Hey guys, I'm George, from Chicago, Illinois.
On a whim I went to check out a 77 Newport i definitely didn't need since I was up in Minnesota picking up a '78 Town Car for a buddy of mine. Found an interesting colored, very clean, running and driving 77. Since I have 0 impulse control I bought said car and drove it to my buddies farm on the Wisconsin/Illinois state line, where it will spend the remainder of winter, until i bring it home to start getting it all cleaned up and dialed in, to my liking. I love 70s stuff, and have had a bunch of 70s Fords, and now also own a '75 Oldsmobile 98, time to try a Chrysler on for size. Here's my olds,
I do own a different Chrysler product, a '91 Dodge W150,
On with the story, isn't there always a story?
Me and my buddy Dan went back up to Minnesota a week after I had seen the car for the first time. Arriving at the sellers gorgeous property shortly after dark, we swapped some good (more on this later) tires to replace the factory originals that were on there, cracked to the heavens but still holding air. This is a 53k mile car and everything bears that out, and its what really pulled me into the car, just a darn nice, original car. No rust to speak of, just a nice coating of dirt all over EVERYTHING. Not sure if this thing knows what a paved road is.
Now I'll apologize for the pictures, not my best work here, sorry in advance. Only one crappy picture of the inside for now,
Pulling out of Lake City at around 7, we stopped at a Kwik Trip to get fuel. Turns out the gauge doesn't work, definitely wasn't empty and only took 6 gallons, plus I had to get some snacks. Come back outside and was greeted by extended cranking and no start. A personal record for myself, being dead in the water 12.3 miles into a 400 mile trip, excellent. Popped the hood, everything looked good, I had spark, etc. Turns out the choke on the recently installed Edlebrock wasn't wired correctly and was staying shut. A snip, a clip, and a bump of the key and away we go! Well after like 40 minutes but whatever.
Cruising down Highway 61/14, eventually brought us to La Crosse. A quick pit stop was in order.
Car was running good. The AM only radio was uhh well it works. Sounds like the audio equivalent of screaming into a tin can and a string, but I was able to pick up a AM rocker out of Palm Beach Florida that was playing some pretty good tunes. Heat was HOT. like wow, she burns, and being 19 outside, that was nice.
Now this seems to be an oddly equipped car, no vinyl, AC, cruise, tilt/tele, no rear defogger, AM radio, power seat. Interesting.
Anyway, now on Interstate 90 Eastbound and down, chugging along at 70, and other than a slight pull to the left, feeling great. Stopped again for fuel around Mauston Wisconsin, Dan in my car, my everyday driver, the German Coin Purse, my 2015 VW Golf, TDI, that can pull down 40+ MPG without a sweat didn't need fuel, but the Leisure Suit Newport, sure did. Getting about 15 or so MPG I roughly calculated, not bad, better than my 455 Powered Oldsmobile anyway.
Onward we went until about Janesville Wisconsin. I started to feel a bit of a shimmy, and thought, hmm thats not a good thing, so I bailed off about 55 mph of speed in good time, nice brakes by the way, and got it down to about 7-10 or so MPH then felt the poof.
We had a flat. Thankful for no damage, other than a frozen set of hands, I got the JR78 spare out and slapped it on, at least u filled it up! Bumper jack works too. Got the total 70s experience there, just needed some tighter pants and we would have really had all the bases covered.
Good thing was at this point it was only about 25 minutes to my buddys farm, so being the responsible adult i am, decided to take back roads and not hammer on the 44 year old spare. Of course all of the small farm roads were completely covered in ice, and it made for a nice hour to go 20 miles, because the ancient spare has the grip of a toddler covered in crisco.
Arriving at the farm around 3 AM I was beat! I had worked the night before and got off at 6 AM and didn't really sleep, but i was thrilled beyond belief we had made it. Threw the cover i had on it, as he won't be able to pull it into the barn until later this week, and said our goodbyes.
Then we still had about an hour and a half to go, to get back to the city. Finally crashed into bed around 530 AM.
Plans are to clean clean clean this thing, give it a good going over with my polisher, then start getting it up to mechanical snuff. New tires, Lean Burn conversion, and all the consumables, as soon as we thaw out. I have a friend who has 2 Newports slated for Demo that I plan on picking over in the next few weeks, to stockpile everything he'll let me take, then we'll go from there. Just looking for a nice summer cruiser to add to the stable, and she fits the bill nicely.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and if not, well you read it anyway.
