My 1969 Coronet 500

SOLD! (see below)

Here she is, my daily driver. She's a far cry from when I bought her three years ago. This car is a numbers-matching original that came from the factory with a black vinyl top, white interior, buckets, a/c, tint glass, pedal dress-up, console auto, 318 2bbl (that's gonna change as soon as I get time) and an 81/4 rear with 904 tranny. She was originally painted Sunfire Yellow which I thought was too wimpy of a color for such a cool-looking car so I repainted it 'Go Mango Orange' using an R/T style paint scheme. I put the power bulge hood on ( it came from a '68 Bee that I never saw ) and had Mike at Auto Decals Unlimited make me a custom bumblebee stripe for the rear with '500' inserted where the 'R/T' would go. He did a great job and that detail is always admired on the car by all who comment on it (and quite a few folks do!). It makes a fun daily driver and I don't freak out when I see another door ding in the side of it. And speaking of freaking out, for those of you who are wondering, I have saved all the original trim and bodyparts for the car should one ever decide to return it to it's original decor...

What's New?(Glad you asked!)

So far, I have replaced the entire front suspension with new rubber, new shocks all around, rebuilt the disc brakes, new exhaust, new alternator, new steering box, new fuel pump, rebuilt heads, new main and rod bearings, rebuilt carb, new ignition parts, new interior, assorted wiring harnesses, and a new turn signal indicator switch. I've also added a coolant recovery system as required for racing at the track. The worst was the suspension, the easiest, I think, was the alternator. Soon I'll be adding electronic ignition to her and that should really save me some tune-up time in the future!

01/00: Took the Coronet out to Firebird Int'l Raceway on Friday night to see what she would do and to have some fun. By most all standards, the car was slow - my best run was 17.23 seconds in the quarter, but I know with a bit more tuning to the trusty 318 and adding some electronic ignition, I can get that two-barrel Carter to get me in the 16's! Or maybe I'll get a 360 to build something a bit quicker... Yeah, I'm hooked.

03/00: Went to the boneyard last weekend and scored a complete electronic ignition setup including harness for a measley 35 bucks! Found my 360 builder motor too - complete and running, low mileage (36K), with a/c for $250. !! Life is good...

03/00: It's been two weeks since I scored the new ignition setup for the car and during that time I did more research and ended up buying a couple of extra parts to make the switch. I got a Mopar Orange ECU from the dealership down the street ($32.00), a ballast resistor ($3.00), and a newer dual field alternator from Checker Auto for about $50. Saturday the 18th I started removing parts from the old system, drilled couple of holes, bolted the new ECU and the salvaged Voltage Regulator in place, added the salvaged distributor and rewired the whole thing according to schematics supplied by an article from Mopar Muscle Magazine. After a couple of tries (I had reversed two wires on the ballast resistor) the engine fired right up. I adjusted the timing with a couple of pedal-to-the-floor runs on the freeway, and the car runs great. The motor runs perfectly smooth now, not a hint of a miss. I'll bet I get better mileage now. And at night, no more dim headlights when I come to a stop and sit idling! All this installation was accomplished in about 3 hours, but I was using a harness from a junker, that I had to sort through and cut away un-needed sections from it. Then I wrapped the whole thing into a pretty official looking harness.

05/26/00: Decided it's time for a new top. Had the glass guys come and remove both the front and rear windshields and am prepping the channels with new trim clips (from R/T Specialties) and removing the rest of the stainless trim to facilitate putting on the vinyl. I'm in the middle of it right now, so I'll post again when it's done. I've given myself a long weekend to finish, so the glass people will be back with a fresh windshield for me next Tuesday.

06/03/00: Well, last weekend I prepped the channels (removed the old clips, removed some minor rusting, repainted and installed new clips) and opened the box with my new vinyl top, laid it out on the car and unfolded it - only to find that the manufacturer had neglected to include the front posts in the pattern, so the vinyl ended at the front edge of the roofline. Bummer! Figuring this was just a mistake of part #, I called over to where I got the part only to find that the owner/operator is out doing the Mopar shows and probably won't be back for a couple of months! Double bummer! Okay, this place has a good rep, and I'm sure he'll make good with me later, but I need a top NOW! So I called Paddock and talked to their Technical Expert there. Okay, get this. He tried to convince me that I must have gotten some special dealer option on my car top, because most of the B-Bodied cars of that time had the vinyl end on the roofline. (I'll give you all a minute to stop laughing now). He claimed that he has argued the 'vinyl-down-the-front-post' point in my favor with Legendary Interiors for over a year now and that they claim the vinyl just did not extend down the posts. He also said that he might be able to put in a call to Legendary and have them special order a custom piece for me. That was nice, but I just could'nt believe that Legendary didn't make the correct top, so I thanked him and made plans to call Legendary myself the next day. Well, the next morning I put in a call to Legendary and got one of their customer reps, Shirley, on the line. She was extremely nice and listened to my predicament. She tried to get me the info I needed right away, but the department supervisor was not immediately available, so she offered to call me back and let me know how the top is cut. Well, she DID call me back within the hour, and informed me that the top for a '69 1/2 SuperBee was cut so the vinyl comes all the way down the front posts, but that they did not have any in stock and it would be 2 - 3 weeks before I could get one. Happy at the pattern info, but dissapointed in the wait, I thanked her and said I would have to try and find one in stock somewhere. We hung up, but an hour later she called me back and said that she had thought of something. They had just sent a couple of guys to a Mopar show in Englishtown, NJ with a truckload of stuff, and that included two black tops like the one I need. If I wanted, she said, she could call them up and have them set one aside for me and ship it from there. That way, I could have it next week. Saints be Praised! Shirley, you're an angel! I gave her my payment info and hung up the phone a happy man. I will say this. Because of the terrific customer support that Shirley gave me, I am now a loyal customer of Legendary Interiors. I will be posting their link on my main page soon. In the meantime while I await the arrival of my new top, I'm setting to work replacing the worn headliner in the car. I have stripped out the old, and have glued some 1/2 inch foil-backed insulation to the roof to better insulate the car against the 114 degree heat we experience in the summers here in Arizona. It has made a big difference already, and I don't even have the headliner installed yet! I'll continue the roof saga later.

