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Full Version: Greetings from Austin, MN....Home of delicious Hormel SPAM!
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Greetings from Austin, MN. I have been a member here for a while but never introduced myself. My name is Mike and I work as a FT police officer and PT firefighter.

First off, thanks for putting together and maintaining a great site that is a wealth of knowledge. I am sure I am going to have plenty of questions, and will have lots to share. I have owned about 10 Coronets since I was 18, and currently have two.

I have been working on a 66 500 Convertible, 383 bench seat automatic since 2000. Slow going for a lot of reasons, but I am once again excited about the car and hope to drive it for the first time in 2017 if all goes well.

The car started its life in Michigan and somehow ended up being abandoned in Wyoming, ending up in a guys yard in the middle of nowhere. I found it online at a time when dial up internet was all that was available in my area, and pics took forever to load. Called the guy, struck a deal and drove to Wyoming with a buddy to pick up the rotted out convertible and a pretty rock solid 66 500 HT as a donor. $1200 for the pair.

I was determined to get this car started. Every nut, every bolt and every clip was removed and it was up on a rotisserie in my garage. Cutting, hacking and welding trying my hand at really rebuilding a car....And there it sat, on this borrowed contraption from my barber, for about 7 years. Through the years, I have lost interest, got excited about it, got motivated to work on it, lost interest again blah blah blah.

Well, if you have been on here for a while, you'll see the paint scheme kinda resembles another members black and orange 67. I vaguely remember asking permission to sort of copy his design. The car has been painted now for about 6 years and I am finally getting it back together, once again motivated to work on it. I can finally taste the finish.

Anyway...The pics I uploaded here is what I currently have for fun. The 67 500 SE was purchased for parts for the convertible, but didn't have the heart then to rob from it. That time has finally come, and I'll let you know, it wasn't an easy decision. The convertible now has its trunk lid, doors, fenders and hood locked down, along with tail lights and tail panel from the SE installed. Something it hasn't had for 16 years. Now the fun stuff. Trying to remember how the top goes in, the dash gets installed and trying to remember what all the extra nuts, bolts and screws are for!:p

If you are interested, I posted a bunch of pics in the gallery section of pics from over the years.

Happy holidays to you all. Stay safe.
I would not have had the nerve to do that! The 4 door looks so nice!
Have no worries. When I say "ROB" parts from it, it really is more of a parts swap time. Like I said in the story above, I purchased that car for parts. There is absolutely no pitting in the tail panel and light bezels. They were next to perfect. I bought that car for what most would pay to either have old ones re-done and wouldn't look as good, or have paid a lot more for NOS pieces if you could find them.

On the flip side, the Coronet Convertible is, and always was my dream car. I took the one I have, and with zero body work training, armed some low rent air tools and a welder, have brought back a car that most would think was certainly destined for the scrap yard. I look at the SE as a great way to cost average down the Convertible. The dash bezel chrome is near perfect. Lots of nice pieces to use in the car I will drive more.
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I have enough parts laying around my buildings to put the SE back together and drive it, which is the plan for the future. I have enjoyed cruising that beast for about 7 years. And, there is damage from a T-bone accident on the passenger side that you can't see. But, again, I have all the pieces to fix that too.:o

I have had lots of old cars in the past 25 years, and made most of them excellent drivers.................ALL MOPARS of course. To mention a few:

'69 Dart GT V8 Car.....Oklahoma barn find, Original B5 blue turned Sassy Grass Green. Bought, resurrected and sold back to the gentlemen I purchased it from. I saw this car at Mopars In The Park in Farmington, MN in 2014 and it looks like the day I painted 20 years ago. Still has a blemish in the paint from trying to a hole for a GT emblem on the passenger side quarter panel.......the drill bit walked. Hard lesson learned for a young man.
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'67 Coronet 500 440 car, Bought, resurrected and sold back to the gentlemen I purchased it from. Drove to the Nationals in Indy in '94. This was my first Coronet.
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'73 Plymouth Scamp, 10.5 second quarter mile times on pump gas, street tires and full exhaust...Bought, painted and sold back to the gentlemen I purchased it from.
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'65 Dart GT convertible, No pix. Had a 25 ft paint job on it when I got. i painted it the same color as the red Coronet and sold it to a friend's Dad. I've been a police officer for a little over 10 years now, and oddly enough, about a month ago, I stopped a guy for speeding. Hadn't seen him in at least 20 years, mentioned the Dart.....From the passenger seat I hear "I still have it too, fun car." The rest of the stop went well.Smile

Hope this brings a better light to taking parts off the SE for the Convertible.
Whew... I was envisioning hacking out inner wheel well tubs and such... Smile. That is a lot of work for sure! I am restoring my first Coronet and first Mopar since 1982 ('69 Sport Satellite Convertible, my dream car when I happened upon my "barn" find '68 500 that was in storage since 1984). It was a PA car but the dry storage in NM and AZ had halted it just to the point where a few small patches and epoxy primer sealing should give it another decade or two of life (or more since I don't plan on ever letting it see water again).

Jim
No more hacking! Convertibles are fun, but man did they rot out up here in the northern salt states.
Welcome to the site Mike! Enjoyed your story and the photos of your cars and work.

Question though, what's up with that rear wheel on the '73 Scamp?? Doesn't look too good to me.
Good question....both wheels look funny. The original pic looks fine. Trust me, that car was scary fast and the equipment was sound.....if you were in the passenger seat, you'd be grabbing for anything you could for security.
Scary fast in my world anyway...
Welcome
Welcome Mike.
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