Chicago or bust

I showed my Dad pics of your gold Polara and he really likes it, said it brings back a lot of memories..

As for your underhood detailing, I think it look as lot better. It's neat to see a red "Leaning Tower of Power" in there. You can't kill a Slant 6. Remember the rusted-out Volare's and Apens running around with nothing left unbroken or unrotted with the perfectly running Slant 6's still in them? They were all over Jersey in the 80's when I lived there. Those were good engines.

Neat car, now keep going and re-paint the engine and air cleaner.

Oh and I like the torsion-bar hood supports. My 69 Dart Custom had the same things, no hood springs....Chrysler LOVED torsion bars. My Dart was the same color Gold too, but it had a 318 and power steering (hehe) but manual drum brakes.

Does the gas filler have an exposed metal pipe running from it across the trunk and down to the tank like my Dart did? That cracked my friends up in high school. Ha!

-Mike

Not to hijack the thread any more than I already have, but my Dad was in Hawaii for two years, and never did get sent to Vietnam. He was discharged and took a job with Southwestern Bell in West Texas. My poor parents went from being newlyweds in Hawaii (can you imagine how great that must have been??) to living in McCamey Texas in a trailer house. McCamey is by the way in the middle of freaking nowhere. Mom said it was as close as she ever came to leaving my Dad. She was miserable.

ANYWAY when they left Hawaii Dad sold the Polara, so it stayed there. He flew home to Jonesboro to get his Nova SS. When he got there, the Nova was gone. My father's name is Ernest, and he's a Jr. My grandfather, having the same name, and having the title to the Nova, had sold it. Someone had driven by and seen it in the garage and offered my grandfather money on the spot. He never even told my Dad, just sold the car. My father said it was as close as he ever came to punching his father. The Nova was a gold SS in perfect shape, with under 60K miles on it. It had been Dad's baby.

Dad got the name of the buyer and drove to his house with the intention of buying the Nova back. He was crushed when he got there. The buyer had given the Nova to his teenage son, who had painted the hood flat black, installed big Crager mags, and in general had torn it up.

My father didn't even go to the door, instead he drove to Indian Oldsmobile and using the Polara money for a down payment bought a brand new dark brown over brown bucket seat 72 Cutlass Supreme, which is the car they had when I was born.

Dad did eventually speak to my grandfather again, but it's still a sore subject and I still get this story every time we see a Nova at a car show.....so figured it was time to spread it....

-Mike (aka thread hijacker)

This song came out when I had my gold 69 Dart. I used to blast it on my underdash Alpine cassette player (had the cassette single of this...ha).

Sadly when I had that car I didn't have a girlfriend. The Dart is the car I got after wrecking my 83 Citation but before getting my 68 Skylark Custom. It was fun to be young and dumb!

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LqRbFIppyY

-Mike

Olds Weighty Eight wrote:

Cool! That's John Gustofson's car from Grumpy Old Men.

When I first saw these I figured this was just taken in front of Pat's house......

-Mike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh81LMz1sPo - Classic. Glad you got his car.

buickestate wrote:

That old dodge drive great, engine runs real good, none of the typical lifter noise most slant 6's make. Nice and smooth, no noises, feels like a 47000mile car from 67 should.

Keeps up with traffic though with the armstrong steering and non power brakes I don't want to keep up with traffic that much. They can drive around me!

Power brakes and steering are on my list of mods for this one.

Pat, they HAVE to make lifter noise because they are all solid-lifter engines except the last few years of production in the mid-80's. I would adjust those valves, COLD, ant the earliest opportunity, otherwise you can burn a valve.

Go .012 on the intake and .022 on the exhaust. Exhaust valves are always set with more clearance because they heat up and stretch, closing the gap more than intake will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CITa_pmox4 - Good shot of Pat's car here...

Did you mount her??

AHAHAHAHA!!!

Lynol wrote:

Holy crow! the engine was painted red? Who knew!

Yes, all Slant sixes were through 1969. 1970 and thereafter were Chrysler Blue.

SL6s were also used in forklifts and farm equipment such as combines and swathers.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ygCCRPSyac&feature=channel_video_title

TylerW wrote:

Lynol wrote:

Holy crow! the engine was painted red? Who knew!

