MacLebaron
Well-Known Member
As always , looking better each time! Coming along nicely.
73 Monaco wagon
- Thread starter MonacoBlue
- Start date
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
I’m sorry, I see you asked a question and I didn’t respond. It is silver. The paint is not new but it is relatively recent, I was told by the man on whose property the car is sitting.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Thanks, just a little hassle factor with re-attaching these nuts, but once it’s DONE, and you don’t drop any down the pillar ‘rat hole’, that’s a good feeling!
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Oh, ok! Now I see! Didn’t want to risk any potential leaks down the pillar. Ah-ha! Cheap insurance by Mopar!
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Stainless steel trim reinstalled beneath grab handles. A little hazy but not bad. Stainless is rarely ‘bad’, you know?
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Cleaned it with rubbing compound. Has some very light horizontal scratches where it probably went through an automatic car wash a few hundred times. I’ll get a polishing wheel and do something about those ‘someday’, in the meantime it’s a five footer and looks just fine.
When you install this it needs to slide up and over the plastic retainer (which is now under aluminum tape).
When you install this it needs to slide up and over the plastic retainer (which is now under aluminum tape).
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
I used some P-80 evaporating lubricant where the end slides onto the chrome grab handle.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Had to remove taillight housing. A few delicate but persuasive taps on the end with a rubber mallet, and, voila, all done. (My pics go from driver’s side to passenger side but...you get the idea!)
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
Holy smokes...... where have I been.... I just got caught up with this restoration project and am blown away.... Awesome job, great results. I'll be dropping by more often now.
MacLebaron
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing the P-80 lubricant trick. I hope anyone that sees that car in the sun has their shades as shiny as it is! Always fun to watch the progress you make.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Thanks everyone. It ain’t been cheap, that’s for sure...and my name isn’t Rockefeller...but I am very pleased with the results. It’s been a once in a lifetime project.
Reinstalled the step bumpers with the NOS pads. I am reminded again to be grateful for assistance from fellow FCBO hobbyists.
Reinstalled the step bumpers with the NOS pads. I am reminded again to be grateful for assistance from fellow FCBO hobbyists.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Getting seats re-covered.
First steps. You know...
Remove seats.
Here’s a view you don’t get very often. New carpet! Ok, not really. I think it came from mom’s...the kitchen...
First steps. You know...
Remove seats.
Here’s a view you don’t get very often. New carpet! Ok, not really. I think it came from mom’s...the kitchen...
I just went through putting a couple NOS grab handles on my 1969 Town & Country this last weekend. You are so right, what a pain installing those was - I couldn't believe they had assembly line guys installing those things in the factory in any reasonable amount of time. I tried using some dum dum to keep the nuts in the socket but it wasn't good enough and I lost one down the "rat hole". After that, I took some of the green 3M masking tape and just put the nut in the socket and taped the outer edge of the nut to the socket and it stayed in place as I fumbled around trying to get the right combination of swivel extensions and right size wrenches to install those buggers. Glad that job is done!!
Kudos to you Scott for your perserverance and your help as well on getting a new headliner conversion put into my wagon too to replace that crappy perforated hard board mess that mine came with. And Murray Park has come across with his always excellent help and provided me with the front and rear interior dome lights mounts that I will have to add to the underside of the roof in the interior to mount those pieces so I can attach the interior light assemblies after the cloth headliner is installed. Working my way through this all now.
Thanks for your great thread!
Steve
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Whoa. Now I know I wasn’t just “belly-aching” about the hassle of reinstalling those grab handles, if someone with your level of experience has trouble too, Steve! One thought, you might recover the nuts by removing the taillight Assy. and fishing around with a magnet taped to the end of a coat hanger. Sometimes that is where they fall...and sometimes it isn’t...
I may have a couple questions for you. I have a piece of thin cardboard that I can’t figure out where it goes. I may text you a pic to see if you recognize it, and where it goes.
