the battery box. I'll hang black fabric down from underneath the topper to the floor to close it out. I will also place a couple of small dome lights under there with a switch located just under the edge of the seat topper.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 12:31 PM
The only other thing in the interior was the E Brake linkages and cables coming through the rear seat floor hump. I used two left hand cables of equal length.
here's some pictures of what the Audi interior looks like when all complete and also a few cars from which I drew inspiration for interior colors.
here's some pictures of what the Audi interior looks like when all complete and also a few cars from which I drew inspiration for interior colors.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 12:40 PM
two more...
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 01:39 PM
The car body color is Starfire Chestnut Brown Metallic single stage acrylic urethane. The interior will be complementing brown and black colors.
Along the way I shaved all of the body side 500 trim.
The next mod was opening up the fake side scoops on the front of the quarters. I got this idea from Chip Foose's "Imposter Impala" 1965 Impala that won the 2015 Riddler Award.
He put a set just behind the front wheel well openings. I had often asked myself why would Dodge put fake scoops on the side of the car? What if they were opened up?
I sliced along the incoming scoop side lines and carefully bowed the sheet metal inward until it was about 1 1/4" deep. Then I made a few small pieces to fill in the connecting areas back to the outer rims. Grinding and filler, shaping by hand and primer and Bob's Yer Uncle.
They will be filled by black fine mesh stainless steel. Next was shaving off the gas filler door. I felt that Dodge made a huge blunder in designing the graceful Coke Bottle shape of the body lines along those big quarter panels and then slap a huge clunky filler door smack in the middle of all of that fabulousness. What the hell were they thinking of?
So it had to go.
I tore out the in trunk tube cover as well and patched the resulting hole in the drop off panel. This meant that I now had to place the gas filler somewhere else. Hmmm...where?
I had always liked the 68/69/70 Charger gas cap up on the top of the quarter panel. However one of those on the Coronet would look like a big ole bunion stuck up there. lol. I still like the location but not the flip up cap.
Wouldn't you know it that at that time I happened to watch an episode of Kindig-It Design? They were doing their thing to a 53 Pontiac cruiser and were hiding the gas filler behind one of the Pontiac Indian head medallions on the end of the rear fender. The medallion was turned into a gas filler cap that popped out and spun out of the filler hole. They used a motorcycle pop up gas cap. i sat back and said, " Oh HELL YES, I'm so doing that!"
I ordered the weld in cap and installed it near the trunk lid front left corner. It looks bitchin!! But...wrong. lol It took me a minute to realize what was wrong too.
It needed another one on the other side of the car for symmetry! Just the one cap looked out of place. So, I ordered another and put it on the other side. Now it looks right and I can fill from either side! Bonus! The caps lay down flush with the sheet metal and are hard to see unless you know they are there. Very cool.
I got a 17 gallon fuel cell for inside the trunk and cut in second filler neck on it. The trunk lid is on gas filled lift arms and the mounts for these have holes in them for the gas filler lines to pass through, Very trick.
Along the way I shaved all of the body side 500 trim.
The next mod was opening up the fake side scoops on the front of the quarters. I got this idea from Chip Foose's "Imposter Impala" 1965 Impala that won the 2015 Riddler Award.
He put a set just behind the front wheel well openings. I had often asked myself why would Dodge put fake scoops on the side of the car? What if they were opened up?
I sliced along the incoming scoop side lines and carefully bowed the sheet metal inward until it was about 1 1/4" deep. Then I made a few small pieces to fill in the connecting areas back to the outer rims. Grinding and filler, shaping by hand and primer and Bob's Yer Uncle.
They will be filled by black fine mesh stainless steel. Next was shaving off the gas filler door. I felt that Dodge made a huge blunder in designing the graceful Coke Bottle shape of the body lines along those big quarter panels and then slap a huge clunky filler door smack in the middle of all of that fabulousness. What the hell were they thinking of?
So it had to go.