Yes, all Slant sixes were through 1969. 1970 and thereafter were Chrysler Blue.

SL6s were also used in forklifts and farm equipment such as combines and swathers.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ygCCRPSyac&feature=channel_video_title

I didn't hear the "Highland Park Hummingbird" Chrysler starter.....that was a letdown.......

Here's the hummingbird in full song.....from a Slant 6 to a 426 Hemi, they all sound the same when the key is turned!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDfQWPDnFJo

81X11 wrote:

Here's the hummingbird in full song.....from a Slant 6 to a 426 Hemi, they all sound the same when the key is turned!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDfQWPDnFJo

LOL..that's my car, before I fixed the carb.

got half the car's paint cleaned up, there's somewhat of shine. I'm quite pleased with the shine it does have for a 43 year old survivour with original paint.

Reminds me of a much simpler time of cheap gas,no obama,no terrorist and all we had to worry
about was the USSR and teenage pregnancy.Dont miss the carbs and points at all!
Jim

Flasheroo wrote:

Reminds me of a much simpler time of cheap gas,no obama,no terrorist and all we had to worry
about was the USSR and teenage pregnancy.Dont miss the carbs and points at all!
Jim

I would not change it one bit. Manual steering is actually very easy to deal with. I think we just get spoiled by new technolgy and forget what the 60's cars were like. They handled very well. A little harder to parallel park, maybe, but that is no issue for me. Make the car too easy to drive and the next thing you know folks ain't pain' attention to the road anymore. So we just make the car smarter. Rear cameras, sleep alerts, proximity alarms, abs. I want to be the one that parks my car not some computer.

Pat I cant agree more.These cars do everything for these people and they never learn the fine
art of driving well.The satisfaction of the perfect 1 maneuver parallel park or steering into the skid on a slick road.My brother just bought a 87 toyota pickup with manual steering and it drives great
and just point it down the road with perfect feedback thru the wheel.I can see all the lawsuits
now,I didnt hit you my car steered into you by itself.If you are that damn sleepy PARK IT!If you cant
pay anymore attention to your driving,take a cab Dummy.
IMHO
Jim

My friend has a 2000 Honda Civic with manual everything (steering, windows, locks, brakes, you name it). I drove it once, it really wasn't that bad.

Try driving a boat with and outdrive and no power steering....my belt shredded and I had to come in through a narrow inlet and no it's not like a car when you go faster it's easier to steer, lol My entire body weight on one side of the wheel and it barely moved. I thought I was gonna break the steering wheel off.

My 1970 Blazer 4x4 manual everything: no power steering, manual brakes, manual tranny



Car looking good btw!

buickestate wrote:

Flasheroo wrote:

Reminds me of a much simpler time of cheap gas,no obama,no terrorist and all we had to worry
about was the USSR and teenage pregnancy.Dont miss the carbs and points at all!
Jim

I would not change it one bit. Manual steering is actually very easy to deal with. I think we just get spoiled by new technolgy and forget what the 60's cars were like. They handled very well. A little harder to parallel park, maybe, but that is no issue for me. Make the car too easy to drive and the next thing you know folks ain't pain' attention to the road anymore. So we just make the car smarter. Rear cameras, sleep alerts, proximity alarms, abs. I want to be the one that parks my car not some computer.

better go buy a horse,. it,s simple too, stop spoiling yourself with all that new fangled combustion engine thing,. you're moving way too fast obviously,.a model T will do the same job,.you don't need no fancy 1960's anything,.

.if you think 60's cars handled real well,.i don't think you do much performance driving,.
Nick

definitely trying to forget what 60's cars were like.

Car is looking a lot better! Can tell you worked hard on that. Nice work!

Need to put some chrome Magnum 500's on it!



-Mike

These Magnum 500's sure would look good on a certain Dodge!

http://austin.craigslist.org/pts/2528318142.html

Now thats a custom paint job on that charger.Unfortunately I remember when that style of
paint was the rage,didnt like it then and damn sure dont like it now.Nice looking wheels and
car though!
Jim

nah these are the ones I want, but painted body colour

http://www.jopar.ca/4sale/images/dscf362.jpg

buickestate wrote:

nah these are the ones I want, but painted body colour

http://www.jopar.ca/4sale/images/dscf362.jpg

Yes!

