440Chrysler
Member
Hello all!
Thanks for the warm welcome! As promised, I'll be documenting my project here. But first! A little back story. This car has been in my family for 4 generations. My Great Grandfather bought it used in 1968. It was the family road trip car and made many trips to Long Island and the Catskills. When he passed, my grandfather inherited it and intended on continuing to drive it. It was parked due to timing and carburetor issues. It sat from 1988 until 2008. My brother was getting my parent's 65 Corvair, so he decided I needed a cool old car too. He gave me it shortly afterwards. I went forward and started digging into what it needed. The subframe needed repair, the floors needed some holes patched, and the car had the beginnings of the typical C-Body and north east rot. The 440 had a rotted valley pan, so it needed an extensive rebuild. So, from 2007 to 2020, I proceeded to learn to weld, form patch panels, and fabricate frame patches and reinforcement. A lot of that is documented in this roadkill article. From there, I rebuilt the engine, doing some upgrades while I was at it. From 2018 to 2020, I thrashed as much as I could, trying to get this car back on the road. First, to race my grandfather's dementia, and then to be able to drive it worry-free for my honeymoon. I cannot thank my wife enough for abandoning her to wedding planning as I'd wrench away on the New Yorker. Finally, I got it inspected and registered, and we were ready for our adventure. It performed with minimal issues, only needing a new battery (O'Rielly's let me down), a poor wiper motor connection, and a poor blinker connection. We made some great memories, and started our way home content with our adventure. We were half way home when we had someone pull out in front of us at an intersection. We had no time to stop, and hit them. Everyone is ok, the cars did their jobs, but I now need a front clip.
The good news is that everyone was ok after the crash. That, and the only damage the car took was to the front end. The car, at least from my standards, is not totaled. Also, insurance is paying out enough for me to repair the car and paint it so that it will be in better shape than before the wedding. Keep posted here for more updates!
Thanks for the warm welcome! As promised, I'll be documenting my project here. But first! A little back story. This car has been in my family for 4 generations. My Great Grandfather bought it used in 1968. It was the family road trip car and made many trips to Long Island and the Catskills. When he passed, my grandfather inherited it and intended on continuing to drive it. It was parked due to timing and carburetor issues. It sat from 1988 until 2008. My brother was getting my parent's 65 Corvair, so he decided I needed a cool old car too. He gave me it shortly afterwards. I went forward and started digging into what it needed. The subframe needed repair, the floors needed some holes patched, and the car had the beginnings of the typical C-Body and north east rot. The 440 had a rotted valley pan, so it needed an extensive rebuild. So, from 2007 to 2020, I proceeded to learn to weld, form patch panels, and fabricate frame patches and reinforcement. A lot of that is documented in this roadkill article. From there, I rebuilt the engine, doing some upgrades while I was at it. From 2018 to 2020, I thrashed as much as I could, trying to get this car back on the road. First, to race my grandfather's dementia, and then to be able to drive it worry-free for my honeymoon. I cannot thank my wife enough for abandoning her to wedding planning as I'd wrench away on the New Yorker. Finally, I got it inspected and registered, and we were ready for our adventure. It performed with minimal issues, only needing a new battery (O'Rielly's let me down), a poor wiper motor connection, and a poor blinker connection. We made some great memories, and started our way home content with our adventure. We were half way home when we had someone pull out in front of us at an intersection. We had no time to stop, and hit them. Everyone is ok, the cars did their jobs, but I now need a front clip.
The good news is that everyone was ok after the crash. That, and the only damage the car took was to the front end. The car, at least from my standards, is not totaled. Also, insurance is paying out enough for me to repair the car and paint it so that it will be in better shape than before the wedding. Keep posted here for more updates!
