Resurrecting Grandpa's Dinosaur - a rebuild story. (1963 Chrysler Imperial) by topdawag_mc4

3 minute(s) of a 137 minute read

9-30-2012

Remind me to never take on another project that needs a full brake system replacement. In case anyone was wondering, carb cleaner does not get 50 year old grease off of skin, but will burn it pretty badly .

Anyway, given their aren't any fluid leaks (not completely confident in this) the brakes are 90% done. All that's left is the front rubber lines and bleeding.

 You know I almost put some on, but decided not to since I usually rip them quickly when doing this kind of job. The tough stuff was on my arm, anyway. 

Hopefully this week we'll be able to get floors in and next weekend get a transmission seal replaced so we can see what's going to hold up and what's not.

Thanks a ton! PM me your name and location so we can add it to the trunklid when the time comes.

11-25-2012

Now that I'm back from my honeymoon, and things are slowing down for both me and Claude, we're back at it again. We're coming up on a year since we started, and we're hoping to have it driving before Christmas this year.

Today we got the rubber fuel line run from the hard line to the fuel pump, and all of the brake lines hooked up. We were planning on bleeding the system, but couldn't find a wrench ungodly small enough to fit on the bleeder screws on the wheels cylinders. Hopefully tomorrow on that. We're both crossing our fingers that there are no leaks. We've pretty much completely replaced the braking system.

To do before Christmas:

-Trans seal

-Plug wires

-Spark plugs

-fuel filters

-bleed brakes

-floors

-seating

-belts

12-2-2012

We'll have more videos/pictures soon, just busy doing work. 

As of tonight we have changed spark plugs, plug wires, all belts, oil and filter, fuel pump and filters.. 

And it's running easily! The fuel pump is really what it needed.

12-3-2012

A little thing or two done.. Finally got all of the windows down. 

Checked voltage to the window switches. All read 12ish volts, but no luck getting the motors to move. Even with leads straight from the battery to the motor leads. So they got ripped out. We'll probably just fit some manual cranks to the mech. 

We're planning on doing flamthrowers, this way: 

http://www.tnga.org/Tech/flame_throwers.htm 

I also worked on getting the headlights going, with no luck. Everything is so hard to get to under that mammoth dash. There is continuity to the light harnesses, just no real voltage. If nothing else, we'll just relay the lights on new switches with new wiring. 

So, wish list: 

-relays 

-voltage regulator 

-carb rebuild kit 

-shift kit 

To donate and get your name on the car, here is the link. We can definitely still use the help, and definitely still have space for your name on the trunk lid. 

http://*******/cEZyf