‘68 Update - She’s CLOSE to her maiden voyage!

Isaiah Estrada

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Santa Maria, CA
I feel like I’m beginning to see the light at the end of this very long tunnel finally. She’s starting to come together!

Currently my dash is away and getting re-wired. More than likely going to replace the dated Mopar fuse block with a modern “blade” style fuse block. It’d make the car a lot easier to work with should it break down and I need to run to o’reillys for a fuse or something!

Also I’ve begun working on the brakes / mocking everything up. New brake lines to be installed soon. I ordered premade ones from Inline tube, but they aren’t perfect and need a bit of tweaking / reworking to work properly.

Here’s the rebuilt booster, new MC and prop valve combo mocked up with the lines going where they need to. It looks pretty dang sharp to me!

After we know for sure where everything needs to be, I’ll bench bleed the MC, and attach all the lines and get to bleeding the whole brake system.
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After I get my dash back from my friend, it’ll get re-installed and reconnected to the rest of the car. Finally, I’ll hook up the steering linkage and THEORETICALLY be able to take this boat on her maiden voyage! Of course, I still need to put the rest of the car together…

Also working on re-attaching the kickdown linkage and transmission torque shaft linkage also. Thank goodness for service manuals and reference photos I took years back …

I was lucky enough to find these awesome hubcaps for the car too! I know they aren’t CORRECT, but they do look a bit nicer to me than the ones this car should’ve came with.
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My dad and I are Lowrider guys, but he loves when cars are more original. Now that he’s familiar with our cars and what mine should look like - he kept telling me I should get a set of these to swap out the Cragars with once in a while. Glad I finally caved in! She’s gonna be one sharp ride and the ONLY New Yorker in Santa Maria.
 
No wire wheels?!?

Oh that’s the plan! Much like my wife, this car will have many sets of shoes :lol:

My dream set of wire wheels has to be The Cragar Starwire! They’d even look sharp on white letter tires, just like this

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That would be a very period correct / true late ‘70s early ‘80s Lowrider look.

A lot of lowriders during that era were pretty much muscle cars just lowered with cool flake paint LOL.

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Here’s a 68 Charger on hydraulics in the early 70s. Full CA Lowrider style !! Riding on Cragars it looks like
 
I feel like I’m beginning to see the light at the end of this very long tunnel finally. She’s starting to come together!

Currently my dash is away and getting re-wired. More than likely going to replace the dated Mopar fuse block with a modern “blade” style fuse block. It’d make the car a lot easier to work with should it break down and I need to run to o’reillys for a fuse or something!

Also I’ve begun working on the brakes / mocking everything up. New brake lines to be installed soon. I ordered premade ones from Inline tube, but they aren’t perfect and need a bit of tweaking / reworking to work properly.

Here’s the rebuilt booster, new MC and prop valve combo mocked up with the lines going where they need to. It looks pretty dang sharp to me!

After we know for sure where everything needs to be, I’ll bench bleed the MC, and attach all the lines and get to bleeding the whole brake system. View attachment 657106

After I get my dash back from my friend, it’ll get re-installed and reconnected to the rest of the car. Finally, I’ll hook up the steering linkage and THEORETICALLY be able to take this boat on her maiden voyage! Of course, I still need to put the rest of the car together…

Also working on re-attaching the kickdown linkage and transmission torque shaft linkage also. Thank goodness for service manuals and reference photos I took years back …

I was lucky enough to find these awesome hubcaps for the car too! I know they aren’t CORRECT, but they do look a bit nicer to me than the ones this car should’ve came with. View attachment 657107

My dad and I are Lowrider guys, but he loves when cars are more original. Now that he’s familiar with our cars and what mine should look like - he kept telling me I should get a set of these to swap out the Cragars with once in a while. Glad I finally caved in! She’s gonna be one sharp ride and the ONLY New Yorker in Santa Maria.
for a '68 car, these wheel covers are pretty close to correct...........
 
You realize that you can buy packages of glass fuses for little money? They were not inexpensive, even years ago. Would be much easier to stock up now and put some in the glove box and at the house than to pay for new wiring. Like a complete C-body trunk full of fuses for the same money.

Congrats to getting to this level of completion!

Wire wheels means the brakes need to look good, too.

CBODY67
 
You realize that you can buy packages of glass fuses for little money? They were not inexpensive, even years ago. Would be much easier to stock up now and put some in the glove box and at the house than to pay for new wiring. Like a complete C-body trunk full of fuses for the same money.

Congrats to getting to this level of completion!

Wire wheels means the brakes need to look good, too.

CBODY67

IF the factory wiring in my car was nice enough to be saved / untouched - I wouldn’t have even thought of this upgrade. However, it was so badly botched and even eaten away in some parts by mice - it’s easier to do it the way we are about to!

Makes me realize that this car was probably parked in 1980 due to electrical issues. It seems they were chasing their tail with some kind of electrical gremlin and kept trying to “fix” certain things.

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Also, I’d love to show off these snazzy discs with wires! Spent a lot of time detailing and rebuilding these parts.

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Thanks for your support always in my journey with the car !
 
If a car can be grateful, that car has to be grateful to you for saving it from a field. Well done!
 
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