Hi y'all, I guess it's been a while, almost three years.
I've got side lined building a couple of bikes and working like a dog on my gun leather business. The 66 300, sat around mostly seeing the road a few times a month when the wife and I went out for a meal or just to shake off the cobwebs.
Of course there were a few items that needed attention and it made driving the car "less than enjoyable" So I decided this year to address them starting with the basic rule of function over fashion.
1st, It was running poorly so after a cylinder leak down test I pulled the heads to take a look. I was happy to see the cylinders and pistons looked pretty good. That means take a look at the heads. I could see a burnt exhaust valve on #5. So I decided to have the heads rebuilt. That helped a lot.
2nd, Of course now that I was sending more power down the drive line the transmission's age started to show. Although I could have bought a direct exchange rebuilt by using my trans as a core I decided I wanted to keep it as close to original as possible so I started the search for a transmission guy that new old cars. I know a guy named Chris that owns Soledad Performance a Mopar Only performance shop in Lemon Grove CA (by appointment only), I asked him if he wanted to rebuild my trans. he told me that he no longer rebuilds transmissions because there is a guy that only works on older cars so he sends all the work to him.
he tells me that this guy is part of the "inner circle" and not many get to take there cars there.
Once I took the blood oath of "Don't be a jerk" I was sent to Georges garage a one man shop and speak to Mark...Yeah I was confused too.
When I got there the first thing I noticed was a big block 66 Impala Super Sport that looked like it just rolled off the line. I mean this thing was perfect!
Longer story short , $1200.00 and 4 days later my car now runs better then it ever did (since I've owned it). in fact when I was leaving the shop I "accidently chirped the tires" at every light on the way home. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with the functional part of the plan. Lastly I had my AC converted over to the newer Freon and it blew as cold as ice.. until the controls stopped working. None of the buttons have any resistance and I need to figure that out.
In the mean time on the fashion part, I ordered a carpet and headliner kit and installed those while I had the seats recovered. Of course installing carpets and headliners will show you where you have hidden issues, namely rust in the floor boards. Or in my case a small area on the drivers side by the foot controls. Of course any job worth doing is worth doing twice so I cut out the offending sheet metal and fabed up a matching section and welded that in. I used POR-15 to coat and added sound deadener and heat barrier before I put the carpet in.
The headliner is in but not trimmed out and I'll finish that out during the week after I get home from work. Doing the headliner showed me how bad the weather stripping is all over the car so now the hunt begins for the right rubber to do the roof rails, door and felts for the windows...Oh yeah the windows. I need to find a supply for all of the plastic rollers on the rear regulators. They turned to dust when I rolled them down to install the headliner. I have no idea where I'll find the plastic components for this cars windows. I may have to fabricate my own. I know I can get the material, now I just need access to a small lathe.
Ahh the joys of owning older cars.
I'll stop here because I'm sure you're all board by now.
Except for the obligatory photo of how she sits right now.
I've got side lined building a couple of bikes and working like a dog on my gun leather business. The 66 300, sat around mostly seeing the road a few times a month when the wife and I went out for a meal or just to shake off the cobwebs.
Of course there were a few items that needed attention and it made driving the car "less than enjoyable" So I decided this year to address them starting with the basic rule of function over fashion.
1st, It was running poorly so after a cylinder leak down test I pulled the heads to take a look. I was happy to see the cylinders and pistons looked pretty good. That means take a look at the heads. I could see a burnt exhaust valve on #5. So I decided to have the heads rebuilt. That helped a lot.
2nd, Of course now that I was sending more power down the drive line the transmission's age started to show. Although I could have bought a direct exchange rebuilt by using my trans as a core I decided I wanted to keep it as close to original as possible so I started the search for a transmission guy that new old cars. I know a guy named Chris that owns Soledad Performance a Mopar Only performance shop in Lemon Grove CA (by appointment only), I asked him if he wanted to rebuild my trans. he told me that he no longer rebuilds transmissions because there is a guy that only works on older cars so he sends all the work to him.
he tells me that this guy is part of the "inner circle" and not many get to take there cars there.
Once I took the blood oath of "Don't be a jerk" I was sent to Georges garage a one man shop and speak to Mark...Yeah I was confused too.
When I got there the first thing I noticed was a big block 66 Impala Super Sport that looked like it just rolled off the line. I mean this thing was perfect!
Longer story short , $1200.00 and 4 days later my car now runs better then it ever did (since I've owned it). in fact when I was leaving the shop I "accidently chirped the tires" at every light on the way home. Needless to say I'm pretty happy with the functional part of the plan. Lastly I had my AC converted over to the newer Freon and it blew as cold as ice.. until the controls stopped working. None of the buttons have any resistance and I need to figure that out.
In the mean time on the fashion part, I ordered a carpet and headliner kit and installed those while I had the seats recovered. Of course installing carpets and headliners will show you where you have hidden issues, namely rust in the floor boards. Or in my case a small area on the drivers side by the foot controls. Of course any job worth doing is worth doing twice so I cut out the offending sheet metal and fabed up a matching section and welded that in. I used POR-15 to coat and added sound deadener and heat barrier before I put the carpet in.
The headliner is in but not trimmed out and I'll finish that out during the week after I get home from work. Doing the headliner showed me how bad the weather stripping is all over the car so now the hunt begins for the right rubber to do the roof rails, door and felts for the windows...Oh yeah the windows. I need to find a supply for all of the plastic rollers on the rear regulators. They turned to dust when I rolled them down to install the headliner. I have no idea where I'll find the plastic components for this cars windows. I may have to fabricate my own. I know I can get the material, now I just need access to a small lathe.
Ahh the joys of owning older cars.
I'll stop here because I'm sure you're all board by now.
Except for the obligatory photo of how she sits right now.
x 100
