| My 1966 Chrysler 300 Project: My 300 |
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A long time ago in a city far, far away...
My Chrysler 300 was orignially purchased by my Great Uncle for his wife. They lived in Buffalo, NY, and the years of salt and winter weather have take it's toll on much of the car. The rust will be a big problem, as will the corrosion from the salt.
September 1, 2006
Got it insured and got the Temp Tags! And only 11 months after the car was delivered to me! Have yet to take it out, but hopefully going to take it out a bit this week! How exciting! Also going to enter it in the Westerville Sertoma Car Show next weekend (September 9th from 9:00am to 4:00pm). It's at Heritage Park. Come on out!
August 26, 2006
I'm completely covered in POR-15. After long day underneath my car, that's almost finished too. I put as much on as it's going to get this summer. Next step--getting it on the road!
August 20, 2006
OTHER SPRING and SHOCK DAY! Did the driver's side rear leaf spring and shock. And it went much quicker than last week, although finding the extra spring bushings was a problem. Advanced Auto kept ordering the wrong part... they had two spring busings of different sizes, but they had the same part number. I ended up getting two of the right bushings from Advanced, and two from NAPA. (They have a friggin sweet warehouse in Worthington area). But in the end... the springs and shocks are finished!
August 12, 2006
SPRING and SHOCK DAY! Did the passenger side rear leaf spring and shock. And it only took us about seven hours... Lots of rust made the going slow. Hopefully the rain will hold off next weekend and we can do the driver's side. After that I want to coat the bottom in POR-15, then get it on the road for the end of summer... and hopefully to the Westerville Sertoma Car show. I don't want to jinx myself, but I only see three more big jobs... and one of those jobs is waiting in line at the Ohio BMV.
July 8, 2006
Put more POR-15 on today, and touched up some of the spots I missed before. I recommend having lots of light to use while painting so you don't miss any spots. I also touched up the battery stand and oil breather cap with Rust-o-leum. Used the wire brush to clean up some rust spots on the chrome. Ate lunch with my grandparents. It's all good.
July 1, 2006
Before today, I've done a little bit here and there-such as finding replacement bolts that I lost, and cleaning more crap off. Scotty T helped me take some of the rubber inner fender mud-flaps off. However, today--The POR-15 began! I did the underside of the hood and the interor of the engine compartment. I mostly hit the big problem spots, and plan to touch it up later. I am also going to put a top coat on of non POR-15, because they say it can deteriorate in sunlight. Check it out!
May 29, 2006
Got a new alternator for my birthday, as well as new belts. I removed the old alternator and belts, and started taking things off the engie to paint. Sorry to anyone that thinks the engine should be all tourquoise like it originally was. I'm not a fan, and will paint most of it black and silver.
May 13, 2006
Turned the Chrysler around and backed it into the garage so I can take out some engine parts easier.
April 22, 2006
Picked up the new springs! Had them custom made by Black's Springs in Zanesville, Ohio. I am really pleased with them initially. Looking forward to putting them on!
April 2, 2006
Power washed! Did the front bottom, and the bottom of the engine. I guess the whole block was a tourquoise color but had only looked black because of the thick layer of gunk covering it. It's cleaner now!
March 25ish, 2006
All day project: Tried to flush out the radiator (did a poor job) of that. I have lots of coolant waste. Then I changed the hoses and re-filled it with coolant. I'm not happy with the top hose and will need to replace that. But another job, off the list!
March 11, 2006
Rainy and damp, but warm enough to work! Today I changed the spark plugs (which seemed to fix the problem with only 7 of 8 cylinders firing), and changed the oil and oil filter. It took awhile because A) the spark plugs are poorly placed... ok, just the back ones, and 2) (yes... I know) We had to leave the house to go get ramps to get my car up since I couldn't get under it, and that took some time. BUT. I feel like I'm a lot closer to getting it on the road. I also found a place that can make some springs for me (After looking all over, there is NO PLACE that sells leaf springs for a 1966 Chrysler 300). And the price to make them is about the same as buying pre-fabricated ones. So those will be ordered this week. Party on, Wayne!
February 25, 2006
What a georgous day! Got the bulkhead disconnect working again--which means the car is running. Backed it out of the garage and continued cleaning crap off the engine. It's pretty disgusting. Hopefully changing the fluids sometime in the near future. And going to price out new leaf springs.
January 2, 2006
It's been cold out... I pulled all the connections on the bulkhead disconnect and cleaned them up. The car seems to start fine now... however there is the problem of the cloud of blue smoke that starts to shoot out of the exhaust after the first 20 seconds it's been running... I hope to replace the coolant and oil soon. Replacing the springs and using the POR 15 on all the rusted surfaces are my top priority, then getting the thing titled, licensed, and insured. I should probably replace some of the seals as well.
November 13, 2005
The rear brakes were finished today. We had already installed the wheel cylinders last week, so today we put the brake drums back on and adjusted the brakes. We also put the wheels back on, took the car off jack stands, and re-inflated the tires. The brakes work really well, even if it did take forever to get them fixed.
I scrapped some gunk of the engine and plan to continue cleaning the engine off tomorrow. There seems to be a busted gasket around the passenger side valve cover. There is a lot of oil mixed with dust (aka: gunk) coating that side of the engine that burns off when the engine gets hot. So tomorrow I'll simple green and scrub it, and hopefully get the engine compartment looking better. I also noticed that the alternator belt needs to be replaced.
October 29, 2005
We finally got back to working on the car. Today we replaced the rear brake lines. I had already purchased them, and they had been sitting in the passenger seat. We took the jack and jack stands over, and lifted the car. After crawling underneath, I suggested we should take the wheels off to make reaching the brake drums easier. Because the rust was so bad, it was difficult to get the lines out, and when we did, my lack of experience routing brake lines slowed us down. At the end of the day, I was trying to loosen the bleeder valve nipple on the driver's side brake wheel cylinder, but snapped it off. So my next step is to either buy a new bleeder valve nipple or a whole new cylinder. And some brake fluid, which is pretty important for future braking endeavors!
October 10, 2005
I felt like a dentist today. A car dentist. I began by using the power washer to completely hose off the underside of the car. Not only did this get rid of the dust and cobwebs, but helped knock off the copious amounts of rust from the frame. Then I moved into the engine compartment and cleaned up the carburetor. It was really disgusting--a thick plaque of oil and dirt covered everything, but I couldn't scrub any of it off with a brush, or I'd risk getting dirt in the engine. Instead I scrapped it off using a putty knife, and vacuumed up the chunks as I went. I looks a heck of a lot better, but still is really dirty. I also checked out prices on the brake lines, and will probably buy those tomorrow before I go to work. Next step: replace the rear brake lines and add more brake fluid, paint the under the rear of the car with rust-bonding epoxy.
October 9, 2005
So there I am--lying under the car as iron dust falls onto my face. Luckily, the dust mask I'm wearing prevents me from breathing the particles in, but it also fogs up the goggles I'm wearing so I can't see anything. I take my goggles off, blinking bits of steel out of my eyes and notice the break line is wet. "Dad? I think the break line is leaking." Guess what's next on the list of repairs?
October 7, 2005
I replaced the battery ground strap and the battery terminal connector. I also removed the license plate holder so I can clean that up and paint it. I took the old air filter out and bought a new one, but the new one is too small, so I'll have to return it.
October 6, 2005
Dad and I have gone over a few times, but we went back today to continue to try to get the car running. Initially we thought it wouldn't start because of a bad ground, but we ruled that out because we found that there was current going through the car. Then we thought the starter relay might be bad, but after more testing that was also ruled out. Finally (with the help of dad's friend Dale) we figured out that the connectors in the bulkhead disconnect were corroded (a common problem with Chryslers of this era). After jiggling the wires around, we established a good connection and got power to everything. We put everything back together and started the engine! A little bit of smoke was coming from the engine, but we think it was oil film that will stop when we clean it off.
September 27, 2005
The Chrysler 300 was delivered this morning! Because the car isn't running, we had to roll it off the car carrier, and push it up the driveway... which was difficult since the car weighs a couple thousand pounds. After pushing it up the driveway, we washed it off and admired it for awhile. We left it out overnight and pushed it into the garage the next morning.
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