DodgeCoronet.com

Well, since every cars story has to start at the beginning with it's owner, that's
where I'll start with my 1966 Coronet 500.

PART ONE - THE BEGINNING

I purchased my car back in the summer of 1989 after I had sold my previous car which was a 1970 Charger R/T
at the end of the summer in 1988. I was actually looking for a 1965 Belvedere, or Satellite as my next project car,
but after looking around for awhile and finding only one 65 Belvedere for sale in my area that was a total mess and
had no title, I was a bit frustrated about finding one.

Then while my best friend and me were attending a local car show here in Phoenix in 1989, we were both checking out
a very nice 66 Coronet 500 at the show and I was mentioning to him that I really liked the 66-67 Coronets. We were
then approached by a gentleman who was also looking at this Coronet and he came over to me and asked if I might be
interested in purchasing a nicely optioned 66 Coronet 500 that he had for sale.

He had purchased this car as a restoration project but soon after buying this car, he came across a 66 Hemi 4 speed
Coronet, so as many would do, he decided to restore the Hemi car and sell his first car. A meeting was set for me and my
wife to drive up to his home in Northern Arizona and inspect the car.

The car was still very original with all of it's original rust free sheet metal, original 727 Torqueflite automatic transmission and
original 8.75 differential. While the car had a non original 383 big block engine in it, the cars original factory 361 big block short
block assembly was being included with the car.

As mentioned, all of the sheet metal was rust free and in very good condition with the exception of the front leading edge of the
passenger front fender which had a slight bit of damage and a more seriously damaged passenger side quarter panel which had
some collision damage caused by a large truck backing into the car as it was parked outside in front of the gentleman's home, so
those issues would have to be addressed.

The interior however, looked like a typical older vehicle that had spent it's entire life in Arizona, as it was in serious need of a
restoration. It was all original though as even the carpeting was factory original and had a manufacture date of late 1965 when I
took it out of the car! While the seats and carpeting were absolutely trashed and the dash pad had a few cracks in it, the factory
power window door panels were still in very good condition and the original headliner was faded, but was all in one piece and is still
in the car today as are the door panels.

The drive train was also in need of restoration, as the non original 383 had seen it's better days and the transmission was ok, but was
not up to the performance that I was looking for and the 8.75 had the factory installed 2.76 gear ratio with a non Sure-Grip set-up and
that just wasn't going to meet my performance needs either. The front and rear suspension, as well as the tires were also worn out and
on the loose side.

After speaking with the owner and looking the car over for a few hours and making an evaluation of what the car would need, I made the
owner an offer which he accepted and my journey with this fantastic Coronet had begun! My first experience with this car was during the
drive home from Northern Arizona down to my home in Phoeiix. Any of you DCR members who live in AZ and have driven those mountain
passes between Northern AZ and Phoenix know what I'm referring to about being rather exciting with an older car with lousy steering, tires
and suspension! Saying that drive was exciting is an understatement!

Here's a listing of my Coronet 500's factory options. (at least the ones that I can remember!)

(1) 361 single 2 barrel big block engine rated @265 hp
(2) Single exhaust system
(3) 727 Torqueflite automatic transmission
(4) 8.75 rear differential with 2.76 gear ratio and no Sure-Grip
(5) Power assisted drum brakes
(6) Power steering
(7) Max cooling package and fan shroud
(8) Heavy duty alternator
(9) Left hand side outside remote control mirror
(10) Inside Day/Night rear view mirror
(11) Tinted glass, all windows
(12) Power windows
(13) Air conditioning with heater
(14) Bucket seats (with premium vinyl)
(15) Center floor console
(16) Console mounter transmission shifter
(17) Seat lap belts, front and rear (shoulder belts were not an option in 1966)
(18) AM Music Master radio with single dash mounted speaker
(19) Light package, includes dash mounted parking brake warning light, ashtray
light, glove box light, trunk compartment light, and map and courtesy light.
(20) 3 speed / variable windshield wipers with electric washer system
(21) Front and rear bumper guards
(22) Cigar lighter
(23) Glove box and floor console locks
(24) Rear arm rest pad mounted ash trays
(25) Light Green Metallic exterior
(26) Black interior

Here are a few pictures of the car as it appeared shortly after I purchased it in 1989. At the time these pictures were taken,
I had already made the following changes.

