Discomopars.com - Home for post 74 Mopar Muscle

The first year, 2004.

Strapping it down, ignoring what lay above my head, That's the seller's brown Volaré \6 4spd in the background. A pic for my female fans *wink*

Initial viewing of the 300 looked like a solid project. Definitely needed patches in the quarters. Interior rough. I have a mint red vinyl interior in my Magnum parts car. All in all it looked solid. We fired her up, drove it up on the trailer and strapped her down. But before the journey... Lunch. Look who showed up!

The NY/NJ Moparstyle crew. 80 Volaré, 98 Viper GTS, and a 79 Magnum. Eventual great buds.

The journey home in the rain was un-eventful. Looking at it while on the trailer I noticed that the hood had some dents on the sides. I have no clue how they happened but it was noticeable. It wasn't rust so I shrugged, I'd get to it when I got to it. It stopped raining when we got home, drove it up the driveway. I was really happy.

Some better shots a couple days after she came home. You can see hints of the cancer below the skin.

May

Spent this month registering the car, and driving it to clean out the carbon. Bad news, I found the rot. I pulled up the trunk carpet.

The car was still having some running problems. It would redline in park or neutral, but in gear max rpm was 2500-3000 rpm. I knew something wasn't right, either carb, Lean-Burn, or something else. I'd blast around town in it for the couple weeks, but near the end of May, the lean burn went.
I did manage to score some tires. The fronts were too large for my tastes, but the rears were 275/60s. I went to trade in the never mounted fronts for 235/60s but they were on back order. To top it off, when they DID come in, they got sold!!! I went with 215/70s for the skinnys up front.

Another for the ladies. As you can see, my front tires were on back order so here it is with a classic Big/Lil look. 205/65 front, 275/60 rear.

June

Well, spent this month (literally the entire month) on getting this thing running again to go to Carlisle. I dumped the stock intake and ignition and put on an Edelbrock Performer manifold, Holley 600CFM carb, and an electronic ignition kit. Well... for some odd reason no gas was shooting out of the carb into the intake. Couple calls and deals later got me a Demon Sizzler thermoquad from a buddy. Well, now I have gas. Next on the list was spark. I'm not exactly a rocket scientist, but I could not get spark for my distributor. I spent the last half of the month on this. I gave up and sent it to a shop. They had no luck either, and they didn't like trying to retrofit electronic ignition. Do great work on newer cars and Chevy's just not older off-makes.

July

One of my goals when I got the car was to take it to Chryslers at Carlisle. July 8th was my departure date. The car was still at the shop, not running. I heard that when people had probs in the late 70s the quick fix was a points distributor! I ran to the parts store and stabbed it in. The car ran for the first time in over a month on July 6th. I kept the car there an extra day to adjust the timing. I still had to permanently register the car!! I spent the night of the 7th popping in the vinyl buckets (because the rich Corinthean leather was toast) and doing some odds and ends. July 8th I finally registered the car!

    So here it at Carlisle 04 in all its rough shape glory. I did manage to finally have all 4 matching brand/style tires/rims on it for the trip. Aside from a loose radiator hose clamp this car was no hassle for the drive. Always make sure to tighten your hose clamps when you replace an intake!
     They grouped me with the Chrysler 300s, 1955-1971, 1979 non-letter. What a mistake, the next time I register for Carlisle I'm registering it as a Cordoba! Hey it has a 'doba VIN. Plus, all my buds are in the Late B class. Why a mistake? All the other 300 owners came off as elitist. One even had the nerve to say to me that he wouldn't have the guts to take a car that looked like mine to a big show like Carlisle's! It's bad enough most of my generation is into rice burners. What was he trying to do? Convince me that I was unworthy of a real car? Yup, Late B body (75+) for me next time.

     I took it to my hometown show 2 weeks later. The featured marque was Mopar! Normally the Durham, CT show has 10-15 Mopars in the very large field, but that year we invaded with over 100 Chrysler Plymouth Dodge cars. A lot of Mopar spirit and a great time!

August

More fun driving it around. My girlfriend drove it home from work one day and her opinion of it was very similar to the previous owner's. "IT'S A BOAT, I can't park the friggin' thing." Good thing I don't own a 1970 Newport 9 pass wagon, eh?