Taking all the original seats out today to take in my truck to shop 3.5 hours away. I hope this is a good move. Waiting on SMS to get him the materials. Hopefully they won’t live up to their ‘slow as molasses’ reputation for shipping.
It’s funny, I pulled a junk brown electric driver’s seat from a 74 Monaco at a u-pull-it lot. Same pattern as mine. I tried to power it up, and it didn’t work. Now it is serving as the only seat in my car. Fortunately it is at the right adjustment to be comfortable! Whew! “Thank you God.” The other seats will all be getting re-covered. I was thinking about refurbishing the brown electric seat instead, but my original manual seat is in much better shape and I don’t really have a need for an electric seat, for just me. There is no power cable for it any way, in my car, since it came from the factory with manual seats.
Next week is A/C at RK Motors in Charlotte. I hope those guys know what they are doing...
See ya...
Scott
Ha Ha Scott - no, you weren't just bellyaching - it was a real pain. But like you, persistance won the day.
Yeah, send me a photo of that piece and I will see if I recognize it, although it might not be something in my 4 year older model.
I ordered some material for redoing the front seat in my 1973 Dodge Crestwood wagon from SMS in later December and got all but the vinyl for the center pleated section and I am still waiting for it - they tell me they have to "make it", which I think translates into still months yet. You may want to reconsider taking your seats in to be recovered until you receive the missing material from them unless the upholstry guy has a lot of space.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Well. A word about THAT....
Not that I want SMS to drag their feet...
But I just drove the wagon with only the driver seat....
Talk about PEP!!!! It has get up and GO!!!!
It’s *JUST LIKE* a seat delete option in a Challenger!!!
(Ok. So I’m exaggerating...)
But man, you can tell the difference with the “8 passenger seat delete” option.
Whoosh!
Handles better too...
Not that I want SMS to drag their feet...
But I just drove the wagon with only the driver seat....
Talk about PEP!!!! It has get up and GO!!!!
It’s *JUST LIKE* a seat delete option in a Challenger!!!
(Ok. So I’m exaggerating...)
But man, you can tell the difference with the “8 passenger seat delete” option.
Whoosh!
Handles better too...
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Here’s the paperboard. I think it goes under the headliner under the rear air deflector. Somehow.
I bet if I go back into this thread to 2017 I’ll see where it went.
I bet if I go back into this thread to 2017 I’ll see where it went.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
If IKEA sold the equivalent of a flat pack 9-passenger seat set for a 73 Monaco, it would look something... like this.
MonacoBlue
Senior Member
Cargo area window trim reinstalled, painted strip and stainless.
I chipped the paint in one spot. This isn’t one of those Facebook “everything is awesome” posts. This trim is not easy to install and if I was made of time I would have documented visually better.
While it is still fresh in my head I will record what, from my experience, seemed to be the best order of installation. “What worked for me”:
You have two painted strips per side, and two accompanying stainless strips. One set is near-vertical and the other is horizontal.
If installing, recommend you attach the near vertical paint strip first. Two stud-clips with 8/32 nuts attach it by poking into the C-pillar behind rear door. Then attach near vertical stainless strip. Use a rubber mallet to tap/clip it on. It helps to know how far up the strip it goes. That was what caused me to chip the paint (ugh). Tap the stainless with the mallet toward the front of the car. I think it helps to start at one end and work it on along the length of the strip. That technique -working along the edge - is essential when attaching the horizontal strip, which you do next.
The stud-clip rotates within the horizontal strip at the back of the car. Make sure it’s locked inside the strip before you start to screw on the nut or else you’ll go crazy not making any progress while turning the nut with a socket/driver. A good technique is to drop the tailgate and stand by the tail light while holding the ratchet/driver with one hand inside the car while using your other hand to press the trim against the car on the outside. Obviously the front end of the horizontal painted trim needs to tuck in to the near-vertical C-pillar painted trim FIRST.
Once the stud of horizontal painted trim piece is ALMOST snugged down, there is a trick - you have to tuck in the lower edge of the horizontal trim into a groove feature that runs along the rubber window gasket. Once you get it tucked in to that groove, finish tightening down the nut.
If you get this far successfully...hurray! You’ve done better than me with my trial and error methods.
Next, take the last piece, the horizontal stainless trim, and put it in place starting at the C-pillar end/ toward front end of the car. There is an L-shaped gap-opening at the front end of that stainless piece that slips over the near vertical piece. I’ll post a photo. Once you’ve fit the gap piece end of the horizontal stainless strip over the top end of the near-vertical C-pillar stainless piece, attach that end to the horizontal painted metal strip by tapping it with a rubber mallet into the groove along with the metal trim piece, again using the technique of working it along the edge from one end of the trim to the other. By the time you get to the end of the now-conjoined trim pieces, it should all feel snug against the window seal. The technique of tapping with a rubber mallet is crucial. It shouldn’t feel like you are forcing it, it should be somewhat cooperative as you go. When it is snug and on there correctly, you’ll know it by feel: the rubber mallet will not be moving the pieces together anymore. You’ll just get a solid “Thunk” when you tap them.
I chipped the paint in one spot. This isn’t one of those Facebook “everything is awesome” posts. This trim is not easy to install and if I was made of time I would have documented visually better.
While it is still fresh in my head I will record what, from my experience, seemed to be the best order of installation. “What worked for me”:
You have two painted strips per side, and two accompanying stainless strips. One set is near-vertical and the other is horizontal.
If installing, recommend you attach the near vertical paint strip first. Two stud-clips with 8/32 nuts attach it by poking into the C-pillar behind rear door. Then attach near vertical stainless strip. Use a rubber mallet to tap/clip it on. It helps to know how far up the strip it goes. That was what caused me to chip the paint (ugh). Tap the stainless with the mallet toward the front of the car. I think it helps to start at one end and work it on along the length of the strip. That technique -working along the edge - is essential when attaching the horizontal strip, which you do next.
The stud-clip rotates within the horizontal strip at the back of the car. Make sure it’s locked inside the strip before you start to screw on the nut or else you’ll go crazy not making any progress while turning the nut with a socket/driver. A good technique is to drop the tailgate and stand by the tail light while holding the ratchet/driver with one hand inside the car while using your other hand to press the trim against the car on the outside. Obviously the front end of the horizontal painted trim needs to tuck in to the near-vertical C-pillar painted trim FIRST.
Once the stud of horizontal painted trim piece is ALMOST snugged down, there is a trick - you have to tuck in the lower edge of the horizontal trim into a groove feature that runs along the rubber window gasket. Once you get it tucked in to that groove, finish tightening down the nut.
If you get this far successfully...hurray! You’ve done better than me with my trial and error methods.
Next, take the last piece, the horizontal stainless trim, and put it in place starting at the C-pillar end/ toward front end of the car. There is an L-shaped gap-opening at the front end of that stainless piece that slips over the near vertical piece. I’ll post a photo. Once you’ve fit the gap piece end of the horizontal stainless strip over the top end of the near-vertical C-pillar stainless piece, attach that end to the horizontal painted metal strip by tapping it with a rubber mallet into the groove along with the metal trim piece, again using the technique of working it along the edge from one end of the trim to the other. By the time you get to the end of the now-conjoined trim pieces, it should all feel snug against the window seal. The technique of tapping with a rubber mallet is crucial. It shouldn’t feel like you are forcing it, it should be somewhat cooperative as you go. When it is snug and on there correctly, you’ll know it by feel: the rubber mallet will not be moving the pieces together anymore. You’ll just get a solid “Thunk” when you tap them.
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MonacoBlue
Senior Member
The upper corner. Horizontal upper stainless piece goes on last, start here with downward facing “gap” piece covering end of near-vertical piece, to align and then attach it. Patience and a lot of hand-fitting go a long way with this. I can imagine some training must have been necessary at the assembly line when they brought a new worker in to do this job! “Technique”
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