HPIM0641.JPG
HPIM0641.JPG

68 Lebaron

Work in progress (aren't they all?)
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Not Right
Awesome SLAB. It looks to be Show Quality! Neat "Industrial Age" backdrop, too. Cudoes to you.
 
Imperialist67
Great to see this beautiful LeBaron, in such a flattering color. Nice leather, I'd get some Leatherique (or maybe Lexol) for those seats, it will really soften them up and prevent cracking.
 
glenbeigh196
Not Right said:
Awesome SLAB. It looks to be Show Quality! Neat "Industrial Age" backdrop, too. Cudoes to you.
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The LeBaron is a 20 footer. Saving up to change the passenger quarter panel and a new paint job in the same color. Believe it or not, I found a never been on a car NOS quarter panel.
 
rags
careful swapping a quarter on. a job like that is only for the best of the best. if there's a couple of hundred guys in North America that can do that job correctly i'd be impressed. what you have now looks to be a pretty darn nice car... with an 8-track deck!
 
glenbeigh196
rags said:
careful swapping a quarter on. a job like that is only for the best of the best. if there's a couple of hundred guys in North America that can do that job correctly i'd be impressed. what you have now looks to be a pretty darn nice car... with an 8-track deck!
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Thanks for the 'heads up'. Do you have a recommendation of any in the greater Chicago area? The number of welds on these is wicked and I want to get it right.
 
rags
rags said:
careful swapping a quarter on. a job like that is only for the best of the best. if there's a couple of hundred guys in North America that can do that job correctly i'd be impressed. what you have now looks to be a pretty darn nice car... with an 8-track deck!
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unfortunately no. all i can say is move forward with the utmost discretion. what you have now seems very nice as is. putting it in the wrong hands could end up being an extremely expensive mistake and once it's done there's no going back. could start a thread asking for suggestions. there's no shortage of expertise here and these people are happy to help.
 
glenbeigh196
Some things I've done since I bought the LeBaron . . . added the Mopar Performance valve covers and had them and the exhaust manifolds jet hotted turquoise. IMHO, the exhaust manifolds are the ugliest thing under the hood so I thought I'd try to dress them up when I replaced the exhaust system. The original owner replaced the factory single exhaust set up with duals, so I changed that out for SS from the manifold back. Really don't want to deal with that again. MSD throttle body fuel injection, electronic ignition, coil, wires and plugs. Higher amp alternator to run it all. Period appearance maintenance free battery. I have a dual snorkel air cleaner I have powder coated and ready to go. It's not technically a 440 Dual factory car, but I guess that's the spirit of the thing. Believe it or not, I even got the Auto Temp to work in this thing. No small task. Spent a small fortune getting the factory 8 Track and Stereo gutted and refurbished. Looks the same on the outside (except for a USB port and 3.5 mm female jack) but has Bluetooth and a hands free connection for the cellphone now. As you can tell, I changed the carpeting pretty early on. Expecting new headliner material from SMS this Friday. It's only money honey.
 
glenbeigh196
rags said:
careful swapping a quarter on. a job like that is only for the best of the best. if there's a couple of hundred guys in North America that can do that job correctly i'd be impressed. what you have now looks to be a pretty darn nice car... with an 8-track deck!
Click to expand...
I think that's great advice and I'll do just that . . . Just posted a bit of what I've done so far above, so - no - I don't want to screw it up with a ham handed body guy out of the yellow pages or some 'friend of a friend' who swears he's the best he's ever seen. These are were banned from demolition derby competition ('67 & '68) because there were so many welds they virtually never lost a contest. That means there are relatively few body panels left on or off of vehicles for donor cars.
 
