'66 Newport 2 Door hardtop

[darth_linux]

Just a thread to track my progress with this very nice '66 Newport Coupe. Was in great shape when I got it, but of course it needs a few things. Here's what it looked like the day after I drove it home.

 

[darth_linux]

Having driven the Newport home in the dark, in the rain, over a mountain pass, and being passed by giant Ford trucks with stupidly bright LED headlights, I decided the first thing I needed to do was to address safety issues such as lighting, wipers, visibility to others, heater/defrost, being blinded by autos behind me, not having a passenger side mirror and idle/off-idle engine tuning.

Here's a photo of LED taillights and license plate light. I've also put LEDs in the front turn signals, reverse, trunk, and interior courtesy lights. In the future I'll be doing the map light (needs repair) and all of the dash and instrument panel.

You can also see that I've added the optional passenger side mirror. Got it from a guy on a FB group for C Bodies.

 

[darth_linux]

Being a child of the 70s and 80s, I really didn't like the look of wheel covers and whitewalls. I KNOW it's "correct," but my first Newport I had in the late '80s had body color wheels and poverty caps, and my first car (a '71 Mazda RX2) had black steel wheels with center caps and trim rings, SO, I felt it only fitting for the S. S. Anderson to have body color steel wheels with poverty caps and trim rings. I did a quick hack with black spray paint to eliminate the white walls. If it peels or flakes, I'll turn the tire around. It's ironic that poverty caps cost about 4 times the amount of wheel covers over on the 'Bay.

I also added some amber and red reflective tape where the "body reveal moldings" would go to mimic the effect of side markers/reflectors without drilling/cutting/marring the sheet metal and original lines of the car. They are pretty much only visible when looking directly at the side of the car, since they are placed in the recessed area behind the bumper edges.

 

[CBODY67]

On the lights, did you also recondition the reflector are in the housing? Adding fresh refective silver/chrome paint.

What I did, back in the 1970s when I was in college, was to take soem white reflective pin striping tape I found at an auto supply store, and put a single stripe of it on the chrome molding that runs front to back on the belt line. Luckily, the length was just enough to hit the horizontal sections Looked kind of neat when a car drove by in the parking lot at night. And it was thin enough (width) to not be very apparent during daylight hours., being white on anodized aluminum.

Even when the cars were newer, the Day/Night inside rear view mirror could be a benefit in night driving. Well before LED headlights were even thought about.

 

[darth_linux]

On the lights, did you also recondition the reflector are in the housing? Adding fresh refective silver/chrome paint.

What I did, back in the 1970s when I was in college, was to take soem white reflective pin striping tape I found at an auto supply store, and put a single stripe of it on the chrome molding that runs front to back on the belt line. Luckily, the length was just enough to hit the horizontal sections Looked kind of neat when a car drove by in the parking lot at night. And it was thin enough (width) to not be very apparent during daylight hours., being white on anodized aluminum.

Even when the cars were newer, the Day/Night inside rear view mirror could be a benefit in night driving. Well before LED headlights were even thought about.

I did not repaint the inside of the taillights (yet). It was stupidly cold when I changed out the bulbs, so I wasn't up for battling the taillights when it's 15F outside. Plus, I don't yet know the condition of things like the little bolts and nuts that hold things together and I didn't want to risk shearing things off and then being stuck with no way to reattach it in the middle of winter. Lesson I learned long ago was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The taillights seem plenty bright with the new LED bulbs, so I'm inclined to leave it as is unless I have some other reason to take things apart more completely.

I like your idea about a white reflective pinstripe. I know the '65 300s had a red paint stripe down the middle of the same trim . . . I wouldn't do red on a '66, but maybe the white . . .

 

[CBODY67]

I like your idea about a white reflective pinstripe. I know the '65 300s had a red paint stripe down the middle of the same trim . . . I wouldn't do red on a '66, but maybe the white . . .

I placed it at the top edge of the indentation in the trim. As thin as it is, not really noticed, except at night.

Similarly, Krylon has some spray which is supposed to reflectorize what it's on. Plus some sprayu paint which will allegedly glow after the light source is removed. Found it at WalMart! But I still like the pin stripping tape best.

 

[darth_linux]

Getting the ammeter bypass done was high on my priority list. I did it the "easy" way, not doing anything with the bulkhead, just running a new 10ga wire directly from the alternator to the starter relay. Took me longer to drive to and from the parts store for wire and connectors than it did for the actual job.

Here you can also see the new washer nozzle "F" tee that I got from Vans. $10 plus shipping for that little bugger. The original was totally destroyed and leaking, so I had no choice. While I was waiting for the tee to arrive, I took the nozzles off, cleaned the crud out of them and gave them a quick spritz of silver wheel paint. I can now wash my windshield again!