I tore out the in trunk tube cover as well and patched the resulting hole in the drop off panel. This meant that I now had to place the gas filler somewhere else. Hmmm...where?
I had always liked the 68/69/70 Charger gas cap up on the top of the quarter panel. However one of those on the Coronet would look like a big ole bunion stuck up there. lol. I still like the location but not the flip up cap.
Wouldn't you know it that at that time I happened to watch an episode of Kindig-It Design? They were doing their thing to a 53 Pontiac cruiser and were hiding the gas filler behind one of the Pontiac Indian head medallions on the end of the rear fender. The medallion was turned into a gas filler cap that popped out and spun out of the filler hole. They used a motorcycle pop up gas cap. i sat back and said, " Oh HELL YES, I'm so doing that!"
I ordered the weld in cap and installed it near the trunk lid front left corner. It looks bitchin!! But...wrong. lol It took me a minute to realize what was wrong too.
It needed another one on the other side of the car for symmetry! Just the one cap looked out of place. So, I ordered another and put it on the other side. Now it looks right and I can fill from either side! Bonus! The caps lay down flush with the sheet metal and are hard to see unless you know they are there. Very cool.
I got a 17 gallon fuel cell for inside the trunk and cut in second filler neck on it. The trunk lid is on gas filled lift arms and the mounts for these have holes in them for the gas filler lines to pass through, Very trick.
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 01:46 PM
more pics...
Ghostrider 67
10-24-2021, 09:42 PM
Now you see why I placed a steel barrier between the cab and trunk....lol.
The trunk lid comes with stock torsion bars to lift the lid. When I tubbed the wells they had to go. Gas lifts seemed to be the answer and were easy to install. I cut out the floor entirely and welded in braces across the space and a flat sheet metal floor on top of them.
Another mod on the list was leaf spring relocation to under the frame rails. This gets me 15 3/4" of space for tires in each well. lol.
I bought a kit from Mancini Racing and installed them. It's not difficult but it needs to be done with care as one mistake will ruin the geometry and the frame rails. The directions are straight forward and I did some research with others who had also done this mod.
Next up was the big mac daddy of mods that I had planned for this car.
Reimagining the rear face of the car. ALL of it.
I liked nothing about the rear look of the car except that the lights pretended to extend all of the way across the rear.
The stock Coronet has a deck lid that curves down to the rear bumper. My ambitious plan would see me slicing that vertical portion of the lid away entirely. Other problems flowed from this.
Now I would need to design and fabricate a new trunk seal rail across the back at a new location higher up. I would need to locate and buy a light set up that extended across the rear face for real.
I would need to fabricate the mounting surround and method for this fictional light set up. I would have to work out placement so the trunk lid, the tail extensions, the bumper, the lights, the trim and the inside of the trunk rear face would all work together harmoniously. just like it was designed. It had to look good too. Like it belonged there.
No easy task.
I thought about using 67 Charger tail lights. I bought a set of housings and mocked them up. too short by about 3". Plus I just didn't like them on there. So, i looked around for something else. I tried 68 mercury Cougar lights. No go.
I considered 2017 Dodge Charger tail lights. No go.
I went back to one of the larger salvage yards and sloped around for a while looking at tail lights until I happened upon a 1966 Ford Thunderbird. At first I didn't think they would work because the trim was hiding the true shape of the tail lights. After poking around in the trunk and removing the trim around the lights I found that it was indeed a single long bar of lights. It was also short by the same amount but in this case I actually liked the look. I pulled the whole shebang and bought it. I didn't at the time remember that those lights were the sequential blinking type and had to drive back up there later to pull the controller out of the trunk.
Once back at home I mocked up the light bar base on the car. Loved them.
One element down.
I also needed to source the 1970 road Runner rear bumper still. My pal Gary happened to have one he would sell. I bought it.
I hung that thing up on there under the t bird lights. Loved it.
Two down.
I hung the tail extensions on each side and saw where the they would need to be modified to work. Three down.