Imperialist67
glenbeigh196 said:
Some things I've done since I bought the LeBaron . . . added the Mopar Performance valve covers and had them and the exhaust manifolds jet hotted turquoise. IMHO, the exhaust manifolds are the ugliest thing under the hood so I thought I'd try to dress them up when I replaced the exhaust system. The original owner replaced the factory single exhaust set up with duals, so I changed that out for SS from the manifold back. Really don't want to deal with that again. MSD throttle body fuel injection, electronic ignition, coil, wires and plugs. Higher amp alternator to run it all. Period appearance maintenance free battery. I have a dual snorkel air cleaner I have powder coated and ready to go. It's not technically a 440 Dual factory car, but I guess that's the spirit of the thing. Believe it or not, I even got the Auto Temp to work in this thing. No small task. Spent a small fortune getting the factory 8 Track and Stereo gutted and refurbished. Looks the same on the outside (except for a USB port and 3.5 mm female jack) but has Bluetooth and a hands free connection for the cellphone now. As you can tell, I changed the carpeting pretty early on. Expecting new headliner material from SMS this Friday. It's only money honey.
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VERY impressive. Nice that you've improved on, yet maintained factory appearance with appropriate "patina" on that engine compartment. Before you put the dual snorkel on, check if your Imp pie plate fits, mine didn't fit, but it may depend on the carb type. Duals w/resonators on these cars give you a nice, hushed rumble, but as long as it's suitably quiet for an Imp., any set up is fine. Great that you found someone to re-do an 8-track, cassettes aren't easy either...... THANKS for the photos.
 
glenbeigh196
Imperialist67 said:
The Bronze panels are very posh, these are in nice shape, factory 8-track no less..........
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Barry is a bit full of himself. OK, more than a bit full of himself, but he is probably the best there is at this singular talent. Incredible job of gutting and updating the innards of both the 8 track and AM/FM Stereo. Took 4frickenever and cost a king's ransom, but worth it.
 
glenbeigh196
Imperialist67 said:
The Bronze panels are very posh, these are in nice shape, factory 8-track no less..........
Click to expand...
I also had to get rewire a Retro-Sound power antenna to work with the manual switch on the radio faceplate. Radio wants to make the mast go all the way up when radio power on and all the way down when radio power off. Had to jump it through the up/down switch and bypass a board on the antenna. PITA
 
glenbeigh196
glenbeigh196 said:
Some things I've done since I bought the LeBaron . . . added the Mopar Performance valve covers and had them and the exhaust manifolds jet hotted turquoise. IMHO, the exhaust manifolds are the ugliest thing under the hood so I thought I'd try to dress them up when I replaced the exhaust system. The original owner replaced the factory single exhaust set up with duals, so I changed that out for SS from the manifold back. Really don't want to deal with that again. MSD throttle body fuel injection, electronic ignition, coil, wires and plugs. Higher amp alternator to run it all. Period appearance maintenance free battery. I have a dual snorkel air cleaner I have powder coated and ready to go. It's not technically a 440 Dual factory car, but I guess that's the spirit of the thing. Believe it or not, I even got the Auto Temp to work in this thing. No small task. Spent a small fortune getting the factory 8 Track and Stereo gutted and refurbished. Looks the same on the outside (except for a USB port and 3.5 mm female jack) but has Bluetooth and a hands free connection for the cellphone now. As you can tell, I changed the carpeting pretty early on. Expecting new headliner material from SMS this Friday. It's only money honey.
Click to expand...
You are very kind. I got the dual snorkel ( and a raft of other parts ) from Murray B. Park. I'm guessing you guys all know about him. What a terrific guy! The pie tin fits - thanks for the tip.
 
glenbeigh196
glenbeigh196 said:
Some things I've done since I bought the LeBaron . . . added the Mopar Performance valve covers and had them and the exhaust manifolds jet hotted turquoise. IMHO, the exhaust manifolds are the ugliest thing under the hood so I thought I'd try to dress them up when I replaced the exhaust system. The original owner replaced the factory single exhaust set up with duals, so I changed that out for SS from the manifold back. Really don't want to deal with that again. MSD throttle body fuel injection, electronic ignition, coil, wires and plugs. Higher amp alternator to run it all. Period appearance maintenance free battery. I have a dual snorkel air cleaner I have powder coated and ready to go. It's not technically a 440 Dual factory car, but I guess that's the spirit of the thing. Believe it or not, I even got the Auto Temp to work in this thing. No small task. Spent a small fortune getting the factory 8 Track and Stereo gutted and refurbished. Looks the same on the outside (except for a USB port and 3.5 mm female jack) but has Bluetooth and a hands free connection for the cellphone now. As you can tell, I changed the carpeting pretty early on. Expecting new headliner material from SMS this Friday. It's only money honey.
Click to expand...
You bring up a good point about the resonators and one that still bothers me. The original set up (FSM) shows no resonator. There were none on the car when I bought it, but the previous owner had swapped original single for after market dual. I asked the guy I ordered the SS set up from about SS resonator to go with the SS muffler and he, surprisingly discouraged it. Said it would be plenty quiet without them.
 
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glenbeigh196
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