Anyways, she heard a "clunk." I went underneath to see what it was, see some isolator hanging... uh oh... turns out, the clunk was the usual noise I hear (LBJ) but as I inspected, I noticed that the K-frame is rotting out...
I also managed to score my second parts car (first was my 78 Magnum). Another 79 300 entered the cause for my car. This car was past saving. In retrospect, there wasn't much more wrong with this car than mine! Needed quarters, trunk, nose piece, the hood and doors were actually slightly worse than mine. It would come to pass that the Cordoba specific parts I acquired this far (the nose, hood, and doors) were actually worse than what I already had! The nose was better until the idiot delivered it to my house and when I got there the fiberglass was all broken! Thankfully the grille was safe in the interior.

A Public Service Announcement: Please do not neglect reasonably rare Mopars. Sometimes it's neccessary, but it's still a shame. It shouldn't have to be this way. Of course hindsight is 20/20.

Later in August I headed up to the Vernon, CT Mopar Show, one of the largest all Mopar shows in New England, the largest in CT. I was parked next to the survivor 300 from Carlisle. It only has 13k miles on it. It's amazing to see how horribly mine has aged.
By this time I also had noticed that there was more and more oil coming out of my oil breather. I figured it was a bad pcv valve. Nope. Figured it was blow by, rings were wearing out. The carb really was tuned for a modified 360, not my (for argument's sake) stock 360, so I thought that was the root of it. Either way, I thought that the 109k E58 360 had seen better days and the use I had bestowed upon it that summer was taking its toll. One of the 360s from either parts car would have to get used.

This shot hides my unworthyness. I'm the car in the background. The nice 300's owner has two more. A parts car and a T-top car. The T-top was getting a 440-6pak when I talked to him. The lucky guy also managed to find NOS wheel well trim that day as well for the rear quarters. 2 of one side, 1 of the other. To top it off, he got them CHEAP!!!

September

September started out ok. I pulled most of the interior out and stored it in the garage's attic. On September 19th the 300 went to the body shop. Just a little one man shop out in Beacon Falls, CT by the name of Rent-a-Painter. Craig's a nice guy with lots of experience. His shop isn't normally a restoration shop. His bread and butter is collision work. But he has a soft spot for old cars, and worked on this in the interim of his main work, especially because he was trying to work within my budget.


		Here's shots of the rust hidden by trim!!!! Doesn't look so solid now, eh???

Craig showed me the rot. A little bit worse in some areas, better in others. We walked around and he thinks I'm not too horribly off considering I have the Magnum to cut up. He'd really prefer new quarter panels but since they are made of unobtanium he's going to resort to some old school tricks.
Now remember the email the previous owner sent me? Well, we're friends at this point and he felt really bad about all this work. He hooked me up with transport getting the Magnum down to Craig.

October

The start of the 300's rust removal. You can see that the springs were ready to pop through the trunk!!

The sad fate of the 38000 mile Magnum. It gave its parts so that others may live.

	Craig started working on the driver's side first. First up is the rocker. He also had to cut a portion of the inner fenderwell (not pictured)
	Next up was both rear frame extensions. Here's a GREAT picture of what I was driving around on during the summer.
	Here's the same one all welded in. This like all the sheet metal, this was donated by the 78 Magnum.
	Here's the first shot of the trial fitment of the 78 Magnum's quarter panel. If anybody asks, you can use a Dodge Magnum/Charger SE quarter panel on a Cordoba. The one big difference is the lack of studs on the lower portion for your rocker moldings to attach to.
	The same fitment from the front. You can see all of Craig's work on the inner fender to fix all that rust. He wasn't keen on doing it this way, but this was the best he was going to get. I put my faith in his 30+ years of skill and talent.

November

November was pretty much like October, except he did the passenger side. Like I said he was doing this in the interim of more profitable jobs. Here's a pick of him fitting the rocker patch to the car. Also, midway I finally disposed of the 79 300 parts car.

December

	Here's a shot of the "finished" trunk. Now sharp readers may have noticed I'm using a 1978 trunk in a 1979 car. In 1978 they had a hump in the trunk, whereas the 79 B-bodies' are flat. Well, nothing a couple precision cuts and a little welding and it's solid again. It isn't concourse correct, but its functional and no one will see it once the gas tank is installed and the carpet placed on top.
	Next is a shot of the passenger's quarter all ready for the first tacking.
	A close up of the fitment of the panels.

So this is where 2004 ends. The rear quarters, trunk, frame extensions all welded on. Not really pretty, but hey, one man can only work so fast! I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot. Also a lot of things that plagued me in the summer will be resolved later... (or not... depends)

Onward to 2005

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