I love those. Always looked good on the old Diplomat cop cars. I wish those would fit a B-body

Purrs like a kitten Pat

Sounds good,almost forgot about pushing the gas to the floor first and then start.Those were the
days.
Jim G

The hummingbird speaks. Voo-op-Voop! I miss that starter.

I also forgot that back then the Chrysler keys got inserted teeth-up.

That leaning-tower-of-power sounds really good. Neat toy!

-Mike

Flasheroo wrote:

Sounds good,almost forgot about pushing the gas to the floor first and then start.Those were the
days.
Jim G

Fuel injection has spoiled us all. On both the 79 Buick and the '88 Cutlass I still have to push the pedal down once to set the choke when the engines are cold. The joys of carburetors!

Cool tail lights. Bet they look awesome at night.

I loved the tail lights on my 68 Buick Skylark at night. Same deal, back when cars had styling!

I hope I'm getting collected in Detroit in that! Friggin' awesome....

That is a real awesome car Pat! Nice and simple, no computer junk to fail. A friend of mine drives a 1949 dodge truck during the summer as a DD and loves it. Extremely simple and is just plain awesome in every way. And I completely agree about people relying on their cars to do everything. I grew up in a house of carbureted cars and still find fuel injection amazing LOL. I believe every new driver should be forced to learn on an old carbureted land yacht, and a poorly running one at that. If you can master driving that around, you earned your license .

My buddy used to have a 70s K-5 Blazer 4by with a 6 inch lift, 44 Ground Hawgs and a 671 sticking outta the hood.

Stenciled across the tailgate under the window:

Fuel Injection is nice but I'd rather be blown

Picked up alot of girls with that truck....

well I got the fist shippment of parts. So far I've changed the idler arm, pitman arm, both lower ball joints, the Emergency brake cables, the rear shoes. Changed the oil, fixed the driver's side rear door that would not open.

I'm now waitting for new outer tie rod ends, flex lines, and a new driver's side front parking light. should be here tomorrow.

While I wait I've continued with the cleaning tinkering....

So,. you have two busted wagons,. and you spend your time and money working on a polara, and posting about it on a wagon forum,.

Nick

Woodward and the Bricks are next weekend. Hell yes he's working on getting his classic ready for cruisin!

You get that concealed carry permit yet to join us?

looking great pat,.. wish I would have planned my year a little better.

well the adventure with the dodge has officially come to an end!

I sold the old Dodge for a bit more than I had tied into it, had a fun time with it, learned a few things mopar (left hand threads on driver's side wheel studs! lefty tightie, rightie loosy) and mopar dudes will pay what ever you ask for if you make a nice add with lots of pictures!

actually laughed to the bank.......

buickestate wrote:

well the adventure with the dodge has officially come to an end!

I sold the old Dodge for a bit more than I had tied into it, had a fun time with it, learned a few things mopar (left hand threads on driver's side wheel studs! lefty tightie, rightie loosy) and mopar dudes will pay what ever you ask for if you make a nice add with lots of pictures!

actually laughed to the bank.......

Well sorry to see it go but nice to know the funds are going to save a Caprice Longroof!

When are you flying down to pick up the new wagon?
Jim

Jim, I'm trying to line it up with the floridian wagonfest

Good idea and if you plan on coming back up 95,maybe we can meet and I will buy lunch/dinner/breakfast depending on when you come thru?
Jim

nah I'm just 2 hours east of Detroit so it's I75 north

OK it was just a thought.
Jim

You did that old Dodge a real service by getting it all cleaned up and fixed up as your did. Amazing what a little elbow grease and some cleaner will do, I never expected the paint to look that good again. Someday I'd like to find the convertible version of that generation Polara. I saw a beat up looking green one when I was in grammar school, and put it on my "list" right then lol. Back to GM, your new wagon looks like it will be a straight-forward fix and I look forward to seeing it when it's done. DGGM is STILL my fav color for the Cappy wagon.