(1) Removed the cars original mint condition hood for safe storage and added an equally nice steel hood from a donor 1967
Coronet along with an aftermarket fiberglass reproduction version of the 1967 WO23 Hemi Coronet style hood scoop. I then
painted the new hood and scoop flat black.

(2) Added a new set of American Racing 15x7 Champ 500 wheels front and rear.

(3) Added a new set of P235-60R-15 B. F. G. Radial T/A tires front and rear.

Some pictures of the original interior, or what was left of it!

Richard









Next up, I'll talk about and show pictures of the cars restoration and repaint that happened in 1990 and 1991.

Richard

Quote:67R/T4speeder

Thats one heck of a dent there Richard I wait to here details on how that got
repaired.
Neat license plate do you still run it?
Do you still have that truck also?

Hello Andy,

Yes sir, that quarter panel damage was in a VERY interesting place to fix! I'll give you more information and pictures of it's repair
in various stages in my next installment. I do still have the custom "MY66HP" AZ license plates, as automobile plates stay with the
owners rather than the vehicles here in Phoenix, but I switched to a second custom plate that reads "QUICK66" a few years ago.
I could switch back to the "MY66HP" plate if I wanted to by contacting the DMV though.

As far as the pick-up that you see in that one picture parked next to my Coronet goes, it was a two wheel drive 1974 Dodge Adventurer
1/2 ton, short bed, factory equipped with a 440 big block and an automatic transmission. When I purchased it from my brother-in-law,
it had a non original 1974 440 with a mild cam, Holley 750 carb and headers. The 727 had been rebuilt with a shift kit and the rear
differential had a 3.91 gear ratio and Sure-Grip, so that sucker could FRY the tires at will! I used it as a tow truck and daily driver for
awhile but it was an electrical nightmare as most older Mopars are and the a/c was giving me issues which is a BIG problem here in Phoenix,
so I sold it back in the early 90's and I haven't seen it since. It was a rather fun truck though!

Richard

PART TWO - EXTERIOR RESTORATION

After getting to know the car as a daily driver for a few months and feeling like I just couldn't stand seeing and siting on
those nasty old seat covers anymore, I started planning a complete restoration for the car. The very first thing that I had
to decide on, was if I was going to repaint the car in it's original light green metallic, or go with a completely different color.
After thinking about it and realizing that the original color wasn't going to be the color I really wanted, I came up with a short
list of possible new colors. They included GM 1977 Corvette Bright Yellow, Mopar FK5 1970 Dark Burnt Orange metallic, Mopar
EF8 1969 Dark Green metallic and Mopar TX9 Black. I guess it's obvious which color won out in the end! I also decided to use
PPG paint products for most everything and the color was a Urethane basecoat/clearcoat.

With those decisions made, the next step was to find someone that I could trust AND afford to help me with the paint and body work.
That turned out to be easier than I had thought when I saw that my next door neighbor had a 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible that he was
restoring and a 1978 Firebird Trans Am that he had already done a custom paint job on. I knew that he was a very accomplished mechanic
by trade, but after talking with him about his two cars, it turned out that he had done quite a bit of paint and body work before he had
come to Phoenix. It looked like it was going to be a good deal for both of us, as he was right next door and he gave me a very fair price to
do the work and he could use the money that he received from me for his GTO

Now that I had my paint and body man lined up, we started talking about how we would approach the project. After he took a close look
at the car, he told me that repairing the damaged leading edge on the front fender wasn't going to be an issue, but because of where the
passenger side quarter panel had been damaged and seeing that we would have some issues getting the normal body repair tools into
some of the areas that would need work, he felt that it would be easier to find a donor car with a good quarter panel to replace the original
damaged one. Being that he was a Pontiac enthusiasts and not realizing how challenging it would be to find a 66 Coronet with a satisfactory
replacement, I politely explained to him that wouldn't be a good option, plus I wanted to keep all of the cars original factory sheet metal in
place.

