Iv post a few times on the forum now and thought it would be good to show y’all my current resurrection not restoration of my 78 Lebaron.
*Disclaimer- any purists might wanna go ahead and leave..*
I bought this car a few years ago running and driving. 120k mile Lebaron medallion 318 lean burn 904 7 1/4. Have original build sheet from under the seat. Car is rusty but not enough to scrap so I drove as is I mean hard to pass a $1000 2dr mopar.
Drove the car for about 6 months and the 904 gave up the ghost. With the help of the forum I was able to select a good rebuild kit and installed a non lock up 904 with a crt street hp rebuild kit, transgo shift kit, and crt stock “high stall” converter. After working the bugs out and gathering parts to delete the lean burn. we were back to driving.
Shortly after (less than 3,000 miles) while coming to a stop light the car developed a shake that I can only imagine feels like re entering earths atmosphere with no warning. I limp the car back to work and trailer it home after we discovered cylinder #2 piston no longer went up and down.. well I pulled the engine and trans sold the transmission and finally pulled the pan. The car los both #1 and #2 rods without warning, trashed the block and heads.. bummer right? Well this brings us to today..
While the car was sitting I stumbled on a deal I couldn’t pass up on a 400B block out of a truck. Went through rebuilt the engine with some upgrades. Ram the engine on a test stand through cam break in and is ready to go along with an a body 833 non of unit.
The current plan is to make home made front floors, use a modified a body trans tunnel, Schumacher engine swap mounts, my 400 big block, 4spd and a 8.8 I have out of a mustang. Iv stripped 99% of the interior I won’t be using and we are going for the 70/80s stock car vibe. the car is rough but not rough enough to scrap but due to lack of repop parts to far to be restored. I eventually want to put it on a stock car chassis once I get the funds for that until then I’m making a fun car that is about miles per smiles.
*Disclaimer- any purists might wanna go ahead and leave..*
I bought this car a few years ago running and driving. 120k mile Lebaron medallion 318 lean burn 904 7 1/4. Have original build sheet from under the seat. Car is rusty but not enough to scrap so I drove as is I mean hard to pass a $1000 2dr mopar.
Drove the car for about 6 months and the 904 gave up the ghost. With the help of the forum I was able to select a good rebuild kit and installed a non lock up 904 with a crt street hp rebuild kit, transgo shift kit, and crt stock “high stall” converter. After working the bugs out and gathering parts to delete the lean burn. we were back to driving.
Shortly after (less than 3,000 miles) while coming to a stop light the car developed a shake that I can only imagine feels like re entering earths atmosphere with no warning. I limp the car back to work and trailer it home after we discovered cylinder #2 piston no longer went up and down.. well I pulled the engine and trans sold the transmission and finally pulled the pan. The car los both #1 and #2 rods without warning, trashed the block and heads.. bummer right? Well this brings us to today..
While the car was sitting I stumbled on a deal I couldn’t pass up on a 400B block out of a truck. Went through rebuilt the engine with some upgrades. Ram the engine on a test stand through cam break in and is ready to go along with an a body 833 non of unit.
The current plan is to make home made front floors, use a modified a body trans tunnel, Schumacher engine swap mounts, my 400 big block, 4spd and a 8.8 I have out of a mustang. Iv stripped 99% of the interior I won’t be using and we are going for the 70/80s stock car vibe. the car is rough but not rough enough to scrap but due to lack of repop parts to far to be restored. I eventually want to put it on a stock car chassis once I get the funds for that until then I’m making a fun car that is about miles per smiles.