 

[darth_linux]

Getting the headlights to remain bright at idle was my next "safety" upgrade. I installed the Putco relay kit to get voltage more directly to the headlights, turn the headlight switch into more of a "trigger" and allow for higher amperage/brighter headlights in the future, should I go that route. For now I'm going to put Sylvania H5006 Xtra-Vision sealed beams in it. I don't do a lot of night driving, so I don't need to fire the money cannon at it.

 

[darth_linux]

There are quite a few pieces of trim on the 66 Newport that had some black paint detail on them originally. Most of mine is badly faded or entirely missing, so got out the paint and fine brush and did some detail work on the c pillar trim and taillights. Doing the "arrows" on the front fenders is next, but that will require some masking tape and laying on the ground to get it looking good (something I wasn't ready to do when I did this other work).

 

[darth_linux]

Not a safety concern, but replacing the trunk light switch and bulb was an easy repair. The bulb was gone and the switch didn't spring up. $25 on the 'Bay for a NOS switch.

 

[darth_linux]

Found the build sheet today, while taking out the rear interior for a thorough cleaning and repair of the quarter windows.

 

[Unix]

Wow, really clean Newport. Looks like it had a restoration at some point. Do u have any interior pics ?

Awesome ride !

 

[darth_linux]

Wow, really clean Newport. Looks like it had a restoration at some point. Do u have any interior pics ?

Awesome ride !

Thank you! No interior pics yet. It's getting pulled out, cleaned, repaired and then when it's reinstalled I'll snap some photos.

It's not a resto but it did get some rust repair and a paint job I'm guessing about 5 years ago, as well as some bedliner sprayed in the trunk and either a rebuilt or replacement engine and transmission. Not sure yet till I get to looking at casting numbers and such. It has a 1970 Dodge truck carburetor, so I'm suspicious about it's originality.

The interior is pretty original meaning it's crusty, lots of things don't work, and it smells OLD. My plan is to disassemble, remove and steam clean as much as I can without ripping the entire dash out.

I'll post here as I get each little job done.

 

[darth_linux]

Now that the headlight relays are in place I opted for some new bulbs. Nothing radical, just a slight upgrade. It’s not super obvious in the photos due to what the camera phone wants to do with the exposure, but the lights are a bit brighter in intensity and a little bit whiter in color. BTW, the car was not running in the photo, battery power only!

 

[darth_linux]

Pulled all of the interior out so I could clean, check for leaks, apply rust inhibitor, lubricate, and install some sound deadener. Here’s what it looked like before I started cleaning.

 

[darth_linux]

Here are my armrests and armrest bases. Rather than replacing them with new reproductions or having my originals rechromed, I’m gonna wrap them with chrome aluminum tape. It’s a nice compromise that looks like brand new at 5 feet.

One of my armrests was originally turquoise. At some point it got a coat of burgundy paint. There’s also some other turquoise parts on my car. The lower panel of my backseat has a turquoise filler panel for a repair. Very curious.

 

[darth_linux]

My interior is ready for the parts to go back in. Rust converter applied to the rusty parts, and some rubberized undercoating for the places where the seam sealer was missing. I installed all new water barriers correctly, plastic into the slot at the bottom and taped completely around the perimeter. I think a previous owner used this black underlayment as some sort of cheap form of rust repair. Not sure, but I’m gonna leave it where it is. The entire floor pan, door panels and quarter panels were degreased and steam cleaned.

I also replaced the missing driver's door weatherstripping. I opted for the $21 option from SoftSourceParts on eBay that didn't include the push in clips. I used lots of rubberized cement and painters tape to hold it all together while it dried, but I saved about $100 by not having to buy a new pair of repop units. I only needed the drivers side.

 

[carguy300]

I am very impressed with the way that you are doing the interior clean up and repair. Thats what Im planning to do with my 300. I dont see any headliner shots, did you do any thing with that, mine was already removed when I bought it, so Im going remove all inside trim as well. Have some minor rust around back glass still to fix.

 

[darth_linux]

I am very impressed with the way that you are doing the interior clean up and repair. Thats what Im planning to do with my 300. I dont see any headliner shots, did you do any thing with that, mine was already removed when I bought it, so Im going remove all inside trim as well. Have some minor rust around back glass still to fix.

I think the headliner was replaced at some point because it’s just in too good of shape to be original but who knows???

 

[darth_linux]

Interior panels are reinstalled. Going to wait for the back seat to be put in place before I add the rear seat armrests and window crank as it's a real tight fit with those parts installed.