That meant that we were going to have to be creative on how to repair that quarter panel and that's when my neighbor came up with
a fantastic piece of equipment that I had never seen before! I regret that I didn't take any pictures of this cool piece, but it basically looked
similar to a large hydraulic engine hoist with the same basic leg and center upright beam design, but instead of having an overhead boom
arm to raise and lower engines, it had an adjustable boom arm that came straight out from the middle of the machine and had a steel plate
with several threaded studs welded onto the steel plate at the end of the boom arm and instead of having a hand operated lever to operate
the hydraulic cylinder as on a normal engine hoist, it had a foot pump to operate the hydraulic cylinder making it a hands free set-up . I don't
know the correct name for this tool, but I'd call it a hydraulic body panel repair machine.

The way we used this machine was to drill several
holes in the damaged area of the quarter panel so that the threaded studs on the metal plate that was attached to the boom arm could pass
through the exterior quarter panel sheet metal and into the interior in the quarter window area. We then used a second steel plate with some
heavy rubber padding on the inside of the car with matching holes drilled into it to match the threaded stud pattern. At that point, we doubled
nutted this inner plate up against the inner quarter panel sheet metal until it was snug. Then we carefully used the foot pump on the machine
to operate the hydraulic cylinder which in turn slowly pulled the sheet metal back out to very close to it's original shape.

Here's some pictures to show you different stages of this process.

Drool...!!!!!

Now to explain why our "paint booth" looks like an unfinished garage! Ok, it WAS my neighbors unfinished garage, which brings
me to another interesting story in this saga.

Since my neighbor was in charge of the paint and body work part of this restoration, one of his responsibilities was to make the
arrangements to rent a paint booth, so when we were ready to paint the car, we would have a place to do so. Well, after asking him
several times if he had made those arrangements and having him assure me that all was good for the paint booth, the weekend finally
came when we were all set to shoot the paint. I had all of the PPG Urethane paint and other needed supplies ready to go, so my neighbor
gave the body shop a call to let them know that we were ready to paint the Coronet in their booth as we had made the deal for. previously.

Well, he comes back outside with an angry look on his face and lets me know that the owner of the shop had screwed up his scheduling
for the paint booth and someone else had already started on their project, so he was really sorry, but we were out of luck not only for that
weekend, but for the next several upcoming weekends also!!! Soooooo, we stand there looking at each other for a couple of uncomfortable
minutes trying NOT to say anything to each other that we would regret later (LOL) and he then says to me, SCREW the paint shop Richard,
we're gonna paint that damn car in my garage! He then tells me that if I'm not COMPLETELY happy with the paint, he would pay for all of the
needed supplies and would re-shoot the car free of charge. So we cleaned up his garage, covered up everything in his garage that he didn't
want painted 1977 Corvette Bright Yellow and got started.

Here's some pictures of the car as we were doing the body work and paint.

A couple of pictures of the car after all of the paint and body work had been completed in 1991. Don't mind that old fart in the one picture,
as I have NO idea who that might be!

Quote:67440Dodge
That sounds alot like the machine the body shop I worked at back in the early 80's
had. Difference was this had a boom that pulled a chain up that wound thru a
pulley mechanism to pull a body panel, frame piece, etc outward.

Hi Mike,

I tried for awhile this morning before I added my post to the thread to find a picture of a tool that looked like that machine that we
used to pull out my quarter panel and I couldn't find anything that looked even close. I'm starting to wonder if it was a custom made
tool that either he had stored somewhere other than his house, or someone he knew had. He's moved away years ago
and I've lost touch with him, or I'd ask him about it, as I never saw it again after we used it on my Coronet.

Richard

Quote:67R/T4speeder
That body line was gone right there in the damaged area and it look dead straight
now.Amazing work

Thank you very much Andy! We did spend a fair amount of time on that quarter panel for sure! If you look closely at the second picture in
the above post of mine, you will also see the front edge of the quarter panel where it meets up to the back end of the door was also deformed
quite a bit and THAT was an S.O.B to get back into it's correct shape and alignment again! You talk about having to deal with multiple complex
curves! Most folks don't realize how many body lines these 66 and 67 Coronets really have until they see one painted in an eye searing color like
the one that I used! They really are VERY sculptured cars in many areas, which makes repairing and lining up all of those body lines a real
challenge!