The trunk lid would have to wait until the rest was fabricated and in place so that I could then determine how to fabricate the back edge of it and the underside for the seal rail.
Lots of other issues cropped up as I went along. My first design was great until I got to the issue of the trunk latch and the inside of the trunk area behind the lights. I couldn't make it work.
Scratch that.
After some thought and scribbling, I figured out a simpler design that would work. I bought a rear section from a dismantler and cut out parts that I would need for my design.
Honestly, the most difficult part was the trunk seal rail where it curves down in each rear corner and crosses the rear of the car. Those compound curves were a bitch. The placement of the light base left almost no vertical space remaining to place the rail.
My thought was to divide the rear face into two sections, nearly equal in height. The bumper and the lights with the thin trunk lid end.
Symmetry above all.
The outer quarter tail extension profiles had to match the upsweep of the rear bumper end profiles. I wanted one smooth curve up each side.
This meant the bumper needed to be stretched 4 5/8" in the center.
The trunk lid comes with stock torsion bars to lift the lid. When I tubbed the wells they had to go. Gas lifts seemed to be the answer and were easy to install. I cut out the floor entirely and welded in braces across the space and a flat sheet metal floor on top of them.
Another mod on the list was leaf spring relocation to under the frame rails. This gets me 15 3/4" of space for tires in each well. lol.
I bought a kit from Mancini Racing and installed them. It's not difficult but it needs to be done with care as one mistake will ruin the geometry and the frame rails. The directions are straight forward and I did some research with others who had also done this mod.
Next up was the big mac daddy of mods that I had planned for this car.
Reimagining the rear face of the car. ALL of it.
I liked nothing about the rear look of the car except that the lights pretended to extend all of the way across the rear.
The stock Coronet has a deck lid that curves down to the rear bumper. My ambitious plan would see me slicing that vertical portion of the lid away entirely. Other problems flowed from this.
Now I would need to design and fabricate a new trunk seal rail across the back at a new location higher up. I would need to locate and buy a light set up that extended across the rear face for real.
I would need to fabricate the mounting surround and method for this fictional light set up. I would have to work out placement so the trunk lid, the tail extensions, the bumper, the lights, the trim and the inside of the trunk rear face would all work together harmoniously. just like it was designed. It had to look good too. Like it belonged there.
No easy task.
I thought about using 67 Charger tail lights. I bought a set of housings and mocked them up. too short by about 3". Plus I just didn't like them on there. So, i looked around for something else. I tried 68 mercury Cougar lights. No go.
I considered 2017 Dodge Charger tail lights. No go.
I went back to one of the larger salvage yards and sloped around for a while looking at tail lights until I happened upon a 1966 Ford Thunderbird. At first I didn't think they would work because the trim was hiding the true shape of the tail lights. After poking around in the trunk and removing the trim around the lights I found that it was indeed a single long bar of lights. It was also short by the same amount but in this case I actually liked the look. I pulled the whole shebang and bought it. I didn't at the time remember that those lights were the sequential blinking type and had to drive back up there later to pull the controller out of the trunk.
Once back at home I mocked up the light bar base on the car. Loved them.
One element down.
I also needed to source the 1970 road Runner rear bumper still. My pal Gary happened to have one he would sell. I bought it.
I hung that thing up on there under the t bird lights. Loved it.
Two down.
I hung the tail extensions on each side and saw where the they would need to be modified to work. Three down.
The trunk lid would have to wait until the rest was fabricated and in place so that I could then determine how to fabricate the back edge of it and the underside for the seal rail.
Lots of other issues cropped up as I went along. My first design was great until I got to the issue of the trunk latch and the inside of the trunk area behind the lights. I couldn't make it work.
Scratch that.
After some thought and scribbling, I figured out a simpler design that would work. I bought a rear section from a dismantler and cut out parts that I would need for my design.
