It's been awhile since I've posted here.
I'm in the process of making the car I bought from my Aunt Bunny 30 years ago into my own car, and Cousin Alice's claims of ownership be damned!
Here's the car looking pretty much the same as when I bought it from my aunt.
I did this to it back in 2000, without asking my cousin's permission. (she came home from the hospital in the car, thus claims it as her birthright.
No cosmetic changes as of then.
But last year, I bought a coffee table book about hemi engines for a friend who's fortunate enough to own a 1955 C300.
It featured a Chrysler Saratoga that ran in the Carrera Pan America race in 1952, which was the same color as my Dodge, and had a set of Halibrand wheels installed on it.
I was inspired.
So I went on the lookout for a set of those wheels. Originals were expensive, and most of the were unusable due to corrosion of the magnesium. (electrolytic dirt, is how I've heard old magnesium described)
Until I came across these:
Rocket Racing Wheels. Yeah, probably Chinese made, but the price was right. I bought four of them for $760 delivered. When I had my tires transferred to the new wheels, the tire company damaged the rim of one of the wheels, and told me to order another one, which they payed for, then gave me back the damaged wheel, which wasn't functionally damaged, only minor cosmetic, which I cleaned up, and used for my spare tire. (shameless plug: if you're in the Pacific Northwest, or Northern California, buy your tires from Les Schwab, they take care of their customers!)
So, the next step is to reduce weight and shorten the car a bit by removing the bumpers.
I'm thinking of some nerf bars to protect the sheet metal, and maybe sheet metal strips to cover the raw areas which were exposed by removing the bumpers.
I plan to install some short lakes pipes, one on each side coming off the split headers. Something I can open up if I want to make noise. After the headers are re-routed into lakes pipes, I plan to remove the right side muffler and tailpipe, and install tee fittings into the left had muffler.
This thing is too damn loud for normal driving with two glasspack mufflers on it.
Anyone interested in making a suggestion? I'm open to ideas.
