bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
Here's a story that I've been thinking about telling for a while, and Barry's purchase of the Turbine Bronze Newport Custom inspired me to do so.
A friend of mine (the one who one weekend bought the gold '67 Imperial Crown Coupe) used to live on a pretty busy street, and when he was home with the garage doors open, it was obvious that he was a big Mopar guy. Back in 2009, my friend had his daily driver '69 300 convertible parked out in the driveway and an older gentleman stopped by, inquiring if it was for sale. He was looking for a replacement for his '67 Newport, which had recently failed PA state inspection because of rust issues. At the time, I was doing auto repairs out of my house, and my friend suggested that he should bring the car to me to see if I could save it. When the car arrived I recognized it immediately as a car that I had seen around where I used to live for the past 20 years. The rust was quite bad, being a non-undercoat car. In addition to the cosmetic rust in all the usual places on the exterior sheet metal, the rear frame rails and trunk floor had substantial problems. (It looks much better in the pictures than in person) He was willing to invest 10 grand into fixing it, but I decided it would be best to just find him a better car.
I hit the usual websites looking for a decent '67-'68 Chrysler, Dodge, or Plymouth fasttop, and in less that 2 weeks, up poped an almost identical car on ebay. His Newport lost it's vinyl top back when his son re-did the body years ago, and he added the 15 inch wheels not long after he bought it. (The 14" wheel in the first pic are mine.) When they left the factory, both cars were optioned almost identically, except his was a 2bbl and the eBay car was a 4bbl. The eBay car was located in Pittsburg, Kansas. I had a good friend working in Wichita at the time, who's also a car guy, so he and some co-workers were happy to make the 150 mile trip to go check it out.
We won the auction, and a couple weeks later I flew out to Wichita and drove it back to PA. My friend had run back out to Pittsburg and brought the car to Wichita for me, which was nice. The car had been sitting from 1995 to 2009, so I had new tires installed, and we brought the car over to my friend's coworker's house to use her nice garage to replace belts, hoses, and the fuel pump. The Newport made the trip back to PA without a hitch.
An added bonus to finding the similar Newport was that his wife did not appreciate his automotive hobby, and never had a clue that he purchased another car.
I had planned on parting out the rusty Newport, but a guy from upstate PA bought it and fixed it up for his uncle to use as a daily driver. They have a different view on rust when you get up near the New York border. The inspection stations up there aren't as picky on rust either.
Jeff
A friend of mine (the one who one weekend bought the gold '67 Imperial Crown Coupe) used to live on a pretty busy street, and when he was home with the garage doors open, it was obvious that he was a big Mopar guy. Back in 2009, my friend had his daily driver '69 300 convertible parked out in the driveway and an older gentleman stopped by, inquiring if it was for sale. He was looking for a replacement for his '67 Newport, which had recently failed PA state inspection because of rust issues. At the time, I was doing auto repairs out of my house, and my friend suggested that he should bring the car to me to see if I could save it. When the car arrived I recognized it immediately as a car that I had seen around where I used to live for the past 20 years. The rust was quite bad, being a non-undercoat car. In addition to the cosmetic rust in all the usual places on the exterior sheet metal, the rear frame rails and trunk floor had substantial problems. (It looks much better in the pictures than in person) He was willing to invest 10 grand into fixing it, but I decided it would be best to just find him a better car.
I hit the usual websites looking for a decent '67-'68 Chrysler, Dodge, or Plymouth fasttop, and in less that 2 weeks, up poped an almost identical car on ebay. His Newport lost it's vinyl top back when his son re-did the body years ago, and he added the 15 inch wheels not long after he bought it. (The 14" wheel in the first pic are mine.) When they left the factory, both cars were optioned almost identically, except his was a 2bbl and the eBay car was a 4bbl. The eBay car was located in Pittsburg, Kansas. I had a good friend working in Wichita at the time, who's also a car guy, so he and some co-workers were happy to make the 150 mile trip to go check it out.
We won the auction, and a couple weeks later I flew out to Wichita and drove it back to PA. My friend had run back out to Pittsburg and brought the car to Wichita for me, which was nice. The car had been sitting from 1995 to 2009, so I had new tires installed, and we brought the car over to my friend's coworker's house to use her nice garage to replace belts, hoses, and the fuel pump. The Newport made the trip back to PA without a hitch.
An added bonus to finding the similar Newport was that his wife did not appreciate his automotive hobby, and never had a clue that he purchased another car.
I had planned on parting out the rusty Newport, but a guy from upstate PA bought it and fixed it up for his uncle to use as a daily driver. They have a different view on rust when you get up near the New York border. The inspection stations up there aren't as picky on rust either.
Jeff
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