I purchased this car in September of 1987 after seeing an ad in the local paper. It was in rough shape but it was a legit 4 speed Coronet R/T Convertible. It's decently optioned with disc brakes, Dana 60 Track Pak, power windows, Rallye instruments, light package and left and right sport mirrors. The owner had disasembled most of it but all the parts were there. He even tracked down the original block at a garage which replaced the engine when the No. 6 rod let go. I had the car trailered out to a friend's barn where it sat for 10 years.

In fall of 1997 I had the car trailered into town (thanks to Bob Forsythe). I started to disasemble the rest of the car. All the underdash stuff had to come out. The pedals, the steering column, the heater, all the wiring, the wipers, basically everything I could unbolt and remove.

In October of 1998 I had the car towed (Thanks to Al Standil at Crane Towing) to Moray Autobody. Blair, Kelly and the Boys at Moray had done some nice resto work on other Mopars so I figured they were up to the challenge.

All the trim and the convertible top was removed. There was lots of rot and bondo so the quarters, the taillight panel and the trunk were cut off. It was quite a shock to see half the car missing.

The tops of both frame rails were rotted and had to be replaced. If you see a rotted trunk check the frame rails carefully.

New frame rails were welded in. Check out the wheel well, all custom made since you can't get repro convertible wheel house sheet metal.

New trunk floor and quarter panels are test fitted.

The floor rot is cut out and the floor and undercarriage are sandblasted. The previous owner had riveted in sheet metal to patch the floor and covered it all with a 1/4 inch layer of tar. It took 3 weeks with a heat gun, scrapper and solvent to get rid of it all.

The floor patches are welded in.

The quarter panels, trunk floor and the tailight panel are on.

After lots of work it's all one color - Primer Grey

It's in the paint booth! Some of you may wonder why it's Hemi Orange and not the original F4 - Light Metallic Green. It was a tough decision, I came to the conclusion that if I was buying it new I wouldn't buy an F4 Green car, so I went through a ton of magazines and pictures looking at various color combinations. I wanted to go with a 1970 factory color and keep the black top. I decided Hemi Orange looked the best with a black top and interior.
I am currently rebuilding the front suspension, over the winter I plan to do the engine and trans and with any luck I'll be able to put it all back together by the end of summer of 2001. I'll post more pictures as I make some progress.

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