NZPolara
New Member
G'day all, thought i'd post a project thread about my 1965 Polara here in New Zealand. An extremely oddball car here, there are lots of old mustangs & chargers and impalas etc but this car is only the second 65' Polara/monaco I've seen, though I do know of a couple more around the country. I've had lots of old u.s cars before but this is my first u.s mopar - I did have an australian valiant for a while (and 2 hillman/chrysler avengers if they count). The hardtop polara reminds me of a VG valiant hardtop on a high fructose corn syrup diet. This particular car was imported ex u.s in 2016, we have a rather harsh compliance regime for new entry vehicles which saw all 4 drums rebuilt, along with rust repairs to the front floorpans & firewall. The couple who imported it used it for school ball duty etc but were unable to look after an old and obscure cars complex needs and the car was beginning to deteriorate.
After getting it home, the first order of business was to thoroughly inspect the car and come up with a plan of attack. Not a bad car at all but as you all know there is always something..
The first thing to do was to grind back and investigate some suspicious blistering on the lower rear quarters and c-pillar, to my great suprise it turned out to just be humidity blisters in the paint - I was prepared for a weldathon.
With that sorted and patches blended, it was on to the engine. Not a bad runner, but running pig rich and a bit sluggish even for a 2 barrel poly in a big car. I put in the first order from rockauto, and replaced the points, condenser, cap, plugs and leads along with the broken vacuum advance. I then set the timing (which was comically retarded), and wound in the carter's fuel screws to a somewhat sane level. The auto choke bimetal thing was long dead, so I attached a choke cable to operate that.
After discovering this awesome forum and reading lots of your helpful posts i then did the underhood ammeter bypass. And started using the car regularly - It's a cool machine.
The original temp and fuel gauges were not working. From yet more great information on this site it was apparent that the instrument voltage regulator had probably failed. Of course it's a bit of a gamble - did the IVR fail with the points closed and fry the gauges?
I looked into the solid state purpose made power supplies. Trouble is being in a small country at the bottom of the world anything ordered in takes weeks to arrive, and often the freight is near equal to the value of the parts. I was tinkering in the shed as usual when I had a thought - I know what supplies 5v and is in a drawer already, a usb supply. So I wired it into the IVR 12v supply with a 5a fuse, butchered an old usb cord and ran it to the 5v supply. Success, gauges work and I have a spare usb port to charge a phone or whatever.
Next thing was to change the tyres. A pity as they were practically new, but I felt wide whitewalls had no place on a 60s mopar. I think the raised white letter tyres look much better.
Of course there is still much to do, next things on the list are
Engine mounts, I have replaced the RHS but the LHS supplied is way off the original, with a single top stud. I intend to modify the bracket to accept it rather than wait (and pay) for another mount.
Outer tie rods, boots are ripped both sides.
A 4 barrel poly manifold & AFB.
A dual circuit master cylinder, because i'd like to die old, rich & drunk.
I should also ask, is it ok to post pictures direct to the forum?
Cheers
After getting it home, the first order of business was to thoroughly inspect the car and come up with a plan of attack. Not a bad car at all but as you all know there is always something..
The first thing to do was to grind back and investigate some suspicious blistering on the lower rear quarters and c-pillar, to my great suprise it turned out to just be humidity blisters in the paint - I was prepared for a weldathon.
With that sorted and patches blended, it was on to the engine. Not a bad runner, but running pig rich and a bit sluggish even for a 2 barrel poly in a big car. I put in the first order from rockauto, and replaced the points, condenser, cap, plugs and leads along with the broken vacuum advance. I then set the timing (which was comically retarded), and wound in the carter's fuel screws to a somewhat sane level. The auto choke bimetal thing was long dead, so I attached a choke cable to operate that.
After discovering this awesome forum and reading lots of your helpful posts i then did the underhood ammeter bypass. And started using the car regularly - It's a cool machine.
The original temp and fuel gauges were not working. From yet more great information on this site it was apparent that the instrument voltage regulator had probably failed. Of course it's a bit of a gamble - did the IVR fail with the points closed and fry the gauges?
I looked into the solid state purpose made power supplies. Trouble is being in a small country at the bottom of the world anything ordered in takes weeks to arrive, and often the freight is near equal to the value of the parts. I was tinkering in the shed as usual when I had a thought - I know what supplies 5v and is in a drawer already, a usb supply. So I wired it into the IVR 12v supply with a 5a fuse, butchered an old usb cord and ran it to the 5v supply. Success, gauges work and I have a spare usb port to charge a phone or whatever.
Next thing was to change the tyres. A pity as they were practically new, but I felt wide whitewalls had no place on a 60s mopar. I think the raised white letter tyres look much better.
Of course there is still much to do, next things on the list are
Engine mounts, I have replaced the RHS but the LHS supplied is way off the original, with a single top stud. I intend to modify the bracket to accept it rather than wait (and pay) for another mount.
Outer tie rods, boots are ripped both sides.
A 4 barrel poly manifold & AFB.
A dual circuit master cylinder, because i'd like to die old, rich & drunk.
I should also ask, is it ok to post pictures direct to the forum?
Cheers
Last edited:
