'66 Newport 2 Door hardtop

BTW - do you know what brand/shade of engine paint you have there? Photos aren't always very true, but it looks "correct" (unlike mine

VHT. If you want a better photo, let me know. I still have a can.

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I had been absent from here for awhile, maybe 2 mos. Busy with life and trying to fix a car for another FCBO member.
Wish I had known about that phenolic spacer you whittled. I could've made one for you on my CNC router for a modest fee.

As for protecting those AC hoses - electrical split-loom might be an option. There are some varieties that are notably harder plastic material, and would work better.
That type is harder to find, though.
 
7 weeks later, the brake booster has returned from Power Brake Exchange in San Jose. First step is to paint the freshly bead blasted shell and replace the missing check valve that was there when I shipped it.

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"Darth": Thanks for posting a continuing informative set of pictures. I'm requesting one more--that of the body data plate/fender tag. I see the pictures of the IBM card and your line by line decoding of the card and showing the VIN. I've developed a combo VIN and Fender Tag decoder and I could use a few more examples to test it out. I have a small collection of pictures of 66 Newport fender tags and even a picture of a window sticker for a '66 NP 2DHT. Let me know if you'd like a picture of the '66 NP window sticker. I plan to post the decoder publicly for free use and will send you a report of your VIN and Fender tags at N/C ever. The decoder is a work in progress and I've attached a picture of a somewhat incomplete report on a '66 300 2DHT. I'll have to be able to read the fender tag and it looks like it may have been painted over. If the characters are unreadable, you might lightly sand the tops of the characters until they are visible. The shiny character tops really pop out against the black. Finally, have you searched for a Production Broadcast sheet? They are sometimes found in the seat springs of the rear seat upright cushion.

66 Chrysler 300 2DHT eBay 4-17-25.jpg
 
"Darth": Thanks for posting a continuing informative set of pictures. I'm requesting one more--that of the body data plate/fender tag. I see the pictures of the IBM card and your line by line decoding of the card and showing the VIN. I've developed a combo VIN and Fender Tag decoder and I could use a few more examples to test it out. I have a small collection of pictures of 66 Newport fender tags and even a picture of a window sticker for a '66 NP 2DHT. Let me know if you'd like a picture of the '66 NP window sticker. I plan to post the decoder publicly for free use and will send you a report of your VIN and Fender tags at N/C ever. The decoder is a work in progress and I've attached a picture of a somewhat incomplete report on a '66 300 2DHT. I'll have to be able to read the fender tag and it looks like it may have been painted over. If the characters are unreadable, you might lightly sand the tops of the characters until they are visible. The shiny character tops really pop out against the black. Finally, have you searched for a Production Broadcast sheet? They are sometimes found in the seat springs of the rear seat upright cushion.

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Hey Torky, you can find the photo of my build sheet on post #11 of this thread. I’d love to see a window sticker made up for my car as well as anything else you produce.

I’ll post a photo of my fender tag later today, thanks!
 
I did see the IBM "CAR RECORD CARD" at #11 and have been working with it. I did not find a "PRODUCTION BROADCAST" sheet. Sample attached for a '66 Fury III. Do you actually have this document? I could not find it at post 10 thru 12. I did dummy up a window sticker for our 300K rag but the wording on the RH column would not be correct. If you are capable in Microsoft Excel, you could create and doctor it.

66  Ply Fury III plate with window sticker, IBM card & PBS PBS 7-21-25.jpg


64 300K Barber Window Sticker.jpg
 
I did see the IBM "CAR RECORD CARD" at #11 and have been working with it. I did not find a "PRODUCTION BROADCAST" sheet. Sample attached for a '66 Fury III. Do you actually have this document? I could not find it at post 10 thru 12. I did dummy up a window sticker for our 300K rag but the wording on the RH column would not be correct. If you are capable in Microsoft Excel, you could create and doctor it.

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Not page 11, but post 11 on page one
 
"Darth": Thanks for posting a continuing informative set of pictures. I'm requesting one more--that of the body data plate/fender tag. I see the pictures of the IBM card and your line by line decoding of the card and showing the VIN. I've developed a combo VIN and Fender Tag decoder and I could use a few more examples to test it out. I have a small collection of pictures of 66 Newport fender tags and even a picture of a window sticker for a '66 NP 2DHT. Let me know if you'd like a picture of the '66 NP window sticker. I plan to post the decoder publicly for free use and will send you a report of your VIN and Fender tags at N/C ever. The decoder is a work in progress and I've attached a picture of a somewhat incomplete report on a '66 300 2DHT. I'll have to be able to read the fender tag and it looks like it may have been painted over. If the characters are unreadable, you might lightly sand the tops of the characters until they are visible. The shiny character tops really pop out against the black. Finally, have you searched for a Production Broadcast sheet? They are sometimes found in the seat springs of the rear seat upright cushion.

View attachment 732566
Here’s the body tag. @Torky

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Changed out the steering coupler "hockey puck" today. Went together much easier than it came apart as the cap screws were pretty rusted in place and getting the steering shaft to not spin while trying to unloosen things resulted in a few bruised knuckles and one mangled finger nail . . . cost of doing business I guess. Anyhow, the original wasn't at "catastrophic" failure condition YET, but it was getting there. $50 at Rock Auto plus $8 for shipping, and $1.20 worth of cotter pins and it's like new.

One curious thing was that the washers for 2 of the cap screws had red paint on them and then all 4 cap screws had a yellow dab of paint I think about midway up the threads. Probably just colorations that made it easy for the crew to pick the right hardware out of the bin for the coupler joint I'm guessing . . .

And for those looking closely, yes it appears to be time to rebuild the lower "coupler" as the retaining bezel has let go on one leg and the rubber is starting to bulge there. VANS has the kit for ~$30 with the red seal, but Classic Industries sells it for ~$50 in black only claiming the "red kits" are inferior.

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I made a diagram of the pin out for the 66 Newport instrument cluster. I’m not an electrician, so I don’t know all of the correct symbols to use, and all that type of thing. This may help a reader to understand how to get their dummy lights working for the purpose of testing their bulbs/LEDs, since they do not ground through the Cluster case itself.

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Don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but this diagram is slightly incorrect. The four warning lights share a common switched 12V feed, not ground. They are grounded individually by their respective sensors. This is very important because LEDs are polarity-specific.

In case anyone else comes across this: the five cluster illumination lights, the high-beam indicator, and the turn signal indicators all share the cluster’s chassis ground.

The oil light, parking brake light, and cold/hot warning lights share a switched 12V power feed. These LEDs would need to be installed in reverse polarity compared to all of the others.

-Chris
 
Don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but this diagram is slightly incorrect. The four warning lights share a common switched 12V feed, not ground. They are grounded individually by their respective sensors. This is very important because LEDs are polarity-specific.

In case anyone else comes across this: the five cluster illumination lights, the high-beam indicator, and the turn signal indicators all share the cluster’s chassis ground.

The oil light, parking brake light, and cold/hot warning lights share a switched 12V power feed. These LEDs would need to be installed in reverse polarity compared to all of the others.

-Chris
Thank you for that clarification!
 
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