Introducing New Member: Leizurtime

[Leizurtime]

Location: Westminster, CA

 

[Joe12459]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Justwondering]

Howdy

 

[Jack Meoff]

Welcome to the party.

 

[Leizurtime]

Thank you, glad to be here! Here are some pics of the barnyard beauty I just purchased. Try not to be intimidated. lol

 

[Justwondering]

Looks like great bones!
Whats the interior like? How'd you stumble upon this find?

I'm just nosy. I find it so interesting how folks happen upon their cars.

 

[Leizurtime]

I found it on craigslist, payed $250 for her. Before it was towed, I managed to get it running. Remarkable seeing as she sat for over 20 years. Most the leather is cracked, but its all there. The hatch over the spare tire compartment is totally rusted out. The car sat outside for that twenty years and obviously developed weatherstripping issues at the rear hatch. We don't get a ton of rain here in Orange County, so fortunately, the rust isn't eating all the way through to the undercarriage. I just have to replace the hatch and remove, what mostly appears to be surface rust on the exterior. Not surprising, since these cars are notorious for their rust issues. This will be my first DIY body work project. Been perusing youtube like crazy. Speaking of, here is a youtube video of the car.

 

[Justwondering]

Thanks for the video!
The time capsule of the newspapers is amazing.

How did this car not have a ton of mice in it? Am I the only one with that problem? They harvested most of the hood insulation and quite a bit of the sound insulation from the rear to build nests.

I'm looking forward to watching this story unfold.

 

[Leizurtime]

Idk, got lucky I guess. All the windows have been up on the car, and aside from some moisture, the car remained mostly sealed inside. I did notice though, when I opened the driver door there is a bunch of debris inside the fender. Like something built a nest in there. Thank you, this is my first project I have purchased in about 10 years. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited

 

[Justwondering]

Same here.
But I have that problem on every vehicle even to this day.

We have a lot of trees as well so the redbirds tend to 'fight' the bird in the side mirrors.

Are you planning on keeping the color or changing? Since the interior needs to replaced anyway.

 

[Leizurtime]

Yea, luckily the car wasn't under any trees. At least it sat far enough away to where they didn't do any damage, I know they can be car killers. As you can see though, the ultraviolet rays had its way with the paintjob. Thats okay though, because even if it had lasted it probably would have needed to be redone. Chrysler didn't hash out the rusting issues on these cars until 1978 when they updated their painting process. I'm still trying to decide on color, probably going to keep the interior dark red. Originally I wanted to do like a charcoal grey with red racing strips. But I've seen some 1977 brochures that show a cool dual tone Dark Red & Silver for the coupes of that model year. I've considered going that route to keep the car somewhat original.

 

[Justwondering]

In my future there will be a green car.. but that's behind a lot of other projects. lol

I like the two tone.

 

[Leizurtime]

My first Mopar was a 73 Dart Swinger that was lime green and after that a 67 Polara that was a medium green. Both were beautiful cars. I had originally intended on making the Dart a metallic green. Wound up getting rid of the car in trade for parts and work done on the Polara.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Always so cool to see a warrior like that getting saved.

 

[Jack Meoff]

My first Mopar was a 73 Dart Swinger that was lime green and after that a 67 Polara that was a medium green. Both were beautiful cars. I had originally intended on making the Dart a metallic green. Wound up getting rid of the car in trade for parts and work done on the Polara.

Do you still have the Polara?

 

[Leizurtime]

Oh man, I wish I did. It was a 500 series with 115k old lady miles on it. It had a 383, 4 bbl, and 10:1 compression from the factory. I had to run premium in it. It was killin me on gas. So I wound up trading it straight across for a more modern car. A caprice classic 9C1. SMH, I've made some stupid decisions in my life and that one probably falls in the top five When I looked up the numbers only 7,000 500 series had been built. Car was worth allot of mullah.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Dang!
Well we all sell things that we regret selling. But them you find another gem.

I just asked because I love those mid to late 60's Polara's.