MrMopar's 1969 California Highway Patrol restoration

[kmccabe56]

"It's a reproduction, albeit sometimes horrible quality, of the original factory assembly documents. "

Fury Pursuit's assessment of this book confirms my fears/suspicions. Faxon claims to have someone on staff who is an "expert" on these books, but refused to divulge any names. Knowing how Chrysler approached their graphics books, I would suspect that any engine assembly manual would have as many common pages as possible, i.e. if something on a 440 for example was used or typical for "B" and "C" body car applications it would be listed in the change block in the lower right of each page. Also, if a drawing of a particular detail could be used and/or reused for more than one model year, they'd do that as well, again noting the applications at the bottom of the sheet. Trying to recompile those sheets to "just " cover one model year and one body platform - Cbody versus Bbody for example would be a ridiculous amount of work. As for the copy quality, some of the "original" pages may be many generations of copy away from "the" original, and as everybody knows , every time you copy a copy and use the new copy as your master sheet, it deteriorates more and more. So there "might" be some excuse for that.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Most of the reprint/reproduction literature pieces I have purchased have been bad. The illustrations are dark and no tonal range at all. Most office copiers would do better. The cover on the 67 Plymouth owerers manuals that are reprinted just have blck blotches on the blue and these are called "exact" reproductions.

The only reprint/reproduction pieces that I have are for refference only.


Alan

 

[kmccabe56]

Most of the reprint/reproduction literature pieces I have purchased have been bad. The illustrations are dark and no tonal range at all. Most office copiers would do better. The cover on the 67 Plymouth owerers manuals that are reprinted just have blck blotches on the blue and these are called "exact" reproductions.

The only reprint/reproduction pieces that I have are for refference only.


Alan

Understand. I'm mildly curious about the info in these books and my curiosity might get me to order one just to see what information it presents. Conversely, your review of them dampens that curiosity down quite a bit. I may have to just flip a coin.......

 

[NewportTM]

Hi Alan.........Stopping by to say "Hi". Amazing build. Will you be making it up to the Cayucos Car Show?

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Looks like Nov 1, I shouldn't have to leave early this year and I don't want to talk about Pismo.


Alan

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Been on and off the car on little things.

Once the engine was done the next big item was to have the transmission rebuilt, it was the very reason the car was parked 30+ years ago, I was told there was bits of metal everywhere inside.

I had the original water pump rebuilt and with a little bit of touchup on the paint the engine will be pretty much ready to go in the car.

I finally got around to greasing the suspension so it is basically done (shy of the t-bars and bump stops) so I took time to get some other details ready. I pulled the core support to make it easier to get the engine and trans in. While I had the support out I felt it was a got time to get in and mount the ignition box, the plan is to hide it in the fender so a couple holes were drilled and the box painted black as it isn’t totally hidden.

The plan is to get the t-bars in and try to get the engine in this weekend.


Alan

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I like the stealthy ecu, hidden in the fender.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

The day started with the plan to get the front wheels under the car, with that done I could put the engine in. First up I started with the right torsion bar and had issues with the boot, turns out it was not the correct one (although some claim they can be used) so I chose to reuse the original ones. Bar in I go to put the shocks in an I wasn’t quick enough, I’d compress it and faster than I could slip it in it would extend jamming in a manner that It wouldn’t go in.

The plan was to try and tie it up, I tried some cord I had but it stretched too much and ultimately broke before I could get the shock in. Plan B I chose to compress the shock using my jack and a socket, with the shock compressed and two hands free I was able to tie it up enough to get it in. Once the shock was in it wouldn't slip into the control arm due to the powder coating, with the shock in the car I ground the bushing down enough for it to fit.

On to the bump stops, zero clearance to get a wrench in the frame, I tried u-joints and swivel sockets. A 9/16 1/4 drive socket probably would have done it but none existed, I ended up buying a stubby 3/8 drive and got it in. With all that done all I needed to do was put the wheel on, not so quick, powder coating. I needed to remove the powder coating where the wheel centered on the hub, done, not so quick. The wheel weights were the stick on type and were hitting the caliper so off they came, done! On to the other side, I have all the issues figured out so it should go quick, not.

Soon as I tried to put the other used boot on it tore. Oh well time to track one down.

Till next time,


Alan

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Very simple, roll engine into the garage. Ok even I knew it wasn’t gong to be that simple, first up it wasn’t going to fit through the door from the house into the garage without removing the exhaust manifolds and the dipstick and hat wasn’t going to happen. So out the front door it was going to be.

The hoist was initially set against the door sill and the boom extended in to lift the engine over the threshold but with the boom extended beyond the legs I was going to need some ballast, a couple boards and the three wheel/tires still to go on the car worked just fine.

Once through the door it was transferred to a cart to roll to the garage. The first leg was fine although the wheels didn’t want to roll in one direction. At the corner I needed to lift it up to clear an offset in the walk. From there I left the hoist on the engine for safety and inched the setup along the walk. I was fighting two things, one the lift not fitting on the walk and the walk having a slope. I setup a couple boards to keep the lift vertical and span the walk as needed. Another board was added and the lift moved the 6 inches, the previous board was moved and continued several times till the hoist was on the driveway.

I now had the issue of safely getting the engine up the sloped driveway and into the garage. I fist added a strap to help recover the dolly as one of the wheels slipped of the walk, once to the driveway I added a couple more straps using the frame of the car as an anchor. One of the straps was put low to help work the engine up the driveway and the other was to the lifting plate to help stabilize it on the slope.

Working the two ratchet straps I was able to get the engine into the garage, the third strap to the top was a friction strap that was able to cinch up as I worked the other two.

With the engine now in the garage I clear space around the car and put the rear wheels on the car, the first time in four years that the car had all four wheels on it.

The plan is to put it in on Tuesday. We’ll need to plan well as the lift will need to be on the slope to get the clearance to get the engine in.


Alan

 

[CudaChick1968]

Hey Alan, can we let the record reflect that I didn't coat any of those suspension parts or rims you had to grind on??? Looking great buddy!!!

 

[Samplingman]

Necessity is a mother, aint it? Excellent work, and every step keeps you thinking.
ccasion14:

 

[Fratzog]

Well done! When motivation, skill and ability come together.

 

[1970cat]

i've found that if you do enough things like that, after a while the neighbors don't even give it a second thought.

 

[monaco75]

Looks good! I'm eager to see this one back together.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

The first thing that needed to be done was to install the torque converter, my friend tried first and after a few tries my other friend tried with success. That done the transmission was mated to the engine and the hoist was wheeled to the car. With limited space I had one friend hold the tail shaft and direct it towards the engine bay while we swung the hoist inline with the car.

Now that we were in position one friend moved under the car and guided the transmission as we inched in and down. With the engine mounts in place it was on to the transmission mount and crossmember. It took a while to get the bolts to lineup and go in but we prevailed. I think I could have eliminated to hassle with the crossmember if I had put it in at the time I installed the frame, This would have minimized the potential for it to be out of place which I feel was the issue.

At the end of the day (more like lunch time) it was in. Right away I started looking for parts and hardware that cold go on, I already new the lower pulley would need a cleanup (sorry) as there is like zero clearance to the balancer, flapper wheel to the rescue. I still had hardware to paint so nothing was put on.

Alan

 

[patrick66]

Very nice!

 

[300rag]

Coming together nicely.

 

[72Fury]

Looking great!

 

[polarus]

Thanks for the updates, this is a great thread.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

A friend of mine indicated that installing the engine with the transmission could be quite difficult, I can’t recall if he felt it was even possible. It is close, inch in, inch down, inch in inch down...

I do not think it could have been done over the core support.


Alan