George
On a whim I went to check out a 77 Newport i definitely didn't need since I was up in Minnesota picking up a '78 Town Car for a buddy of mine. Found an interesting colored, very clean, running and driving 77. Since I have 0 impulse control I bought said car and drove it to my buddies farm on the Wisconsin/Illinois state line, where it will spend the remainder of winter, until i bring it home to start getting it all cleaned up and dialed in, to my liking. I love 70s stuff, and have had a bunch of 70s Fords, and now also own a '75 Oldsmobile 98, time to try a Chrysler on for size. Here's my olds,
I do own a different Chrysler product, a '91 Dodge W150,
On with the story, isn't there always a story?
Me and my buddy Dan went back up to Minnesota a week after I had seen the car for the first time. Arriving at the sellers gorgeous property shortly after dark, we swapped some good (more on this later) tires to replace the factory originals that were on there, cracked to the heavens but still holding air. This is a 53k mile car and everything bears that out, and its what really pulled me into the car, just a darn nice, original car. No rust to speak of, just a nice coating of dirt all over EVERYTHING. Not sure if this thing knows what a paved road is.
Now I'll apologize for the pictures, not my best work here, sorry in advance. Only one crappy picture of the inside for now,
Pulling out of Lake City at around 7, we stopped at a Kwik Trip to get fuel. Turns out the gauge doesn't work, definitely wasn't empty and only took 6 gallons, plus I had to get some snacks. Come back outside and was greeted by extended cranking and no start. A personal record for myself, being dead in the water 12.3 miles into a 400 mile trip, excellent. Popped the hood, everything looked good, I had spark, etc. Turns out the choke on the recently installed Edlebrock wasn't wired correctly and was staying shut. A snip, a clip, and a bump of the key and away we go! Well after like 40 minutes but whatever.
Cruising down Highway 61/14, eventually brought us to La Crosse. A quick pit stop was in order.
Car was running good. The AM only radio was uhh well it works. Sounds like the audio equivalent of screaming into a tin can and a string, but I was able to pick up a AM rocker out of Palm Beach Florida that was playing some pretty good tunes. Heat was HOT. like wow, she burns, and being 19 outside, that was nice.
Now this seems to be an oddly equipped car, no vinyl, AC, cruise, tilt/tele, no rear defogger, AM radio, power seat. Interesting.
Anyway, now on Interstate 90 Eastbound and down, chugging along at 70, and other than a slight pull to the left, feeling great. Stopped again for fuel around Mauston Wisconsin, Dan in my car, my everyday driver, the German Coin Purse, my 2015 VW Golf, TDI, that can pull down 40+ MPG without a sweat didn't need fuel, but the Leisure Suit Newport, sure did. Getting about 15 or so MPG I roughly calculated, not bad, better than my 455 Powered Oldsmobile anyway.
Onward we went until about Janesville Wisconsin. I started to feel a bit of a shimmy, and thought, hmm thats not a good thing, so I bailed off about 55 mph of speed in good time, nice brakes by the way, and got it down to about 7-10 or so MPH then felt the poof.
We had a flat. Thankful for no damage, other than a frozen set of hands, I got the JR78 spare out and slapped it on, at least u filled it up! Bumper jack works too. Got the total 70s experience there, just needed some tighter pants and we would have really had all the bases covered.
Good thing was at this point it was only about 25 minutes to my buddys farm, so being the responsible adult i am, decided to take back roads and not hammer on the 44 year old spare. Of course all of the small farm roads were completely covered in ice, and it made for a nice hour to go 20 miles, because the ancient spare has the grip of a toddler covered in crisco.
Arriving at the farm around 3 AM I was beat! I had worked the night before and got off at 6 AM and didn't really sleep, but i was thrilled beyond belief we had made it. Threw the cover i had on it, as he won't be able to pull it into the barn until later this week, and said our goodbyes.
Then we still had about an hour and a half to go, to get back to the city. Finally crashed into bed around 530 AM.
Plans are to clean clean clean this thing, give it a good going over with my polisher, then start getting it up to mechanical snuff. New tires, Lean Burn conversion, and all the consumables, as soon as we thaw out. I have a friend who has 2 Newports slated for Demo that I plan on picking over in the next few weeks, to stockpile everything he'll let me take, then we'll go from there. Just looking for a nice summer cruiser to add to the stable, and she fits the bill nicely.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and if not, well you read it anyway.
George
. Entertaining story, good to hear you endured. Welcome from a fellow Illinoisian.
