I guess it starts about 1980. One of my brothers bought this Coronet. (I've had 3) She had a 74 400 in her. He sold it to one of my other brothers, who sold it to a friend of mine. Anyway I bought it about 1984 less engine and tranny for $40, but didn't have the cash to do anything with it. (I wisely spent it on booze instead) :-( so my grandpa let me store it down at his land by the Mississippi river.

Fast forward to summer of 1992. I finally had a place to work on my baby. At my home in St. Charles, Mo. so I went to get her. (does anyone remember happened to the Mississippi here in 93? talk about timing!) I dropped a 360/727 out of my brothers Cordoba in it and it was drivable. After sitting in a field for about 8 yrs. the maroon paint was looking pretty shabby.

I gave her a backyard paint job. it looked ok for about a year. until the paint started to peal off. about then I pulled a 77 400/727 out of a junkyard Cordoba. Then there was a drunken incident that caved in the passenger side quarter panel. and the side swipe job somebody left me in front of my house. after that I moved up here to Winfield, Mo. now I had a garage for my baby. this was about 95/96. in 99 I finally took her out of daily driver status. it or I was just to hard on it. and I was able to start repairing some of the carnage. I freshened up the 400, shaved the heads .050", got a Torquer383 intake, and a set of Hedman Hedders. I put every shift improver in the Mopar Performance catalog, including the 5.0 arm. and added a B&M Mega shifter. then I got lucky one day and found a 66 Coronet 440 4dr in a favorite junkyard. about a week after it was apparently pulled out of someone's garage or barn. and not only was it fairly straight but it had a red interior I had my heart set on.

I enlisted the help of a buddy and stripped it. I got the hood, trunk lid, fenders, door hinges, carpet, arm rest, back seat, radiator, and tail lights out of it. and the bucket seats out of a late 90's escort. now I was on my way. I stripped most of the trim off of her. (Chrome belongs under the hood. not on the side of the body.) the only trim going back on are the trunk trim that ties the tail lights together, the trim that holds the window seals in, and the grill. we welded up the trim holes. put an old style mopar prostock hood scoop on it. used patch panels to fix the quarters. I used both the wheel opening and lower back patch panels on both sides. grafting them together. I put new half floor pans, and fabbed up some seat mounts for the escort seats. I painted the dash, steering column, doors, and trim with a semi-gloss red. I made door panels out of masonite, pillow batting, and red cloth. I added a trunk mounted CD changer, with a pair of 8" subs and a pair of 6x9's all driven by a pair of 400 watt amps. at this point I put another cheap paint job on it. ( you'd think I'd learned my lesson by now) and drove it that way for about a year and a half. that's when I stripped off the cheap paint straightened out some of the body work an put a coat of high fill primer on her. I took her to 2 car shows like that. then in the winter of 2002 I pulled her into the garage to change the leaf springs and rebuild the front suspension. that is when I started the while I'm here I'll fix this stage. it is just about down to the shell now. but as soon as I finish the mini tubs I started this weekend. and patch a couple more holes in the floor. the Por15 goes on and it starts going back together. I'm hoping to give it to the painter about the beginning of April. and be back on the road this summer!