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'66 Chrysler 300
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1966 Chrysler 300
Posted: 6/13/08
Some may call it vain, but I call it convenient. This first article is about my own car, a rusty, sagging, 1966 Chrysler 300 which was handed down to me from my great Uncle. The car was purchased off the dealer's lot in Buffalo New York back in 1966 as a daily driver for his wife. It was driven little (only 64,000 origional miles on it), but my grandma remembers taking road trips to Pennsylvania, and my dad recently discovered family 16mm film footage of it at a cottage in Canada. After his wife passed away, my great Uncle basically kept it in his garage, occasionally starting it up. He tried to sell it back in the 80's (see the poloroid pictures below), but couldn't find any takers. He put it back into his garage until he passed away in 2004 leaving it to my dad.
Having his own projects (which will be the next article), my dad thought it would be a great opportunity for me to learn a little bit about cars. The price was right (thanks dad!), and my grandparent's garage was available for storage/working on it, so all the cards fell into place.
After having it transported from western New York to Columbus, our first problem was getting it started. After some fiddling around and researching on the internet, a friend discovered that the bulkhead disconnect for Mopars of this period are notorious for corroding. Due to the placement, lots of road slop gets kicked onto it, eventually causing the connections to corrode. We cleaned up the connections and low and behold, it started!
As a young professional, I’m on a tight budget, but have made some improvements to the car. I’ve coated much of the frame and running gear in POR-15, replaced the rear leaf springs and shocks (and shackled up the back by an inch), replaced all the wheel brake cylinders, master cylinder and brake lines, got new Radial T/A tires, replaced the spark plugs, air filter, alternator, battery ground, radiator hoses, and all the fluids. Right now, I’m in the process of cleaning up the engine compartment and repainting the engine components with Mopar Teal engine enamel. This summer, I hope to run dual exhaust to get a nice deep sound when burning $4+ per gallon gasoline.
If you see me around town, wave hello!
1966 Chrysler 300 Pictures
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