Richard

Quote:ws27
Very nice Richard, you sure did have one very nice neighbor. That tool sounds
more like a torture device for quarter panels, or people if you use a little
imagination. I will have to do something like that on my 66 vert, the left quarter
panel was hit. The repair was so bad, although it looks OK, the center line is
about an inch and a half too far in. The whole thing needs to be pulled.

Hello Rich,

Thank you sir, and yes, it really did work out well to have him so close. That puller absolutely saved my quarter panel, as it would
have been "torture" trying to use anything else in that area where all of the inner sheet metal from various things were in the way.
(rear package shelf, wheel tub, rear seat X brace, inner quarter window sheet metal and so on) I could just kick myself for not
getting some pictures of that tool! As far as you're convertible goes, you absolutely know what I mean when I talk about all of the
body lines that the 66 and 67 Coronets have huh? If they aren't right, they really say "LOOK AT ME, I'M ALL MESSED UP"!

Richard

PART THREE - INTERIOR RESTORATION

As I've already mentioned and shown pictures of, the interior of my Coronet was VERY original, but also pretty much toast when I bought
the car, so it was time to make some badly needed improvements.

The very first thing that I did was to take inventory of what was still usable and what needed to be replaced, or restored. The items that
were still good to go included the original factory power window door panels, the slightly faded but still non torn headliner, the sun visors
and the original dash pad which only had a couple of cracks in it that I was able to cover up. The steering wheel and horn ring could also
have been reused, but I had other plans for a new steering wheel, so they were removed from the car and safely stored away. The seats
and carpeting were also original and totally worn out, but it was very cool to find a manufacture date of 1965 on the carpeting when I
removed it from the car!

Back in 1990 when I was restoring my Coronet's interior, I knew that I was going to be doing a LOT of drag racing with the car, so I wanted
to set up the interior for that purpose. Even though I wasn't going to build it as a serious drag strip only car, I still wanted to add a few safety
items to make it as safe as I could without adding either a roll bar or a roll cage.

The first thing that had to be changed out, was the drivers seat! As we all know, the 66 Coronet's came from the factory with low back bucket
seats which had neither locking seat backs or headrests even as an option, so I went with an RCI high back, one piece, molded plastic racing
bucket seat. The drivers side factory lap belts (shoulder belts were not even an option in 1966) were also removed and replaced with a then
NHRA legal "Y" style Simpson 5 point racing seat belt harness. Even though I wasn't going to be using the factory drivers side bucket seat at
that point, I had a friend of mine here in Phoenix make me a complete custom set of seat covers with the factory pattern for both front
buckets and the rear bench seat. They looked identical to the original factory all vinyl seat covers with the exception that the inserts were done
in a black cloth to save me from getting my backside fried from having to sit on all black vinyl seats here in our extremely hot summer weather
in Phoenix!

Other improvements included a new set of black carpets, new sill plates, a black Dash-Mat to cover the original dash pad, a new rear package
tray cover and other bits and pieces to make everything fresh and in good working order.

I also had my neighbor who did the exterior paint work re-shoot all of the interior sheet metal except for the dashboard shell in the 1977
Corvette Bright Yellow which matched the exterior of the car. All new hood, door and trunk compartment weather stripping and body plugs were
installed also.

Aftermarket parts that I added beyond the new RCI seat and Simpson seat belt harness included a custom made adjustable seat track assembly
that I fabricated using an RCI slider seat mounting kit and aluminum stock so that I could mount the new RCI seat into my car using the factory
bucket seat mounts, which meant that no new holes were drilled in the floor pan to mount the seat. Other added items included an AutoMeter
Monster tachometer and matching shift light, a set of AutoMeter auxiliary gauges, a Grant steering wheel and a B&M Quicksilver shifter, which was
mounted into the factory floor console. A Hurst line-lock was also hooked up to the B&M "T" style handle that I added to the shifter.

Here's a few pictures of what the interior looked like as I was working on it and after I did all of the above work.

Front area all stripped down.





Rear area all stripped down