07/22/00: Are you still with me? Yikes!! It's been two whole months since this 'lets tear apart the Coronet' thing started and I'm relieved to say that the project(s) are completed and the 500 is back on the road better than ever. What took so long? Well, when the project last left off, I was waiting for the headliner to arrive. It did, as promised and it did indeed have the fabric in place for the front posts, but they were seamed in, it was not a continuous piece as I expected. After much researching the magazines I have come to the conclusion that many, if not all of the original vinyl tops had seams on the front posts. Email me if you know differently, please. Anyway, life got hectic, and I also decided that it was time also to replace the front ball joints, upper and lower, so I could get an alignment done. And since I was redoing things, I may as well put in that new headliner that is waiting patiently on the shelf in the garage. Oh, and while I was at it , because the trim had to come off the car to get the new top on, I may as well get that all buffed, right? And some meaner tread in the rear wouldn't hurt either. Well, all those things were accomplished and I finally have the car back on the road. I did the ball joints while I was waiting for my friend and mechanic guru Don to come over and help me lay down the new vinyl top. Actually, for never having done ball joints myself, it went pretty smoothly, except I spent a whole lot of time going to stores looking for a 'ball joint socket' to twist them out with. My search was unsuccessful, and when I finally got back home, I grabbed a pipe wrench I had and 10 minutes later I had the first one out. Ya live and ya learn, I guess. My next project was installing the new headliner, and that took me three separate sessions to finish. I would work up to a point where I wasn't sure what to do next, and then think about it for a while and then a day or two later, return to it and continue. I ended up having to make my own cardboard rear corner pieces, since the originals were pretty shot. I used one of the orinals as a template, and then at the appropriate spots where the originals had these metal clip-holders rivited into the cardboard, I simply hot-melt glued several more squares of the cardboard, slit them partially, inserted the original clips, and then hot-melted them in. After they cooled I inserted the clips into the interior body holes, and the whole thing held beautifully. So, the interior was finished, and Don was on his way to help with the top. We once again laid out the top, and loaded up the paint gun with the heavy duty contact adhesive we needed to use. From there on, I was sweating bullets until the job was done. Let me tell you, once you lay that vinyl down on the glue, it's STUCK! There is almost zero room for mistakes on this project. We did small (8") strips at a time, first working one side, and then the other. The result - a really nice job done. New PPG glass went in to the front using a new gasket from Paddock. The people that did the glass job for me brought a gasket with them, but it was the wrong part. They told me they couldn't get the right gasket, so I ordered one from Paddock (perfect repro) and had them throw in an extra catalogue for the glass company! By the way, I'd really recommend to anyone to get the PPG glass. It is the same thick, double layer glass that came OEM, and has a nice tint to it. With the newly buffed trim back in place the car has definately taken a step up in looks. I'll post some close-ups soon.The new 275/60 15's on the rear and 235/60 BFG's on the front give the car a really nice profile as I cruise along the Arizona highways. So for now the Coronet 500 is done and I can, once again, point my wrenches toward the 'Bee. I'm outa here.

11/00: FOR SALE?!! Could it be?!! Yes, I'm afraid so. I have so enjoyed this Coronet 500, but I'm running out of room around here and the 'Bee needs my attention badly! I am giving myself a Spring deadline to finish the 'Bee and I need lot's of time and some $$$$, soooo- the Coronet has to go. So anyone who wants a very eye-catching B-body to cruise around in, here's your chance. The motor purrs like a kitty and will get you anywhere you wish to drive. Take it away for $5,800. That's less than what I've spent on it in parts and upgrades alone in the last three years!

05/01: Well, it's gone to a new home now. It managed to stay in the State, but it's in a city about 170 miles from here so I probably won't see it much. Now, back to work on the 'Bee! Glen.