Abandoned for 40 years: 1968 New Yorker 2 DR

[Ross Wooldridge]

Not many NYs in red I would think - most buyers who were in a position to pay a premium for a high end car would be less likely to be picking high impact colours like red. Rather I think they'd be picking the greens and browns and blues that were so popular... I could be wrong.

Your car would ROCK in the original red.

Just my opinion - and opinions are like a**holes - everyone has one!

It will be fantastic whatever colour you choose!

 

[commando1]

Your car would ROCK in the original red.

Just my opinion - and opinions are like a**holes - everyone has one!

And I have an a**hole too and I also say the original red.
I wouldn't put vinyl back on the roof tho...

 

[3C's & a D?]

the more I look at my car and how awesome it is, I think I want to change the color from black cherry to an ice blue / silver!

Second guessing yourself? At least it's not too late! The ice blue silver looks great. It's a silver slab side shark! I personally am not a fan of bright red cars, and since you're going the mild custom route, may as well have custom paint? The black cherry or silver would both look great, however the silver would show less dust and dirt, so you wouldn't spend as much time cleaning it compared to black.

Not many NYs in red I would think

I was thinking the same thing, yet when he asked awhile ago, Marko was somehow able to pull a picture of another one out of his hat.

 

[Ghostultramarine]

Not many NYs in red I would think - most buyers who were in a position to pay a premium for a high end car would be less likely to be picking high impact colours like red. Rather I think they'd be picking the greens and browns and blues that were so popular... I could be wrong.

Your car would ROCK in the original red.

Just my opinion - and opinions are like a**holes - everyone has one!

It will be fantastic whatever colour you choose!

Is there a registry/list of how many of each car/model were painted with which colour?

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Not that I know of. But that doesn't mean there isn't one, and it's likely that that if there is one, someone here on the site will know how to access it.

 

[Ghostultramarine]

Isaiah, did you get the power windows working?

I’ve had issues with mine and it was the “pucks” inside the motor - they had disintegrated.

There are a few good threads on here about power windows, if you haven’t found them yet:

How to rebuild Chrysler Power Window motor clutch assembly

Electric Windows (1968)

But with your friends and family being obviously knowledgeable and willing to help you may not need these threads.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Yes the power window motor rebuilding threads are good to read up on.

I'm more interested in where @Isaiah Estrada managed to find an NOS HVAC linkage!!

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Thanks fellas for all the input!!!! So very grateful for all the sound advice. I’ve been doing work on the car, making steady progress and one step at a time getting closer to having it back on the road once more.

I’ve been working on mostly the mechanical parts of the car so we can get close to putting the motor back in. Currently I’m re-working the front end because as you might recall, I’m upgrading from drums to discs !

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Break components came from Chris Sherman, so thankful he was able to give me a great deal on the setup!!!

Along with the theme of my frame / various components - I went ahead and prepped and painted everything satin black.

Painted these calipers yesterday, but when I lifted them off the cardboard I had them resting on - the cardboard stuck to the paint! So I scuffed them down and re-painted them today. Wasn’t much work. Going to be putting new pistons, seals and bushings for these.

 

[MetalManiacAZ]

Break components came from Chris Sherman, so thankful he was able to give me a great deal on the setup!!!

Along with the theme of my frame / various components - I went ahead and prepped and painted everything satin black.

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Painted these calipers yesterday, but when I lifted them off the cardboard I had them resting on - the cardboard stuck to the paint! So I scuffed them down and re-painted them today. Wasn’t much work. Going to be putting new pistons, seals and bushings for these.

Metal coat hanger or bailing wire are your friend when painting things like this. Nice work!

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Metal coat hanger or bailing wire are your friend when painting things like this. Nice work!

I did use that for some of the lighter components!!! But I could only paint outside and it was windy so I had to wait for the wind to die down and then go paint

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Spent today fine tuning and detailing my brake system. I had been waiting on new pistons, seals and boots for the calipers. I wasn’t about to spend $$$$ to send them out for something so simple. Took me a little bit to try and get the seal to set just right, but I FINALLY got it to go in.

Calipers are a bit sticky now from the AGS Sil-glyde I used to lube the seals and piston with… that stuff gets everywhere! Was real careful that no dirt got stuck to the piston.

Here’s the caliper before. Had a little tear in the dust boot. Figured that with the attention to detail im giving the rest of the car, I might as well clean and rebuild these too.

I mocked up the drivers side and just finger tightened everything to see how it’s look and how it goes together for when I put the brakes on forreals.

Brake rotors are new, just light surface rust from sitting! I didn’t take pics, but I masked off the contact area of the rotor and painted the raised “hub” area and around the studs. This is so when my Cragar SS wheels are on, you won’t be seeing rust. Can’t stand it! Instead it’s a clean semi gloss black. I’ll take pics when I get back to the car …

15” Cragars were a great fit!!! Took everything apart again for fine tuning like I said. This was before I painted the rotor. The frame has been sitting a long time, so I’m going to give that a nice detail before I assemble everything once again.

 

[Ghostultramarine]

Are those slotted mags?

I have slotted mags and they are not the easiest to put on. 4 bolts are good and the 5th is a REAL pain on each of them ...

5 spokes always remind me of a Hot Wheels car - I love them!

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Are those slotted mags?

I have slotted mags and they are not the easiest to put on. 4 bolts are good and the 5th is a REAL pain on each of them ...

5 spokes always remind me of a Hot Wheels car - I love them!