Honestly, the most difficult part was the trunk seal rail where it curves down in each rear corner and crosses the rear of the car. Those compound curves were a bitch. The placement of the light base left almost no vertical space remaining to place the rail.
My thought was to divide the rear face into two sections, nearly equal in height. The bumper and the lights with the thin trunk lid end.
Symmetry above all.
The outer quarter tail extension profiles had to match the upsweep of the rear bumper end profiles. I wanted one smooth curve up each side.
This meant the bumper needed to be stretched 4 5/8" in the center.
Ghostrider 67
10-25-2021, 08:07 AM
These pictures show the progression of the rear face mods. Notice how the outer edges of the rear are a smooth upsweep....
Ghostrider 67
10-25-2021, 09:41 PM
After completing all of the fabrication and putting the car in epoxy green primer I moved on the engine.
I had a 74 440, from a motor home that had low miles, sitting on an engine stand but came across an 86 Power Ram 4x4 that had a 72 440 in it from out of a Charger. It had been built in the recent past with some go fast parts and was a runner, $700 for the entire truck. I bought it and parted out everything but the engine and tranny.
Upon disassembly of the motor I learned that it had a bad lifter and the Crane cam was shot. I took the thing apart and set aside the parts that I would reuse and tossed everything else. I sent the bare block off to RPM Racing Engines here in Vermont for clean up and machining. It was already 0.30 over and we took it to 0.40. Squared up the cylinders, honed them, decked it and did a clean up pass. New Speed Pro's and pins, Melling HV oil pump, new moly rings and seals, had new cam bearings installed using my Comp 21-306-4 cam for fitment, new push rods, new Viton Teflon valve seals, forged steel crank polished and new mains and rods. I did the assembly myself. Weiand single plane powder coated in Alien Silver and Black, Holley dual feed 750 cfm, Mallory Unilite dizzy with electronic module, Taylor 8mm racing plug wires, 346 heads fully ported and polished, port matched, valves unshrouded and ground, titanium retainers and 10* locks. Dual springs Comp Cams. March polished aluminum pulley's, MH water pump for increased cooling capacity, 26" radiator and 26"x 16" trans cooler. Mini starter & factory exhaust manifolds. Wrinkle black valve covers PS pump & water pump, 7 quart Hemi deep sump 971 oil pan with integral baffle and a separate windage tray. The block is painted in VHT High Temp Hemi Orange and the heads in Alien silver. Oil pan is black. Chrome plated timing cover and timing tab over billet aluminum Mancini Racing dual chain timing chain and gears. Also Mancini Racing billet polished aluminum rear main seal tower. Custom coil mount bracket. Chrome plated fuel feed rail with integral liquid filled fuel pressure gauge.
This motor should produce nearly 480 HP and torque.
I had a 74 440, from a motor home that had low miles, sitting on an engine stand but came across an 86 Power Ram 4x4 that had a 72 440 in it from out of a Charger. It had been built in the recent past with some go fast parts and was a runner, $700 for the entire truck. I bought it and parted out everything but the engine and tranny.
Upon disassembly of the motor I learned that it had a bad lifter and the Crane cam was shot. I took the thing apart and set aside the parts that I would reuse and tossed everything else. I sent the bare block off to RPM Racing Engines here in Vermont for clean up and machining. It was already 0.30 over and we took it to 0.40. Squared up the cylinders, honed them, decked it and did a clean up pass. New Speed Pro's and pins, Melling HV oil pump, new moly rings and seals, had new cam bearings installed using my Comp 21-306-4 cam for fitment, new push rods, new Viton Teflon valve seals, forged steel crank polished and new mains and rods. I did the assembly myself. Weiand single plane powder coated in Alien Silver and Black, Holley dual feed 750 cfm, Mallory Unilite dizzy with electronic module, Taylor 8mm racing plug wires, 346 heads fully ported and polished, port matched, valves unshrouded and ground, titanium retainers and 10* locks. Dual springs Comp Cams. March polished aluminum pulley's, MH water pump for increased cooling capacity, 26" radiator and 26"x 16" trans cooler. Mini starter & factory exhaust manifolds. Wrinkle black valve covers PS pump & water pump, 7 quart Hemi deep sump 971 oil pan with integral baffle and a separate windage tray. The block is painted in VHT High Temp Hemi Orange and the heads in Alien silver. Oil pan is black. Chrome plated timing cover and timing tab over billet aluminum Mancini Racing dual chain timing chain and gears. Also Mancini Racing billet polished aluminum rear main seal tower. Custom coil mount bracket. Chrome plated fuel feed rail with integral liquid filled fuel pressure gauge.
