coletrain777

I am a Southern Baptist Pastor, have been in ministry for 12 years.

My poor coupe is sitting outside with 12" of snow on it right now... I got it to the upper lot and about 4 feet from getting in a storage shed and we got buried under a foot of snow... it was supposed to be 2-4". The first time my coupe has seen moisture/weather in over 20 years if the previous owners are correct.

Thanks... Right now I am coming up with a build gameplan... I have been looking at leather front and rear seats to see which ones will fit like a glove

C38Spitfire6 - Thanks for the kind words... I hope that this is a great experience for my son and I. With my wife and I involved in professions that we love... but don't pay much, I spend free time doing work for others to help pay the bills (and hopefully save a few dollars here and there). The problem is, my son will only be this age once, and I don't want to wake up one day and realize "I missed it". We will probably start on the coupe in the late fall/early winter, but I want to have most/all the parts ready and waiting before we do... and a good plan of attack to maximize our time!

I was wondering what most folks did if they decided to do away with the rocker panel trim? My factory rockers are in great shape, but I want to delete the trim. It doesn't look like they just fill in the panel clip holes as the original rocker is a stamped "box like" shape. do most folks cut out the factory rockers and bend/roll a new curved outer rocker section and weld it on? The fabrication aspect doesn't seem like a big deal, I just wondered what most folks did? I would love to see some pics (especially during the mock up/fab stage) of modified rockers if anyone has a few. Thanks in advance!

greg g - thanks for the pic, yes that is surely inspiration!

James - thanks for the info, it's good to have options. I also believe that a Jeep Cherokee has the same track width in the rear as our cars. I need to check the gear ratio in the current 9 inch that is under it... If it is a 3.00 or a 3.23 I will probably stick with it for a great interstate cruising setup.

It gets better... The same springs that greg g linked to on partsbin.com ($66.18) are only $42.79 (plus shipping) at rockauto.com. I looked them up for a 1993 Aerostar with a 4.0 V6, they are the same Moog CC850.

Andydodge - thats what I was hoping to hear. I need to go out and measure the rear track width on an 02 Mountaineer parts car I have... The 8.8 rear end with disk brakes and 3.55 gears would work well (my 47 has a Ford 9 inch under it currently). I think it will be a little wide, but maybe not??? mrbobs48 - Maybe if you were a little closer Good to hear from another Denver fan... Go Broncos!

Clark, MO about 25 miles northwest of Columbia where the University of Missouri is... M-I-Z...Z-O-U !

Great looking old ride, we can only hope it's still cruising!

Great thread... good solution for v8 guys for sure. Thanks for the info!

I will be converting this business coupe to a "club coupe" by adding a rear seat, with a wife and two children something without a rear seat just doesn't make sense to build. I realize that the rear seat won't have a lot of headroom, but it will suffice while the children are young. This will be a "hotrod" (overused term) type build with the chassis slightly lower (planning on using stock frame with updated brakes/steering), and an efi 5.3 chevy and 4l60e trans. The interior will be swapped from something a little more modern and it will have power windows, locks, seats, and of course AC. These will all be retrofit from modern vehicles (which I have several of for parts on other projects). Not sure what route I will take for a steering column, but I will decide on that a little later. As a sidenote: I have read lots about using the stock chassis and updating brakes/steering. If I were to do a disk brake conversion and add power steering, and then add new shocks and rebuild the stock suspension components will I end up with something that will be a decent driver at modern speeds? I am not looking for something that handles like it's on rails, just a good highway/backroad cruiser.

Exactly... I bet I had 35-40 hours in those bed sides

That's alot of pics... maybe a few more tomorrow.

Here's a Civic VX I did last year... Gets 55 mpg! Man it was a rust bucket, had to remake rockers and door jambs by hand...

Some bed parts Sorry no pics of it all together ??? Here's an 1100 Katana I painted after being wrecked

Well... I have a few minutes so I will load a couple. This is a 1952 Chevy 5 window that I did for a guy (father and son project that never got started on). It came to me in bare metal and looked pretty good... but there were LOTS of surprises. The front fender, hood, and entire bed were a nightmare. They were beat to death b/c this truck was used for what it was originally intended for...WORK! The bed sides were so dented, pitted and warped that I told the owner I would personally pay for new bed sides if he would allow them to be used, but he didn't want any aftermarket parts. We put it on an 1998 S10 frame and running gear and it really turned out well, the only problem is that I can't find a picture of it complete right now ??? Here's a few pics of the process. One of it in my paint booth (the booth was a disaster). Out of the booth... My son is excited it's finally done!

Edit... I will post photos tomorrow, tonight I am busy taking my beautiful bride out to dinner

Thanks for the replies and encouragement guys...it should be fun. I am incredibly frugal (tight cheap etc...) and I don't believe in debt (which makes things difficult when I am a pastor and my wife is a teacher $$$ !) so I have to be creative some times figuring out the best compromise between time and money. Don - I am not much of a photo taker, in fact the only reason I am taking pics of this car is so that I have the build documented somewhere so that my son and I can enjoy looking at it later. That said, I do have some photos stored on my computer to update customers on the progress on their vehicle. I will find some of them, get them uploaded to photobucket, and post some later today.

take a look at BeBop138 pics. In the second picture you can see how the center opening in the rotor is significantly larger in diameter than the hub spindle area... this is exactly like the rotor from the mountaineer, it lines up with the hub bolt holes perfectly, but the rotor opening is not a tight fit around the protruding spindle that the rotor opening slips over. Does this make sense? The reason I am asking the question is that if the rotor is a tight fit around the spindle area than it should never get off center, but my concern was that the rotor might get off center slightly without something centering it perfectly like self-centering lug nuts. BeBop138 - so even though your rotor's hub opening is larger than your spindle area you havent had any problem with the rotor moving off center?

So I have read the threads about using the rotor from a 96-01 explorer 4wd and bolting it to the hub. I have a 02 Mountaineer (same as explorer) that is 2wd. I pulled a front rotor off of it and bolted it to my hub and the hub opening on the 02 rotor is bigger than my hub shaft (probably about a 1/4 inch clearance all the way around. My question is: Is there any reason that I couldn't use the rotor even though the rotor center opening is bigger in diameter than my hub? The wheel bolts hold it to the hub so does it really matter? Just a thought?

Here's a few pics of the inside after I vacuumed... Floors only have a minor amount of rot, looks just about like a desert car. Will need to patch 4 small areas of the front floor. Trunk looks great! Bottom and inside if doors is virtually spotless! There are a few small spots on the body the will need patches, but they are very small and easy to fab. This car has a good amount of trim and most if it is in good shape, but its not all there (and I won't be using it anyway). The car has a great grille and trim. It also has the bracing and hinges for the rear of the hood. All in all it looks like a great foundation that will save me dozens of hours of cutting, fabbing, and welding. I got to the point in life a while back that I just said "no more rusty cars".

Haha, yeah, I wouldn't mind either if those 777's!

Don - 777 is just something I put on the end of coletrain years ago so that I could always have the username I wanted on any forum... coletrain by itself was already taken many times.