The Saga of the Ugly Duckling

Waitwait...:stop:...! You forgot something...here, I fixed it for you...:)...:

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I picked up the Ugly Duckling last night. I had the magnum manifolds installed, new dual exhaust (2-1/2 to the muffles and 2-1/4 tail pipes), plus a new sticker on the windshield to make her legal. Here's a couple of pics of the manifolds in place.
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I'll try to get one of the guys at work with a smart phone to shoot a video of it so that you can hear the exhaust.

I admit that it is a little louder than I thought that it would be. I like the way it sounds though.

Over the next couple of days I hope to get the following things done; pull the blower motor and check for debris (it makes some noise when you turn it on), pull the bulkhead connector (clean apply deox grease) and a few other little things before starting to drive it regularly.
 
I mentioned in another thread that it still isn't braking like I think it should. When I did some testing on the brake booster it seems as though it isn't working properly. I ordered one yesterday and I hope it arrives in time to put it on this weekend. If that gets me brakes more like I expect than it will be time to start driving it regularly.

The night I picked it up from being inspected the left turn signal started acting funny. It would blink at the same rate as the right side initially, but after 20-30 seconds it would slow down. When I got home I checked and the front signal was lighting very dimly. I pulled and was surprised to see that it was a 1034 and not a 1157, of course I didn't have an 1034 in my stash but tins of 1157's. It seems the stem on them is slightly smaller in diameter, the 1157 wouldn't go in. That seems to have fixed it. If it comes back I guess I'll be cleaning connections.
 
live4theking said:
In early June I took a two hour drive with an older gentleman (Jim age 75) that I know to look at a couple of cars; ’67 Imperial 4 door sedan and a ’68 New Yorker 4 door sedan. Jim has restored many cars personally he owns a 34 Plymouth, a 47 Plymouth, and a 69 Roadrunner. When I was in my 20’s Jim was always willing to lend a hand with the 68 New Yorker that I had previously. he used to manage the parts room at one of the local Dodge garages for years. Anyway he came along because he likes to look at these old cars and is extremely knowledgeable. We had a great ride and a good time checking out the cars.

It was presented to me by the seller’s daughter that it was a package deal. By the time I spent about 2 hours looking them over and getting the engines to roll over we had come to an agreement for me to purchase both cars. The only disappointment of the evening was that the Imperial is so much nicer than the NYer, my personal preference. The Imperial is listed for sale if interested,For C Bodies Only Classic Mopar Forum.

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She got the name the ugly duckling not because of her looks, but because of the weather the day we went to get the cars. It rained from the time we left, the whole time we loaded the cars, the drive home and much of the time while we unloaded them.

The Imperial was a breeze to load. Due to a broken relay to starter wire we winched it up on the trailer. The NYer we drove it up on one fuel bowl of gas at a time. For some reason the pump wasn’t drawing fuel that day, it works fine now. Due to all of the rain the ramps and trailer decks were soaked. At one point I spun the rear wheels and slide the car off the ramps and the left ramp came off and was under the rear wheel of the car. In an attempt to reposition the car to get the ramp out the exhaust was pulled loose.

Neither car had much in the line of brakes. I and the guy driving the truck that hauled the Imperial had to catch it to keep it from going off the front of the trailer. That makes you realize just how heavy these cars are, remember it was being winched not driven. The driving back with the cars was fairly uneventful except the guy in front of me that decided to stop short when coming up to some construction which caused me to brake real hard.

The first order of business was to rebuild both carbs which resulted in cars that would sit and idle nicely. I fashioned auxiliary fuel tanks from 2 pound peanut butter jars. It sure doesn’t take long for a 440 to drink that much fuel, less than 10 minutes. The best part of rebuilding the carbs was my 7 year old daughter sitting on the stool by the work bench asking what the different parts were.