This motor should produce nearly 480 HP and torque.
Ghostrider 67
10-26-2021, 10:55 AM
Good looking engine...am I right?? huh?
lol. The rear bumper being stretched doesn't tell the whole story. I also had to bend them differently on the ends in order to hug the quarter skins. This placed the bumper contour lines at an odd angle versus the quarter panel lines and needed to be corrected. I did so by grinding down the old bumper lines and adding back metal to match the quarter panel incoming lines. I also cut out the panel indents and fabricated new panel patches that mimicked the new end profiles on each side.
I found another 67 Coronet custom online by accident while searching for something else and it became the inspiration for the bumper mods.
The 3" exhaust from TTI will exit through those two back up light holes in the rear bumper. The T Bird lights have a center oval section that's clear and is the back up light. Inside there are also a couple of bulbs with red plastic lenses covering them so when i have the lights on after dark they show out as being red.
lol. The rear bumper being stretched doesn't tell the whole story. I also had to bend them differently on the ends in order to hug the quarter skins. This placed the bumper contour lines at an odd angle versus the quarter panel lines and needed to be corrected. I did so by grinding down the old bumper lines and adding back metal to match the quarter panel incoming lines. I also cut out the panel indents and fabricated new panel patches that mimicked the new end profiles on each side.
I found another 67 Coronet custom online by accident while searching for something else and it became the inspiration for the bumper mods.
The 3" exhaust from TTI will exit through those two back up light holes in the rear bumper. The T Bird lights have a center oval section that's clear and is the back up light. Inside there are also a couple of bulbs with red plastic lenses covering them so when i have the lights on after dark they show out as being red.
Ghostrider 67
10-28-2021, 08:16 AM
Hello there.....
Yes, i'm speaking to YOU, the one reading these words right now.
Just a short note here, addressing the lack of participation on these and other forums.
These resources only survive if they get participation on a daily basis. You have to do more than browse and leave.
How about taking 5 minutes out of your busy life and post up a reply to a thread?
Even if it's to say that you came, you read, you saw and didn't like any of it!
If readers never engage with thread starters then this and other forums like it will dry up and then where will you be?
You wont be able to ask questions about cars, and get an answer, that's where.
The car hobbies will dry up and blow away.
So, stop in to read but please say something too. What have you got to lose, besides a few minutes?
Cheers!
Ghost.
Yes, i'm speaking to YOU, the one reading these words right now.
Just a short note here, addressing the lack of participation on these and other forums.
These resources only survive if they get participation on a daily basis. You have to do more than browse and leave.
How about taking 5 minutes out of your busy life and post up a reply to a thread?
Even if it's to say that you came, you read, you saw and didn't like any of it!
If readers never engage with thread starters then this and other forums like it will dry up and then where will you be?
You wont be able to ask questions about cars, and get an answer, that's where.
The car hobbies will dry up and blow away.
So, stop in to read but please say something too. What have you got to lose, besides a few minutes?
Cheers!
Ghost.
Ghostrider 67
10-28-2021, 10:30 AM
The car is in primer now, with the front clip in color. There are now two coats of epoxy and 4 coats of light grey primer with various spots getting filler and glazing in-between.
Ready to shoot the body but ran out of warm weather here in VT.
Ready to shoot the body but ran out of warm weather here in VT.
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