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| Name: | Tom Felice |
| Age: | 34 |
| Location: | Pine Hill, NJ |
| Member Name: | tomdroptop |
| Contact: | |
| Favorite Mopar: | 1959 Dodge Coronet |
| Member Since: | June 29, 2003 |
| Featured Car: | 1969 Dodge Coronet 500 Convertible |
| Specifications: | 318/727 Numbers Matching |
| Number of Years Owned: | 15 |
| Picture Gallery: | tomdroptop's Picture Gallery |
| Tomdroptop's Wallpaper: | coming soon |
When I was just 14 years old in 1980 (go ahead and do the math) my dad worked at a Dodge Dealership and brought home to my mother, as a spare car, a 1969 Dodge Coronet 440 2 door with a 318. My mom used the car as a grocery transporter for a few years and I wondered, even then, why people would stop her and ask if it was for sale? As I look back and think about the car it was pretty clean, straight, all one color (cream with a black vinyl top, black split bench and auto on the column). Plus, it drove nice! I was such a baby in the woods to the car hobby, let alone the Mopar hobby, (broke my share of "L" handed threads in my day, LOL). I didn't really even think about owning a car at the time. A few years later I started to get the bug as buddies started to drive in high school. As luck would have it mom still had the car but it was getting to be expensive with repair after repair. I begged until she gave it to me and that Coronet started my Mopar infatuation.
I got that car and did my power brake burnouts in the driveway when mom was away at work. I never got the car on the road as my first car, but it was my first car, and that's something to be said. In 1985 I got a job at a local supermarket and met that a guy who worked with me who knew were another Coronet was. His brother had one also, and I bought it for $100. This Coronet was another 318 with the same everything… color, seats, interior, vinyl top and all. Now I sat with two of them… until one day I came across a 1970 Charger R/T and traded both cars plus took a loan out and bought the Charger.
Time went by, but my love for the 1969 Coronet stayed with me. Now, I was still fairly new to the hobby… and slowly I was finding out about cruise nights and then onto car shows. I started to go to the shows and cruises… and that's when it happened. I was attending Spring Englishtown at Raceway Park, New Jersey in 1989 and saw what looked like the same car I used to own, but was surprised that this one was a convertible and said 500 instead of 440. I was floored to say the least. Here's the car I was still in love with and with a lot more amenities. The 500 package with light group, buckets, console, B7 blue with white interior and top, clock, this one also had that old reliable 318, but the grand daddy of all was that the roof went down!
I couldn't get over to the car fast enough, and to my surprise when I got there the car was very appealing, but needed a lot of work. It was in need of truck pans, rear quarter extensions, lower outside quarters, seat covers and foam, console, rug, top, all the 500 moldings were missing. Later, I replaced the entire rear bumper mounting plate metal, the bumpers and door handles and mirror and so on all needed to be replaced, but I was head over heels for this car. The asking price was $2,500. It ran and had Cragers, which the guy politely told me "They don't go with the car". I still didn't care… I heard it run and had to have it. Now I was 23 at the time now and had a part time job at that grocery store still and did not have $2,500.00 in my pocket. I did see that the guy selling the car was a major Mopar Used parts and car dealer. He had rears, hoods, doors, everything you could imagine there, also 6 cars including the convertible. Being desperate and not wanting to walk away from this car I had asked if he would be willing to deal. He replied as he sat down on a pile of rally rims, "I'm listening". Now my moment had arrived to try and impress this guy and I started blurting out all the things I has acquired over the past 9 years in the hobby. The list of items I mentioned included 2 cars with no engines, a 1970 Coronet 440 model originally plum crazy car, a 1968 Coronet 440 2 door hard top that had a 1970 clip on it and had been made into a convertible (saws all I guess?), three 8¾ rear center chucks, (two of which were posi) a line lock (brand new in the box), a drive shaft safety loop (new in the box). He rattled off the amounts he'd give me for the items as I mentioned them and he was writing it all down as we went along, but I was only half way there! Then I remembered that when I bought my 1970 Charger R/T it had came with a cast 440 6 pack set up complete (the seller tossed it in as a bonus in the trunk!) I mentioned all that and when I got to that he said "now you're talking". He gave me another $700.00 off for the complete set up. All I needed was for the car not to sell that weekend, and to come up with $500.00 cash. The weekend ended and I made the call Monday afternoon. Low and behold it didn't sell! I went up in a van full of the parts and $500.00 cash and drove the car home.
My mom saw the car and said to me "What the hell are you going to do with that?" I told her I was going to restore it… and I did so over the next few years. Rebuilt the engine, had the transmission redone, the rear was left alone, all the seat covers and pads were replaced with legendary equipment. I went with the upgraded top and rear glass instead of pinpoint top and plastic rear window, got a nice blue console, new bumper, handles, re-chromed the pot metal fender signals and convertible top trim pieces, went with the Mopar style rims and BF Goodrich tires (car came with hubcaps), The car is mostly stock. I did put in a removable CD player under the dash but kept the original in the dash and pertronics replaced the points this year, which keeps that stock look.
A few years ago NJ came out with 7 digits or letters available for the license plates, so I got my information in as fast as possible and got my 2nd request for personalized tags, DROPTOP. My first request you ask? Topless, but now that would have made me toplesstom instead of tomdroptop and well that just don't work for me. The car has been with me ever since that day in 1989 and I have no intentions on selling it. It does need to be re-done again and plans are to do so after this season. I have been debating on going from the B-5, which it is now back to the original B-7 this time around but have not decided yet. I did find out while redoing it that it was still a triple matching number car and came with a posi!
I drive this car everywhere I want to without any concerns except for other people out there. It runs great and is an extremely reliable car… and if the tops up there better be a real good reason!
Before Pictures:
Beautiful Car, Tom! DodgeCoronet.com is glad have you here and thanks you for what you've done for us! Everyone look out for Tom's car at Chryslers at Carlisle this year!
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