They are indeed slotted! A real pain, especially with those dumb oblong washers LOL. It takes me a while to get them on and off! It seems there's a bit of a trick to getting 'em on just right. I would really love a pair of true vintage '70s Rocket racing wheels. 5 spoke design. SO hard to find especially in 15x7

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Here’s a pic of the rotors I quickly painted. Just sanded the area where I was going to paint and cleaned with brake clean. This is so when you look inside through the Cragars, you won’t see rust!

I’ll knock off the surface rust with some emery cloth when I install these rotors. It’ll make it easier for me to just spin them and hold some of the cloth to the surface and knock most of it off.

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Also a cool side note, my New Yorker is NOT the only C Body in Santa Maria. In fact, I’ve been following one closely for sometime. Today was the celebration of the opening of the Dukes C.C. Central Coast chapter in Nipomo. The ‘68 Newport happened to be there and I was finally able to meet the owner and talk for a bit about our cars. So cool to see it up close!

I didn’t get a pic of it today, but here’s a picture of it I took a few months back. A lot of GREAT cars there. The Dukes CC is one of the oldest lowrider clubs in California. Definitely one of legends… Here are some of my favorite cars I saw from today.

Check out that interior!!

One of my favorite Fords …

Beautiful and rare 1939 Pontiac

Classic ‘58. California styled cruiser

 

[Ghostultramarine]

That 68 Newport, did you ask about the colour? They did have a Metallic Burgundy that year. My 68 Newport came PP1 red, had been painted twice after (one an orangey red and then a maroonish red). Currently it’s in black primer and I’ve been going back and forth between PP1, Met Burgundy or just another red.

I don’t want to paint the engine compartment and inside the trunk.

I also don’t want to open the hood and be reminded of non matching colours ...


That blue Chevy convertible is gorgeous.

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this thread! I do apologize, life keeps getting in the way of me and this car. I don’t live with this car, as it lives in the next town over on my friend’s 1 acre property. Aside from a crazy work schedule and balancing other things, I try and get to the car as much as I can! Where I work, the schedule is not static, always dynamic. One week I work graveyards, the next will be day time and the other will be the swing shift. Another thing that can be tiring is getting scheduled 7+ days in a row but on 2 separate pay periods …

Needless to say, I’ve been able to make the best of my time with this car lately. We have been buttoning up the floor patch work. It is not pretty by ANY degree, but this isn’t a points restoration. It’s my first time really welding and after the undercarriage is coated with undercoating, and the inside is painted black with POR-15, layered with dynamat and carpet - no one will ever know!

Painting the interior will come soon. For now we are focused on getting it RUNNING. Keep in mind, I’ve had it for 2 and a half years and I’ve never once heard it run. To our knowledge, this thing hasn’t ran since late 1979 to early 1980. I’ve gone through many many different ideas for how to do the engine compartment to this car - but in the end, I settled with flat black.

Now I KNOW this is frowned upon by most Mopar guys, and I really wouldn’t have preferred it myself… But this car is never going to be a full “show” car (¿maybe someday?) It’s just going to be a REALLY clean cruiser. My idea behind flat black, is the fact that it is easy to touch up in case anything ever gets messed up. Another thing too, is that it will showcase how beautiful that rebuilt and dressed up 440 is going to look!!! Here’s what it looks like so far… Seam sealed and painted in satin black.

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

A reminder of the 440’s progress. It was rebuilt last February, I still haven’t taken it out from it’s wraps.

I have Cal Custom style finned valve covers for this motor. I plan to polish them up real good, and a matching air cleaner! John Watanabe of Touch of Style cc rebuilt this motor for me. Machine work done in Oxnard by a shop whose name I don’t recall at the moment. John (who also goes by Japo, a spanish nickname) is the son of a local drag racing legend. He’s been around cars his whole life. He grew into lowriders but is still a drag racer at heart!

I want to paint the engine a light metallic blue color, I believe that with the polished aluminum / chrome look - it will be absolutely gorgeous!

I have to mention too, the front frame / suspension is fully rebuilt and detailed. There are 1972 C Body disc brakes, I rebuilt the calipers myself and detailed the other components. The brake booster was rebuilt by Brake Booster Exchange. Hoping everything looks as nice as I envision it…

Oh yeah, can’t forget about this 727 tranny either. It was rebuilt with a TransGo TF-2 kit.

Next step is to get a new driveshaft made. I have 2 junky ones that came in the trunk of this car. Hoping the local drive shaft shop can use the the 2 broken ones as a good template for a nice new one!

 

[Isaiah Estrada]

Regarding all the info posted above, our plan is this… Get the car to RUN. We will at least get the motor and trans installed, and have the radiator core support and other structural pieces bolted in in order to be able to be able to run the motor and do a break in. I have a nice new aluminum cold case radiator to keep that beast nice and cool! From there, we can move it around and have an exhaust installed, then have a front end shop do the alignment.

From there, I can re-install the HVAC box, and newly rebuilt dashboard. I have a gorgeous speedometer cluster rebuilt by redline gauge and cluster and a 8 track stereo. A good friend of ours will do the upholstery. Since it’s a mild custom, I decided to go a few years back and install 1966 Chrysler 300 buckets up front and keep the rear to upholster it with the same pattern.

My friend Arnold will continue doing rust repair on the roof, and when all is done will have the roof painted a beautiful silver color! I am going to wet sand, buff, polish and clear coat the rest of the body to preserve that original PP1 paint. It will be a looker! I will drive it around like this for a long while, eventually I would love to have a professional paint job done to this car and possibly even do the engine bay body color - but that’s years down the line… I just want to drive this car and enjoy it! In the mean time, I would probably look to having all the chrome re done. It has polished out really nice so far, so it’s nothing to worry about either. I just want to have this car looking beautiful and shiny.