Currently the NYer is in the garage having the brakes reworked. It will be receiving new wheel cylinders, new brake hoses, new brake lines, and new parking brake cables. I’m using the Ni-Copp brake line to make the new lines. It’s a bit pricier than the regular steel or stainless steel line, but real easy to work with. Most of the bends I’ve none by hand with ease. It is forgiving enough that if you don’t like your bend you can straighten it and do it again. You do have to be careful when flaring it, not to over tighten it when doing the last step or you can ruin the flare. To do the front passenger line I had to remove the battery tray and radiator. If you’re considering replacing your brake line that runs the length of the car be forewarned that you have to remove the inner fender or splash shield (I’m not sure what it is called.) to get it out. I took this opportunity to clean up the tray and paint it. (I should say that this is not going to be a restoration. I hope to put a couple thousand miles a year on it.)

Once the brakes are done I’ll put the new fuel tank, sending unit, and fuel lines in. I’m working with the car on jack stands so having the tank out of the back of it right now gives a bit more room to move around when working on the brakes. Oh my, when I dropped the tank I thought that I was getting lucky because there was no “fuel” in the tank. When I lowered the front of the tank though it sounded like gravel sliding inside the tank, yikes. I sucked ½ gallon of rust and crude out of the tank with the shop vac. When I took the bucket of rust and the tank to the local radiator shop he advised that I could probably buy a new tank for less than he would charge to clean it. Thanks to all the guys here that gave input to help me in making the decision as to what to do about the tank. Below is a picture of what the sending unit looked like. It's a good indication of what the inside of the tank looked like.

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Tomorrow I hope to get some of the new hard lines for the brakes installed. I'll see how things go I've got things around the house that need done also.

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Cruddy or otherwise-bad socket connections will do that, too. Increased resistance = longer flash time. Less resistance (like when one bulb blows), faster flash. Sometimes it's in a plug somewhere. And on rare occasions - the bulb itself, even though it's clean and looks/fits good - is defective.

The duck is starting to look like a sleeper: unassuming on the outside, all sorted and set on the inside.
 
The latest on the struggles with the brake booster. This might seem almost like a stretch, but it's totally true. So as I was trying to figure out what to do I remembered when I sold me first NYer like 16 years ago. The guy that hauled it to the buyer asked if he could have the booster. The guy was like sure come back in a few weeks and I'll have it off. (Car was badly wrecked.) So, I called him and he still had the booster he never got around to installing it on his RR. I went out last night and picked it, took it to work today to clean it up some and installed it tonight. It works better than the other one did. I just need to get used to driving a car with all drum brakes. Thanks for all of the input guys.

I'll try to get a picture of it in place tomorrow. I've got an Accel Super Stock coil to put on and some Taylor Spark plug wires to go with it. If I've got sometime maybe I'll get them and some new plugs in it.
 
Well, I picked up an accel super stock coil for half price and some Taylor Street Thunder plug wires. She sure starts quicker now. The only problem with the plug wires is that they all seem to be about 6" longer than they are supposed to be. So, it looks like the distributor is blooming due to the plug wires sticking up.

I also go the alternator rebuilt because the bearings were sounding like they didn't have much life left in them. They are very old school. The do alternators, starters, distributors, and some other stuff but I'm not sure exactly what else.
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Well, I spent sometime in the last couple of days wrenching on the old girl.

I replaced the heater hoses. Installed the new Spectra B332 )CU332) radiator and the upper hose. The lower one is about 1-1/2 inches too short. I don't know if it's a fluke or what, but I hadn't used Continental hoses till this time. I need to pick up a different lower tomorrow.

Then I dropped the tranny pan to do a filter and fluid change. I found that the filter is from an earlier model transmission. So did someone just put this one in it or is it a pre-64 tranny. Dunno.
 
I am just joining this thread/topic, is your car running disc brakes?
If not then this will be your problem...
Based on your previous pics posted here, you have drums all around.
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Last edited:
live4theking said:
It has drums all around. Are you saying that this is a disc brake master cylinder?
Click to expand...
yes from the pictures it certainly looks like it is for disc setup the MC should have 2 equal sized reservoirs

pop the top and if one is definitely smaller than the other then it is the incorrect MC for your car.
 
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